Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

[strikefirster]

Who: Johnny, Daniel, Ortus, Gideon Nav's Exquisite Corpse, Paul, Kaworu, Deku, Harrow, Maybe more?
What: Kidnapping, Forced Adoption, Getting these kids away from the Emperor
When: Shortly after boatgate
Where: The Bone House and Cobra Kai

Content Warnings: Probably references to Murder, Manipulation, Johnny Lawrence.

Prompts and Mingle will be in the comments.

Comments

[miyagimagic]

Thankfully Daniel does have some sense of tact and what's appropriate. Sure, sometimes he can still be a little bit out of touch with these cues, being an old man and all, but this time he fully understands it the moment he sees Paul moving closer to Midoriya to touch him like that.

So Daniel, of course, goes silent. This isn't a moment to ruin with talking. There's probably not much he can do anyway, being a stranger to them and being busy driving the car.

He'll leave these two to hopefully find some comfort in each other, gaze lingering only a moment before he instead focuses on the road ahead.

[wannasmash]

He cries out as if touched by a sun-hot brand, but he remains still except for a small jolt of muscle under fingertips. His cry extends into a keen. He is only what his body is doing. He loses track of where everyone is and who is touching him. (But he knows, he'd know that touch anywhere, and it's only this person who would touch him so hesitantly.)

"Kaworu-kun!" he gasps as he jerks up, turning, possessed by a fleeting urge to leap out of the truck to go back for him. He does not. There is someone in his way, close, blocking his vision. He arrests himself and crumples like a useless doll, his body understanding the futility of going back before his mind does. His face and shoulder thump gently against him.

Once, he was caught in the pouring rain as he collapsed and passed out. Today, he is still awake. Sobs convulse through him with double their strength.

[terriblepurpose]

Paul half-starts upward as Midoriya does, wrenching another jolt of alertness out of overworked adrenal glands like it's nothing, his heart hammering in averted readiness as Midoriya slumps helplessly against him. His long arms are around the shorter boy's shoulders before thought can halt him, every instinct attuned to the heartbreak in those wracking sobs.

There was an instant where Paul thought he had burned him. It takes so much not to now, extinguishing flickers that spark into his fingertips on the cresting wave of fear. His hands are hot and dry as one curves around Midoriya's upper arm, another coming up to cradle the back of his head. He turns his face against messy green hair tucked against the crook of his neck where he settles him, and he lets himself feel the tears Midoriya weeps for both of them.

For all three of them.

There is nothing Paul can say, so he still says nothing. He rocks Midoriya softly back and forth as he sobs, counterbalancing the jarring of the truck bed, and if a trace of saltwater disappears into the verdant forest he hides his face in, who is there to know?