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"Was it easy for us out here?" Rei tied his final mini-braid sadly since the rest of his hair had been cut due to school's hair code, at least they let him keep a few strands enough for his mini braids. He slips on the last bead over his hair tie, running his thumb on the engraving on it.
Odin.
Written in rune, his father himself gave it to Rei on his final day of training in Asgard, telling him it'll help him one day. He smiled at the memory of the daily grind the AllFather would drag him into and turn to his adoptive sister who's currently serving them both breakfast and an extra on another plate for her husband.
"And what do you mean by us? Does it include Tenya?" Haru had that playful smirk on her face. Rei just scoffed at the remark, she knows exactly what he meant. She sat and cupped one of Rei's hand in hers, her smirk stretched into a soft smile.
"Not all demigod is destined for a quiet life, Rei. Some are messier than the other, back in my part of the board, being a descendant of Hades was one of the reasons your life might be shitty." They both chuckled at that. "Though the world has changed a lot, we're still a group of minority living in the shadows, some are brave enough since maybe they only inherited a personality trait, or extra strength or extra vision, things that are not noticeable enough or maybe one thing prominent enough to pass as a person with quirk." Haru shrugged. "People know me as an all-around healer, no one knows I can shapeshift."
Rei nodded at his cup of milk solemnly, he remembered all those stories of villains the people he gladly calls mentors used to fight years ago. People with multiple quirks still raise caution among the community, uncle Midoriya had warned him while sparring one day. All-For-One had left a deep scar into the world. Rei used his "making words into things" as an excuse for his various tricks, warps and such, but even Todoroki had told him to cut off several of his spells to avoid suspicion from others.
Haru couldn't let his beloved brother sink lower than the dimming blue in his eyes, she held Rei's free palm, pulling his attention to her. With a soft smile, she said what she thinks had to be said.
"But you're not alone, Rei. There's me, the other deities in local shrines wouldn't mind if you confide in them, though I recommend Tenjin the most, his shinkis are also the brightest among others,"
That managed to pull the ends of his lips upwards.
"What's this? Stage fright before the first day of school?"
And that pulled them back down.
"Tenya!"Haru pouted. The man that had just come bounding down the stairs grinned and gave his wife a peck on the cheek, though her complexion was tanned, it was clear as a day that she blushed. It's a challenge for Rei to not gag at that. Tenya sat on the only empty chair left and started digging into his meal.
"I heard that boy from the test is going to pick you up from the train station,"
"Oh I was worrying if we have to walk you there, I feel bad leaving you alone in the station,"
The couple said them back to back and this time, Rei choked on his milk. He put his mug back down slowly, while Haru and Tenya were sniggering. He put up a finger and pointed at the couple accusingly, that was not supposed to get out surely. After his coughing had subsided, he croaks.
"First of all, how did you know?"
Haru burst into a fit of laughter, Tenya casually shrugged.
"We're pro heroes, we need to expand our connections somehow, I mean, the Arakis are a nice bunch-"
Haru's laugh boomed louder, but not before putting her own piece of mind.
"We parents must communicate, y'know...form a committee or some sort-"
"HARU" Rei cringed, thanks to his pale, Scandinavian features, he's redder than anyone in the household ever could. "Those are for kids for gods' sake..."
The atmosphere of the room turned brighter, Tenya was glad even though it was the least he could do. Life was a rollercoaster for him ever since high school started, he thought the stress about All-For-One was rock bottom, but he was glad he met Haru in those times. He was glad had someone other than his friends to turn to, someone he'd spent the rest of his life with. Though there are things that are bizarre to him at first, the fact that the shrines that dotted this country actually shelter some deities, the fact that those deities can have kids with humans, the fact that there are other deities in other parts of the world and Haru was a brethren of one of them.
Then comes Rei, the poor boy who is cursed to hell by someone he didn't even know, who is theoretically quirkless, but learned magic instead as an apologetic statement from the other half of his family.
Tenya learned a lot from them, he knows that there are more of people in the world like the two in front of him, and he's looking forward to helping them as much as he can.
The three almost finished their meal when Tenya noticed that his wife wasn't dressed for work.
"Aren't you going to work today, love?"
Haru shook her head as she put the dishes into the sink to wash later. She rushed towards her husband to help him with his coat and tie and probably a few buttons that are straining for dear life-- Rei kept reminding his sister to buy a new shirt for Tenya but she kept postponing it for some reason.
"Not today, Tenjin asked me to consult about things regarding my mother's stuff in the shrine-"
"Should I come along?-"
"No, no need, I'm perfectly fine on my own I promise you,"
"If you say so... " Tenya turned to Rei who's struggling with his shoe--his fourth shoe of the week, he grew a lot when he's at Asgard, he kept on growing out of a lot of his stuff. "I'll be outside,"
Rei huffed and resorted to tweaking its size with a simple spell then groaned in delight once he managed to get his foot inside. Haru stared at his shoes with deep disappointment.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place, we wouldn't have wasted any more money than we should have,"
Rei grinned as he stood and straightened his jacket.
"First of all, these are Tenya's shoes, he gave them to me, you didn't buy it," Haru poked his stomach at that, "You guys have enough money to buy a whole island anyway." The siblings shared a brief laugh. Then worry showered on Rei's face.
"What are you going to do anyway? I know you already left all of your mom's stuff back at my room at Valhalla. Are you sick? I know Tenya's a heavy sleeper but you can't fool a boy trained by Valkyries, I heard you retchi-"
Rei's mouth ran a mile a minute sometimes, Haru just hoped his brain does too. As pink starts to sprout in his eyes, Haru stepped on his foot to stop him from whatever he's going to say. Rei's eyes swirl between pink from glee and amber from anger. They signalled a quick glance at Haru's lower abdomen for a bit confirmation, Haru did the same at Rei's foot, only hers was threatening him for another juicy stomp.
"I don't want to get Tenya's hopes up, I wanna make sure if..." her voice wandered off, the longer the silence stretches between them, the wider the grin on Rei's face grew. The daughter of Apollo resorted to violence, she turned her brother around and punched his back all the way out of the house. Rei knows his sister's punches felt like nothing but he played along anyway, just to see her face get redder and redder. Tenya gave them a confused look, he asked Rei as they walked their way to the station but Rei just grinned.
"I'm not allowed to tell~" he sang.
~~0~~
Rei suffocates as he remembered how famous his brother-in-law is. He was also dragged along in this as Tenya publicly christened him as the famous Ingenium's brother-in-law. Everyone knows Haru, the famous and unique healer since she not only heals their wounds, she also heals whatever trauma they went through with proper consultation. The train announces that it's Rei's stop, Tenya patted his back as his last encouragement then waved as the train zoomed away.
"Didn't think you'd be this early-'
One man down and Rei thinks he needs to recalibrate his reflexes. He felt a strong inhuman hand on his elbow-- a bear's paw once he turned around and looked at the hand and its owner properly. A familiar violet haired boy grinned back at him. The bear paw turned back into its original human form and playfully squished Rei's arm.
"Someone had been training,"
"We met yesterday why didn't you use that opportunity to harass me?"
May he forever be his friend/enemy, Araki. They had been the two of ten participants for the recommended students. They both seethed with anger once they met but somehow the presence of the other also soothes them, it's THAT complicated. Rei smirked at the memory that Araki was once taller than him at one point, now he's a head taller than the other. He's glad Odin pulled him back to Asgard after the test.
"Thought you'd grow out of your uniform, you grew a lot since the tests,"
"You, on the other hand, doesn't seem to change much,"
That got him a kangaroo kick on the back but Rei stood his ground, he's sure he cracked the sidewalk at some point. Rei walked down the memory lane the closer he got to his very first form of formal education.
From the day he walked into the test with his long, braided hair that he missed so much, how Araki accidentally slashed his hair, making his actual motivation of passing the test turns into a bloodless bloodbath and he ended up finishing the course before Araki did. Then the day he Araki actually went over to his house and trimmed his hair to what it is now, Araki implicitly confided to Rei that he just doesn't like having the word 'losing' in his resume, hoping that explains the tension back at the test. Rei smiled at the memory.
Then that day of the regular tests started, Rei was curious, he took Kosmo with him and warped into the city props Tenya told him they were using. He was caught of course, but somehow the principal let him go--Rei was suspicious the glint in his eyes had something to do with it but he just accepts it since he can't afford to get kicked out of the school before his first day even starts. His dad wouldn't like that, nor did his father.
"Did you just say you have a father and a dad?"
Rei snapped out of his trance and turned to his first schoolmate.
"Did I?"
What Araki had on his face was best described as disgust.
"Are you calling Ingen-"
"You're stopping there or I'll take your mouth for the rest of the way,"
How Rei wanted to grab that grin off of that face.
"Can you really do that?"
"All I need is a dictionary to know what I'm actually doing,"
"HA! So you can't control your quirk after all huh?!"
Rei stopped on his track to fully drink in the sight in front of him, Araki stood smugly after the newfound fact he has on his hands, with a tan that comes and goes, Rei would've laid his eyes on him if it weren't for his inflated ego and the fact that this boy was the cause of Rei's own hair loss issue. Clad in a similar uniform as he has, Araki did his tie loose, even though his shirt was a rather tight fit, his pants sure are several sizes too big for him. Oh, and his arm shifting into a bear's paw before had torn his right sleeve off, exposing the muscles Rei would never say he's impressed of even if he's dying. Rei's eyes met the fiery reds.
"Shouldn't you be worried?"
Araki shrugged nonchalantly and stepped out of Rei's way.
"That's one way to put it I guess,"
Rei halted once more, appreciating the rare, honest smile on Araki's face. He gazed away and up towards where the top of the school building touches the sky, he let the autumn wind wash over his face, enjoying every bit of fresh, crisp air.
A fresh start, he went through all those years for this, almost a year of training for this. He suddenly understood Uncle Midoriya's struggles. Though minus the crazy muscle growth and more on every other thing besides that. The thought of the burden that comes with the expectation Midoriya might have on him since they're similar in a way bugged him the first few months but Haru eased him that no one knows him, like... know, knows Rei. No one would actually expect him to go after the number 1 hero worldwide. Rei is in no way related to Midoriya for people to notice him. He's known as the power couple's brother slash brother-in-law, but that doesn't make anyone go after him expecting him to be a great hero, well that may be a thing, but Rei recently walked in on Haru wheezing on the floor from laughter because apparently the attention aimed towards Rei was in form of a full-page article about 'The Power Couple's Hot Brother!'.
Haru bugged him about modelling gigs whenever she could. Rei couldn't ask for what kind of attention he got but he's thankful it's anything but pursuing the number 1 title, the reminder that Aphrodite herself cursed him was enough of a burden worth having insomnia.
Araki poked his side a bit too hard.
"Wanna go see the class and get to the seats before anyone else?"
"Sure, and we need something to explain what happened to your sleeve,"