#second ofa user

“The usual near-death experience, then.” Granted, Bruce’s short-term memory needs a bit of a kick to start working, but it’s probably fair to say that their last safehouse was burnt. It’s a little weird that Kudou is monitoring him. There’s an entire laundry list of safety checks that Kudou obsessively takes charge of, ever since one single damn slip lost them Yoichi.

Kudou’s hold tightens. Venomously, he mutters, “When I say ‘shut up,’ do you just ignore me?”

“It’s for my health.”

The bitter scoff is a hot, dampening sensation against Bruce’s stomach. Belatedly, he realizes his vest is gone--his shirt is gone. Bruce tenses, a whole body flinch, and locates a pulsating ache near his collar bone. He hisses through his teeth--

Oh, right. The bloodsucker meta ability.

… The blood-sucking meta ability.

Bruce reaches for that foreign heat that he and Kudou have been passing back and forth, the gossamer-thin traces of starlight that is Yoichi’s meta ability. It feels so different from Fa Jin. But in this instance, Bruce thinks he’s grateful for the noticeable oddity. 

“I still have it,” Bruce reports, slightly dizzy. “I didn’t give it away, Leader.”

He can feel Kudou work his jaw like he’s straining to find the right response. Slowly, Kudou lifts his head and moves his hand from Bruce’s waist to Bruce’s face, square fingers scoping out the curved jawline and a thumb pressing right up against his mouth.

“That is my meta ability!” Yoichi exclaimed, and Kudou was so stunned, he accidentally let Yoichi clip his jaw with a pointy elbow. “Oh, no, I’m so sorry--”

“It changed forms again?”

“Well, I…” Yoichi hesitated. He was sprawled over Kudou, limbs comically attempting to wrap him up, and from this angle, Kudou could hardly read the man’s expression. They heaved for breath; Kudou thought his head was ringing, just a little. “Um… Leader… do you feel alright?”

“No?” Incredulity colored his response. “There’s some kind of rat in our bed, and it’s on fire, like your… meta ability…”

“My brother’s meta ability--”

“No. No. Don’t tell me.”

The creature stumbled in the sheets, attempting to approach. Its squat stature did not permit it to overcome one particular crease, and it tripped with a piteous little wail. Seeing it sprawled out on its belly, frustratedly squeaking, stirred some measure of sympathy in Kudou’s heart.

“It’s so cute,” Yoichi cooed, apparently enthralled.

“Why is your meta ability now mine, that’s the bigger issue!” Kudou cringed away from Yoichi as his now-lover scooped up the creature with zero fear, and plopped it on Kudou’s chest. It felt like a fuzzy hot water bottle. It squeaked again.

“What’s its name?”

“How’d you know Charizard’s? Bruce and I could guess how you got Charmeleon out of the lizard’s sounds, but Charizard’s were way more incoherent.”

“Mm,” Yoichi hummed, and carefully rubbed the creature’s fine-haired scalp with a finger. “I suppose it came from the bond. Do you feel it? Between you and… whatever One for All is now?”

Kudou frowned. He closed his eyes, and tried to isolate his immediate feelings of shock and worry from… aha. It had been so difficult to explain to Yoichi what meta abilities, naturally-appearing ones at least, felt like to their users’ innate senses. Gearshift was something like a gust of air, exhaled with deliberate attention, paired with a twinge in Kudou’s temple as he focused on a specific object.

One for All, apparently, felt like a crackling warmth in his core, and instantly, Kudou knew that he could replicate that otherworldly red bolt that Yoichi used to recall his meta ability to a different dimension. And then, he knew the creature’s name.

“Cyndaquil,” Kudou said aloud, and the fat little thing squeaked in acknowledgment. It nestled firmly by his collarbone. Never before had Kudou felt so gratified that Yoichi’s monster--Yoichi’s evidently transferable meta ability--wasn’t subject to mortal indignities.