Double Life

Chapter 4

Her hands were sweating all the way to their meet up point to walk to school.

Per usual, Zuku was waiting for her. Not once had he arrived late.

A familiar bright smile spread across his face when he saw her. It dimmed somewhat as she got close enough for him to make out the details on her face.

"Juchan, are you alright? You look pale. Have you been scratching your neck?"

She jerked the hand down that had been sneakily rising to do just that, and took a moment to just look at him.

Messy, curly green hair. Big green eyes. Freckles. A bit short for a boy starting middle school, but all boys were short compared to girls who'd started puberty before them.

"Izuku Midoriya," she breathed.

He gave her a weird look. "Uh, yes? Though I don't know why you're saying it backwards. You trying a tongue twister?"

But she wasn't listening, her attention arresting on another thing she'd just noticed.

The boy was scrawny. Hella scrawny.

At least he isn't constantly bruised and dirty, she thought, remembering the days before she'd come along. Friend or not, it irritated her to no end that Izuku didn't and couldn't fight back worth balls unless it was to protect someone else.

"You still want to be a hero, right?"

He stiffened at her question, probably paranoid that she might have changed her mind about supporting his dream and join the rest of the crowd trying to beat it out of him. She found herself further irritated by his lack of trust, though it was understandable.

"Y-y-yes?"

"Then why the hell are you so scrawny?"

He flinched at her uncharacteristic profanity. "Uh...no one wants a quirkless kid in sports--"

"Yes, because kicking balls with other brats is how you learn to fight criminals," she drawled. "Do you seriously think you can fight villains with twig arms and twig legs?"

He flinched again--it was almost a neurotic twitch now. "I'm only eleven! I'm growing..." the last words were a whimper.

"Oh, stop it, I'm not trying to stop you, but it's my friendly duty to point out your stupidity before it bites you in the nards, and I expect you to do the same for me." She gave his arm a friendly punch, even as the action played like an after image in her mind's eye. She usually did this, right? This was how she usually acted, right? Was her arm an adult's or a child's?

For a minute, the way he looked at her made her suspect he wondered that too.

She tensed, readying to be accused of acting weird.

Instead, he looked down at his red shoes.

"You're right," he muttered. "I...I should work out more." His head snapped up, something desperate on his face. "I have been watching some videos on how to punch and stuff, though! That's something, right?"

"Not really, but we need to get walking or we'll be late. Oh! My mom gave me a juice pack for you."

"Oo! Cherry pomegranate, my favorite!"

"Yeah yeah, but get this," she leaned towards him as they walked, feeling like eleven-year-old Juvi for the first time that morning. "I had a dream about you last night."

As she had predicted, his already big eyes went bigger. Real life Zuku didn't have to go far to look like anime Zuku.

"You had a dream?" he half-whispered. "One you can remember?"

"Yeah. You met All Might and got accepted to the Hero Course at U.A."

"What!?" he squawked. "W-w-why was t-that your--wait, you're teasing me, aren't you? I can never tell, you always keep that straight face."

Juvi actually considered that for a minute. A bit of twenty-four-year-old Jubilee had crept up, whispering second thoughts about screwing up the storyline, not being believed, even hurting Midoriya's feelings.

They had arrived at the first crosswalk as she thought. The usual business men and women who took the same crosswalk gathered around them, all preoccupied with their phones. Juvi stared longer than she usually would at the man with a mutant quirk that made him look like he had the head of a blue hamster. He even had fuzzy paws for hands.

For a moment, she was mind blown, drifting as she became someone stuck between Juvi and Jubilee. Jubilee would have freaked.

When the light turned to a walking person and the hamster guy moved out of her sight, she kept staring, feeling disconnected from her own limbs.

Her neck itched.

Zuku's warm hand pulling hers down from her neck brought her gently back to earth.

"You're not right today," said Zuku, eyebrows puckered with concern. "The last time you scratched this much was after your episode. You sure you're up to going to school?"

The crosswalk light went red and the cars drove by. Their passing exhaust fumes stung her nose.

"I..." she swallowed hard, even as she felt tears burn her eyes without entirely knowing why they were there. "I can't go home. I need to stay with you. To figure this out."

Pink brushed his freckles, but he didn't let go of her hand or get flustered.

"Was I really in your dream, then?"

"Yeah." She paused, just to try and decipher the mess of emotions rising in her chest--Juvi, Jubilee, child, adult--and try to pick out which applied to the situation. "You...you weren't real."

And hearing herself say the words finally pushed the tears down.

Because Jubilee was so terribly lonely.

And Juvi absolutely adored her friend.

Izuku and Juvi were scolded by their teacher when they walked in late, though it wasn't as bad as it could have been since they must have noticed Juvi's eyes were red from crying.