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“’Toshi, Toshi!” Hibiki yells the moment Hitoshi walks through the front door, her voice a bit too loud but full of such excitement.
She runs as fast as she can on her unsteady legs and hugs Hitoshi around the knees. He kneels down to look at his little sister, and she holds out her arms. Knowing what this means, he picks her up and hugs her close.
Now a third year at UA, Hitoshi never imagined a life like this: coming back home after school to be tackled into a hug by his baby sister, so overwhelmingly happy to see him. Of course, he was friends with lots of the kids at the orphanage, and some of the younger kids even looked up to him like a big brother (well, the ones who we’re scared of his tired eyes and ‘dangerous’ Quirk), but they weren’t really close, more like a group of misfits all thrown together and forced to get along.
But Hibiki is different. She is his little sister, two years old last week, and loves him more than anything. Dad and Papa are in agreement that Hibiki loves Hitoshi even more than them, something that nearly made him cry (but he didn’t, because he never cries in front of his parents) when they said it. But he thinks it could actually be true, because Hitoshi is always her first choice for a hug, the first person she talks to in the mornings, and her favourite person to read to her. She loves him so much, and his little sister’s undying love for him is one of the very few things that put a smile on Hitoshi’s face.
As Hibiki giggles and clings to him, Hitoshi shuts the door and kicks off his shoes, trying not to laugh when Hibiki starts to play with his hair, mumbling, “Purple,” over and over and tickling the back of his neck.
“Good afternoon, Hitoshi.”
He looks up and sees Cementoss-sensei walking towards him. So he must be today’s babysitter. Dad and Papa are very frequently at work all day, so they pull favours and ask the other staff (and family friends; Hibiki sometimes spends the day at Midoriya Inko’s home) at UA to babysit Hibiki if they have free time. Some people might find it weird to see school staff outside of school, but not Hitoshi; after all, both his parents work at his school and sometimes teach him.
He smiles, walking into the living room with Hibiki still clinging to him. “Afternoon, Sensei. Has she behaved?”
Hibiki isn’t naughty, but her Quirk can be a problem sometimes and she’s sometimes quite silly.
“Yes, she has been perfect. We watched some TV, she had a nap while I did my marking, and then we played hide and seek.”
“Hide seek! Hide seek!” Hibiki says, laughing too loud.
Cementoss smiles. “She was rather good at it.”
Hibiki finally wants to get down, so Hitoshi puts her on the floor. She pushes her black hair out of her eyes and says, “Let’s play later. It’s fun.”
“I’d be up for that,” Hitoshi says. “It is pretty fun.” Even for a student at UA of almost eighteen years of age, Hitoshi has to admit that. Hide and seek is quite enjoyable. “When Dad and Papa get home, all four of us can play.”
Hibiki claps her hands together. “YAY!” When she sees Hitoshi flinch, she says, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Hitoshi says, knowing how hard it is to control your Quirk. Especially a Quirk as powerful as his sister’s.
Hibiki’s Quirk is a fascinating topic. According to Dad and Papa, it was obvious from the moment she was born that his little sister has a voice Quirk like Dad. She can’t be quite as loud as Dad, but she seems to have better pitch and frequency than him. But only a few months ago, they all learned her Quirk is not just Dad’s, but a combination of both her parents’ Quirks.
Papa can erase Quirks just by looking at you, which is useful when Hibiki is screaming too loud during a tantrum or when she gets hurt or whatever reason there is to be really loud, because he can stop her Quirk before she breaks the windows or someone’s eardrums. But one day, he tried to cancel her Quirk and it didn’t work. At least, not until the pitch of her scream went higher, and then he cancelled it like normal.
After that experience, Papa and Dad took Hibiki back to a doctor and to see the other staff at UA, and they all made a fascinating discovery. If Hibiki’s voice hits a very specific pitch, the noise she creates can cancel the Quirks of anyone close enough to hear her voice. Dad and Papa were ecstatic, and Hitoshi smiled, realising that Hibiki is even more like both her parents than he first thought. He genuinely thinks that, with a Quirk like that, she will become a Hero one day. Unlike him.
Hitoshi thanks Cementoss-sensei again and shows him out, before settling at the dining table and starting his homework.
“What’s it about?” Hibiki asks, appearing at his side and tugging on his pant leg.
Rolling his eyes, Hitoshi says, “Just boring maths homework.”
“Ugh!” Hibiki says, giving an exaggerated shudder, and Hitoshi laughs.
“Exactly right,” he says, because it is so incredibly boring.
After that, Hibiki settles on the floor beside him and draws some pictures with her favourite set of crayons, and they work silently, side by side. At least, until Dad and Papa get home from all work. And then hell breaks loose again.
“Daddy! Pappy!” Hibiki yells, hurtling to her feet and out into the hallway.
“Hey, my little listener!” Dad says in that silly tone he uses on the radio. “How’re you doing?”
“Hello, Hibiki, darling,” Papa says, and it is still kind of funny to hear Papa say words like ‘darling’; his friends at UA don’t believe him when Hitoshi tells them how soppy he is with his family.
Hitoshi puts down his pen and wanders into the hallway, where Dad and Papa are getting swarmed with hugs by Hibiki.
“Hey, guys,” Hitoshi says, waggling his fingers before leaning against the wall. “I know you’re probably tired, but just so you know, I kind of promised Hibiki we’d all play hide and seek with her when you got home. So, you know… yeah.”
Dad and Papa look at each other. Papa raises his eyebrows, and Dad grins.
“Okay, fine,” Papa mutters.
“Awesome!” Dad says in English, making Hibiki giggle.
“Hide and seek!” she cries, and Hitoshi rolls his eyes.
Dad and Papa barely have time to take off their shoes and unnecessary stuff (like Dad’s directional speaker and Papa’s capture weapon) before Hibiki grasps their hands with her tiny ones and starts trying to drag them further into the apartment. She can’t stop giggling, and Hitoshi can’t quite hide his smile.
“Right, so who’s hiding?” Papa says, probably hoping he can hide so he can sleep wherever he hides.
“I wanna seek!” Hibiki says. “It’s fun when I find you. Please let me seek!”
Papa and Dad look at each other, pretending to deliberate.
“Okay, then!” Dad says, grinning. “Hibiki’s our seeker. Everyone has a minute to hide, and then she’ll come and find us.”
“Hizashi, this isn’t a sports festival,” Papa says, and Dad laughs.
He kisses Papa, and Hitoshi grimaces (but he doesn’t mean it).
And as Hibiki starts to count (she can’t count to sixty yet, so Hitoshi expects she’ll get her counting wrong), Hitoshi and their parents hurry off to hide.
Not wanting to make it too hard for her to find him, Hitoshi gets into the bath and pulls the shower curtain around him. He could use his Quirk to make Dad and Papa turn themselves in, but that wouldn’t be as fun for Hibiki.
After only thirty seconds, Hitoshi hears his sister yell, “Here I come!”
The bathroom door opens after only a few more seconds, and Hitoshi sits still. He hears Hibiki giggling, and then she yanks the shower curtain to the side as quickly as she can.
“Found you!” she cries, delighted.
“Oh no, you found me!” Hitoshi says, trying his best to act like he’s upset by this – except it ends up sounding sarcastic.
Not noticing the unintended sarcasm, Hibiki laughs and says, “Got ‘Toshi! Now you help me.”
Hitoshi nods, climbing out of the bath. He lets his sister take his hand, and he follows her around their home, searching for Dad and Papa. She can’t stop giggling, and Hitoshi smiles.
In Dad and Papa’s bedroom, Hibiki gets onto the floor and immediately starts laughing when she finds Dad under the bed.
“Oh no, Dad’s been caught!” Dad cries, still acting like he’s commentating on a sports festival or something like that. He rolls out from under the bed and Hibiki hugs him. “Well done, Hibiki.”
Grinning, Hibiki grabs his hand and says, “Found you.”
Dad smiles. “You certainly did. Right, let’s find your papa.”
The three of them continue the search, and eventually locate Papa in the closet in Hitoshi’s bedroom. Sure enough, he is asleep in a heap on the ground, snoring softly.
“Found you!” Hibiki says, around the same time Dad yells, “And with that, Aizawa Shouta, better known as Papa, has been caught! Hibiki is the winner!”
As Papa groans and wakes himself up, Hibiki hugs him, grinning and laughing. Dad offers Papa a hand and he takes it, letting Dad help him up. Once on his feet, Papa doesn’t pull away when Dad kisses him.
“PDA,” Hitoshi says.
Dad just laughs and Papa blushes slightly. Hibiki reaches up, and Hitoshi picks her up.
“Was that fun?” he asks.
She nods. “So fun! I love hide and seek.”
Hitoshi smiles. She certainly does.
Not that long after they finish the game, Hibiki falls asleep. Dad puts her to bed, and then joins Hitoshi and Papa on the couch.
“She’s right out of it,” Dad says.
“I’m not surprised. I’ve never seen her laugh that much in five minutes. It must be tiring,” Papa says, yawning.
And Hitoshi finds himself smiling as he watches TV, knowing that, whilst he wouldn’t admit it, he can’t wait to play hide and seek again.