RENEGADE [Izuku Midoriya x OC]

Chapter 28 - Answer

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 "Are you ready now?"

"...Five more minutes."

"Everything will be fine, I promise. Just... trust me, Nori."

Sitting in Izuku's nondescript electric car parked in his mom's long, gated driveway, Noriko rolled her eyes at her favorite person's unyielding optimism. The house itself was intimidating enough--built like a small mansion and way nicer than any home she'd ever been in--so Nori could hardly imagine the impending questions from Mrs. Midoriya or... god forbid... All Might himself. "Easy for you to say, Mr. Hero," she mumbled, playing with the sleeves of her cream sweater dress, "Your family's in there. And I haven't done anything remotely... domestic in a long time. What if..."

Izuku tilted his head, reminding Noriko of a puppy. "What if what?"

"What if... I fuck it up? Or they hate me?"

"You will be yourself," Izuku smiled, reaching over the center console to take up Nori's nervous fingers in both of his hands, rubbing soothing circles along the ridge of her knuckles. "And if that means you... fuck up, then that's okay. I'll be there for you. And there's no possible way they could hate you, because I... I don't." He smiled at her reassuringly, and nodded toward his mom's house. "Maybe we should just... rip the bandage off?"

Eyes flitting one last time to all of the mirrors, Noriko nodded slowly. No sign of her shadows or any new surveillance today. She hoped one night away from the League wouldn't kill anyone. "Yeah. Okay," she sighed.

Dipping down, Izuku pressed a swift peck to Nori's cheekbone before unbuckling her, then himself. The two of them exited the car, Noriko's arms full of a green bean casserole and Izuku holding a similar tinfoil-covered pan of strawberry bars. He couldn't take credit for either dish, though, because Noriko did all the hard work; he just provided the state-of-the-art kitchen and did official taste-testing procedures.

All by the book, of course. No kisses stolen between steps or prep areas tainted with makeout sessions at all. Nope. No way. Totally observational.

At the gold-knockered front door, Izuku knocked with his free hand before barging straight in, tugging Noriko inside behind him. "Mom? All Might? We're here!" he yelled, announcing their arrival. After placing his pan down on a long console table in the expansive marble entryway, Izuku fished around in the nearby closet for house slippers and carefully peeled Noriko's coat away from her dress, hanging it beside his in the dark.

"IZUKU!"

Panicking at the pitch and desperation behind the outburst, Noriko shot up, finding a woman booking it toward Izu with inhuman speed. But, judging from the emerald hair and teary eyes, there were no imminent threats. It was his mother. Despite having only met Mrs. Midoriya once when she dropped off the letter--and seen her once before that from a distance at Izuku's high school graduation--Nori easily remembered her kind smile and uncanny similarity to her son.

The Midoriyas crashed into each other with open arms and happy tears, hugging and rocking back and forth. A form rounded the corner into the hall, tall and lanky, and perked up visibly at the sight of company. "Young Midoriya!"

"All Might!" Izuku laughed, gesturing for him to join the hug before turning to Noriko and doing the same, his smile wider than she'd seen in a while.

She didn't mean to hesitate... but she did. Noriko's body physically would not move, briefly terrified at the idea of three people touching her at once.

Izuku alone? Sure, no problem.

Maybe an extra-wingy hug from Hawks? If absolutely necessary.