12

Despite sitting in their own rooms in their own homes on a day off, Izuku and Toru had the same terrifying thoughts of what to do when they saw a message from Mina.

Mina:  Hey, you guys wanna come over tomorrow? My mom's bugging me about bringing my friends over for dinner.

The two teens had mini panic attacks before remembering they had done this minus the dinner before. They both checked with their parents before sending in confirmations. Mina sent back her address, and the three started talking about other things.

The next day rolled around, and Toru found Izuku by the train station "yo... so uh, please tell me you're freaking out as much as me."

Izuku nodded as they boarded "yeah. Honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't tried to come to either of our houses yet."

"Maybe she's nervous? If this goes well, she might ask if she can come over."

Toru and Izuku sat down as he asked, "Shouldn't we be the ones to ask her if she wants to come over?"

"Oh right. That's how you do that, isn't it." Toru said as the train started moving.

The two chuckled quietly to themselves. The train ride was quick, and in no time, the two teens were standing outside a large two-story house. They walked up and rang the doorbell. Mina quickly threw the door open, and her friends had to try hard not to stare. Their pink friend stood in the doorway wearing a black tank top and pink and black zebra print short shorts. "Yo! Did you two have any trouble getting here?"

Toru shook her head then remembered she needed to talk "nope. No issue getting here."

Mina smiled "awesome. Come on in; dinner will be a few more minutes so we can hang out in my room."

Izuku and Toru followed Mina into the living room where two younger kids were playing video games. "That's Yuta and Yakino, my adorable and horribly annoying younger siblings. They're twins."

Yuta and Yakino both had the same curly pink hair as Mina and the same horns though neither had the black sclera or pink skin that Mina had. Yuta stuck her tongue out at Mina, who did the same in return. Yakino's eyes went wide as he stared at Toru "so cool. She's invisible."

Mina chuckled and pulled her friends along "ask about it later, Yakino."

Her brother whined about wanting to know more as Mina pulled her friends to the kitchen. Inside were two adults, one a large man with curly black hair pulled back into a short ponytail; he lacked any horns, but his skin was pink like Mina. His eyes were gold, but the sclera was white. The man smiled as he looked at them "ah, Mina, these must be your friends Hagakure and Midoriya."

Mina nodded "yep. Guys, this is my dad."

"Nice to meet you, Mr.Ashido," Izuku said as he tried not to fidget.

Mr.Ashido laughed "you can just call me Azuchi." Azuchi looked to the woman who was bouncing between several pots "dear, why don't you slow down for a moment and say hello. Besides, you shouldn't be working so hard. Let me take over for a bit."

The woman turned and pouted, "just because I'm pregnant doesn't me I can't cook. This baby isn't even in the way yet."

The woman was about the same height as Mina and had long curly pink hair down to her lower back. Her eyes were black with sparkling pink irises. She had four horns sticking up through her hair just above her forehead. Toru thought it looked kinda like a crown. Her skin looked like porcelain, and she had a bit of a bump in her stomach that rubbed gently as Azuchi sighed in a tired way before he took over the cooking.

The woman gave a toothy grin as she looked at the teens "name's Fukuyuki, but you can just call me Yuki or mom if you're feeling brave."

Yuki laughed as the three teens blushed. She couldn't see the invisible girl's face, but she could tell. "Alright, you kids, get outta here. We'll give you a holler when dinner is done."

Mina groaned as they headed to the stairs "sorry about my mom."

"I-it's fine." the other two said as they stopped by the stairs when someone came down. The girl was clearly a few years older than them, and unlike Mina and her mom, this girl was tall like their father but lean and athletic. She had curly black hair that was tied back into a short ponytail. One of her eyes was sparkling pink while the other was gold, both with the black sclera. Izuku noticed a shorter set of four horns above her forehead.

"Oh, it's Mina and her best friends. You know she talks about you two all the time." Izuku tensed as the girl ran a hand through his hair "oh wow, this is as fluffy as it looks. Mina, you should so ruffle his hair. He looks so cute right now."

Mina swatted at the girl "Fukumo! Cut it out. You're being embarrassing."

Fukumo pulled her hand back and laughed, "oh, so mean to your big sis. What happened to my sweet little alien queen."

Mina's face turned lilac before she hid it. "Oh my god, please don't bring that up."

Toru giggled quietly, "alien queen?"

Fukumo nodded. "Mina loves the movie, Alien. She wants to call herself Alien Queen when she becomes a hero."

Mina groaned loudly and grabbed Izuku and Toru's hands before tugging them up the stairs. As they walked up, Toru asked, "so how big is your family?"

Mina chuckled as "I have an older brother as well. His name's Nakita, but he's at university, so he's not here right now. Other than him, you've met everyone else."

They got to Mina's room, and when she opened the door, it was somehow surprising and precisely what they expected it to be. Izuku spoke up as they entered, "well, at least we don't need to ask about your favorite color."

"Or pattern type," Toru muttered.

The room's walls were white, probably because Mina's parents wouldn't let her paint it pink. Mina made up for that by decorating with her two favorite colors. The bed was pushed against the wall opposite the door, and it had a thick black and hot pink zebra stripe comforter on it as well as a few pillows of various shades of pink and purple. Next to the bed was a hot pink nightstand with black trim. The three teens entered and saw the black and pink dresser by the window, which was covered by heavy pink and black zebra print curtains.

Mina plopped down onto the edge of her bed and motioned to a small light purple table that had a couple black and bubblegum pink striped cushions. "Have a seat."

Toru and Izuku sat down, and Mina smiled "sorry about my family. They're all kinda wild."

Toru giggled "it's ok. Mine's pretty crazy as well though there aren't nearly as many."

Izuku leaned back and put his hands on the floor "the orphanage was pretty crazy when I was there. I helped take care of the younger kids, so I'm used to it being a bit crazier though now that I live with Nemuri, it's... quite a lot of the time."

The three chatted, and Izuku learned that much like himself, Yakino was super interested in quirks. Toru chuckled "if only you brought a notebook."

The girls starred in confusion as Izuku reached back and pulled a notebook out from behind his shirt, and pulled a pen out of his pocket. "I always bring one with me in case I see a quirk or new hero in action."

Mina grinned before falling back onto her bed and laughing. Izuku blushed as Toru started laughing as well "yeah yeah, I know it's weird, but I don't feel right if I don't bring one with."

Toru whipped her eyes and took a deep breath as she calmed down "no, it's fine... that's your latest one, right? So our entries should be in them?"

Izuku pulled the notebook closer to himself as Mina tilted her head and asked, "wait, entries? On us? I thought you only did those on heroes."

Izuku blushed "w-well, you and Toru are future heroes, so I made entries. It also helps keep track of your growth and come up with new ideas..."

Mina looked from Izuku to Toru, and she asked, "have you seen your entry?"

Toru nodded "not recently, but I've seen it before."

Izuku slowly moved to put the notebook back under his shirt as Mina said, "how hard will it be to get it away from him?"

"Shouldn't be too hard. He won't use his quirk on us right now, so we can totally overpower him."

"O-or." Izuku interjected, "y-you could um just not look at them... I can tell you the details later."

"He draws the person of the entry. He won't show you that if we don't take it from him." Toru said as she and Mina stood.

Izuku tripped over his own foot as he tried to scramble away. The two girls quickly pinned him, and Mina grabbed the book "got it!"

She scrambled away to her bed, and Toru hopped on to look over her shoulder as Izuku buried his face into the floor. They found Toru's page first, and Mina whistled, "oh, is that an outfit you actually wore?"

Toru nodded "yep. We hung out one day, and that was my outfit."

"It looks really good. These are some cool ideas, Izuku." Mina said before flipping through a few newer heroes and some updated ones from the top ten. Eventually, she found hers and grinned as her cheeks were dusted with lilac. "I look good in this piece."

"Yeah. that's from the first time the three of us hung outright?"

Izuku groaned as they went over Mina's page. He wanted to die, but also, it felt really nice hearing them praise his work. Eventually, they returned his notebook, and the two girls ruffled his hair gently for being a good sport. Izuku's face turned redder as they kept petting his hair and started commenting on the fluffiness.

Mina smiled as she ran her hand through Izuku's hair "oh, that reminds me, Toru, what's your hair like?"

Toru looked up as she kept playing with Izuku's hair. "Hm? It's a pixie cut. I have straight hair, or so I'm told. I found a stylist with a quirk that lets her visualize how she wants hair to look, and then she can encourage the hair to grow or cut itself."

Izuku finally picked his head "that sounds really niche and kinda cool... I wonder if it uses the nutrients of the host to make it grow or if she loses something when she makes your hair grow."

Mina pushed his head back down "enough nerding out about quirks. I'm sure you and Yakino will talk each other's ear off later-"

Mina stopped speaking, and her hand froze as her cheeks slowly turned lilac. Toru's hand was gently petting her, making sure to avoid her horns "wow... your hair is just as fluffy as Izuku's."

Izuku glanced up and locked eyes with Mina, who looked lost. He smirked, "oh, can't handle getting what you give?"

"What I don-" Mina was stopped again as Izuku reached up and ran his hand through her hair.

"W-wow, it really is soft," Izuku said. He was trying to play it cool, but just like Mina, he was blushing hard.

Toru giggled "curly hair is great. I wish I had it sometimes, but it would be such a pain to take care of since I'm invisible."

Izuku and Mina looked at each other before nodding. Quick as they could the, two reached out and managed to land on Toru's head. The invisible girl's posture stiffened, and she pulled back. Mina nodded sagely "hm, while curly hair is very fluffy. Straight hair is just so silky and smooth even when short."

Izuku nodded "y-yep, and a pixie cut is quite popular these days. Even when you can't see her, Toru is stylish as ever."

The invisible girl screamed as she waved her arms before trying to cover her face "ah enough!"

Mina started giggling shortly, followed by Izuku, then Toru. The three teens laughed and hoped they weren't blushing too hard about the whole thing.

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Dinner was amazing and embarrassing for the three teens. They were the center of attention, and Mina's family decided since Toru and Izuku were Mina's best friends, they were open game for teasing. The two managed to dish a bit back as well, thus getting Yuki's respect as a reward, followed by her making them blush and stumble over their words.

Yakino was in awe of Izuku's notebook, and the green-haired teen gave him some pointers on analysis. Yakino promised to start his own notebook and show Izuku the next time he came over.

Fukumo revealed that she was on the track team for her high school and was looking into becoming a physical therapist. Fukumo and Yuki had the same quirk of Empathetic Vision. When they made eye contact and spoke to someone, they could see the emotions of the target.

This led to the twins wanting to show off their quirks. Yuta's quirk was called Empathetic Touch. It allowed her to feel the emotions of those she was touching. Yakino's quirk was called Empathetic Voice, which allowed him to project his emotional state onto those he was talking to. No one was sure if Izuku's excitement about the quirk talk was thanks to Yakino accidentally using his quirk or if the green-haired teen was just that excited.

Once dinner was done, the twins quickly returned to their game while the rest sat around and kept talking for some time. Eventually, though, it grew late, and the teens decided to head home. As the trio stood in the doorway, Mina smiled "thanks for coming over, guys. That went really well. Maybe next time, I'll come over to one of your places."

Toru perked up, "we can hang out at my place next week. My brother's heading out on a camping trip so we can use his game console and stuff."

"We can have dinner at my place some other time. Nemuri's schedule is a little all over the place between school years." Izuku said as he put his shoes on.

Mina grinned brighter, making the other two smile "sounds like a plan. Text me when you guys get home, ok?"

Her friends nodded, and Mina quickly pulled them both into a hug before they could start heading out, "see you guys around."

Toru and Iuzku returned the hug before headed out towards the train station.

______________________________________________________________________

Midnight stood by Eraserhead as the police went over the details of the raid. Intel suggested a few villains were gathering for some kind of meeting. The details of what specifically would go down were scarce. As the meeting wrapped up, Midnight flicked through the list of known quirks as she asked, "so how's it going with your kid?"

Eraser shrugged "he's doing good. I've been training his quirk up, and he's starting to talk more."

Midnight cocked her head to the side "he wasn't talking much before?"

"No, his parents wouldn't allow him to speak unless they said he could. It's taken some time, but he's talking more and more every day."

"That's terrible, but I'm glad you're making progress."

Eraser grunted in response, and the two fell into silence for a few moments. Midnight kept staring at him, and eventually, Eraserhead let out a low groan. "How's your kid?"

Midnight clapped her hands together. "I'm glad you asked. He's doing good. He's made a couple friends and seems to spend more time out with them than at home. Not that I'm really ever home either."

"A social life is good for teenagers. Hopefully, school will help Shinso get a social life."

"Ha! This coming from mister anti-social."

Eraser glared at her "you, Hizashi, and Emi are more than enough; I don't need more noise in my life."

Midnight placed a hand on her chest in mock horror. "Noise? I'm hurt, Eraser. I thought we were better friends than this."

The Erasure hero pushed off the wall as the police announced they were moving out "come on, we got villains to take down."

Midnight sighed as she followed. "I'm gonna have to pick up something on the way home for dinner. Hopefully, this doesn't take too long."

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The raid was quick and overall quiet. Eraserhead, with a gas mask on, slipped in and neutralized everyone's quirks before Midnight with the help of a hero who could control wind, flooded the warehouse, and within a minute, all the targets were unconscious. The warehouse was aired out, and the police and heroes moved in to start arresting.

Midnight stood by the hero with the wind quirk. He was a fairly new hero in the area, and this was his first raid since his work studies. Midnight laughed "they won't always go as smooth as this. Stay on your toes for now just because we're wrapping up doesn't mean-"

The boxes near them burst apart as a man ran at the heroes with a knife. Midnight shoved the newer hero out of the way, and the knife buried itself into her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and quickly grabbed his wrist and twisted it, making him release the knife as she threw him to the ground. Midnight shoved her hand over the man's mouth and released her quirk from the palm of her hand. He was out instantly as she fell on her butt and gripped her shoulder while trying not to jostle the knife and biting back curses.

Eraser and the medics ran over as the hero she shoved got up and apologized for not paying more attention. Midnight waved him off "it's fine, you're still new just... fuck, this hurts. Just use it as a lesson and don't let it happen again."

The young man nodded and thanked her for saving him as the medics took her away. Eraser restrained the man who stabbed her as Midnight was taken to the hospital to get stitches.

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Izuku woke up the next morning and checked Nemuri's room. She hadn't come home last night. As he walked into the living room, he saw he had a voicemail from her. He put his phone on speaker as he clicked play.

Nemuri's voice spoke, and he could tell she was a bit nervous "heyy Izuku, so I'm at the hospital right now. Don't worry, I just had to get some stitches in my shoulder. Got stabbed during a raid on some villains, but again, I'm fine. I'll text you the hospital I'm at, and I should be getting released in a day or so. It'd be a lot sooner, but Recovery Girl is in Osaka giving a seminar, so she can't come help me out. Anyways come see me soon. It's super boring in the hospital, and I wanna hear about how your dinner went."

Izuku stared at his phone before playing the message again to make sure. He bit his lip as he felt a knot in his stomach form. Nemuri got hurt which he knew was something that could happen but knowing it could happen and actually having it happen were very different. He was glad it didn't sound bad, but still, he was very quick that morning in getting ready and eating breakfast. He texted Toru and Mina that Nemuri was in the hospital, she was ok, and he was going to visit.

________________________________________________________________

Nemuri smiled as Izuku entered her hospital room. "Hey, Izuku. How'd you sleep?"

Izuku frowned "fine. How are you?"

Nemuri winced as she moved her right shoulder a bit "got a few stitches in my shoulder but other than that, I'm good. How was the dinner? Did you get along with Ashido's family?"

Izuku sat down by her bed and nodded "it went really well."

Izuku told her about the dinner and even about the girls getting his notebook which Nemuri found hilarious. She also managed to get him to talk about petting Mina and Toru's heads which made Nemuri cackle before gosling her shoulder and having to bite back a curse.

As Nemuri calmed down and Izuku stopped blushing, the door slid open, and before Izuku turned to see who it was, he saw Nemuri's face break out into a smile. Izuku looked and saw a person entering as Nemuri said, "Hirooki. I wasn't expecting you to show up so soon."

Hirooki smiled as they shut the door. "I had some free time figured I should make sure you're ok. I'm guessing this is Midoriya?"

Izuku stood "ah yeah, I-I'm Izuku Midoriya. I-it's nice to meet you."

Hirooki chuckled. "Nice to meet you as well. Nemuri talks about you constantly."

Izuku saw Nemuri blush and fiddle with her sheets. He smiled, seeing a chance to get back at her "really? Because at home she talks about you all the time. All good things, I promise."

They both chuckled seeing Nemuri's betrayed face. "I get stabbed, and now you two are picking on me? How low can you go?"

Hirooki smiled and looked at Izuku "you know with how much she does talk about us, I feel like I already know you pretty well."

Izuku nodded "same. Though I have to ask about your suit and your quirk if you're ok with talking about work stuff while you're out of costume."

"I wouldn't mind at all. Though maybe we shouldn't right now. Nemuri looks like she's going to start pouting. How about I give you my number, and you can text me later or call. Also, It'll help us keep track of what Nemuri is saying about us."

Nemuri gasped as they exchanged numbers. "I can't believe it. You've been in the same room for all of thirty seconds, and you're setting up ways to keep tabs on me and scheme."

"It's only because we care so much about you, Nemuri. Don't worry, we won't plan anything too devious." Izuku said as he put his phone away.

Nemuri huffed but smiled shortly after. She hadn't planned on these two meeting right now, but it worked out, and now she didn't have to worry about introducing them to each other. She just regretted that now they were going to gang up on her to get payback for the teasing she's done to them.

__________________________________________________________________

"So, how's Nemuri?" Toru asked as she and Mina set down a microwave in the back of Toshinori's truck.

Izuku tossed a bag of garbage into the dumpster. "She's complaining about her arm hurting every so often, but other than that, she's fine."

Mina whipped her hands, "so you never went into detail about it, but what did she do to get hurt?"

Toru stiffened and looked at Izuku, who smacked his forehead. He hadn't thought about the fact that Mina didn't know who Nemuri was apart from his foster mom. It wasn't because he was hiding it from her; it just hadn't come up since they met. Mina raised an eyebrow at him as Izuku groaned before saying, "I forgot I never told you. Toru found out by accident, but it never came up since we met you, Mina. Nemuri is a hero. She got hurt during a raid on some villains."

Mina's eyes widen. "Oh wow, that's so cool. What's her hero name? Maybe I've heard of her."

Izuku chuckled and mumbled, "oh, you've heard of her."

Toru giggled as Izuku took a deep breath. She had been waiting for this for so long. Izuku looked at Mina and said, "my foster mom is Midnight."

Mina blinked in confusion, and Toshinori looked up from his phone. The pink girl recovered first and waved her hands. "wow, hold up. Midnight as in the R-rated hero? Known for being super sexy and controversial and also personally one of my inspirations for being a hero?"

Izuku nodded. "Yep, that's her. We met during the latter portion of my last year at junior high. She trained me a bit and just spent time with me before..." Izuku bit his lip, and both the girls looked on in concern. Mina hadn't heard much about his time before, knowing Toru and Toru hadn't heard any more than Mina. Izuku tended to just avoid it or be vague. "Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is she adopted me, and now we're here."

Toru and Mina looked at each other as Izuku quickly headed back to the beach to collect more garbage. After he was gone for a few seconds, Mina said, "he keeps avoiding talking about anything before meeting you."

Toru nodded "the only thing I've heard was from some woman that was like an aunt to Izuku. She said something about Izuku being very forgiving and that he didn't have to be. She also apologized for 'everything.' whatever that means."

Mina hummed "we probably shouldn't push him on it. He'll open up in time, right?"

"I hope so... come on, let's get back to work," Toru said as she headed for the beach.