"... Is that you?"
You hear someone shout your name behind you.
"Midoriya-san...?" you flash him a smile. "I didn't expect to see you here!" Actually, you were hoping to see him. "I almost forgot you go here!" That's a bold lie.
"Aha!" he smiles back. "Who's this?"
"Oh, this is my cousin!" you gesture towards Saburo. "He's in class 1-H, Yamanaka Saburo-kun."
"Nice to meet you!" Saburo practically salutes. "Please take care of my older cousin; she can be quite reckless, but she'll be a good wife!"
"I-it's not like that!" Midoriya jolts backward, quickly turning red from ears to toes. "W-we're n-not-"
"It's not like that, Saburo-kun," you lightly place your hand on Midoriya's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "We only met yesterday. I tried to kill myself so he-"
"YOU TRIED TO WHAT?!" they both shout in unison. They immediately begin to check you for injuries.
"I didn't know it was like that!! You lied to me!!!" Midoriya cries, giant tears already beginning to form.
"Oh, uh, sorry about that," you laugh nervously. How could you tell him you only lied to keep him from blubbering more? Damn slip of the tongue... "I guess I just..." you trail off into nothing, hoping his brain would finish the sentence for you and take the hint so you wouldn't have to say anything else that might hurt him worse.
"You never told me you were suicidal!" Saburo shook you violently. "You should've said something so I could plan your funeral!!"
"Ahahaha," you robotically laugh. "That is so funny. I am laughing so hard right now."
"You little bitch-" he lightly shoves you.
"Pfft- Oh so now he's not being the 'caring little cousin', huh?" you poke fun at him. "So much for worrying to death over me."
Realizing Midoriya had backed away a little from Saburo, you push Saburo off of you.
"Hey," you say to your friend. "Saburo is gonna be spending the weekend at my place, so I'll see his LEGO® face plenty. But I won't have as much time to hang out with you, so maybe we can chat for a bit before I take this kid home?"
("Kid?! You're only what, a year older than me?!")
Midoriya nods enthusiastically, "O-oh, y-yes, of course!" Once again, his face goes quite red. You come to the conclusion it's a mix of general social anxiety and the fact that it's a girl asking him to hang out. "I-I'll tell my mom right now!"
He quickly fumbles his phone and types something onto it.
Saburo leans in and whispers, "Dude, you're ditching me for your new boytoy?! Lame."
"Listen, he saved my ass from the voices yesterday, so he deserves some time. Go, I dunno, sit in an arcade. Or stalk us for all I care; just don't get caught..." you hiss back.
"Psh, yeah, whatever..."
You both snicker a little before Midoriya finishes texting on his phone.
"I can stay until s-seven," he nods.
"Cool," you say. "Now shoo, Saburo-kun."
As he walks away, Saburo makes a motion you can only describe as what would be a kissy face... if he had a face. Sometimes, you wonder where the sound comes from... Better not to think about that.
"So, where to first, Midoriya-san?" you ask, smiling again. "You live in this city, so I assume you at least know what's around here to do?"
"U-um, about that..." he mumbles. "I don't really go out a lot, so... Umm..."
"Ohh," you nod your head quietly. An awkward silence fills the air before you finally come up with an idea. You open your phone and look up nearby thrift stores. "Let's go to one of these! There's one not too far from here, so we can just hang out there and then grab a bite to eat from a fast food restaurant nearby."
He nods, seeming a little confused with the whole socializing thing.
"So... How do you like U.A.?" you quickly start a conversation before it grows too quiet.
He smiles shakily, "It's great! Actually we have a Pro Hero as our teacher! Eraserhead! But he's a little harsh on us, hehe..."
You nod your head, "The guy who can... Nullify quirks, right? Damn, I wish he was my friend. It would be nice to be able to sing out loud..."
"Oh, yeah! You're kind of like a siren, right?" he immediately reverts to an energetic person, seeming very interested about your quirk. "So if anyone hears you sing, they fall under your control?"
You lightly tap your chin, "Something like that. It's more like, they fall into a trance. The desire to hear more of my voice. So not necessarily full control. It's not a puppetmaster deal. It's more like a strong suggestion. It's possible to break out, but it's incredibly difficult, and only one person has ever done it before. It's like that feeling when you're about to fall asleep, right? And then someone asks you a question and you answer it without thinking. You don't really want to wake up though because it feels so nice. That's what I'm getting at here- Hey, why are you writing this all down...?"
"S-sorry, it's just," he hands you his notebook, "I like collecting facts about a hero's and other people's quirks! And your quirk was super interesting, so I, uh..."
"It's fine," you lightly brush it off. Truthfully, you thought it was a little invasive to start collecting data on you without asking first, but seeing his personality, you could let it slide. "I don't really think there's anything else to my quirk, though. It's kinda sad, though. I can't sing at all. Humming counts, too."
His eyes widen, "That must be... Awful."
"Yeah, it is," you agree. "I used to want to be an idol when I was really little. I saw them on TV and was like, 'Wooooaaaah, they're so cool! I love to sing and dance too!' But then the doctor was like 'haha what if I told you no', so... Yeah."
"I'd still love to hear you sing someday, though..." he looks vaguely away from you. "I'm sure your voice is incredible."
"I mean, not to brag, but it is," I brag. "Even before my quirk manifested, I had a good voice. For a kid. So that part is natural. The quirk is like an extra add-on that I didn't ask for."
"At least you have a quirk," he sighs. "I got- er, mine manifested extra late. As in, right before high school started late."
"Ugh, what I would give to be quirkless," you sigh back. "I miss being able to sing without getting chased by people everywhere."
"You get chased?!"
"Yeah... Think of it like a really good smell that you just want to follow around all day. It's like that, except it's the voice of a teenaged girl that you're obsessed with," you chuckle darkly. "It's not fun, but you get used to it. Fun fact, if I just speak something in a sing-song-y tone, it still triggers the quirk. It's not as powerful, but it still puts anyone who hears it into a confused daze for the next five minutes."
"Five minutes doesn't sound too bad," he says.
You shake your head, "Oh noo, it is. You try sitting in your room and manually counting the seconds up to five minutes. It's a lot longer when you're not having fun."
He blushes from embarrassment, "Y-yeah, that's... True... Sorry..."
"Don't worry about it. I have to explain this to everyone I become friends with, so it's pretty much gotten me desensitized to it," you say. "Not a big deal."
"'Not a big deal'? But-"
"Heyyy! You've got something on your shirt," you quickly divert. "Ew, it's a bug!"
You quickly try to flick it away a few times, only successfully doing so after three times.
"Gross!" you make a 'bleh' face. "At least it wasn't a wasp or something, because I would have screamed so loud, like you don't even know!"
"You're afraid of wasps?" he tentatively asks, though the look on his face says he had caught on to the distraction.
"Ugh, yes!" you dramatically roll your eyes up into your head and back down. "Anything that flies near my face that stings, I hate. And spiders. But those are arachnids, not insects. I like jumping spiders, though! Have you ever seen one?! They're super cute!"
He appears a little stiff at your bombardment of words, so you decide to dial it down a bit.
"We're here!" you lead him into the thrift store. By this point, he seems to have either forgotten what he was about to say or had put it away for later. "Let's go look at... Plates!!"
"Plates...?" he asks, giving you a slightly judgemental look. Good, that means he's probably warming up to you being that he feels comfortable enough to judge you. "Are you a grandma...?"
"Please, I'm forever young! Look at me!" you spin around in a rather comical fashion. "I may be a gram-gram in spirit, but I'll always be young and beautiful!!"
The two of you speed over to the dish aisle (or rather, you dragged him along whilst running). You immediately pick up a cheap 'fine china' plate with a cute rose design.
You dramatically start shaking and mutter, "Must. Not. Spend. Money."
You say it just loud enough that Midoriya could hear it. Thankfully, your efforts were not in vain, and you got yourself a light chuckle out of it from your new friend.
After a few more minutes of you picking up plates and Midoriya watching you like an entertained visitor at a zoo, he finally says, "Why don't we go look at clothes instead? I need a new hero tee anyways..."
You smile, knowing you had (hopefully) broken his shell of anxiety.
"Sure, why not?"