Work Text:
Jiro rarely had any family issues.
And if she did, they were mostly casual ones. Like when Jiro sometimes complained about how loud her father was playing the drums in their basement, (which very rarely happened- the complaining, not the drums-playing) or how they got mad at her for staying out too late with Mina and Denki.
Something that had never been an issue, though, was the path she had chosen for her career. Her parents had never been short of supportive of whatever she chose to do, even though they had always kind of hoped it would have something to do with music.
But she was also their daughter, so they'd obviously noticed the way her eyes sparkled whenever she saw All Might and other heroes saving people on TV, or the way she always had a better mood whenever she could help someone in the smallest ways.
As much as she loved music, her love for helping people couldn't be compared to anything else.
So now, even though lots of people had gotten hurt, hero's lives sacrificed and minds forever altered with the horrible effects of war, she knew it had all been worth it, as a much more promising future for heroes and civilians of the next generations was now shaped.
Jiro couldn't feel any of that today, though. She was more than happy to be able to have her own hero agency, especially next to her best friend's one, and to know that all their hard work had paid off. Of course she was. And that was what made her feel even worse. It made her feel ungrateful.
But she couldn't ignore her parents' looks forever. She couldn't even describe them. They would just talk about her dad's new guitar shop for when he wanted to start his own business. Her mother's eyes were sad, though, while she would nod along, frequently taking glances at Jiro's purple tinted guitar resting against her old room's door.
Or the way her father would ask her how her missions went, while also wanting to know If she wanted to play at the new music café next door with him.
Her parents thought she didn't notice, but of course she did. It was like they wanted her to do what she always had, but still had that ache in their hearts that wanted her to do something she had been destined to do since she was little. After all, they wouldn't have met if music hadn't made them cross paths, so you could almost say music was what had made her.
And even though she knew it wasn't true, sometimes, at nights where her chest felt exceptionally heavy with unfulfilled expectations, she even thought her parents would never be fully satisfied with her choice of being a hero.
Today was one of those days.
She had been feeling kind of stressed for several days now, not really knowing the cause. Her mom had asked her to come home for a cousin's birthday a few days ago, but she'd had to cancel since an important mission with Denki and the others had come up. It had made her stomach sink with guilt, especially since she had also canceled dinner the weekend before, for a similar reason.
And now, her father was calling her after she had finished her shift, just before she had finished making coffee for both her and Denki, ready to call it a day of relentless paperwork. It had drained her even more than a shift with an important rescue mission did, even though the paperwork was almost just as important.
A bunch of written reports about patrol she'd procrastinated since about a week ago, but also e-mails and fan mails she hadn't opened for more than two weeks. She shouldn't have opened the latter, though, as some of them had been truly hateful about how she wasn't doing a good job as a hero, her relationship with Denki and other comments they had no business commenting on. It only fuelled the bitter feeling in her gut, but she also took it as an opportunity to finally see Denki again, since their schedules had both been full these days.
"Coming in 10. Be prepared for hot coffee <3”
*Seen 10 minutes ago*
She looked at that message one more time before taking a deep breath and answering her dad's call.
"Hey, Ji", His voice immediately made her feel a mix of familiar calm and dread.
"Hi Dad, what's up?"
“Nothing much, just wanted to check on you. How's work treatin' ya?"
Even with the casual tone he spoke with, Jiro immediately noticed something was up.
“Everything's alright, just a bunch of paperwork today. You know it."
She forced a smile even though he couldn't even see her.
Her father wasn't the type to sugarcoat things, nor do small talk, especially with Jiro, so he quickly got to the point.
"So. I know you've been busy with patrolling and other heroic stuff", he interrupted himself with an awkward laugh, "but there's this cool event I've been telling you about, the one with my band performing.."
He trailed off, waiting for her to recognize what he was talking about, which she quickly did. Her father had been talking about It for months, and she felt stupid for having forgotten.
"Right, you mentioned that.."
It didn't sound as enthusiastic as Jiro hoped, but her dad probably didn't notice, because he continued.
"And, you know, I just wanted to know if you're free this weekend? I could pick you up from Tokyo on Friday and I was thinking we could catch up on your guitar practice for a bit before watching a movie with your mom. You know, to shake off the nerves. I still remember how nervous you were the day off your school festival at UA when you called me with your voice shaking, saying you were scared Denki was gonna mess up because he was new at playing guitar, even though you were just trying to hide your own anxiety," He huffed before he paused for a minute and Jiro swallowed. She knew exactly where this was going.
“Anyway, and the next day is when it starts. Saturday about 8 pm. What do you say?"
It was almost out of instinct when she answered.
"Well, it sounds great, of course! I'll just have to look into my calendar real quick."
A few seconds passed while she opened the calendar app and scrolled.
The boldly highlighted "Meeting with Shizuku, important!!!" caught her eye quickly.
And it was marked for Saturday, too. It immediately made a knot form in her throat while she waited a few seconds more before talking.
"So?" Her dad's voice sounded exciting through the phone, which made it even harder.
How stupid was she to have forgotten something this important? First, her father's band performance, then the meeting, and now she had to cancel one of them, and she knew it couldn't be the latter, even though she had called off way too many meetings with her family the weeks prior.
But this wasn't just any event, her father had been telling her how special it was and how important her attendance was for months. The thing was, though, that the meeting wasn't just any meeting, either. It was a conference with "HEROWorld"- one of the largest magazine companies in Hero Journalism, about the importance of Earphone Jack's ranking, how it could be improved and how she could make her individuality as a hero stand out even more.
Not that it was all that important to her, especially in comparison to her family, but it couldn't be postponed. According to Shizuku, her manager, it would only seem as if she didn't care about her appearance for the civilians and how she didn't take the meeting with said company seriously.
She didn't really have a choice. But that didn't mean it made her feel any better. She took a deep breath before answering her father's question. Her voice was quiet when she spoke, a little above a whisper.
"I'm sorry. I can't. I have a really important meeting on Saturday. And I can't make my manager delay it, either, but if not for that I really would've-"
"Don't worry about it." Her dad said in a grounded, light tone. She knew it was bad if her dad interrupted her, which he rarely ever did.
"I'm sure we can see you another time, and then
we can perform together, just the two of us." She imagined him winking while saying this, which almost made her smile. It didn't make the knot in her throat disappear, though. It only made it worse, because he was still trying to be nice about it.
"I'm really sorry, dad."
"It's really fine, sweetheart. I'll call you some other time, alright?"
"Mhm. Bye", she replied, whispered, even, before she heard the phone call end.
Jiro couldn't hold it in anymore.
As soon as her dad had ended the call, she saw the phone on the table blur, the two coffees next to each other turning into two purple and yellow blobs. Her tears were running freely now as she held onto her office kitchen counter's edge.
Once again, she had disappointed her father, and she knew he would tell her mother about this sooner or later, probably even in this exact moment. Which meant her mom would see her as a disappointment too. How often could you say no to your parent's offers before they slowly started hating you?
This wasn't just about meet-ups anymore, or family hangouts.
It felt deeper than that, as if the small ember of closeness that had remained between them, having tried to withstand throughout her busy hero-life, had now finally gone out. If only she'd-
"Jiro?" A light male voice was calling out for her from outside her office. It echoed throughout the hallway.
Shit. She had completely forgotten about the coffee.
Jiro quickly wiped her tears away before she stood straight and sniffled a couple of times.
"Ji, I highly doubt the "hot coffee" is hot anymore."
He knocked a couple of times and when she called out a raspy "come in", he opened the door.
"What took you so lo-"
Denki was standing in the doorway, and his confused and joking demeanour immediately disappeared as soon as he looked at her face. He blinked once and came up to her in a few quick strides.
“Hey..what happened?"
Denki was full on studying her face now, the way her smile faltered as soon as his usually sparkling eyes were now looking at her with a worried expression, the most worried she'd seen him in a while, the way she looked down before looking up at him again, her lip slightly quivering.
But the thing that made her break down all over again were those three simple words and the way it felt like he could see right through her. As Always.
The sobs that were silent before, now came out unfiltered and easy, as if his mere presence was enough to break the dam that was her unbothered façade.
He didn't hesitate twice before pulling her close and tightly wrapping his arms around her. His hands were gentle as he ran his fingers through her dark purple hair, muttering soft affirmations while his other hand ran up and down her back in a calming manner.
“It's okay. You're alright."
She would've been surprised at his soft assuring voice if not for how miserable she felt. But it felt much better letting it all out on Denki's warm sweatshirt.
After a few more moments, her messy sobs had turned into calm and quiet breaths, both of them silently holding onto each other.
Until Denki, like always, couldn't hold it in any longer.
“Now. Please tell me what happened before I am the one to start freaking out here.", he muttered into her hair with a joking but desperate tone.
She scoffed, her face still on his chest before she quietly started speaking.
"I feel like shit."
"I figured that much, Jiro-Jack"
"I'm just glad you're here. For now.", she said teasingly, her voice now raspier than before.
Denki pulled away a few inches, but not enough to let her go, his arms still safely secured around her.
"Hey! Just 'cause this is a comforting moment doesn't mean you get to start being mean again.", he said with an offended expression, although his upwardly tilted lips betrayed him.
“Whatever, you moron.", she said with a huff which made Denki smile in victory, not even bothering to hide it any longer. He felt like a stone had been removed from his chest at the sight of her smiling again.
"So. Wanna watch a movie?", Jiro asked with a warm smile.
"So the coffee's just completely forgotten now...or?"
"Shut up. I'll make us new ones."
"You better."
She jabbed her elbow into his side playfully, knowing he didn't even like coffee that much, but only wanted to rile her up.
They both started to make new coffee while Denki told her about his last patrol with Bakugo and drifted off to complain about his own paperwork that was apparently worse than hers. All the while Denki wasn't really helping with anything except for choosing new mugs for their coffee, insisting the ones from before held too much "negative energy".
Her recent argument, or breakdown, more like, was almost completely forgotten know.
She knew that she’d have to find a solution for that sooner or later but for now, having Denki here as her emotional support (in his own way) felt more than enough.
He made her feel like maybe the world wasn’t ending, with the smallest amount of jokes and his mere presence, even if before it’d felt like it did.
Thats how being with him often made her feel: she didn’t need to talk about it in order to feel better. Sometimes she just needed to let it out, or needed him to distract her with lighthearted jokes and casual banter, and somehow he always knew exactly which version of that comforted her the most.
She often acted like it annoyed her, when most of the times those stupid conversations where exactly what she needed, especially in moments like these.
And she had a feeling he knew that, too.
The humming tone of the coffee machine was almost just as comforting while Jiro listened to all of Denki’s rants with the biggest smile on her face.