++|| VANISHED

Aiko glanced over as she sat the tray of cookies down on the counter.

“You have to wait for them to cool or you’ll burn yourself.”

                 MIMIC deflates a little, annoyed by this development.

It’s entirely unwilling, but Eri’s body pauses itself in the middle of her escape. Her palms were sweaty and the adrenaline coursing through her system was slowly shutting down her ability to think logically. She wanted to run or fight to get trough him, either would do, but instead she remains right where she is.

“P-please.. don’t tell him…”

                 Uncharacteristically, he shuffles away a couple steps, his bird-like head cocked to the side to keep her in his line of vision. He SHOULD tell someone-- but if he goes looking for Hari, there’s a chance she’ll be gone by the time he gets back.

And if he tries to usher her back himself, well....

                  It’s going to make him look very bad.

“-- CAN’T YOU JUST... NOT? YOU’RE GOING TO GET BOTH OF US IN TROUBLE!“ But otherwise, MIMIC makes no attempt to grab her. Despite being slightly smaller than her, he could, if he really wanted to-- but he’s painfully acquainted with that fearful look in her eyes.

“I’d like to see you throw a fit.”

                 MIMIC immediately sits up.

I saw the art and immediately I can imagine with a sort of snarky voice and I love it!

     Okay, so that was pretty cute.  He didn’t normally care for cute things, but seeing the puppet tuck into himself and give him the big sparkling eyes did cause some kind of emotion to rise in him. 

                    Not strong enough to act upon (unlike how Toga would have reacted to something she found adorable), but it was undeniably there.

             “Yeah… the cutest.” words are spoken in a lethargic manner.

                 Shigaraki takes a finger with his free hand and gently scritches the puppet’s cheek affectionately. 

  “Do you want a snack or something?”

                 “-- DO YOU HAVE BROWNIES...? OR CUPCAKES?”

“I GUESS REGULAR CAKE WOULD BE OKAY, TOO...“ MIMIC coos softly, nuzzling the side of his beaked head against Shigaraki’s digit mock-affectionately before he reaches out and grasps the end of his finger with one tiny hand, cocking his head as if he really were just a curious bird as Shigaraki holds him like some stray. 

         He picks him up by the scruff as if he were a kitten.

               “…It seems so, doesn’t it? You’re almost cute…”  Almost.  

She knew that she did. But she didn’t want to be alone; she hated that. Feeling trapped in her room. She had wanted to get away, to leave it all behind. But, seeing that Mimic was before her and offering some kind of salvation to not alert of her actions made her a little less uneasy. ❝ I-I’m sorry Mimic-san, I just…. ❞ She whispered, nodding her head after a moment. She knew he had a point, that eventually someone would come looking for her when they noticed she had slipped away from her attendant.

❝ I-I just don’t want to be alone, it’s scary. ❞  She whispered, taking a step back; more than ready to listen to the other, the fear of someone else finding her weighed heavily over the small child. ❝ I-I don’t want to get in trouble. ❞   

                  Despite being somewhat smaller than the girl in this form, MIMIC carefully shoos her towards one of the service lifts rather than the main elevator-- lest Hari or one of his staff catch him with Eri. 

Unlike Hari, although holding equal authority, JOI isn’t ALLOWED to handle Eri-- primarily because he’s not to be trusted in detaining her; he simply wasn’t allowed to be near her, as Kai and Chronostasis had mutually agreed that he’d be too high of a risk for potentially complicating the situation with the girl, and given his lack of history in comparison to Hari, they hadn’t wanted to chance it. 

                     However, MIMIC wasn’t completely oblivious to what they did down there, and although he might incur repercussions on his own end, it didn’t seem right to allow her to get in trouble just because she didn’t want to stay cooped up down there-- he could never blame her for simply wanting to be.... free. Carefully taking one of her own small hands in his own, he gently tugs her alongside the wall, always cocking his head over his shoulder to use his large, fish-like eye to scan the sterile halls for the others.

“... WE SHOULD TRY TO BE REALLY QUICK-- I’M PRETTY SURE I CAN HELP YOU GET PAST ALL THE CAMERAS, BUT WE CAN’T LET ANYONE SEE US.“