Exposure || G & Susumu

The day had been long and quiet, and utterly boring for Susumu.  As it was the weekend she had come all the way out to G's little apartment in Musutafu to spend time there, as their arrangement had been before all hell broke loose.  When Kasey's little demon, Setsuna, had attacked her, Susumu's first idea to get Gil on her side was to offer to move in permanently.  It still stood as an offer.  However, moving took time that she didn't have at the moment...not with all the fun and games happening over at the hero school this week.  So she had decided to instead come by this weekend and they could properly discuss their future living conditions.

...well, that had been the plan, before G started messaging Big Sister.

It had surprised her.  No, rather, it worried her.  Big Sister had said quite clearly that she was done messing with G's life when they had met in person not too long after the incident with Kasey and Setsuna.  So why had he contacted her again?  And all of his questions had been about Kasey and Setsuna, too.  At the time her blood had run cold.  It had to have been the threats she'd sent to Kasey over the chat.  Kasey, the little wretch, must have shown him clips of it.  She must have.  That was why he was baiting her for information.  A catch.  A mistake.  A failure.

Still, Susumu had not done the first thing that popped into her mind, which had been to message G as herself rather than her alter-ego and try to distract him from the filth Kasey had filled his head with.  But she had done that the last time he and Big Sister had a confrontation.  It would be too suspicious, too contrived, if she messaged him right then.

She had let her anger get control of her, and cornered herself.

That's what happens when you let your head get clouded by these stupid feelings, Susumu.  You forget to be careful.  You forget to think before you leap.  Just like at the festival, you put too much on the line.

You're going to suffer for it.

But now she was here at his apartment, leaning against the counter in the kitchen as she boiled water for coffee, despite the late hour.  Gil hadn't come home all day and she theorized he would be exhausted, but unable to sleep, when he did so.  The nice girlfriend thing to do was to have a coffee ready for him and a warm smile.  Yes.  The "nice girlfriend" thing to do was to be unaware of what was happening with him and Big Sister.  He hadn't told Susumu any of that.  If he had been told by Kasey who she was--or worse, that he believed it--then she would play dumb.  Play loving.  Play kind and loyal and true.

Until he stopped playing along.

Knowing G, though, it wouldn't take very long for that to happen.

In the meanwhile, she was sending messages to her newest plaything.

[Unknown Number:] You never learned not to feed the trolls, did you, Kurama Rin-chan? I'm gloating, not threatening. I've already got what I want. Now I'm just enjoying the show~
  Seriously...what kind of a man takes advantage of a drugged girl like that?

[Rin]: So the one you want me to back off from is not yours?... The one you want me to back off from, was the one that drugged my water? -- advantage of?


[Rin]: What do you mean?

Susumu held in a cruel laugh as the messages came in.  She'd begun picking on Kurama Rin after watching Nick steal a kiss from her in the chaos of drugs that invaded U.A.  That, combined with seeing her in Gil's photographs as a maid from a cafe he'd visited...made her the perfect target to vent her frustrations on.  She had to be careful not to leak too much information to her, though, lest Nick be outed.  As nice as it would be to watch the prick squirm in his boots, he was their insider.

[Unknown Number:] To be entirely fair to him, maybe he thought he could help you like the other girl did. Sharing fluids, and all. LOL.

[Rin]: Why would he do such a thing to me?... Who would do such things to me?! ... I...

[Unknown Number:] Tell you what. I'm enjoying myself too much to not give you something in return. Here. I'll give you a single hint:


[Unknown Number:] It's another student.

Then she heard the door open.  Susumu's eyes went up to it and widened at the sight of G.  It was like a light went off behind them, a fire burning in her chest.  Her G, her love.  He looked...deeply upset.  She opened her mouth to say something--"Gil-kun, you're home so late!  Hang on, I've made coffee for you...do you need anything else?"--but before she could say the first word, he turned to his bedroom and slammed the door shut on her voice.  She stood there, utterly stunned.

He knows.

Susumu's fingers twitched as her phone buzzed with new messages, but she ignored it for now.  Just for now.  She waited for enough time to pass.  He didn't come out.  She couldn't hear anything in the other room.  What was he doing?  She could peer in and look from his laptop camera, if she really wanted to, but if he came out right at the moment she was spying on him then it would go poorly.  Instead she picked the phone back up.  Kurama Rin was panicking, questioning which one of her fellow hero wanna-be's could have drugged and assaulted her.  The enjoyment in her pain was muted now.  There were more important matters to attend to than one stupid, danger-attracting child like her.

[Rin]: I can't believe it... There's someone in class who'd...

[Unknown Number:] Well I must be off. /MY/ special someone who I love, who loves me, is back. You have fun with your sweetheart.

[Unknown Number is No Longer Available]  

With that she turned the phone off and put it in the pocket of her jeans.  She tried to play it cool.  Get mugs for the coffee.  Heap loads of sugar into her own.  Make sure the necklace he had given her was on display, clearly visible around her throat...it might not do much to help, but hey.

He knows.  He knows, and he's going to kill me.  He knows and he's going to kill me.  I ruined everything.  I should have kept my fucking mouth shut.  Kasey will need to die.  But before that, G's going to...

Susumu's lips pulled into a bright, cheerful smile as she heard the bedroom door unlock behind her, and she turned to look at it.  The knit of her eyebrows hinted at concern for him, but it didn't damper her smile.  "Gil-kun!'  She called, and walked over to the door with both mugs, "...hey, love.  You don't look so good.  Againi.  Ah...hah.  I made some coffee, if you...I mean, you haven't been sleeping again, and I..."

As long as he loves me, it's okay.  Show him how much you love him.  If he can see that then he won't do anything rash.  Play dumb.  Play sweet.  Play the loving, loyal girlfriend.  Put all of this onto him.

"...is something wrong, Gil-kun?"
.

"A walk?  But...you just got home.  And it's really chilly out tonight."

Susumu pursed her painted lips together in a small pout.  Why did he want to leave so quickly?  Was he trying to get her outside in a secluded place to kill her?  Not unlikely.  This was G.  He must have known the best places to hide a corpse...but if she managed to stall him, maybe she could convince him to sleep with her again.  Just put it off.  Put it off until she could think of a way to make him doubt Kasey, and trust her, and love her rather than hurt her.  She held out the coffee mug that wasn't eighty percent sugar for him to take.  Just stall.  Stall and think.

"If you don't mind waiting for me to drink my coffee, then...I guess a walk wouldn't be too bad.  Can we sit and talk in the meanwhile?"  Her pout turned into a small smile.  "You've been so distant lately...and I know I have been, too, but...I've been really busy.  But we're both here now so it's okay, right?  I just want to cuddle you for a little while.  I miss you."
.

A master manipulator Gil was not.  Susumu didn't buy for a moment that he wanted her close to him, not at all, otherwise he would have approached her the moment he got home.  What was wrong with him?  No, no, she knew what was wrong.  His head had been filled with doubt and now he was sure the only way to be rid of Big Sister was getting rid of her.  Oh, how she wished she'd come up with a way to get around this.  Maybe...ask Luzia to wear the helmet, and attack her on film?  Something to throw him off her scent.  But Kasey had evidence on her side, evidence that Susumu had given to her in a blind fury, and now she was suffering for her mistakes.

So this was how it was going to happen.

Putting on her warmest smile that she could manage--it helped that she felt her insides twisting up like a fist had punched through her stomach to give them a firm handshake--she went over to the couch, right next to Miku's picture, and curled up with her mug of coffee flavored sugar with her knees up.  She stared through him.  "I guess.  But just wait a little bit, okay?  I...was actually hoping you would come home soon.  There's something I want to talk to you about, and it's kind of...really important."

Her mind began racing after her words.  What to use as a distraction.  The move?  The move would work.  But he would brush her aside if he was just going to kill her.  What about getting married?  She could distract him with that.  Distract him with asking when he was going to propose, if he wanted children, what they would do for a wedding.  That was so romantic and spontaneous that maybe it could work.  But...

...it might also just remind him of her lies.  Her backstabbing.  And then he might get into his head that he didn't need to wait to get her outside.

Susumu closed her eyes and drank a little of her sugar.  Hmmm.  There was something that didn't quite line up, though, with how he was behaving.  When Gil had believed her to be Big Sister before, his response had been furious and sudden, hands wrapping around her throat and then kicking her in the ribs, threatening to kill her then and there.  He was acting almost too calm.  But...he had to know who she was, and he had to be trying to get rid of her.  What was he thinking?

"So, um...before we get to the serious stuff," she mumbled, "...what have you been up to?  I haven't gotten any messages in a couple days."

Oh, just shut up, you liar.

A spike of irritation cut through Susumu's calm exterior.  If Gil was being sincere, which she knew he wasn't, about this place being filled with bad memories, then maybe he should remember who caused those bad memories in the first place.  Susumu had been nothing but kind and loving and loyal.  All she had ever done was tell him one lie, and tell it over and over again.  Compared to his mountains of lies and Kasey's hidden demons, she was a saint.  At least, that was how she saw this.

Speaking of which.

The more G went on and on talking about the different women he'd run into while on vigilante duty, and slowly but surely, her mask began to crack.  Eyes narrowed and lips thinning from their happy little smile to a visible frown.  She curled up more into herself and set the coffee on a coaster on the side table.  He even mentioned Kasey and her new house.  Alright.  If he wanted to do this tonight, she was going to do that tonight.  That which had been building up in her chest all this time.

"...you sure surround yourself with a lot of women for a man with a girl at home, waiting for him.  You don't think all of that might make me feel a little shitty?  Like...you don't message me for days, because you're spending all that time with other girls, having emotional discussions with them, or visiting cutsie cafes with them, or even going to their home without...I don't know, telling me?"  Her voice was surprisingly lacking the anger that might have been expected of a person in her position.  It wasn't because she wasn't angry, but because her anger was a sharp knife rather than brute force.  Cutting, rather than harsh.  "Especially visiting Kasey...I know she's family to you.  I do!  But after what happened last time, with Setsuna attacking me for...nothing...I can't shake the feeling that she's going to take you away from me."

"You're the only one I really, truly love, Gil-kun.  And I'm not...I'm not really feeling those feelings returned to me right now.  It feels like you're closing yourself off to me.  And I really don't know why..."

Are those your real thoughts, Susumu?

For once, she wasn't entirely sure they weren't.

Susumu coldly turned her head away from G as he started defending himself.  Pssh, like he would admit that he was enjoying having all those so-called "young girls" fawning over him.  Kurama Rin was only two years younger than Susumu was, and she was positive Kasey was the same age as her.  If he was going to preach that he was "just friends" with all of them then maybe she should pull up the video of him on the beach.  He assumed she was Big Sister anyway.  Maybe that would make him realize what he had been doing to her.  The pain he was putting her through.  But instead he kept going...and now it was getting to the meat of the matter.

"If you lay your hands on me, you'll be hurting more than just your girlfriend, mister," she hissed, and out of instinct, reached for his coffee mug that he'd not touched.  It was still full of steaming hot coffee.  At the moment, it was the only weapon she might have against him.  "If you're really trying to change then why are you threatening me?  I've been at your side all this time and you still don't trust me, or something?  Why can't you tell me what's wrong now instead of trying to bait me into..."

She pretended she was affronted.  "Kill me?!  Why the fuck do you think I thought you were going to kill me?!  I love you, G!  I trust you!  I know you can be violent, I know you have poor self-control.  But I know you love me, too, and after last time...you said you wouldn't let that bitch Big Sister manipulate you into hurting me again!  Is that what's going on?!"

It was a leap, but if it worked, maybe she could get him to think this was part of a scheme laid by Big Sister again.  Force the blame on the name, and get him to back off.  If he tried to grab her, though, he was getting a face full of burning hot coffee, and she was going to run.

Run where?  She wasn't sure.  She could lock herself in the bedroom and threaten to call the police.  But that might be what he wanted.  To get the law involved.  Then again, that would get him in trouble, too, and would likely get him arrested.  There's no way he would do that willingly.

...right?

Her hands were still wrapped tight around the hot mug of coffee, her haunches raised, expecting G to lash out to try and grab her like he had that time before.  Susumu still wasn't sure what to do if he did go for her.  But then, to her surprise, he didn't strike at her.  Instead he spoke calmly--for him, anyway--and tried to explain himself one more time.  He seemed to really be trying to keep his head.  Why?  What the hell was he trying to do if he wasn't trying to hurt her?  What was he thinking...?

Susumu drew in a deep breath.

"...fine...fine.  I'll come with you.  Just...let me get my purse from the bedroom," she placed the coffee mug back on the table, and stood up with the help of G's extended hand.  She squeezed it in hers gently.  Then, should he not do anything to stop her, she went into the bedroom to pick up her little handbag from atop the wardrobe.  Inside was her phone, her little USB device for hacking, her wallet...and a canister of gas she had recently gotten from a certain drug-dealing Thunderdick.

She wasn't going to use it on him.

It was useless to use on him.

Not without a gas mask, or some means to protect herself.

And in the open, it would likely just evaporate before it took effect.

...still.  If he was lying, and was going to hurt her...it was something.

With the purse on her shoulder, Susumu came back into the room and went to the door, slipping her sneakers on and smiling wearily at G.  "If I get chilly, though, you better offer me your coat.  Let's go then?"

Outside was just as cold as Susumu has warned G.  Summer was at its peak, but that didn't mean at night the claws of autumn weren't trying to get a hold of everyone.  G's arm around her did keep her warmer than her simple t-shirt and jeans, at least.  But keeping so close to him meant he could grab her at a moment's notice.  He said he wouldn't.  But how could she trust him?  If he knew who she was, then...no, he did know.  She could feel it in his stance, hear it in his voice.  And then quite bluntly she could really, really hear it in his voice.  Because he told her outright.

Susumu missed a step, her pace momentarily speeding up on reflex.

Deny it.  Deny it, deny it.  Say Kasey lied.  Say you're just a pawn.  Amadeus has plenty of programmers.  Use Kasey's logic and hide behind them.  Say you're just the face, that Big Sister is more than you.

LIE.  LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE.

Her shoulders shook, her lips spread into the smile that she'd learned to wear whenever she was upset.  What was the point in lying now?  It would just get him angry.  An angry Gil could kill her, easily, even though he had promised not to hurt her again.  He was disappointed in her?  HAH.  That was rich.  Because he was such a high-standing individual.

Well, if she wasn't going to lie, she may as well...explain.

"So Kasey showed you what I said to her," she started coolly, her arms crossing in front of her chest in a way that let her fingers slip into her purse.  Just in case.  "I already apologized.  Come on.  Look at this from my point of view, why don't you?  You were so frantic about somebody in U.A getting hurt, and up until then, you had never told me about any ties you had with somebody in that place.  I got jealous.  I got angry.  And I took it out on you.  I fucking apologized for it--I even turned down a two million dollar case, from Kasey I might add, to make you happy.  And yeah, I tested you.  It wasn't to make you sad.  It was to see if I was worth more to you than Miku.  Let's be realistic, I have just as many reasons--if not more--to doubt that you were ever real with me.  Why?"

She tried to shrug out of his arm, but not to get too far away.  Just to walk a pace or two ahead of him so he couldn't see her expression.

"Because I saw you with that woman on the beach.  I saw you with every.  Single.  Woman you've spoken to in the last few weeks.  Your phone is hacked.  I didn't even need my Quirk to see it.  Don't you fucking pretend that your first thought on seeing any of those pretty little heroic wanna-be's was 'ooooh, she's attractive, too bad I have a girlfriend'.  Do you know how much that fucking hurts?  How much it drove me insane, after I had been trying to make you happy?  I let you leave the villain chat.  I sacrifice my time, my body, my physical well-being to be around you.  And even now you're doubting that I care...?"

Susumu stopped.  From in front of G, he would see her body trembling, from her shoulders down her arms to her stomach.  Was she crying?

"...you...are so cruel, Gil-kun.  You're so very cruel.  How could you?  After everything I did to make up for my behavior, even though you hurt me?  Even though you made me cry?  Even though I will never get back these feelings I gave you, ever, ever again, you still only see me as a liar.  A villain.  A criminal.  Do you really love me, or am I just convenient to you because I put up with your bullshit?  Because you HAVE me?"

She turned to face him.  And for how cold and detached her voice had been, the expression on her face was anything but.  Her eyes were wide, pupils blown and iris' slivers around them, filled with wild, manic anger while her smile was still splitting her face.  As she turned her hands flew out to her sides as if she was spinning and were held there.

"TELL ME THE TRUTH, GUCCICHI!  I only ever told you ONE lie!  I gave you my heart and my body and everything I have!  AND YOU STEPPED ON ME!!  CRUSHED ME INTO THE SAND UNDER THAT WHORE'S FEET!!  Was I ever really what you wanted, huh?  WAS I?!  WASN'T I ENOUGH FOR YOU?!  I wasn't asking for anything but your love!!  SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH WHO I REALLY AM?!"

It was the last blow to her facade.