Fat. Beautiful. Tasty. Ravenous.

Chapter 28

I fling open the door the moment my mother knocks on it, panic eating away at me.

But when she steps through, slipping her shoes off, my mother seems completely unbothered as she scans the apartment, nodding appreciatively. She even takes the time to bend down and pet Bento as he comes striding up to greet a potential new attention-giver.

"Your home is beautiful," she says calmly, "You two seem to do well for yourselves."

I don't tell her that my last apartment was even bigger and fancier but part of that is because I'm kind of in the middle of a crisis here. Aren't I?

"What the hell is wrong with me?" I snap at her, getting straight to the point. I don't have the energy to beat around the bush and follow all the rules of etiquette for hosting someone in your home.

"I told you, Aiko. I don't think anything is wrong. Don't get worked up, you're not dying."

An enormous breath of relief bursts from me, as I lean against the wall for support.

"Well, why did you sound so worried on the phone then? Why did you come here if it's not an emergency?" I question her relentlessly.

I would also love to know why she called me at all in the first place but I'll wait on that for now. I need to know what's going on with me!

Sighing, she stands at full height again and finally looks me in the eye. "What are your symptoms again?"

As if I've just slipped back into my teenage self, I already know how to determine what is bothering me and rattle off my symptoms. "I'm tired, a little weak but my energy isn't low-"

"Wait. Wait. Your energy?"

Oh fuck! She doesn't know! I've gotten so used to it being just a normal thing I discuss now that I forgot she never knew anything about my actual quirk!

"It's about my quirk but it's a long story and it's complicated. I don't want to get into it right now. Can we just circle back to that later please? My quirk isn't the issue right now."

Shaking her head, she motions for me to continue. "Okay. Later."

"Okay so: Tired, weak, nauseous, I had a fever yesterday but it's gone now. My chest is sore from puking but I think all of this nausea is just from what I ate last night. My stomach didn't agree with it."

"What did you eat?"

I hold up my hands signaling that none of this makes any sense, "Takoyaki? But I haven't eaten anything really greasy in a while and I figured that might've upset my stomach so..."

She rolls her eyes upward in thought as though that will help her better access her memory, "I mean... It could. I suppose. Why did you eat takoyaki if you don't usually eat it anymore?"

"I was feeling sick and it smelled good and I really wanted some comfort food so I had some."

My mother nods in understanding and furrows her brow as she processes all of my information.

"Okay. And when was your last period?"

I blink at her, caught off guard by this question seemingly out of nowhere but... maybe she's onto something? It could be that I'm getting my period again.

"I don't usually get a period. I have birth control that works all the time so I-"

Her face blanches, "Oh god, please don't tell me you have an IUD."

"No. It's just a little thing that goes under my skin," I show her the barely noticeable bump where the implant lies in my arm. "They're way less invasive than IUDs but it does hurt like a bitch to get put in."