First Response. || BNHA OC Fic

|| Chapter 0.5 ||

TW: Bullying, Mental Breakdowns, Profanity, and Censored Slurs

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"Welcome Nike!" Chihiro cheered, opening the door to their house. The house itself was fairly rustic in design, had stained glass windows, and the wall colours reminded Nike of spring flowers.

"It's so pretty..." They murmured.

"The house used to belong to a local artist," Atsuch-'Tou-san, it's Tou-san now', explained, "If you like the inside, you should see the garden, it's magical."

Chihiro squee'd and took Nike's hand.

"Come on," She beamed, "I'll show you all the cool spots!"

The next two hours was a whirlwind of laughter and discovery; turns out the estate was filled with secret rooms, crawl spaces, murals, and even a slide from the attic to the basement.

"-And here's your room! It's right beside mine!" Chihiro finished, leading Nike into a room with a mural depicting the sun, moon, and stars. It was considerably larger than what Nike was used to; a decently sized bed, shelves begging to be filled with books, a huge desk beneath the window chock full to the brim with art supplies, a vanity and drawers, and a cuckoo clock.

It was more than Nike could've dreamed.

"This is all for me?" They whispered as if it was too good to be true, as if it would be snatched away at any moment.

"Mmhm!" Chihiro nodded, "All for you-Ah! You're crying!"

Reaching up, Nike felt the wetness on their cheeks; it was like when they called Chihiro Nee-chan for the first time.

"Don't worry Nee-chan," They soothed, a small, wobbly smile on their lips, "It's a good cry."

"Oh thank goodness!" Chihiro sighed, "It wouldn't do if I made my little sibling "bad" cry on their first day home."

Home.

A word that used to seem so far out of reach but was now theirs.

A word that now felt warm.

"Ah! Nike you're crying again!"

Laughing quietly, Nike wiped their tears away.

"It's okay Nee-chan," They said, a small smile on their lips, "They're good tears."

"Kiddos, it's dinner time!" Tou-san called out, prompting the two to head downstairs.

When they got there, Nike marveled at the small feast.

It was an eclectic mix, reflecting the diverse heritage of the family. Nike recognized the pizza and lasagna, otherwise the rest was a mystery to them.

"Feel free to take what you like," Mama beamed at the starstruck look on Nike's face, "But I recommend you try a little bit of everything, you never know what you'll like."

Nike mulled the words in their mind, on one hand, she had said that they should feel free to take what they liked. However, she also said to try some new things, and more often that not that usually meant that they wanted Nike to try new things instead of taking with what they were most comfortable with, which gave Nike some anxiety.

Seeing Nike's inner struggle (It looked like a deep, almost black, blue), Chihiro took their plate for them.

"How about I pick some some stuff for you to try and if you don't like them I'll eat it for you?" She chirped, "Is that okay?"