Chapter Text
Your life is the same dull, plodding ordeal every week, it feels. Every Saturday, your parents tell you to go out for groceries. You pass by Tatooin Station on your way to the local 7-11, and on your way back, you sometimes pop into the newspaper store on the corner of the Station Avenue to check out the newest, latest news on which villain All-Might had apprehended that week. Same old, same old. It even felt like you saw the same people every week, too; a strangely thin woman always sat on a bench underneath the cherry blossoms, a green-haired, ordinary-looking boy browsed the hero section of the newspaper store religiously, and a hulking boar-like man walked up to the station in the same suit every day. Same old, same old.
So, it comes as a surprise to the entire district when a villain attacks the station. You stand in the crowd on your way to school (Salty Banks Middle School; oh, how you love the mediocrity it represents) that morning, admiring the newcomer hero Mt. Lady as she apprehends the Shark Horse Man Thing. The thin lady is across the street, shaking a little. The ordinary-looking boy was scribbling in some kind of book, clearly excited by the whole ordeal. And the boar-like man is on his mobile phone, huffing at his boss that he would be late. You avoid the area for a few weeks whilst repairs take place, and only return to your regular, dull, plodding routine when the area is once again open to the public.
This time, however, the ordinary-looking boy is in the wrong place. Instead of treating the hero section like his holy doctrine, he seems to have taken up jogging, suddenly. He passes you on your walk past the river; he doesn’t spare you a glance. A nice change in routine, you think to yourself. And that’s about all the thought you give it that week.
Over the next 10 months, you don’t take much notice of anything other than your studies. Your quirk is simple; you can combust the oxygen surrounding your fingers, and coat them in fire. Your parents and teachers all discouraged you from attempting to join the hero course, as the quirk was basically useless. In your father’s words; “If you can save a city by lighting a candle, be my guest.” And so it was decided; you were going to be the best goddamn lawyer this side of Musutafu. The entrance exams for your chosen high school turn out to be pretty difficult. You need good grades in Japanese, English, Mathematics, and a whole bunch of other stuff you find off-putting and frankly, boring. You’d much rather be working at a hero agency when you grow up, helping someone like Nighteye take down villains in style. With your lighter fingertips. Yeah.
Your mother asks you to pick up extra bags of rice. You put on your shoes and leave the house, towards Tatooin and 7-11 again. You exit the residential district, as usual. You meet the river and walk along it, as usual. You’re about halfway to Tatooin when the green-haired boy jogs past you. Your eyes meet. You nod at him and smile. He smiles and nods back. You feel a slight flutter in your stomach as he jogs past you, a cool spring breeze brushing your arm as he does so. You suppose you’ve walked past each other for almost a year now. Is it not natural to acknowledge each other's presence at this point? Surely that’s normal. Right?