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Sero wasn’t anything special. It was just a fact. His hair was plain, his quirk was plain, and his personality was plain. Everything about him was forgettable, it had been a fact for him for all of his life.
When he was 5, he went with his family to the mall to celebrate a holiday. All it took was one moment of distraction for him to get left behind. He had been looking at the newly released action figures on display, and his family hadn’t noticed. They moved on without him. When Hanta had realized he was alone, he had tried to stay calm, but the longer he searched around the store, the more panicked he became. Eventually a saleslady noticed his distress and offered to help him look for them. It took a full hour before they gave up and decided to go to the help desk. The nice lady carried him on her shoulders so he could see over the crowd, but he still didn’t see his parents or siblings. When they got to the desk, the lady talked with the people there for a bit and then they made a special announcement on the speakers, telling the whole mall that he was there and asking for his family to please come get him. Hanta was very grateful for the woman’s help, and when he was finally reunited with his parents he made sure to thank her. His older brother told him that they hadn’t even noticed that he was gone until they heard his name over the speakers.
That was the thing, as Hanta grew up there were many more times where he got forgotten or left behind, and most of those times, no one noticed for a long time, or even at all. He would walk home from piano lessons after his brother forgot to pick him up, or his friends would leave after school without him.
That’s why he was currently sitting on the roof of the dorm while his friends were playing video games in Kaminari’s room. At first he had been watching Kiri and Kaminari as they struggled to defeat some evil turtle guy. But as the night passed, Hanta had started feeling overlooked. He wasn’t actively participating in the conversation, and it was pretty obvious that everyone else had forgotten that he was curled up on the bean bag chair. Hanta wanted to convince himself that he was just imagining it, but it was hard to stop the thoughts. He slipped out of the room and no one had protested, so he figured he was right.
Now he was on the roof, staring at the night sky and wishing he was someone different. He wanted to be someone interesting, so everyone would notice when he entered a room. He didn’t want to keep living a life where he had to be loud or dramatic just to remind people he was there. He knew from experience that right now his friends wouldn’t have noticed his absence, and if any of them had noticed him leaving, they would forget about it soon. Hanta figured he would just stay up here until he either got too cold or sleepy, and then he would return to his own room and turn in for the night.
Suppressing a shiver, Hanta closed his eyes and tried to clear his head. The chill in the air felt nice, and the breeze swept his hair around his face. The rooftop was peaceful, it always was. Soon Hanta felt himself dozing off, he knew he should probably go back inside so he didn’t fall asleep here, but he couldn’t care enough to actually do it.
Hurried footsteps stomping up the stairs made his eyes snap open. Hanta heard the door slam open, and he tilted his head to the side as Mina barreled onto the rooftop with him. He was shocked to see her come up here, what was she doing?
Mina spotted him laying on the ground and her face broke into a grin. “Sero! There you are! Me and the guys were wondering where you went, we looked all over the dorm!”
Oh. She had come up here looking for him. “I was just getting some fresh air, I was planning on coming back soon.”
Mina didn’t look like she totally believed him, if her squinting eyes were anything to go by, but she gestured for him to come back down the stairs with her anyway. “Okee. But don’t do that again without telling us first. Kami is convinced you got kidnapped or something, last I was there he was insisting we get Aizawa.”
Hanta’s heart stuttered. They really got that worried over him? He hadn’t even been gone that long, but the group immediately noticed he was gone and tried to find him. It was different. He felt warm with the feeling, he felt oddly special in that moment.
“Okay.” He got up and followed her down the stairs, to join his friends again.