That was all interesting stuff, and Izuku would be lying to himself if he didn't want to see the Lab Black cat used for her tech for himself. At the moment though, his curiosity was more peaked about what was in the shed.
...
As they stepped up to the terrace, the head of a young, white-haired girl suddenly popped up over the rail.
"Oh, so he came after all!"
Mina's eyes narrowed at the girl in scrutiny.
"Yeah, yeah, he came just like I said he would. Anyway, Midori, this is my little sister Mana."
The little girl(Who Izuku guessed was 12 years old), was unfaced by her sister's scrutinous eyes, and instead waved at Izuku.
"Hiya Midori!"
"H-Hello Mana…"
The girl adopted a "Contemplative" look, one hand under her chin in a classic thinking pose, as she looked Izuku over.
"You know, sis, you weren't wrong. He really is a cutie."
Izuku, who had been managing to keep his blushing to a minimum, immediately flushed up again.
Mana grinned in a way that really reminded him of Mina.
"Yep, totally adorable, the way he turns red like that, at the slightest teasing."
Mina lightened up a bit at that comment, instead joining in her sister's smile at seeing Izuku getting flustered.
"Yeah, it doesn't take much to fluster him."
"Yeah, I think he's gonna be WAY more fun than the last guy you brought home."
"Planning some horrible prank are you?"
"Nah, wouldn't dream of it. I'm way too interested in seeing if this time actually goes anywhere." And with that, she waved and walked away whistling.
"Cheerful kid."
"Yeah, well don't be fooled. She's a nice girl, but she's really devious at heart. She LOVES her pranks."
"Is… Is that something I should watch out for?"
"Not today… Probably. Anyway, let's go in."
As they stepped inside the big building And took off their shoes, Mina continued.
"Mom and my youngest sister aren't here today, they're out at a birthday party for one of her friends, so that leaves dad, Ben, and his girlfriend Tomo."
At that, Izuku's interest was immediately peaked.
"Your dad, he's the man behind Black Cat's famous silk right?"
"Yeah, that's him. His one and only product, but damn if he isn't invested in improving the stuff. Anyway, I'll introduce you to him at dinner."
"Why… Not now?"
"Cause I'm pretty sure if I do that now, he'll insist on taking you down into the lab to show off the stuff for an hour or so, since you've shown a modicum of interest in it."
That… Didn't actually sound too bad in Izuku's opinion, but Mina motioned for him to follow her down the hallway, and he did.
Walking inside the corridors, Izuku got a sense of the house being truly massive, in a way looking at it from the outside didn't quite convey.
As they walked down the corridor, Mina suddenly called out.
"Oh Ben, perfect timing man!"
The person she was talking to was an older guy, maybe late teens. He had a face with American features, short brown hair, and casual clothing composed of training jeans and a black t-shirt with the words: Forced idleness is a terrible thing.
He had a steaming coffee mug in his hand, and an expression of a man who was tired, and sleep addled beyond, WAY beyond the level any human being should ever be.
He actually swayed as he stopped walking, and turned to look at the two of them.
"Yo Ben, wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine." Mina said as the two walked up to him.
Ben was taller than Mina by a fair bit, and by extension, taller than Izuku as well. Despite being very lean, he could also tell that Ben had some really ripped arms.
As he looked over at Izuku, he saw that the man's eyes had trouble keeping focus on him.
"Morning… What did you say his name was?"
"I'm Midoriya Izuku."
"Right, right…"
He extended a shaking hand that Izuku took and shook. As he did so, he was surprised that despite the way he shook, the man had a real power grip.
"Nice to meet you… Midozuku."
Mina laughed, as Ben shook his hand up and down for quite a bit longer than was real propriety.
Then he gave a nod and began making his way to his past them down the corridor.
"Is he… Well?"
"What, Ben? Yeah, he's just really, really sleepy. Gotta chase those stock prices you know."
"... I think he would be happier as a hero."
"Don't let him catch you say that. Though…"
She looked down the corridor, where Ben had gone, seemingly to make sure he hadn't stopped to linger.
"I have to agree at that point. The dude really needs a less stressful job. Maybe become a construction worker or something. In any case..."
She waved for him to follow and eventually they stepped into what was clearly a kitchen.
"Ben's girlfriend Tomo is sleeping, so I'll introduce you to her later. For now, just help me carry the stuff for the movies."
Said stuff was 4 large bottles of soda, 3 large boxes of popcorn, 4 bags of chips, and two bags of some sugary orange fish-shaped, soft, sugary candy.
---
As they carried up the food to Mina's room, Izuku's was genuinely surprised as Mina opened the door to her own abode.
His first thought was that it was completely different from how he'd imagined it.
Maybe it had been a sign of naivety at his part, but to be honest, he had expected her room to be somewhat similar to his own, only with All Might Memorabilia swapped for Black Cat's.
Mina's room was nothing like that at all.
The room didn't have a shred of anything that was in any way related to Black cat.
What it did have was a color scheme of black, and dark pink, with everything, from the walls to the floor, to the roof having those two colors.
The floor, walls, and roof were colored black, with large pink hearts on the black. Her bed had pink circles, while the large, massive curtains, had a pink and black tiger pattern on them.
The overarching color scheme was pretty consistent, but there was plenty of things that broke it here and there. On the wall was a poster for some singer Izuku had never heard of, while beside it, in a glass-covered frame, was a very old and faded movie poster for the film they were about to watch.
Both the title and the subtitles were still plenty visible, however. Alien. And below the picture of a strange, egg-looking thing: In space, no one can hear you scream.
Yeah, that wasn't ominous at all.
It was as his gaze went over from it to the rest of the room, that Izuku realized something.
He was alone with a cute girl in her room.
That fact hadn't really sunk in before then, and he immediately felt his cheek blush.
"So, kinda late to ask, but how much do you know about the Alien movies?"
Mina asked cheerfully as she clicked the remote for her TV, and pulled up a Playlist.
"It… Involves an alien monster? I think?"
"Yeah, this is gonna be fun watching for you then."
She turned and grinned.
"Alien is a really enter… You okay there Midori?"
Izuku, who had put down the snacks, was now standing really, really awkwardly, not at all sure about what to do, or where to sit.
And of course, his damned cheeks just had to be burning red, giving away how awkward he felt being in this room.
" Y-Yeah, it's just been…" A what? "A while since I hanged out at someone's place." He said very stiltedly. Then immediately mentally facepalmed.
Mina just cocked her head.
"Really? How long?"
"10 years." He blurted out, before thinking about it.
-Wow. We had almost forgotten how bad you could be at this.-
Venom's tone was an exasperated sigh. His brain did not disagree with that statement though, feeling like a complete idiot.
Mina's look, however, was genuinely shocked.
"Seriously? You haven't visited a friend's house in over a decade?"
"No…" He squeaked. In hindsight, he really wished he had taken Tenya on an offer the guy had made to come to visit his house.
"You… Didn't get out much before Yuei did you?"
"Not… Really no. I mean… I left the house plenty enough, I just… Didn't hang out with people."
She nodded slowly, and Izuku got the distinct impression something clicked for her, a look of realization dawning on her face.
"You… Didn't have many friends before Yuei did you Izuku?"
"He had us." Venom piped in. "But no one else."
As they talked Izuku felt the warmth in his cheeks fade, as his embarrassment quickly faded for something much more melancholic, as more painful memories began to surface.
Damn the mood in the room had changed fast.
Mina looked at him with concern, then went over to her bed and sat down, motioning for him to sit down opposite her.
He hesitated for a brief moment, then did so.
Her bed was really, really soft, much softer than his, but at the moment, he didn't focus much on it.
"So… You haven't had a friend in 10 years, is… that right?" Her tone was much, much softer now, with a level of subtle concern that was completely different than Mina's usual bombastic way.
"I…"
He felt a real desire to just say no, or argue that he had family friends like David-San.
"No."
Mina leaned forward, and hugged him.
It was completely unexpected, and once again with a softness that he didn't usually associate with Mina.
More than anything, it reminded him of the gesture of Kindness that Stick-San had once shown him in the woods so long ago.
This time, he did not bawl his eyes out though, instead just… Slowly reciprocate the hug.
They sat like that, for a while, Mina not letting go, at least not until he pulled back.
It was… nice. Nice in a way that didn't bring him horrible embarrassment.
As he looking into her face, he almost heard the words before she opened her mouth.
The same question Stick had once asked him.
Instead, she asked. "It was Venom, wasn't it? You… Manifested Venom when you were a kid, and then… Things changed."
Her tone was soft and full of genuine compassion, but the question completely caught Izuku off guard.
"No, it… It wasn't like that, I… I didn't have Venom until… I… until I was 14…"
Shit. He did begin to tear up. It wasn't like it had been in the forest so long ago when he'd just completely broken down, now it was more a few drops of water came to the corners of his eyes. The prelude to something greater just waiting to break through.
As he looked into Mina's eyes, he saw the moment when it clicked for Mina.
"Oh. Ohhhhh…. You… You were quirk less."
Izuku bit his lip, as the tears did begin to flow. Damnit! He was just visiting a friend, why, why was he suddenly crying? This was his problems, he didn't need to bother other people with them!
Once again, two strong, pink arms closed around him in another hug.
Izuku did not start completely bawling his eyes out, but… he did return the hug, as the tears began to flow.
The two teenagers sat there in silence for a long while, before Izuku finally did stop crying, and pulled away from Mina. This time, the girl was a bit more hesitant to let go, but she eventually did.
"You… Wanna talk about it?"
He began slowly, haltingly. This… was really not how he had ever imagined telling anyone this story.
No… He had never wanted to tell this story to anyone. He had wanted to bury it away, and never ever, talk about it again.
But once he got going… It was so much easier to continue. To just keep talking.
He didn't tell her everything. He didn't reveal where Venom had come from, he didn't tell her about… Katsuki trying to get him to kill himself. He didn't tell her about his training, and the time in the woods.
But… He did tell her a lot. He told her about that day so long ago when he'd visited a doctor and been labeled quirkless, a genetic throwback, a failure of evolution. He told her about how things had changed with Katsuki, how he had kept following him around for years even afterwards. He told her about how being quirk less had meant everyone at every school he had ever attended had labeled him a useless person and not only made it clear they didn't consider him to have any worth as a human being.
Mina kept her silence through the entire thing, having a concerned and sympathetic look on her face the entire time. The only times when that faded was whenever he spoke about Bakugou, when she would get a furious look at her face as he talked.
But she kept her silence until he was finished. Then she gave him another, big (this time much stronger) hug, before saying anything else.
---
As Mina waved at the cab driving away, she kept doing so, until it turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
Then her hand slowly dropped, and she slowly walked backwards, until she was leaning against the wall, she took a deep breath, taking in the night air.
Well, her grand plans for the evening had… Not gone according to plan. To say the very least.
After he had told her everything, Mina had quickly canceled the movie night of watching the Alien franchise, in favor of something less depressing. In this case, a DuckTales marathon.
It… Might not have been her cleverest move.
Thankfully, Izuku's mood had picked up substantially thanks to her dad, who as she had predicted, had latched on to the boy's interest in his silk at dinner.
What she hadn't predicted, was that Izuku would really be into that. She was so used to him boring the crap out of her friends, that she hadn't considered that Izuku might actually find his science stuff fascinating.
Not that she would complain. After he had visited the lab for a good hour after dinner, his mood had picked up drastically, turning the end of their marathon of the last great Hurrah of the Original Disney company into a much more positive experience.
As she stood there, just thinking about the entire story, and just how ableist people could be, she also had come to a realization.
She really wanted to punch Bakugou in the face.
...
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