222Kenta-nii was a college student, so it wasn't unusual for him to disappear for a night and crawl back home the next morning. He usually made an effort not to leave her alone for an entire day and night because she was only thirteen, even if circumstances had made her a responsible thirteen year old. Still, he was nineteen and she wasn't his daughter so one Friday morning he took off for a weekend trip with his friends and she didn't find out until afterschool when she read the short letter he left to explain things for her.
He had finals coming up in two weeks and had been really stressed lately so his friend (who had an uncle who owned an inn on a mountain) suggested that they all get together and study. (Left unsaid was the fact that they would do far more than studying since Kenta had taken a few of his favorite video games along.) He left money for food and advised her to ask Midoriya-san if she had any problems; he'd be back Sunday evening at the latest. Scribbled at the bottom was a note for her not to delete his save files off the console.
Nanako pinned the note to the fridge then grabbed a bowl of ice cream and plopped herself on the couch while the TV flickered to life. Anime she'd fallen behind in watching flashed across the screen as episode after episode played. While she switched from one series to the next, she wondered what it was about her that made adults abandon her so easily. Realizing how sad her thoughts sounded (what was some, some crybaby five year old?), she shook her head to clear it and shoveled another spoonful of rainbow sherbet into her mouth. Being on her own wasn't new, and knowing that Kenta would definitely be back before school started helped her feel better.
When she rolled out of bed the next morning with the scent of coffee thick in the air, it was almost like he hadn't left. Reality came crashing back down on her as she walked to the kitchen and didn't see her cousin in the middle of cursing into a gaming headset and knocking back his third cup of milk coffee. She sighed and flicked the off switch on the machine.
What was she going to do for the day? When she lived with her mom during elementary school she used to go out with her friends or go to one of her extra classes, but lately her options had been reduced to hanging out in the living room with Kenta or hanging out in her room alone. It'd been difficult to pick up and move mid-schoolyear, especially in the middle of sixth grade. While at first she'd felt completely abandoned and distraught, she had eventually decided to stop moping around and start talking to others more.
However, by then it was time to graduate and too late to make friends. She then vowed to try harder for her first year of middle school, but found that friend groups from elementary school carried over and it was difficult to gather the courage to insert herself into anyone's conversation. Thus her habit of wearing earphones to make herself seem busy had started, and apparently that given her an intimidating reputation of a calm and cool girl who didn't talk much.
That image was partially shattered when the Lunch Fiasco (as she called it in her mind) occurred, but still her friendships were new things and it would be troublesome to ask anyone to hangout on such short notice. Even if she could scrape enough nerve together to at least ask if anyone was free, in her gut she knew she'd only be setting herself up for rejection.
With a groan, Nanako slumped across the kitchen table and listlessly shoveled cereal into her mouth. She needed a better hobbies than collecting key chains and tending her little trio of house plants- maybe she should join a club? She'd resisted so far because she was kind of lazy (which was also partly why she was bad at making friends) but club day for the spring term was next week…
A knock at the door broke her from her thoughts and she frowned. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was nearly ten; too early for the mail, and her cousin tended to go out rather than invite his friends in. (Not to mention the fact that any friends of his must have known he was out of the city- no one ever showed up without texting first.) She checked the peephole and got a fisheye's view of her neighbor, Midoriya Inko.
Weird. Did Kenta forget to pay the rent before he left or something? Though Midoriya-san wasn't their landlady… She undid the locks and opened the door without delay.
"Good morning, Nanako-chan," Inko tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Do you know if Kenta-kun is busy today?"
"Good morning Midoriya-san," she greeted politely. "Uhm, my cousin is on a weekend trip- he won't be back 'til late on Sunday so... uh, did you need something?" Despite walking with Izuku to and from school every day, she didn't exactly interact much with his mom (and it showed).
"Yes, I had a little favor to ask," she said with a soft smile. "I need to run some errands and I was wondering if you could sit with Izuku for a little while? He usually goes with me, but he hurt himself during PE and the doctor said he shouldn't be up and about for a few days. He's a good boy so he shouldn't give you too much trouble, especially since he's been playing video games since he woke up this morning."
"Yeah- uh, yes, I can do that," she corrected herself and bit her tongue in reflex; her mother always stressed that it was important to use polite speech with her elders. More than that, she was pretty fond of Izuku so watching him was definitely better than anything else she had planned (which was a whole lot of nothing).
The older woman was pleased and excused herself to let her son know. In short order, Nanako dressed, shuffled over to next door, and received a quick tour before seating herself on the couch next to Izuku. Ever the worrier, Inko made sure to give Nanako her number and stick a list of emergency numbers to fridge before she left, reiterating a few times that her phone's ringer was on and they should definitely call her if anything happened.
Nanako wasn't sure what catastrophe could happen while the other woman was out grocery shopping, but nodded along and tried to reassure her to the best of her abilities. Finally, Inko left and the green-eyed girl sighed in relief. She wasn't used to the attention and it made her chest twinge but it wasn't completely horrible- she could get used to it the same way she got used to Izuku's chattiness.
Speaking (thinking?) of him, he was busy button mashing in a surprisingly methodical manner and glanced away from the fighting game on-screen for the quickest moment to flash her a wide smile.
"Morning," she murmured in reply and pulled out her phone. As she scrolled through Viewtube to find something to keep her entertained, his character (which was All Might in his debut costume) leapt up in the air, spun like a drill, and demolished the computer's character in three short seconds. There was a cut scene of All Might posing and throwing out a quippy one-liner, but by then she'd already clicked on a video and plugged in her ear phones. Between him and Raito, she had more than enough of Japan's number one hero.
The rest of the day passed like so, with a break so they could swap out the melted ice pack for a fresh one and another for lunch. Inko came back around three with arms full of groceries and Nanako hurried to help her the rest. When everything was moved in, she tried to excuse herself but the older woman convinced her to stay for dinner.
Overall, it was a nice (?) experience. Inko chattered happily about her day while she supervised Nanako and Izuku as they peeled and chopped vegetables at the table. When Izuku relayed what they'd done while she was out, she listened and threw a few questions their way- simple things, but it got Nanako talking too and by the time she went home she had unwound enough to consider not turning down the older Midoriya if she needed a favor in the future.
-[-]-
The next request for a favor came soon after: Inko needed to work late and didn't want her son to be alone for so long. Kenta, of course, was busy studying for finals and having small mental breakdowns so it fell to Nanako to do the actual watching even though her older cousin was the one who had agreed. She wasn't really complaining though, because there wasn't much to "watch" about Izuku. He didn't try and run around the house or use the stove without permission, he wasn't loud or rough, and when Kenta told him not to play with the special edition figurines on the shelf, he didn't. If anything, it was more like she was supervising him while he did homework and making sure that he got a snack when he was hungry.
In return for her "hard" work, Nanako was invited to dinner a few days later (Kenta was out drinking to celebrate finals being over, though he was invited too). It was delicious, and she went home with a small container of leftovers.
Then, two weeks later was the end of the fiscal quarter and while neither Izuku nor Nanako had any idea what that really meant, it basically boiled down to his mom working a lot of overtime. Rather than hang around Nanako's (where there was exactly zero All Might merch), they migrated to Izuku's place. He was much happier surrounded by his toys and fanboy paraphernalia, she got to play on her laptop, and Inko paid her in cooking lessons so it was an all-around win.
It got to the point that the following Monday Nanako just instinctively followed Izuku in and when Inko arrived home before the sun went down they both jumped in surprise. The older woman started laughing and Nanako felt a mild flush heat her cheeks.
"It's not that funny oba-san," she grumbled then jumped yet again as Inko burst into tears with a wide smile on her face. "W-wait, what's wrong?!"
She didn't answer except to shake her head and draw the younger girl into a hug. "Oh, you're so cute Nana-chan!"
Wide, confused green eyes swung over to Izuku, but he smiling just as widely and explained nothing. She resigned herself to having the stuffing hugged out of her body, then happily took up Inko's offer of another cooking lesson.
-[-]-
"Hey kid, not to be rude, but why are you always home?" Kenta leaned over her shoulder and swiped at her pencil as she did homework.
Nanako elbowed him. "I live here."
"Well duh," he rolled his eyes. "But don't you have like friends or something? Someone you can hang out with?"
"I have friends," she bit and erased the jagged line he'd made. "But they're… busy with clubs and stuff. We hang out- sometimes." It sounded like a half-assed excuse even to herself.
He hummed sagely. "You should find out what clubs they're in and go hang out with them then."
"Why do you care all of a sudden, Kenta-nii?" she turned in her seat with a narrow-eyed look. "Are you trying to kick me out so you can throw a party?"
"Nah," he shrugged. "But it just hit me you're like, eight-" "thirteen" "-or whatever and you never get in trouble for trying to stay out past curfew or ditch school to go to the arcade."
Nanako stared blankly at her dark haired cousin, wondering despite the obvious familial similarities between them, how they were related. "Do you want me to get in trouble!?"
"No!" he shouted back. "Your mom would kill me and they'd never find the body!"
"Then what do you want?" she demanded, past the point of irritated as the clock ticked a little too close to the time she was supposed to have finished her worksheet so she could watch anime.
"I dunno," he admitted and harshly ruffled her hair. "Just thought it was weird."
She turned her back on him and pointedly refocused on the last three problems in front of her. He rummaged around in the kitchen for a moment then placed a can of soda at the edge of the table and walked off with his haul of her leftovers from Inko-oba's dinner last night. She quickly debated throwing her pencil at him then pushed the thought away; she couldn't waste the time it'd take to throw it and pick it back up plus deal with whatever retaliation Kenta came up with.
Club day at the start of the new school year was a perilous time for Nanako. Colorful flyers were shoved in her face and loud cheers assaulted her ears as she struggled to wade through the slow crowds on her way to class. The representative from the cooking club nearly broke her nose with a serving tray full of tiny finger foods then one of the tennis club member clipped her arm with a racket and left her a lovely bruise just above her elbow.
She stumbled into class and turned her quirk inward until her frazzled nerves calmed. Homeroom began soon after, further helping her to settle. The hours of relaxing were for naught, however, as the hounds of hell descended upon her with brutal efficiency-
"You look like you have strong arms, Hayashi-san, you should join the tennis team!"
"No no, the bento you bring are always super cute so you should join the cooking club!"
"Ah, but her math scores are really good so the math club would be best."
Nanako grabbed her lunch and snuck out while they argued. It was well known in her class that she (and a small handful of others) were part of the Going Home Club, which was the cause of a fair bit of ribbing from her friends and (now) flattery (?) from classmates who were trying to recruit.
She made her way up the stairs and settled in an unused hallway. Dust motes floated playfully in through sunbeams. The ruckus of the school was distant and faint, like running water in a forest. She took a deep breath, held it, and felt her body untense as the ambiance worked its magic.
"Hey, do you wanna jo-"
She shrieked.
A/N: It gets dark at 4pm now, what is this?! Hope you lovely readers enjoyed, and if you did, please leave a review! Internet is kind of spotty at the moment but I read them all and it's the literal highlight of my day!