When Izumina got home that evening she went straight up to her room. Too tired to even teleport, she lazily climbed the stairs of her house and collapsed onto her bed. She let her eyes fade out of focus as her mind wandered. Staring up at the familiar ceiling of her room she relived the day's events.
"Deku..." she mumbled aloud, reflecting on the intricate relationship between the one and only Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou.
She turned onto her side and gazed at the picture of the two boys and herself that was propped up on her nightstand. She met the inanimate eyes of a younger Bakugou, whose arm was slung around her younger shoulder. "You could've died today," she said, keeping her eyes locked on the familiar crimson ones of the boy in the picture.
Izumina turned her stare to the only other boy encased in the wooden frame of the picture. His forest green eyes matching the colour of his hair, and his signature freckles gracing his cheeks. Izumina thought back to the conversation she had just come from with the pro hero, All Might, and that very boy... That boy who'd been her rock throughout all her downfalls...That boy who shared her dream...That boy...her best friend.
Izumina smiled before whispering, "You'll be a hero, Izu. Just you wait."
With a final smirk and chuckle to herself, Izumina pulled her phone out of her uniform's pocket.
"Hey," she texted.
After a moment's silence, her phone pinged. The screen of her phone illuminated her dimly lit room, which had only the fading light of the setting sun through the curtains of her window for brightness.
"Hey Izu"
The contact picture of a messy-haired Izuku could be seen in the corner of her messages.
Izumina smiled before texting, "I just wanted to make sure you're okay. How you taking the news from All Might??"
Three small dots appeared on her screen and bobbed up and down as Izuku typed his response. "I'm good... Shocked... It's a lot to process but I'm excited."
"I'm glad. You deserve this!"
With an exchange of thank you's from Izuku and emojis from Izumina, the conversation ended with Izuku having to go for dinner. Izumina said her farewells over the stream of messages before exiting the chat. She stared at the shortlist of contacts in her message box before deciding to do something out of the ordinary.
"Hey," she texted.
After several minutes Izumina exhaled in slight frustration. She mentally facepalmed for reaching out to him before closing her phone. No sooner than she did though, did a notification pop up on her lock screen.
"What do you want, Aho?!"
It was an aggressive response, but then again that's just how Bakugou was. Izumina playfully rolled her eyes before unlocking her phone and responding.
"How are you feeling? Defeating that villain today must've drained you."
It had been months since last Izumina reached out to Bakugou via text, this being last year on his birthday. Considering the boy's explosive personality, and the fact that he bullied Izuku for years, Izumina tried not to initiate any communication between the two of them; however, even after all this time, she considered Bakugou a friend.
Hoping she had worded her text in a way Bakugou would find acceptable, Izumina waited for his response.
"I'm fine. That villain was nothing. Like I said before don't go thinking you and Deku saved me or some shit like that! I had it all under control!"
Izumina scoffed.
"Okay, good to hear! I'm glad you're fine."
There was a long pause before three dots appeared at the bottom left-hand corner of Izumina's screen.
"Whatever loser"
"I'll see you around, Katsuki"
"Yaya whatever, dork"
"Bye-bye."
"..."
The ever-familiar three dots danced in the corner until suddenly they disappeared with no trace of a text. Izumina made a face at her phone, intended for Bakugou, before placing said device face down on her bedside table.
She was about to go to sleep without dinner when her phone buzzed yet again, only this time it didn't stop. Izumina groaned as she picked up the phone, but quickly smiled at the caller ID before accepting the call.
"Hi!" She beamed as she hastened to grab her hero notes. As she flipped to through the journal looking for a certain page a man on the other end responded.
"Long time no see kiddo," spoke the famous Canadian hero, Fleur-de-lis.
"Well, talk more like it." Izumina corrected, having found the page she'd been looking for, containing a messy signature and note. "Haven't actually seen you since I was nine."
"Ah yeah, I guess you're right." Fleur chuckled through the receiver.
"Anyways what's up? I know you like checking in every so often but don't you have hero work to be doing?"
Since coming back to Japan to live with her father, Izumina had received almost monthly calls from the pro hero who had escorted her home for the first time in five years. She enjoyed them plenty, but she always wondered why Fleur-de-lis had taken such an interest in her well being. When she'd asked him about this a couple of years ago he simply told her one day she'd know. Whatever that meant.
"I had the day off. Heroes need breaks too you know." Fleur-de-lis said to answer her question. "Besides, a little birdy told me you had quite an exciting day."
Izumina could hear the smirk on Fleur-de-lis's face through the phone. "How did you-"
"Charles saw it on the news. You know how he likes keeping up with what's going on all over the world."
"Oh, I guess you would've seen something about it then." Izumina laughed at herself for forgetting about the news channels coverage of the story so soon after it had happened. "Did you call to get the details of it all?"
"No, but I would love to hear all about it," Fleur-de-lis joked.
"Well, there isn't much to say in all honesty," Izumina started. "I was walking home with Izuku when we saw the villain. He'd taken Bakugou hostage and our legs kinda just moved on their own. We were lucky All Might had been there. Although we did get into a heap of trouble."
"And this Bakugou kid," Fleur-de-lis interjected. "He's the one from the photograph on your nightstand?"
"Yeah," Izumina clarified, recalling the time she'd shown him her room.
Fleur-de-lis and Izumina talked for well over an hour. They caught up and shared many laughs as the time passed. Izumina, who hadn't mentioned her prior meeting with All Might, out of fear of letting his secret slip, told Fleur-de-lis all about her schoolwork. He in turn told her about his latest jobs; one of which involved a robber who he swore bore an uncanny resemblance to a certain American president.
Before long, it was time for Fleur-de-lis to go. He bid Izumina a heartfelt farewell and hung up. Izumina stared down at her phone, which had heated up in the time since she'd accepted the call. Feeling rather tired from all the talking, Izumina, still rather sticky from the remnants of slime, changed her clothes and allowed herself to slip under the covers of her bed.
Within minutes, she began to drift into a well-earned state of bliss as she slipped further and further out of consciousness. With an early morning ahead of her, Izumina prepared herself for what was to come. Tomorrow she would begin her training with All Might and support Izuku as he received a quirk. How exactly all this would happen, Izuina still didn't know. All she knew was that for the first time in a while, Izuku could see their future as heroes as clearly as she could.
Izumina smiled to herself, but before succumbing to the heaviness of her eyes she muttered, "I'll make you proud, Mom."
And with that, she fell asleep.