they're just children bruh

RESTING HIS HEAD against the plush white seat, Kaius stared out the window. The sky was clear, and the clouds looked like cotton balls. His hands itched from where they sat on his lap. He wanted to touch it. To feel the air blowing against his skin. To run his fingertips along the surface of a cloud. But he couldn't. He'd been taught better. So instead, he ran his fingers over the fabric lining of his hoodie. It felt like silk beneath his touch.

"Sir," A voice said from behind him. Kaius tilted his head up, spotting one of his parents' most trusted security guards. Raphaël Barre. Kaius had known him for most of his life. He was a loyal soldier; he'd been the one to help raise him when the rest of his family was busy doing their own noble shit. He was still young by some standards, only thirty years or so. Yet, he always seemed to be in good health and in tip-top shape. Not a single wrinkle on his face. Kaius thought god was playing obvious favourites because it was unfair.

"What is it?" Kaius asked.

"Madam is on the phone."

The urge to groan rose up within him, and he had half a mind to ignore the call but—

"She says that if you do not answer, your allowance will be revoked."

He sighed. Leave it to his mother to threaten him with no money (not like she ever would; she was too much of a mother hen to even consider her children living on the street and struggling to survive). Still, the mental image did not help whatsoever. "Put her through."

Kaius reached over to the telephone beside him, lifting it up and raising it to his ear.

"My dear," his mother's croon came through, her French accent slipping through the word. He could hear her footsteps as she walked wherever, most probably around their house.

His grip on the phone tightened, and a scowl formed on his face.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"Now, now. That's no way to speak to me. I was just checking up on you."

Even the sound of her voice was grating on Kaius's ears. It was nothing like how she had sounded when he was young, still in diapers and holding her hand. There had been love in that smile whenever she watched his father tell him a story or play a game with him. Even when he'd tried to escape her grasp, she had held onto him tight, laughing softly. Now things were different. He was not in diapers. His father was gone. And his mother no longer had that loving look on her face.

"You wouldn't do it through Raphaël if that were the case," Kaius retorted. He tilted his head, rolling his neck to ease out the persistent tension. "Are you going to lecture me some more? I've already had enough."

"You think ill of me, son."

"Was that not your intention?"

Silence.

Kaius scoffed, and he heard his mother sigh into the speaker. She dropped whatever act she was trying to put on, and from the sounds of shuffles he could hear, Kaius knew she was shaking her head. He could almost see her exasperated face. It filled him with glee—knowing that she was growing tired of his antics. Good. He planned on keeping that up.

"The principal of your new school will pick you up at the airport," his mother informed sternly. "Do not do anything to disturb him."

"You think ill of me, mother," he mocked.

"Kaius." If he were a few years younger, his mother's warning tone would have been enough to shut him up and put him in his place. But he wasn't. He was eighteen. "I'm being serious. Principal Nezu graciously accepted you into UA even though it's the middle of the year for Japan. Behave. If I hear one word that you have done—"

Kaius shut the phone.

"Sir," he heard Raphaël almost cry.

"Leave it, Raphaël."

Raphaël warned, "She will be mad."

"Let her, then." Kaius crossed his arms over his chest, returning his attention to the clouds. "That's the only thing she's good at."

"Your mother is a professional hero who—"

"Not all heroes are good," Kaius sharply interrupted. His stare was cold and wise all the same as he looked at Raphaël. He couldn't help but see the resemblance between him and his mother. It wasn't a look a boy should carry. "Just like how not all villains are bad. You saw what happened here, in the very country I am being shipped off to."

"They were forgiven."

"Because they were hurt first." Kaius looked at his nails. "At least I'll know that if I kill a bunch of innocent people, I'll be forgiven. Poor boy was abused by his parents."

Raphaël frowned. "You were not abused."

"Abuse doesn't have to be physical, Raphaël." He glanced at the gold band circling his finger, flicking his gaze up to the older man. "You should do well to remember that. You're having kids soon. Don't be like my mother."

"She means well."

Now, that pissed Kaius off greatly. His face hardened, and veins of anger travelled up his body. He glared at him. "Don't try that with me. You and I both know she only thinks of herself. She treats me as if I'm– I'm some lapdog. If she meant well, as you said, then I wouldn't be here right now. None of this would have happened in the first place."

Raphaël narrowed his eyes. "Your mother did not critically injure a civilian. You did."

Kaius smiled. It was a small and simple smile, one that looked harmless to the eyes of strangers. But Raphaël knew better.

"I did do that, didn't I?" Kaius hummed, leaning back into his seat. His eyes drifted off, recalling the memory of his incident.

"He was a child."

Kaius snorted. "Hardly. We were the same age."

"You are still a child."

"I'm eighteen, Raphaël. Do you know what that means now?" He smirked. Malice laid underneath his facade, peering at Raphaël like the stark glint of destruction. "It means the whole world is mine for the taking."

Knowing he had no chance of swaying the boy, Raphaël left. He made his way back to his seat, falling back onto it and maintaining his form. A wave of grief overcame him. It wasn't the grief that came with the dead. That would be something else entirely, a feeling so deep, a pain so profound he wouldn't be able to describe it if you asked him how he'd feel about it. That was a thing that people felt when they lost loved ones, but what he felt right now was different. This was a sort of numbness Raphaël had felt once before.

Society is cruel to children, he thought as he watched Kaius look out the window. Raphaël knew if the boy wished it, he could leave and fly away and leave this world. But he was shackled to the ground, his wings long torn.

Society...and ignorant mothers.

────『✙』────

"Sir, we have landed," the pilot announced, entering the cabin and looking directly at Kaius. He nodded, holding his phone tightly in his hands and standing up. The light was still on, albeit dimmer, and the image on his phone blurred as he moved. Kaius rounded his chair, walking down the private jet.

"Do not do anything reckless," Raphael warned, grabbing his bags.

"I'd never dream of it," he grinned.

Kaius stepped outside, taking note of the modern airport. There were reporters all around him, cameras flashing all over once they took sight of him. Kaius sighed. This was no doubt his mother's doing, an extra precaution to make sure he was in the limelight and staying in check. He ducked his head and walked down the flight of stairs.

His left arm moved, his palm moving to cover the screen of his phone. Power thrummed under his veins, and he shut his eyes as he willed his quirk to life. One deep breath in.

A monster appeared from seemingly nowhere. It was jagged, with sharp shark-like teeth and a tail that resembled that of an eel's. The mass had no time to observe its appearance— if they did, they would have realised that it looked a lot like a drawing a child drew in their elementary class.

Screams rippled through the air as the monster stormed through the air. People were alarmed and shouting for help; men in suits ran to help, and Kaius stifled his laughter.

It was a disaster.

Kaius loved it.

He skipped down the steps, a wicked grin on his lips. He caught sight of a white rat sending out orders and chuckled to himself. He pulled up the hood of his jacket and blended into the stumbling crowd. His hand reached out for a person's hat, slipping it off his sprinting form and placing it on his head to hide himself.

"Sir! Sir! Where are you?!"

Raphael's voice was heard, and Kaius
smirked. He glanced over his shoulder,
strands of blond hair framing his face, and watched as the guards his mother sent with him searched the area for any signs of him.

Only Raphaël knew what had caused the monster, and the look on his face was one of aged exasperation. It said everything.

They yelled his name, but he disappeared into the airport building, pulling the hat down to cover his face as he walked by the cameras.

A whisper in a foreign tongue left Kaius' cunning lips, "Hello, Japan."