Chapter Text
You were furious and the cold night air did nothing to cool your emotions down. You had gotten into another screaming match with your mother, which wasn’t far from the usual. As you reminisced about the past evening, your jaw tightened and you balled your fists. The fight wasn’t even important, but it ended with you slamming your front door shut and storming out into the night. You had to stomp your way through your large front lawn, out the embellished gates, and into your expansive neighborhood. By the time your heart stopped racing enough to calm down, you were in a random part of the city you didn’t recognize. You tried to take in your surroundings, but it was dark and you were still too angry to care.
“ Why aren’t you more like your siblings ?” you mocked your mother’s high-pitched voice. In your anger, you kicked the nearest trash can as hard as you could. You haven’t been this enraged in a while, and attacking things made you feel better. “Stupid woman. Stupid brother and sister. Stupid. Stupid.” You weren’t making much sense, but you could care less. You continued walking, occasionally repeating things your mother said in the argument or just random swear words. You didn’t stop until a neon sign was in front of you. The sign read “24 HOURS” in glittering lights and the store beyond it was also lit up. Being so mad had made you hungry and the place looked like a convenience store. You looked both directions, saw the street was deserted, and went to the storefront. On closer inspection, the store's back end of a gas station parted with a convenience store. The glass doors teased all sorts of cheap, greasy foods on the inside. Your stomach rumbled, but so did your pocket. You groaned and pulled out your phone, seeing your mother was texting you to find out where the hell you had gone. Stupid woman.
When you got home, neither of your parents were waiting for you. You took that as a good sign, seeing as it was late and they probably needed rest for their jobs tomorrow. Your parents owned an extremely wealthy company that manufactured support items and merchandise for a superhuman society. You quietly padded through your living room, hoping not to wake them up. They had amassed quite the amount of money from intensive jobs, and by marrying, their joint assets were worth a fortune. Originally, your mother could have been on track to become a hero.
With such a powerful Quirk, she could’ve outclassed at least some of the competition. For some reason, she put her talents toward business. You enjoyed the benefits of their money, a nice house, a full belly, and whatever material items you wanted. However, their work meant you never received much of their attention or affection.
You yawned as quietly as possible as you passed your brother’s room on your way to your own. He was a light sleeper, and if you woke him you’d be sure there would be hell to pay.
Being the youngest sibling didn’t help with the whole attention thing. Your parents’ wealth had made them extremely well known in society, and they preferred going to business dinners or spending time with other higher ups in your society. They got to rub elbows with CEOs, sponsors, low level heroes, and anyone else you could think of with enough money. It was much more worthwhile than paying attention to their children, especially one that was such a problem. You mumbled that last part out loud bitterly and gently closed the door to your room. The door was loose on its hinges from being slammed so many times.
Like your mother, you had no interest in heroes, either. You didn’t know if it was because of your Quirk or if you were burned out from having to pose in photo ops since a little kid. You stopped going to those when you were about 10, but it still annoyed you seeing the pictures on your mantle. You tossed your clothes on the floor in the other piles strew about the room and fell onto your bed, thinking about your Quirk and taking pictures with some random hero when you were young. Your Quirk wasn’t even bad , it was just…weak. And kind of useless. You could generate your own water out of your body and manipulate it, but it had no real strength. The water could be used to heal someone, but it really only closed small cuts or healed bruises. You pulled your pillow over your head, trying to forget the reactions your family had to your Quirk manifesting. Everyone expected you to be like your parents or siblings and it was suffocating.
You pulled the pillow tighter and squeezed your eyes shut, waiting for sleep to claim you.
The weeks passed by in a mundane blur. School was out for the holiday and each day was the same. Even when you did go to school, you never had anything to do outside of it. Fitting in with your peers was difficult enough already so you didn’t hang out with anyone anyway. Your schedule was loose, eat a microwave breakfast, lay in bed all day, come down for dinner and listen to the latest news of the business world in Japan. You didn’t care about what your parents had to say for the most part, but your siblings hung onto every word they said. Proven by tonight when your father called your name. You had been staring at your reflection in the soup, your green eyes blinking back at you.
“What?” you looked up and stared at him.
“Have you listened to anything we just said?” he asked, folding his arms. Your sister snickered next to you. You imagined hitting her in the back of the head.
“Yeah. Kind of,” you mumbled, looking back down.
“Honestly, why can’t you just pay attention?” asked your mother. “Is it that hard to listen to what we’re saying for once?” Her voice was terse and she had stopped eating.
“It’s like you don’t even care. I know I do,” your brother chimed in. You tried to ignore him as you practiced, but he was so agitating. The perfect son, the perfect daughter, and then you. Your rising anger got you to speak before you thought it through.
“It’s like you don’t ever shut up,” you retorted.
“Let’s all calm down, please. I’m trying to have a nice family dinner, and you’re not helping, (Y/N),” your father sighed, pressing his lips together and frowning. Of course, you were the problem.
“Apologize to your brother. That’s no way to speak to him,” your mother demanded.
“He started it!” you responded, even more annoyed.
“Just apologize, (Y/N). Do you have to make this so difficult?” your sister rolled her eyes.
“Your sister is right. Say sorry so we can move on and have a nice dinner,” your mother gritted, putting force on the nice part.
“Whatever. Sorry I was such a problem tonight,” you snapped. You got up and despite your parent’s protests, walked through the kitchen, the furnished living room, and right out the mahogany door. You didn’t stop walking until once again you were in front of the convenience store. When you arrived, you collapsed onto the curb, your emotions and physical exhaustion getting to you. You put your head into your knees as you felt your eyes start to burn.
Before you knew it, you were crying.
Cold, salty tears rolled down your cheeks as you finally let yourself feel something other than anger. It wasn’t fair. Your annoyance melted to sorrow and you cried fat tears of self-pity. Your loathing for your siblings and parents was turning into misery for your own pathetic situation. Your fingernails into your palms, leaving pink crescent shapes on your skin.
“It’s not fair,” you sobbed into your knees. Your shoulders shook and your nose was running but you didn’t care. It was the first time in a while you were able to feel something besides jealousy or anger. Everyone always got on you for things you can’t even control! Just because you don’t want to be some stock broker or money-hungry CEO doesn’t mean you deserved all of this. Nobody gave you any attention unless you were being a problem and that was constant. You were so absorbed in your angst until a deep voice cut through it.
“Oh, dear. Are you alright?”
You looked up quickly, tears blurring your vision. You looked like a mess right now, swollen eyes from crying and snot dribbling down your face. Through your hazy eyes, you could see an extremely tall man wearing a suit in front of you.
“I-uh, I don’t know,” you said, not lying.
The man gave you a friendly smile and strangely it made you feel less bad. The first thought that came through your mind was how huge this guy was, he towered over you like a skyscraper. The second was that he had white hair like yours.
“Did someone do this to you?” he asked.
“Do what?” you replied before realizing what he meant. “Oh, uh, no. Not really. I mean, my family kind of did…it’s, uh, I don’t know.” You found yourself being truthful to this stranger. You were still too upset to even register you might be in some danger.
“I understand. Family can be rather cruel,” the man sighed sympathetically.
“Yeah. They’re mean to me. I don’t get why. It’s not like I ever did anything to them,” you rambled. “Sorry. You don’t wanna hear about this, do you?”
The man smiled again. “I don’t mind. However, it is rather cold out here. Would you like to go inside?” He gestured to the convenience store. “If you’re hungry, I can get you something. You’re too young to be out here on your own.”
Instead of feeling nervous or apprehension, you felt like this man was showing you concern. It’s not like your own father would ever do this for you.
“I’m not that young,” you mumbled, but you agreed to go inside to get something. After all, you were almost a teenager.
You followed the man inside of the store, disregarding any of the “stranger danger” stuff you were taught when you were younger. Sure, you didn’t know this man whatsoever, but you were hungry and exhausted from crying. Inside, you milled around the aisles trying to decide on something. The man waited for you by the register, having already chosen what he wanted. You ended up deciding on taiyaki instead, grabbing it from the freezer before heading over to him.
“Good choice,” he smiled at you. In the back of your head, it reminded you of the way a shark looks at prey. You got distracted by his choice, though, a coffee-flavored ice cream.
“Ew, gross,” you blurted out before thinking. “Coffee? It’s like eleven.” The man chuckled as he paid for the food and handed your treat back.
“I enjoy it. Caffeine doesn’t affect me that much,” the man answered. He led you outside and you ended up on the curb again, eating quietly. You were much calmer this time, both the company and the ice cream cooling your nerves. The man was silent, too, but he seemed trustworthy enough to not pay him much mind. Once you finished eating, you tried to stifle your yawn to no avail. The man smiled at you again, noticing how tired you seemed.
“Would you like me to walk you home?” the man offered.
What.
“Oh, um, I’ll be fine, I don’t live far and I do this all the time,” you rambled. You had somewhat come to your senses, realizing you don’t know this man very well. He reminded you of a much gentler version of your father, but you’re not about to take a stranger to your house. You hated to admit it, but it was more because of your parents rather than not trusting this man.
“Alright. Be careful, I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you on the way,” he said.
You shrugged and turned around, ready to go home. By now the moon was high in the sky and your parents would be angry when you got home.
“Hey, wait,” you stopped in the street. “I never got your name.”
The man turned around, he had already begun to make his exit.
“Shigaraki,” he said, offering you another smile before fading into the dark.