"You have to promise me not to panic." Chiharu said, narrowing his eyes at his best friend. Izuku nodded hesitantly. Chiharu sighed. "You're going to panic." He muttered.
"I wont!" Izuku protested. Haru looked him up and down for a second and Izuku tried to shake off the nervous look he had. "You will." The black haired teen concluded.
"I will not-" He was cut off by the door to the penthouse opening abruptly.
"Are you just going to argue out here or are you coming in?" Keigo asked. He was in casual clothes, a black tank top and some dark grey sweatpants.
Izuku gawked at the hero and immediately started stuttering. "I told you not to panic!" Chiharu said, trying to hold back a smile.
"What-why-when!?" The green haired boy asked. "I'll explain inside." Chiharu said with a giggle.
"So your parents kicked you out?" Izuku asked, shocked. Chiharu nodded. "I was homeless for like two weeks before Mr. Aizawa found out and called Keigo. I'm living with him now.".
"I knew they were no good. I've barely seen them twice in the decade I've known you!" The teen said, "You should have come to me. You know my mom and I would love to take you in.".
"I know." Haru sighed, "But I didn't want to be a burden on you. Space wise we had the exact same apartment layout as my family. There's no way you could have fit an extra teenager in there.". Izuku looked like he was about to protest but didn't, instead taking another candy from one of the many bowls Hawks had laid out for them.
"As long as you're happy now." He said. Chiharu smiled. "I am. More so now that we're hanging out more." The boy replied, blushing furiously.
There was a lull in the conversation before Izuku turned to Chiharu. "All Might is my mentor. He helped me when I first manifested my quirk. Its had because it came in so late and its so destructive, but he really helps. I guess he and Hawks are kinda doing the same thing.".
Haru smiled and nodded. "I guess they are.".
"Now that the heavy stuffs out of the way do you kids want to do anything fun or are you just going to gaze into each other's eyes?" Keigo asked. The pair startled and pulled away from each other so quickly that Chiharu fell onto his back, squishing himself into the couch cushions.
"When did you get here?" He asked, his voice shaking. Keigo smirked. "I was only in the kitchen. I wanted to see if you guys needed any help getting the movie's set up. Or you could do something else in the 45 minutes you have before dinner. I'm making shogoyaki.".
Chiharu leaned back towards Izuku. "His cooking is awful." He stage whispered. Izuku tried really hard not to smile, but it was obvious from the way Keigo was glaring at them that he had obviously heard what had been said.
"Fine. See if I ever pack you snacks for your internships again." Keigo said, fluttering his wings and flipping his hair at the same time. With that, the hero walked back to the kitchen.
"So what do you want to do?" Chiharu asked. Izuku shrugged. "I feel like all I do in my free time now is go online and train. I've become a little boring." He laughed. Chiharu agreed with the sentiment. They didn't have as much time for fun as they used to.
"We can train if you want to." He said, hopping off the couch. Izuku gave him a confused look. The black haired boy smiled widely in a way Izuku had always described as 'blinding' and grabbed the teen by his hand.
He tugged Izuku all the way to the other side of the massive, high ceilinged pent house. The boy opened a door to reveal a near full sized gym. It was mostly gymnastics equipment for agility training but there were weights and things too.
"Woah." Izuku said. He wondered if All Might ever had something like this in his house.
"I know right?" Chiharu said with a smile. "What are you waiting for?".
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"Alright kids, you have to head to your internships tomorrow so no staying up past 1 am." Keigo said as he went to bed himself. His hero shift started at 5 am so he was trying to get to sleep early. "Oh and Chiharu, leave the door open.".
The smirk on the winged hero's face was all Haru needed to see to know that the comment was aimed at him for a reason. The black haired teen stuttered a little and blushed bright red. Worst older sibling figure ever.
"Why can't we close the door?" Izuku asked innocently. "Um-safety concerns?" Chiharu croaked out, completely unwilling to reveal why Keigo had really said that.
Hours later when the two settled into bed Chiharu fell asleep before his head even hit the pillow and Izuku was left awake by himself. He looked down at Chiharu's sleeping form and wondered.
It was blunt to say this, but Chiharu had been rather shallow before. Not in how he saw others, but in how he was as a person. Cheerful in front of Izuku, blank in front of everyone else. Since entering U.A he had suffered a lot of hardships but he had developed more as a person than ever before.
He was more confident now, both in himself and others. He was more of a leader than he had been before as well.
And Izuku still couldn't figure out if what he felt for Chiharu was envy or not.
To be indestructible, well it'd be hard to find a more perfect quirk to pair with One For All's body breaking nature. Izuku was a quirk analyst after all, if anyone would know it would be him. Despite the reassurances from All Might he still wondered if there were better options out there.
Beyond that, Chiharu didn't need to earn someone else's quirk. He was doing all of this on his own and under his own power. It was what Izuku had wanted to do initially.
But he didn't feel the familiar pangs of envy anymore. Just interest. He wanted to be closer to him, which was hard considering how close they already were.
He couldn't bring himself to hate or envy Haru no matter how hard he tried.
'But then' He thought, brushing Chiharu's bangs out of his face, 'what is it I feel if I'm not jealous?'.
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Chiharu had gotten quite a lot of offers. He came in third after all, it was kind of a big deal. The put the metal on a hook above his bed and everything.
But of course the only offer he wanted to accept was the one put forward by Keigo's agency. The hero himself hadn't even put the offer in himself, the staff at his agency just saw Chiharu and thought 'seems about right'.
"Is anyone in here?!" He shouted. There was one answer, a sort of shout, a call for help. Taking a deep breath from his oxygen mask Chiharu pushed on, careful of where he stepped.
Turned out Keigo's agency did a lot more than just fight bad guys. There were a lot of rescue missions, like the one Haru was on right now.
"There you are." The hero in training said, smiling behind his mask at the scared looking middle school boy. He was hiding in the bathroom of the burning apartment. "I'm going to pick you up, is that okay?". The boy nodded furiously.
Chiharu picked the boy up princess style and hurried over to the window. "Is anyone else inside?". When the kid shook his head for no he held him out of the window. Keigo swooped down to grab him.
With that the building was evacuated. Chiharu jumped out of the window and landed on his feet. He was getting pretty good at that whole super hero landing thing.
"Nice job kid." One of the firefighters said as Chiharu passed. "Just doing my job." The hero student said, "Good luck with yours.". The woman smiled and turned her attention back to the massive hose aimed at the house.
It was a strange new feeling being confident. Chiharu didn't think it suited him. He had never really been confident in anything before. This was a whole new world for him.
He looked up at the smoke filled night sky and took a deep breath, relieved to be out of the oxygen mask and the smokey air of the building.
His phone buzzed so he went to check it. The job was done anyways. It was a nearby emergency so he was technically off the clock anyways. His brows furrowed at the message.
'NYN - Zuzu shared his location'.
Panic flowed into Chiharu's veins. He looked back to Keigo who was busy debriefing the police and other first responders. He wasn't really needed anymore. Shoving his phone back in his pocket and zipping it up Chiharu started running down the road.
'NYN' He thought, his brain reeling. 'Need you now'. Izuku had used the secret code they made as literal 8 year olds.
Something must be really, really wrong.
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And now we enter the hero killer arc!
I've got so many cool idea for the upcoming arcs (much more romance focused because this is a love story at its very core)
I hope that its going to be super funny and fluffy so stay tuned for that!
(P.S. Expect the unexpected. There's always a second love interest-who do you think it is?👀)