Chapter Text
“Twin, look, I found some doll parts!” Izuku gasped to Twin, who was holding a small basket to help him with carrying the smaller things he finds and wants to keep. “Twinnie, soon enough, I can make you some friends! I found that glue near the craft store and a few more rolls of tape, remember? Oh, and some clay! We get more pieces, I can make so many more new friends for us!” He told Twin, placing a doll arm in Twin’s basket, it was a nice, flexible one, too! Which meant he wouldn't have to find something that rolls for the elbow and wrist joints, though he would have to work on the fingers.
“Daddy, what's that boy doing?” He heard a little girl's voice yelling out from the sidewalk as he rummaged through the garbage of a toy shop.
“Don't look, Sweetheart, that's what happens when parents don't look after their kids,” The father of the girl replied. Izuku listened as their footsteps quickened until they disappeared altogether.
“How silly, we're not that odd of a sight, now are we, Twinnie?” He smiled at his doll, who nodded back in agreement under his command. They were actually looking a whole lot better than they used to, at least in some ways. Mainly clothes-wise. Entirely clothes-wise. Izuku was eight now, and he had practiced how to steal from low-security places that wouldn't miss what he took. He stole sewing supplies, and after ages of practicing stitching from what he'd seen online, Izuku was able to repair and even make clothes! He had to draw out patterns and measure himself and Twin when it came to making clothes from scratch, but he was getting the hang of it quickly! Twin was wearing a simple blue dress with a little red cloak like the one Little Red Riding Hood wore in the books. Izuku thought he was very handsome. Izuku was wearing a long black skirt and a dark blue hoodie, along with a pair of shoes that he found hanging from a power line, that he had to sew the toes of before wearing. Sewing pants was harder than sewing skirts, and he had come to find skirts were actually quite comfortable. His father wouldn't have approved. Izuku was also wearing gloves and a mask over his lower face. What he could cover, he should always cover. “Oh my God, Twin look, a body! This is great! What a treasure haul today, huh?”
“Hello?” Izuku spun around to see a deep purple-haired woman at the mouth of the alleyway, holding the hand of a boy with indigo hair. “Hey there, Sweet Pea, you look a bit young to be out here on your own. Are you lost?” Immediately shaking his head, Izuku scooped Twin up into his arms, in a bind on whether or not to run. “Oh, that's a pretty doll, I bet you take good care of her!” Izuku loves his doll; he took care of him as well as he could. “Were you looking through the rubbish just now, Honey? If you come with us, I can buy you something yummy to eat instead?” She thought he was searching for food in a dumpster behind a toy store? You don't look behind a toy store for food, that's so silly! He supposed, technically, he was hungry, and he hadn't decided to eat in the last couple of days. So he seriously did take a moment to consider the offer.
But then he noticed the phone in her free hand and the sound of approaching sirens, the way the indigo-haired kid kept glancing to the left out of his view, the direction that the sirens were coming from, and his eyes widened. Stumbling back, clutching Twin close, internally commanding her to hold onto her basket, he darted into the shadows around the corner, swerving out of view of the public to the sound of the woman calling out.
How could he have forgotten never to trust, no matter how disarming? He put himself and Twin in danger by simply entertaining the thought! How stupid could he be? After 8 years on earth, he should be smarter than this by now!
“Oh, she was such a small thing talking to a little red riding hood doll, and rummaging through the trash! She looked so thin! Her wrists and ankles were twiggy; she must have been so hungry!” Nemuri huffed as she talked to the officer who arrived on scene. She had to have been younger than her eight-year-old son Hitoshi, with how small she was, probably five or six years old, and probably abandoned at that; her heart ached. She should have held off on reporting a possibly homeless child until she got some food in her and a bit of information from the wee thing.
Hitoshi seemed pretty disappointed too, pouting quietly while she explained the situation to a cop who looked like he'd heard the story time and time again. Her son wanted to be a hero one day, so he probably hoped the little girl would be the first person he helped save. Though chances were, the poor thing would've ended right back out on the streets if she was sent into the wrong family in the foster system.
“Uncle Shota!” He turned around to the sound of Hitoshi's voice and gave a small smile as he leaned down to meet his nephew's incoming hug. “Have you ever con-sidered having a little girl?”
“What?” Shota asked, a bit startled by the question as he picked the kid up under the armpits, dangling him like a really long cat. “The heck, kid?”
“You heard him, Shota~” Nemuri teased, a soft laugh escaping her as she closed his apartment door behind herself. “Sorry, sorry, he's just thinking about this sweet baby girl we met today.”
“Yeah! Mama says she's probably homeless because she was going through the rubbish bins in an alleyway, and talking to her doll,” Hitoshi then sighed, wrapping his arms around Shota’s neck, where he let the boy dangle. “But then we scared her away! Mama offered her food, and then the police cars were coming, and she heard them! She ran away… but Mama says, that even if we take her to the police and get her in the um- foster care, she'd possibly end up on the street again anyway! That's just so sad… So would you like a little girl?”
Softening his expression, Shota hugged his nephew. “Maybe one day, Sprout.” He sometimes wondered about having kids. Then he would think back to Izuku Midoriya, the mystery case, and would think that if he could find out what happened to him, then maybe it would be alright for him to give parenting a shot. “I've got a little boy your age I think I have to find first though.”
“Still thinking about the dolly kid, huh, Sho?” Nemuri hummed, walking over to wrap an arm around Shota's shoulders Nemuri had gone through a series of nicknames for Izuku Midoriya, like Marionette, and Puppet Baby, but settled on Dolly Kid because she thought it was cuter. “He's been missing a few years now, and it's been a cold trail… Dolly kid is probably dead by now, you know?”
“I know, but… he was young and never treated right, from the very start. So even if he's gone, he at least deserves to be found. Brought home, so he can be buried, and rest easy.” Shota replied, watching Hitoshi's eyes get all sad.
“You're looking for a dead boy?” Hitoshi asked, squeezing around Shota's neck a little tighter.
“I'm looking for a boy named Izuku, who would be eight years old now if he's alive. No one has seen him in a bit over three years,” Shota booped his nose with his own. “But I hope to be the first. I have to give him back all his dolls after all.”
Izuku was moulding a head for his new doll with clay. It was technically supposed to be heated in the oven, but Izuku instead had a very faulty hair dryer he thought would work just as well. When he could find some paint, Izuku would paint its skin and face, all the details he wanted. None of the limbs were going to match, but he had managed to find two similar-length legs for his doll in the collection he had built up, which was lucky; otherwise, it would limp a lot. “Thank you, Twin.” He murmured when his doll handed him a butter knife to use for fine detailing, as he asked. “You'll have someone to play with soon. Are you excited?” He made his doll nod and smiled in response. “I'm glad, Twinnie, I would never want you to be lonely.” The past few years had been the longest Twin had gone without other doll friends! It just wasn't fair for him to go so long as Izuku's only doll.
Once he was done molding the hollow doll head, he brought the mouth of the hair dryer to the opening Izuku would connect to the neck of his new doll, which he had earlier made with an air-drying clay. After all, his new doll needed a neck, and it needed to be able to move! He'd figured out just how to make sure it would rotate under his command. Flicking the hair dryer on with careful fingers, he watched it begin to spark, flecks of ember flinging themselves into the clay skull. Izuku watched, content to sit there for hours if he had to, before gasping in delight as an idea struck his mind. He turned the hair dryer off, and grabbed the old newspapers he had been using to prevent a mess of glue on the factory floor, and began to tear them into little pieces, which he then stuck inside the doll head. Turning the hair dryer back on, he waited for the sparks to hit the paper, and when they did, watched a small fire begin to glow within his latest creation. The clay would heat set from the inside out; he could already feel a gentle warmth in his palm, coming through the clay. If any part had yet to set on the outside, maybe on the ears or nose, where the layers of clay are thicker, Izuku could just use the hair dryer again to ensure it hardened! Oh, Izuku was delighted!
“Twinnie, Twinnie, your new friend can be assembled sooner than I thought!” He laughed, smiling at his doll, who began tearing up more newspapers for him, for if the fire dimmed too soon.
Flair was the name he decided on for his new doll. He had assembled her; all cracks were filled in with glue that dried clear. He cut into each finger to separate them from each other and put in little clay pieces so the limbs would bend to his will, and he had wiped down her plastic pieces with a wet cloth to rid her of dirt. Her plastic pieces were all different skin tones, and her clay pieces were grey. Flair was incomplete, but so very pretty. He had already begun practicing his control on her, and had come to learn that controlling two dolls at once required a bit more specific instructions, so his dolls knew what they were supposed to do. Sometimes, Twin and Flair accidentally did the same thing, because he forgot to order just one of them, and it was a good laugh they shared, even if his dolls laughed in silence.
Izuku was carrying both Flair and Twin around in a basket he found in the factory’s store, looking around for somewhere he could find a paint set that would give him enough to paint all of Flair so she would no longer look like he mashed six different dolls together. People were giving him looks, even though he was trying to stick out as little as he could, and kept giving Flair looks! It was completely rude of them. She was dressed like a proper lady in a pair of pants and a vest with cat faces on it! Sure, she didn't have a face, or hair, or a solid color of skin, but he knew for a fact that there was someone in Musutafu who had a head like a spray bottle! At least Flair had a human-shaped head!
It had been a week since the last time he left his home when he almost got tricked into getting caught by the police. If he didn't need paint, then he truly wouldn't dare leave his room. He was starting to consider controlling a doll to go out in his place when he needed things, but Izuku was scared to do that; he didn't want to lose his dolls, especially Twin, he lost all his other dolls when he ran away. Izuku also didn't know how he'd do it, because he couldn't see from his dolls' perspectives. The fact that his dolls weren't taller than a tiny toddler would draw unnecessary attention too, so maybe if he had something adult-sized to control, and a camera he could connect to his computer, then he could use that to go out in his stead, but he didn't know where to find any of that.
Something curious caught his eye, and Izuku stopped walking. A taxidermist shop. In the window, Izuku could see animals like foxes and hares, positioned like they might be seen in the wild. Stalking, cowering, squaring up, and peaceful. There were faces of wild animals stuck in sneers, and others with bowed heads. It was all so interesting that he couldn't help himself and entered the store. Shelves and tables littered the place. Izuku could see deer, tigers, rabbits, cats, and lizards, and so many more. They were beautiful, dead, but stuck in a time when they were alive. They were technically objects. Izuku could control objects. “Well, hey there, Little Lady,” Izuku kept being mistaken for a girl, because he wore skirts and covered all identifying features he had. He didn't mind, didn't care, but he noticed. “What brings you here? Ya know it ain't a pet store, right?” The man behind the counter called out to him. Izuku nodded, looking around, wandering around the store while keeping a discreet eye on whether the man reached for a phone. If he did, Izuku was going to book it.
Izuku paused in front of a shelf full of raccoons and possums. They were very cute. Their glass eyes stared blindly forward, just like of a doll's.
The man came out from behind the counter after several minutes of Izuku standing at that shelf, analyzing each one. The man looked down at him and at the displays. “Ah, raccoons, huh? Or is it possums you're looking at? We never get any buyers for these guys. Don't suppose you got any money on ya?” Izuku shook his head. He needed to find a way to make some so that he could stop stealing and maybe afford more dolls. “Alright, Little Lady, tell ya what, you can take one, but one day, when you do have money, you try come back here and buy something. Sound good?” Well, to Izuku, that was a great deal. A free raccoon, and he didn't have to steal it? Score. Izuku nodded his agreement and took a moment to look over the options before picking up a raccoon that was in a crawling position, with a pink leather collar on. He would have to take it off its stand later. “Good choice. See ya round, Little Lady.” He nodded and quickly left with the raccoon in his basket, along with his dolls.
He was going to name her DeeDee.
It had been Izuku's lucky day, because not only had he gotten DeeDee, Izuku had found several bottles of different colored paint in a trash can behind an arts and crafts store, that had been thrown away over an obvious manufacturing error that left the tops unsealed, which Izuku would just tape shut, a paint set including brushes and a paint board that had probably been returned, then thrown away over the paint board being snapped in half, and a whole foam mannequin head that had some dents in the face. Not only all of that! Izuku had found an entire beach full of people's thrown-away things! The very first thing that had caught his eye was an arm for a mannequin, too, so Izuku had gone and dug up an entire plastic mannequin from under old, tossed bikes and snapped wooden shelves.
He caught a lot of attention on his way home, but he circled a few different alleyways until he was sure he wouldn't be followed into his home. He was so excited to have so many new dolls to control! Izuku felt like a puppeteer!