I handed some cash over to the worker on the other side of the counter, in return they gave me a box filled with a dozen donuts. The scent of the delicious treat wafting up my nose, the sweet smell making a smile form on my lips. Glancing up that smile to the cashier, instantly they copied my gesture.

Emiko and I left the cafe together, the short girl struggling to keep up with my longer strides. "You made them happy." Confused, I quirked my head to the side. In response to my cluelessness she rolled her eyes. "When you smiled it brightened their mood a bit."

"Oh..." Finally I understood what she was staying, but why was that important? "So what does that mean?"

There was a quick pause. "I'm not sure. I guess it's always nice to know the effect you have on people. When I got my quirk it was scary to be able to see people's true feelings, but then the realization hit that I could help people who weren't happy."

The way she bounced on her feet was adorable, excited over such a small memory most would find trivial. Did I have one of those memories? No. Everything that I remembered was just painful and made me more angry towards Phoenix.

"What's wrong?" The blue haired woman asked, happiness being replaced by worry almost instantaneously. The air around me changing as if it were trying to hug me, comfort my restless soul.

My smile became bitter, annoyed with all the pains of this world. "I promise I'll tell you everything, but not until we take Esther down. Until then you can't find out, if you do I can't guarantee your safety."

Her onyx eyes narrowed in suspicion, a quiet sigh escaping through her lips. The sound telling me she was thinking if she could trust me or not. "Why do I trust you chickadee. You could be a secret agent trying to use me to get close to Endeavor."

That wasn't what I wasn't what I wanted, if that were true I'd have already killed Enderavor. It would've been simple and easy, he wasn't ready for a fight when he invited me in for an interview. One quick slice with my feather would end with blood shed. Stop it, I hated these thoughts swirling in my head- but that's how I had been trained.

"Emiko." I said, my voice a steady whisper. "When I do tell you everything, and I mean everything, your views about me are going to change. Please just promise you won't think that I'd ever hurt you." I knew that if she ended up hating me there was no way I'd be able to keep fighting against Phoenix.

"I said I'd do whatever I can to help you (Y/N)." She said, her eyes not meeting mine instead wandering up towards the sky. She seemed at peace: The way her lips curled upwards slighting in a smile and her body wasn't tense. "No matter what you say, I'll help you. We are friends after all."

Friends. The word felt foreign to my ears, not something I'd heard often in my life. Right now in this moment it felt nice, like a warm coat protecting me from the harsh winds of reality. Emiko didn't care about my past because she doesn't know about it: How will her views change when I tell her how I had spent sixteen years of my life with the very criminal organization we were trying to take down.

"There." I raised one of my fingers, pointing to an old rundown pawn shop at the end of the street. My steps speeding up in excitement. "I just want to drop these donuts off to them and then I'll head back home."

"Why do you want to give the people here donuts?" The shirt girl was struggling to keep up with my long, quick strides. She was basically running to stop from falling behind. "Is that shop even open?"

"It's open." I smiled to myself, one that could've gone unnoticed but was caught by Emiko's piercing dark eyed gaze. Her eyes sparkling at the sight of me being happy. "Let's just say my family lives there."

We walked inside the store, ignoring the sign saying no outside food; A bell ringing to alert everyone inside of our entry. The strong smell of leather washing over my senses- I gladly welcomed the familiar scent. Emiko was a different story, when the smell finally hit in she nearly gagged, her free hand shooting up to cover her nose as the other clutched tightly to the donuts.

"That is one hell of a strong smell." She said between short breaths of air.

I laughed, the smell wasn't nearly as bad as the girl made it out to be. "Sorry, it'll take you a bit of time to get use to the leather smell especially since it's your first time in here. Don't worry though we shouldn't be here that long."

"I said NO!" There was a loud yell from deeper within the store, the voice registering in my mind as Atlas. "Now either pay or get out of my shop."

Bringing a finger to my lips, I made a shushing motion to Emiko. "Stay quiet and follow close behind me. If I tell you to run then you run."

We made our way through the cramped store, passing by items messily thrown on display. To anyone else it would be seen as fine but I'd reorganized these items many times, enough to know that whoever was doing it now was being lazy. Ignoring the pings of dissatisfaction in my heart with how the store was unorganized, we continued to the back of the store.

Finally I caught sight of who Atlas was arguing with. Two men I knew quite well, stood leaning on the glass counter, neither of them seeming to notice my presence. Though the young boy had caught my eyes and lit up with a bright smile.

"Hey minx." The teenager waved at me, glancing my way but his true gaze never leaving the two men across the counter. He seemed slightly annoyed. No annoyed wasn't the right word, uneasy. On the outside he seemed relaxed but you could see the way he distrusted the two men. "You think you could help me out here?"

The two men turned: Dabi and Hawks. "Hey princess." The taller dark haired male started. "What are you doing here."

Beside me Emiko gasped, her eyes widening at the sight of a wanted villain. Instead of running like I had expected her to do, she turned towards me, the surprise quickly wearing off to be replaced with a dissatisfied look. "Why did a wanted MURDERER just call you princess?"

"Not entirely the reaction I had expected from you." I was dumbfounded, why hadn't she ran? Most people would've taken off towards the nearest police station. But Emiko stood with her head held high.

"I trust you, for some reason, and you said you'd tell me when to run. Since you didn't I figured you're okay with him." She seemed confident in her words, being entirely certain that I wasn't a villain about to kill her. I wasn't but what if it were someone else with bad intentions? How could someone have so much faith in someone else that they disregard their own safety.

"Atlas." I said, suppressing the fluttering of my heart. Emiko trusts me. That probably wasn't her best choice but it still made me happy knowing she wasn't lying about being by my side. "Why are you arguing with these two?"

"They want this." He held up a hand, the item a grayish color with a golden box attached to the bottom. Raising an eyebrow I thought I'd recognized the item, eventually the realization hit that it belong to the League of Villains leader. "And they don't want to pay."

I tried to suppress the bubble of giggles rising in my throat but my attempts fell short- Bursts of laughter over flowing. Atlas was one of the only people who could manage to get this reaction out of me, with how idiotic he managed to be some of the time. "You are the only person who would willingly go against the number two hero and a league member over something as simple as not paying."

"You know I like my money."

Sighing I grabbed the hand from Atlas, pushing it into Dabi's chest. The tall man looking from me to the boy in surprise. Atlas gave me a look, one that told me he knew I was doing the right thing but he was still not happy about it. His black eyes half lidded with annoyance. "I'd rather deal with this burnt chicken nugget than with their handy man of a leader." He sighed and only nodded his head in agreement, knowing that this was probably for the best. Grabbing the donuts from Emiko I laid them on the glass counter. "Maybe these will cheer you up?"

"Of course they will." He opened the box and grabbed one of the dozen delicious treats. "This would be a lot more enjoyable if you told me why you brought them, because knowing you this means you want something."

Smiling I leaned on the counter, the smell of the donuts overpowering the usual leather scent. "Can't I just come say hi?"

He flicked my forehead with his free hand, a stinging sensation spreading throughout my head. "No actually, because you don't do that."

"Fine!" Throwing up my hands in exasperation, I moved from the counter. For someone I hadn't seen much of in the past two years, Atlas knew me as well as ever. "I'm here to get some of my clothes because my apartment may or may have not burned down."

"They should still be in your room." He swallowed the last chunk of his donut, a savory look spreading across his face as he took in the resonating taste of the food. "You know where it's at."

Nodding I walked to the back room, Dabi and Hawks eyes never leaving my saunter steps. Passing through the curtains I immediately turned right, entering a small sized room. There was barley enough room to spread my wings but it was mine.

Instead of a bed there was a hammock, I'd use to prefer sleeping in it so that my wings could fall to my sides. A A dresser was crammed along the wall beside my closet. The walls were decorated with several of my larger feathers, light reflecting off the metal objects to give them a more metallic look. Usually my feathers were a dull gray but lined along the wall they looked so much more like iron.

There were things littered across the floor, my room a mess compared to the rest of the shop. Though it didn't bother me as I stepped perfectly between the small uncovered spots of the carpet. Opening the closet I grabbed a duffel off the top shelf and opened the bag.

Shoveling clothes in the bag, I made sure to grab shoes and undergarments from the dresser. Most of the items were from thrift shops but even then they were still special to me. I'd never had clothing that I could consider mine that wasn't made of pure white cotton. Maybe that's why I despised the color that was supposed to represent purity, it was ingrained in my mind that it meant training.

"(Y/N)?" A deep, raspy voice came from behind me that stopped me dead in my tracks. "What are you doing here."

Turning around I found the man who had taken me in nearly six years ago when I ran from Phoenix. He had helped me yet I had abandoned him, how was that fair. Hiding my sinking face, I plastered an all to fake smile on my lips. "Hey Edmond! I'm just picking up some clothes since- Eh, y'know what it's a long story."

His wrinkly hands raked through his messy gray hair, for someone in his sixties it was considerably thick. If it weren't for the wrinkles and long since gray hair no one would think he was that old- especially with the way his arm muscles flexed with every movement. I could tell he was just waking up by the way his eyes still seemed to be adjusting to the light. "Well maybe you can come by and tell me sometime. It'd be great to catch up with you again minx."

"Of course." My smile felt wrong, how could I pretend give him a happy look when I felt so bad about leaving. "I have to go though, my friends waiting for me."

Trying to leave, I came to a quick stop. My eyes glazed over as I saw the mannequin on the other side of my room. On it was an exact replica of the outfit I wore to the fighting ring, I forgot that I had a second copy of it. Not caring if I was stepping on the many items littered across the room I walked to the figure.

My hand trailed over the bandages wrapped securely around it's chest, the blindfold wrapped over where it's eye sockets would have been. "You never told us what your purpose for keeping that outfit was." Edmond said, shoving his way into the room. "We always wanted to ask but you shut down our questions every time."

Ripping the clothes off the mannequin I shoved them into my bag, trying as hard as I could to keep a straight face. I had to get out of this room. "It's a reminder of where I come from, telling me what I never want to be again."

Attempting to walk past Edmond, he grasped my arms; Not harshly enough to stop me from moving but only enough to tell me to wait. His touch felt unfamiliar on my skin, it's been so long since he was this close to me. I couldn't take it, every wall was closing in, trying to suffocate me.

"Are you okay?" His voice was soft, trying to not worsen my state of mind. "Did I do something to make you uncomfortable or feel like we don't want you here?"

I shook my head, regret instantly pushing through the anxiety. Turning to him I kept my fake smile on, using it as shield to hide what I was truly thinking. If Phoenix found out about this place then they could get to Edmond or Atlas, that's why I left, but neither of them knew that. No one knew anything about my past with those wretched criminals.

"Edmond, you've been nothing but kind to me." Wrapping my arms around his chest, I pulled him into a tight hug. "If anything I don't deserve to be here. You and Atlas are two of the kindest, most annoying people I've ever met, so please don't think you did anything wrong."

Looking up I could see the smile on his face, the crows feet beside his eyes become much more prominent. "Get going minx, we'll see you around some other time."

Pulling away, I smiled: A real smile. It was small and subtle but it was enough to satisfy Edmond's fatherly instincts. Walking back to the group in the main shop, I heard the elderly man call out. "Don't think that I don't know you're dating a villain! He better know that I'll kick his ass if he lays a hand on you in the wrong way."

Dabi raised an eyebrow, confused as to who was talking about him in such a way. Rolling my eyes I shoulder the duffel in my hands so that I could carry it easier. "I'm heading back to the apartment, I'll see you guys later."

"Text us when you get home baby bird. Just to let us know you're not dead." Hawks said as we made our way towards the exit.

"If I feel like it."