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Kaminari wasn’t expecting to have tag alongs when he went home for the weekend. Mina and Sero had noticed that he seemed to always be busy on the weekends and then noticed how often he was on his phone. Them being the bright set of people they are, thought that it was obviously a secret girlfriend he had been hiding away from them. Kirishima tried to talk them out of it, to no avail, especially since he wanted to know what was going on too. And that's how Bakugou got roped into tagging along as well.
It wasn’t that he was hiding a girlfriend. Well technically, she was a girl, and a friend, but not in the sense that everyone assumed. She was his best friend, his neighbor, and his mentor. Of course, nobody knew all of that. She’d been his neighbor since the beginning of middle school, and his friend starting not too long after. She wasn’t much older than him, only by 4 years, but she already had a promising career going for her. He didn’t know what she did when he first met her, and then assumed she just worked as a hero photographer when he found her albums full of heroes. Later he found out he was wrong, very wrong.
See, his mentor wasn’t a plain faced, happy-go-lucky, quirkless, young adult, who just gained independence from her parents. Her parents were dead. She had supported herself since she was his age. She learned from his own principal, Nezu. She was just another face in the crowd, until she showed her tattoos.
Now how he came to find out all of this is a different story for another time, but we shall focus on how he was going to deal with his tag alongs. Everyone fully intended to spend the night, and he knew his mom-way too nice to say no to them even if he didn’t want them there. Don’t get Kaminari wrong; he loved hanging out with his friends. Sleepovers were the best with the Bakusquad, but he already had plans with his mentor that weekend. Knowing the squad, they wouldn’t let him out of their sight- and there was no way he was risking outing who exactly his mentor was to anyone. So for now he was stuck.
Reaching for his key to open his front door, he heard someone call out.
“Kamanari! Hey!”
It was his mentor. Why was she calling out for him? He was surrounded by people. His anxiety started to rise as he wondered if something could be wrong.
“Kams, think you could help me for a bit and help me get my groceries inside? I hate to interrupt you while you’re with your friends, but some of it’s a bit heavy for me.”
Oh. “Sure! Let me get my friends inside and set my stuff down and I’ll be right over.” Kaminari turned to his friends while opening the door, “I’m gonna let you guys hang in my room for a bit while I go help out.”
Everyone seemed to agree, Bakugou even grumbled out an agreement. That is until Mina chirped up. “Wait, how do we know you aren’t going to see your secret girlfriend while you’re gone?”
Shit. “Seriously? I got asked to help with groceries and you think I’m gonna run off into the sunset?” Of course, he was pretty certain that groceries wasn’t why his mentor called him over, she never needed help with something so trivial. If she had actually needed help, she would’ve just used her quirk.
“She’s got a point man,” Sero pipped in, Kirishima nodding in agreement.
“Ok fine. Give me 20 mins and if I’m not back by then, feel free to track me down. Does that sooth your concerns that you’re gonna miss out on some big secret gf that I don’t have?”
“Hmmm, 15 mins no more” Mina bargained.
“For fucks sake, just go already. Just don’t take forever, or I’m eating your spicy chips.”
“Thanks Bakubro.” And with that he jetted out the door.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
“Jeez, what have I told you about beating my door down? You literally have a key.” His mentor opened the door with a smug look on her face. That was a bad sign for him.
“Hey Luce. Sorry about making you wait, and I’m pretty sure you already know that I can’t train this weekend. I have some friends who wouldn’t take no for an answer. They also put me on a time limit of being away from them.”
“Oh I know. I saw.” Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. Kaminari gulped. “Anyways, since you can’t train this weekend, you still need to go over a few things. I have a few files for you to look over if you get a moment alone and some notes to help with what you said you didn't understand in class. Just remember, you have to make up for your lost training time sometime within the next week or there will be consequences. We also apparently need to work on your assertiveness and telling people no. Also your deceptive skills, cause seriously, Denks? A secret gf? Now, if you need me I’m here, and you’re also free to bring your friends over if you’d like. Just give me a heads up so I can hide everything.”
Kamanari jumped at Lucy and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Thank you! You’re the best! And thanks for not giving extra training or punishing me.” He grinned up at her.
“Oh, don’t think you’re getting out of punishment that easy. You’ll make up for it during next practice as well.” Lucy patted his head as she smirked down at him seeing him pale.
“Right, got it. I gotta get going soon though. So thank you and I’ll visit around 7 later!”
“ Hold up there buddy, you’ll need these.” Lucy reached into a drawer in an end table by the door and handed over around 5 manilla envelopes. “Four of those are profiles and I want the normal report on them within a week. The other one is your notes. I’ll see ya later kid.” Lucy waved him out the door as she saw a pink girl go to walk up the sidewalk. She already knew who the girl was, who all the friends were that had tagged along that day were. She knew who everyone was that interacted with Kaminari. Lucy had been a mentor to Kaminari for years and was an integral part of his life. The things he didn’t tell her personally, well she just had someone find it out for her or did her own style of research. Most people didn’t agree with her style of research though, as she did whatever it took to get what she wanted to know. Now most people wouldn’t support what she did, but Kaminari had never judged her. Before him, Lucy had never had that unwavering support, even from her own teacher, who still looked down on how she handled business.
As Lucy watched the two UA students walk away, she wondered how much longer she’d be able to keep that unwavering support in her life and what she’d have to do to keep it.