I'm No Hero (My Hero Academia Fanfic)

Chapter 27

Raiden was right. If I wanted to talk to anyone, I needed to calm down. While my little brother didn't pick up—as he was a heavy sleeper, and probably didn't hear his phone go off—I still left a voicemail. I owed him that much. Since I calmed down, I was able to leave a meaningful message without breaking down too much.

The phone call to my mom was a bit different. She picked up, half asleep as she had probably lost sleep these past couple of days I went missing. As soon as I started talking, Mom started to flip out, demanding that I come home as soon as possible, or at least, stay where I was at. When I explained that I was staying with another classmate, whose sister found me, she reminded me to use my manners and to send me the address, so she could pick me up first thing in the morning. I had to be the one to remind her that she had work, causing her to curse on the phone, and tell me to stay where I was at until she could pick me up, not to worry about school, and a whole list of things I needed to do.

While it was a bit overwhelming, I was just relieved that she wasn't going overboard like she could have. After all, I had caught a glimpse of her past, and that could've made things even worse if she knew...if she even remembered.

It didn't surprise me that when I called Sakura, it went straight to voicemail. Knowing Sakura, her phone had probably died, meaning she was probably getting ready for bed. It was either that or she had blocked Raiden's phone number for some unknown reason. Either way, I wouldn't be surprised.

My last phone call was a tad disappointing. I thought Kaito would've picked up, but it went straight to voicemail. Seconds after the machine told me to leave a voicemail, I was silent as I wasn't sure what to say. Raiden made it seem like he was worried about me. I thought Kaito would've been worried about me. Still, after the long pause, I left a voicemail, explaining that I was alright, and I was calling from Raiden's cell since his sister found me and brought me home. When I was done, I stared at the phone for a moment, hoping he'd call back.

That phone didn't ring once.

"I hope you like tamales," Raiden said as he walked into the dinning room with a rather large plate of these long rolls wrapped in...corn husks? I wasn't sure if that was what it was, but it reminded me of the husk that would wrap around corn, even though it was a light tan color. The warm smell was comforting, but I couldn't say I was familiar with the dish that he sat in front of me on the table.

There were six of them. Six long corn husks with steam rolling off of them. While the smell made my mouth water a bit, I wasn't sure how I felt about eating corn husks.

Before I could ask Raiden about it, he left the room leaving me alone with the plate full of tamales. My stomach moaned in protest, craving any sort of food I could get my hands on. It had been days since I had last eaten as I refused to eat the moldy food that was left in that room I was stuck in. I drew in a deep breath, not caring about that corn husk at that very moment. Instead, I grabbed the tamale that had laid on top and took a bite out of it.

As I thought, the corn husk itself wasn't very satisfying. It crunched and had a very weird texture. I even felt the hard husk scratching my tongue and throat, no matter how hard I tried to chew it. The inside, on the other hand, was worth it. There was this warm and soft dough that just seemed to melt in my mouth. Inside that, I could taste the shredded chicken making its way through.

The more I ate it, the more I started to get more of the flavor. Spices started to roll onto my tongue, but it came from this sauce that covered the chicken. It was a bit like diced tomatoes, but there was something more to it, like a spice that exploded into my mouth. Despite the slight heat to it, I enjoyed it.

"What are you doing?"

I looked up to see Raiden standing on the other side of the table with two plates in one hand and a fork in the other. I forced whatever I had eaten down my throat before I answered.