-Hizashi's POV-

As soon as Shouta told me that he was walking Nobu-chan back over to my apartment, I was ecstatic, and decided to begin Operation: Cousin Fun Night! Over the past several years, Nobu and I had really grown apart, and it had become more obvious to me over the last couple of months that she had actually been back. It became obvious that I barely knew Nobu-chan as an adult.

I mean sure, some of her mannerisms and likes, dislikes and that sort of thing remained pretty similar to our time in school. But what made her tick, how she handled different issues and what made her happiest, what she was interested in, what her goals for the future were. I no longer knew any of that. So I decided to do my best from here on out to reconnect with my sweet younger cousin. She meant the world to me. She always had, and I had always tried to protect her. But now, it was time for me to treat her as an equal, and be there to help encourage her and guide her when she needed it, just like a big brother should!

A knock at the door snapped me out of my thoughts as I yelled "COMING!" accidentally activating my quirk in my excitement. I ran to the door and opened it to see an annoyed Shouta hand in hand with a silently giggling Shinobu. It took all of my willpower not to make a weird face or comment at the sight.

Seeing those two together was definitely something I was going to have to get used to if I wanted to become closer to Shinobu again. It was just weird to see her romantically interested in someone, and it was even weirder to see Shouta like this. He was crazy about Shinobu, even if it wasn't obvious to other people. He had a huge amount of respect for her, and seemed to really be confident in her ability as a hero, even if she wasn't that confident in herself.

"Hi, Nii-san," Nobu-chan's quiet, lyrical voice snapped me out of my internal roller coaster of thoughts, and I smiled widely at her.

"Hey, Nobu-chan!" I greeted before moving out of the doorway to let her in.

"I've got to head out on patrol. Make sure she doesn't try and overexert herself. Her wound is still healing," Shouta stated plainly to me which I acknowledged with a nod before he turned to Nobu, his expression softening a bit, "I won't be done until late. Do you want to stay here, or do you want me to come get you when my patrol is over?" Nobu blushed a bit, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and glancing back and forth between me and Shouta.

"If you want to stay with Shouta, you don't have to be afraid of what I think. I want you to do whatever makes you happiest," I offered her an assuring smile which caused her eyes to light up as she turned to Shouta.

"I think I'll stay here with Nii-san tonight, but please, let me know when you make it safely back to your apartment," Shinobu requested quietly earning a small nod and almost invisible smirk to spread across Shouta's face. He place a quick, affectionate kiss on her forehead before turning to head on his way. Nobu's face was a tinted pink when she walked back into the apartment.

"Sorry, Nii-san," she apologized sheepishly, "I know it must be uncomfortable for you to see me dating your best friend." I gave her a nod and a smile as I pulled her into a big hug.

"It's fine, Nobu-chan! Yes, it's going to take me a bit to get used to, but as long as you two are both happy and healthy in your relationship, I can't really complain. You have my support, Nobu!" I comforted earning a small smile from the heroine, "Now! Since you have the night off, and I am under strict orders not to let you overexert yourself, let us commence: Cousin Fun Night!" Nobu giggled and nodded.

"What does cousin fun night involve exactly?" she asked with a small giggle earning a huge grin from yours truly.

"Well, that is for me to know and you to find out as we go!" I responded with a mischievous glint in my green eyes. Nobu looked a bit nervous at this but nodded nonetheless.

"Nii-san… Where are we going?" Nobu-chan asked nervously as I dragged her by the hand down the less crowded streets of late night Musutafu. I smiled reassuringly at her.

"You'll see!" I singsonged as we finally arrived at our destination. We were in front of a simple whole in the wall 24 hour diner I had discovered when trying to find food after finishing my radio show one night. We entered the diner to see it mostly empty. The walls full of older records and music memorabilia and the smell of Japanese comfort food filling the air. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see Shinobu take a deep breath and relax before giving me a smile and nod. I internally let out a sigh of relief.

As we sat down and ordered our food, Nobu and I talked for the first time in a while just me and her about everything under the sun. She apparently was still almost as much of a music junky as me, which meant we spent a fair amount of time talking about the old records decorating the walls of the diner, friends we both had made, and reminiscing about some of our childhood stories. We kept it light and happy.

I even learned that Shinobu was close friends with the current number 5 pro hero, Edgeshot. He had apparently mentioned teaming up several times, but Nobu said that she enjoyed being an underground hero too much and preferred to stay as far away from the spotlight as possible. Though in my mind I knew that Nobu preferred her status as underground hero, hearing her talk about it reminded me all too much of my black haired friend.

The more I learned about my sweet little cousin, the more she seemed like a great fit for Shouta. Sure there were some areas that would probably cause issues at some point, like the fact that they both tend to keep their thoughts and feelings locked up tighter than Tartarus Prison, but hey that's a concern for another day. Don't get me wrong. I still thought Shouta wasn't good enough for Shinobu, but then again, I didn't think any man was good enough for her.

Anyways, we eventually finished dinner and walked back to the apartment, stopping to get two tubs of our favorite ice creams, banana for me and chocolate with brownie chunks for Shinobu. One thing certainly hadn't changed: my silver-haired cousin still had one heck of a sweet tooth.

Once we made it back to the apartment, we put the ice cream in the freezer, and I pulled out a bunch of blankets, sheets, and pillows, and began building our pillow fort. Nobu came into the living room as I was halfway done, and began helping while silently giggling. I let her pick out a movie for us to watch. She chose The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. When I asked her why, she said she loved fantasy movies and the soundtrack for that entire series of movies was phenomenal. I smiled at that and went and grabbed our pints of ice cream and two giant spoons which I brought into the living room before handing Nobu hers and laying down beside her in our pillow fort and starting the movie.

Halfway through the movie and two empty pints of ice cream later, the silver haired heroine had passed out cuddled into me. I smiled at this as I heard her mumble as her eyes opened slightly, barely awake for a moment.

"Thank you, Zashi-nii," she mumbled softly, "I love you." I felt my heart burst at this. I had missed the bond I had my precious cousin so much, and it really warmed my heart to see it growing again. I placed a small kiss on the crown of her head before getting up to take our empty ice cream pints and dirty spoons into the kitchen. As I was heading back to the pillow fort, my phone began vibrating in the pocket of my pajama pants. Surprised and wondering who the heck would be calling so late, I checked my phone to see the caller ID: Dad. What the heck does he want so late at night? Worried that something might be wrong, I answered the call.

"Hello," I answered in a questioning tone. My father's gruff voice replied.

"I heard Shinobu is back in town. You two are going to come over for dinner next Saturday night," my father stated bluntly, his voice clearly leaving no room for argument.

"I, uh, I'll have to ask Nobu-chan if she has patrol at that time, but I'll let you know," I tried to get her out of what I knew would be a horribly uncomfortable night for her.

"Tell her to call in. It's not like she really contributes to anything by patrolling. If anything, it gives the actual heroes more to worry about. It'd be doing them a favor keeping her off the streets for the night," he responded callously before adding one final comment, "This is not up for negotiation, Hizashi. You and Shinobu will be here for dinner on Saturday by 6pm sharp. Do not be late, and do not even think about creating some excuse for you or her to miss." At that, the click signaling that the call had been disconnected seemed to echo in my ears. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, before deciding to go lay back down in the fort with Nobu.

As I laid there and stared up at the canopy of mismatched sheets and blankets, I found myself stuck in a major dilemma.

How was I supposed to tell Shouta and Shinobu that some of her most terrible memories weren't from the poison? That they were real…

A/N:

I now have a Discord server! Please check it out! I will be using it to run polls for when I will update certain stories, which stories to work on next, as well as it just being a place where people can talk about different stuff like anime, fanfiction, writing advice, and so on. That's also where I will post when I update a new story. There is also a fanart channel if any of my lovely readers want to submit fanart! It's new so the numbers aren't high yet, but I encourage anyone who is interested to please check it out! :) A clickable link should be on my profile description, but this particular website has been very stubborn about me trying to include it. So if you can't find it there, please go to my profile on WattPad. There is for sure a clickable link to my Discord server there. Same Username: TaehaNatsuki

Again, thank you for all the support on this story 3 Love Always, Taeha