A/N: Kenta-nii is best boi and that's just facts. Also, a little bit of skipping around in time for this chapter. Nanako visits her mom in the USA (after her shrine marathon with Kenta) over winter break- she comes back not long after. The shopping trip with Inko is during April or so, four-ish months later.

Nanako turned in place, constricted by a fuzzy All Might Blanket and groaned as she kicked herself free. Cold air rushed across her open skin and her body wracked with shivers. It was too cold, and yet everything was too hot at the same time. It didn't make any sense.

She turned again and flipped her body pillow. The "cool" side was warm, but it wasn't as hot or as damp as the part that had been sticking to her back. She nuzzled her chin into it and let her eyes slip close.

"Nii-chan..."

-0-

Kenta was the fourth of six kids in his family, and the youngest boy. Or well, he was until his parents decided to have a seventh kid and it turned out that one was going to be a boy. So he was the youngest boy, but only for the next couple of months.

A look around his shared bedroom revealed the biggest problem with that, aside from the ever-shrinking supply of parental attention- just where was the baby going to fit? They were already two to a room and out of rooms. Would they have to move? Where would they go? They were already living on the outskirts of Tokyo as it was. The only place with more room would have to be in the sticks and he didn't want to become a farmer even if it meant getting his own room.

The doorbell rang and there was a cascade of feet thumping down the stairs. His sister, Hinata, yelled "I got it!" and threw open the door with an equally loud "Hi Aunt Akemi! Hi baby cousin!"

Was Hina eleven or three?

Aunt Akemi's voice was too quiet for him to pick up, but her tone came through clear enough. She had direct voice like his mom, and a rhythm to her words like his dad. Given all the black hair, he wasn't sure which side of the family she was from, but an aunt was an aunt.

Shota, his oldest and only brother, shuffled in from the bathroom with a towel around his shoulders. "Go say hi."

"Why don't you go say hi?" He gave his Dokemon a berry and moved around the members of his party.

"I have to get dressed first." He raised a brow. "Now go."

Kenta sighed and saved his game. "Fine." He rolled off the top bunk and landed with a sure-footed thump.

"You're going to break your ankles," Shota commented as he dug through his dresser.

"Okay," he closed the door behind himself and jogged downstairs.

As luck would have it, he was the only kid around so he had the honor of making small talk with his aunt while his mom shuffled the youngest two into the bathroom to rinse off mud and his dad broke up an argument between his twin older sisters, Koharu and Hinata.

Shota eventually drifted in with a toddler that wasn't one of their sisters on his hip. "Hello oba-san."

"Ah, so that's where Nanako ran off to," she exclaimed in a deadpan that was weirdly similar to Sho's. "Thank you for bringing her back."

Sho hummed "Welcome" then deposited Nanako and his GameGuy into his lap with a meaningful look. Kenta huffed and did his best to distract their baby cousin while his brother led their aunt to the kitchen for drinks and a snack.

Eventually Shota would swap places with their mom, then their dad, but Kenta was too busy playing Dokemon to notice. He didn't notice when Nanako fell asleep on him either, or the gleam in his aunt's green eyes when she came to collect her things so they could go home.

-0-

Nanako was six years old, and incredibly independent. A little too independent, if you asked Kenta, who had one day decided to take a shower without also shoving Nana in the bath and caught her trying to cook ramen by herself. On the stove.

Thirteen was too young to have a heart attack.

She sobbed her little heart out to convince him not to tell her mom, and of course he caved- though not without first making her agree to sit outside the bathroom with his old GameGuy when he showered.

She agreed easily, ever the people pleaser, and kept crawling over him when he sat down to do his homework. He ended up giving that up in return for helping her finish hers, which wasn't much. She was a smart kid, even if she was lazy about filling up her hiragana sheet properly, and then they started prepping for dinner.

When Aunt Akemi came home after dinner, Nana tried to crawl all over her too but Akemi-oba was tired from work and turned in early after a short shower. That left him to wrangle her into pajamas for the night and tuck her into bed then finish off his homework.

The next day was a Saturday, which meant optional morning classes for him and extra-curriculars for Nana. Oba-san would probably head into work to finish up paperwork, though Kenta wished she would stay and get started on the laundry so he wouldn't have to.

Nana woke him up in the usual manner by crawling over him and taking the GameGuy from his bed's bookshelf. She played Dokemon on the quietest possible volume until he clawed himself out of being a human pillow and shuffled her off to the bathroom to get ready so he could do the same.

His aunt was already sitting at the table, dressed, with a cup of tea and a tablet in hand. She grumbled at something on the screen then picked up a stylus and wrote a quick note.

"Good morning, Aunt Akemi," he greeted.

She hummed back in response, eyes still trained to the screen and flicking side to side. Nothing out of the ordinary.

He pulled down two boxes of cereal and sliced up a pair of bananas. Nanako skipped into the kitchen and her face lit up when she realized that her mom was still home.

"Mama! Good morning mama!" she jumped onto the seat beside Akemi. "Mama, later, after all my classes, do you wanna-"

"Do you want to," his aunt corrected coolly and lowered her tablet. "Do I want to what, Nanako?"

Kenta bit his tongue and poured the milk into the bowls.

"Uhm," he could hear from her voice how her eyes drifted up to the ceiling in thought. "I forgotted."

"Forgot."

"Yeah, that." Her socked feet swung and connected with the table leg rhythmically.

"Nanako, stop kicking the table." His aunt lifted her cup of tea.

He set down the food then sat across from his younger cousin.

"Itadakimasu," they chorused and dug in. When Nana was down to sliced banana, his aunt spoke up.

"If you remember what you wanted to do, have your cousin text me," she stood from the table. "I'll try to make time after work. Alright, musume?"

Nana popped a banana in her mouth and nodded. "Yes mama."

"I'll be going now then." She dumped the rest of her tea down the drain. "Thank you for getting her ready, Kenta. Please remember to braid her hair and lock up before you leave."

"Yes, Aunt Akemi." He said and the front door clicked shut.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

-0-

Nanako was a good kid.

"Get out, I HATE YOU!" She sobbed and wrapped the blankets tighter around herself.

… Kenta just needed to remind himself of that. More so in moments like these.

"Nana, please, your fever is too high," he backed up but stayed in her line of sight. She stubbornly turned her red face away. "You need to take your medicine."

"My mom can give me medicine," she glared at him. "She's a doctor, unlike you!"

Nanako was a good kid, she was just under a lot of stress and also sick.

"Aunt Akemi is in the middle of a surgery," he reminded her. "She left me in charge of making sure you take your medicine."

"I want my mom." She turned her entire body around and pressed her head to the wall. She shivered.

"Nanako, please," he was quickly reaching the end of his rope after forty minutes of this. "Please just take your medicine. Your fever is too high."

She was crying against the wall, repeating "I want my mom" between heaving breaths. When he last checked, her fever had risen to 102 and her sudden fit was sure to have increased that number to ER-worthy levels, if not just shy of it.

"Nana-"

"GO AWAY!" She slapped the bottle of medicine out of his hands. His skin burned from the sharp contact and her sweaty, feverish palms.

Kenta was seventeen, in his last year of high school, and he'd already used up any goodwill his teachers may have had by taking a week off to get his pneumonia treated. He had more schoolwork overdue than he knew what to do with, slowly but surely dying friendships, a boyfriend that was probably on the verge of dumping him because they couldn't go on more than one date a month because he had to watch Nana all the time and-

He was tired. Overwhelmed. Nanako catching sick and Aunt Akemi pulling overtime rather than taking care of any home matters had stretched him to breaking.

"I can't do this," he fisted his hair, eyes open but unseeing. "Oh gods, I can't do this."

Kenta broke into high, keening sobs. Nana's health, his health, his college plans... everything was going to shit and he couldn't do anything about it. When was the last time he'd even talked to his mom? His dad and siblings? Hell, Shota had basically been kicked out of the family for some reason and he hadn't even known until his aunt corrected the christmas card he was making in his first year of high school!

He wasn't wanted by his family, wasn't wanted by the cousin he was basically half-raising, wasn't wanted by his friends or boyfriend...

He took the worn corner of the mint green blanket that was offered to wipe his eyes and sniffed (pathetically, because he was pathetic).

"You're not pathetic, Kenta-nii," a soft voice rasped. "I'm sorry."

A burning, damp hand pressed to his shoulder. He leaned into the touch, then leaned back as an incandescent ten year old settled in his lap for a mutual cry and comfort session.

Sometime later, he wouldn't put money on any specific number minutes or hours, Nanako agreed to take her medicine and take a lukewarm shower under supervision. When she didn't crack her head open under the spray, Kenta excused himself so she could wash up.

He stripped the sweat soaked sheets off her bed and remade it in time for Nana to stumble into it. She was glassy eyed and red cheeked, but she reached out and squeezed his fingers.

"Sorry. Don't go away. Thank you. Love you, Kenta-nii. Lots."

He set a hologram of the night sky above her head and pet her hair until her eyes slipped closed.

Nanako was a good kid.

-0-

Nanako thought she was a good kid. She didn't get into fights (aside from that incident with Reina, may that bitch rot from the marrow out), she didn't drink or smoke, she never partied or got detention, never dated... her grades were good. She did community service. Babysat kids- practically adopted three of them! She sorted her recycling properly and didn't litter. By all accounts she was an angel of a daughter.

"-es going?" Her mother asked and set a generous serving of salad onto Nanako's plate. It had no croutons or dressing, just lettuce, carrot, and cabbage.

"Fine." Was there cucumber in the fridge? Ranch? She'd checked and rechecked the kitchen eight times today, but maybe some food would magically appear.

"And your community service?" She opened the box of bread sticks and set it between them. "You tutor, correct?"

"That's fine too." She would do horrible things for some of Inko-ba's katsudon right now.

"Are you in any clubs?"

"No." She had been in the gardening club, which only met once a week and informally met as often as the members needed to keep their personal plots up, but with uni entrance exams on the horizon she'd dropped out.

"What about dating?" Mother picked up her fork with a raised brow. Cool, sage green eyes scanned her face. "Kenta mentioned that you were friendly with that neighbor boy, Izuku Midoriya."

A hot creeping sickness settled in her gut. "Mother, I- He's four years younger than I am. No. Absolutely not."

Izuku didn't just call her "nee-chan," he called her his nee-chan. He didn't say "my mom," he said "Mom," implying that he thought of his mom as their mom. Hell, even with proof of her birth certificate, Katsuki still held onto the belief that they were related and just trying to pull the world's longest-running prank on him! The only reason they weren't both Midoriyas was a fluke of blood and chance.

Her quirk layered itself over her heart, calming the screaming fit she was building up to.

"Are you sure?" She frowned and Nanako hated that their faces were so similar.

"Yes, I'm sure."

She hummed and they ate the slowly cooling pasta in silence. When their plates were mostly clear, Akemi cleared her throat.

"I would hope that you would feel comfortable coming to me if you had any questions about dating." She said honestly, and the sick feeling crept back in. "Now, that out of the way- what are your plans after high school? I spoke to my former advisor and my alma mater would be willing to offer you a reduced tuition as a legacy student."

"A legacy at your alma mater?" She repeated, napkin crushed into her fist beneath the table. Fuck being calm. "Mother, what legacy? What have you given me that was only meant for me? What bond do we even have?"

"Nanako, what-"

"No." The chair scraped across the ceramic floor. "You moved Kenta in when I was six to take care of me, and before that I was in daycare all day! You left to be a surgeon in America when there were plenty of hospitals in Japan, much less Musutafu, that would have hired you in a heartbeat. What bond? What legacy? Inko from next door has given me more of a legacy than you've ever attempted to, and she didn't even mean to!"

"Where is this coming from?" She placed a hand on her hip.

"Where is this coming from, this sudden caring about my school and my plans for college? This is only the second time I've ever visited you out here. You didn't even call when Kenta told you my teacher had been trying to groom me!"

Tendrils of hair tried to tear out of the braid she'd bound it in. Calm wasn't suffocating her anger, wasn't keeping her frustration from bleeding out- if anything, it was sharpening the world to a laser focus. She could see the micro-expressions flit across her mother's face, unfamiliar save for a few. They formed a strange picture; fitting given that she was a stranger.

Nanako's mother was a stranger.

"I was working," Akemi stressed as though that was some shocking revelation, as if she wasn't always working and always using her work as an excuse to avoid things. "Besides, I knew your cousin had things under control. There was no need for me to do anything more."

What? Under control? She skipped half a week of school. She had a panic attack in the grocery store when someone reached over her head to grab a box of pancake mix. She hadn't worn her hair down out of the house in years.

But as long as she wasn't bothering her mother with emails, texts, and video calls like she used to when the woman first moved then she supposed everything was under control.

"I see." Quirk-born peace shattered in her; the edges slid behind her nails, between her joints. "I'm going to bed."

(If she could somehow see outside herself, she would see the way her hair billowed like ink in water and the unhappy purse of Akemi's mouth. She would see Akemi shake her head and clean up. She would see that her mother's eyes never turned towards the door, never filled with concern over resolving their argument, never fired up in determination to convince Nanako that she truly cared for her.

Because she didn't care. And if she loved Nanako, it wasn't in any way she understood.)

-0-

Nanako trudged up the stairs to her apartment, bag heavy with make-up work and a fistful of spam mail in hand. Before she could do more than grab her keys, the Midoriya's door swung open and Izuku ushered her inside. Inko-ba set a cup of tea in front of her and pressed the back of her hand to Nana's forehead.

"You're still a little warm," she said. "It wasn't too confusing to be back in school today, was it?"

"It was fine, auntie; thank you." She ducked her head and wrapped her hands around the mug. It smelled like cinnamon and cloves with a hint of nutmeg.

Izuku, who was rapidly gaining on her in height though had yet to surpass her, slid a plate of bunny apples in front of her. "Do you feel better?"

She ruffled his hair and he nearly melted. After getting back from America, she'd gotten sick and hadn't seen his cute little face in nearly two weeks. "Better now, thanks."

They settled in for a subdued afternoon until Nanako excused herself to take a nap. When she awoke, dinner was ready.

"I hope you don't mind katsudon," ba-chan transferred a stack of cups to the table.

"It's fine," she scooted away from Izuku's manic side to side rocking.

It was more than fine, really. It was perfect.

A/N: Hope you lovely readers enjoyed! See you next time.