Mustafa Private Junior High School- Noon

"Uggggghhhhh…"

"Uh oh, that's a sound I've heard before."

"Eijiiiii!"

"Izuku, quiet down a bit, man. People are staring."

"...'m srry…"

Eijiro Kirishima's friend was going through some things.

That much was clear to see, seeing as the greenette was slumped over his desk at lunchtime instead of devouring his bento like he usually did.

And seeing as he had known Izuku for over a year at that point, he was also pretty sure that he knew exactly what his problem was.

"So what happened with your sister this time? Wanna… talk about it?"

Wide green eyes stared into his own, glistening with unshed tears as Eijiro's freckled friend put his hands on his shoulders.

"Eijiiiiiii!"

The ravenette sighed.

"...Volume, Izuku."

People were staring again.

He felt his cheeks heat in embarrassment as he patted his friend's shoulder and tried to get to him to calm down.

If anyone were to ask Eijiro what his thoughts were in regards to his friends, he would say, 'Izuku was awesome.'

Really awesome, but very strange.

Several minutes of gentle placation later, Eijiro sat across from his friend, eating lunch at a table made from their two desks.

"So what's been eatin' ya, man? You're usually not the type to let stuff get you down like that."

Poking at an uneaten portion of rice, Izuku sighed.

"It's been a pretty rough couple of days."

Eijiro raised a brow.

"'Rough' how?"

"My sister's been acting… strange lately."

"Stranger than usual?"

"Yeah."

Eijiro's eyebrows nearly shot into his hairline.

He'd met Nejire Hado a handful of times and the interactions that they had were… interesting, to the least.

"Hey, hey, Kirishima-kun! When you use your quirk, how much of your body hardens? Can you blink like that? On the Mohs Scale of Hardness, how hard would you say you get? Closer to Talc or Diamond? Or maybe you're more in the middle like Apatite? Hey, when you harden, what happens to your di-?"

To hear that she was any stranger than usual was probably a sign of the end times.

"What happened?"

He needed to get to the bottom of things immediately.

"Well, I guess some of the stranger moments started the other day, when I came home from groceries…"

Several days earlier…

Izuku walked into his family's home, paper bag stuffed with produce that would be used for meals for days to come.

"I'm home."

No response.

His mom and dad weren't home.

He expected that, though. It was the day before the weekend.

That meant it was Date Night.

They weren't going to be home until late.

This was fine, it was why he went out to grab groceries on the way home from school.

After eight years of marriage, he figured that they deserved to just get away from himself and Nejire for at least a night every week.

Speaking of Nejire…

"Nee-chan, you home?"

He had expected her to come bounding down the hallway ready to hug the life out of him like she had been doing since she started high school.

"I'm making up for all my lost Izuku-time throughout the day~!"

"What does that even mean?"

He was confused, but she seemed pretty serious about it, so her absence was… odd, to say the least.

And the lack of response as he slid his shoes off and entered further into his quiet home.

"Nee-chan?"

He entered the kitchen, placing the grocery bag on the counter before checking his phone.

No messages saying that she'll be late…

It was unlikely that she was still out, so he stepped into the hall and called out to her again-

"Nee-chan?"

"In here, Izuku!"

-only to hear her voice call back to him from the laundry room.

Oh, there she is.

It was a bit odd that she didn't answer him before, but he didn't think much of it as he made his way to her.

"Hey, good to see you're home. It looks like Mom and Dad already left so can you help me unpack these-"

His voice died his throat as he entered the laundry room, the first thing in his sight being a pair of legs that protruded from his family's washing machine.

Two very familiar legs.

Familiar legs that led into a rather shapely-

Smack!

"Izuku! Are you okay?!"

"…Well, I'm gonna go get dinner started. I'll see you at the table."

With those words and a harsh stinging in his cheek, the freckled lad turned on his heel and began to walk back to the kitchen.

"H-hey! Izuku! Please help, I'm stuck!"

There were only a few statements that would've made the greenette stop in his tracks.

The one that had just left his sister's mouth was certainly one of the few.

He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he took a breath, before turning back and facing his very strange older sister('s legs).

There was only one word that left his mouth and it was released with a tone that held a wild, tempestuous mix of emotions.

Annoyance.

Exasperation.

Bemusement.

Pain.

All blended together and fired off his tongue in a single vocalization.

"How?"

If any of the feelings in his impassioned query had reached the foo- ahem beloved older girl trapped in the washing machine, she sure didn't show it.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story…"

"Keep it to 30 words or less or I'm leaving you to work this out on your own."

A ruthless response that was completely out-of-character for him, but he knew that if he let Nejire just start talking, she would.

And while he typically enjoyed his sister's rambling, he really didn't have the patience left for it at that time.

There was really nothing else for it.

"Okay, so, I wanted to wash my uniform after I came home. Then I saw something in here. I took a peek and before I knew it, I was stuck."

30 words exactly. Good job.

He got the gist of what had happened.

Summer was just around the corner, so the weather was getting warmer.

Izuku himself was sweating quite a bit after walking to the convenience store and then home in his uniform.

Nejire was more sensitive to heat than he was, hence why she often wore incredibly light clothing around the house and fanned herself vigorously (*only when in the same room as him).

If she had sweat through her uniform, it only made sense that she would want to throw it in the wash.

The story tracked up to that point.

But there was still something that didn't track in his mind.

"So how did you get stuck?"

"Huh?"

"How did you get stuck in the washing machine?"

"Uhhhh?"

"Nejire. How. Did. You. Get. Stuck?"

He heard her breath catch and saw her legs writhe a bit.

For the sake of his own mental health, he decided not to think too far into it.

"Well, um, I… slipped."

Upon hearing her answer, Izuku stared straight forward, unblinking.

His face was blank, but in his mind-

Slipped.

Slipped.

Slipped?

Slipped- Past participle of 'Slip'.

Meaning (of a person or animal) slide unintentionally for a short distance, typically losing one's balance or footing.

She slipped?

-he was thinking at a mile a minute.

For a full minute, the laundry room was almost completely silent, the only sound that permeated that silence was the breathing of the pair within.

And then Izuku left his spot in the doorway, walking over to the washing machine within, leaning on the wall next to it.

When he spoke next, it was with a drawl, almost lazy in its tone.

"So, Nee-chan."

"Y-yeah?"

"That's your story? You decided to wash your uniform, you saw something in the machine, slipped, and now you're stuck?"

"…Yes…"

Izuku raised an eyebrow.

"You're certain? This is the truth? It's exactly what happened?"

A moment's pause.

"Yes."

Izuku hummed and nodded.

"I see, I see. So, Nee-chan. There's really only one thing for this then, y'know?"

"Yeeeeah?"

Izuku reached over to the washing machine… and turned it on.

The machine whirred to life, a sound that caused the girl trapped inside it to begin panicking.

"I-Izuku?!"

The greenette began to leave the room.

"Well, I'm gonna go get dinner started. I'll call you when it's ready, so be sure to survive and wash up, okay?"

With that, he left his older sister struggle-

"Izukuuuuuu!"

-trapped in a top-loading washing machine.

"Dude, brutal."

"Hey, she survived!"

"Still… dude."

"So, what happened next?"

"Ah, well after that, I-"

Izuku blinked and looked at Eijiro.

Eijiro blinked and looked back at Izuku.

A voice that didn't belong to either of the boys had chimed in from the side.

The greenette and the ravenette turned in the direction of the voice, coming face-to-face-to-face with a girl with pink skin, unruly pink hair, and a big friendly smile.

"Ashido?" Eijiro had no idea when showed up, and judging by his tone as he questioned her, neither did Izuku.

The pink girl put up a peace sign and waved it slightly.

"Yo."

"Can we help you?"

"Nah, I'm just here to listen."

"Uhhh, why?"

Eijiro was genuinely curious.

He had never really spoken to Ashido and he was pretty sure Izuku hadn't either, so her sudden appearance was odd to say the least.

"Well, I heard the conversation and thought you guys sounded pretty interesting. You don't mind, do ya?"

He glanced at Izuku, the question in his gaze already clear to the recipient.

The greenette offered him a small smile and a subtle shrug.

Eijiro took that as a sign that his friend didn't mind at all.

It was confirmed when Izuku turned back to Ashido and said, "We don't mind at all."

"Awesome! So, what happened next?"

"Oh, right, in the middle of a story. Well, nothing else really happened that day."

"Laaaame!"

Eijiro thought that Ashido had made herself pretty comfortable in the group rather quickly.

"Though, she's also been taking pictures of me at random times during the day."

"Eh?" "What?"

" And, she has been forcing her way into my bedroom lately..."

"I'm sorry?" "Huh?"

"Oh! And just last night, she jumped into my bed and made me sleep with her."

"She what?!"

It took a few minutes for Ashido and Eijiro to help Izuku understand just how wild his statement was.

By the time the realization set in, Izuku was a stuttering, blushing mess, his skin a more vibrant pink than Ashido's.

They didn't get another word out of him before the break was over.

And as afternoon classes began and the teacher began the lecture, Eijiro took another glance at his friend, who was still a bit pink in the face.

Even though he was obviously still a bit embarrassed, the green-haired boy was still furiously taking notes, muttering slightly as he did so.

The sight made Eijiro smile a bit.

Earnest, but strange.

That was how Eijiro Kirishima would describe his friend Izuku Midoriya.

And he honestly wouldn't have him any other way.