Tradition

Izuku stretched his arms up over his head, a slight groan escaping his throat as his stiff muscles loosened. His wings mirrored the motion, extending up into the air. He got up from where he'd been stretched across the balcony that connected to his bedroom and the two offices, the last few feet of his tail dangling over the railing. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, signaling the start of the day.

He'd taken the night off from his vigilante work. Not because something had happened, as he had before, but because this was the one night a year that he always took off. Well, technically two nights. The night before and the night after today. Instead of dressing up and patrolling the city, he'd spent most of the night lounging across his balcony, enjoying the July heat as he read a book he'd been neglecting, while listening to soft music play from his phone. He'd found that 'Spectrum's night vision aspect was incredibly useful for reading in the dark.

Flicking his tongue out to taste the air, he picked up the barest hints of cooking food coming from inside the apartment. Rei must be starting her day.

She was currently on Summer break. Which meant that she was able to adjust her sleep schedule back to something that resembled a normal human's. Of course, this also meant that she wasn't awake to help him at night, but he was alright with it. She was happier during the breaks. It was usually about the only time she could go outside while it was light out.

Normally, he'd be in the kitchen right now instead of her, cooking up breakfast after a night of playing with criminals. But the same circumstances that had him taking the night off also had her preparing breakfast.

Actually, it wasn't just his vigilante work that he was taking a break from. This was the one day a year that he took a break from anything he normally did. No going to the beach, chatting or playing with Nezu, or any of the errands he normally took care of. He didn't even work on any analysis requests. He'd leave them all until the next day, where he'd pull on a few speed quirks, and maybe even 'Quick Thinker' to make up the difference.

Rolling his neck to work out the last bit of soreness, he made his way back inside his room, depositing the book and the pillow he'd taken out with him, before heading to the kitchen and living room. The scents he'd picked up outside hit him full force as soon as his bedroom door opened. His mouth started watering at the delicious smell.

Few things could beat fresh pancakes and bacon.

"Good morning Izuku!" Rei called from behind the stove, where he could see breakfast cooking away. "Good Timing! I was just about to come get you. I've got a plate ready for you on the table."

"Mmmm. Smells delicious. Thank you." He said, moving over to the table. "I could smell it from all the way outside."

She hummed in response, pleased with the praise, as she dipped out her own serving and shut off the stove. "So, how did you spend your night off?"

"Relaxing out on the balcony." He replied, digging in and savoring the taste. "Reading, mostly. But around one in the morning I went out flying for a bit."

"Did you go out to do anything?" She asked, depositing her plate on the table, and settling at her spot.

"Nope. Just flying. Enjoying the wind, and the view. I was probably up there for a couple hours, and I have no idea how high I ended up going."

He smiled as he spoke, recalling the sensation of wind blowing past him as he soared through the air. Flying was one of his favorite things to do. There was just so much freedom in it. When he was up there, a few thousand feet in the air, there was nothing but him. No one to deal with, no one to fight, nothing to do but enjoy the view.

In a world of constant distractions, it was almost liberating. It was too bad he didn't get many chances to fly strictly for the sake of flying. Sure, he flew around plenty either as Oni or Izuku to travel, but those instances were both too short and too low altitude to really enjoy.

Izuku pulled out of his thoughts to see Rei smiling at him across the table.

"That's good. You shouldn't be doing anything today except enjoying yourself."

"Well we're certainly off to a good start with this delicious breakfast you've prepared." He said, taking another bite. "Honestly, I doubt that I could've done any better."

Her smile seemed to grow even brighter at his words. "I'm glad you like it. I was a little nervous since it's not often that I cook. But it looks like I didn't have to worry."

He hummed in agreement through a mouthful of food, and the two fell into silence as they ate.

---

Izuku leaned back away from the table a bit as he emptied his plate again, finishing off his third and final helping. Rei scooped it up almost immediately, depositing it into the sink.

He sighed contentedly, closing his eyes. "Thank you for the meal, Rei. It was delicious."

Maybe it wasn't the fanciest or most complex meal he'd had. But it tasted good all the same, and it was cooked by his favorite person in the world, so as far as he was concerned it may as well have been served in a gourmet restaurant.

Instead of a response, he felt a pair of arms slide around his own from behind, enveloping him in a hug. At the same time, her chin came to rest on his shoulder. He leaned into the contact, bringing a hand up to pet at the top of her head.

"Happy Birthday, Izuku." She said quietly, voice nearly a whisper. "I love you."

He dropped his hand back down, opting instead to rest his cheek on her head.

"I love you too." He responded, almost as quiet. Her arms tightened a bit around him.

They stayed like that for a couple long minutes, just soaking in each other's presence.

There was no greater feeling for either of them, than when they were together in moments like this. Nothing brought them comfort quite like being with the other.

This was how it had always been. For various reasons, that both preferred not to dwell on, neither of them had any family outside of each other. No one else to rely on or to love them. For so very long, nearly as long as Izuku could remember, they'd only had each other to lean on. It had only ever been the two of them against the world.

And although it certainly hadn't been easy, he probably wouldn't trade it for anything. He could hardly imagine life without his sister.

After some time, Rei detached herself, rising back to her proper height.

"Alright!" She started, a smile decorating her face and excitement obvious in her voice. "Now that we've eaten, it's time to head out. I've got the whole day planned."

"I look forward to it."

"Good. Now go get dressed, so we can get started."

Izuku had a smile plastered on his face as he made his way back to his room. It remained in place as he picked out his clothes for the day. This was a tradition for them. Every year, on his birthday, they would follow this routine. He would avoid his normal workloads in favor of relaxing, she would treat him to breakfast, then the two of them would go on an outing planned entirely by Rei. Last year, in addition to treating him to lunch as she normally did, she'd taken him out to an aquarium, and to a seminar hosted by another well-known quirk analyst. This one from Germany. That in particular had excited him, since before that moment he'd had no idea that they were even in Japan.

They had talked for a couple hours about hereditary quirk development. How quirks shifted, changed, and combined from parents to child. It had been wonderfully insightful, and had given him an excellent opportunity to practice his German.

He loved every second of this tradition.

A minute later, and the two of them were making their way down the endless flight of stairs that led from the top floor to the ground. Soon enough, they were heading down the road to their first destination, led by Rei as Izuku had yet to be told what exactly they were doing.

As they traveled, they spoke to one another to pass the time. Rei went into detail explaining what she was learning in the online classes she attended while assisting him in his nightly ventures.

She was studying to become a lawyer. Specifically, she wanted to specialize in criminal law. Originally, she'd been studying computer programing, focusing on cyber security, but that ended up not working out.

It wasn't that she didn't understand it or wasn't any good at it, quite the opposite actually. She'd excelled. It was the reason that she was so good at what she did now as Phantom. No, she'd simply decided that she didn't enjoy it as much as she originally thought.

Her initial decision to make that her focus was based on necessity. Computer sciences and cyber defense were simultaneously some of the highest demand career fields and the easiest to study and get started in. She'd wanted to find a higher paying job to support the two of them. At the same time, she'd also wanted to do everything she could to help him in his early days as Oni.

But now that he had his job as Deku, and had become as skilled as he was as Oni, she no longer needed to worry about either, and had much more freedom to decide what she wanted to do. And she had chosen law.

He smiled as he listened to her ramble on about what she was learning. He wasn't going to pretend to understand most of it. He knew about as much as he needed to as a vigilante in order to understand which laws he was breaking at any given point, but beyond that it may as well have been a foreign language. It was clear that it made her happy though. She was obviously passionate about the subject, much more than she had been previously, and that was all he really needed to understand.

Izuku, on the other hand, kept them entertained by analyzing other pedestrians on the fly. Rei would point someone out, and in the thirty seconds or so that he had before they passed, he'd completely break down what their quirk was. This was met with a number of different emotions by the people in question. From confusion, to bewilderment, and in some cases annoyance as he deciphered a major aspect of their life at a glance.

This continued on until they reached their destination. Rei had just finished explaining the difference between degrees of murder – a fascinating topic to him since he'd only ever simply categorized people as "murderers" – when she took his arm to pull him to a stop.

Looking up, he saw that they were outside of the Musutafu Museum of History. A national museum dedicated to the entire history of Japan.

"Stop number one!" Rei announced. "The history museum. Because I know how much you love history, and because I know you've never been here before."

It was true. He did love history. Especially ancient history. It was fascinating to see how society and people developed throughout the centuries. To be able to see the history of an entire civilization through what was left behind. Art could tell stories, texts could paint pictures, and architecture could display memories.

In his spare time, he would occasionally pick out a different period in time and learn as much as he could about it. Personally, he'd always found eastern civilizations a bit more interesting to learn about. Maybe he was a little bit biased because of where he lived, but there was also just so much there.

Maybe in another life, one where he had a different quirk, or where he wasn't Deku, he might've become a historian.

Rei tugged at his arm again, drawing him from his thoughts. "Well?" She asked with a smile. "Let's get in there."

He grew a smile to match. "After you."

---

The two took their time working through the museum. As they did, Izuku ended up being something of a tour guide. Explaining a number of historical periods to Rei, and a few people that were listening not-too-discreetly some distance away, either too shy or too intimidated by his and Rei's appearance to approach them.

They worked their way through all the major periods in Japan's history, with Izuku narrating along the way. From the beginning of its history as an established farming civilization in the Yayoi period, to the introduction of one of its first major legal systems in the Asuka period, to the introduction of formal religion – technically Buddhism had been introduced first, but he personally considered that more of a philosophy than anything else – in the Muromachi period, to more recent developments like the isolationist period in the Edo period.

Then of course there were more recent events like the world wars, the disasters therein, and the rapid improvements of Japan's relations with the rest of the world soon afterwards.

When they got to the section covering history after the appearance of quirks, there was very little substance. Not really all that surprising. Aside from civil unrest and mountains of panicked legal and governmental reforms to compensate for the appearance of superpowers, practically nothing happened as far as developments. Arts, sciences, religion and philosophy. Everything ground to a standstill as Humanity collectively experienced a century-long panic attack.

If anything, humanity actually regressed. The first people to appear with quirks were shunned and hated. They hid their powers for fear of those that hated them for it. Crime rates rose through the roof, both in general with powered individuals taking advantage of their newfound strength and non-powered taking advantage of the chaos, and those specifically targeted against people with quirks; technically classified as hate crimes. There were even cases – many cases – of lynch mobs gathering together at times, adding to the mass confusion. It was as if every country simultaneously stepped back a few hundred years.

It wasn't until almost a century ago that humanity started to get its shit together. As the percentage of people with quirks continued to rise, and they weren't so outmatched in sheer numbers, hate crimes decreased as striking against one person held the possibility of many more joining in – all of whom held unknown powers. Things balanced out like this for a while, with governments still struggling to pass useful reforms and the percentage of quirked people slowly rising.

Then, with the popularization of heroes, things finally started to turn around. Quirks were beginning to be seen in a much better light as the newly established heroes set to work stopping crimes, both powered and not.

And while this did stabilize the once-heated relations amongst people, and set humanity back on the path to moving forward, the path it found was one centered almost solely around heroics. The arts – namely television, music, and literature focused almost entirely around heroes. The greatest scientific advances to appear came about in an attempt to create better support gear. Even civil changes revolved around quirks and how they pertained to the struggle between heroes and villains.

Of course, there was nothing saying that this was necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't as if this was the first time Humanity got caught up on one thing, and one thing alone, for so long. It had happened several times with religion alone in a number of civilizations. How long this focus would last, and whether it would end up being a good thing for humanity or not, remained to be seen.

Finishing up their trip through the museum, which may or may not have ended with Izuku buying a tiny replica of a terracotta figurine to take home as a souvenir, they left the museum and continued on where they left off. This stretch of their journey found them having an in-depth conversation about the history of quirk laws. Izuku's contribution came from his in-depth knowledge of history, while Rei's came from her learning about such laws in school. Evidently those laws were some of the first that they discussed, what with the prevalence of vigilantes and the general public dislike of those laws.

They both agreed that quirk laws were mostly bullshit. Not that-that was an unheard of opinion or anything. They had mostly been the result of panicked government officials that were doing anything they could to simultaneously reduce the discordance of the general public and secure their continued position in a seat of power. As a result, there were a host of half-baked laws that essentially made it illegal to use one's quirk at all. Then, later, reforms were made to make an exception for heroes. Specific instances of people either needing to use their quirk for their livelihood, or because their quirk usage was involuntary, were handled on a case-by-case basis.

Technically, it was illegal for Izuku to even fly anywhere, or use innocuous quirks like 'Appraisal' because he didn't have any sort of certification or pass to allow him to do so. Actually, going by the exact meaning of the law, it was illegal for anyone to use their quirk at all in any scenario, even at home.

Not that-that would ever do anything to stop him. He broke more serious laws on a daily basis. He wasn't exactly bogged down with guilt.

Their journey took them through a public park, which supplied them with some lovely scenery as they mocked the incompetence of the people that made the laws, or those that had passed half-assed reforms.

It wasn't a stop in their trip, but Izuku found himself enjoying it all the same. Rei had planned their route so that they would pass through it on the way. It was a nice, peaceful break to the normal chaos of the city.

Eventually, when they did make to their next stop it was nearing noon. Which was convenient – or just careful planning on Rei's part – because it was the restaurant where they would be eating lunch. It was a massive building. At least three floors and stretching across most of the block. An ornate sign sitting above its massive doors read "Ukemochi no Gochisou."

He'd heard of this place. It was a well-known restaurant that boasted the ability to seat anyone, regardless of quirk limitations, size or otherwise.

Most of its seating space was taken up by private rooms to accommodate its guests. They had giant rooms for size quirks, or tiny ones for size reducing quirks, rooms that were resistant to extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum, sound proofed, water, electricity, and laser resistant. Any quirk imaginable that might keep someone from eating out, this restaurant had the ability to accommodate them.

And if they didn't, they guaranteed that they would within a week. He was pretty sure that they had a contract with Cementoss to assist with the construction or rearranging of rooms. There was also a rumor that Power Loader was involved as well. His status as a registered developer of support items supplying them with the technology they needed to accommodate people.

More than that, though. They were able to meet almost any dietary restrictions or needs necessitated by quirks. If someone needed more of a specific ingredient, or if it was important to have no amount of another anywhere near their food, this restaurant could handle it. Most restrictions were essentially just food allergies, just a bit more severe.

Dietary needs on the other hand, were usually a bit more important and had a more direct impact on one's life. A lot of quirks placed some additional need on a person in order to function. It might need more of a certain chemical in their food or drink, or to take in some other substance on a regular basis. His, and Rei's, snake tail quirks required their body to produce more Keratin than a normal human in order to maintain their scales. That was a less-intrusive example, as it mostly just meant that they needed to consume a bit more protein. Other quirks could be much more demanding.

A fire quirk, depending on how it activated and what it used as fuel, might require the user to eat foods with more fats. Gun quirks would require the user to consume enough metal to produce the bullets they used. Growth or transformation quirks would require the user to simply consume a massive number of calories to fuel the changes. The list when on and on.

He was lucky that despite having accumulated a large collection of quirks, not many had extensive dietary needs. Most simply required energy to function, and he had his stockpile quirks for that.

And while their ability to accommodate anyone, regardless of quirk, was their main selling point, their food was also good enough to make them a five-star restaurant based on that alone.

In other words, it was the perfect place to take someone with a large mutation quirk for lunch on their birthday.

Because, despite having the ability to shift his form to a normal human's to eat anywhere, that wasn't a good enough reason for him to do so. That quirk meant too much to him to do something like that. There was a reason it was one of the quirks he played off as his natural one. Really, if it weren't so conspicuous and easy to spot, he would probably keep it active when he went out as Oni.

Besides, this restaurant being the way it was meant that Rei could eat there too. And she couldn't turn the quirk on and off like it had a switch as he could.

It wasn't long before the two were being directed into their own room, almost perfectly sized for them to situate themselves at the table without being cramped. The staff had evidently been aware that they didn't need chairs, because there weren't any in the room, and the table was slightly higher than a normal one would be. Doubly impressive since it was barely even two minutes between their entering the building and getting to the room. Rei had made a reservation beforehand.

When the food came, Izuku – of course – ordering Katsudon and Rei ordering Udon noodles, they found that it definitely matched up to the rest of the restaurant's reputation.

Izuku took one bite and nearly melted. It was probably the best thing he'd ever tasted. Rei evidently felt the same way about her food, judging by the expression on her face.

Now, he didn't mean to brag, but he felt that he'd become fairly skilled when it came to cooking. He'd been preparing his and Rei's meals nearly every day for years, and had gotten to the point where he could experiment and create his own dishes.

Despite that, he got the impression that any attempt he made would pale in comparison to the food he was eating right now.

But while it might be the best thing he'd ever eaten as far as taste, it still didn't top the breakfast from that morning in terms of how much he enjoyed the meal. That simple meal of bacon and eggs would likely remain his favorite for a while. At least until they did this all over again next year.

Partway through the meal, Rei spoke up.

"So." She started, swallowing a mouthful of food. "What's new in the world of quirks? Anything interesting come up?"

He knew that she was talking about his job as Deku. He thought for a moment before responding. "There was a metal quirk that came through the other day."

"Like that new one you took?"

"Similar, but with some key differences." He answered, taking another bite of his meal. "It seems to cover their entire body, where mine leaves the eyes unchanged. And it seems like it relies on a steady intake of iron to maintain its capabilities. Apparently, the durability of the metal can deteriorate rather harshly if they overuse it or don't intake enough. It also only lets them transform their body into one type of metal, unless they can consume different metals to change that."

"Interesting." She mused. "Do you know if they're trying for a hero school?"

"They didn't say. But they were directly asking for ways to make their quirk stronger, and there's only so many reasons why someone would ask for that. Especially when their quirk doesn't match any current heroes. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

The two quickly went off on the conversation, discussing the countless quirks he analyzed on a daily basis, and which ones stood out to him the most.

Eventually, they finished off the last of their lunch and were heading out the door, but not before Izuku left a sizeable tip on their table. And soon enough they were back outside and headed to their next destination.

After traveling for a bit, Izuku realized that they weren't too far from Dagobah. A moment after that realization, a thought ran through his head that put a smile on his face. He didn't really want to interrupt Rei's plans, especially since everything had been going so well thus far, but he felt like she would enjoy his idea.

"Hey." He said, pulling to a stop. "Are we on a tight deadline for the next stop?"

"Not really." She responded, confusion drawing at her expression. "We can get there whenever. Or if you have something that you'd like to do, we can do that instead. We're out to celebrate your birthday after all."

His smile widened. "Wonderful. There's something I want to show you. It shouldn't take but a few minutes."

With that, he turned to head straight for Dagobah, with Rei following close behind.

Just a few minutes away from his destination, Rei seemed to realize what they were headed towards. He noticed her expression tighten ever so slightly.

"Izuku. Why does it seem like we're heading towards-?"

"I know, I know. Just trust me." He reassured, draping an arm over her shoulder. "You'll see in a minute."

They continued on in silence. He could practically feel the tension and discomfort in Rei's body increasing by the minute. He knew that she didn't like the place, but that's also why he needed her to see it.

Finally, they rounded the final corner between them and the beach. Now it was just one final fence blocking their view.

The closer they got, the more he noticed Rei's discomfort making way to confusion. Despite the fence blocking their sightline to the ocean, it was still completely obvious to anyone that was familiar with the beach's previous state that the enormous mountains of garbage weren't there any more. Or at least that they weren't quite so towering.

Then they reached the entrance, with the entirety of the beach stretched out in front of them in all its glory, with its gleaming white sand and clear water, there were even crowds of people out enjoying themselves. He heard her breath catch in her throat. She was frozen, a look of complete bewilderment stuck on her face.

Several long moments later, and she managed to get out a small "What?"

"I cleaned the beach." He said.

She glanced at him, before returning her gaze to the beach, almost scanning it. "You- What?"

"About three years ago." He started. "I decided that I wanted to do something about it. It was a sore spot, both physically and in our lives, and I wanted to change that. I wanted to erase that part of our past."

Back when the two of them were younger, much younger, they'd been forced to live on the beach for a while. They didn't have the means to live anywhere else, and the city proper held too many dangers to be wary of.

It had not been pleasant. Not in the slightest. There had always been a constant horrid stench assaulting their senses, day in and day out. The constant breeze from the ocean made the colder months hell on them with their inherent minor weakness to such temperatures. All of that coupled with a constant hunger and it was easy to understand how unpleasant memories could hang around this place.

Those were the worst three years of their lives. For so many different reasons.

But once they were no longer in a position where they had to worry so much, and once he was able to, he'd started cleaning the beach bit by bit, to clear those memories away.

"You… Did all this?" She asked, still recovering from the shock. "How?"

"Slowly." Came his response. "There was an old dumpster nearby that I used. I would fill it up, then fly it over to the nearest proper dump to dispose of it, then come right back to do it again. It took me about a year to get all of the bigger stuff, then another couple months to comb through the sand to pick up all of the smaller pieces."

He watched her for a moment. Then, "So? What do you think?"

"It's beautiful." She whispered. "So different from what it used to look like."

He noticed tears gathering in her eyes, and squeezed his arm a bit tighter around her. That seemed to jolt her out of the almost trance she was in.

She sniffed, rubbing the tears out her eyes. "Now, look. I'm supposed to be treating you today. Not the other way around."

He smiled. "Yeah well. I felt like it was something you needed to see. Actually, I'm kind of surprised you never noticed that it was clean. It's been like this for a while."

She sniffed again. "I've always done my best to avoid it as much I could. I've never had any reason to get this close, and I've got a filter running on my computer that blocks out any mention of it."

"I see…" He said, smile dropping ever so slightly.

He'd known that she didn't care for the beach, but he never knew that she'd gone to such lengths to avoid thinking about it.

He supposed it made sense though. The way the two of them handled their past was a bit different.

Izuku accepted every bit of it without question. He rationalized it as all being deserved because of what he was. Every horrible thing and shitty situation he'd dealt with was because he was inherently evil and the world was punishing him for it. He knew and understood that, and was able to move on. He dealt with it, because he was supposed to, and then he worked to improve himself and his situation to earn something better.

But Rei had never deserved what life had dealt her. It had given her the worst hand it could, dragged her through the dirt, but there was never any reason for any of it. She'd dealt with so much shit, but she'd never been able to find an explanation for why. She wasn't able to accept it, the unfairness of it all. But she'd worked hard anyway to escape the unfair situation, and as soon as she could she'd shoved the past behind her to never look back.

He shook his head to disperse the somber thoughts, searching for a topic to direct their attention elsewhere.

"So, this is actually where I go most days when I head out."

"Really?" She asked, turning to look at him.

"Yep. Almost every day I come here to sun myself out on the sand and practice some of my quirks."

"You come here just to lay in the sand?"

"Oh, trust me. You have not lived until you've curled up on the hot sand. It's like the heated floors at home, except so much better."

She looked between him and the beach with a bit of doubt in her expression. But he could see the curiosity there too. He knew that she had the exact same instincts as him. The ones that made him want to curl up on the nearest warm thing and soak in its heat. They weren't particularly strong instincts, at least certainly not when compared to other mutation quirks, but they were constant, and insistent.

"Want to try it?" He asked. "I can attest that there is no better way to work off a stomach full of food than with a nap on a warm beach."

She still looked a little skeptical, but she relented. "Alright, let's do it."

They moved wordlessly down to the sand. He could tell the exact moment Rei reached the sand because he heard a slight gasp from behind him. There wasn't too much different in heat between the sand and the concrete sidewalks, but the sand just felt different. Part of it might've been how their weight made them sink into it slightly, or maybe that sand was softer than the sidewalk.

Whatever it was, he didn't particularly care. And it seemed as though Rei didn't either.

Soon, they had reached his normal area, and were coiling up next to each other.

"So, do you believe me now?" He asked, lounging across his tail.

She sighed from where she was laying across her own, mimicking him. "Alright. I believe you. This is pretty great."

She shifted a bit, relaxing even further. "You're telling me you come here and do this every day?"

He laughed softly, "Just about. I'm usually heading out of the apartment around noon. I go eat lunch at a nearby café, then come here for a few hours. Practice with some quirks, enjoy the sun, then continue on with the rest of my errands."

"I'm jealous." She said, eyes closed. "You get to do this all the time. I'm usually asleep right about now."

"Well, to be fair, I don't really sleep period. So I've got more free time anyway. And besides, that just means we'll have to make the most of it while you're still on break."

"You're right about that. I feel as though I've been missing out. And I'm pretty sure that this is better than what I originally had planned for the rest of the day."

"What did you have planned?" He asked.

"I was going to take you to the zoo. But this is turning out to be better, I think."

"Maybe." He shrugged. "But I would've enjoyed it all the same. It doesn't really matter what you plan, so long as I get to enjoy it with you."

A tired smile stretched across her face. "Maybe we could've made fun of the snakes at the zoo for not being half human."

He grew his own smile. "Cursed to live an existence of no limbs and no sapience."

He pulled his quirk journal from the bag at his hip. Ready to take notes. "Now take a nap or something. Enjoy the heat, we've got all day until sundown."

She mumbled something incoherent, already basically asleep. He hadn't realized how much she would enjoy the beach. She really had been missing out.

He was just flipping through his notebook to a new page when he paused. Frowning, he looked over to where Rei was stretched out. She was wearing short sleeves, and they obviously hadn't planned to be out on the beach, so they didn't have sunscreen. He didn't care as much if he got sunburn, his healing quirk dealt with it pretty quickly, but she didn't have that luxury. Glancing down the beach, he found the solution to the issue.

As quietly as he could, or at least as quietly as a giant snake could manage, he got up and made his way down to what he'd spotted.

A few short minutes later, and he was opening a giant umbrella, driving it into the sand. He positioned it so that she was completely settled in its shade.

Satisfied that she wouldn't be waking up a bright shade of red, he went back to flipping through his notebook, picking out a quirk to experiment with. Finally deciding on one, he pulled it from his chest and got to work.

---

It was nearly sundown by the time they got back to the apartment, the sky already awash in reds and pinks. They were at the beach much longer than he normally would be, but Rei had obviously enjoyed her first positive experience there.

"Alright." She announced. "Head back to your room or office for a few minutes. I've got to get the last part of the day ready."

He smiled as he complied. He already knew exactly what was going to happen, but that didn't stop it from being his favorite part of the day. Once he was in his room, he changed out of the mint green button-up he'd chosen for the day and into a loose t-shirt.

A few minutes later, and Rei came to retrieve him, pulling him into the living room to reveal the final part of the yearly tradition.

The floor was covered in pillows and blankets. Not too far from how it normally was with beanbags instead of proper furniture. There was a movie already set up on the tv. And there a few tubs of ice cream sitting on the coffee table.

Out of everything else, this would forever remain his favorite part of the birthday tradition. The two of them would curl up on the floor, wrapped up in blankets, and eat ice cream for dinner as they watched movie after movie.

They wasted no time getting settled in, wrapping up in blankets within seconds, and popping open the first cartons of ice cream. Not even bothering with bowls as they just shoved a spoon into the tub itself. The movie was started soon after they got settled.

This wasn't just his favorite part of the tradition, but also the oldest.

When the two of them were younger, older than they were when they'd had to live on the beach, but not by much, they'd still been struggling financially. When it came to birthdays, they didn't exactly have the money for a huge celebration or even presents. Instead, they would make do with this. They would rent a couple of movies, usually old Disney movies, and eat ice cream for dinner as they watched.

For them, even this was a treat they rarely got to see. Getting to have ice cream at all was almost the same as an extravagant vacation, and watching those old movies was the best gift they could get.

And now, despite being in an infinitely better situation, they had carried this with them. Albeit with better, softer blankets, more ice cream, and a streaming service for the movies.

They still didn't really do physical presents though. Because they'd struggled so much, now that they weren't, they tended to buy what they wanted when they wanted it. Where before they could only dream of having certain things, or had to save for weeks and months for the simplest things, they didn't want to experience that anymore.

Of course, this didn't stop Izuku from finding a few gifts for Rei when her birthday came around

The first movie cut off, and Rei was quick to put the next one on. They had already finished off all the ice cream that had been set out. They curled up closer as the next movie began to play, leaning on one another.

"Thank you, Rei." Izuku said quietly. "For always putting so much effort into making my birthday this enjoyable."

"You're welcome." She replied, wrapping an arm around him. "I know that you have plenty of reason to dislike your birthday. So I want to do my best cancel all of that out with good memories."

He hummed in acknowledgement, reaching his own arm up to wrap around her. "You do a very good job. This one was just as good, if not better, than last year's."

"I'm glad. You deserve it. You deserve to be happy."

He didn't respond, but hugged her a bit tighter as they settled to watch the movie.