An unexplacted addition to follow 'The Day of Projectile Chair'. You don't have read that one, to understand this, but it'd make me happy if you did.

Summary: Hitoshi should have considered that when it comes to him and his two idiot friends, even a grocery store run was bound to go wrong.

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Hitoshi should have considered that when it comes to him and his two idiot friends, even a grocery store run was bound to go wrong.

It's around 11pm, on a Saturday, and it's just him, Izuku and Mei in the corner store near his house. They're here to restock on snacks to continue movie night, because snacks are the only good thing about movie night between Izuku's habit of loudly voicing his disappointment with the unrealistic plot and detective work (That's not how the police work!), and Mei's compulsive need to jump around during actions scenes because adrenaline.

The cashier looks one blink away from completely slumping over where she stands leaning behind the register, and Hitoshi feels sorry for even stepping into the store the moment her tired gaze passes right over him and morphs into a equally tired sigh that seems to beg for the sweet release of death. None the less, snacks, so the best Hitoshi can do for the poor girl is pick his snacks up and get out of here quickly.

And then, because when he's with these two it feels like his bad luck triples somehow, a store robber walks into the store. It's not immediately obvious, because Hitoshi is more busy contemplating between two bags of crisps even when he knows he's just going to end up buying both, and the seedy looking guy just sort of... roams around a bit. Later, thinking over the incident with a slightly clearer mind, Hitoshi will realize that the guy was probably making sure that the place was reasonably scarce of people that could call the police, before heading over to the cash register and pulling a gun out from the pockets of his hoodie. He holds it up at the cashier, who jerks awake with eyes widening in horror, and the guy jerks his head towards the cash register with a sneer on his mouth.

"If you wanna live after this darlin' you're gonna give me all the money you have in that register." Then, turning his head slightly but never completely taking his eyes off the cashier he shouts, "I want all of y'all to come to the front of the store, before I shoot this girl's fucking brains out!"

Mei's got a dangerous look in her eye, standing near the magazine rack near the front of the store as she slowly rolls up the magazine she has in her hands. The robber's mostly got a clear sight of her, but he still jerks his gun impatiently to have her standing closer to the cash register. Hitoshi very slowly puts the packet of Crips back and walks over to where the robber can see him, hands half lifted in the air the way people reflexively do when a gun is pointed at their way. The robber eyes him as he comes to stand to Mei's right and huffs, "Good. Nice and peaceful, and no one gets hurt. I don't see you getting my money girl."

The cashier is shaking when she finally reaches for the cash register and at this point Hitoshi realizes, the robber doesn't know that there is a fifth person in this store. His eyes try to track his best friend down and find him warily peeking out from behind some of the shelves, and Hitoshi belatedly remebers he does somewhat vaguely recall Izuku saying something about having to go to the bathroom. His eyes skip back to the robber, who's sneering at the steady trail of tears under the cashier's eyes as she follows his instructions. Sure, that the robber's attention is pointedly away from him, he turns back to Izuku and subtly gestures towards the door before shaking a fist with his thumb and pinkie sticking out in a call gesture while mouthing, 'Call the police'.

Thank god, Izuku understands, because he nods his head with a determined look on his face, and starts inching towards the front doors.

"The fuck're you looking at kid?"

Hitoshi's attention snaps back to the robber just as the guy goes to peer over his shoulder, and he ends up saying the first thing that comes to his mind, "You know your hoodie's really stupid, right?" His quirk is ready behind a question that just needs to be answered (Albeit a stupid question. His hoodie, really?) for this all to come to a clean close. Not so clean when they get to the police station though, where he'll probably get a hell of a scolding for using his quirk at all, but that's for a time when a gun isn't pointed at him, so Hitoshi chooses the lesser of the two evils like not getting shot.

The robber raises an eyebrow at him but isn't fooled, knowing what a diversion probably looks like, but by the point he gets a proper look behind himself Izuku has already managed to slip back behind the shelves he was using as cover. Seeing nothing there, the robber turns back to Hitoshi and scoffs, "Wouldn't be robbing a grocery store if I could buy a proper hoodie, kiddo."

And that's it. A response, all that Hitoshi needs, to slip control over the guy's mind like wrapping a bento box in plastic to keep it from spilling. Except then, it's not that easy, because it's like his mental fingers slip right off the guy's mind, and Hitoshi is left grasping at air.

It takes everything in Hitoshi not to give a reaction, and he prays the guy can't feel his slip up like Hitoshi can when someone manages to evade him in the form of that mental but all too real feeling of feeling something slip from his grasp. But the guy just smiles humorlessly, "Tried something there, didn't you? Won't work near me kid, got my handy dandy quirk that puts out nifty quirks like yours like pouring sand on fire."

Hitoshi grimaces but becomes even more wary of looking in Izuku's direction. If he wants his friend to get out of here before this robber notices, he can't make any more slip ups like that again, especially if he can't use his quirk against this guy's quirk. So, it's with a casual air of defiance, a, 'fuck you, you don't scare me' that Hitoshi leans back against the counter behind him and asks the robber, "So. Why a grocery store?"

Mei takes this as her chance to jump in, probably knowing what Hitoshi's attempting if she's been paying attention. The cashier seems to be keeping quiet hiccuping sobs to herself as she empties out the cash register into a small duffle bag the guy had handed over to her, and Hitoshi really wishes they could comfort the poor girl somehow right about now. No one deserves to be put on the spot at the other end of a gun like that, and Hitoshi can only hope they can handle this carefully before anyone gets shot or worse.

Mei twists the magazine into a tighter roll in her hands, probably wishing she would whack someone's head with it right about now, "Yeah, what gives? I know a guy with a gun could do way better, like a jewelry store or something."

The robber laughs bitterly, but takes the bait, "You think this shit's easy kid? I'd like to see you try and not get caught robbing a jewelry store. I've got a kid I need to get back to at the end of the day."

Mei raises an eyebrow, "You have a kid?"

The robber sneers, "Sure fucking do. So, I suggest you keep your mouth shut, missy, 'cause you don't know half of what you're sprouting right now."

"Mmmm, yeah, I dunno-" Mei takes the conversation completely into her hands, and Hitoshi risks a quick glance at Izuku to see if he's managed to get out yet. It confuses him, therefore, when he finds Izuku just standing there, still behind the shelf, but eyes fixed firmly somewhere to Hitoshi's right. When Hitoshi follows Izuku's gaze, his eyes come to land on a small rack boasting hero merchandise. He doesn't understand first, why Izuku's still staring at the rack like he's found the meaning of life on it, but then his eyes catch onto a particular row of packets near the top. Specifically, small packaged All Might figurines, kinda poor quality and having that sort of melty look to them, but Hitoshi has seen these ones before. He remembers these to be the ones Izuku's trying to complete a set of, with five different figurines available, but lacking only one.

And, even with how absurd the thought is because they are in the middle of a fucking robbery, Hitoshi realizes what Izuku is looking for.

The last figurine.

During a robbery.

His eyes snap back to Izuku just in time for his green haired friend to look at him in turn, and there's a single silent moment where Hitoshi can see the stubbornness flare in his friend's eyes. He makes a harsh slicing gesture with his hands, still keeping them low so the robber doesn't see, but Izuku's gaze only flicks between the figurines, then him. He does it again, a bit more aggressively this time because his friend is being ridiculous right now, this guy has a gun, but Izuku only inches out from behind the shelf and starts towards them, in the opposite direction of the door. He probably thinks he can snag one of those packets with the robber standing just somewhat in front of the rack and faced the other way, but Hitoshi believes this is all stupid none the less. He's aggressively mouthing at him to, 'go back, turn around you fucking idiot' when the game is finally given up with a loud, "Who the fuck are you?!"

The robber has turned his back completely to Hitoshi, Mei and the cashier, who watches this whole scene with wide terrified eyes and tears dried on her cheeks, but Hitoshi slaps a hand lightly against his forehead as Izuku freezes halfway between the shelves and the robber. The robber who waves the gun wildly around in the air, and Hitoshi realizes that the guy's been downright pleasant until now that he's been startled.

"Uh-"

"Where the fuck did you come from kid, were you hiding in the fucking store?" The man twists to look at the little group of three by the cash register, eyes wild and aggressive, "You think I'm a fucking idiot, huh? Think I won't shoot a bunch of kids to get away?"

"Sir, please-"

"No!" The man bellows, turning to look at Izuku once more, and Hitoshi realizes this is seriously getting out of hand now as the robber's voice rises just that bit higher into hysterical, "I can't get arrested! I've got a fucking kid to take care of, and I'm not about to take your fucking shit!"

The man points his gun, and shoots.

Immediately, all five of them fall to the floor, the cashier going to duck behind the counter with a loud sob-scream. Hitoshi's ears are ringing, and he still can't use his quirk on his guy because of the robber's own fucking quirk. Maybe the guy was bluffing about shooting them, maybe not, but this particular shot has gone wide and missed Izuku by several feet. Hitoshi notes this as he scrambles to his feet and tries to inch-shuffle-hurry towards the door. It's his best chance, with the guy's back still turned to him as he screams at Izuku. But Izuku, crouched on the floor with his hands still clasped over his head, sees him making towards the exit and says, "Hitoshi, be careful!"

Hitoshi has only a second to feel absolutely betrayed, because he could have gotten away, but guess they're all going to die now, huh? before he spots the floor wet sign from the corner of his eye and trips.

Hands waving wildly, Hitoshi tries to grab onto the nearest thing to him, which happens to be the rack of All Might merch, but the thing's not sturdy enough to take his weight and keep standing, so it gets knocked aside as he falls on his ass. The rack teeters, and then falls right on the robber, who goes down under it lack a sack of bricks.

Thank God, his hand wasn't anywhere near the trigger, when the gun slips from his hand and slides across the tiled floor all of a few meters away. The man groans, loud and disoriented, and Hitoshi can relate, because what the fuck just happened? Did he really take out a guy with a gun by slipping on the wet floor?

Mei's not caught up in any of their musing though, and cleanly leaps over the fallen rack before dropping down onto her haunches and stabbing the guy with the business end of her taser. She watches in glee as it delivers who knows how many volts worth of shock into him, only whispering a delighted, "Get tazed, bitch." And only withdrawing after the guy is most certainly unconscious.

There a moment of stillness, where they're all holding their breaths, before Izuku whispers, "The police are probably going to be here soon." And of course, just as he says this, Hitoshi hears the distant sound of sirens.

It's enough for him to completely fall back and lay flat on the tiled floor of the store, uncaring of how dirty it is. "What the fuck."

"Oh yeah, you can say that again!"

Hitoshi groans lowly, "Mei, don't sound so upbeat after we almost just died."

"But we didn't! We didn't die, and I got to test my baby in a real-life robbery!"

"Um-" Hitoshi's vision is suddenly filled with a concerned Izuku hovering over him, "You okay Toshi?"

But Hitoshi only eyes the smooth way that Izuku slips a packet of plastic into his pocket and narrows his eyes, "You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"

Izuku laughs nervously, "Hah, maybe. I knew we'd be okay since I'd already called the police."

"A fucking gun Izuku. The police getting here would not save any of us from a bullet wound."

Izuku's face smooths over then, in that one moment, "He wouldn't though. Shoot us. He's got a kid at home."

And Hitoshi, he feels so tired, "Could've been a lie."

Izuku only shakes his head.

Hitoshi lets his eyes slip close, in that moment, because he can hear Mei gentling herself to calm down the cashier as the poor girl finally releases all that stress in the form of a fresh wave of tears. There's the distant sounds of the police cars getting closer, and the warmth of Izuku's palm that fits snugly into his. And Hitoshi wants to be mad at him, probably will be when all of this finally gets a chance to catch with him, but right now all he can think of is how it's so much work to hold a grudge, so why bother? The adrenaline is wearing off, he's still curious as to just how this guy's quirk works exactly and just how it countered his own, but those questions can be asked later. Hopefully his Ma won't be too mad at picking them up from the police station (she might be once she hears just how things went down), and then he can go home with his two best friends and sleep.

But most of all, he hopes the guy's kid makes it out okay.

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I had loads of fun writing this honestly, and I hope it just as enjoyable to read!

Your Captain, Lynda