Timeless Summer/Book of Time Chapter 01
"Happy Birthday... What? I know, I may be a few days early, but you will be unreachable then. Oh, do I have something special planned for you."
Those were the words of a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl leaning on an old red sports car in a yellow and red dress, but that was not where Izuku's attention lay, he was just staring at the gentle smile on the girl's strong and absolutely stunning features. This deal she was talking about went back several months. Two months ago they met in an interaction that he was bound to remember forever. In a single moment, he had met one of his father's acquaintances, found out that he had a grandmother that he did not know existed, and made a rather weird promise to this girl at the request of her father. "Did not waste any time, did we?" He questioned the girl showcasing some fake bravado, of course, the girl did not mind it all knowing him well by now.
"I could have waited for weeks for you to come to me or I could have come to you right when you got out of school and jumped you before there was any threat to me." She said closing the distance between them. "I know that technically you don't turn sixteen until four days from now, but I could not wait. What if you find someone while up north, some girl that would be able to tame this frizzy hair of yours." Saying that she ran a hand through his dark green locks. "I would be stuck at the finish line..." She lowered her voice. "Having dumped my boyfriend and waited two months for nothing."
"Wait what?" Izuku was mystified. He knew that they both said that this relationship would only happen if they were both in the right space for it, he did not expect that she was seeing someone at that time. The way she made it sound was like she was going to be free all summer, not something that a woman with someone would say to another man. Izuku did not know how to feel about it, on one hand, he was extremely pleased that she had chosen him over the other person, but he was going to default to happiness, feeling her fingers continue to dance along his scalp.
"Well, I was technically seeing someone when we shook… on us spending the summer together, at that time I was almost convinced that this day was never going to come that I... I made it thinking that my ex-boyfriend would take us seriously if he wasn't the only one... But that never happened and pretty quickly we were broken up..." She paused, releasing her hand and looking deep into Izuku's eyes. "For that, I am very sorry, if you want to call our plans off I.. I would understand."
The girl in front of him looked almost sad at the prospect but... But Izuku had no intention of backing down. He waited two months excited for this summer, after the school year he had a month to spend time with this girl and her family in Hosu and it was all he could ask for at the moment, it beat being alone in an empty house for the first time in his life. Sure he had friends and sure the mother of his childhood friend had offered to take him in but with how they had left things living with Katsuki Bakugo seemed like a bad thing to do. He did not care and was even happy that she was honest with him, she was now the closest person to him not counting his grandmother Hana Midoriya. "It's fine, I was going to be spending my time in Hosu anyway... It's just now I have even more reason to stay there." He said shyly, scratching his cheek and looking away. "Besides I should be the one apologizing, I am very busy for the first two weeks of our agreement and won't be able to spend any time with you."
Izuku was taken aback by the girl's large smile, he felt that he had done nothing to earn it. "You say that you won't have time for me but why do you think I am here, idiot." She said taking his right in her left hand, examining the many scars made in the last three months.
"What?" Izuku blushed, questioning the statement, watching the students from his school walk past him and her, some stopping to look or some curious at a new face with a beautiful woman holding their hand.
"Today is Friday and your licensing exam is on Monday which means we have the entire weekend to chill and hang out before you have to be at Shiketsu, I even confirmed it with their second and first-year hero course teacher Ms. Joke... That is if you don't mind competing with students a year older." The girl confirmed pausing to present Izuku with the sports car pulling him along to the trunk. "I even got your costume from U.A., a hassle but since I work for the agency you interned at it was worth the trouble to spend the time before you go to Sapporo." She finished opening the trunk to reveal a case with the number four on its face that he had received when he still attended U.A... After closing the trunk she looked at him as if expecting something, her eyes matching the height of his, her intertwining their fingers.
Izuku looked at the trunk for a bit before staring a hole into their connected hands, the whole situation was new for him he did not know how to react. "You really were looking forward to this, Fujiwara-san." He finished looking at a face of disappointment.
Fujiwara took a look around the parking lot, sighing and letting go of his hand, her expression made him want to shrink inside of himself, and he did not know what he did wrong. Lucky for him the hero business and the training of a hero's agent had made his girl into a more straightforward person, knowing when or when not to speak her mind, and this was one of the few times that she would. "Listen..." She sighed again. "Izuku... If this is going to work out between us like you promised my dad that you would try. I am going to need you to at least match my energy. I am not saying that I want you to fall for me right away but..." She grabbed his jaw. "Calling me by my family name isn't going to cut it, among other things, but we can start with the name... Let's say it together." Saying this she placed her index and thumb on either side of his mouth, tracing his bottom lip with her thumb first, a red-faced Izuku stunned still. "Na-na-mi," she said, guiding her man through her given name with her hand through each syllable. "Now try it for yourself." Nanami said, letting go of his face.
"I don't..." He froze at her downturned face with the same expression... And it was something that he did not want to see all that often. If she wanted him to call her by her given name it was... A... Simple... Thing... To ask for. Taking a deep breath the boy ran through the name over and over again before releasing the breath. "Na-Na-Na-Nanami-san..." He said with a low voice, wincing the narrowed eyes and straight face of the girl.
Nanami gave Izuku a sickeningly sweet smile. The sight gave Izuku a chill down his spine when she spoke. "It's cute when you do that but... It would be bothersome if my boyfriend couldn't say my name without stuttering and without honorifics think of a time if something happened to me and you were the only one that could get help or Gods forbid you had to tell people what happened to me, not being able to say my name will come back to haunt you... or are you saying that the next number one hero, the stepson of the symbol of peace is too shy to say his lover's name but not a stranger." She said with a raised eyebrow, but seeing his lips quiver made her think that she took it too far, that she shouldn't force him because of what she was used to. Nanami wanted to apologize but did not know how to go about it.
Nanami was right, or at least that's what Izuku believed, he needed to get over this if he truly wanted to be number one, he had learned from three... Four of the top ten heroes and the symbol of peace himself about how much he would have to do to sway public opinion because that is taken into account when it came to the rankings. So this was going to be nothing compared to what his mentors and teachers had to go through. Taking another deep breath he plays her name over in his mind. "N-n-nanami." he said with a small voice.
"Come again."
"n-nanami."
"Again."
"Nanami, Nanami, Nanami, Nanami, Nanami, Nanami, Nanami, NANAMI!"
"You called?" Nanami retorted, laughing.
Izuku looked at the girl, seeing her grin at him. He was taken by that smile and her honey-brown eyes. Well, until a student at his new school and their friend made some passing comments at him that he couldn't understand but got to him all the same. Izuku's face was red as a tomato and he dropped squatting down with his hand in his hair, only to feel a hand that wasn't him on his head. Izuku looked up at a sad smile as Nanami let go.
"I might have taken that too far... If you are feeling uncomfortable or I do or say things that don't make you feel that way then please tell me." Nanami took one of his hands cupping it in hers, looking at them. "This whole situation is new for me too and I have always been used to being a certain way with the guys I like that it's kinda hard to stop..." She looked into Izuku's eyes. "I don't know if you know this but... This is my first time wanting to be with someone like you Izuku, probably why my dad suggested it, so... I don't know how to act, and for that I'm sorry. I just want it to work out between us. That's why I suggested we spend the summer together at that time. I thought that this next month could prove if we would be able to have a long-term relationship with each other. And I am rambling..." She trailed off chuckling.
Izuku has learned a lot from the last couple of months, he has gone through a lot in that time as well. He couldn't say that he was as experienced in matters of the heart as Nanami was, but after everything that had happened to him since his internship with Mount Lady, she was his constant, one of the few things that kept him going when he was spiraling, her and her family. Maybe that was why he had agreed so quickly to this situation, he honestly did not know. "No you are not pushing me into anything, I know what you are doing isn't out of malice..." He really did, she wouldn't have gone so far if she did not care. "I should be the one that's... You would be my first and... I don't know... It's not like I hate it... I guess your father was right about the thicker skin when I am around you guys... I guess what I am saying is that I like you the way you are, and I hope that I am going to be a good fit for you. And, that... I apologize if I am, you know... Me... Sometimes. I have never thought that I would be in a relationship at all let alone with a cute girl like you." As soon as the words left his mouth steam seemed to be let out of his now crimson ears as he stuttered in an attempt to continue.
At that moment Nanami wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him close. "You don't have to worry, you are perfect Ryu..."
Sometimes people seem to forget what Izuku has been through, sometimes it seems that they don't care, but he was with someone who had been with him throughout it all. Now… now they shared something that would turn out to be unbreakable, a bond with someone who they will do absolutely anything for. This is a story from a month and a half ago when some wounds were fresh, and both were in for a new experience, a new twist to the dangers of a hero and his agent, a child that needed them both. "Eri Midoriya... Eri Midoriya, the doctor will see you now."
Midoriya... Midoriya was not right, at least not yet. Izuku had rescued this girl from a truly horrific outcome, her previous guardian was someone using her Quirk to his own ends, a man who would use his own child's flesh as ammunition against a world he hated, a type of person that Izuku hated, but that was a story for another time. Now however he had no time to think of the past, he had a terrified six-year-old too scared to see her pediatrician without him or his future lover Nanami Fujiwara, the person who adopted her after that incident when he couldn't. The girl clung to him as she walked with the soon-to-be couple, using them as a source of strength as she got her first round of shots. "Yes, that's us." Izuku replied, not looking forward to the appointment after her check-up and the discovery that the girl had a deathly fear of doctors.
The woman at her desk noticed the girl's fear and offered her a lollipop, Eri took it with some hesitation and words of praise that made her blush and hide behind Izuku, a far cry from the first time, she would not respond to anyone but Izuku and Nanami. That changed with the introduction of Nanami's oldest sister Makina. This older sister had a child of her own and had been taking care of Eri where the teens couldn't, that was a trying event in its own right. Makina had taken in Eri so that her sister would find some stability in her new job before really being able to take care of the six-year-old, she would have to spend time at her sister's at first to help Eri transition to not having her or Izuku around the whole time. That was a whole ordeal of its own, she had to take time off, and Izuku had to come over on the first weekend, all with Eri being a mute since the three met.
The walk to the room where Eri would get immunized was silent as Eri took both teens' hands, it was something neither had told her about hoping that the girl did not fear needles. Once they were in the room Izuku helped the six-year-old on the bed and sat next to her while Nanami sat at a chair across from them. It did not take long for the doctor, an elderly gentleman, to come in and cause Eri to embrace Izuku's arm. "Well, I'll be." The man said, looking at the pair. "I knew that I recognized the name… you look a lot like your father, is this your sister?" He asked, kneeling in front of Izuku and a shaking Eri. "Are you sure this is going to be okay?" He questioned noticing the fear that Eri had, him not being the physician that made this appointment in the first place. Despite it all the man had dealt with fears of needles before but the patients that had those fears never looked this pale.
"I honestly don't know… this is a first for us. But you shouldn't have a problem with Eri-chan with us here…" Izuku paused thinking over the first question. "Oh she is not my sister by the way… she is umm…" He looked at Nanami with a pleading glance.
"Oh… that's the fun part, I am actually her foster mother. The Midoriya part made things easier for us so that we aren't bothered by it later." Nanami said with a grin at the flushed face of Izuku Midoriya. "It's been a while and I didn't want her getting any special treatment from your staff, old man. But you know how that story went." She finished looking at Eri, shaking like a leaf.
The doctor took his time to process the information in his head, only to have his face brighten up at it all. "Well, darn. To think that rambunctious little girl from a while ago has grown up. And to think that a Fujiwara would fancy a Midoriya when I first started this clinic." The man stroked his chin being hit with a bout of nostalgia. "And of course, leave it to a Midoriya and a Fujiwara to take in a stray. I hope that today won't scare you off, I am in both of your families' debt and am more than happy to take in a third generation of you punks."
Nanami laughed as she remembered herself, she was a handful, to say the least back then, something that she would blame on her older sisters Makina and Rumi despite not knowing Rumi Usagiyama until late childhood. "I wasn't that bad, was I Kogusuri-sensei." She spoke to confirm with the older gentleman, who gave a look of dissatisfaction, that got a giggle from Eri.
The little girl watched as the doctor interacted with her two pillars of support and in that moment she had forgotten where she was, but she was quickly brought back to reality. "That's funny that you think you weren't… So…" Dr. Kogusuri looked in Eri's direction. "How about you do this quickly and not torture the poor girl any longer."
That said, Eri buried herself into Izuku's arm further. She hid her face from her surroundings in an attempt to make herself disappear from the world, which did not work. The next several minutes were a blur, and although it wasn't as bad as her 'time' with her previous guardian she could not help but feel her eyes water at the pricks in both arms as she got the first two of her immunizations. After the man was down she took comfort in the attention she was getting in Nanami's and Izuku's touches. It was a foreign but very welcoming affair. Ever since Izuku and his mentor took her from that place, the place that she was before, a place she would like to forget, she was scared that she would have to go to another place like that one. She was scared that she would be thrown away again, and forgotten. Though those thoughts plagued her that was no longer the case, like her new aunt Makina said she had a Papa and Mama who would protect her from all the bad things in the world.
Eri did not have to worry anymore, she didn't have to worry about bad things happening to the people who wanted to take care of her, and though she did not want to be a bad girl she did not have to worry about messing up even when it scared her to. Her Mama and Papa wouldn't hurt her like that man did. That man that her Papa saved her from, the man that her Mama hurt badly, the man that she will never see again. That's why she was here, that is why even if she felt scared she would go through whatever this doctor would do to her. All because she loved her Mama and Papa.