*A/N: Happy Saturday, everyone! Hemza here with this week's update! This is the first part of a little segment of the story that Darian worked very hard on called Origins of Nothing, so be sure to show some love for her awesome work :) At the time of writing, we're at 3,949 on FanFiction, so most likely part 2 of this will show up at some point this weekend once we hit 4,000! As ever, thank you all so much for being wonderful and for continuing to read and (hopefully) enjoy this little story of ours!*
Long days fed into long nights, and Emiko found herself dozing off into a daydream in the middle of Present Mic's lecture. The sun was filtering through the windows softly, splattering her desk with sunshine. The sight left a warmth in her stomach, a longing for constant, unfettered access to the soft light that streamed through the windows. It was warm on her shoulders as it caressed her through the soft fabric of her uniform shirt. The warmth eased just a hint of the ache in her muscles, and felt herself smile softly. It had been weeks since she and Shoto had begun an intensive training regime - one he'd designed with her in mind. He'd worked alongside his father and had tailor made a program for her, one designed to optimize her quirk and weaponize it.
"Please, Emi?" Shoto begged, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side. His lopsided hair fell into his eyes, hiding the barely concealed glint that lay there. "I really think this could be good for you!"
Emiko rolled her eyes, pulling herself out of his iron grip. They lay curled on the floor of her bedroom, blankets gathered haphazardly around them.
"I don't want to add training to our relationship, Sho. I like things the way they are, and I don't-"
Her boyfriend silenced her with a quick press of his lips to hers, butterflies erupting in her stomach as his ever fresh breath washed over her.
"Nothing will change, Emi. I promise." Shoto laughed, brushing a stray curl away from her eyes. "Just train with me. I won't hold you to any great expectations, and I won't force you to do anything you aren't comfortable with."
He looked at her with such love, his mismatched eyes all but filling with tears as he looked at her. Her heart swelled - seeing him like that, looking up at her through thick lashes with love in his eyes made all of her uncertainty wash away. With him looking at her like that, anything was possible.
She sighed, raking her fingers through his hair. "How do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
He looked at her innocently, as if he had no idea the effect he had on her. As if he couldn't see her pulse hammering in the hollow of her throat, the way her pupils nearly filled the watery expanse of her iris.
"Make all my worries disappear, 'roki." She pressed her lips to his forehead, breathing in his subtle smokey scent.
"Is that your way of saying yes?"
She only hummed in response, tightening her grip on him slightly.
He'd helped her with a new costume, too. That was help she'd been almost unwilling to accept, given the first iterations of his hero costume. She'd teased him incessantly about the ice that had climbed half of his body, mimicking the way he moved through the training areas in a clunky, awkward manner. Ultimately though, she'd given in. He'd taken to sketching almost immediately, a sight that Emiko had never expected to see. Long hours were spent together in his room, legs curled around one another as they talked about their grand plans for the future. He was convinced that with this new regime and enough training, the two of them could open their own agency one day.
"Think about it, Emi!" he grinned, falling into step beside his girlfriend. "We could have our own agency and an apartment overlooking the city. We could fill it with books and tiny little ceramic figures-"
Grinning brightly back at him, she tightened her grip on the loose hem of his cardigan sleeve. "Sho, I know. Opening an agency together is a dream - and one day we'll do it."
He nodded excitedly, leading her through the crowded halls and towards the cafeteria. "Right?" He laughed, wrapping his fingers around hers as they stepped through the door into the large open space. "We could even get a cat!"
Laughing loudly, Emiko waved at a group of her friends. Katsuki and Deku sat beside each other, the pair digging ravenously into their food. She wasn't the only one who'd upped the intensity of her training, and her classmates showed that in spades. Katsuki had put on a ton of muscle, the soft, round curve of his cheeks slowly tightening into a much firmer, more sculpted look. Deku had bulked up too, though his newfound muscle didn't stop him from curling in on himself - his shoulders seemingly being forced towards the floor as if the weight of the world sat heavy on his shoulders.
Katsuki grinned brightly in her direction, waving a hand excitedly in the air. "You coming to sit here, Red?"
Emiko nodded softly, tilting her chin up to Izuku whose dark hair fell in a swoop over his eyes. He worried her, more than many of her classmates. His quirk was destructive to his body and his emotions were all… tangled inside, in a way she hadn't seen before. She tried her best, whenever she was around to try and untangle them, even if only a bit. Tugging at the threads of emotion swirling around him typically left her nauseous and frustrated, though. It felt like each tug she made, he created a new tangle for her to work on.
"Hey, Emi?" Shoto whispered, brushing his lips against her cheek. "What're you eating?"
Emiko flushed, cheeks lighting up like a stoplight at the contact. "As if you don't know, Sho. I eat the same thing literally every day."
Her boyfriend winked, stepping up to the counter and proceeding to order their usual lunch order. Rolling her eyes, she stepped out of line to wait for him. Her fingers twirled around the loose locks of hair framing her face as she stood gazing out at the crowded room. She saw her teachers settling into their own table. Aizawa's hair was pulled back from his face in a loose bun as it was most days, shoulders draped in an unbelievably well tailored suit. He grinned across his table at Midnight and Present Mic from across the table, shoveling rice into his mouth around words.
A hand brushing against her cheek startled out of her staring, and Emiko turned right into her boyfriend's chest.
"Let's go, daydreamer."
Emiko followed along behind Shoto, tucking her arm quickly into his elbow as he led her through the cacophony. She smiled at Ochaco as she stepped to the table, her slim frame barely taking up any space in her seat.
"Hey, 'chaco." She nodded at Izuku, settling into her place beside Katsuki at the table. Shoto sat across from her, sliding the plastic tray towards her. She tucked in quickly, shoveling the rice into her mouth before anyone could attempt to start a conversation.
"Lunchrush makes the best rice-" she spoke around morsels of deliciously sweet food, "I don't know how he does it."
"You've got a little something-" Shoto grinned, reaching across the table slowly to brush stray grains from her cheeks and chin. "Got it."
Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes at the display of affection displayed across from him. Emiko didn't miss the soft grin that crossed his lips. Much as he tried to deny it, he was happy for his friends and their relatively newfound happiness together. All of their classmates were, if she was honest. Kyouka and Momo both teased her endlessly, but there was a sense of comfortable pride that lingered in their interactions. Even Shinsou, her endlessly quiet and soft spoken friend, had made it known that he was supportive of her relationship blossoming right under his nose.
"Emi, if he makes you happy then I'm okay." He'd laughed, patting the top of her head. She'd been worried he'd feel threatened, as if his place in her life was being usurped by Shoto.
Lunch droned on and Emiko found herself laughing loudly with her friends, even earning a few smiles from the ever elusive Izuku - he'd gazed across the table from beneath the swath of dark hair covering his face at Ochaco for most of the meal, though. He'd been attempting to hide his feelings for her for weeks, but seemed to forget that Emiko could read him, and everyone else in her life, like a book. Though she tried desperately not to focus Sentiment on her friends, she typically found it running rampant around them.
Izuku's feelings for Ochaco were clear, just as Kyouka's were for Denki and vice versa. Even Momo, her dear friend who was too easily flustered to look at most boys her age, had feelings for a classmate, her heart rate increasing and a blush dancing across her cheek whenever he crossed in front of her. Which, admittedly, was often. The class rep wasn't exactly sneaky with attempting to express his feelings. In fact, he'd all but shouted it once during a study night at the Yaoyorozu compound, though he'd quickly covered it up.
For whatever reason, Emiko and Shoto had been the first to act on their feelings for one another, despite both of them being relatively quiet, soft spoken teenagers. Their relationship had grown organically, the pair being assigned to work together in class first, then spending time together training. Her feelings for him had grown into admiration and respect, had festered in her stomach for what felt like an eternity, before forming into a form of adoration she hadn't known was possible for someone her age.
The way he described it, though, was that he'd been enamored with her from their very first meeting. He claimed that her hair had reminded him of the fire that ran through his family's blood, and he'd known in his heart that she was the person he'd spent the rest of his life with. His telling of the story had left a blush on her cheeks and a feeling of love in her stomach that she'd never known - even despite his brothers and sister teasing the pair of them.
"Oh, little Sho is in looooove!" they'd cooed, pressing their three heads together in laughter, their unique hair melding together into a cacophony of red and white, blue eyes almost all glistening with tears, something they'd later say was done for 'dramatic effect'.
"Hey you three, don't tease your brother!" Rei had laughed, "Just because none of you can find someone to love you like that."
His siblings had stopped their teasing after that, his brothers fake crying as their mother laughed from the other side of the dinner table. Even his father had laughed slightly, resting his chin on the palm of his hand and staring adoringly at his wife, love evident in his cerulean gaze. Seeing how the number two hero stared at his wife made her heart long for something so wholesome and pure as that. For someone to stare at her from across the dinner table, surrounded by their laughing children and just… love her.
Each time she thought about that declaration her heart swelled. To have someone like Shoto love her so completely and fully made her mind spin - the boy of fire and ice standing beside her left her weak in the knees. Each time he pressed his fingers to the underside of her chin and met her gaze she couldn't help but smile. Every time his lips brushed her cheek or ear or the top of her wild hair, she wanted to cry. Wanted to worship whatever God had brought him to her, for they had presented her with the gift of unconditional love.
That she had been gifted with a love like this - one that was pure and clean and unencumbered by the whims of the world, it was truly something she'd never expected to find so early on in life.
Though she tried, she could never quite find the words to tell him just how much she loved him. She could never make the words come - could never find the courage to tell him that he was as beautiful as the stars twinkling overhead as they sat on her back patio. She could never seem to tell him that there was nothing in the world she wouldn't do for him if he asked - that her heart and soul and mind were his. She wanted to scream it from the rooftops, shout it for the entire world to hear but for now, she was content. Their routine and their love may have been new, and perhaps it wouldn't last… but for now, Emiko chose to live in those blissful moments with him. Chose to wrap her arms around his strong shoulders and brush her long fingers through his messy hair. Allowed herself to love him uninhibited, uninterrupted by the bothers of the world around them. She let herself get lost in his kiss, in the gentle way he held her after bad days. In this sense, Emiko was free. Free to love and laugh and be herself, completely and utterly.
In other ways, though, Emiko felt shackled. Tied down to a life that she wasn't quite sure was meant to be hers. Each time Katsuki smiled her way, each time Deku shuffled quietly out of the classroom ahead of someone else, Emiko felt it. Each time Shoto brought her home and she saw his brothers grinning brightly at her from the dojo in their home, each time Enji stepped through the broad doorway and kissed his wife on the top of her head, she felt it.
Felt a tiny piece of her mind cry out, as if begging her to listen.
"This isn't real!" It cried, "None of this is meant for you!"
She tried to ignore it.
She did, really.
But, some days were easier than others. Some days she could ignore that tiny voice in her head telling her that something was wrong. Pretend it was just imposter syndrome, telling her that the life she was creating was too good for her.
Other days, though. Particularly bad days had Emiko pressing her hands against the sides of her skull, begging the universe to erase the images dancing through her mind. Tried to bury her face in her pillow to stop the memories of a life that wasn't hers - one marred by pain and sadness that danced through her brain.
On those days, those gruesome, horrid days, Emiko cried. Cried until the tears stained her cheeks and left trails of salt as they dried. She sobbed into her pillow, and she didn't let anyone in. She was terrified these days, terrified that what she knew would cease to be if she looked into the eyes of the people she loved, as if they would turn to dust in front of her very eyes. She was terrified that they were all just something she'd conjured up for herself, because how could a love like this exist for her? How could friends like this love her as they did?
But Emiko was not willing to lose anyone, and so she hid.
*A/N: Well then, I hope you all enjoyed this sneaky kind of "fun house mirror" world chapter that Darian built up with clues along the way that things weren't as they should be! We loved getting to put little twists to some of these characters. Deku and Bakugo in particular were a lot of fun paying homage to their initial concept designs and the difference that had on their respective personalities :) Anyways, we will see you soon with Part 2 of Origins of Nothing!*
