Chapter Text
She no longer remembered her humanity anymore, something she’d desperately clung to when she was younger and had first come to Japan. She only remembered that it had been one of the older subjects of Achilles, who was a permanent occupant of the compound she’d been born in, who had taught her that there was any such thing and that clinging to that humanity had only caused her pain. Master hated that she’d had humanity and he’d expertly cut it out of her a long time ago.
Delta wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d come to the Master’s power. She’d been very young then and now she held a more mature form, though she didn’t think it was complete yet. It was only her charge whose physical changes gave her any perspective of the passage of time.
Tomura Shigaraki had been a teenager when they’d met and only a little older than that, still a teen, when she’d been given to him. He was a man now, though still young, so she knew the passage of time had been several years but not too long. It wasn’t like it mattered very much.
She was his sentinel, the being that protected his back if he needed to retreat with Kurogiri. She was also a companion that Kurogiri could not be. As she kept her quirk on all the time now, Shigaraki could not use his quirk to hurt her. She served as the one who held him when he broke and picked up the pieces. As Kurogiri was his nursemaid and caretaker, almost a parent for the young villain, she was more than that. While he had never attempted a sexual relationship with her, the role she served was often that of a significant other. That was what had been commanded of her by the Master and that is what she would fulfill, even if Shigaraki decided he wanted more.
Delta sat in the corner of the bar, flipping a knife in her hands and watching Shigaraki sitting at the bar counter, seemingly discussing something with Kurogiri. She didn’t care what they were talking about except that Shigaraki seemed more than a little upset. She wouldn’t get involved in their relationship, it wasn’t her place, but she watched so she’d be aware when Shigaraki needed her.
Dabi, followed by Mister Compress and Spinner, walked into the room from one of the back hallways. The noise of them coming in had Delta’s fathomless black eyes moving to them and, while Dabi didn’t react, both Compress and Spinner shivered.
They had never gotten used to the younger girl. While they were all what would be considered a little unhinged, they also bonded with each other over time. Every time Delta looked at them, however, it held the knowledge that she would kill them if Shigaraki asked without a second thought. And, as most of their quirks would not work against her, they would be relatively defenseless against her. That she was young, no older than Toga, only made it worse. When they spoke to her, she acted friendly enough, but her eyes told a different story. Magne had once said that Delta had the eyes of someone who’d been broken too many times and now there was nothing left inside the shell but blind devotion to Shigaraki.
Delta’s eyes moved away to return to staring at Shigaraki. The men who’d been caught in her stare went up to the bar to get drinks from Kurogiri, then, instead of allowing themselves to be caught up in Shigaraki’s tantrum by sitting at the bar counter, they all migrated to Delta’s table, which was the only other surviving furniture at the moment. Dabi, ever uncaring, was the only one to sit close to Delta, the other two trying to be as far from her as possible.
“Isn’t that Toga’s knife?” Spinner whispered to Compress after a few minutes of mostly silence, aside from whatever Shigaraki was ranting about this time.
Without taking her eyes off Shigaraki, Delta caught the knife by the blade and held it there before speaking “It is. She tried to play with me so I took it and reminded her why she shouldn’t try it.”
Her voice was rough, deeper than it should be for her age and Dabi, the expert in damaged vocal cords, always thought it had been caused by screaming in pain. For all that Delta healed faster than the rest of them, some things took longer than others.
Spinner shivered at her statement. She wouldn’t have killed Toga, not without Shigaraki’s permission, which he wouldn’t give for such a slight offense when their numbers were so low, but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t hurt the other girl. That there was no blood in the room or on Delta meant it was more likely something minor that had Toga hiding away for the moment.
Shigaraki abruptly stood up and stalked down the hallway that the other men had come from. He didn’t look over at them but Delta stood, swinging her arm to embed the knife into the table where she’d been sitting before following him out of the room. She knew from experience that he would need her now, after his argument with Kurogiri. She didn’t bother to look at anyone as she left.
Delta was a silent presence behind Shigaraki as he stalked to his room. As she followed him in, he threw himself down on the bed, grumbling about something or another. She settled against the head of his bed, leaning against his pillows, and waited for him to come to her. He would usually need a moment before he was ready for the comfort she could provide.
After a minute of his nonsensical complaining, he rolled over onto his stomach and slid up the bed to rest his head against her stomach, laying his long, thin body across her legs and wrapping his arms around them. She rarely wore much in clothing at the bar because her cancellation of his quirk only worked on skin to skin contact and it was annoying to make Kurogiri get her new clothes every time Shigaraki had a moment. Since she was only wearing a pair of short shorts and a long sleeved shirt, his hands came down on her bare thighs and she was able to cancel out his quirk with ease. She had a lot of fine tuned control over her quirk that allowed her to not be hurt by him without feeding off of him and, ultimately, hurting him. It had been the one thing that the Master had made sure she was capable of before giving her to Shigaraki.
Delta ran her hands through Shigaraki’s hair as he sighed deeply and relaxed against her. She knew it was hard for him to not be able to touch people without killing them. Not that killing people bothered him but physical touch was a necessity for humans, even her, and he had been woefully alone from when his family died until she’d come along. He never seemed to get enough of being able to hold onto her. It never seemed sexual to her, not that she’d had much experience in that way, and she’d wondered if Shigaraki viewed her more as a maternal figure then the potential romantic partner that the Master had been expecting and despite the fact she was several years younger then him. The Master and the Doctor had, during one of her private conversations with them, informed her that they thought that he would grow out of it as he matured but she hadn’t seen much sign of it yet. It’s not like it mattered to her beyond her reports to the Master.
Shigaraki’s grumbling eventually subsided and his breathing evened out. He didn’t often sleep in her arms, preferring to be alone at night, so it told her that he wasn’t sleeping well. She’d have to have Kurogiri try to give him something to help him sleep.
She continued petting his hair, watching her hands move through the blueish strands with an impassive expression. She looked up at the open door when she heard someone moving down the hall. She looked up to the open doorway and made eye contact with Dabi.
Dabi glanced between her and Shigaraki before giving her a twisted smile. Delta merely raised an eyebrow at him and waited until the fire villain eventually moved on.