Middle School Troubles and Just Regular Troubles

Right now, I found myself lying down on the roof of my Middle School. I was currently in my 2nd Year and I was 13, going on 14.

Puberty wasn't harsh on me and I didn't have the all-too-common spots and horrendous mood changes. I was honestly quite glad but I had to wonder why it was like so?

It was quite easy to find the answer when I thought about it:

'My bodily systems have evolved so much such things are cleared up before they even appear...and seeing as the fickle emotions are caused by an excess of one kind of chemical, it's safe to say my enhanced body keeps the chemicals in near-perfect balance,' letting out a sigh I lamented my enhanced body.

Why?

Because along with being naturally handsome, tall, and athletic, I was now the only boy in our year and the year above who wasn't an emotional, pimple-faced, choppy-voiced, wreck!

What did this mean?

I was effectively the best pick for a boyfriend for girls who were just now realizing that boys are cute and they want to get with them.

So, it was safe to say I was now the school's idol. Even Shoto, someone equally as attractive as me, was still affected by puberty and without his cold, indifferent demeanor, he was also a bumbling fool around girls.

So in short, I had no one to pawn the multitude of brats following me around off to. It was hell and also the reason I'm lying down on the roof.

Pulling out my second bento from my backpack, I sat up and started eating it. Being on the roof was the only way I could eat in peace. If I ate in the classroom, some girl would come over and bug me. If I ate in the cafeteria, a group of girls would come over and bug me. See my problem?

I heard the door click next to me and I sat completely still. I had contemplated running off instantly but there's no way I could move at the adequate speed to disappear from sight and keep my food in my bento and also not tear my backpack in half from the sudden tugging.

'Even if I leave my backpack behind, whoever it was who'd come up here would soon find out it was my backpack and it'd give them reason to speak to me...plus who knows what they'd do with my belongings before they returned them...' stifling a shudder, I looked at who was coming onto a roof and I felt an immense amount of relief.

What I saw was a fairly tall teenage girl with a budding physique that seemed quite far beyond her age of 13 and looked like it belonged on a highschooler.

Long black hair, tied into a spiky ponytail with a single bang hanging on the right side of her face and onyx eyes that point slightly inwards, which seem to resemble a cat's.

She was beautiful.

Letting out a sigh, I smiled at my visitor, "Thank god it's you, Momo...I'd have had to flee if it was anyone else," laughing to cover my embarrassment at my panicked expression, I brought a hand up to scratch my cheeks in hopes Momo would believe the redness on them was because of the scratching action.

Momo just laughed before walking over to me with grace well beyond her years. When she was next to me she reached under her shirt before pulling out a rather sizable cushion. She put the cushion on the ground before sitting down on it.

She did a once over on what I was doing and focused in on the massive bento on my lap. She tried to stifle her chuckle but she could help it and soon began laughing.

"What?" I tilted my head to the side, genuinely not knowing what she was laughing at. She tried to answer but kept laughing until finally she stopped and looked at me, mirth still floating in her pretty onyx eyes.

"It's just that I thought about how little those so-called fans of you know about you. I bet they didn't know you ate enough to feed 10 men, or that you're a messy eater - look at you, your mouth is covered in rice!" she had a serious look on her face and before I could brush off the rice collecting around my mouth, Momo brought a handkerchief up to my mouth and wiped away the rice.

Looking at her so close, with that diligent and serious expression on her face, I began to doubt my body's ability to keep my emotions in control as right now they were fluctuating like mad.

But I kept a straight, albeit red, face as Momo did this.

Her soft touches felt like sparks being shot into my body and I had to do complex math sums in my head to keep myself focused.

'Plus, she's 13, you idiot! Maybe in a few more years...Stop! Bad thoughts leave my head!' straightening out my head, I let out a sigh as Momo finished her job and backed up a little, only now did she realize how close she'd been to me, her face becoming a bit red.

'She really is cute, though...' 'lamenting' my morals, I went back to eating knowing my Aunt Rei's cooking would either distract me or help me calm down. Maybe even both.

Luckily my digestive system was also upgraded constantly, so it could rapidly burn and digest the food I was practically shoveling into my mouth.

Though I made extra sure to not get any more rice around my mouth.

Momo seemed to notice this and I'm pretty sure I saw a small pout on her face, followed by some disappointment.

But I must've been dreaming, right?

Continuously telling myself that, I finished my food before leaning back and looking up at the blue sky.

There were other reasons for my tension, but I'd rather not think about them for now. Despite Momo's tall height for someone our age, she was still much shorter than me who was around 174cm tall. I was probably the tallest person in the school, actually. Bar some of the teachers. So, despite leaning back, I could still see Momo looking up at me slightly arching her neck.

Out of nowhere, she asked me a question that caused me to look at her in surprise, "Are you okay, Tatsuya?" she looked genuinely concerned so despite my initial thoughts to lie to her, I answered her truthfully.

"Not really, Momo. I came up here so I could relax away from my so-called fans. Usually, I can put up with them but not today - I've just got too much on my mind," letting out a sigh, I absentmindedly looked up at the sky, thinking about what the rare cloud looked like and whether I could find anything interesting.

So far, I'd seen a cloud in the shape of a turtle and one in the shape of a cat, so no luck on anything interesting.

Anyway, I could feel Momo's worry but that worry didn't cloud her intellect and she forced a smile my way, "You're seeing your mother today, aren't you?" the sympathy in her voice reminded me of the first day of Middle School when she saw me. She rushed over to me and started hugging me and telling me how sorry she was over my loss.

I remember being stunned but also thankful. We didn't meet much after my father's death, so to see she still cared about me was heartwarming, to say the least.

Nodding toward her question, I let out a sigh, "Yep. Ayako and I are going to meet her at her hospital with my Uncle," stopping for a second I thought of how long it'd been since I saw her. 4 years. It was coming to the end of June, my birthday being on the 28th, so it'd be 5 years soon.

'Would she still be the same mother I loved all those years ago? Probably not. But I'm not the little son she used to dote on all those years ago, so it'll be the same as us. But...' I stopped my thoughts before carrying on speaking to Momo, "But I don't know how it's going to go and that terrifies me. Put me in a fight and I'll know what to do. Put me in a sport's match and I'll learn what to do almost instantly. But put me in front of my mother I haven't seen in years? And I become a nervous wreck."

Sighing and smiling in a self-deprecating way, I looked over at Momo who was intently listening to me. Her eyes glistened slightly before she smiled so radiantly I wondered if she knew she was blinding me.

"That only proves you care, Tatsuya. That you still love your mother. I'm sure she's just as nervous because I'm sure she'll love you just like she did before - you're still the same old Tatsuya. No, actually, you're even better than before and I'm sure she'll see that and love you even more!" her words were full of sincerity and hope and the words seemed to dissolve my worry. Like her words were some kind of cure for nervousness and worrying.

Looking at her bright face, I saw the faint red on her cheeks she got whenever she got enthusiastic about something. I saw how her onyx eyes glittered like shiny gemstones and I saw her cute little smile.

And I felt how much she meant to me.

Without saying anything, I pulled Momo into a hug and held my cute friend against me.

'Who knew I so desperately needed to hear those words~?' despite my inner jokes, I sincerely felt thankful and grateful to what Momo had said.

"T-Tatsuya, w-w-what are you doing...!" Momo flustered voice came out muffled by my chest but despite her 'complaints', she did nothing to push away from me and instead wrapped her arms around me.

I just sat there, hoping my gratefulness came through my hug and Momo realized how much she'd just helped me. She really is gonna be a pretty great hero.

Finally, I let her go and Momo scampered up to her feet and started fidgeting with her hands. She didn't seem to be able to stand still as she kept switching her weight from one foot to another.

"I-I've got to get to class...b-bye Tatsuya!" I couldn't see her expression at first - the sun was behind her head and cast her face in shadows even with my enhanced eyes - but when she turned to walk away I caught the wide and happy smile on her very red face. The one she didn't think I saw but I did.

And it blew me away.

. . .

The rest of the school day went by quite quickly after that hug with Momo. I kept thinking back to it and consequently, I kept getting reprimanded by my teachers for being in such a daydream-like state. But honestly, I didn't care too much.

Anyway, the school day went by and here I am, waiting in front of the school for my Uncle to come to pick me up, Multiple people had tried to speak to me, but I was too busy thinking about my approaching meeting with my mother to really reply to them.

In the end, I just started to ask them to leave me alone, politely of course. Most of them were girls, so they understood and said they'd try and speak to me tomorrow.

Just when I was beginning to get impatient, a large black limousine came out of nowhere and parked in front of me. The door opened to show my little sister pushing the door with all her strength and my uncle smirking behind her, finding her efforts cute, funny or both.

Grabbing the door, I easily pulled the door open and saw my little sister beam a dazzling smile up at me, "Tatsuya-niichan!" she threw herself out of the car and into my chest, heading butting it with enough force to break a normal man's ribs. Luckily I wasn't a normal man, or well, a normal 13-year-old.

Hugging the little demon in a tight embrace, I looked behind her toward my uncle who nodded his head almost subconsciously at her improvement on her control over her Quirk [Siren]. Now she could speak whenever she wanted to without running the risk of hurting someone.

Obviously, she lost control sometimes but that was rare or whenever she got angry or upset over something.

Though she didn't really speak all too much and even then she usually spoke to me or Aunt Rei.

'I guess old habits die hard, huh?' thinking this, I climbed into the limousine and placed Ayako on my lap while she wrapped her arms around my body in her usual death-grip, octopus-like way.

"So, my little devil, how was your day at School?" I couldn't help the smile coming across my face as I asked this question because whenever she described her day at school was when Ayako got truly animated and spoke words like a machine gun.

Her face lit up and she removed her head from my chest to look up at me, "Miyu-chan and Yumi-chan were showing off their Quirks and I showed mine off as well and everyone thought I was really cool!"

She continued on and on about her day at school and I just sat there and listened as we drove toward the mental hospital housing my mother.

It seemed that Ayako needed this talk as she seemed equally as nervous as me. Even my uncle seemed nervous. He'd rarely went to see her as she damn near exploded at him whenever he got near. The only reason he was coming with us was because my mother explicitly asked for him to come with us, and he wasn't about to miss his chance to see his sister who he'd been wanting to visit for so long.

It didn't take long for us to reach our destination and when we got there it was as if each of us was stuck to where we were sitting. I looked over at Enji and he looked back at me, both of us wanting the other to get out first to get things started.

Not wanting to make things drag, I got out of the car first with Ayako, constantly reminding myself of what Momo had told me.

Even if my mom was different, I'd still love her. I'd still help her through her pain. I'm her son and that's my job right now.

I won't fail her.