Double Life

Chapter 6

That night, Juvi couldn't stop looking at her parents.

When she slept, she had a stark loneliness she wasn't even fully aware of. Her parents had never been that steller and she couldn't even say she remembered how to be a child. She had picked up the slack of her parents in order to protect her siblings at such an early age. It was a lonely place to be, especially so once those siblings are gone and she's left to try and remember how to live for oneself rather than others.

But, here, she had two attentive parents and no siblings. When the dreams had quickly melted away after waking up, she had mistaken her Juvi's parents for Jubilee's, but looking now...she couldn't be so sure. For one, Jubilee was a caucasion American with brown hair and green eyes. Here her parents definitely had japanese traits, though her father looked more foreign than most.

But she couldn't quite remember just how Jubilee's parents look. It actually got harder to remember details the older the day got.

Her mother noticed first, and for the dozenth time since she'd come how that day, she asked if she was doing okay.

"My dreams are just vivid," she said. "I have parents there, and I was trying to make sure they were you."

Her mother, dreamer quirk that she had, was use to somewhat stringless statements like this. Dreams often defied logic, after all.

"Is it alright if I set up an appointment for you with my therapist?" she asked. "Just to make sure?"

Juvi nodded, because here her mother loved her and wanted what was best for her. Here, she had someone to depend on, and deep down Juvi was still just a kid trying to make sense of her head.

Her dad tucked her in for bed and played calculation games with her until she couldn't keep her eyes open. It was his way of distracting her from the stress of the day and any anxiety she might have about dreaming. Her nighttime experiences could be unpleasant.

Jubilee opened her eyes and stared at her water damaged, popcorn ceiling for a long time.

Then she dove for her laptop.

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Midoriya wasn't physically gifted. But, then, neither was she.

She offered to work out with him, the older part of her saying it would be easier to help him should the future prove to follow the story in her dreams if she was fit and new how to fight herself, but running sucked. The burn gym rats loved so much wasn't all that great either.

The worst, though, was when Midoriya didn't listen to his limits and ended up puking in someone's trash can. While other eleven-year-olds were playing video games and garbage forts, Midoriya was pushing himself to the point of puking. This guy couldn't be real.

"Holy crap, take it easy," she said while rubbing circles on his back. "You have time to work up to it."

"I--I can't wait," he gasped. "I got...I got to...keep you safe."

"Oh my god, we're ELEVEN. Bakugou's ELEVEN. All your other bullies are kids too, this isn't a warzone. I already told the teacher and he got slammed with detention anyway, that's what adults are suppose to do."

"But we're starting middle school next year..."

"Yeah, teenagers suck, but I got arms too. We'll work up to it. We'll make more friends. Not everyone is nasty, just the losers."

Midoriya didn't look at her, though, and she had to admit she understood. No one else had run in to take his side until she did, and when she had her friends had slowly trickled off till hardly anyone in class talked to her anymore. The prejudice against quirklessness was dumb as hell. Didn't anyone stop to think about what they were doing and why?

"No puking," she said firmly. "It's gross."

"You've changed."

She felt her stomach clench when he said that.

"Since you remembered your dream," he said quietly. "You're...you're bolder. Like you're not afraid of anything. And you speak...better. Like you're older."

"And what has that to do with anything?"

"Nothing. I'm just running my mouth."

"Better than puking. Come on, cool down walk." She'd binge read every workout blog she could find last night and cool downs were key.

As they walked, she told him about a dojo she had found a little out of the way of their area that had a non-discrimination policy towards all states of quirks, mutant or lack thereof. Midoriya listened with uncharacteristic quietness, his face pale behind the blotches of red from exertion. When the blotches didn't vanish and the quiet started unnerving her, she stopped him and took a better look. Memories of another time, with other children, rose to her mind and she felt his temperature and pinched his cheek.

"I think you might be sick," she said.

Five minutes later, he threw up again.

He barely stopped her from fireman carrying him home. She was bigger and she wasn't afraid to use it, and in another life she'd done the same for both her siblings, though it had been piggyback instead of fireman's carry, but she didn't want vomit on her shoulder.

All weekend she kept nervous tabs on her sick friend while her nighttime self binged every bit of information she could find on My Hero Academia. Show, manga, wiki, etc. Every now and then a detail would pop out that Juvi knew and Jubilee's heart would jump. It was just too uncanny. Too much of a coincidence.

And ever present was the whisper: which one is the dream?

She still felt not-all-there when Bakugou dropped into Izuku's empty desk next to her like he owned the place. Everyone else, even his lackeys, were heading off to lunch, though one hung around the door to watch.

He didn't say anything for a while, just looked at her, which would have creeped her out if she didn't feel like a passenger in someone else's body.

"Oy," she snapped to attention to look at him. "You broken?"

"Huh?"

"You think ignoring me makes you cool or something? I've been sitting here waiting for five damn minutes."

"Do you need something?"

He just gave her his usual scowl, which on his baby fifth grader face did nothing to her. Then tossed an envelope onto her desk. It almost slid off the edge. That would have ruined his image.

"For your shirt. Where's dipshit?"

"I don't know anyone by that name."

"Don't act smart. Deku."

"Hopefully, not puking anymore." She frowned. "Wait, why do you care?"

"I don't! Just realized why today's half-decent." He stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets once more. "You've gotten weird. Go see a doctor for your brain or something." And he stomped off, milking his stocky prepubescient body for all it was worth.

...Weird that he even noticed. Weird that he even talked civilly to her.