Quirkless

You're Quirkless?!

Midoriya was sitting in his office mumbling into a recorder when Q found him. The room was lined with solid bookcases, half of which were filled with well worn notebooks. The rest of the shelves were filled with awards, the shiny plastic glittering in the light from the wide windows. It was definitely an office that belonged to a top ten hero. She waited in the doorway for him to finish his thoughts, watching the other heroes shuffle around the office. It was midafternoon, and it looked like shift change was starting.

She had been assured several times by both Aizawa and Francois that the agency was secure. Francois had even gone so far as to suggest she let Midoriya have a long leash when they were in the building, to keep him happy and her cover intact. The agency was keeping his condition on a need to know basis, so according to pretty much everyone in the building, she was a clingy family member soaking up some of the great Deku's fame. The main downside of this was that she had to play fangirl with pretty much everyone but Midoriya and Bakugo.

Midoriya finally noticed her by the door and gestured that she come in. "Leave it open," he said as she reached for the doorknob. "I have a couple meetings left today that I'm hoping you can help me with."

"What do you mean 'help with', 'Zuku?" she asked, "I don't know anything about hero work." She looked pointedly at the open door, then back at Midoriya.

"Look, I get that we need to keep up appearances outside," he said, leaning back in his chair. "But I don't like lying to people I trust with my life on a daily basis."

Q almost rolled her eyes. Trust with his life? This guy was so obsessed with his own self-sufficiency he wouldn't trust someone else with his sandwich order. She turned and shut the door. They needed to clear this up, now.

"Look," she said, walking to his desk and sitting down. "When we're out of the apartment, I'm your cousin. It doesn't matter who else is in the room. I don't call you 'Zuku all the time because I think it's a cute nickname, I do it because if I slip and call you Midoriya in public someone might notice. This isn't about your feelings or your friends, it's about keeping you safe."

Midoriya rolled his eyes. "And keeping my condition," he practically spat the word, "a secret."

Q sighed. "That I don't care about." She did, but only because his vulnerability being common knowledge made her job harder. Interpol didn't have a stake in whether the world knew that Japan's rising star was quirkless, even if the Commission did. "If you want to tell the whole world you're quirkless," she saw him flinch at the word, "that's not my problem. My job is to keep you alive and try to find the people who did this."

"If you're so obsessed with keeping your cover, I don't see why you sparred with Kacchan," he said. "That doesn't seem very cousin-like." He crossed his arms and leaned back, as if he'd cornered her.

Q shrugged. "I needed him to trust me to protect you. If anyone asks, I do martial arts as a hobby and I wanted a chance to spar the great DynaMight. The gym is sound and quirk proof, so I doubt anyone even noticed we were in there." She crossed her arms, mirroring his stance, and waited for him to argue.

Midoriya didn't respond. "I still haven't figured out your quirk," he said finally, changing the subject.

Q just shrugged. "You'll get there eventually."

There was a knock on the door. Midoriya glanced at the clock. "That'll be Uraraka," he said standing. "Come in!"

The short brunette woman opened the door and stepped inside. "Oh, I'm sorry Deku, I didn't know you were with someone."

"No worries," Midoriya said, "This is my cousin, Asuka Midoriya."

Q switched into fangirl mode. She sprung out her chair like she was a child and squeaked happily. "Oh my god," she said, "it's Uravity!" She smiled brightly at Midoriya, as if they hadn't been glaring at each other seconds before. "This is the best vacation ever!"