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Kurogiri and Giran were supposed to be here one hour ago now. They were meeting with someone who could give them information about where the next U.A. training camp would be held, but that person had apparently met some complications and was running late. Kurogiri had called Shigaraki to tell him not to worry, but they would still need another hour to get there with the information.
Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, Twice, Magne, Spinner and Mr. Compress were all slouched in sofas, waiting. Shigaraki was sitting alone in the sofa that was facing the TV, mindlessly playing some game. Dabi, Toga and Twice were sitting on the sofa on Shigaraki's left. Magne, Spinner and Mr. Compress were sitting on the one on Shigaraki's right. They all looked bored, inspecting their nails, or just looking at the TV without paying much attention. Some stupid game show was on.
Dabi got up to leave. “I'm going to take a stroll. Call me back when they're here.”
Toga caught his sleeve and forced him to sit back down. “No, I have a great idea to pass the time ! Wait here !” She then ran towards the room that she used as a bedroom.
Dabi rolled his eyes but stayed anyway. He went to fetch a drink behind the bar first, though. He grabbed a beer bottle, opened it, and then flopped back into the sofa.
Toga came back with a bunch of nail polish bottles, and announced they could pass the time by painting each other's nails. She looked extremely excited. She had brought a wide variety of colours and put them on the coffee table that was in between the sofas. Shigaraki discarded his game next to him and said that if they were waiting anyway, they might as well indulge Toga. He didn't say it out loud, but he was actually pretty interested.
“Yes ! Thank you Tomura-kun ! This is going to be so fun ! Who wants to be first ? Which colour do you all want ?” Asked the teenager happily, jumping up and down next to the table.
Dabi set his beer on the armrest. “I'm not letting you paint my nails, I'll do it myself.” He said as he reached for black nail polish.
“Boring, Dabi ! Pick something else ! Like purple !” Toga complained.
“No way. Black or nothing.” Dabi said as he already started painting his nails. It was clear that it wasn't the first time he did that so Toga let him be. It certainly would complete his look.
“Ooooh, can you do my nails please ? I want them all to be different colours ! I want the boring brown nail polish !” Said Twice, looking very excited about it. He wasn't wearing his full costume, just the mask and civilian clothes, so his nails were easy to reach.
“Sure thing Jin, you'll have a whole rainbow on your hands once I'm done with you !” Toga gathered a bunch of colours that would go well together and sat down between Twice and Dabi. She started happily working on Twice's nails.
Magne reached for a bottle and started applying a subtle salmon colour on her own nails. It complimented the top she was wearing today.
Spinner and Shigaraki looked at the nail polish bottles with controlled interest, a little indecisive about the colours they wanted.
Mr. Compress announced that he wanted to try to recreate his mask designs and removed his gloves to start by applying a white base to his nails. He clearly had less experience than Toga, Magne or Dabi, but he wasn't a complete beginner either.
“Okay, I've decided. I want red. Like blood. And to match my shoes.” Shigaraki told Toga. He wasn't about to try to do it himself, not wanting to hear complaints if he accidentally disintegrated the bottle.
“Red like blood ? Really ? And I'm the edgy one ?” Snorted Dabi, who was almost done with his black nail polish.
“Shut up, Dabi. I'm the leader, I can be as edgy as I want.”
Toga finished up Twice's multicoloured nails to get started on Shigaraki's. Twice looked at them with awe and let his hands hover, careful not to touch anything while the nail polish dried.
Toga grabbed the red Shigaraki had pointed to and sat next to him. She almost wanted to ask if she also had to paint the nails of the hand adorning his face but she decided not to, as there was no way she would be able to do that without laughing. She started happily working on his nails while humming, careful to never touch all his fingers at once.
Meanwhile, Magne had started helping Spinner with a shade of purple similar to his hair, to match.
Dabi's nails were dry now and he was sipping his beer while looking at Mr. Compress across from him. The magician seemed to be struggling to recreate his mask designs faithfully. Dabi patted Toga's former place on the sofa. “Your designs look shitty. Come here, I'll do it.”
Mr. Compress looked like he wanted to argue, then looked back at his nails. He sighed and moved to sit in between Dabi and Twice. “Wow, that looks shitty ! It looks awesome !” Exclaimed Twice, looking at the two nails Mr. Compress had done. “Yes yes, no need to be so harsh. I may be an entertainer who has dabbled in make-up before, but I'm not exactly experienced when it comes to nail art. I usually wear gloves you see.”
Dabi snorted and started working on the rest of the nails, frequently asking Mr. Compress about which designs he wanted on which nails.
There was a clear difference between the two nails that Mr. Compress had done himself – one of them looked like a crying face and the other just looked like two smudged dots – and the rest of the nails that Dabi had done, which looked a little more like Mr. Compress' masks. Not that Dabi was particularly good at nail art, but it was apparently still easier to draw on someone else's nails than on your own.
Finally, having finished Shigaraki's nails, Toga started doing her own, still sitting next to Shigaraki. She chose a pretty gold colour, with some subtle glitter.
Shigaraki was looking at his hands. “This is kind of fun, surprisingly. I almost want to go out to see if anyone notices.”
The others nodded. It felt good to take care of something as simple as their nails sometimes, to treat themselves in little ways.
The forgotten game show in the background started running an ad for some sort of hair product, interrupting the good mood with an annoying jingle. The ad itself was unremarkable, but what made the villains take notice of it was that the ad featured pro hero Uwabami, as well as two teenage girls in skimpy outfits behind her. The girls were holding the hair product that was advertised and looked uncomfortable, moving robotically and smiling awkwardly. Uwabami looked more at ease while she presented her product proudly, showing off her curls.
Spinner groaned. “Ugh, this is exactly the kind of things heroes shouldn't be doing. How shameful.”
The ad had indeed soured the mood of the villains, reminding them of the sides of hero society they hated the most.
“Oh, are those two young girls U.A. students ? That must have been filmed during the internships...” Added Mr. Compress, recognizing the two faces from the footage from the sports festival they had all watched.
“I sure hope those aren't supposed to be their hero outfits... Whoever tailored them...gross.” Dabi made a disgusted face before taking another sip of his beer.
Toga made a perplexed face while putting her nail polish bottle back on the table. “The red-head's outfit isn't that bad but the other one... That seems very impractical to fight ! I can fight better with a school uniform ! And it doesn't even look cute or fashionable. Terrible taste !”
Magne nodded. “Heels to fight ? Not a good idea, especially for a teenager who's not done growing. And she doesn't even have any support for her chest ! It must be extremely uncomfortable. They should fire whoever designed that costume.”
“She fought against the shadow bird student who got third place in the sports festival. She could create stuff from her body or something.” Shigaraki said. He remembered most of the students' quirks as he had studied them for their upcoming plan.
Dabi scoffed. “Wonder what kind of costume they would have designed for a guy with the same quirk.”
“Well, no heels for starters. Running shoes, and probably shirtless and shorts to create stuff easily.” Magne answered. “Not that it's any better for a guy to go around topless while fighting since they're just teenagers...”
“It doesn't really get better with age though, look at what adult pros wear sometimes ! You'd think they're only entertainers and saving people comes as an afterthought ! And they don't even have the excuse of not knowing what kind of costume they want and letting designers do what they want since they've been heroes for years.” Spinner complained.
“Absolutely. You don't even need to go further than the top 10, look at what Miruko's wearing.” Mr. Compress added.
“Ugh yeah, there's no way that's not uncomfortable to fight. It's basically a swimsuit that must ride up her butt every time she kicks stuff.” Dabi frowned.
Toga hummed. “It's quite surprising too, she seems like the kind of woman who wouldn't fall to society's pressure to conform to the sexy female hero costume thing... Aaaaaah, but there's already all kinds of pressure on girls, even when you're not a hero !!” She complained while swinging her arms and pouting. Shigaraki avoided one of her arms and scooted back on the sofa they were sharing. “People are always going on and on about being a proper and normal girl !! It's so annoying !”
“Don't worry Toga-chan, you're perfectly normal around us ! You're just as weird as everyone else here !” Assured Twice while making double finger guns at her.
Magne smiled sadly at Toga. “I absolutely get that Toga-chan. If you don't fit into the mould and if you don't look like society's standards for femininity, then you might as well just not be treated as a woman.”
“Yeah and it's super unfair to you, Magne-nee ! It doesn't matter if you fit society's dumb standards or not, people should still respect you !!!” Toga complained.
“It's very annoying. Back when I wasn't a villain yet, people would constantly misgender me just based on my appearance and make half-assed apologies afterwards but now that I'm a villain... Some people take that fact as an excuse to misgender me ? Like it doesn't actually matter since I'm a criminal ? Even pro heroes do it, and then they have the nerve to act like they're morally superior.” Magne sighed and played with her hair. “Well, it feels nice to be with you guys at least.”
“Next time that happens, I'll stab them !” Shouted Toga as she took a knife out of her blouse and stabbed it into the wooden table to prove her point.
The rest of them all nodded. They all felt protective of their makeshift family, even if some of them wouldn't admit it as easily as others. Magne smiled at them, happy to have found them. She knew that everyone in this room would kill anyone who was disrespecting her without a second thought. “Thank you guys, that means a lot.”
“Heroes are hypocrites anyway. They claim they want to help us, but they don't do anything to prevent people from becoming villains. They just react afterwards, once it's already too late.” Muttered Shigaraki while scratching his neck.
“They're praised about saving lives and yet no one checks what they're like behind closed doors... Are we supposed to look at them as fucking role models ? Many of them are fucking assholes, undeserving of the hero title.” Added Dabi.
Spinner nodded. He was glad that the others were on the same page as him about Stain's ideals.
“Sounds like you have a specific hero in mind, Dabi.” Said Mr. Compress, looking over to Dabi.
“Yeah. Fucking Endeavour. Fucking epitome of toxic masculinity and everything wrong with hero society.”
“I have to admit, he's pretty bad compared to the others... At least heroes like All Might or Crimson Riot represent more positive masculinity even though they still partake in this hero society...” Said Spinner.
“I'm fucking over toxic masculinity. Who cares about gender roles and stereotypes ? Trying to follow this stupid fucking ideal that means nothing only leads to pain. You can't cry because you're a boy, you need to be stronger because you're a boy, you can't talk about your feelings because you're a boy... Well congratulations, you raised a villain with many many issues, hope you're proud of yourself !” ranted Dabi as he set down his beer bottle violently. Some blue sparks were flickering around his fingers.
“Who are you talking about exactly ? Is this still about hero society ?” asked Shigaraki.
“Yeah, tell us who and I'll go stab them !” added Toga.
Dabi realized everyone was looking at him with worried faces. He made a sour face and frowned. “Nah, I said too much. Forget about it.”
“We aren't going to force you to say anything, but know that we're all ready to listen to you if you need to talk.” assured Mr. Compress while putting a tentative hand on Dabi's shoulder.
“Yes, we all talk about our problems a lot but you usually don't ever tell us anything. We won't judge you for anything you say.” added Magne.
“Everyone needs to rant once in a while !” said Twice.
“Noted. But I'm done talking.” Dabi said with a practised neutral face, inspecting his nails.
They dropped the prying. Dabi would talk once ready. It wasn't exactly a surprise though, as Dabi's past might have been a mystery but they had all guessed that he came from an abusive household based on his reactions to certain things as well as some comments he had made. This only confirmed it.
“Oh well, I suppose I relate somewhat. Never been big on masculinity either. The only emotion you're really allowed to show is anger, and that leads to nothing good.” Shigaraki confessed, while looking at Dabi.
Dabi shrugged. “Yeah, anger is blinding. You lose sight of what really matters.”
“You're already doing much better than when we first met you though, Shigaraki !” said Mr. Compress.
Toga giggled and nodded. Their first meeting was quite memorable. Shigaraki had indeed calmed down quite a lot since then. He was making a lot of efforts to listen to his comrades and try to trust them.
“Yeah, I'm working on it. Kurogiri helps a lot.” affirmed Shigaraki.
As if summoned by his name, Kurogiri warped inside at that moment, accompanied by Giran.
“Sorry to have made you wait. We have the information we need.” Kurogiri said as he approached the sofas.
Shigaraki got up and excitedly showed his nails to Kurogiri. “Kurogiri ! Look at my nails ! Pretty colour right ? Toga did them for me.”
“Very pretty indeed, Shigaraki Tomura.” Kurogiri looked at all the villains in the room, and noticed that all their nails were done. He chuckled. “I see that you managed to keep busy while waiting.”
Shigaraki and Toga scooted back to let Kurogiri and Giran sit next to them.
They went over the new information they had obtained, all of them feeling refreshed after their makeovers and a good rant. Their next plan was going to go very smoothly.