DING*
"Welcome!"
"Yayyy, Saturday!" Hado cheered to herself as she skipped her way inside a convenience store, snatching a shopping basket up and heading straight across to the drinks section. "Movie Night I LOVE Movie Night! Get to stay in with friends, have Izuku over with us to watch the movie, have brownies OHHHHH this is gonna be so fun! I wonder what movie they're gonna pick out this time."
Questions about the movie later as for now Hado was on a mission, a sugar oriented heart stopping completely unhealthy mission that was to stock up on soda, soda, and nothing but the best of her favorite kind of soda. Because if it wasn't Candy Day that was pumping sugar into her system it was most definitely going to be Movie Night on the following night. Should she be concerned about her health? Probably, but until the day comes where something out of the ordinary occurs to her physical well-being, she'll keep the candy coming.
What goes in eventually comes back out as the saying goes, and with what's happened recently in her life it's safe to say Hado needs plenty of sweetness going in so she can give it back out. It was only two days ago when she as well as her parents were witness to the sudden truth of why Midoriya fell in love with a girl such as herself. He lived in dark times, a bit too dark for her comfort if she's being honest. Hearing him admit out loud that there were issues in his head was worrying to the girl as those same issues may yet linger in his mind, even if he's found the happiness he's wanted so badly. So what's the best way to go about this?
A kiss can only make a heart jump for joy for so long and a hug can only make a person feel chocolate chip warm for so long. Her method of resolving the issues he had must be absolute and direct, but that itself was an issue of it's own. For so long now Hado's only resorted to hugging people and making them smile with a laugh or something fun because that was her specialty, her 'Quirk' as Haya liked to put it. But when it comes to the more serious obstacles like the thought of somebody going through with that? She'll admit, she's a bit nervous when treading into those kinds of waters. The kind of waters that required careful navigation and a patient hand behind the controls.
But as always she'll try her best, maximum effort as one of her favorite movie characters would say. For Midoriya? She'll move the stars if that's what it takes. This being her first relationship, she'll go the extra mile to make sure they're both happy with what they have and who they're spending it with. That includes mental checks when necessary.
"-hear about Midoriya man? He's dating one of Ryukyu's sidekicks, that hot chick with the blue hair!"
"Midoriya? No way bro seriously? How the hell did a nobody like him end up with Nejire-Chan?"
Whilst half of her body was sticking inside a cooler to grab an arrangement of sodas Hado paused and leaned back out upon hearing Midoriya's name coming from one aisle over, two voices of two boys who were unaware of her presence thanks to her short height. Looking over to the aisle she could see the tops of their heads but no faces, stepping away from the cooler and towards the display shelf to try and get a closer listen.
"Maaaaan I don't know but isn't it so crazy to think about? I mean we went to middle school with him and we know what we saw about him he was a loner, nobody talked to him nobody said anything to him he was just there existing for the sake of existing. AND he was Quirkless! So, how in the hell did he go from being this Quirkless quiet nobody to somehow not only being accepted into U.A, to being one of the biggest participants in the Sports Festival, to now bagging a girl like the one he has?"
"Wish I was that kind of lucky. Not only that butapparently he's made a name for himself in a bunch of stuff that's happened too, something about being involved in a Yakuza thing or something I don't know. If there was anybody from U.A who I thought I would've heard about more it would have been Bakugo."
"Well he did win first place at the Sports Festival."
"Yeah but that's about it when it comes to anything he's done at the school. You don't hear his name with big sidekicks you don't hear about anything he's done like Midoriya has recently, he fell off while Midoriya practically replaced him."
"I know, crazy as hell to think about isn't it? Bakugo was thought to be the best and most badass out of all of us and now? You don't even hear his name anymore. It's crazier too knowing he told Midoriya to take a swan dive off the roof, that was insane."
"As shit. Still kinda hard to believe he's still here after all the shit that Bakugo gave him for no reason. Literally theonly thing that bothered people about him was that he was Quirkless and they made shit of him for it. Guess he's having his good for all the bad he had to deal with."
"Must be nice to experience. I already got my chips I'mgonna go pay."
The two boys wandered down the aisle and towards the front counter after getting what they needed, leaving Hado on the other side alone and in silence. After hearing the front doors open with a ping and slide shut the girl came down her aisle and appeared with her left cheek scrunched, a concerned glare on her face as she processed everything she just heard.
"Hrmmm..."
-
"RRAGHHH! I will not let you destroy my WORRRRRRRRLD!"
"Yeah yeah!" Hado cheered as she bounced her knees side to side while sitting in her bean bag, not a single care to the fact that popcorn was being flung both to her left and right where Midoriya and Haya sat next to her. "Don't let that silly cat destroy this world!"
"DUDE." Haya said firmly after several bunches of popcorn landed inside her cup of iced fruit punch. "Can we NOT throw popcorn into my drink please? I'd rather not drink a soggy popped kernel through my straw thank you."
"Oops hm-hm, sorry Yuyu, didn't mean to." Hado apologized to Haya before turning to her left where her boyfriend was seated. "Sorry if I got popcorn on you Izuku. Hmm?"
Instead of bothered or disturbed by the popcorn flung on him Midoriya had a much different reaction, which was none. His attention wasn't focused on the popcorn or his girlfriend rather it was still glued to the TV showing the movie. But there was a look in his eyes, it was blank and empty. His face held no emotion or feeling whatsoever, it was stoic like the sculptures made during the Roman times.
It was almost as if he wasn't even there to begin with.
There was something disturbing about the way he was so still and quiet, it creeped under Hado's skin like worms underneath the soil. She's seen his smile before it was always so fun to see him smile whenever he was around her. But, to see him like this where there was nothing on his face felt ghostly for her. Was he dead? No, his chest moved so he was most definitely still alive. But why did he seem so dead in the face like there was nothing going on? Did the world simply not exist to him anymore? Or was he currently off in a world of his own that he once inhabited years ago when he was younger and less of what he is now. The same world those two boys at the convenience store were describing to her.
Bakugo...
Worried about the hollow expression Hado shifted herself more in his direction where she reached over and took hold of his right forearm to gently shake him. "Hey."
A flurry of blinks made Midoriya's eyes shutter before his face finally gave way for the expression of question as he turned to Hado. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay? You don't seem like you're here with us."
"Yeah I'm fine, I'm watching the movie like everyone else."
"ARE you, watching the movie Izuku? Or are you just saying that so I'd get off your case?"
"I'm watching the movie heh, seriously."
"Izuku."
"...huhhhh. I'm...tired, is all. I mean, I'm not tired, but I am tired. If that makes sense."
"Is it just one of those days?" Hado asked with a nod from Midoriya. The girl hummed and thought for a moment before putting down her tub of popcorn on the floor in front of her, crunching in and rolling back to roll off the back of her beanbag. "Hang on a second."
Silently rolling off the back of her beanbag Hado quietly and quickly snuck around the back of the couch where Snipe sat on the furthest end in a blue hedgehog pajama set with spikes on his back, something his wife had bought him from what the girl remembers. Coming up from behind the third year tapped on his right shoulder to draw his attention while he sipped from a straw out of a green emerald shaped mug. "Hmm?"
"Hey Snipe." Hado whispered. "Sorry to bother you but I was wondering if Izuku and I could go up to my room for tonight? He doesn't seem to be enjoying the movie so much it's one of those days."
"And leave a fella with a young lady like you in a room all by yourselves? Hado y'know you're one o'my favorite students and all but now that y'all are datin' and what not this just smells like a whole lotta funny business."
"Pleaaaase please please, we're not gonna do anything bad I promise. I just wanna talk with him about something that's all. I'll even leave the door open so you don't think we're doing anything silly."
"Huhhhh...oh who am I kiddin', alright I trust ya."
"Yay! Thank you."
"But lemme tell you this." Snipe pointed a finger at Hado. "Don't you let some fool get handsy with ya in private alright you're a woman and you deserve to be treated like one. If son over here decides he wants to stick his fingers in the wrong cookie jar you tell me and I'll set him straight."
Hado giggled as she shook Snipe's right shoulder with both hands. "Oh Snipe, you worry about us too much. But that's why you're the best hm-hm."
With the permission received to relocate elsewhere Hado quickly snuck her way back to her beanbag where she tapped on Midoriya's right shoulder to get his attention and gestured him to follow. "Hey come on let's go upstairs."
"What about the movie?" Midoriya asked. "We can't just leave can we?"
"Oh you and I will watch it again some other time, for now let's go to my room. I got permission from Snipe it's okay."
"Oh, okay then." Rising up from his own beanbag Midoriya quietly joined Hado at her side as the two left the common lounge and snuck towards the elevator, an odd feeling of a sword or stake burrowing itself into his back. Looking over his shoulder he spotted Snipe staring straight at the first year, his index and middle fingers pointing at the eyes of his mask then pointing at the student himself. Midoriya gulped and vigorously shook his head with hands stuffing straight into his pockets.
The couple hopped into the elevator with Hado tapping the button for her floor, the doors sliding shut and the lift jostling to take them upwards. "Hey hey you know what I was thinking? I was thinking maybe next weekend we could go out and have our first real date!"
"Our first real date huh?" Midoriya repeated. "Yeah I'm okay with that, what'd you have in mind?"
Hado shrugged. "I dunno, ANYWHERE. We could go, go have a picnic, go watch a movie anywhere's fine with me. Ooh! We could go to the zoo as well!"
"Hmph, the zoo? Not really a place for romance though is it?"
"I mean, does a date ALWAYS have to be romantic? Romance is cute and all but I just wanna have fun and be able to spend time with you, rule number three remember?"
"Yeah but...actually no I'm not gonna say it."
"What say it."
"No, keeping it for myself for now. It's a secret."
Hado pouted with a growl. "Hey hey, that's not fair Izuku. You can't tell me you have a secret and not say anything about the secret that's cheating."
Midoriya chuckled. "Didn't realize cheating about a secret was against the rules to begin with. But, believe me, I think this little cheat will turn out with something good in the long run. As long as I remember not to forget it that is."
PING*
"So, why exactly are we coming up to your room?" Midoriya asked as the elevator stopped and doors opening for the two of them to step out on Hado's floor. "It just can't be for no reason I mean you were really enjoying that movie."
"Well, you didn't really seem all that interested in the movie no matter how much you say you were." Hado answered. "You just kind of got lost in your own little world and you could easily simply by taking a look at ya. Plus um, there is erm, something, I wanna talk to you about. Something I heard earlier at the store that's really REALLY bothering me a lot right now."
"Oh. Is it bad?"
"I'll...Let's just get in my room first before anything else."
CLICK*
Hado opened the door to her dark bedroom where she kept the main light off, instead allowing the light from the hall to pour in and illuminate a good bit of her room. She made straight towards her bed where she sat on the edge of it and patted on her left for Midoriya to join her, the first year doing so without question or comment. In her lap the girl fidgeted and pulled her fingers as a sigh exited her nose and she turned to look at the boy. "Can you be honest with me?"
"What kind of question is that of course I'll be honest with you." Midoriya replied. "Why would I have a reason not to?"
"..."
"...okay lemme not say that in case there does come a day with a reason-BUT seriously, I'll be honest with you here. What is it?"
"Izuku...Bakugo's, not, really a good person to you...is he?"
His eyebrows slightly furrowed at her question. "What, what makes you come up with a question like that?"
"Earlier, when I was at the convenience store picking up our sodas, there were these two boys in the other aisle who mentioned your guys' names I guess they went to the same middle school as you two. One of them said that Bakugo had told you to take a swan dive off the roof and, and that they were still surprised you're still here after all the bad things he did to you. Is that, true?"
"..."
"Izuku?"
"...if, I tell you whether or not it's true, are you gonna do anything about it?"
"Not if you don't want me to but, I just wanna know if I should be worried about Bakugo's connection with you I mean all this bad stuff about him telling you to do something horrible is bad badbadbad. I don't want it, I don't want it near me I don't want it near you, I want it gone for good. If Bakugo is or will be an issue to you in the future I wanna know, I'm not gonna let him think he can just walk all over you like that."
"I'll tell you, just promise me one thing."
"And that's?"
"Don't tell any of the teachers about this." Midoriya requested. "Please? I know that everything that I'm about to tell you right now is crazy, boggling even but please, please please please Nejire. Don't take this up to any of the teachers not the principal either."
"M-Mmm...You're kinda scaring me a little Izuku."
"Sorry, I don't mean to. I just really want your promise that you won't take this up to anybody. Not a single person."
She didn't like this, but if it was Midoriya who asked for this surely that must be enough reason for Hado to trust him. His request almost sounded desperate if she was being honest. "Fine. I, I promise not to tell anybody about this. I don't like it and the fact that you're making me promise this kind of thing before telling me something is concerning Izuku. It better not be anything too crazy."
Midoriya smiled as he took Hado's left hand and lifted it up to kiss the back of it. "Thank you, it means a lot to me that you won't go telling anyone about this. I know it sounds weird and concerning and you have every right to feel that way. Because the truth is, well, it can be pretty concerning.
Kacchan and I have grown up with each other for as long as I can remember, long before we received our diagnoses when we turned four years old. Before then he was, mm, I wouldn't say he was as bad as he is now but he was still pretty arrogant and cocky about everything and everyone. In his mind it always him in the king's throne and anybody else who sat in it was a world he didn't want to live in. Who's going to be a better hero than All Might? Him. Who's going to the best thing this world has ever seen? Him. Who's always going to be the guy that can do everything better than everyone else can? Him. It's always been him it's never anybody else.
When the time came around for the both of to receive our diagnoses, everything went from bad, to a nightmare for me. Kacchan's Explosion came in, and everybody looked up to him because he was the closest example of what it means to be at the top. To have knowledge about how to properly and efficiently use your Quirk, to have the strength and wits to look at an obstacle in front of you and laugh at it, to have a confidence on the same level of ferocity as your Quirk, he gained everything. Nobody messed with him, why bother messing with somebody who can make explosions and having that same somebody see you as an obstacle in their way? Nobody said anything back to him, nobody dared to look down at him. He was at the top.
So when somebody who was always at the top of the list has somebody who was always at the bottom for not having what everybody else had, it became a game for him. I was Quirkless, he wasn't. I lost he won, and he always made sure to rub in the fact that he was better than me at everything. It was always name calling, Deku, a useless nerd with a useless life and a useless chance of ever having anything good happen to him. With the name calling came everything else, the messing with my hero guides, the taunts, the depreciation, the constant making me feel like I could never be any better than trash on the street. It's like Kacchan had a life goal of making sure I knew what it felt like to be gum on the bottom of his shoe.
And for most of how I felt back when I was Quirkless, it all connected back to him. The gloomy days, the will to not wanna do anything the-...thoughts...it all stemmed from him. Even going so far as telling me to take a swan dive off the roof in hopes of getting a Quirk in the next life.
But then U.A came around, and things began to change. My Quirk came in, I had a chance of actually making something good for myself, and I wasn't the punching bag that he always picked on whenever we were in middle school. I became something, and while Kacchan in his own rights continued to accel in his field I trained hard to keep up with him so I could surpass him. It's always been a dream of mine to show even a Deku like myself can be a better hero than he can. And with my Quirk, I can do that now, while also aiming to be the kind of hero that All Might is too.
When Kacchan and I fought after curfew in the training ground, we kinda sorta settled on a middle ground between us. We don't help each other directly but we help each other get stronger because we both want to be better than the other. I wanna be better than him, and he wants to be better than everybody else. Through this, we can kinda see eye to eye with each other."
"Hrmmm, still, that's not like it wipes away everything he did to you back then. Telling somebody to take a SWAN DIVE off a roof in hopes of getting a Quirk in the next life? That's not just something that can be easily forgotten that sticks to somebody."
"Yeah, true. To this day I still think about what would have happened if I did end up taking that dive but, in every instance and every moment where I think about it I think about missing out on the biggest thing that's happened to me since I enrolled in U.A."
"What's that?"
"You." Midoriya answered as he wrapped his right arm around the girl's back and brought her close. "If I had taken that dive off the roof like Kacchan told me to do, I wouldn't have met you. And believe me when I say that everything I said to your mom at dinner about you making me feel like I can be happy again is true? It's true, it's always been. If I didn't have the opportunity of meeting you Nejire, I'm not sure how far I would have continued with the way I used to live. It'd be like I was in a dark room with a light and somebody took that light away from me and I didn't know where I was anymore.
I'm not going to pretend like those days don't affect me anymore, because in reality they still do. I still get gloomy moods at times and there are instances where I feel like I'm not living up to anything even with what I have. But, then I remember that I have somebody like you in my life and everything feels happy cheery again. I don't care about Kacchan, I don't care about what other middle schoolers may have had to say about me I don't care about that stuff as much as I used to. Because when I wake up every morning with the knowledge that I'm dating Nejire Hado, well, that's about the only thing I like to care about these days."
Hado performed a small bounce in her seat before she lunged forward and wrapped herself around his neck, pressing a giant kiss against the freckles of his right cheek. "Oh Izuku, I love you too but me being the ONLY thing you care about these days? That's a little bit too much don't you think?"
"Too little if I'm being honest."
"Hm-hm, well, as long as I get to be cared for by you in some way every day, I don't think I'll complain. You're the right puzzle piece for me."
"And I'm thankful that I can be. I thank you, Nejire."
-
"Uwaaaaah, tchgrrr." Bakugo yawned into a growl, a fist going up to his left eye and rubbing against it. That same hand traveled to the top of his head where he gave a shake of his hair in an attempt to do away the sleepiness of morning, continuing to trudge his way towards homeroom to begin the annoyance of school. "Damn grogginess."
"Hey!"
"Ah?" The first year halted and turned around to find a third year girl standing at the base of the stairs with fists against her hips, her cheeks puffed like a blowfish with a glare that she tried to make menacing. Of course, it ended up being more cute than being a threat. "Whadduya want?"
Through her mouth Hado took a very large breath into her lungs while cocking her head back, then leaned forward with tongue sputtering out of her mouth to blow a raspberry. "PBBBBBBBBBBT!"
"Eh?!"
"Meanie! Blegh!" The girl pulled on the bottom of her left eye while sticking her tongue out at Bakugo. "Hmph!"
Stuck to the floor in confusion more than anything Bakugo watched the third year turn away from him and make her way up the stairs towards her appropriate floor, leaving the first year in silence and not knowing what he even witnessed. "The hell was that all about."
'Yes...' Hado thought, a proud fist clenching in front of her chest that shook happily. 'That one's for Izuku!'