Daily Cup of Tragic Tea

Itadori could sleep through a bomb going off, you’re sure of it. 

After inviting himself into your room to hang out and listen to music with you, he’d seemingly gotten a little too comfortable on your bed and promptly passed out in spite of the heavy metal music that was blasting from the speaker on your phone. Through all of the guitar riffs, crashing cymbals, and screamed vocals, he remained in a peaceful, unbothered slumber.

Gojo did run him ragged between missions and training, so you guess him sleeping like a rock wasn’t that surprising. You decide to let him sleep for now. You don’t mind your kouhai crashing in your room for a much needed nap. 

Yuji was alright. Sure, you’d been dubious of his presence initially, but who wasn’t? Gojo just threw some kid at you, saying that he had eaten some of Sukuna’s fingers as if that was a regular occurrence. Then again, he had introduced Yuta in a very similar manner, so you guess gaining overpowered newbie classmates had become a somewhat normal happening around these parts.

Initially, Yuji’s downright excessive positivity had been, well… annoying, if you were being blunt. But him constantly sidling up to you and acting like you were best friends seemingly wore you down. He was a breath of fresh air. Kind of like a little brother clambering for his siblings’ approval. You didn’t mind it anymore. 

Although, him hanging around you did come with one significant downside.

“What is this drivel? I can hardly hear myself think.”

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. You shoot a sideways glance at where Yuji is sound asleep on your bed. A red, slanted eye meets your gaze. The lips beneath it were pressed into a frown, but curl up into a smirk once he sees that he successfully got your attention.

Great. Now you have to deal with Sukuna and his snark all by your lonesome. You reach out to your phone and press the volume up button rapidly, but it stays the same. The music was already on max volume.

“Are you deaf? Your king asked you a question.” Sukuna’s tone was as sharp as ever, petulant ridealong that he was. 

“My king? I don’t have one of those.” You internally kick yourself for engaging with him.

“As rude as ever, I see. Manners have always been something that evaded your grasp.” His malicious grin seeped into each word, making you want to slap him, but you refrain. Last time you tried that he disappeared at the last second, so all you did was send poor Yuji through a wall. Oops.

“What would you know?” Each word is ground out through clenched teeth. You need to calm down. He’s trying to get under your skin, and you’re letting him. To distract yourself, you try to recenter your attention on the book you’d been paging through before you were so rudely interrupted. 

There was a bout of silence, but it was woefully brief. Sukuna piped up again, “What are you reading?”

What was his deal? Why was that parasyte so transfixed on you? Even in group settings, he had a tendency to single you out whenever he did choose to make an appearance. Granted, that’s probably because you’re too reactive to not feed into his antics. As much as you want to try and block him out, you knew that giving him the silent treatment would only encourage him to up the ante until he couldn’t be ignored.

With a sigh, you answer him dryly, “A history book.”

“Ah. For your studies, I presume?”

You shake your head while keeping your eyes on the pages, “No. I just like history. I think it’s interesting.”

“I see.” There is a pause, and then he presses on, “Is there any particular period that intrigues you most?”

“The Heian period.” Your answer comes out almost instantaneously. It was a truly fascinating era, especially culturally. What with all the developments in art and literature at the time. You’ve felt a draw to this section of history for as long as you can remember.

“Fascinating.” Once again, you can hear the grin in his voice. Why he would care about your personal interests is beyond you, but you weren’t about to investigate it. As it stands, you’ve already entertained far more conversation with him than you should have.

In an attempt to shut yourself up since you appeared to be quite bad at that, you pick up the kind of forgotten cup of instant ramen on your desk and scoop some lukewarm noodles into your mouth. Unfortunately, Sukuna only saw this as more opportunity to yap. 

“It’s no wonder you’re so weak if you’re “nourishing” yourself with that slop.”

Just like that, he had you roped back in. You swallow your food and spin your desk chair around enough to glare at him, “I’m not weak, asshole.”

“But you concede that what you’re eating is slop?” Sukuna’s smirk becomes so frustratingly smug that you have to remind yourself that hitting him will really just be hitting Yuji. 

“It tastes fine to me. Since when do you care about my eating habits? Actually, since when do you care about food in general? Didn’t you, like, eat raw human flesh or some shit?” You shovel more noodles into your mouth, trying to finish them before they’re completely cold.

A dry chuckle escapes him, “That is true. There is a certain tang to flesh that you can only experience when it’s in its most natural state.”

His musings make your face scrunch up. “That’s disgusting.”

“Is it? I seem to recall you consuming raw flesh just last week.”

“What?”

Sukuna rolled his eye at your mildly horrified confusion. “You did. At that restaurant where the food kept coming to the table on its own. You were eating quite voraciously if I remember correctly.”

What? Oh! “You mean the sushi train restaurant? That was fish, that’s obviously completely different.”

“I disagree. Humans, fish, they’re all the same to me. Both are pathetically fragile creatures whose purpose in life is to be sustenance to something stronger than them. The only difference being that humans taste better.”

“That-” You cut yourself off. Having an ethics debate with Sukuna of all people might possibly be the dumbest waste of time in history. “Whatever. I’m not having this discussion with you.”

“Come now, are you really that squeamish? How unlike you.” When you don’t respond, he continues, “Don’t you think you should try something before passing judgement? I think you’ll find that you have a taste for human flesh if you were to introduce it to your palette.” 

The insane statement makes you physically recoil and stare at him in horror, which only serves to egg him on, “What? Don't tell me you've never considered it. I wouldn't believe that for a second.”

You spring out of your chair and march over to him. “Fuck you, I don't eat people! I'm not a monster like you!”

“We have more in common than you realize.” The grin on his face was nothing short of wicked.

Before anything else can be said, his eye and mouth close and vanish from sight. Yuji yawns and stretches a few seconds later as he wakes from his slumber. Was the timing coincidental, or was there something about that conversation that Sukuna didn’t want anyone else to hear?

Honestly, there were parts of it that you didn't want anyone else to hear, so maybe you should just be grateful that Sukuna stopped when he did. 

Yuji rubs his eyes and sits up, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep like that.” He looks over at you and takes note of your pensive expression, “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“No.” The lie comes out before you can even really contemplate it, forcing you to double down, “You were talking in your sleep. Mumbling something about Jennifer Lawrence.”

“I was?” His face turns bright red at the false accusation. “H-Hey, you’re just messing with me, right?”

You can’t help but chuckle at his mortification and feed into it more, “Nah, sounded like you were making out or something.”

“I wasn’t! I would definitely remember a dream like that!”

“So you have had dreams like that before?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

—

“Anything in there should be pretty low grade, nothing you two can’t handle. Probably just the disgruntled spirits of some animals that died there, or something like that.” Gojo’s voice crackles through the speaker of the phone, sounding more garbled than usual. He was probably actively stuffing his face as you spoke, “But if you run into trouble, you can always call upon me, your favorite teacher, to come to your rescue!”

“I think we’ll be fine. Talk to you later.” You end the call and toss your phone to Yuji. The eerie landscape of an abandoned zoo is sprawled out in front of you. There have been reports of pets going missing around this area, and also some people who went exploring here coming out with claw and bite marks. The zoo had a history of mistreating and underfeeding their animals, so Gojo’s idea that this was the manifestation of those animals suffering seemed likely. Whatever is lurking around in there is bound to be weak and unintelligent. Probably a bunch of grade 4’s, maybe a grade 3 at best.

Nothing to be afraid of.

“Are you sure it's a good idea to leave your phone with me? What if you need to use it?” Yuji was currently fidgeting with your phone in his hands, hesitating to put it away. 

“Yeah, I always end up breaking the damn thing whenever I fight. It's better off in your hands than mine.” You've lost track of how many phones you've damaged beyond repair since your enrollment. Gojo never complained about replacing them, but once you saw the stash of new phones he kept around just for you, you started to feel a little bad about your carelessness, so now you leave it with whoever you go on a mission with. That, or you stuff it in your bag and try to leave it far enough away from the fight to spare it the carnage. 

You heave your cursed weapon up onto your shoulder. The cool metal of your kanabō rests heavy, but it’s a weight you’re more than accustomed to. You elbow Yuji, “You ready to go in?”

Yuji nods his head excitedly, “I was born ready!” He pockets your phone and cracks his knuckles. 

“That’s what I like to hear!” You clap him on the shoulder, then throw your weapon over the fence so you can climb it. The club hits the ground with a loud crack, fracturing and embedding itself in the pavement it landed on. Yuji gawks at the display, nearly falling off the top of the fence. 

“Whoa! How much does that thing weigh?”

“I dunno. A lot? I’ve never weighed it before.” You yank it out of the broken sidewalk with ease and return it to its rightful place on your shoulder.

“But you swing it around like it’s nothing. I thought it was only like, slightly more heavy than a baseball bat.” Yuji drops down next to you, openly eying up the spiked club.

“This thing is pure iron, it definitely weighs more than a baseball bat.” You survey your surroundings, trying to focus on where the cursed energy is coming from. There isn’t any one clear source. You can feel traces of cursed energy all over the place. “It looks like there’s an infestation of curses here, but nothing powerful. I don’t think there’s anything above a grade 4, so let’s split up and get this done as quickly as possible before Gojo comes sticking his nose in it.”

“Split up? Have you never watched a horror movie before? Or been on a mission before? Splitting up is when everything goes wrong.”

“Aww!” You pinch Yuji’s cheek, “Is the newbie scared?” You laugh and release him, “I’m scarier than anything in here, don’t worry about it. If you get overwhelmed, just yell. I’ll come bail you out.” Without giving him a chance to respond, you run towards the nearest detectable cluster of cursed energy.

Giddiness fills your very soul. This is what you lived for. Attending Jujutsu High could be a bit of a drag at times, but you tolerated it for this. For the ample opportunities to let loose and mow down curses. The exhilarating rush of feeling their feeble bodies splatter under your attacks, their screams as you snuffed them out of existence, it made you feel whole. Like this was what you were made for.

That’s actually how you got recruited into the school in the first place. Gojo found you pummeling a cursed spirit he was supposed to take care of with your bare hands, and the rest was history. He brought you to the school the same day, which you had no complaints about. Between a clean dorm and the cramped institution the foster care system stuffed you into, it was easy to see which one was better. The school was initially unenthused about letting in some kid from a non sorcerer family, but after you came back from a mission you’re pretty sure they hadn’t expected you to come back from, they learned to see your value.

You swing your kanabō at the chained door, effortlessly bashing it open. What might have been a barren building to a normal eye was bustling with spirits ready to be exorcised. Dozens of pairs of beady eyes snapped toward your loud entrance. You didn’t even need to look at the sign out front to know what exhibit this was. All of the forest themed enclosures filled with faux vines and climbables were already a strong hint, but then you say the curses themselves, all dysmorphic facsimiles of primates.

Too many eyes, extra limbs, tails that were too long and some of them split into several opposable appendages. 

Oh. This is going to be fucking fantastic.

They all swarm at you shrieking like monkeys but with a haunting undertone betraying their true identities. You leap into the air then slam the club down into the crowd. At least ten die on impact as the concrete shatters under the force of the blow, leaving a crater and pool of gore in its wake.

You rip your weapon free and swipe at the group running at you from behind. Blood sprays out and coats the wall. Another swing in front of you leaves a similar wave of death and destruction. You’re killing them by the dozen, but they don’t appear to be thinning out yet.

The swarm suddenly diverges away from you, all congregating and climbing on top of each other into one giant, writhing mass. You tighten your grip on the leather handle of your weapon as you wait to see what they're up to. 

Hundreds of eyes snuff out, only for two larger ones to snap open and a deafening roar to echo through the building as the creature pounds on its chest. While the curses before had been a variety of monkey like creatures, this was clearly trying to impersonate a gorilla. 

“Now that's more like it!” A maniacal cackle cuts through the air as you swing your club round and round to build up momentum, then let it fly. 

It hits the creature dead in the chest, the force of which sends a shockwave through the air that makes all of the glass in the room shatter. You give chase, sprinting after your opponent as it crashes through wall after wall.

Five walls deep, it finally loses enough speed to only crack the sixth. Before it can even register the attack, you're on top of it with a kunai in each hand. You bring them down in rapid succession stabbing the monster over and over and over again, not giving a damn about the blood and viscera coating your uniform and skin as you laugh hysterically at its pathetic attempts to defend itself. 

After countless stab wounds, it stops moving, then begins to dissipate into a dark mist as the life within is cut short. You finally stop your assault and stand up. That was fun, but hardly challenging. 

“Weak.” You kick the last solid part of the curse across the room, and bring one of your kunai to your lips and lick it clean. The metallic and almost acidic taste of the cursed blood coats your tongue. It's good, it helps scratch an itch, but it doesn't completely satiate your cravings. 

Sukuna's words echo in your mind. “I think you’ll find that you have a taste for human flesh if you were to introduce it to your palette.”

That's insane. He's insane. You absolutely do not have a taste for people. He just said that to fuck with your head, you're sure of it. 

Dwelling on the inane bullshit that comes out of the King of Curses mouth won't do you any good. It's in your best interest to just forget about it and move on. You sheathe your now clean blades and then pick up your fallen kanabō. That takes care of that. Maybe you should go check on Yuji and see how he's holding up. 

The pressure in the air changed sharply, and you barely have time to react before a slash cuts through the air, nearly decapitating you. 

You look up from where you're ducked down on the ground and see a new curse staring at you. It was this bloody, pulsating mass of thorn laden vines with one bloodshot, yellow eye gleaming at the center. 

That definitely wasn't here before. The energy radiating off of it wasn't something you or any sorcerer would miss. It just got here, and from the looks of it… this thing was grade 1. An entire grade above you. 

It must've been drawn by the influx of cursed energy, either from the ape monster you just killed or yourself-

Yuji!

Shit! It might have been drawn to Sukuna’s presence inside him! But if it was, why was it bothering you? Unless… you weren't the first person it got to. Was it supposed to look bloody, or was that…

You toss your weapon up in the air and catch it with a renewed energy, “That better not be my friend you're covered in you fucking weed.”

The curse hisses, then lunges at you. Despite its higher level of power, it didn't appear to be intelligent enough for speech. You run around it while batting away volleys of vines. Your blows were doing nothing to harm it, just redirect it. As much as you hated to admit it, you were out of your depth. 

While you possessed immense physical strength, you completely lacked any clear techniques. Your only “technique” to speak of was beating things until they died. Anything that couldn't easily be crushed to death posed a legitimate threat to you, and this creature had the upper hand. The only part of it that you think you could damage with your kanabō was the center where the eye was, but its tentacle like vines were extremely effective at keeping you at bay. The thorns were the size of your fingers, they would rip you to shreds. 

Fighting it was out of the question for you. Loathe as you are to admit it, you need to call in the cavalry. You need Gojo. But, your phone was still with Yuji, and depending on the state you'll find him in, it might not even be working. 

This was really bad, and you doubt it could get much worse. 

“Is that really all you're going to do? I must admit, I'm disappointed. This isn't like you, (Y/N).”

You and your big fucking mouth! Both you and the curse come to an immediate halt. The vine amalgamation shrivels in on itself and makes a whimpering noise. Even it was smart enough to not be acting a fool in front of the King of Curses. 

Sukuna was sitting atop a broken support pillar and staring down at you with an amused glimmer in his eyes. His body appeared to be fully intact, but the knowledge that Yuji was physically fine did little to soothe your nerves now. 

“Come now, are you really going to run away and beg for help? I thought you were better than that. Where's that bloodthirsty nature I know and love?” You don't miss the emphasis he put on bloodthirsty, and it sends a shiver down your spine. No. He doesn't know about that. He hasn't seen any of that. He's fucking with you again. 

“You.” Sukuna quickly turns his attention to the cowering curse behind you, making it flinch. “You're a curse, are you not? Act like it. Try to kill the sorcerer.”

Not wanting to gain the king's ire, the curse instantly lashes out at you. You yelp and leap back to dodge it. You're sprinting backwards and blocking attacks all while yelling at Sukuna, “What the hell, man?! Don't just sick curses on me!”

“I'll do as I please.” You jump up into the air just in time to avoid the vines trying to snag your feet and start climbing up the wall using the tattered rope net hanging loosely from it.

“You aren't going to win this battle by only defense. You will run out of energy long before the curse will, you need to go on the offense.”

“I don't remember asking you for help!” You scramble up onto the ceiling beam and run across it while closely monitoring the creature below, hoping against all odds that you'll see any semblance of an opening. You don't.

“Yet you will receive it. Academia has made you weak. You're overthinking again. What you need to do is give the reins to your instincts, they're far sharper than any lesson you've been taught at that school, I guarantee it.” Sukuna sounded almost bored, but not quite. There was some sort of edge to his voice, but your frazzled mind couldn't place it what with the plant monster trying to kill you.

“Oh, so you just want me to charge at that thing with zero plan and let it tear me into a million pieces?” The curse grabs onto the beam you're, making it crack and start to fall. You leap onto a nearby chandelier in a blind panic, but the chain immediately buckles under your weight and snaps. 

A scream escapes you as you and the chandelier fall right on top of the curse. It shrieks and fails launching you and pieces of the shattered chandelier away from it. You hit the ground hard and roll until you crash into the wall. 

You might be dazed, but so is the creature. It wails and scrambles back, withdrawing its cut and snapped vines into itself. There are less appendages to deal with now, but this still won't be an easy fight by any means. Not with how pissed it looks. 

When it screams in anger, you throw yourself back onto your feet to run, but it's right on your heels. You whirl around and hit it with your kanabō as hard as you can, and lucky for you the main part of its body was close enough for the blow to connect directly. 

It reels back, screeching in agony and blindly lashing out. You block the first few hits, but they keep coming and overwhelm you. All you can do is scream when the thorny vines wrap around each of your limbs. A burning sensation floods your nervous system shortly after, because of course this thing has poison on it. That about sums up your luck!

The only good thing is that with all your limbs latched onto, the curse appears to have finally run out of usable appendages. The vines under its eye split apart, revealing a vertical slit of razor sharp teeth. It tries to bite you, but you shove your club into its mouth, successfully stopping it from ripping out a chunk of your flesh. 

Now you two were locked in a standoff, waiting to see whose strength would falter first so the other could finally end this fight. Oh, what you wouldn't give to have an extra set of hands right now!

“What are you waiting for? Put your cursed technique to use already.”

You look over your shoulder to yell back at Sukuna, “I don't have one!”

Unexpectedly, Sukuna had abandoned the pillar and was now circling around you and the curse with a scrutinizing gaze. “Yes you do. Every sorcerer does. All you need to do is let it out.”

“Oh, why didn't I think of that! Silly me!” You spit back sarcastically. “Obviously I can't do that, otherwise I already would have!”

“That school has coddled you. Made you soft. If you really want to survive, you'll figure it out.” His voice becomes more firm and authoritative, “Now give in to your instincts! Let out your true strength and prove that you're worthy of living!”

The curse pushes forward, constricting the vines around your arms and legs more. You scream as the thorns dig deeper. You need to get the upper hand! You need to fight harder! You need… another set of limbs!

In some deep, secret part of your mind, something just clicks. Like a long forgotten memory bursting to life and taking front and center in your brain. 

A loud crack echoes through the room, followed by a series of crunches as something starts moving inside your back. It's so sudden and intense that all you can let out is a choked scream as flesh begins to tear. You fall to your knees, so distracted by the pain that you don't even notice that the curse has retreated.

Muscles and sinew explode out of your back in two places, right where your shoulder blades are, you think, but it's impossible to focus on anything right now. Your screams grow louder as you feel something forcing its way out of you. Blood is pouring from the open wounds and running down your arms and pooling around your hands.

Two things slam onto the ground on either side of you, and for a second you think it's the curse, but it isn't. 

Hands. Two massive, clawed hands at least three times the size of yours are digging into the busted concrete. The limbs appear to be skinless, as you can see the twitching muscle fibers and veins in it directly. 

As your eyes trail upwards, you follow the arms to their source. At least as well as you can, given that they seem to be coming out of your back.

“What the fuck?”

Sukuna crackles behind you and cheers, “Yes! That's it! Go on now, show that pathetic whelp of a curse what true power is!”

The curse yelps when your head snaps up in its direction. It seemed to be heavily reconsidering its decision to attack you. It was scared now. Good. It fucking should be. 

Acting on pure primal instinct, you lunge for it. You're going to pay it back tenfold for what it did to you. 

It shrieks and throws itself out of the way, but one of your hands- the new ones- grabs hold of a few of its vines and yanks it back. Any pain felt in the hand is completely negligible now after having your back torn open. You don't even wince at the thorns piercing it. 

When the curse is close enough, the other bonus hand grabs the frantically writhing vines on the other side of it and pulls them taught. Your prey is the one completely immobilized now. 

Using your actual hands, you raise up your kanabō and bring it down with a sickening squelching noise as dark green blood splatters all around and over you. You hit the screeching mass beneath you over and over again, laughing maniacally as you become drunk off the power from turning the tables so drastically. 

At some point, it died. You can't be sure when. You were too caught up in the moment to be paying attention to when it's screams turned to gurgles, then to silence. But it was dead, that much was for certain. All that was left of it were some mangled vines and a large green stain on the floor. 

All of the adrenaline that had been coursing through your veins and pushing you forward began to dissipate. In its absence was a fresh wave of absolute agony. 

The arms jerk and twitch, then retract into your back painfully. You don't even have the energy left to scream. Your body grows slack, then falls forward. All the pain, poison, and blood loss now fully in effect. 

Instead of face planting into the floor, you fall into someone's arms and wearily look up. Yuji? No. 

Yuji still isn't here. 

Sukuna holds you at arms’ length, carefully appraising your battered form. He looks almost… proud? Nah, that has to be the blood loss talking. 

“That went better than I expected. It seems you can still use that technique of yours well. It still needs work, of course. I expect you to train vigorously to hone your skills.”

You can't ignore it any longer and bring up the elephant in the room. “You talk like you know me.”

That same flicker of pride(?) reappears in his eyes. “So you have noticed. Excellent. I was beginning to think the modern era had fully dulled your wits.” You don't even have the strength to get mad over his jab. 

“How?”

“How indeed. I'm sure you will be able to find that answer on your own. You're sharper than most would give you credit for.”

You aren't given a chance to pry more. In the blink of an eye, his features relax and soften, signaling his retreat back into his host body's subconscious.

Light brown eyes blink slowly as Yuji regains control. He's briefly in a daze, but quickly snaps to attention when he takes notice of you. 

And then immediately drops you in surprise. You land face first on the ground with a pained groan. “Ow…”

Yuji drops onto the ground next to you and rolls you onto your side, frantically looking you over only to continuously find more and more injuries. “(Y/N)?! What happened to you?! Did… Did I…”

“No. You didn't do anything, and neither did he. Some stupid grade 1 curse showed up and got me pretty good.”

“Where is it now?” Yuji immediately picks you up, causing a whole new wave of pain to course through you as you're jostled.

“It's dead, I killed it, please put me down!” You writhe uncomfortably in his grasp, desperately trying to shift your back so that his arm isn't pressed directly into the wounds from the “arms”. 

He's quick to do as you say and very carefully lays you on a nearby bench face down. “This is really bad, I told you it was a bad idea to split up!”

“Can you at least wait until we're back at the dorms before hitting me with an “I told you so”? Just… call Gojo and tell him to come pick us up.” You quickly tack on, “Oh, and tell him to bring Shoko.” You were not about to wait the duration of the ride back for medical treatment, thank you very much. 

“Right,” Yuji fumbles to get a phone out of his pocket, either yours or his, whichever he finds first. 

As he yells into it for Gojo to get here as quickly as possible with Shoko, your mind drifts back to everything that just transpired. 

How did Sukuna not only know that you had a secret cursed technique, but how to trigger it to come out? It was almost like he'd done this with you before. 

Maybe he had with the way he was talking about you. There was definitely some substance to his words, but you'll be damned if you can figure it out right now in your current state.

Your eyes are heavy, so you let them rest. You'll get to the bottom of this later, once you've had a chance to recover. 

Slowly you opened up your window, being as silent as possible before slipping into your bedroom, your feet hitting the ground along with your small bag that you had taken with you. With a sigh, you walked through the room, knowing it off by heart since you were a little girl, so even in the dark you knew the way to your closet, planning to change and then go to bed.

Suddenly the lights turned on, blaring brightness also blinding you for a moment before you rubbed at your eyes and turned around.

"You want to tell me where you've been all night?" The chair at your desk slowly began to turn around ominously, revealing your dad, Shota. His long black hair was pinned up in a messy bun of sorts, and he was dressed in his pyjamas, a black sweater, and bright yellow pants. He raised his eyebrow, his expression both unamused and challenging.

"Dad," you swallowed. You hadn’t been expecting to be caught, but you had a plan, a lie. "I was with Mic," you lied, knowing you weren't with his husband but hoping he'd just accept it and leave before going to bed.

"Want to try that again?"

You whipped your head to the side only to see Mic slowly turning around in your egg chair that he was sitting in; he held the same unamused and challenging glare that your other dad had, though his was a bit less intimidating and believable. Shit. You'd been caught.

"Uhm," you didn't know what to say next. What other lie could you possibly spew? You shifted on your feet, eyes darting between them, seeing how Mic had his hair pulled back the same way Shota had; he was wearing a yellow sweater and black pants.

"Well?"

"I was...feeding the cat?"

They both looked at you as though you thought they were stupid, and you knew it was stupid, but it was the only thing you could think of. "Well, I’m tired, so I’m going to go...go to bed." You gave them a quick smile before taking off your jacket and quickly walking over to your bed, pulling the blankets back and sliding under them, pulling them over your head before your dads could say anything.

"I... " you heard one of them grumble before sighing and getting up, thankful they'd leave you be for the night, but you know you'd get an earful in the morning before classes. Just as you thought they were about to leave, you heard Shota speak up.

"Whose jacket is that?"

You needed a job. Tuition wasn’t going to pay itself. So you went for what anyone your age did, a waiter. You had only started a month ago but you were already getting the hang of things. Despite your clumsy beginnings. You’ve managed to make a couple friends and acquaintances. Everyone seemed friendly for the most part.

Except the head chef, Katsuki Bakugou. The tall, intimidating blond man your fellow waiters warned you about on your first day. At first you didn’t take their words seriously. They had to have been exaggerating, no one was that scary. Is what you thought until you actually met him. And it wasn’t a pretty first impression either.

It was during your first week when you’d tripped on your own two feet and dropped the order you’d been carrying. After apologizing to the customer a bazillion times, you went to the kitchen to ask for it to be remade shamefully.

And the glare he gave you made you shiver. Your spine straightened up as if you were called to attention by a drill sergeant. Stumbling out another apology before he told you to “Just get the fuck out of my kitchen.”

Which you did, rather quickly. But that was a month ago and you were on better terms now! He’s even started making you food for your lunch break. Which started two weeks ago.

***

One of the other chefs had come up to you with a plate of tater tots. “Hey, we accidentally made an extra plate. I remembered you were talking about heading to lunch soon and decided you deserved it.” They said, handing it to you.

“Oh, thanks!” Pleasantly surprised you took the plate. It was perfectly warm in your hands and the smell made your mouth water. But the taste, god it was heavenly. Taking a bite of it to see if it tastes as good as it looked. And it was. Perfectly crispy and all. “Wow this is amazing, did you make ‘em?”

“Oh, no that was—” they started to explain before they were cut off by a familiar, gruff voice.

“It was me.” Katsuki said from around the corner. You didn’t even know he was there. Nevertheless, you smiled and thanked him. Which he rolled his eyes at before mumbling something that sounded like a welcome. Maybe there was something hidden under that tough exterior.

He turned to leave before he heard something you said to the other chef. “And I was just gonna go to McDonald’s for the fifth time this week.”

Huh.

Now that he thought about it, you always joked about how you basically lived off ramen noodles and frozen dinners. That definitely wasn’t healthy. Especially not for someone so young. You should be eating a proper meal.

So the next day before you left for lunch you were met with Katsuki’s hand on your shoulder. A take out bag being handed to you rather forcefully. While he muttered something about “To keep your energy up, don’t want you falling asleep on the job.” Before he disappeared back into the kitchen.

That basically became part of your day to day. He’s actually been a whole lot nicer to you too. You didn’t think much about it until your coworkers found out. Some were convinced you had him under some sort of spell. Or used you as a messenger pigeon when too scared to talk to him. Annoying as it may be, you honestly prefer it then the allegations you were a witch, or worse dating him. Gross.

***

As you were heading towards the kitchen your attention was directed to a woman snapping her fingers and shouting at you. Who was demanding that you come over there and listen to whatever she wanted. You rolled your eyes, honestly do these people have no shame? Treating you like a dog.

Nevertheless you straightened your spine and walked over with a fake smile. Putting on a cheerful voice you asked, “Yes, ma’am, what can I do for you?”

The moment you finished speaking the woman began to complain. Something about her food being too dry. How she wants another one and for this one to be taken off her bill. Typical.

“I’m sorry about that, I can definitely get you another plate. But unfortunately we can’t take it off your bill.” You replied, already taking the plate from the table. Hopefully this won’t turn into some sort of issue. You were already not in the mood today for this.

“Are you kidding me,” Now she’s screaming at you. So much for this not turning into some sort of issue. “I sit here and wait for hours for something that’s dry and you won’t even take it off my check? Do you people even know how to do your jobs?!”

Honestly you wouldn’t have cared for her little tantrum if you weren’t already in a sour mood. Now you just felt worse and couldn’t even keep up the positive attitude. Each insult hits you like a bullet to the chest. And you can already feel your eyes starting to water.

Before she could continue to berate you, you take the plate to the back without a word. Knowing your voice was ready to crack the moment you opened your mouth to say anything. Entering the kitchen one of your chef friends, Mika, turned to look at you. Immediately noticing something was up.

“What’s up, [name]?” Mika shifted her gaze back to what she was doing. While Katsuki’s went to you the moment he heard your name. His eyes narrowed at your expression. Your rapid blinking was noticeable as you squeaked out your sentence.

“It’s— um, it’s nothing, just the woman at table seven didn’t like her food.” You placed the plate you were holding down to wipe your eyes. Trying not to cry cause that’d be embarrassing. “And she may have yelled at me for it.”

The knife Katsuki was using smacked hard against the cutting board. Catching your and a few others' off guard. He looked tense, his eyes flashing with a fire they hadn’t seen before. Something much stronger and scarier. His grip on the knife tightened before he finally spoke.

“She what.” That wouldn’t slide on his watch. You being upset was one thing but it being because some asshole of a customer dared to raise their voice at his kid? Yeah that bitch had to go, in more ways than one.

Before you could even say anything Katsuki was already heading towards the kitchen door. Looking ready to beat this woman’s ass, knife in hand. The moment the door slammed close all eyes turned to you. A few of them made a childish ‘ooo’ sound while others gave questioning looks. While you stared at the door in surprise.

Heavy footsteps marched their way towards the table. Catching the attention of nearby customers as Katsuki passed them. Though he paid them no mind. As if locked onto a target. It wasn’t often the head chef came out from the kitchen, and when he did, it meant someone was about to get their shit rocked.

He kept going till he stopped in front of table seven. Before the women could even get a word out he stabbed the knife into the table. Causing her to jolt back, the color draining from her face as he stood over her. His arms fold tightly across his chest as if restraining himself from doing something irrational.

“You yelled at your server.” He asked, not even framing it as a question. But as a statement. “I don’t tolerate that shit. You need to get out before I throw you out myself.”

The woman sat there shocked for a moment. Before she looked offended and opened her mouth to complain some more. About how this was highly unprofessional or something. Katsuki wasn’t listening, all he heard was whining. His hand clenched, nails digging into his palm before going for the knife. Pulling it out of the table and stabbing the backrest of her chair.

“I don’t have time for this shit.” He growled before looking the women dead in the eye. Leaning over and getting up in her face. His voice dropped to a low whisper. Raw, borderline parental anger seeped into his voice. As if ready to kill this woman right then and there.

“Get the fuck out before this knife ends up in you next.” He spat. Twisting the blade into the wood to emphasize his point.

The woman stammered as she looked at the dangerously close knife. Before hesitantly nodding in response. Katsuki grunted, pulling the knife out of the chair and standing to his full height. Watching the woman gather her things and leaving cash for her bill. Of course, leaving you a tip as well.

The moment he gives some room for her to leave she scrambles out of her chair and heads towards the door. He stays still for a while, making sure she’s gone before turning around and walking back towards the kitchen door. Where he was greeted with multiple curious faces looking through the window. One of them being yours.

He huffs, nosey ass idiots who could never mind their own business. They didn’t have a chance to back away quickly enough before he forcibly swung the door open. Hitting a few faces in the process. But he was only looking at you, all wide eyed and what he hoped to be amazed. He just stood up for you since you seemingly couldn’t do that yourself.

“What?” Katsuki’s eyes softened when he locked onto yours. Watching you stutter over your words was annoyingly endearing. The way your hands stuffed themselves into your pocket to hide your fidgety fingers.

“Um, nothing. Just wondering what’s for lunch?” You asked, obviously a lie. But he didn’t call you out for it. Just shrugging his shoulders before turning back to his usual spot in the kitchen. Throwing the knife he had with the other dirty dishes. Grabbing a new one to finish the job he started.

But it won’t stay clean long, he had other plans for it.