Ever since her father was forced to leave, the house felt empty. Empty of shouts, screams, slams, and emotions. But for an odd reason, Hanako still felt the same. She was scared because she could not recall one time her mother had been nice to her since she developed her quirk. Sure, her mother healed her, but her mother's healing hurt due to the nature of it, and it's not like the woman did it out of love.

This led to why Hanako was actually scared. She was scared that her mother would turn into a person like her father. The three of them lived together for over a decade, and now it was just her and her mother; her father off in prison for attempted murder, not for what he did to Hanako. So no one knew, and would never likely ever know. But Hanako knew, she knew everything. 

And knowing everything that had happened only added for her paranoia of her mother turning on her. The eleven year old was scared out of her mind, and watched her mother like a hawk when she was in the house. Though what Hanako didn't know was how her mother was too watching her like a hawk.

It was around this time when Hanako was 11 that she spent more time outside than ever, wishing to throw away the memories of anything that had a relationship to both her parents. But she just couldn't because she loved them, she still does. They are her parents. And even if she knows she's supposed to hate them because of what he did and how she acts (and what her mother would come to do later on in Hanako's life) but she just could not bring herself to forget nor hate.

So suppress the thoughts, the feelings, the worries, the everything. If you don't think about them, they can't hurt you. And it actually worked, the girl became less tense and lived with ease when she wasn't home; which was a rather impressive improvement because even if people may not have noticed, she looked genuinely scared for a few days. But it was completely different when she was at home.

Years is what it took. Years to not feel absolutely petrified of being in her own home. Years to even trust being in the same room as her mother. Years to even talk to the woman. And it was only when Hanako was around thirteen maybe fourteen before Hanako could hold up a somewhat convincing smile towards her mother to tell the woman "It's fine, you can take the food. But could you leave some for me?"

It wasn't exactly effective though, no food was left.

But Hanako knew deep down that her mother wanted her there, if she didn't, why would the woman take her food? It was out of love. Is what Hanako thought.

It wasn't out of love, and it would never be.

Not that Hanako knew that, because her parents loved her, right? Like parents were supposed to?

They were barely her parents, the only thing connecting them being DNA rather than love and feelings. But she was blind to that. Always had been, and always would be. That is until 'always' becomes a few months to a few days and finally a few hours.

Because there's always more than the eye can see, correct?

********

Returning back to school from the internships was rather entertaining for one reason and one reason only, Bakugo had still been unable to force his hair back into it's normal spiky stature. 

"Holy crap! What the heck Bakugo!" Kirishima and Sero laughed, their mouths agape with laughter as they saw the boy's hair. Hanako breathed out a laugh too, watching the entire thing go down.

"Stop. Laughing. My hair's gotten used to this and I can't get it back the right way. Did you not hear me?! I'll kill you both!" Bakugo growled out, the boy practically vibrating from anger. 

Hanako, unlike her fellow intern, had been able to revert her hair back to normal. She didn't know how, but accidentally spending an hour and thirty minutes standing under the shower may have been the trick.

"I'd like to see you try, pretty boy!" Sero mocked.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Bakugo roared out, whilst his hair poofed back up into its regular shape. The moment was golden, and as Hanako sat at her desk trying to silently wheeze her laugh away, Bakugo picked up both Kirishima and Sero by the backs of their blazers and carried them across the classroom.

It was rather entertaining to Hanako to see Bakugo absolutely embarrassed, and it wasn't even her doing for once! Hanako got up from her desk, a large smile on her face and walked over to Shinso's desk.

"Soo, how did your internship go?" Hanako asked, standing next to the boy's desk.

"It was alright."

"It was alright-" Hanako mimicked in Shinso's unbothered tone"- Sir it had to be better than mine."

"What happened at yours?"

"I got hair gel and hairspray lathered onto my head every damn day, but guess what else?"

"What?" Shinso continued with his bored tone, though in reality he was rather intrigued to know what Hanako was going on about.

"I had to wear skinny jeans over my costume. I'm not even a millennial."  

That was the first time Hanako saw Shinso laugh, an accomplishment in her books.

********

The class were currently at what looked to be an industrial maze, metal pipes and tanks filling up an extremely large training area.

"I am here! I hope you are all ready to return to all of your lessons. Today it's hero basic training, it feels like I haven't seen you in a while. Welcome back! Now then listen carefully for what's in store, we're going to be conducting a little race. Take everything you've learnt from your internships and apply it to this rescue training." All Might began, most listening attentively.

"If it's rescue training, then shouldn't we be at the USJ instead?!" Iida said while shooting his hand up, ultimately interrupting All Might's instructions.

"Ahh, That facility specializes in disasters. As I said earlier this is a race, so prepare! You're about to step into field Gamma. Inside is an area of factories that form an intricate labyrinth, so good luck trying to find your way around. You'll be competing in groups of five, each person starts at a different location on the outskirts of the model city. I'll send a distress signal and you'll do what you must to rescue me. Whoever finds me first wins, but try to keep the property damage to a bare minimum please. " All Might finished pointing at Bakugo causing Hanako to breathe out a laugh. 

"Why are you pointing at me?" Bakugo growled, turning his head away in annoyance. 

All Might began to announce the groups of people who would participate. And the first group consisted of Sero, Midoriya, Ashido, Iida and Hanako. Those who weren't in the first group were watching those who were racing on an extremely big TV screen.

Is everyone ready? BEGIN!" All Might said as he pressed a button which made a horn sound. 

Hanako had to admit, it felt much better to be in her hero costume without jeans. She could move more freely, and better yet, she didn't have to worry about ripping the jeans; which she did 3 times whilst she was interning.

Hanako began to swing on the pipes using her webs. The course was desirable for her quirk, and she was actually rather grateful for it. It felt like going into a test that you know everything about, and then getting everything right. This type of terrain was the one she felt most comfortable with.

And then there was Midoriya flying around the course like a pro.

That was weird, Midoriya not breaking his bones that is. In an improvement sense, he had made more progress than Hanako, most likely more than anyone.

Midoriya took the lead, though his temporary lead was distinguished as his foot slipped on a pipe, and he fell to the floor. Hanako didn't know whether to tell herself off because of what she thought, but she didn't, she was kind of grateful that the boy fell, that way she could win.

(Was Bakugo rubbing off on her?)

Her and Sero were mainly tied for first which made sense, their quirks were practically the same in theory; though of course their quirk were very much different in biological terms. Hanako's hair was being blown back and behind her head, her braid like waves having returned due  to the lack of hair products. Her cheeks were rosy because of the wind blowing in her face, her eyes watering slightly too. She didn't mind, it made her feel alive.

And she was even more alive when she managed to get first on the training exercise.

"AND IT'S OVER! Thanks hero and congratulations." All Might announced while handing Hanako a sash that read 'Thanks for saving me!' which she put on.

"Hell yeah!" Hanako exclaimed, she liked winning. It was something she'd become accustomed to in the past few months, and now she hated the idea of losing. The losers in this case were now sulking.

Though the losers weren't the only one's sulking. Bakugo was too. When Hanako's group returned, she could feel the intense confusion not only radiating off of Bakugo, and it was rather confusing. That was until someone explained to her as to why Bakugo was in a shocked sulk, it was because of Midoriya. Hanako hadn't actually had time to acknowledge the green boy's moves, and only really acknowledged that he wasn't breaking his bones.

Hanako looked at him with encouraging eyes (she didn't know why), seeing Bakugo's slightly shocked face. She wanted to say something, though Hanako also knew that it wasn't her problem.

And so the afternoon continued, and Hanako had to admit, seeing Shinso in action was rather impressive, the boy was most definitely deserving of being in the hero course. It was obvious that the boy had received inspiration from their homeroom teacher, with the long scarf and every thing.

Even if Hanako teased the boy about it, she still didn't hesitate to compliment him; it was something she'd learnt to do after she'd get told off at her old school for being rude, a sentence shouldn't just consist of insults. Maybe Bakugo should learn that someday.

Speaking of the boy, he dragged Hanako by the wrist after training was done. His grip was tight, and Hanako was really doubting her claims of "I don't get triggered by anything".

But it wasn't them, and she knew that.

It wasn't them.

It wasn't them.

"Oi! Are you listening to me? Or should I just force it out of you?"

"What?"

"I was fucking talking to you, Spidey!"

Oh.

She'd always had these problems. Never listening. It's not that she doesn't not want to listen, she does. But after years of forcing her mind to day-dream in any spare time, it happened a lot, even more so in high pressure situations.

(Was this a high pressure situation?)

"Oh."

"Yeah, fucking 'oh'. Now, are you going to tell me what Jeanist was talking to you about on  Thursday? Or why you didn't come back?"

Fuck.

She hadn't planned on anyone else knowing, let alone Bakugo. She didn't have an excuse, but she could make one up. That's what a pathological liar such as herself would do.

"I did come back, actually."

"Then why were you outside at early as fuck o'clock on the morning? Still in the same clothes."

"I didn't wanna put new clothes on, that's wasteful." She didn't hesitate, never did when she was lying.  She had actually come to be an amazing liar, so much so that she lied to herself, and didn't truly know who she was. She'd only become such a thing because of her parents, lies were the key to success, no?

"That doesn't prove anything, Spidey. So now you're gonna tell me what you were actually doing."

They were both looking deep into each other's eyes, both retaining a serious face that was also somewhat neutral. Neither blinked, neither moved their eyes even an inch. Both simply staring. 

Hanako wasn't going to tell him. She wasn't going to tell anyone that didn't know.

"I go out for walks, does that bother you, Arsonist?"

"Obviously it will if you're lying."

"Y'know, lying to yourself is often a sign of not wanting to hear the truth, which is what you're doing. So I recommend that I keep the truth to myself, and you keep your nose out of other people's business, especially if they were just trying to live their lives.-" She smiled a wide-mouthed smile "-M'kay? M'kay, bye." Hanako finished, dragging out the 'bye'.

She knew she overshared, he was looking at her with suspicion. These were the only times she cursed herself for letting her inner excitability take over, because now, now Bakugo was going to be suspicious of her. And knowing Bakugo, he wouldn't quit.

In the end, all it would be is a test to see who would give in first, wouldn't it?

But what were to happen if both of them gave in at the same time?

Then what?