Work Text
Mirko peered into the building, licking her lips in anticipation. There were about six goons in there. From her position in a high window, she could see into the warehouse clearly.The goons didn’t seem like they knew each other very well, so it was probably a randomized group. Three of them acted like they had history, making friendly small talk with each other. The rest were scattered. One of them was perched on a large crate, another was standing close to a wall.Mirko shifted, itching to barge in and beat the punks to the ground. She had to wait, though. The group was supposed to be a bunch of glorified delivery people, so they weren’t actually a big deal.She scanned them again. They were scattered around a table with a metal box. One of them had some kind of weasel mutation quirk, she would need to be sure that they didn’t catch her scent. They were just standing around and fiddling with their hands, so she wouldn’t have a problem.The guy perched on the crate was watching their comrades with disinterest. They had a gray beanie over their head. No visible quirk. Mirko’s instincts told her to be careful with them.The trio she was watching before had a caucasian woman with gun holsters on her thighs, so her quirk wasn’t great for long-range. Mirko was a close-range fighter, she would proceed with caution.The other two included a brunette in a tank top, no visible quirk, and a blasian man wearing a hoodie, no visible quirk.The guy standing near the wall had long-ish white hair, looked caucasian, and was tossing a ball into the air a few times. From what Mirko could tell, his eyes looked weird. Maybe that was quirk-related? Enhanced vision? Or precision?Her ears perked up as the large door to the warehouse opened up. Finally!An African-American woman walked in purposefully, two guards following her. Mirko had to stifle a snort. Who the hell wore blazers that shade of red? Or maybe it was purple?“Does everyone know their roles?” she demanded, getting right down to business.“It’s a transport thing, right?” The caucasian woman tilted her head. “We just gotta get this package to whoever’s buying it.”“We’re providing defense in case of things going wrong,” the beanie guy spoke up.“That’s right,” the boss lady confirmed, “There is expensive equipment in there. Do not screw up.”“Too late for that!” Mirko took her chance to jump from the window. Adrenaline fueled her as she landed on top of the weasel guy, making them yelp.The other goons yelled and swore as she sprung over to the guy in a hoodie, kicking him in the head and making him pass out.The white-haired guy made a running dash to the metal boss, the beanie guy leaping off the crate to follow him. Mirko dodged the lady’s bullets, laughing as one of the boss’ guards tried attacking her.All in all, great fight! The tank top guy could detach his arms and make them float, that was kind of badass, if not a little lame. The lady with the guns was pretty good in hand to hand, not bad. Mirko had totally called it about the white-haired guy having a precision quirk, his eyes would light up, and he would throw things with insane accuracy.Yeah, it was a pretty good workout, but these guys were no match for her! At the moment, she was trying to grab the metal box. And she would have by now, if the beanie-guy wasn’t in the way! He was pretty good, dodging all of her attacks and keeping her at bay.Mirko could tell that he was more used to long-ranged fighting, but he had clearly been trained for hand-to-hand combat. Her nose twitched.“Grab the package!” Mirko heard the boss lady yell. One of the guards ran behind beanie guy, going for the box.“This has been pretty fun,” the Pro Hero grinned at beanie, “But I gotta pounce!”She jumped a few feet over him, landing on top of the guard. “Ha! Did you think that you could-” Her eyes widened, hopping off of him before literally every hair on his body turned into needles. “Huh. Spiky guy.” She dodged Beanie, who had tried to grab her. “I gotta say, this is a great workout!”“Keep that bitch occupied!” the spike guy shouted, making a break for the box again.Beanie sighed, rolling his eyes and lunging towards her.“Your friend is a piece of shit,” Mirko commented, engaging him in the fight.“Not my friend,” he replied dryly, “I’m just here to get paid.”“Oh, yeah?” Mirko grinned maniacally, “Then I’m sure you won’t mind if I beat him unconscious!”Beanie shrugged before pulling out a knife. “Honestly? I don’t care either way.”The hero dodged his attacks. This guy was like a dancer! All graceful and shit. She jumped over him again, landing on the table where the metal box was a second ago. Her eyes fell on the spike-guy, who was running back to the boss lady.Was she just there to look pretty and yell at people? Whatever.Mirko ran after spike-guy, jumping to the left as a knife came from behind her.“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t- oh shit.” Beanie ducked and rolled to the side as Mirko kicked the air where his head was a second ago.“You wanna keep going, Beanie?” she sneered.“Did you seriously just call me Beanie-”“We’re done here!”She looked back at the guard and boss lady, who were walking away. The rest of the goons (that weren’t unconscious) were waiting at the exit of the warehouse. Were they seriously abandoning Beanie? Mirko narrowed her eyes, opting to ignore him and go after them.A sudden pain ripped at her scalp. “WHAT THE FUCk!?”Did Beanie just pull her hair!? That’s it…She kicked at him, yelling. He dodged again, pulling out another knife.“Your friends are abandoning you,” she snapped.He snorted. “Heh, karma. Also, they aren’t my friends. I only met them tonight.”“Karma? What-” She paused as a loud noise sounded from above them, colorful sparks raining down.“What the pansexual lighting,” she muttered, looking back to see the caucasian lady grinning at them while backing up.“See ya never, hero scum!” she sang, running towards the exit.Mirko and Beanie looked up to see the ceiling beams displaying large cracks, the colorful sparks eating away at it.“Oh, so she has some sort of erosion quirk,” Beanie commented, seeming unconcerned with his team leaving him to die, “That’s inter-”“Fuck,” Mirko cursed, eyes darting around until she saw stairs leading down. “Rabbit instincts say: hide underground!”She dragged him to the stairs, pushing him down and running after him. He groaned, sitting up at the base of the stairs.“There’s a basement?”“Who cares?” Mirko asked, jumping over him, “Move!”They scrambled away from the stairs, watching and listening as the ceiling beams came crashing down.“Were those beams holding up the whole building?” Mirko asked, tilting her head.“It’s an old building,” Beanie replied, “In hindsight, it should have been demolished a long time ago.”“Eh, we did it for the construction guys,” she shrugged, “Let’s just wait for it to stop and then get out.”“Hopefully there isn’t much left that’s going to-”The rusty stairs groaned, collapsing onto themselves.“…fall,” Beanie finished, staring at the rusty metal in disbelief. “How did that even…?”“If this was a movie, I’d be laughing my ass of at the unbelievable convenience,” Mirko commented. Her nose twitched again. What was that smell?Beanie shook his head. “Fuck.”Mirko shrugged. “There’s probably another exit down here.”Beanie sighed, turning around to walk further into the basement. Mirko took the chance to look over him more. His beanie was a light gray, completely covering his head. He was wearing a light blue hoodie with the hood down, with dark gray pants. He was pretty skinny, and short, but from the way he was fighting he definitely had muscle.“Do you have a name, or should I just keep calling you Beanie?”“Who I am is none of your concern.”“Beanie it is!”He ignored her, scanning the stone walls.“Can I at least get your pronouns? I’ve been calling you he.”“He and him.”“Gotcha!”“Why aren’t you trying to continue our fight?”She snorted. “Dude, I’m not an idiot. I love a good fight, and I definitely want to fight you again, but we’re gonna need to work together. Otherwise, we’ll never get outta here.”“Fair enough. I’m mostly just surprised that a hero is being rational.”Rumi raised an eyebrow. She had kinda figured he wouldn’t like heroes, but maybe he had a bad experience with them? Not uncommon, some heroes were assholes. She could admit that she was more interested in fighting than rescuing, but she still tried to help when she could.She guessed that this guy could use some help. Especially since the people he was supposed to be working with left him to die.Beanie walked over to a door, wriggling the knob. Locked, then. Rumi went over, giving it a kick. Damn, thick metal.“I should have brought a lock pick set,” Beanie mentioned.“Eh, it’s whatever.”“There are windows,” he said, nodding up at them, “They’re too small to climb through, but maybe we can see something useful?”Rumi nodded. “I’ll give ya a boost.” She walked over to the wall, positioning her hands into a step for him.He climbed onto her hands and peered through the small window. “I can’t make out anything clearly. Wait, actually, I think there’s a garden hose- nope. Dead snake. Or a sleeping snake. …probably dead, though.”“Rest in peace, snake,” Rumi said, nodding solemnly, “Have fun in snake heaven.”“May there be plenty of mice,” Beanie agreed, climbing down. “Now what?”Rumi looked up thoughtfully. “Maybe I should try kicking the top of the walls in, and then we could climb out.”“Excellent idea, then you would have a broken foot and it would take us even longer to get back to civilization.”“Hey! My legs are super strong! It’s a rabbit thing.”“Yes, because that worked so well with the door,” he said sarcastically, waving at it.“Do you have any better ideas, punk!?”“Wait,” Beanie said suddenly, pointing at the ceiling, “Vents!”“Oh, that works too, I guess.” She held out her hands again. “You’re smaller than me, you go up and see if there’s a way out!”He nodded, climbing onto her hands and balancing onto her shoulders.“Nice balance.”“An old friend of mine is pretty tall, he used to give me boosts a lot.”“Cool.”“I can’t quite reach it.”“Oh hey, there’s a crate over there.”“Alright,” he said, climbing down, “We move the crate, you climb onto the crate, and then you boost me up.”“Now that’s a plan!”They did that quickly, Beanie once again climbing onto Rumi’s shoulders.“I’ll knock occasionally,” he said, dropping the grate to the ground with a clang, “That way, you’ll know where I am.”“I’ll be able to hear you anyways,” she pointed out, wriggling her ears, “But you’re right, it doesn’t hurt.”He crawled up to the duct system, his hoodie riding up his waist. “I’m in.” He gave a knock.“Let me know if you see anything.”She listened to him crawling through. He knocked every few seconds.“So far, not much- OH SHIT!” His voice cut off with a crash.Rumi ran over to the wall. “Beanie!? Beanie can you hear me!?”“I’m alright,” his voice came from the bottom of the wall. Rumi noticed another grate, peeling it off the wall to reveal his face.“Shit, man, you good?”“I’m fine.” He wriggled out of the wall, Rumi helping by pulling on his shoulders. “Now what?” he asked, adjusting his hat.She huffed. “I dunno, I can’t focus on anything,” she complained, “This stupid basement smells like marijuana.”Beanie frowned. “Does it?”“Yeah. I hate it.”He scanned the room. “This warehouse is old.”“Uh, so?”“So, it wouldn’t be unusual for people to come here to do things that other people would disapprove of.”“Do you think someone’s gonna show up at some point to do drugs? The warehouse itself is probably looking like shit right now, I don’t think we’re getting a rescue team.”Beanie pointed to something by the crumbled stairs. “There’s a broken security camera.” He marched over to it, Rumi followed him.Beanie held it up. “The wire’s been cut. Not torn, cut.”Rumi nodded. “It was deliberate,” she mused, “So, whoever comes here didn’t want anyone to know what they were up to.”“Where does the marijuana smell strongest?”Rumi sniffed the air, pointing up. “That. It’s probably what the camera was connected to.”Beanie nodded, moving a nearby chair to reach the small box. He opened it easily, pulling out a small plastic bag. “Behold: drugs.”“Great job, all we need is a lighter.”He raised an eyebrow at her, holding up a key. “Or we could get out of here.”“…that’s good too.”The duo made quick work of unlocking the door, heading up the stairs and pushing open the cellar door.Rumi stretched her arms up, taking a deep breath. “That’s more like it!” She noticed that Beanie seemed tense. “You good, man?”He nodded, facing her with a neutral expression.“…ok.” She looked around. “The city’s that way. Wanna grab something to eat? I know a great sushi place.”Beanie frowned. “Are you trying to lure me into a false sense of security?”“What? No! I just want sushi.”“But we’re not trapped anymore,” he pointed out.“Yeah?”“…so you’re not going to attack me?”“Nah, you don’t seem like a bad person.” She shrugged. “You’re a villain, but you’ve got a reason, right?”He still looked suspicious. He tugged on his sleeve to glance at his watch. “It’s twelve fifty-seven,” he said.“Great, lunch it is!” She grinned.“Don’t you want to find the people I was working with?”“They can’t have gotten far, and they’ll need to regroup. I’ll catch up to them eventually.”He sighed, walking past her towards the city.“Hey, wait,” she stopped him, narrowing her eyes, “There’s blood on your hat. You’re hurt.”He turned, giving her an unimpressed look. “I got into a fight with the number six pro hero, I was pushed down a rusty flight of stairs, and I fell in an air duct,” he deadpanned, “Are you really surprised?”Rumi rolled her eyes. “Well why didn’t you say anything, dumbass?” She reached behind her, detaching her med kit from the metal around her waist. “Sit down and take the hat off.” She plopped to the ground, patting the space in front of her.Beanie eyed her with suspicion. Rude. She was trying to help here!He slowly sat down in front of her. “Will you describe me to the authorities?”She shrugged. “Depends on if I arrest you. And I don’t really feel like it. So no.”He still looked distrustful, but he turned away from her and peeled off the beanie. His hair was a silver-white color, looking like flat, wide dreadlocks. Looking closer, Rumi could see that the ends were shaped like arrowheads.“Huh. We kinda match.” She flipped back her own white hair. “Yours is more silver, though.” She opened up the med kit and set it down, holding onto his shoulder to get a closer look. “One of your arrows is kind of ripped out, that’s what’s making it bleed.”He felt around his head until he found said arrow, wincing as his fingers touched the torn-out part. “I’m going to need you to rip that out,” he said. Rumi could hear the grimace.“Isn’t that gonna hurt?”“It’s basically the same thing as pulling a strand of hair out, my arrows just have nerves.”“Huh.” She gently pinched one of the arrows between her fingers. “So you can feel that?”“Yes, I can feel you pinching one of my minute hands.”She snickered, grabbing the arrow that was partly torn out. “Three, two, one.” She gave a hard tug, Beanie flinching and sucking in a breath.“You ok?” she asked, pulling out a gauze strip and antibacterial ointment.“I’ve had worse,” was the reply.“You’re pretty tough, huh?”“There is never any use in complaining, it’s better to suck it up and take care of it on your own, so you don’t bother anyone.” The way he said that sounded rehearsed. Like it had been drilled into him.“Is that what they told you in the Yakuza group you’re from?”He stiffened. “What.”“I saw the tattoos on your waist when you were crawling into the vents,” she explained, “They were some kinda flowers. I heard about this one group who tattooed their members with plants used in medicine.”Beanie stayed silent.“I can smell your breath,” she mentioned, rubbing the ointment into his head wound, “You haven’t eaten in what, three days? Also, I could feel your bones. You’re super skinny.”“What’s your point?”“My point is, I’m not a dumb bunny who’s only good for kicking people. I’m ranked top ten for a reason. You left the Yakuza, right? And now you don’t have anywhere else to go, so you turned to different kinds of villainy.” She stuck the gauze onto his head.“…I do what I need to.”“I can smell other stuff, too.” She watched as he shifted uncomfortably, not touching him. “You’ve had sex with multiple people.”There it was. He was rigid, not looking at her, flexing his hand.“I don’t have any problems with polyamory, but that’s not what your deal is, is it?”“You have a problem with prostitution?” he asked, expressionless but firm.“Not if it’s what a person really wants. Is it what you want?”He stayed silent.Rumi grabbed the kit, closing it and reattaching it to her back. “You still want sushi?” she asked, standing up and holding out a hand.Beanie eyed the hand warily, standing up on his own. “I could eat.”————————————————————————————————They sat across from each other silently while a waiter brought two menus.“Here you are,” they said with a smile, “What would you like to drink?”“Gyokuro for me, please,” Rumi replied with a friendly grin.“Tencha, please,” Beanie said politely, with a bowed head.“It’ll be right with you.”Rumi grabbed one of the menus, not really needing it but she liked reading through it just in case there was something new.“I won’t be able to pay for any of this.”She glanced back up at Beanie. “I’m paying don’t worry about it.”He frowned. “I don’t have any money,” he pressed.“Dude, I get it. It’s on me.”His eyes scanned over her hero suit, looking doubtful.“I don’t have a wallet because I have a tab here,” she explained, “I don’t really need the menu, but I like checking it over in case there’s something new.”Beanie still didn’t look convinced. “I don’t even have a credit card-”“And you don’t need one.”“I won’t be able to pay you back for weeks.”“You don’t need to pay me back.”His lips pressed together, scanning over the menu. “…thank you.”“No problem.” She gave him a grin. Whoever hurt this guy was gonna get a beating, she promised herself.————————————————————————————————Mirko watched from where she was on a building. Beanie was walking along, not taking any notice of her following him. She had been carefully stalking him since they left the sushi place. He might be nice, but he’s still a criminal, and she needed to make sure she wasn’t letting a creep go.…and so far, she was pretty confused.Beanie was walking through a suburban area, basic houses and whatnot. A few fast food places, some diners, and he waved at some lady organizing a sign outside a thrift store.Mirko hopped from building to building as he made his way to an… elementary school????Now she was really confused. What was he…Her eyes widened as a little girl made a beeline for Beanie, who knelt down and talked with her gently. The squirt had silver-blue hair that reached her waist, and was wearing a red hat.Beanie took the little girl by the hand and led her away from the school. Mirko followed them until they went inside a small cafe, then decided to leave them alone. The kit seemed comfortable with Beanie, and the interaction didn’t put her off at all. It was just a dad picking his kid up from school.Maybe the squirt’s the reason Beanie left the mob life behind? Whatever, Mirko wasn’t worried. She hoped they would be ok, though.