There had been other clues throughout the years that Yamada Hizashi's home life wasn't quite as average as the average UA student's.
...
"Happy Birthday, Kayama!" Hizashi trilled as he snuck up behind their friend as they walked onto campus that day. He dropped her present in her hands before she could jump in surprise, and then stood vibrating in excitement beside her as she opened it with some bemusement on her face while Shouta rolled his eyes and continued walking.
Kayama tore the wrapping paper off and found that it was a mirror. An ornately engraved, silver framed, hand held mirror.
"Oh my." Kayama muttered, too stunned to crack a sex joke for once, as she held it up to catch her reflection. "It's beautiful." She said.
Her reflection sneered at her. "I wish I could say the same, darling." Kayama made a full body twitch and stared as the mirror spoke to her in a french accent. "Please tell me that's a uniform you're wearing, because if you put that thing on of your own volition, we're going to be having some words."
Kayama screamed and chucked the mirror off into the nearby grass. Hizashi burst out gawfing. Shouta whirled around to look back at the two with some alarm and confusion, as did several passing strangers.
"What the hell was that?!" Shouta heard Kayama screech, as he slowly started to make his way back to his friends. "Did anybody else see that?! Was I just hallucinating?! Hizashi you ass! Stop laughing!" Kayama was gripping the hair on the sides of her head and switching her disbelieving stare between the mirror, which was laying facedown on the ground and making muffled sounds of offence, and Hizashi, who was gripping his sides and dying of laughter.
Shouta squinted at Hizashi suspiciously as he sidled passed to go pick up the mirror from the grass. The black haired future erasure hero held the mirror up with a grimace and eyed his reflection suspiciously. His reflection eyed him right back. "Oh honey..." It said mockingly, still in that female, french accent. "I know life on the streets can be hard, but you have friends who care about you, and you can't be too proud to ask for help. I'm sure Hizashi would be willing to invite you over for dinner and borrow a shower while you're there every once in a while. Have you tried talking to one of your teachers about your situation? I know it may not look like it, but sometimes there are one or two of them who would care."
There was a beat of near silence, interrupted only by Hizashi desperately holding his hand over his mouth to stifle the snorts of laughter, while Shouta stared at his reflection blankly. "Hizashi." He said monotonously. "Did this mirror just tell me I look like a homeless person?"
Hizashi lost it. Kayama stared at the mirror, open mouthed. The mirror could faintly be heard saying, "Are you not a homeless person?" in a dangerously calm tone of voice.
Shouta started walking back to the others, tuning out the mirror's commentary in favor of glaring at it with his quirk active, eyes glowing red and hair whipping around dangerously as he stalked back to the sidewalk. The mirror appeared to have changed topics in the time sense Shouta had actually been listening to it.
"-with hair that long you want to make long, even strokes, staring from the roots and following through all the way to the tips; you want to distribute the oil in your hair evenly throughout..." Shouta's reflection had pulled an old fashioned wooden comb out of...somewhere, and was using it to demonstrate proper hair care technique. Hizashi and Kayama glued themselves to either side of him as he walked up and peered over his shoulder to watch with some interest as Shouta's reflection smiled and tilted it's head and made carefully poised gestures possessing of a graceful, demure nature the real Shouta had never and would never replicate. "-not need to worry about that pink eye you have, I can give you the recipe of a potion that will take care of that right quick, and until then I can show you the wand motions for a good color changing charm that's safe to use on eyes-"
"Huh." Kayama eventually said, squinting at the changes to Shouta's reflection from over his shoulder. "You know what Sho? You actually clean up kind of nice. I'm starting to see why Hizashi digs you."
Shouta only scowled at her and shrugged her off from hanging on him while Hizashi laughed.
...
Kayama, of course, and later Shirakumo as well, both ended up loving the "AI assistant". Only after Kayama eventually came to terms with it's unapologetic rudeness, of course. ("She called me a witch, Hizashi! A witch! She's the one always going on about the use of flubber worms in beauty products!") While Shirakumo also of course loved the mirror because of it's rudeness. The "AI's" strange, witch theamed "programing" was chalked up to a joke, a jab at Kayma's personality, perhaps; though somehow no one ever got around to asking Hizashi to confirm that theory, and Hizashi himself never dissuaded the assumption, only hiding his grin behind his hand when the topic came up.
There were other things besides the mirror too, over the years. The bright yellow, venetian blind lined goggles Hizashi got Shouta for his own birthday, which although ugly as sin, also allowed him to see in the dark, which the ever logical Shouta had to admit would be useful for an underground hero who depended heavily on his eyes. There was also the big, clunky, three hundred year old polaroid camera Hizashi brought out for special occasions, which could nevertheless print gifs of photos on the spot. And one must not forget the ugly, stout little wooden antique radio Hizashi always brought with him on the week long summer training camps, which he claimed could pick up radio stations from other dimensions, much to the derision of their classmates and the mild skepticism of their friends.
(When Shouta asked, Hizashi said that his father claimed that, "It just works better that way.", when asked why all of these things looked to be at least three hundred years old, at a minimum.)
Shouta eventually came to suspect that Hizashi's dad was not, in fact, a support tech god as the rest of their friends speculated, but rather that his quirk allowed him to-for lack of a better way of putting it-give quirks to inanimate objects. Or as Hizashi put it if he slipped in conversation, to "enchant" objects.
...
It was the first day of their third and final year at UA, and four friends lay in the grass of a distant training field, enjoying some cloud watching after a long and otherwise productive first day of the year.
Kayama was stretched out on her stomach a little away from the group, legs idly kicking behinds her while she focused more on her phone than on the game. Hizashi was laying on his back next to Shouta, waving his arms and pointing and exclaiming loudly after all the shapes he claimed to able to see in the clouds. Shirakumo, on Hizashi's other side, was cheating blatantly while he snickered at Shouta's boyfriend's antics. Shouta hadn't been aware you could cheat at cloud watching, until he had met Shirakumo. Shouta himself was dozing lightly with his eyes closed, listening to his friends bickering contentedly.
Talk eventually turned to their plans to open a hero agency after graduation, and Shouta's mind perked up a bit to listen.
"There's just one problem with that idea..." Kayama sighed, resting her cheek on her palm.
"Where are we going to get the start up money for our own hero practice?" Shirokumo sighed.
"Nonsense! That's the easiest part!" Hizashi shot up in a sitting position with a smile. "I'll just ask my dad for the money!"
The others slowly turned to look at him. It was Shouta who broke the silence.
"Zashi...does your dad have that kind of money?" He asked slowly, brows furrowed.
"Of course!" Hizashi blinked down at him. "Have I really never mentioned that my dad is...kind of rich?"
"No." Shouta muttered dully from the background, while Shirakumo's jaw dropped.
Kayama narrowed her eyes at him. "Like...how rich are we talking here, Hizashi? Because there's rich, and then there's rich rich, and you need to be rich rich to singlehandedly fund the start up of a new hero agency."
"Are you sure you're not...underestimating how much this would cost?" Shouta sounded out delicately, head turned to eye Hizashi wearily.
Shirakumo had sat up as well, and was squinting at Hizashi. "Yah, you gotta be over exaggerating, drama queen! There's a reason that not every hero off the street starts their own agency!"
"And the ones that do, have to do have to get pretty popular first, and do some heavy sucking up to their backers, multiple backers, and they have to sell their bodies for money." Kayama said, stretching languidly.
"Image!" Shirakumo squeaked out loudly. "She means they sell their image for money!"
"Luckily, as an underground hero, I won't have to deal with things like that." Shouta mumbled, closing his eyes again and tilting his head back to catching rays from the sun.
Shirakumo snorted. "Yah, but as an underground hero, you're also never gonna make the kind of money you need to open your own agency."
A slow smile spread across Kayama's face. "You know..." she purred, "-depending on how rich Yamada's daddy is, he might not need to make all that much money, as long as they stay together after high school."
Shirakumo gasped dramatically. "Shouta!" He exclaimed. "Was that your secret plan all along? Seduce poor Hizashi into making you his trophy husband?!"
"Wait, Hizashi..." Kayama turned to the now baffled blond, grinning, "Does that make you Shouta's sugar daddy?" Kayama asked, leaning forward invasively to peer intently at the future voice hero's face for any tells.
Shirakumo leaned forward as well, mirroring Kayama. "This is important, Hizashi, we need to know..." His grin widened. "...who always pays on your dates?"
Shouta had finally shot up into a sitting position as well, and was sputtering at them. "We split the bill!" He blurted out, blushing. "He's not my sugar daddy." He tacked on sullenly at the end, lowering his voice with horror as he said the last two words.
Hizashi grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at Shouta. "I would totally be your sugar daddy, baby."
Shouta's entire face turned red, and he ducked down to hide his blush in his capture scarf, which he had taken to wearing everywhere, now that he had his provisional license and enough skill not to immediately embarrass himself with it. Shouta huffed in an attempt to disguise his embarrassment. "I hate all of you." He said in a near monotone.
"Aw!" Hizashi leaned forward and wrapped an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders, pulled Shouta into his side to plant an unabashed kiss on top of his head. "We love you too, Sho!"
And for just a little while longer, on that bright and sunny day, they were happy.
...
But of course, in this world-
All Things Must End.
Even, or even especially, the good things.