Pink cherry blossom petals flying through the air was the cliche sign that it was a new school year. However, the start of a new year hadn't caused things to change much.
They had moved up to 2-A, with all the same people in their class, minus Mineta, who had been expelled. No one knew his current whereabouts.
And Aizawa was still their teacher somehow. He seemed upset about it. On the first day of the new term, he didn't even say anything. He just slept.
When Bakugo had walked home with Nakano after the first day of school, they had taken a path lined with the trees in full bloom. Nakano had broken a small branch off one of the trees and waved it around like a wand. She also had a tissue stuck up her nose to keep from sneezing as she spread the pollen around. She had looked like an idiot.
But he was being an idiot too.
After all, he still had that coin that she'd given him back in January. For whatever reason, he'd kept it, and now it sat on his desk in his dorm. From time to time, he'd twirl it around in his hand, just thinking about stuff. Thinking about Nakano.
Ever since he found out about her feelings for him, it'd been hard to get her out of his head. He'd even had a weird-ass dream involving her.
In the dream, he'd been in the dorm's common room, and Nakano had been there, wearing pajamas. But whenever he tried to go up to her, she'd disappear and reappear somewhere else. They played this game of chase until he ended up on the roof of the building. Nakano was standing there, eating a slice of toast. Then, she walked over, grabbing him by the wrist, and brought him to the edge of the roof. The ground below had been replaced by a vast calm ocean.
Nakano sat down on the roof's ledge, so he joined her. She gave him half of her toast, and they stayed there for a while, just eating and watching the waves.
"Do you understand yet?" she'd asked, turning to him with a smile.
"Understand what?"
"You know that I like you, right?"
"Yes..."
"And how do you feel?" she'd asked. But before Bakugo could answer, he woke up.
-----
Kuri lay in her bed, wrapped in her duvet and surrounded by stuffed animals as she caught up on anime.
Watching the first years compete in their part of the sports festival that day hadn't been super exciting. Sure, watching kids fight each other was entertaining, but she'd had to sit there for hours on end. Plus, she'd never enjoyed watching sports. Even when her dad would watch the sports festival back home, Kuri only popped in to watch for a few minutes at a time.
Oh, yeah, my family.
Kuri had mostly forgotten about them. She only texted her parents a couple times a month, and Mayu rarely replied to her messages. When he did, all he'd send were memes.
Upon remembering them, she sort of missed them. She missed her house and its comforting scent. She missed her cats. She missed all the books that she'd left at home. She missed being at home because that was where she could be weird without anyone seeing her. She missed her old friends. When was the last time she'd contacted them?
She longed for her real home. She didn't belong in Japan. She needed to be in California, where her real life was. As much as she liked her new friends, a part of her couldn't wait to leave.
Suddenly, she got a notification. It was a text from her mom.
"Go check outside," it read. Kuri's breath hitched. Could it be...?
She threw her covers off, grabbed her sandals, slid them on, and opened the sliding door to the balcony. She perched herself on the railing, hanging on tight and shivering as a gust of wind passed. She didn't want to bother changing out of shorts and a t-shirt, so she decided to bear with the chilliness.
Kuri looked down at the ground. She was on the fourth floor, but it didn't matter, considering what her quirk was. After all, she'd jumped from much, much higher places before and been fine.
She dropped down onto the soft grass, then sprinted to the front of the dorm building. As she rounded the corner, her eyes fell on three figures. They turned to look at her, and she tilted her head confusedly.
As I expected, it's Mama, Dada, and Mayu. But why the heck are they here?
Her father beamed and jogged over to her.
"Kuri! Hi, honey! How've you been?" he asked, wrapping her in a big hug. Kuri returned it, leaning into the touch. She couldn't remember the last time she'd hugged someone. She felt her mom's hand lightly caress her head.
"We missed you," her mom said.
"I missed you too. And I've been doing good," Kuri said. She pulled away from the hug and turned to Mayu. "Hey, Mayu! Did you miss me?"
"No."
"How rude..." Kuri replied, grinning. She patted his head, and he pushed her hand away. "So, why are you all here?"
"To come and see you during the sports festival!" her dad said.
"Oh. Well, why is Mayu here? Doesn't he have school?" Kuri asked.
"He's on spring break right now."
"I see," Kuri said. "How come you didn't tell me you were coming?"
"We wanted to surprise you," her mom said.
"Then why are you here now?" she asked. "You could've just said hi tomorrow, during the actual thing."
Kuri's mom shook her head, as to criticize her for questioning why they'd want to see their daughter.
"Well, we wanted you to watch over Mayu while we go speak to your teacher," she said, glancing at her son.
"We haven't even had a single parent-teacher conference yet," her dad said. "We need to make sure that you're doing well in school."
"Okay then," Kuri said. "See you later."
"Bye, sweetie," her mom said, waving goodbye.
"We'll see you tomorrow!" her dad said. The two of them walked off, leaving Kuri and Mayu on the doorstep. Kuri turned to Mayu.
"Wanna go inside?" she asked. He nodded, and she went to open the door. As they stepped inside, the few people in the common room turned to look, noticing Mayu behind Kuri.
"Who's that?" Kaminari asked.
"This is my brother," Kuri said, looking back at Mayu. He was glancing around the room.
"Oh, okay," Kaminari said, turning back to the television. Then he whipped his head back around. "Wait, how the hell is he here?"
"We came to watch the sports festival," Mayu answered. He turned to Kuri. "You got any chips?"
"Yeah, sure," she said, heading towards the kitchen. Mayu left her side and walked over to Kaminari. Kuri kept an eye on Mayu as she grabbed him some chips.
"So you came with your parents?" Ochako asked. Mayu nodded. "Where are they?"
"They went to talk to Aizawa or something," Kuri said, walking back over to them. She handed Mayu a bag of plain tortilla chips. "Anyways, Mayu, I think Mama and Dada will be coming back in like half an hour to pick you up. I'm going back to my room, so if you need me, it's the third door on the left on the fourth floor.."
"Okay."
Kuri nodded and to the elevator bank, longing for the warmth of her bed. She stepped into the elevator, and as the doors closed, she heard her classmates and brother talking.
"So," she heard Mayu say. "Anyone wanna play rock paper scissors?"
Kuri rolled her eyes as the elevator doors closed. Rock paper scissors was one of Mayu's favorite games. Not because it was inherently fun, but because of his quirk. If someone was unaware of Mayu's quirk, then he'd challenge them to a game and get a kick out of watching their frustration grow as he'd keep winning every round.
Mayu was probably gonna have a fun time playing around with her friends. He wasn't as shy as her, so he'd probably be okay with strangers. She wished she could be like him in that sense. Sometimes Kuri wished that they could switch places.
When Kuri got back to her room, she decided to stop watching anime and do something else instead to calm her nerves. The sports festival was the next day, and she was a tad bit nervous about the whole ordeal. The idea of competing in front of a crowd on live television with millions watching was pretty daunting. But it's not like she could opt out of the tournament.
Maybe thirty minutes later, Kuri heard a knock on the door, so she got up to answer it.
"Mayu, did you get bored... already?" Kuri trailed off as she saw who her brother was with. It was none other than her favorite blond boy, Bakugo, and he looked slightly annoyed.
"I went the wrong way," Mayu said, still holding the bag of chips.
"Dude, it literally has our names next to the door," Kuri said. "Whatever, just come inside and play games or something."
Mayu passed by her, and Kuri remained in the doorway. She looked up at Bakugo and smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about him," Kuri said, stepping out of her room and closing the door behind her. "And thanks for taking him to my room."
"It's nothing. Is your family here for the sports festival?" Bakugo asked.
"Yup, they flew all the way out here to watch me," Kuri said. "I think it's just because Mayu's spring break happened to line up with it."
Kuri leaned against the door as their conversation lulled.
"He looks just like you," Bakugo said out of the blue.
"Yeah, I think he's the cuter one, though," she said with a laugh.
"That's not true..." Bakugo mumbled.
"What was that?" Kuri asked. Bakugo had spoken so quietly that she hadn't caught what he'd said.
"Nothing."
Kuri sighed and reopened the door.
"Well, see you later," she said, waving goodbye. She stepped back into her room, closing the door with a soft click.
When she turned around, she yelped, for Mayu was standing right by her closet to startle her.
"Who was that guy?" he asked.
"That's Bakugo. The one I told you about," Kuri answered, jumping onto her bed.
"Oh, the one you like?" Mayu asked, sitting down at her desk. Kuri nodded and blushed a bit. Even though she had no problem telling her brother who she liked, it was still embarrassing to talk to him about it.
"Yup, that's him," Kuri said. "Did anything happen when you accidentally went to his dorm instead of mine?"
Kuri was a bit worried that Bakugo might've been mean or something since he often was. She could tolerate Bakugo being rude to her, but not her brother. The only one allowed to be mean to Mayu was herself.
"No. He just took me over here when I said I was looking for you," Mayu replied.
Kuri sighed with relief.
"He also didn't like losing at Rock Paper Scissors."
"Wait, you played with him too?" Kuri laughed.
Her phone screen lit up as she received a text. It was her dad saying that they were outside to pick up Mayu.
"Yu-yu, Dada and Mama are here to pick you up," Kuri said, rolling out of her bed.
"Okay," he said, getting up. Kuri gave him a pat on the shoulder.
"I'll see you tomorrow, buddy," Kuri said, opening the door for him. "You should text me more. Oh, and wish me luck in the sports festival."
"Wouldn't it be funny if you won?"
"I doubt that would happen," Kuri chuckled. "But I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow."