A/N: Hi guys! This story takes place in the field training arc, after the Yuuei Sports Festival! Shouto just finished his epic match with Deku, and is starting his first day as an intern at his dad's hero office. Hope you enjoy the read.
Disclaimer: My Hero Academia isn't mine.
Nichijou
Good things happen if you wait
Taiyaki: A pancake filled with red bean, shaped like a fish (a tai)
Shouto had no interest in girls. To him they were just people, except they paid more attention to their hair, weight, and clothes. Otherwise, they were the same, and so he just treated them the way he treated guys.
So it's not that he particularly wanted to talk to the small, fluffy-haired person beside him. But her uneasy vibes and nervous silence were setting him on edge. Some people sit and radiate peace like a living, breathing Buddha statue. Others, like the girl, sat and twisted their fingers around a steaming mug, swung their legs and worried whether they breathed loudly.
He shut his eyes. Endeavor had told him to wait here until the meeting ended. His dad hadn't explained the presence of this other girl, and so now all he had was basic visual information. As she refused to look up, there wasn't even much of that.
He stood—she froze—and walked to the pantry outside, and made himself a cup of tea. Then he drank it all and made himself another one. Okay, you got this, he told himself.
He sat down opposite her. "Hi," he said, "I'm Shouto."
She glanced up, then raised her head and smiled slightly. "I know. I mean, Endeavor said you were coming." To be more specific, Endeavor had told her 'My son, Shouto, is coming. He's going to be an intern here for a while. Get along.'
She bowed quickly, realizing she had been studying him a little too long. The number two hero's son, but no trace of entitlement or arrogance. Instead, there was something about him that drew her in. "I'm Mayu. Tanaka Mayu."
He thought she wasn't too bad looking, actually. "Great," he said, hoping he didn't sound too sarcastic. He'd recognized that pause, that searching gaze, and for some reason he didn't want to let it slide this time. "I'm Shouto," he said. "If possible, that's how I'd like to be known. Not as—not as Endeavor's son."
She smiled sheepishly. "Got it. If I were you, I guess I would too." She caught herself. "I mean—"
"Yeah. It's okay."
They both reached for their mugs at the same time. She took a sip, he just looked at his reflection in the tea.
He spoke first. "You're pretty straightforward, aren't you?"
She startled. "Yes, I've been told I make blunders a lot," she said with a smile and a tilt of her head, and for a fraction of a second he thought she would cry. He blinked, and saw it was just a normal smile.
"What's wrong with it?" he asked.
"Sorry?"
"As long as you're telling the truth, what's wrong with it? People's feelings are extra."
She stared at him. "You might be right," she said, "but I've never heard anyone say that before."
"I wasn't brought up to be sensitive."
"I was," she muttered under her breath.
He just smiled. It was a wry twist of the lip that could have meant anything.
"Well," she grinned, "I may not have been trained very well."
This didn't seem worthy of a reply, so Shouto let the silence stretch. There had been questions he wanted to ask, but his instincts hadn't allowed him to. Not yet, his inner voice had said, but why not? Why show her a consideration he only reserved for friends? He decided there'd been enough pleasantries, and turned his gaze squarely upon her.
He asked, "Who are you?"
Her eyes tightened, and for the first time he noticed the barest dusting of purple under her eyes. He glanced at her half-filled mug of coffee, and then back up again. Her skin was pale, yes, but it had the translucent quality of exhaustion.
Suddenly, the door slammed open. "Shouto!" Endeavor boomed.
Two heads jerked around, with the slightly anxious looks of people being brought back to earth.
Endeavor frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Shouto shook his head.
Endeavor surveyed them for a moment. "Right. Let's go to the main hall. Follow me, you two."
"Ahh..." Mayu said, holding her coffee.
"A minute," Shouto said. "Cups." He grabbed her cup and she flinched, snatching her hand away. But not before he'd caught a glimpse of her finger, wrapped all around with a flesh-coloured bandage. Mayu turned away, hugging her fist to her chest. Moving to the sink, Shouto soaped the cups, wondering what on earth had happened to her left ring finger.
Endeavor watched his son wash up with startling speed. "Shouto," he said, "have you met Mayu?"
Wiping his hands on the towel, Shouto shrugged. "I only just got to know Tanaka-san."
"Ah, Mayu is fine," she said. "We're the same age."
Endeavor walked out into the corridor without waiting. "The two of you are going to be interns together, so get along."
"What?" Shouto ran to catch up. He turned to his new partner. "You're not from UA."
She shook her head, wavy hair bouncing.
"Ketsubutsu High?"
"No," Mayu replied. "I, uh—"
"She's not from a Hero Academy," Endeavor interrupted.
"What?" Shouto said, his lips barely moving, voice hard. "You're a civilian?"
She glanced sideways. "Why, you don't want to be my friend any more?"
"That's not the issue."
She bit her lip and fiddled with her bandages. He added, "And I didn't say we were friends."
She shot him a sideways glance, hurt and irritated. So he was the son of the world's number two hero, did that give him the right to be mean?
"Endeavor!" A man carrying a stack of papers stopped in the corridor. "How did the meeting go?"
"No change in plans." Endeavor beckoned him to follow.
"Got it." The man swung the two a friendly glance. "This must be your son? And the girl is–"
"Yes, they're our interns starting today." Endeavor flung open a huge mahogany door.
They were greeted by the low background chatter of a television in the middle of the room, four empty desks, and an impressive amount of junk piled round a few of the tables.
"The others are at the city square," said the man, setting his stack of papers down on an already precariously teetering pile. "There was a minor incident, probability 99.98 percent about an hour ago."
The interns exchanged glances, confirming that neither had any clue what he was talking about. The man laughed. "I see probabilities." He ran a hand through his curly short-cropped hair and gave them a wink. "For example, the probability of your dad beating a criminal is usually more than 95 percent." With a quick glance out the window, he added, "And the probability of rain today is... about... 5 percent."
Shouto frowned. "A number pops up in your head?"
"Something like that!" He pushed up his black spectacles. "Right, forgot to introduce myself. You can call me Tenjin."
Endeavor settled into his seat, behind a spotlessly tidy desk. "He's the reason why our hero office solves so many cases. His quirk works even with limited info, which is great since we often go in blind. Anyway, the two of you can follow him for rounds today."
"Rounds?" Mayu asked.
"Just go." Endeavor waved them out. "He'll explain."
Tenjin nodded. "Probability 99?"
"Nothing lower." Endeavor paused, then added just as they left the room, "Shouto?"
"Yes?" Shouto popped his head around the door.
"Try not to let the girl get hurt."
Shouto gave a short nod, and closed the door.
Once they were outside, Mayu asked again, "What are rounds?"
"Ah." Tenjin adjusted his spectacles. "Basically we just walk around and look out for trouble. It's an opportunistic method of catching criminals."
"We're in the food district." Shouto observed.
"Endeavor's only letting you guys go up against villains you have a 99 percent chance or more against." Tenjin stopped at a stall and bought three taiyaki. "That pretty much means petty theft. And thieves go for crowded places, yeah?"
Shouto stared at the man, his eyes like chips of ice. "Petty theft?"
Tenjin raised a brow. "It's just your first day. Relax! Tomorrow if you go with the team, it'll be different. Your dad's just stricter when you're with me because, you see, I can't fight." He handed each of them a taiyaki. "This stall even fills the tail with red bean. It's delicious."
"Mmmm," Mayu bit in happily. "Thank you!"
Shouto glared at his fish shaped pancake. "Is this a preschool outing?" He turned to Mayu. "What is your quirk?"
He gritted his teeth as she turned pointedly away. Her shoulder length hair did a marvelous job of hiding her face.
"How am I supposed to work with you when I don't even know what you can do?" The muscles of his arms tautened with frustration.
"Endeavor asked us to get along, he didn't say we had to work together." She told her half-eaten taiyaki, appetite gone.
Shouto snorted derisively. "You obviously haven't had much experience with teamwork, civilian." He made a sweeping gesture. "The three of us right now are supposed to be a team!"
Tenjin, who had been watching with interest till then, stepped in. "He's not wrong, Mayu," he said gently. "Well, we're supposed to look out for each other and have each other's backs. That's a good enough definition of a team for me." He turned to Shouto. "Things are a little different than in UA, okay? You and your classmates had the same goals. Not every team comes together instantly." He shrugged. "Sometimes good things happen if you wait."
Shouto shook his head. "I don't buy it."
Mayu walked off to throw her half-eaten taiyaki in a bin. Shouto walked to the other side of the street to dump his.
Tenjin raised a brow. Youth, he thought. "Well, you don't have to buy in," he called after Shouto. "Just tolerate the situation." He shook his head. "Kids."
A/N: Thank you for reading!
A bit of housekeeping: the literal meaning of Nichijou is "everyday", but it can also mean "my everyday life", which seemed a perfect fit for the tone of my story. Also, there's a good chance I won't finish this. I hate to be an irresponsible writer, but to be realistic, that's how it is. However, I won't drop the story at a cliffhanger.
Finally, even thought I made Shouto all grumpy here, I really like the guy and hope to show more of his good side soon!
I'll introduce more UA characters later in the story, but I didn't want to make things too messy in the first chapter. Let me know what you think! Reviews are always greatly appreciated.