Chapter 37 – T.G.I.F

Mika strolled out of the bathroom finally in her Friday evening comfy clothes, with her hair wrapped in a towel. She had got home from U.A and decided that all she wanted to do was rest.

It had not been a taxing week in terms of fitness, with training going as well as it usually did. It was the fact that her lessons had been so heavily focused on the boring subjects that week that her brain felt like it had had all the life sucked out of it. Mathematics had once again made her feel like she was an oblivious idiot, the class had been set two lots of homework study for it and she was getting nowhere any time soon. English was going well, but they had been set an essay by her Brother for which she had dived straight into just to get it done and out the way whilst there was less hero combat training to be getting on with during the week. All in all, her brain was exhausted.

So, she trundled into the kitchen to grab some snacks only to spot Hizashi leaning against the counter with his face in his phone, the biggest goofiest grin spread across his face. He had been doing that a lot recently and Mika was starting to get suspicious.

Go on Mika, see if he falls for it…

"How's your one true love doing?" Mika snorted playfully.

She had been doing a slight investigation on her Brother recently. There had been a few things he had said or done that made her think that maybe he was seeing someone and hiding it from her. Too many times had she come back from dance classes on Sunday evening to see two wine glasses in the sink ready to be washed. Or Hizashi's phone would buzz and he would hold it up and out of her way so she couldn't see. It wasn't like him to hide things from her, so she was a little suspicious.

Every now and again she would try and tease an answer out of him, but he was good with words and always found a way to get out of it.

"Fine… what, wait!" He stammered as his eyes flew wide open towards Mika.

"WOAH… so you do have a special someone then!" Mika choked as she froze, her hand flew up to point at him. Hizashi swallowed as if he was the child that had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been. "WHO IS IT?!"

"No… I just misheard you, there is no special someone!" Hizashi tried, but his voice wavered slightly more than usual.

"Liar… I will find out!" Mika threatened.

"I changed the passcode on my phone, you don't know it now!"

"Oh, so it's not 3102 anymore?"

"WHAT… I changed it! How did you know the new one?" He screeched as he yanked his phone back out his pocket and swiped away at it to change the passcode once more.

"Don't change it too often or you will forget it, Onii-chan!" She laughed at him, the notion knocking the towel from its perch on her head. "Look, joking aside… I won't look, but if there is a special someone, I am excited to meet them when you are ready."

"Thanks Mika-chan." He smiled, his cheeks going all rosy. "What's the plan for this evening then?"

"Are you in?"

"Yep, swapped my shift at the radio station with someone else so we could spend more time together… I miss my favourite listener!"

"Really?"

"Of course."

Mika all but leapt the distance between them and let her big brother pull her in for a warm hug. She had been so tired but focused on schoolwork since the sports festival that she had missed out on spending time with him, and it hadn't been till she had walked into the kitchen just then and spotted him that she realised she missed him.

"Well in that case, Pizza, chocolate, cake and foam bananas?" She cheered, doing a little happy dance.

"Sounds like a plan, let's go to the corner shop to get the pizza and sweets… they might have those spicy crisps you like again." Hizashi smiled down at his little sister and sighed happily pocketing his phone and patting down his trousers.

Both of them separated and headed to change, Mika threw on her skinny black jeans, a black and red stripy long sleeve shirt with an oversized black hoody to go over it. She scraped her hair into a now half dry bun on top of her head and shuffled over to the front door to stuff her feet in her trusty doc boots. Hizashi appeared right behind her in much the same outfit and together they locked up and trudged down towards the staircase of their apartment complex.

They chatted about absolute nonsense most of the journey there. With Hizashi asking her tonnes of questions about her and her new friends. It was nice for him to listen to her chatting about who she was closest to and who made her laugh the most. He had been worried with some of the things he had heard in the staff room as to whether she would clash with a few of the people in her class, but from the sounds of it he didn't need to worry so much.

"What about Todoroki-san?" Hizashi asked after Mika finished explaining how much she liked hanging out with Kaminari and Kirishima.

"We don't get on" She deadpanned.

"How come?"

"He just comes across like he thinks he is better than the rest of us and its insulting" She rolled her eyes. The image of Endeavour flashed behind her eyes and she sighed, kicking at a stone as they rounded the corner towards the store. "Although, with a dad like his it's no wonder he is the way he is."

"Endeavour is an interesting person… and that's about all I can say on that without saying words that you are too young to hear" Hizashi huffed.

"He is a dick, is what you mean…" Mika mumbled to herself, but Hizashi heard it and nudged her with a faux disapproving look.

Mika smirked at him as she grabbed the door and opened it for him. Following him through she noticed that the store was basically empty, save for another person further up one of the aisles with their hood up as they looked through the magazines. Mika paid no mind and followed her Brother through to the bits that they needed.

"Ne, Onii-san you have walked straight passed the chocolate, don't you want any?"

"Ohh, pick some up!"

"On it!"

Together they joked around with each other as they filled their arms with snacks. Way past the few things they had originally gone out for. They laughed their way to the till, where the person in the hoody was just moving off with their small bag of cigarettes and magazines. Mika couldn't help but have her eyes stick to the back of their hood as they left the store.

"Hey, Mika-chan pay attention" Hizashi called out.

Mika huffed and turned back to help Hizashi plop all the snacks down onto the counter so that the cashier could scan them all. She thanked the cashier with a small bow, as did Hizashi, before they took a bag each and raced each other home.

"Mika!"

Mika stirred from where she had fallen asleep on the sofa, her Brother kicking at her from where he was splayed out the other end. It took her a few moments to realise, in her fizzy drink, pizza and chocolate comatose like state that her phone was ringing in the other room before she pulled herself up from the cosy blanket and sofa.

"Sorry… I'll be right back" She sighed. As she left, she caught the TV and launched herself back across the room for the remote. She paused the film and held the remote up into the air.

"HEY!" Hizashi gasped.

"You were watching without me… why didn't you wake me back up?" She whined making her way out the room with the remote towards the sound of her phone.

"BUT MIKA-CHAN!" He whined more dramatically.

"Hey this is the price you have to pay, KARMA!" She shouted back as she finally made it to her room. She threw herself across her bed and scooped up her phone from the charging pad. Without looking to see who it was, because she had kept them waiting long enough already, she answered and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" She called.

"Mikaaaaaaaa-channnnnnn!" Came a rather excited squeal. Mika winced and held the phone away from her ear till the shrill sound ceased. Although it was out of the blue, and it was the first time that she was calling, she knew exactly who it was.

"Mina?" Mika guessed with an amused snort.

"Hey girl, have you not saved my number yet… of course it's me!" Mina grumbled and Mika could literally hear the pout.

"Oh, don't worry I do, but I had let the phone ring out for too long so I just put it straight to my ear… how are you doing Mina-chan?" She rushed, worried that she had upset her.

"Ahhh bless you… so cute!" Mina gushed. "Anyway, I am amazing, how are you?"

"Not too bad, although I was just napping so sorry if I sound weird."

"Napping?" Mina cooed. "That is even more adorable".

"Thanks?" Mika chuckled, the heat spreading across her cheeks intensifying.

"You are the most welcome. I was ringing because I have this MASSIVE favour to ask of you!"

"Oh, right?" Mika asked as she sat herself down properly on her bed, her legs crossing and her back leaning up against the headboard of her bed.

"Well, I need a new outfit because I just had a clear out of my clothes and now, I feel like I have nothing left!"

Mika couldn't help but let her eyes widen and her face split into a smile at the realisation that Mina might be about to ask her to go shopping with her. This would be the first time ever that she had been invited to do that with a girl her age. She had been shopping with her Brother dozens of times, and even on her own seen as there was a local shopping centre only within 20-minute walk away. Yet going with a friend was something that she had not done yet.

"Are you free at all this weekend?" Mina asked and Mika felt her cheeks start to hurt with the size of her grin.

"Yeah… I mean, I have my dance class on Sunday after lunch but that is all I had planned!"

"AMAZING!" Mina shouted down the phone making Mika flinch. "Want to go shopping with me tomorrow?"

"Oh, sure!"

"So, you know there is that new shopping centre that's just gone up near U.A?" Mina then urged.

"The one with the huge cinema complex in it?" Mika asked, picturing the massive new snazzy building a few blocks further into town.

"Yeah yeah, shall we meet there tomorrow at 12:30?" She urged.

"Sounds perfect to me, are we having lunch out together?" Mika asked, realising that she might as well angle for more of a day out now that she was going to be shopping with a friend.

"A DATE… you're too cute Mika-chan… yes, lets grab lunch too!"

"A date?" Mika coughed before laughing.

"I'm kidding… unless you aren't kidding?" Mina's voice sounded like she was teasing out an irresistible secret.

"Well, I mean you are stunning but woah… lets be friends first!" Mika snorted, her humour leaking through her anxious excitement.

"Ohhhh… I'm going to make you fall for me so hard Mika-chan!" Mina sang down the phone in a sickly-sweet voice.

"Looking forward to it!"

That was pretty much how the rest of their conversation left off. Them chatting about school and about their friends, pretend flirting with each other just to see which one of them would bow out first. Mika didn't even realise as the anxiety of this new experience seeped out of her body as she chatted away with Mina. Not even noticing when her Brother snuck into the room to steal the remote back so that he could continue watching what she had paused earlier.