Short-ish chapter this time, sorry.
-T.A.L.A.
Izuku Midoryia woke on his own bed besides another person who had curled so they were hugging him like one would a teddy bear. Faint chatter sounded from the kitchen which would have made the growing feeling of unease grow if he didn't recognize the voices as vaguely as familiar- in a good way. That didn't change the problem. He couldn't remember a single thing from... awhile back... what had he been doing? A stab of pain shot through his head.
He calmed himself, this wasn't the first time this had happened, he just needed to keep calm and start at a recent, but still calm point and recall from there.
Jin's lifeless, staring eyes flashed before his eyes. He froze.
Jin limp in his hands as Katsuo, Suzie, and he struggled to move him from where Sare had teleported him. Tears rose to his own eyes that stared uncomprehendingly at the wall before him.
Jin, the normal thick black tears (which would always accumulate whenever he felt a particularly strong emotion just below his eyes, seeping from his skin around where his dark eye bags were whenever he had to get up too early in the morning like blood from a wound), absent from their place, although very few people would notice that considering he always wore sunglasses, it was still a part that anyone from the bi-monthly group would notice right away. There was normally a small crust there because it was difficult to wash off.
All the same the dried tear tracks were not there.
He slowly turned around to see who lay beside him. Limp gray hair spread like a dark halo around a face completely free from the normal small expressions that would always run across his face behind the wolf like grins flashing in his minds eye.
He was met with the familiar too- pale- for- anyone- else gray skin, blue tinted lips parted slightly to show a pitch black mouth and pointed layers of razor thin and sharp, white teeth. The eyelids were closed.
But then...
Hopelessness pressed down on him as he stood helplessly at the closed door facing the room a somewhat worn drawing notebook clutched in his hand as he watched over his friend from as close as he could bring himself to go.
His eyes flicked back to where Jin lay, asleep, but not unnaturally so, a twitch of movement on their face betraying the difference even more so than the now closed eyes as he breathed evenly in and out.
Shaking legs carried him over to the bedside so he could gently tap his forehead with the back of his fingernail and slide the notebook beneath the pillow. Tears unshed for once in his eyes as he stared down at him before backing away and fleeing the room.
Deku pulled away, sliding so his back rested against the wall by the foot of the bed, his eyes never leaving the Jin beside him, careful not to wake him. If he was Jin, and the memories were fake, he'd cause the other to worry about him, but if it wasn't Jin... The all too familiar figure moved closer to the spot his warmth once was curling up further into the blankets- Jin's temperature had always ran ungodly cold.
He pressed himself further against the wall trying to think; what had happened next?
Stain and Ingenium'a team.
Going with Aire to visit Sare in preparation for the expected kidnapping. As long as someone he trusted was keeping an eye on her he could easily keep her out of danger.
When nothing happened after some days dropping her off with Cogitatio so he could gather some... delicate... information that he needed in the vain hope he could get a complete diagnosis and break down of Stain's quirk even as he tried to lay low from the fame he had accidentally gotten from Hosu.
Getting kidnapped by the League and then.... he knew he had been drugged fairly early on. And he was pretty sure he had made a few suggestions to them under its influence. But then... another drug had been introduced to his system after he made it to the base, he was somewhat certain of that, although it was getting pretty foggy.
Sharp pain landed through his head and he stopped and started again this time starting slightly more recently than the Stain attack and going into more detail.
It was on the third try, that Jin moved again. He'd been able to remember much of Shigaraki and his conversation and the bar they were in this time before he began becoming uncertain... something about All Might...? Someone new had entered. Was it All Might? He didn't think it had been All Might. He wouldn't be here if it was-
Jin shot up suddenly as if he'd been shocked. His indescribable eyes, that always seemed to stare into your soul, locked onto Izuku's own green eyes.
Wasn't the League trying to recruit someone who could change their appearance?
Their voice was uncertain, but they hid it well, "...Dekiru."
Deku smiled widely lunging across the bed to pull them into a tight hug, his arms wrapped around theirs so they couldn't move them much, "Tanaka!"
"Okay, now I know something's wrong." They laughed briefly and without humor, "Who are you."
The room grew colder and Jin's gray hair waved raising slightly like snakes sleepily disturbed near the start of their hibernation, their eyes becoming void like and nails elongating even further- sharp and strong enough to tear through skin and muscle easily. He was fairly certain the League hadn't found someone who took the quirks as well as appearance.
Slowly he pulled back to the sound of cracking bones as Jin's arms bent in an angle no human being would be capable of to grasp onto Izuku's own arms. Deku let go of him with one hand to reach up and tug on a strand of long gray hair. "I was under the impression you were still... asleep, mind telling me how you're awake?"
"Nox."
Izuku froze as his mind caught up, "So that's who it was! Damn, I should have suspected that half sane parakeet would turn up."
"Well now you know it's me, you're turn."
"No, now I know that you know Nox, plenty of people know who Nox is, but do I know how you know how I know who Nox is and if so how you know that I know how you know how I know who Nox is?"
The air grew colder as a menacing smile crept up on Jin's face, "I just feel better when I know what's going on, that's all."
"People think you're stupid because you are, not because you ask questions." Deku smirked back as they both paused taking the other in. A crackling of bones rang out again as Jin's arms returned to a far more human angle and they both sat back taking each other in for a moment.
"So then, I heard you picked a fight with Stain."
"Yep, so then, I heard you got kidnapped."
"Funny, I might have heard something similar.... in a tabloid."
"And here I thought you at least had some guts."
"And here I thought you at least had some brains."
"Are we in agreement then?"
"Never talk about it again?"
Jin smiled as the chilly air dissipated and he held his hand out for Izuku to shake, "That sounds about it, thank you though." So he had noticed all the reports marked failure he responded to and tried plans that were stacking up or some of the potential ones he was preparing to enact.
"For what exactly?"
"Good question."
Izuku reaches over pulling them into an actual hug this time, "jeez, it's been awhile since you actually activated your quirk, that's got to be wonderful in the summertime."
"I don't know, people generally will take a little bit of heat instead once they start hearing the screams of the damned or something."
"Well that's stupid; It's not summer until you get at least one murder attempt from one of Lovecraft's actual protagonists and hear the nighttime chorus of crickets singing along in harmony with the shrill voices of the supposedly long gone."
"That was oddly poetic."
"Yeah, well it's early. I'm going to go back to sleep before I realize exactly how much work I need to get done."
"Enough to drive you to an early grave before I do- oh, whoops, I mean, alright then, you do that." The long, bony fingers patted his head as he settled back down relief coursing through him. Jin was awake.
When he next woke up it was to people talking again, but this time there was a faint smell of food. He pulled himself up smiling as he pulled a notebook from behind his pillow. It wasn't a dream, Jin was awake.
As quietly as he could he pulled himself up and changed into a clean set of clothes. He had been left in the outfit he had been kidnapped in, and while it was still in one piece and didn't have any tears, he still didn't want to continue wearing it after who knows how long. On quiet feet he exited the room, opening the bedroom door in just the right way its hinges wouldn't squeal and keeping his feet where the flooring made barely a sound at the contact. There were plenty of loose floorboards, squeaky doors and awkward object placements to trip up on and alert others of your presence in the small back room that he had made his living space, but he knew it inside out and could navigate it just as easily without his sight as with. He had tried.
Once out of the bedroom it was only a matter of three steps and turning a corner to see the kitchen area and living room, but he paused to hear who exactly had made their way in.
Bright and innocent, Eri's voice rang out chattering endlessly about the newest of her favorite hero fights she had seen.
A pause just the right amount of length to be a wordless question and a vague rustling of a familiar cloth was the signal for Cogitatio's attendance.
Eri was speaking again now, but he knew he had heard another person so he waited a while longer, and was quickly rewarded when a cheerful male voice broke in interjecting to add something in a tone too low for him to hear. Nox.
So that was who saved him as well then.... probably.
With a sigh he turned the corner to see the three of them all gathered about the kitchen as Nox and Cogitatio made breakfast. At least he thought that was what was going on, they seemed to be in quiet disagreement on what to make and so were secretly sabotaging the other while working.
" Hello Friday Child, did you know UA sent a message for you? It's on the table."
Figures Nox would know he was there.
( An: some of the lines used as assurance that they are who they appear to be are edited lines from 'The Princess Bride' they aren't exactly from it nor are they in the order they appear, but they are based off the book which I own just as much as I own My Hero Academia. Which is to say not at all. I don't own either thing, just write- admittedly odd- fan fiction.)