Reader pov

I'd started a workout routine to strengthen my body and my quirk, and Hawks... well... he wasn't helping. While I bench-pressed more than half my body weight, he sat in a corner munching on a burrito, "You're doing great, sweetie!"

I glared at him, then dropped the bar and let the feathers he was using to spot me catch it. I sat up, snatched the burrito out of his hand with a thread, shortened said thread until the burrito was in my hand, and ate it all in one bite. Hawks looked certifiably shook and shook his head sadly, "What a waste of a perfectly good burrito."

I shook my head, "It wasn't wasted, it was reappropriated."

He referred to the Brittany incident so casually that I almost missed his meaning. Then I remembered how I had, with adrenaline coursing through my veins, used my threads to pull myself onto the rooftop. Not once had I managed to accomplish that feat again and we put it down to adrenaline, so now I was training to reach that level. I sat with my legs crossed, "Nope. I've been working out almost every day. I wanna do something different!"

Instead of ignoring my little whine, Hawks stroked his stubby chin thoughtfully, "Alright then. We already know your thread's length can theoretically be unlimited and they're unbreakable, but can you change the thickness of the threads produced? Can you change their color? Do you know how many threads you can shoot from each finger for certain? Can you detach threads from your body? Can you detect vibrations in the air with them? How skillful do you think you'd have to be to be effective in battle? What if someone could cut your threads after all, what would you do then?!"

It went from a physical workout to a mental one and my brain stretched, all pistons pumping, but I couldn't for the life of me answer his questions, "I-I don't know..."

He grinned, "And that's why I'm here!"

He had me sit down in the ground and sat across from me, then held out his hand, "Try to change their color."

We worked through the rest of his questions in a similar fashion, lingering on each for about 10 minutes. In the end, we determined this:

~> I could indeed change the thread's thickness from 3cms in diameter to that of a hair.

~> Since their usual color was dark gray, it came as no surprise that I could only do black, white, and various grays, with no color at all.

~> I was indeed limited to one thread per finger.

~> I couldn't detach the threads from my body at all.

~> Surprisingly enough, I could detect vibrations in the air and I mostly understood what the voices I was hearing were saying.

~> After a quick spar with Hawks, it was decided that I would need to be very skilled to properly use my difficult quirk.

~> Panic.

With that out of the way, I was thoroughly numb from all the hard work that using my quirk turned out to be. Hawks went to F/R, and since all that came out when he asked what I wanted to eat was an unintelligible groan, he got me F/F and himself some chicken.

We ate once we got home, but shortly after finishing my F/F, I carefully lowered my head into the table and realized I was too tired to stand up and walk to my room. Having noticed my predicament, Hawks chuckled, "Come on, you have school tomorrow."

I groaned and rolled my head to the side so I could talk unhindered, "Don't remind me."

He stood up with an incredulous snort, then picked me up bridal-style and carried me to my room. He laid me down on my futon, tucked me in, and lightly kissed me on the forehead, "Goodnight, nugget."

~~Timeskip~~

Shimizu shuffled up to me at lunch, "H-hey L/N, do you wanna get ice cream with me after school today?"

I nodded with a grin, "Of course, and please just call me Y/N!"

The rest of the day flew by quickly, but the end of the day still couldn't come soon enough. I greeted Shimizu with a wide smile, "You ready, Shimizu?"

She nodded, then timidly added, "Please just call me Kiyoko."

As we walked to the park she'd suggested, I furiously brainstormed nicknames for her, then landed on a perfect one, "Say, Sh-Kiyoko? Do you mind me calling you Yoko?"

She blushed and hid behind her silky hair, "P-please do."

I grabbed her hand and interlaced her fingers in mine, as best-girl-friends do, and we skipped the final hundred meters or so. We swung our arms in time and a bubbly laugh burst forth from my lips. I laughed freely, without a care in the world, until I heard a soft chuckle from my right. My laugh faded as I stared at Kiyoko in shock, "Y-Yoko, did you just laugh?"

She covered her mouth with her free hand and shook her head, "N-no!"

I grinned deviously are, "Are you sureee?"

She pouted, then I let go of her hand and began tickling her side. She clamped her mouth shut as she tried to claw my hands away, but eventually, she exhaled with a soft laugh. I gently coaxed another laugh from her, which sounded a bit grumpier than the last, then joined in. I'm the man serving us ice cream thought we were lunatics, barely able to order through laughs. 

Every so often we'd stop, meet each other's eyes, then burst out laughing again. She licked her strawberry ice cream and I ate my F/I/F. (Favorite Icecream Flavor - Not to be confused with Favorite Food....) She happily talked away, her previous shyness almost erased. Then came the question I had somewhat been dreading, "So, who are your parents?"

She'd just explained that her mum, Ariko, worked in the weapons industry and her dad, Maeko, was in the army, often deployed for long periods of time. I looked down at my feet, "They died in a villain attack about a year and a half ago. Their names were M/N and F/N."

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly as something I couldn't recognize flashed through her eyes, "I'm so sorry... at least they're in a better place now."

I smiled, "Yeah, and I just know they're watching over me, keeping me safe and making sure I don't get into trouble!"

If only I knew how futile my parent's efforts to protect me would turn out to be.