Physical education was in full swing. The gym was hot and stuffy and (Y/n) was beginning to find it hard to breathe. He wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he knew that he and Todoroki had screwed up, royally. They were going to starve now that their father knew they had to nerve to sneak out. He'll put locks on our windows from the outside, have people watch outside, we won't be able to leave-

He knew that he should be grateful to Todoroki for biting the bullet when he froze, but he was too worried about what to do now. They weren't the only ones who were in danger now. Their mothers were going to starve to death now that they wouldn't be able to get them food. What are we going to do?

"Shouto, I think we should tell Shiota and Akabane what happened last night," (Y/n) stated, glancing at the two from across the room. 

"What?" Todoroki looked at him like he was crazy. "you want to tell them that our father is a dove, and that we basically got caught?"

"I mean... what else is there to do? They could help us." (Y/n) stood his ground, stopping his jogging to glare at his cousin slightly. Adrenaline hadn't stopped pumping through either of their veins since the night before.

"You're a fucking dumbass," Todoroki said with a frown.

"You sound like that blond kid from class three," (Y/n) responded.

Todoroki sighed. "I wouldn't have to if you would get your head out of your ass."

"What?" (Y/n)'s eyes flared with a warning.

"You heard me." Todoroki stepped closer. "things aren't safe anymore. Yamaguchi died and disappeared, the crows are involved, Kaminari could still rat out Itona, and now our father, a dove, is suspicious of us—not to mention that Tsukishima isn't stupid. He's keeping quiet, but who knows who else he actually knows about?"

(Y/n) let the words sink in, willing himself to calm before he made a mistake that could ruin things further. Todoroki seemed to do the same as they started to jog again, not wanting their coach to pay them any mind. (Y/n) was silent for the remainder of their laps, then he came to a decision.

"I still think we should tell them-" he held his hand up to tell Todoroki to hear him out- "they could help us, like, really help us. They could show us to hunt less obviously. They might even just show us in order to save their own skin some."

Todoroki didn't agree still, but let (Y/n) do as he pleased. If things went wrong, it wasn't his fault, and if they went great, he allowed it to happen. There wasn't any negative blame on him.

(Y/n) waved them over. As they approached, he noticed that Todoroki still looked unsure.

"What's up?" Karma asked, half glaring at them.

"We got... caught. Last night," (Y/n) uttered. "by Shouto's father. We think he's on to us."

"On to you? What does that even mean?" Nagisa questioned, obviously unimpressed with the vagueness of the statement.

"He... he's..." (Y/n) took a deep breath, preparing for the reaction of the two ghouls in front of them. "Shouto's father is a dove."

Both Nagisa's and Karma's expressions went dark. Neither looked at (Y/n) or Todoroki, preferring to glare daggers into the ground. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. It made them sick, to think that they were becoming close with those who are parented by a dove- a CCG member. 

A realization hit Karma like a truck, and when he did look up at (Y/n) and Todoroki, he sneered. Nagisa seemed to the same as he did a few seconds later, remembering a news report he'd seen.

"Enji Todoroki..." Nagisa muttered, the name tasting like flaming chalk on his tongue. "I should have known. No wonder you two are so fucked up-" Todoroki's eyes flooded black and his irises with blood- "are you challenging me, Todoroki?"

Karma glared. "You've got some nerve—your father led the case on Yamaguchi," Karma spat.

"What?" (Y/n) asked, his eyes going wide as Todoroki's flooded back to white. "No."

"No? What do you mean, 'no?' You had to have known," Nagisa claimed, his expression changing to something unreadable when (Y/n) didn't answer. 

"Crap. You guys didn't know." Karma ran his fingers through his hair, glaring at nothing in particular. "how the hell did you guys not know?"

"We must have missed the announcement," Todoroki said stiffly.

"You know what? I don't care why or how you managed to not hear this," Nagisa sighed heavily. "I want to know what your reason is for telling us this, and you will tell us."

"He doesn't know we're ghouls," (Y/n) said quickly, "but now he knows that we've snuck out before and will hire people to make sure we don't get out. We're going to starve, and before us, our mothers. We need help. What do we do?"

Nagisa and Karma looked at each other skeptically. They seemed to have had the same thought, though they looked as if they were debating whether or not it was a good idea to say it out loud. If he was honest, (Y/n) didn't blame them. After all that had happened, plus the bomb he just dropped, he wouldn't trust himself either if he were in their shoes.

"What made you want to tell us?" Nagisa asked.

"You already offered to help us with hunting, so I figured you were our best chance. Itona wouldn't spare us a glance and there's no way in hell I'm asking Monoma or those smelly new guys." (Y/n) was honest, seeing as lying would only make his worse, most likely.

"Better yet, what do we get out of providing more help chief?" Karma questioned, looking at them expectantly. Their coach was glaring at them and the period was almost over. They had to wrap this up quick.

"Permanent allies, in us and any ghouls we befriend here on out. We'll also pay you in fresh food when we get ourselves together enough to hunt for ourselves." Todoroki finally spoke up. "if you ever need assistance from here on out, just call us."

Nagisa and Karma shared a few looks as they thought it over. It was pretty obvious very quickly though that they thought this was a good bargain. Kira Koneko was now forever in debt to Coluber Constrictor and Crimson Raven.

"Deal?" Karma directed more to Nagisa than them.

"Deal." Nagisa smiled softly at them. If they hadn't already seen how mean he really was, they would have thought it was charming.

┈

Nagisa and Karma took (Y/n) and Todoroki to a building surprisingly close to campus as soon as they exited school grounds. The building was tall and plain-looking, nothing special about it in the slightest. The two half ghouls wondered why they had been brought there in the first place. it didn't make much sense, seeing as humans most certainly had to work here. They could smell them.

As they walked inside, Todoroki noticed that everything looked some degree of expensive. Who had this kind of money? Even his father hadn't dreamed of hitting a jackpot like this.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Defense western headquarters," Nagisa said. "whatever you do, don't touch anything and let us do the talking. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Yeah."

They continued to the front desk, only to be stopped and confronted by one of the most visually appealing people (Y/n) had ever seen. She had long, wavy, bouncy blonde hair and big crystal-blue eyes. She was a tall woman with a pretty figure, and part of (Y/n) wondered why she was working at a place like this instead of doing something like modeling or acting. 

When she spoke, her Japanese was perfect, but the slight tint of an accent clarified that she was foreign. It was faint enough that if you couldn't see how European she looked, you wouldn't notice—but it was there.

"What are you brats doing here?" she asked Karma and Nagisa. Despite the harshness, (Y/n) could tell that there was fondness there. "have you finally decided to take us up on the job offer?"

"We need to see Mr. Karasuma," Nagisa said quickly, glaring slightly at the mention of said job. He didn't want (Y/n) and Todoroki asking questions later. "and no, that is not what we are here for."

"You're no fun, Nagisa." she pouted, giving him a quick hug (most like smothering him in her chest) and winking at Karma playfully. "Tadaomi is in his dungeon, Office 2501."

"Thanks." Karma started towards the elevator, gesturing for (Y/n) and Todoroki to follow him.

Once they were in the elevator, Nagisa pressed the button for the top floor and sighed, running his finger through his hair in an attempt to fix it slightly. (Y/n) couldn't believe that they were ignoring the elephant(s) in the room. That lady was pretty much all over him!

"So... who was that?" Todoroki asked carefully.

"Professor Bitch," Karma stated with a grin. It was devilish.

"Irina Jelavic," Nagisa corrected, sighing as he smoothed his clothes.

"She was all over you, Shiota. Isn't that a little... I don't know..." (Y/n) began.

"Relax. That's just how she is, hence her nickname-" Nagisa glared non-threateningly at Karma- "she's getting married next year, anyway. Speaking of which, we're here to see her fiancé."

Nagisa stepped out of the elevator first when the doors opened, following the numbers next to the doors. Last time he'd stopped by, Karasuma was placed on a lower floor. The man had clearly moved up the ranks quite bit since his last visit.

When they got to the office at the end of several hallways, Nagisa knocked. A deep voice told him to enter, then they all heard loud typing on a keyboard.

"Hey," Karma greeted, waving.

"Ah, what brings you two here—with friends nonetheless?" Karasuma asked, barely glancing up from his computer.

"We were wondering if you or Irina could teach them a few things," Nagisa said. "they're in an interesting predicament, and I promise the reward they promised will be worth it in more ways than one."

Karasuma looked up from his work finally, looking (Y/n) and Todoroki up and down. He seemed partially skeptical, but made it clear he was listening now.

"I'm Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Enji's son. This is my cousin, Okina (Y/n), who Enji is also guardian to," Todoroki said. "we-" he looked at Nagisa for reassurance, getting a nod- "we are the ghouls Kira Koneko."

"Interesting," Karasuma stated. "carry on."

"My uncle led the investigation on Yamaguchi Tadashi before it was called off and Yamaguchi died and vanished. He is a higher-up with the CCG, and he is human, as is my own father. Our mothers are both ghouls, which he isn't aware of." (Y/n) took a deep breath before continuing. "He is also unaware that we are ghouls, which has been easier to hide because my other cousins did not pick up on the ghoul gene. That said, we were almost caught, and now we won't be able to sneak out to hunt. We and our mothers will starve."

"How exactly would you like me to assist you in this?" Karasuma questioned expectantly.

"Please teach us a quicker, safer, more secretive way to hunt, sir." Todoroki bowed slightly, (Y/n) doing the same seconds later. "we will be in your debt."

"Here." Karasuma handed (Y/n) a business card before shooing them all out of the room. "call later tonight."

(Y/n) had a good feeling about this. Something told him that being in debt to these particular ghouls wouldn't be all that bad.  

┈

"Shouto, (Y/n), where have you been? You curfew was ten minutes ago." Enji sounded angry. Both teens kept themselves from flinching.

"We were working on a project for biology," Todoroki lied smoothly. "we're sorry, we didn't realize how late it had gotten."

It really wasn't all that late, only a couple minutes passed four-forty. Despite that, though, Todoroki knew that he would still have to make it sound the way his father saw it, or else the punishment would be worse.

He frowned as he watched (Y/n)start to put his stuff away and head to the training room. It made him sick, to think that (Y/n), who wasn't even this man's son was going to have to deal with his anger. Every time this happened, Todoroki hated himself for not finding a way to get at least (Y/n) out of the vigorous training. 

Despite his thoughts, he kept his mouth shut and followed (Y/n)'s lead. Maybe if they were extra cooperative, the pain load would be less. Todoroki sighed. It was going to be a long night.

┈

(2301 Words)