Forever || BNHA

~ Chapter 28.5 ~

"Friends meet up at 4 in the morning?"

~~~~

Darkness surrounded Emiko as she stood alone in the empty hallway, looking around nervously. She lets out a small gulp, too scared to take another step forward.

A small scurrying sound came from a few meters away from her causing her to break free from her frozen state and look around panickedly. Emiko's jaw practically dropped to the ground as she held onto her fearful self.

Rats! Those were definitely rats!

Why the heck were there rats in the Todoroki household?

Emiko looked around hysterically as she tried her best to find somewhere to climb so she could be as far as those unseen and disgusting rodents as ever. Failing to do so, Emiko decided to do the only best thing in this situation.

Run as fast as she could.

Emiko pushed her feet hard as she ran the opposite way of the hallway, trying to find a specific room in the process that would protect her from those evil mini monsters.

A heavy sigh escaped Emiko's mouth as she finally stood in front of a door. It was large and wooden. Not much different from the other typical Japanese themed door's in the house. She went on her toes, just to look a little bigger if those rats came for her again.

Before Emiko could knock on the door, it slowly creaked open, startling her even more.

She quickly clasped her hand around her mouth, trying her best not to let out a terrified scream in the middle of the night.

Only to see that the young boy who'd opened the door was looking at her with the same terrified expression.

The two of them stare at each other for another second before Emiko lets out a small chuckle under her breath, casually sliding her hands from her mouth to behind her neck to appear casual in front of Shoto.

Shoto also appeared to change his behaviour as he looked at Emiko with a blank face. It was like he hadn't just been terrified of her.

"Um... Hi Shoto!" Emiko cheered whisperingly. "I- um... We're friends now... remember...?"

"Friends meet up at 4 in the morning?"

"... some of them..."

Shoto gives Emiko a confused look before slowly opening the door a little wider to let her in. She grins at him, entering the room like she owned it.

A small sigh of relief escaped Shoto's mouth when Emiko wasn't looking. After all, he thought it was a ghost or something running around the hallway so early in the morning, waking him up from his sleep.

He was brave enough to open the door and check. To his surprise, he saw little Emiko in her pajamas.

"So this is our first little... sleepover. Isn't that fun!" Emiko whispered as she sat on Shoto's futon bed.

"What's a sleepover?" Shoto innocently asked, taking a seat next to her as he made sure the door was locked.

"It's when you sleep with your friend and have lots of fun! I asked Mr. Todoroki if I could have a sleepover with Fuyumi, he said yes! When Fuyumi fell asleep, I ran to you!" She says, hiding the fact that she almost got a heart attack running around in the empty side of the house where apparently Shoto's room was.

Emiko takes out a small ziplock bag from her pajama pockets, opening it up, she hands Shoto a cookie.

Shoto stares at the cookie in awe as he gently holds it in his hand. His curiosity makes Emiko smile.

"It's for you!" She beams, stretching her hands above her hand as she flopped back.

"A-Are you sure?" He asks nervously, looking at Emiko.

"Yeah of course! I stole it from your kitchen anyways."

"I don't think Father will allow me to eat this..." Shoto said, about to give the cookie back.

Emiko looked at Shoto in confusion, tilting her head to the side.

"Why not?"

"Because I need to be strong."

Be strong?

Of course... Since Shoto is the son of the number two hero, he'd have to be strong.

But Emiko couldn't help but wonder why the other children in the family didn't have to go by these strict rules. Natsuo and Fuyumi could eat whatever they desired.

Even Touya could... he just preferred to eat healthy.

"Well, to be strong you would need to eat healthy food?" Emiko whispered in increased curiosity.

Shoto nodded his head, looking at the cookie one more time, deflatedly.

"But the cookie has eggs in it... those are healthy. And it's also made up of flour which is also healthy. It's a coconut cookie, so that also makes it healthy! Did you know that coconut is good for your hair! It helps-"

"So I can eat this?" Shoto asked, looking at Emiko in adorable excitement as he ignored her rambling.

"Of course you can! Just don't tell Endeavor."

"B-But that would be lying!"

Emiko went silent for a second at his words. It would be lying, which was a really bad deed.

But...

"It won't be lying if he doesn't know about it." She smiled, leaning on her hands as she encouraged Shoto to eat the cookie. "Don't think too much about it, it's just a cookie!"

Shoto looked at Emiko hesitantly once more, before letting out a sigh. He slowly took a small bite of the cookie.

"...It's a really good cookie."