222A/N: My first BNHA/MHA fanfic- hope you all enjoy :)
Nanako yawned tiredly as she rolled out of bed and trudged to the bathroom. Precisely seven minutes later, she walked out with clean teeth and a fresh face. It took her twelve minutes to get dressed and fix her hair, after which she'd have a quick bowl of cereal or maybe a granola bar and some fruit for breakfast. It was cold out, so she'd have to fill her pre-prepared thermos and grab her jacket but that time was already accounted for. A glance through her bag to make sure she didn't forget anything, then out the door she'd go, ready to take on the day.
Well, that's how her morning usually went. Partway through taming her thick hair, there was a sudden knocking at the door and a muffled voice asking if anyone was home. She ignored it at first, but when Kenta didn't get up to answer it she knew he'd stayed up too late studying and that meant it fell to her to deal with.
She bit back a scowl and left her hair loose as she padded across the messy living room. There was a second set of knocks, which she would have been more upset with if the person on the other side hadn't been Inko Midoriya, her kind (if overly emotional) neighbor. True to what little she knew of the older woman, Inko was mildly flustered and busy fidgeting with her skirt and briefcase when Nanako opened the door with a curious tilt of her head.
"Ah, good morning Nanako-chan," she greeted with a distracted smile. "Is your cousin awake?"
"Good morning Midoriya-san," she replied politely. "And, no, Kenta-nii's still sleeping. Did you want me to get him?" He was going to be grouchy but he did have class soon so it wasn't like he could get too mad at her if she tried to get him up now.
She muttered under her breath then lit up when her eyes landed Nanako's school uniform. "Oh, you're in middle school!" she exclaimed on the verge of happy-crying. "That's wonderful-" Nanako was suddenly concerned- "I was wondering if you could do me a favor and walk Izuku to school? I wouldn't want to bother you normally, but he's been having some trouble with his classmates lately and I don't want him going alone. I get so worried about him, you see…" she place a slender hand to her soft cheek and a few tears slipped out.
No, no no, no no no, no. Her mornings were carefully structured and timed so she could maximize her sleep and minimize the possibility of running late- she couldn't just add a whole other person into her routine at the drop of a hat! Especially not a little kid like Izuku who probably thought she had cooties or something.
Despite her screeching internal monologue, she was weak to the woman's tears and found herself nodding along to the request with a dutiful "I can do that, Midoriya-san" spilling from her lips. Wanting nothing more than to slam the door in her neighbor's face, she let the rambling tone wash over and tried to find her inner peace while also recalculating how much time she had to get ready. Cereal was out the picture unless she wanted to eat while she walked, and her hair still needed to be tamed from the frizzy, half-knotted mess it currently was… She vaguely heard the words "just for this week" and felt her soul detach from her body.
Finally, Inko finished and scrambled out the door with a nervous cry of "I'm late!" Nanako didn't bother to watch her leave. Instead, she quietly closed the door and piloted her soulless body back to her room to finish getting ready.
-[-]-
Izuku wasn't a terrible person to walk to school with. She followed his lead on the way there, carefully noting on her phone what streets they needed to take in place of looking it up with GPS so it'd stick more in her mind. It was cold enough to see their breath fog in front of them and a smattering of freckles peeked out over the edge of an All Might scarf when she offered to share her thermos of hot cocoa. He refused with a quiet murmur and though his jacket was plain, he also had a pair of All Might shoes and she was pretty sure his lunch box was themed after the #1 hero. Thankfully, he didn't talk her ear off about how great All Might was; she got enough of that at school from Raito, the overly loud fanatic in her homeroom, thank you very much.
It was then that she decided she wouldn't hate having to walk him to class for the week (though all bets were off if she got stuck with babysitting duty for longer than that). She left him at the school gates with a perfunctory "have a good day" and scurried past the slow crowd of elementary students to her own school, making it with a few minutes to spare. With a click of her tongue she took her seat and drafted a new morning schedule to accommodate her neighbor- she didn't like being rushed or having her designated pre-homeroom relaxation time cut short.
She picked him up afterschool and his Inko-genes were suddenly out in full force because there was barely a quiet moment between them until they got home to their respective apartments. He wasn't loud, per se, but he was definitely chatty enough for the both of them. The chattiness continued the next morning when he asked her what who her favorite hero was, and she (guiltily) used her quirk to mellow him so he wasn't talking as fast as a hummingbird when he started rambling. (Being her own island of calm was handy sometimes.)
-[-]-
After the resounding success of their week-long test run (Izuku didn't get bullied less by any appreciable amount, but he also didn't get bullied more) it was decided that the two of them should walk to school together every day. Kenta-nii, the traitor, didn't disagree and went as far as to point out that it would be safer/more logical for them to do so; the buddy system and all that. In return for that bit of treachery, Nanako ate the last of the lemon pepper chicken wings that he'd been eyeing.
In contrast to Nanako's irritation, Izuku was excited because it meant he was no longer lonely in the mornings or afternoons, which helped to subtly change his classmates opinions about him from "completely friendless loser with no quirk" to "quirkless nobody." No one ever came up to him to ask who the older girl who walked with him to/from school was or anything, and it still hurt a little [a lot] to have his lack of a quirk pointed out all the time, but the class atmosphere felt a smidgeon less hostile and that helped.
After an initial wave of irritation, Nanako shrugged and resigned herself to it. She didn't hate her neighbor (in fact, she kind of admired how energetic he was since her default expression was "somewhat bored but not zoned out") but having her schedule messed with without anybody asking how she felt about it was incredibly annoying. More annoying was the uppity brat who pointed in her face and tried to insult her by calling her "Quirkless Deku's Quirkless big sister" one random day in January.
She couldn't keep the disgusted look off her face and her response of "do I know you?" was apparently worthy enough of a round of "oooh!"s from the small crowd. Not to be beaten, the kid proudly rattled off their name as though it was supposed to mean something and "taunted" her by insisting that she was "a quirkless loser just like [her] brother" once again.
"No really brat, who are you?" she shifted her weight to one hip with the same look still on her face. "Whatever, it doesn't matter because you're annoying." She turned her back on the fuming second grader. "Izuku-kun, let's go."
There was a round of laughter and slightly mean comments behind them about the nine year old currently stomping their foot as the pair walked off, but she didn't care enough to look. There had been a handful of classmates she really didn't like in elementary school, but she couldn't recall ever trying to outright bully them. It was such a waste of time, and as it stood she was already pretty low-energy so mustering up the willpower to actively pick on someone was outside of the realm of her imagining.
Preoccupied with her internal monologue, Nanako didn't notice the sudden stars in Izuku's eyes when he looked at her. He hurried to follow after her with a smile on his face and a skip in his step. No one had ever stood up for him like that before, especially not someone as cool as his older next door neighbor. She didn't deny the accusation that they were brother and sister (wasn't ashamed that anyone would think she was related to a quirkless nobody like him) and even called him by his first name in front of everybody!
That was huge! He could barely believe his luck! He floated on a cloud all the way home, and just when he thought his day couldn't get any better, Nanako turned to him and said "if that punk tries to start anything, let me know and I'll knock them out for you, okay?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, okay!" He nodded enthusiastically then felt a wave of calm come over him, slightly dampening his joy but not taking it away completely. "Thanks, nee-chan!"
"Ah," she blinked owlishly then quickly turned and let herself into her apartment. "Don't mention it."
-[-]-
Nanako glanced at the clock for the fifth time in as many minutes and resisted the urge to scream. Math usually flew by, but that day the second hand ticked torturously slow, mocking her impatience. Her sudden personality switch wasn't without reason: Izuku had carried his homework folder that morning, rambling about the upcoming field trip to a local zoo, and when he'd almost dropped it into a sewer grate after tossing it up in the air in his excitement two minutes prior, she'd taken up the responsibility of carrying it.
The problem was that she'd kept it too, and hadn't realized until she was pulling out her own homework and revealed an All-Might themed folder (to the delight of Raito, the fanboy). After a quick bout of panic, she rationalized to herself that she could just bring it to his teachers after school when she went to pick him up- teachers had to stay behind for at least thirty minutes anyways. If she hurried, she could make it with time to spare.
Her panic rapidly returned when the class reps read of the list of who had cleaning duty that week, because there was no way she could convince anyone to let her skip out so she could "return homework." Nawaguchi had gotten enough jeering from their class when he got excused on account of his mother being sick- and that was a legitimate excuse.
The plan had formed quickly in her mind then, pushing out the panic. Her habit of always wearing earphones meant people liked to talk around her, but most times there was nothing playing, so she knew for a fact that there was a loose section at the bottom of the gate at the eastern edge of the school where the gardening club met and a tree that went over the gate to the north as long as she wasn't afraid of a ten foot drop. The tree she discarded immediately- it'd be good for getting out but not for getting back in.
If she was quick and traffic was good, she could make it in about ten minutes. If not, maybe fifteen- either way, delivering the folder to the front office wouldn't take her long so she didn't need to fret about timing that part of her plan. She could eat on the way too; that'd save her some time and stress.
And yet still the clock ticked too slowly. Her heart thudded in her chest and over the impatient lub-lub she could faintly hear her sensei drone on about variables and systems and graphs. Just when she was about to make a break for the door, dismissal be damned, the bell rang and a shot of relief ran though her. Without much mind for her classmates, she scrambled to her feet and bolted out the classroom, folder in hand.
She made it to the shoddy fence in record time and carefully crawled under. No random teacher or police officer called her out for ditching school, and though her shins twinged with the force of her steps, eleven minutes later she stood politely at the edge of the school secretary's desk only panting a little.
The secretary was a middle aged man with a comb over and a cologne she recognized as being the one Kenta called "try hard: old man edition." It didn't smell bad, but she was on a bit of a schedule and he was drawling lazily into the phone so it became the world's most annoying scent.
She faked a cough, twice, and he finally turned his attention to her.
"Yes?"
"My brother left his homework in my bag," she rattled off the pre-prepared lie and held out the folder; Izuku's full name and class were clearly written at the top.
He frowned, muttered something into the phone, then looked back at her. "Is there something you want me to do about it?"
"Can you call him to pick it up?" she carefully refrained from kicking his desk.
"It's lunchtime," he pointed at the clock over her right shoulder. "Just go to his class."
"Alright," she turned on her heel without thanking him for his help and made a bee-line for the bathroom just outside the ugly faux-wooden doors. What a useless man, she thought, and wet a handful of paper towels to clean the dirt off her shoes.
After wandering for a bit, she caught on to the school's floor plan and hurried around the corner to class 3-A. Conversation quieted a smidgeon as she opened the door, but upon seeing that she wasn't a teacher, it picked back up.
Izuku leapt from his seat and picked past his noisy classmates with the sort of uncanny balance she'd only ever seen in cats. "Nee-chan!"
Nanako grinned at him. "Hey, Izu-kun. I-"
"My folder!" he exclaimed and his already cheery face brightened even more. "I forgot this morning and sensei made me stand up and tell everyone why I didn't-"
Quirk active, she brushed a hand through his hair and he immediately calmed. It'd been an ordeal and a half to get this far, and while she was happy to let him ramble most other times, now was not one of them.
"Well here it is," she glanced up when she heard someone say "I thought he was an only child?"
"Thanks," he took it and looked over his shoulder at his curious classmates' faces. "Uhm… did you want to stay for lunch? Mom packed me some cookies." He turned wide, hopeful eyes her way as the kids behind them gossiped a little louder.
"I still have class so I really need to get going," she reminded him then wanted to kick herself when his shoulders dropped. "But we can stop and get something afterschool if you want."
"Okay," he perked back up, resilient as ever. "Have a good rest of your day Nana-nee!"
"You too, Izuku." she ruffled his hair and left. The walk back was less stressful, and she managed to just finish her lunch before sneaking back into class and getting surrounded by her eager, curious classmates.
"Where'd you go?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Oh, does he go to a different school?"
"Did you go to meet him!?"
"When did you start dating?"
It was a long rest of the day.