08/02/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Fledgling 45

"At the risk of being boring, what time does everyone need to be home?" Hitoshi asked.

Ochaco sighed. "Ten," she said.

"Yeah, me too," Hitoshi replied.

Izuku smiled. "Provided I message Kurogiri, Dad didn't really mind."

"Yah!" Ochaco cheered. "Happy Birthday, Little Dragon!" she celebrated. "You are going to have such a fun day!" she added.

"Happy Birthday, Izuku," Hitoshi said, somewhat more subdued.

"What shall we do?" Izuku asked with a smile that said he had some ideas.

"The beach!" Ochaco said, doing a little jump as she clapped her hands. "If it's okay with you, Little Dragon?"

Izuku laughed. "That will be fun!" he announced.

They had discussed what to do today so the beach was an option that had been approved.

"How about some lunch first?" Hitoshi suggested. "Then we can walk down to the beach," he added. It was implied that the walk would give their lunch time to go down so that they would be okay to swim.

"I checked out that festival," Ocahco said. "They are on the foreshore, so we can go there after dinner?" she offered.

The three friends grinned at each other. This was their celebration for Izuku and Hitoshi's birthdays, which was pretty much why they had the entire day. Plus it was summer, so there wasn't school the next day.

Usually, if it was just for Izuku's birthday, Ochaco and Hitoshi would pay but it was also Hitoshi's birthday, so Izuku and Ochaco would pay then. So they had come up with a compromise. Ochaco would pay for half of everything today, while Hitoshi and Izuku would pay for a quarter each. It worked out since paying for them was her present to them. And on her birthday, Hitoshi and Izuku would pay for her completely! And given that her birthday was in winter, there was far more inside stuff to do, which tended to be more expensive.

"You pick lunch, I'll pick dinner?" Izuku offered to Hitoshi.

The purple haired boy considered that for a few moments before he nodded. "Let's go to Wacca's," he said, making a decision quickly. .

"For coffee?" Ochaco teased.

The look Hitoshi gave her told her exactly what he thought of that. For Hitoshi there was only one beverage. Anything caffeinated. The stronger the better. He sniffed, and then grinned. "Of course."

She laughed. "Maybe we'll get you an iced one to take to the beach," Ochaco said.

"Well then, let's go," Izuku chirped and led them towards the shops.

-ted-

"Hmm, this is nice," Ochaco said.

"It is," Izuku agreed.

They had lunch and filled Hitoshi up with coffee before walking down to the beach. The waves were just right and while it was summer, and there were others on the beach, they had managed to find a good place to put their towels out.

They were sitting now, just enjoying the sun. Izuku had a dreamy smile on his features as he felt the sun on his skin. He was full of energy thanks to Solar Force but spending time with his friends, even when just sitting was nice.

Hitoshi was sprawled out with his eyes closed but they knew he was awake.

They'd gone swimming earlier and had even participated in a game of water ball. No one was entirely sure of the rules but it had been fun. There were a few small waves, and they had tried their hand, or bodies at body surfing. It had resulted in them being tumbled getting wet hair with sand through it. They'd decided if they got another beach day then they needed to get a board. Just a short one. Or to go to an onsen and avoid the sand.

Tired from playing in the water, they were now resting on the sand.

"I wish we'd brought a snack," Ochaco murmured.

"Nothing was easily portable," Hitoshi replied without opening his eyes.

"I know," she sighed.

They had gotten drinks because spending the afternoon at the beach without drinks would have been silly.

"You know what we should do?" Ochaco said after a few moments.

"Sleep?" Hitoshi asked.

Izuku laughed. "You won't sleep," he told his friend.

The other boy huffed but didn't deny it.

"We should ring Himiko!" Ochaco said, as if announcing something fantastic. "We didn't last year and I'm sorry we forgot her. I know she's your friend too, Izuku."

Hitoshi, with his eyes closed, didn't see the way Izuku looked to the sand. Ochaco did and immediately her eyes widened as she wondered what was wrong.

"Little Dragon?" She prompted softly.

Izuku shook his head as Hitoshi opened his eyes. He had heard the worry. "I don't have her number," he admitted.

"Did you two have a falling out?" Hitoshi asked.

Again, Izuku shook his head. "Remember, Tomura dusted my phone?" he asked, referring to a few years ago.

"Oh," Ochaco indicated her understanding.

"You can't find her on LifeBook or something?" Hitoshi asked.

"She doesn't do any of them, and I tried writing to her home address but I didn't get a response."

"I'm sorry, Little Dragon," Ochaco said sadly, even as she wracked her brain for a way to find Himiko. Not for herself but for Izuku. She could remember the conversation they'd had with the other girl. She'd seemed odd. That was probably the best word to explain it. Ochaco figured it was just an effect of the phone call since they didn't know each other and it had to be difficult to be called by people you didn't know. Little Dragon had been genuinely happy to talk to her and had expressed his hope that they all meet.

She was forced to conclude though that if Izuku couldn't find her online, then it was very unlikely that she would.

"It's not your fault."

"No, it's Tomura's," Hitoshi replied. "Why did he dust your phone anyway? I forgot."

Izuku sighed. "He was being a dick," he said. "Dad had just had a relapse and everyone was worried and ugh-" he sighed. "Tomura was just being a dick," he repeated.

Sure, the two of them got along better now that they had a goal to work together towards, and he even played games with Tomura pretty regularly, being a trusted player two for the older teen, but… Tomura was still moody. When it got particularly bad, Tomura loaded up the modded game he had found a couple of years ago and pummeled All Might into oblivion.

Izuku found it ironic that even with their relationship being as tenuous as it was, he was still the teen's closest friend. Sure, Tomura played games with a team of others, but they never lasted long. No one had the sheer amount of time the gray haired teen had to put into games and so they always fell behind and then Tomura abandoned them. If they were smart, they abandoned Tomura but the effect was the same.

"Why did your Dad adopt him?" Ocahco asked. She'd never thought to ask before since Izuku just treated Tomura as part of the family. But why was he part of the family?

"He's a distant relative," Izuku explained. "And there were no other relatives, so Dad took him in. He's the grandson or nephew of one of Dad's uncles or aunts. He's always been there."

"He wasn't the reason your Dad left your Mum?" Hitoshi asked.

"Nah," Izuku replied. "Tomura never met Mum," he added.

"Yeah well even if he dusts your phone again I've memorised your number, Little Dragon," Ochaci said.

"I wrote it down," Hitoshi added.

Izuku chuckled. "I've got a little book. Tomura doesn't know about it," he added.

Ochaco sighed and lay back on her towel, looking up at the sky. She lifted one hand, as if reaching up to grab the sun. Hitoshi cracked open one eye to watch her as Izuku also lay down.

"This is nice," Izuku echoed Ochaco's earlier words.

Hitoshi replied. "It is."

-ted-

Ochaco chewed on her dango before licking at the sauce that was dripping down her fingers. She still had another three pieces to eat. "So, after this, we go to dinner?" she asked with a giggle.

Hitoshi gave her a dirty look but Ochaco poked her tongue out at him. Izuku just laughed after he swallowed the last of his dango. "Maybe not," he replied. "I think we've had enough," he added.

He was meant to pick the dinner place but after they left the beach, the siren call of the street food on offer at the festival had been too much. They'd munched their way through squid on a stick, yakitori, takoyaki, taiyaki and a whole heap of other foods, finishing up with the dango's now. None of them were hungry. They were lucky they could fit the dango in!

"Shall we go find a place to watch the fireworks?" Hitoshi asked, giving the last two dango on his stick a look that, if his quirk had been eye-based, the dango balls would have evaporated, or something.

"We should," Izuku agreed happily as he looked around for a likely spot.

The festival put on a small firework show each night. It would culminate on the last day but they weren't here for that and so the small show tonight would be enough for Hitoshi and his birthday.

"How about over there?" Hitoshi said, pointing.

"How about not?" Ochaco countered.

"Why not?"

"I don't really want to go near someone who can 'see the spirits'," she said, adding air quotes to her words.

"What do you mean?" Hitoshi demanded.

"She means Native is over there," Izuku answered and it almost seemed as if he was trembling.

"Oh," the purple haired teen nodded. "Sorry, didn't see him," he apologised and then pointed in the other direction. "There's good," he said with a smile.

Just as he said it, someone in the crowd squealed. "Oh my God, it's Native!"

Native wasn't a well known hero. He had only recently scraped into the top 300 but the action in Tsu was still pretty recent, so there was a good part of the crowd that started moving towards the hero. With him not being super popular, there was resistance. Izuku grabbed Ochaco's and Hitoshi's hand and dragged them away from the hero. He didn't have any particular dislike towards Native. The hero hadn't been involved in the attack on his dad, not even as crowd control but it was the principle. He didn't like heroes in general.

They managed to get away without causing too much disturbance.

"Phew!" Ochaco sighed when the crowd lessened a bit.

"I suppose we should have been expecting someone here," Hitoshi murmured.

Izuku sighed. There were always heroes at the Quirk Use days but he usually managed to avoid them. "Yeah," he agreed, looking up at the sky.

Since it was the middle of summer, twilight was long and dusk was just falling. The fireworks wouldn't be until nine, which gave them plenty of time to then get back by ten. They found a nice place to sit and took one of the small tarpaulins that had been put out by the festival, leaving their shoes all lined up at the edge.

Ochaco looked into her bag. "Did anyone bring bug repellant?" Ochaco asked, with a note of dismay.

Hitoshi shook his head which meant she looked at him. Izuku hadn't really thought about bugs. If insects became annoying he usually put up a very light barrier of air to keep them off him but generally he didn't have much trouble with them. "They don't bother me," he told her.

For a moment Ochaco looked disbelieving then she sighed. "Fire Breath," she muttered. "You'd just crisp them."

That was as good a reason as any. Izuku grinned and blew out a tiny breath of fire. "Many a bug has laid down its life-"

He broke off. There were only a few people around them so he could see a Hero approaching them. Izuku couldn't help it. He glared.

Ochaco twisted to look in the direction and Izuku saw her frown. She didn't know what was happening. Hitoshi just sighed. "I should have gone slower," Izuku muttered.

"Yeah," Hitoshi agreed.

Izuku snorted.

To be fair, it wasn't like the hero was heading straight towards them. Native was checking in with all the little groups who were wandering over to claim a space to watch the fireworks. Some of them even had dinner with them but given how much food they'd already had, no one was hungry.

But Izuku was sure he'd seen him use fire breath and there would be a comment about it. They sat in silence until Native got to them.

"You okay, kids?" The hero asked.

"We are fine, Sir."

"Really?"

"Yes, Sir," Izuku replied.

"And using your quirk?" Native pressed.

"Accident, Sir," he said. He didn't like saying it. It wasn't an accident but he knew if he admitted to using his quirk deliberately then there would be lectures and he really couldn't deal with that.

Native nodded and seemed ready to move on but he paused. "You left pretty quickly earlier," he commented.

"Earlier?" Hitoshi questioned.

"You came over here pretty quick," Native said.

"Wanted to get a good seat," Izuku said, gesturing vaguely towards the sky.

Ochaco's eyes were wide. She'd helped them avoid Native earlier but she'd never thought the hero could follow them. And to anyone looking he hadn't. He was just checking on the festival goers.

"Or you didn't want to be near someone who can see spirits?" Native asked, glaring at Ochaco.

Izuku shifted slightly, trying to cover his friend. "They are pretty good at relaying things to me," Native said conversationally.

"Are they?" Izuku asked. "They mustn't have been that good against Blur," he added.

Ochaco choked, obviously remembering the incident.

"It is unfortunate that so many were injured by the actions of a villain," Native replied condescendingly.

"Really?" Izuku challenged. "I thought it was unfortunate that Mr Bokasu's quirk hadn't allowed him to sleep for nine days."

Native looked angry. It looked like he was going to try something but then he froze. He looked at Izuku carefully but said nothing. He turned away. "Don't use your quirk again, kid," he said by way of parting.

Izuku held himself still.

"What was that about?" Ochaco demanded.

"Maybe the spirits told him something?" Hitoshi offered the explanation for the Hero's sudden about face.

That caused Ochaco to laugh, even with her statement earlier. Izuku grinned. "I don't think he liked being reminded that Blur wasn't a real villain," he observed and then laughed.

Ochaco bit her lip. "Are you sure you aren't going to get in trouble?" she asked.

Izuku sighed. From his body language, it was obvious he wanted to flop but he was still sitting up. "I won't get in trouble. It's too petty," he said. "But Native is a mood killer," he added.

Hitoshi snorted. "You want to go home?" he asked.

At that, Izuku shook his head and gave in to his desire, falling down onto the tarp. He rolled over so that he was looking up to the sky and spread his arms out. "Nope!" Izuku replied, popping the P. "I'm not going to let Native ruin my day… but if he actually starts running an operation, then we are running."

Hitoshi snorted again but copied Izuku's gesture. "Bunch up," he grumbled.

Ochaco laughed, forgetting the tension that had just been present. She looked down fondly at the two teens who were occupying about 90 percent of the tarp and shook her head. Sometimes, she didn't understand them but at other times… Well, that didn't matter.

They were her friends.

-ted-

So a happy chapter for a happy day. There was one fly in the ointment but Izuku had it handled. Tomorrow, Izuku will get to have his Birthday with his Dad, and I'm sure AFO will have more than a few things to say.

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out.

-ted-

Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!