oh, shit // bnha

twenty-five

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Hitoshi took a cautious step forward. That motion made the child flinch harshly, hitting their head on the box behind them. Eli put her hand out in front of Hitoshi, making the boy look at her, concern coating his features.

She gestured behind them and didn't waste any time taking Hitoshi by his shirt and pulling him from the crack between the brick wall and the dumpster.

"There's no fucking way that we just found a child behind a dumpster," Hitoshi said in a panicky tone. His hand clutched the plastic bag tightly as he paced as silently as he paced i.

Hitoshi wasn't dumb, he took one look at that kid and knew. There was too much blood on their arms, their legs... They were too thin, super frail, and smelled god awful. He'd been homeless before.

He'd been homeless on and off ever since he discovered his true hatred for the foster care system. Sometimes he'd just leave homes and live on the streets until they found him and re-homed him, sometimes they'd end up kicking him out so leaving wasn't even necessary. 

He knew what it was like to have to fight against the cold, hide in bushes to conserve heat and hunt through trash cans for any source of food. And with the number of wrappers he'd seen on the floor surrounding the kid, he figured they'd been there a while since they knew where to look.

"Eli? E-Eli!" Hitoshi squeaked in shock.

He turned around for one second, literally one second, and she wasn't there

because she was back behind the dumpster.

Eli had a similar situation, the only difference between them was that when she ran away or got kicked out, the system (at the time) had no issue putting her right back where she was. So, of course, she recognized this situation and despite how much it made her skin crawl and her throat choke up and her eyes tear, nobody else gave a shit when they saw her starving underneath a park bench in 90-degree heat, and she didn't want to be that person.

The least she could do is get the kid to a police station.

"Um, hey?" Eli called, completely ignoring Hitoshi, who she'd vaguely heard call her name.

She saw the child flinch back, their red eyes peaking through their hair.

"Are you cold?" Eli asked, going to take off her zip-up jacket as slowly as possible.

They watched her with wide, terrified eyes, flinching just a tiny bit less every time Eli made a faster movement. She didn't try to touch them, instead, she just held out the jacket. She awkwardly shuffled toward her, which was required due to the small size of their environment, not to mention Eli's wings were not helping at all.

Her wings were smooshed against the dumpster and the wall, but still, Eli gently held out the jacket, and dropped it, letting it fall on the child's shoulders. Eli huffed as she inched away again to give them their space, still struggling against the tight squeeze.

'I'm gonna have to soak my feathers aren't I?' Eli sighed inwardly.

Giggles filtered through Eli's ears, the winds around her laughing as if they'd heard her. She couldn't help but smile a bit as she waved the winds away, but not before they blew against the small child's face making a red glow appear on their cheeks. Also, giving Eli notice of the horn on their head.

"Oh? You have a horn? I have them too?" Eli said almost too fast, pointing at her head and looking down to show her.

'Ugh, this is so stupid-'