chapter twenty-six;

     APPARENTLY EVERYTHING STARTS HURTING a lot more once you're off your adrenaline high. hence, youko was practically experiencing the pain of a broken left arm with little scars here and there that was created when the debris nearly smacked right into her body.

     youko yawned as she had not recognized any part of her surroundings. worried that she had gotten kidnapped for the third time, youko hastily tumbled out of bed as she slammed open the doors and ran out into the halls.

"papa?? PAPA?!?", youko frantically screamed, causing people around her to stare, not that she cared.

youko wildly ran around the halls as she felt her tears streaming down her face once again. the little girl feared that it was all a fever dream, that shigaraki didn't actually save her, and this was just all a sick prank.

"your highness—"

youko immediately froze upon seeing re-destro in a wheelchair. the little princess couldn't even breathe as she was so shocked that she was like a deer in headlights.

     "youko?"

     the little girl spun around so fast, she thought she was going to nearly fall on her bum.

     "papa...I woke up and you were gone", youko sobbed, immediately getting picked up by the blue-haired male.

     "I was just taking care of gigantomachia", shigaraki assured.

     apparently since shigaraki and the rest of the league left to go save youko from re-destro, gigantomachia followed suit.

     the enormous villain arrived in time and even helped the league injure some of the meta liberation army members. he then stopped as he watched shigaraki singlehandedly take down re-destro and nearly destroying an entire city.

     now that, that had impressed him, proving to him that shigaraki tomura was ready to succeed all for one.

     "g-giganto—what?"

     "machia, essentially a giant mountain that can move; the secret power that master left behind for us", shigaraki barely smiled, much to re-destro's surprise.

     "s-so can you read with me now?", youko asked, not particularly understanding the accomplishment of making a "rock" submit.

     "aren't you hungry? everyone's waiting for you at the table", shigaraki stated.

     that had reminded the girl that she hadn't eaten in a while, but also an important question had popped up.

     "where are we?"

     "yotsubashi's mansion", shigaraki answered.

     "who?"

     "it's me, your highness. my name's yotsubashi rikiya; alias re-destro", the orange-haired man chimed in, still making youko flinch at the presence of him.

     "o-oh...w-well how'd y-you get us here?", youko mumbled, avoiding eye contact by fumbling with her little cast on her left arm.

     "I own a company, detnerat, that's dedicated to the production of lifestyle support items, hence money isn't an issue. and since your majesty and your highness currently need a place to reside, I have taken it upon myself to have you both along with the others stay as long as you all desire", re-destro replied with respect.

     youko just nodded as she hid her face in shigaraki's shoulder, clearly still uncomfortable.

"I'll be expecting your arrival at the meeting tomorrow", shigaraki reminded as he swiftly walked past the man with youko in his arms.

"of course, your majesty".

as the grand doors to the dining hall opened, the original league members stopped chatting at the sight of shigaraki carrying youko.

"YOKO!! how is she?! is your arm feeling better? if you ever want, I can always stab that man for you", toga worried, to which shigaraki had promptly commanded the girl to sit back down.

"youko, you're safe now", shigaraki whispered, urging the little princess to speak for herself.

as shigaraki seated at the head of the table with youko on his lap, she turned around with her ruby red eyes skimming around the table.

     "t-thank you all for saving me", youko softly murmured, making arrows shoot through all the villains' hearts, even shigaraki's.

     toga thought she was going to puke out blood from how adorable that was, meanwhile dabi had thought he needed an internal kitty bandaid from the arrow that pierced his cold heart.

     "it's our duty to protect you, your highness. in fact, we apologize for not fulfilling our responsibility of keeping your safe", compress replied, making the atmosphere a bit tense.

     youko perked up at that, suddenly feeling fired up.

     "not true! I-I just need to get stronger...a-and I couldn't be happier that you all showed up...for me", youko mumbled, smiling as she bashfully looked down, feeling mildly embarrassed.

     "YOKO, I WOULD STAB EVERYONE IN HERE FOR YOU!!", toga exclaimed, hugging the little girl which meant hugging shigaraki in the process.

     "you're worth it. no you're not!!", twice contradicted as he joined in on the hug, with compress and spinner, then dabi begrudgingly doing the same.

     shigaraki allowed it for a bit before grumpily shooing everyone back to their seats, having to have had enough human contact from the league members for the entire year.

"what would you like to eat first?", shigaraki asked, presenting mountains of western foods since he knew youko liked them.

honestly, little youko was so hungry that she could probably eat all the dishes along with the table itself.

     "umm...can I have the pizza?", youko asked, to which the entire tray was placed in front of her, curtsy to twice.

youko smiled at twice, who gave her a small thumbs up. as youko took the first bite from a slice of meat pizza, the girl marveled at how delicious it was.

she had momentarily forgotten how good food tasted. now smiling widely, youko started scarfing down the pizza, already on her second slice.

the league continued with their own meals as they pitied the princess for not having a proper meal while they were gone.

"slow down, you're going to choke", shigaraki warned, patting the little girl's chest to soothe her brisk eating.

"I'm...fine", youko answered, as her cheeks were stuffed with so much food that she had looked like a chipmunk to shigaraki.

"and why aren't you eating, papa?", youko asked, swallowing her bite as shigaraki wiped the girl's mouth that was stained with tomato sauce.

     "I...I'm not that hungry", shigaraki lied.

     truth be told, the man was so caught up on watching youko happily eat, that he had forgotten about himself for a moment.

"say ahhhh~"

"...a-ahh..."

toga then aggressively snatched her phone out of her pocket and sneakily took a picture of the sight in front of her: youko feeding shigaraki a spoonful of pudding.

"this is for sure going into my album...", toga creepily giggled to herself, making dabi a bit concerned at what the wacko girl was up to now.

"is it good?? do you want to try the blueberry cake instead?", youko questioned.

"I'll...I'll try the cake", shigaraki whispered, to which youko excitedly scooped a bit from the cake in front of her.

"what do you think?", youko anticipated.

"I like it more than the pudding", shigaraki honestly answered.

"okay", youko smiled, keeping that in mind.

"what do you like?", shigaraki asked.

"you, papa!!"

"no, I meant—okay".

shigaraki gave a small smile as he patted youko's back while she hugged him.

"ugh, disgusting", dabi commented, making youko glance up.

the little princess blew dabi a kiss, to which he had just turned away, making toga gasp.

"YOU DID NOT JUST NOT RETURN HER KISSES!!"

"I just did...and I'd do it again", dabi grinned.

"haha, I want some too....NO I DON'T!! GROSS!", twice fake gagged, to which youko just giggled as she sent kisses to each of the league members.

"okay okay, no more kisses. you need to get back to bed to rest", shigaraki interrupted as he steadily stood up with youko waving goodbye to the rest of the league.

     "does this mean papa will read to me now?", youko excitedly asked, to which shigaraki had replied with a mumble, making youko question what the man had said.

     "what was that?"

     "I-I said...I said I want...a kiss too...", shigaraki embarrassingly grumbled, facepalming himself as he felt even more pathetic.

     youko laughed as she held onto her stomach, feeling herself nearly about to burst.

     the little girl then leaned in as she placed a kitten-like kiss on her father's cheek, something shigaraki had very much missed.

     "well?"

     "well what?", shigaraki asked.

     "do I get one too?", youko playfully grinned.

     shigaraki clicked his tongue, giving a quick peck to the top of the little girl's forehead, only to hear a click of a sound, making both royals alert.

     seeing no one, shigaraki hastily left while toga and twice sighed a breath of relief.

     "that was risky", twice whispered.

     "at least my flash wasn't on", toga replied, muffling her giggle as she had caught such a precious moment.

✦ . . . . ────────☀️