The Heart of a Hero [BNHA]

Chapter Six: The Weekend Visit

Nikita jolted awake as she heard someone knocking at the door. She was half slumped out of her bed desperately clinging to the plush bear as if they were reenacting Mufasa's death in the Lion King and the bear was playing Scar. Straightening herself up she scrambled out of bed leaving the bear behind and stretched. Another knock. What time was it? Maybe it was an emergency.

She hurried to the door not caring that her hair was a mess and sticking up at odd angles or that she was wearing nothing more than an oversized t-shirt. Nikita chanced a glance at the clock on the microwave as she reached for the door, it was just a little after noon. How had she slept so late? Luckily it was the weekend and her only plans were to finish unpacking and get her apartment organized. Her heart skipped a beat as she opened the door and spotted Shoto on the other side with his hand raised as if he were going to knock again his grey and teal eyes widened as he took in her current appearance. A faint splash of color stained his cheeks and he hurriedly averted his gaze from her.

"Sho-chan!" She made an attempt to hug him but stopped as he held up his hand catching her by the face and held her off. "Ow!"

A small smile tugged at the corners of the usually stoic teen's lips at the crazy cat girl's antics. "Go get dressed." He lightly shoved her back.

Nikita tilted her head to the side curiously one of her fluffy black cat ears drooped slightly the other was perked up and inclined in Shoto's direction. She almost looked like a puppy. "Where are we going?"

"I didn't say we were going anywhere, you're naked under there, go put clothes on." He coughed as he stepped into her apartment and closed the door behind him as some of her neighbors had begun to poke their heads out of their apartments.

"Sho-chan, you've seen me naked before." She teased him.

"When we were five!" He was visibly flustered.

Nikita giggled but decided not to torment him further as she retreated to her room to change. Since mutation quirks weren't uncommon it wasn't hard for her to find modified clothing to accommodate her tail. She slipped into a pair of green shorts and a plain black tank top before attempting to tame her wild ebony hair. When she returned from her room she spotted Shoto looking at the only picture she'd hung up as she still had a way to go with unpacking. It was a picture of her at their old house after they'd been forced to move away, eight-year-old Nikita was sitting atop her dad's shoulders, her mom had to get a step ladder just to fit in the frame because of how tall her dad was they couldn't stop laughing, the person who took the photo got all of them in frame including the step ladder. Her parents thought it was so funny they had it blown up and framed.

"That was a fun day." Nikita smiled as she snuck up on Shoto, "We went to an amusement park after that, dad was too tall to ride one of the rides mom had to take me. That woman did not like roller coasters." She giggled, "Her screaming made everyone else panic."

Shoto smiled but it quickly turned somber, "What happened to them?"

"The day before school started we all planned to drive up here together so I could get settled into the apartment. Your dad's agency called them away for an emergency..."

Shoto's eyes widened, "They didn't work for him anymore."

"Yeah, I picked up on that too." Nikita clenched her fists. She'd nearly driven herself crazy staying up in the late-night hours asking herself what had happened why Endeavor's agency had called her parents. Several theories bounced around her head the one she couldn't shake was that Endeavor had gone to such lengths to keep her away from his son as to send her parents to their deaths thinking it would shake her enough to quit UA. Would he do something like that? Kill his old friends because he didn't want Shoto to mix with someone he deemed to have a low level, weak, quirk.