-Hizashi's POV-

As soon as I left the teachers' lounge, I headed out to look for Nobu… I couldn't believe Vlad had brought up Shouta's past just because he was jealous of him. It irritated me to no end. As I walked out of the building, I heard a yell that I recognized as Nobu using her voice quirk. Shit… She's gonna end up hurting herself if she overdoes it. I picked up the pace until I was jogging to the sound of her voice.

When I got close to Gym Delta, I had to put my headphones that I kept around my neck over my ears. Her voice wasn't louder than mine, but the frequencies she used were much higher pitched than what I used. The piercing tone of it made my ears ring, which is saying something since I was literally born with my voice quirk.

When I entered the gym, I was greeted with the sight of Nobu yelling at cement walls, and while the walls weren't falling over, I was able to several microfractures in the cement that would cause it to crumble to dust if she were to keep up her attacks as she was now. Not wanting her to strain her voice anymore, I came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump back and turn to me in shock as I removed my headphones and began signing to her, not speaking in case her ears were ringing as well.

'That quirk of ours may be a pain in the ass, but it's hella useful for stress relief, huh?' I signed with an understanding but tense smile that Shinobu did not return. Instead, her expression was blank minus the shine of the apparent tears that had been streaming down her cheeks.

'What are you doing here?' she signed back. Straight to the point. She's really upset. I gave her a concerned smile, reaching into my pocket as I sat down on the floor of the gym, I pulled out a bag of her favorite candy, sour gummy worms.

This morning I had decided I would stock up on them in case she ever seemed like she needed some emergency candy. Now seemed like a good example of one of those times. I patted the spot in front of me, indicating for her to sit down, and when she did, I ripped open the bag of gummies and passed it to her as she immediately popped one into her mouth, her hardened expression softening ever so slightly.

'I figured after what happened in the teachers' lounge, you might need a big brother and some candy,' I signed with a nervous smile. I was still unsure if she would forgive me after me snapping about her and Shouta getting together.

It's not that I didn't like the guy, but Shinobu was my baby sister in my mind. She deserved the absolute best, and it's not that Shouta wasn't a good guy. I knew better than anyone that Shouta had a heart of gold hidden under that grumpy and blunt exterior, but Shinobu needed someone who could be delicate with her which is something I wasn't sure Shouta could accomplish.

To my surprise, Shinobu gave me a small smile and nodded before popping another gummy into her mouth and signing back, 'You were right.' I had to stop myself from jumping up and doing a happy dance at her indirectly saying that she still thought of me as her big brother. This feeling only solidified the conclusion I had come to the night before: Being harsh about her and Shouta's relationship was not worth losing or even damaging the bond Shinobu and I had.

From day one, it seemed like she and I were the only two who really understood each other. We had always played together when the other kids would avoid us. Though Shinobu never knew it, the kids avoided us not just because of her quirk, but because they found my quirk really annoying and I wasn't great at controlling it. The only people that ever put up with me and my quirk before I got a strong handle on it besides Shinobu were Shouta, Oboro, and Nemuri.

A lot of times, when I looked at Shinobu, I would see her as she looked when she was 15: short dark brown hair, with long bangs that she would always hide behind. But sitting in front of me now, I realized, was a young woman with long silver hair that was always neat and unafraid to stand tall, unless she was having a panic attack. I sighed internally and decided it was time to put on my big boy pants and man up about this situation.

'You know, I wouldn't have let you stay with Shouta last night if I didn't trust him,' I signed, getting to the elephant in the room. At this, Nobu looked down sadly and signs in return without looking up.

'It's not that I don't trust him. I just feel like I'm too… inexperienced in any of this relationship stuff.' I blanched, unfortunately well aware of what kind of "stuff" she was referring to given the conversation in the teachers' lounge earlier; however, I quickly steeled myself as I reminded myself that she was an adult so when she looked up at me, I was able to sign back without looking too uncomfortable. At least I hope so…

'Shouta's not really experienced in the relationship part either. As far as I know, you're the first serious relationship he's had. The guy doesn't really let people in much,' I pointed out while signing, thanking whatever deity was in charge of this conversation that we were not speaking out loud right now. Nervousness could be expressed while signing, but for someone as expressive as I was when it came to speaking, I could control it a bit better while signing. This response earned a small smile from the sweet silver-haired woman in front of me before her face flushed and she looked a bit nervous as she signed the next bit.

'What if I'm not… good enough for him?' Based on the expression she had before signing that, I immediately knew what she was referring to, and I found myself panicking. My first thought was to tell her that she's too young and naive for sex, but she's 24 so that won't work. Plus, I almost destroyed our bond the last time I was rude about their relationship. In my panic, I went total wingman mode for my best friend and began rambling.

'Look, Nobu-chan, Shouta knew all this when you guys started talking. It clearly isn't something he's concerned about. Besides, guys think it's kind of cute when a girl is… inexperienced….' Holy shit! What am I saying… well signing? This is your baby sister Hizashi! Abort! Abort! But of course my hands didn't listen to my brain as I kept rambling with my signing, 'Besides Shouta is a teacher so -'

At that, Nobu grabbed my hands with a bright red color spread across her cheeks as she let out a musical laugh. I felt my heart lift and my face burn as I realized everything I had just signed to her, but fortunately all that embarrassment went out the window as I was pulled into a hug.

"Thanks, Zashi-nii! You're the best," Nobu finally spoke out loud in between her laughter before pulling away and giving me a full genuine smile, "There's no way those bad memories could possibly be real." That earned a full on grin on my face that could have rivaled All Might's.

"Oh yeah? And why is that my number 1 listener?" I inquired and my grin faded to shock when I saw a mischievous grin break across Nobu's face that if it was any bigger, it would have been scarily similar to Shouta's.

"Because the Nii-san in those memories would have NEVER endured giving me a pep talk about potentially having sex with his best friend," she replied without missing a beat the words not matching at all with her soft and sweet sounding voice, and while she had a slight blush on her face, her smirk didn't waver. At this, I buried my face in my hands trying desperately to avoid that mental image.

"Nobu-chaaannnnn!" I whined, "You didn't have to put it so bluntly!" This earned another giggle from Nobu who pulled my hands away from my face and gave me a peck on the cheek before getting up and dusting herself off.

"Thanks, Nii-san, for everything! I gotta go get ready for my training session with Tamaki. See you later!" she called out, her voice just loud enough for me to hear as she ran out of the gym.

As soon as she left, I flopped down on my back, for once, not caring that my clothes were getting dirt on them, because let's be real, I had packed my hero costume in case of emergencies anyways, as I let out a long relieved sigh and smiling to myself. I laid there for a moment before taking my phone out of my pocket and shooting a quick message to my best friend, who I guess is now dating my baby sister.

LoudMouth: You owe me.

EraserDude: I know. Thanks, Mic.

Attached to the message was a picture of Nobu-chan hugging him with a huge smile on her face, and I found myself having to admit. They do look really cute together.

Song: Lemon Boy (Acapella Version) by Cavetown