Idle

An upbeat tune is all that fills my head as I recline back in my chair, fully enjoying the overly loud and confined sounds my headphone offers. It's not even the BlueTooth one Morgan had recently purchased, no, it's the one that was hung up on the wall over my desk. The one that's connected to the computer. Never before had I endeavored in making beats until this moment and I've learned that I'm surprisingly good at it. Or maybe it's not a surprise, I don't know. My mother always did say that I have a sense for this kind of stuff. I didn't make anything too fancy, I simply tried to mimic the sound of uptown funk to see what I would get. The result ended up being something upbeat, a bit funky, and very much enjoyable. It's good enough, not the best, but good enough. These headphones are amazing though and as I had suspected, things are loud enough that all other thoughts are drowned out. It is only when I deliberately try to listen to those voices that I can hear them. It requires a good deal of focus, however. I should do this often as to make it something that comes naturally so that my quirk doesn't become useless in loud environments.

Sitting here by myself has me curious about my future school life. Morgan says that we start within a week and that Alissa and I will not be attending the same school. Things just didn't work out that way. She also promised to have a talk with the head of the middle school I'm attending about my quirk and everything that comes with it. She had said that canceling my quirk had been an option as to not break that one rule, but she also said that since it's a quirk I cannot just stop using, perhaps my school won't have a problem with it.

And it is a private school.

I think

Either way, I hope I don't have to cancel my quirk for the sake of a single rule. No one even follows that law anyway and it doesn't even seem like anyone cares. How many times has Katsuki abused his quirk and gotten away with it? You would think he would've gotten in some well-deserved trouble for his dog water behavior, but he just gets off scot-free.

I will punch him.

Enough of that, I'm hungry.

I waste little time getting out of my room, though I'm sad to leave my beautiful equipment behind. If I go hungry I won't enjoy my day so I should eat. Besides, I've never been the type to ignore the needs of my stomach, no sir. If I need to eat, I will eat and I'll eat good. When I get to the kitchen, Alissa's on the bar, a bowl of noodles set down next to her while she busies herself with some odd device. She's so intensely focused on the thing that she doesn't even notice me, not even when I'm standing right in front of her. Huh. Eh, what do I care? I just want some food.

After searching the fridge for some goodies I find some good spaghetti that I'm sure I'm allowed to eat. If not, well, too bad for Morgan.

"What you got there?" Spaghetti isn't even fully down my throat before my curiosity gets the best of me.

"A thing" she replies. A thing. What thing? I can see that it's a thing, I just want to know what the thing is.

"What does it do?"

She looks at me for the first time since I got down here. For a moment she stares at me with an unreadable expression, her thoughts jumbled as they always were, curious and questioning in their intensity. Then she's looking at the thing again, thoughts running a mile a minute until she cracks a smile.

"Take it"

She offers it to me with a smile on her face. The thing is dark, metallic, and square. That's all. It doesn't look very special but it must be something if she had been so focused on it. I take it from her, only hesitating for a moment before deciding that it was safe. It's light, surprisingly thin too.

"Press your thumb on its surface"

I do just that, gently resting my thumb on the device. Upon contact, it lights up around the edges, a faint glow and hum as it starts to do something. Then there's a screen hovering above the little thing, a greeting accompanied by a cute little robot face.

"Isn't it cool?" Alissa's beaming at the thing in pure joy. "It's holographic"

I can see that.

"What's it for?" It can't just be for show, can it?

"Anything really" she shrugs, but the smile is still present. "It's like a phone, kinda. It stores a lot of information"

A phone stores more than information, but okay. The thing is obviously more than that, though Alissa's to overcome with excitement to enlighten me further. The little thing is taken from me soon enough with the explanation being that she has to fully set it up.

Morgan must've gotten her this thing.

"Don't forget your noodles, Lissa" the thing is cold by now, I'm sure.

"I won't," she says that, but she doesn't look away from the floating screen in front of her face. She repeats several voice commands upon the device's request, just giddy every time the thing speaks or the screen changes.

I'll leave her to it.

~~~~~~~

"So, about that memory card"

Bowl of spaghetti in hand, I follow Morgan around the house and have been since I literally bumped into her on the way back to my room. She made a comment about the spaghetti being saved for later but she got over it in little time. She's changed, now dressed far more casually than before, but she still looks like she's going somewhere. That's further confirmed when she grabs her keys on the way, stops in front of a mirror on the wall to check her hair, and lastly when she reaches the door and pulls on some nice-looking sneakers. All the while she had not answered my question, not even trying to sate my curiosity. And the fact that she's not even thinking about the thing no matter how many times I ask her. That smile on her face tells me she knows exactly what she's doing.

"I gotta go" she finally turns to me since I've been following her.

"I can see that"

"You three won't burn the house down right?" She quirks a brow, genuine curiosity seeping through her.

"I can't promise anything" there is no telling what can happen with the three of us in a house on our own. Especially with how competitive we can sometimes get when challenged and taunted, which is bad because we like to challenge and taunt. It just runs in the family. It's terrible really.

"Oh well," she shrugs it off far too easily as she bends down to tie her laces. "You can explore the house as much as you want"

"What about your room?"

"Do whatever you want kid, as long as everything is intact when I get back I really don't care what you do. I've heard you guys are surprisingly mature for your age and despite the obviously childish behavior"

That's an insult wrapped in a compliment, truly impressive.

"Oh, check out the basement"

Those are her words of farewell because after that she's out the door with a single wave. Having expected her to be a busy person I'm not surprised she's leaving us alone, nor do I mind.

"What's in the basement"

Alissa will one day give me a heart attack, one day when I'm not paying attention and her thoughts aren't obvious to me, one day she will scare the life out of me. She cannot just pop out of a damn wall so unannounced, she's not a ghost for crying out loud.

"Have you been creeping?" Useless question, I know. I know her, she has definitely been creeping. I expect her to be the first to have fully explored the house already.

"No, I've been exploring, and I have not gone down into the basement yet" she manifests next to me, easily falling into step with me. That little device is still in her hand. She toys with it, moving it between her fingers repeatedly, subconsciously.

"You've been creeping" my mouth is full of spaghetti after that. I should really finish my food before I go around the house. I shouldn't be walking around with food in the first place, it's not good practice. "Let me finish this and we'll go"

"Can I have some?"

Before I can decline her hand is a blur as it reaches into my bowl and she's running before I can even process what she had done. Why is she so fast? She just snatched some spaghetti out of my bowl and bolted within seconds. There isn't even a single noodle on the floor or hanging out of my bowl. That's precision right there and I don't know if I should be impressed or mad.

I don't even call for her, instead, I go back to finishing my food before she decides to come back.

Who just snatches somebody's noodles.

~~~~~~~

We get to the basement after I've finished my noodles without Alissa coming back for more. She had popped up in the kitchen, grinning, but saying nothing. I didn't say anything either. I still didn't know whether to be impressed or mad so I was and still am neutral about the entire situation. Either way, that's all happened and now we're in the basement. Surprisingly we're not the only ones down here, because we find Israel lifting some light weights in the corner of the big space. There's an actual gym down here, cool. There are all types of equipment gathered on one side of the room, ranging from weights to treadmills to spin bikes. Then there's a legitimate fighting ring near the middle of the room, there are gloves and other stuff on a rack nearby as well. I've just seen the thing and Alissa's already there, pulling on some gloves, excitedly motioning for me to join her. That looks fun and all but I would very much prefer the mats in the other corner that is obviously meant for martial arts, you know, the style of fighting I've trained in.

I cannot box. Though I'm sure Alissa is just as incompetent in that department as well, so we'd just be kids doing dumb stuff in gloves.

"Neither of you know how to box" Israel points out.

"Yeah, but it'll be fun" is Alissa's excuse to which I disagree.

"Stick to what you know"

"That's no fun"

Israel says nothing further, either not caring or seeing no point in debating with Alissa. It could be both.

"Just one round, Zena" she's bouncing from foot to foot with enthusiasm. I hesitate for more than a moment and with good reason. The only reason I agree is because there's a chance I can punch her in the face, stupid, but appealing.

Getting myself some gloves I find my way into the ring to stand opposite Alissa. I'm not sure what to expect here and her thoughts aren't helping. I know better than to focus too much on what's going on in there because she has learned to mislead me with great skill. When in a fight with Lissa there's no use relying on anything else than my own knowledge of combat.

The most important thing to keep in mind when dealing with Alissa is her speed. This kid is very very fast, it's not even funny and that speed is what is oftentimes my downfall. So far our score is even with it being thirty each. The winner today has bragging rights.

I release a breath, relaxing my shoulders, spread my legs and she's in front of me in record time. But that's okay, I saw this coming a long time ago so I'm more than prepared to evade the left hook. It was easy really, easier still to aim a fist at her exposed stomach. Of course, when it's easy, it's not, because again she's fast on her feet and dodging with a laugh. She'll enjoy this, I will not. She doesn't stay still, bouncing this way and that, getting close to me but then pulling away when I act. Each of her jabs are either deflected or evaded, the same goes for mine. I can already tell that this going to be long and that neither of us will actually make any progress if this keeps up.

"You guys have terrible form," Israel says with obvious distaste as he watches us from the sidelines. I don't spare him a glance, too wary of Lissa, who is not against taking advantage of distractions.

"We don't box, so of course"

Alissa tries for another jab and this time I managed to deflect and finally land a solid hit. The second I managed to deflect I brought my fist to her face as I had wanted from the very beginning. I didn't hit her as hard as I could have or wanted to, instead, a decent tap to her forehead that had enough force to send her stumbling. She grunts, gloved hands coming up to her head to soothe any pain she may have. The smug smile on my face is totally uncontrollable. I've been wanting to punch her for a while and I finally did it.

"Dammit," she groans. She's glaring at me for a split second before she's smiling again. She raises her hands and spreads her feet, adopting the default boxer's stance and I know I won't get out of this anytime soon. "Again, this I'll hit you for sure"

"I don't really want to go again," I say this, yet I'm copying her stance without much thought, eyes glued to her to make sure I don't miss a single thing.

"If you win I'll give you some of my chocolate" it's a promise, one she won't break, and, that sadly, is all she needs to say that get me on board. Because she knows that when it comes to sweets, I'm all in, especially if it's chocolate and strawberries.

"And if you win?"

"We go again"

Of course. She's such a simple person, never really wanting anything and always happy no matter what it is she gets. I never really mind giving her what she wants. As I've said she's always happy when she gets things and despite it all, I love it when she's happy. She's just the cutest

Today, however, I will not give her what she wants because what she wants is what I don't want so this won't work out.