#bnhapr

“No, no, no. Like this,” Neito said as he took a handful of Eri’s shoulder length silver hair and gently parted it in half into a pig tail on each side of her small head. The toddler giggled to herself as she stared up at her older brother and his other friend, Denki.

The two humans had, as usual, invited themselves over to Hitoshi and Eri’s house with no regard for whether Hitoshi might have something else planned for the day. Not that he did, but he didn’t need to tell the two of them that.

“Aw that’s even cuter!” Denki cooed, leaning in towards Hitoshi’s baby sister, his hands resting between his crossed legs. Eri giggled louder with how close Denki got to her before the two of them bumped the tips of their noses together. A little ritual the two of them had created between them.

Neito smirked to himself, straightening his back as he sat there in all his confidence, glad that he won their little spat about how best to tie Eri’s hair for the day. Personally he preferred his sister’s hair to hang loose, but as long as she didn’t have a problem with his friends playing with her hair, then he didn’t either.

“I told you,” Neito said proudly as he reached over and took one of the ribbons Hitoshi had been made to hold for them at some point. With expert hands, Neito pulled the girl’s hair up high and tied them gently before he picked her up under her arms and held her in the air victoriously. “Tada!”

Denki clapped his hands together as Eri squealed in delight, kicking her small feet about as if she could run on the very air she was held on. Hitoshi couldn’t help but smile as he reached over and took his sister in his arms, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“You look very pretty, Eri.”

The pure love the girl held in her big red eyes was enough to melt Hitoshi’s heart as he held her to his chest for a moment before he set her down on the floor so that she could stumble over into Denki’s hold, who caught her just as she toppled into him.

“Easy there,” Denki chuckled, helping her upright before he took her hands in his and enticed her into a performance of a dance he had taught her when no one had looked. One by one Eri kicked her feet into the air as she held onto Denki’s hands to keep her balance.

“She really is too adorable,” Neito said as he sat back, his hands resting on the floor behind him as he watched the two of them perform their little dance.

“She is,” Hitoshi agreed, popping a nearby apple slice in his mouth from the plate that had been placed in the room for them to share. Ever since she had gotten all her teeth, Eri had developed an addiction to the bright red fruit.

Apples were in constant supply around the house nowadays, so much so that Hitoshi felt that he should be sick of them, but oddly enough, he enjoyed the sight of them. A big, round, healthy red apple meant a big, grinning little sister.

And that, he wouldn’t change for the world.

“No, no, no. Like this,” Neito said as he took a handful of Eri’s shoulder length silver hair and gently parted it in half into a pig tail on each side of her small head. The toddler giggled to herself as she stared up at her older brother and his other friend, Denki.

The two humans had, as usual, invited themselves over to Hitoshi and Eri’s house with no regard for whether Hitoshi might have something else planned for the day. Not that he did, but he didn’t need to tell the two of them that.

“Aw that’s even cuter!” Denki cooed, leaning in towards Hitoshi’s baby sister, his hands resting between his crossed legs. Eri giggled louder with how close Denki got to her before the two of them bumped the tips of their noses together. A little ritual the two of them had created between them.

Neito smirked to himself, straightening his back as he sat there in all his confidence, glad that he won their little spat about how best to tie Eri’s hair for the day. Personally he preferred his sister’s hair to hang loose, but as long as she didn’t have a problem with his friends playing with her hair, then he didn’t either.

“I told you,” Neito said proudly as he reached over and took one of the ribbons Hitoshi had been made to hold for them at some point. With expert hands, Neito pulled the girl’s hair up high and tied them gently before he picked her up under her arms and held her in the air victoriously. “Tada!”

Denki clapped his hands together as Eri squealed in delight, kicking her small feet about as if she could run on the very air she was held on. Hitoshi couldn’t help but smile as he reached over and took his sister in his arms, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“You look very pretty, Eri.”

The pure love the girl held in her big red eyes was enough to melt Hitoshi’s heart as he held her to his chest for a moment before he set her down on the floor so that she could stumble over into Denki’s hold, who caught her just as she toppled into him.

“Easy there,” Denki chuckled, helping her upright before he took her hands in his and enticed her into a performance of a dance he had taught her when no one had looked. One by one Eri kicked her feet into the air as she held onto Denki’s hands to keep her balance.

“She really is too adorable,” Neito said as he sat back, his hands resting on the floor behind him as he watched the two of them perform their little dance.

“She is,” Hitoshi agreed, popping a nearby apple slice in his mouth from the plate that had been placed in the room for them to share. Ever since she had gotten all her teeth, Eri had developed an addiction to the bright red fruit.

Apples were in constant supply around the house nowadays, so much so that Hitoshi felt that he should be sick of them, but oddly enough, he enjoyed the sight of them. A big, round, healthy red apple meant a big, grinning little sister.

And that, he wouldn’t change for the world.

“Tsu. Tsu. Tsu!”

Tsuyu Asui blinked out of her trance the moment her mother tapped her on the shoulder. Looking to the woman beside her, Tsuyu gave a sheepish smile, her long green hair falling over her face as she rubbed the back of her head in a show of embarrassment over having been caught daydreaming – again.

“Sorry mom, ribbit.”

Beru Asui let out a sigh as she rested her hands on her hips and arched a brow at her daughter. “You’ve been thinking about that again, haven’t you?”

Her mother didn’t need to so much as wait on an answer. Ever since Tsuyu had seen the first explorer since she started working in her parents’ tavern, The Lucky Hop, she had been fantasising about going out one day and joining their ranks.

Usually she could catch an interesting story from one or two of them. Her parents complained that she annoyed the customers with her constant questioning, but most of the adventurers didn’t seem to mind telling of their exploits.

In fact, many welcomed the chance to simply lean back and tell of what had happened to them on their journey to the tavern.

Granted, there were a fair share of would be adventurers that told a tale that was a bit too tall for her liking. Usually she could weed them out pretty quickly the moment a mischievous gleam caught their eyes.

She left those tables for her parents to deal with. They weren’t all that interested in the customers’ tales unless they brought a shiny coin in exchange.

It wasn’t that they didn’t support their eldest in her dreams of becoming an adventurer herself, but while she lived under their roof, they had made her promise not to simply grab her things and run off into the woods like one of the maidens in her story books.

In all honesty, she loved her family and enjoyed her time in the tavern, but there was only so many jugs of ale and loaves of bread that a girl could carry after someone else that lived her dream on a daily basis. She wanted that life for herself, and frankly, she was getting tired of waiting on it.

“Oh Tsu, what are we going to do with you?” her mom asked, a look of defeat on her face, accompanied by the remnants of an ale stain on her skirt from when one of the customers accidentally bumped into her while she was on her way to put down an order.

“I’m going to assume that I’m not going to get my tip from table seven anymore, ribbit?”

Her mother only shook her head as she held up a tray with a loaf of bread and some fresh milk for the stableboy that worked just outside the tavern, near the local inn. “I might reconsider. Now go and take Koji’s food to him. The poor boy must be starving by now.”

“Ribbit,” Tsuyu hummed as she took the tray from her mother and greeted a couple of the regular customers on her way out into the bright afternoon sun.

Tenya took a deep breath as he stood out on the balcony, observing the night sky on the horizon. He had never been one for staying up past his assigned bedtime but when it came to high-end parties like the one he was currently at, he didn’t have much of a choice.

“Sir Iida?”

Tenya nearly froze at the sound of his name on the princess’s lips. Spinning around so fast that he nearly toppled over the edge of the railing, Tenya’s hand flew to his chest as he bowed at the waist in a clear sign of submission to the young girl – no, woman – in front of him.

Granted she wasn’t any older than he was, but she did possess a higher rank, one that was impossible for him to obtain unless he married into it. And even then he wouldn’t possess the same rank whatsoever.

“Your Highness,” he said with as much respect as he could convey his voice to portray. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any respect for her. Respect for those of higher rank had been drilled into him from a young age, but so had the need to question everything around him.

For a moment the princess looked stunned before a soft smile crossed her lips as she lifted the skirt of her dress ever so slightly so that she could approach him. “Please, call me Momo.”

For a minute he stood completely frozen in place. Who was he to call the princess by her first name? Much less at her request.

He shook his head. “I cannot do that Your Highness. It would be nothing if disrespectful of your rank, my lady.”

The smile faded from her face temporarily before it spread across her lips once more, this time not seeming as intimate as it had been a second ago. “O-Oh, I see. Thank you for your consideration.”

“It is nothing if not my pleasure, Your Highness!”

She took a step back, reminding Tenya that others didn’t respond as well to his direct behaviour like his family did. He quickly lowered his bow as instinct took over.

“My apologies for frightening you, Your Highness!”

“N-No, it’s perfectly alright,” she said with that nervous smile on her face as she stood beside him. “You’re quite a direct person, aren’t you Sir Iida?”

He took that as his cue, standing up to his full height. He towered over her by only a couple of millimetres, not much but enough that she had to tilt her eyes up ever so slightly to look him in the eye. He was by no means a short boy, but even at his age he towered over male children his age, so to find a female taller than most boys he met before, he was sufficiently surprised to say the least.

“Please, call me Tenya, Princess,. My brother is Sir Iida.”

She tilted her head ever so slightly. “I thought you aspired to be a knight as well.”

The statement caught him by surprise, but he quickly regained his composure as a smile of his own crossed his lips. “I do, but I still have a long way to go.”

This time her smile brightened ever so slightly into an actual smile as she turned her gaze to where he had been staring at earlier. “Then I suppose we both have a long way to go, Sir Iida.”

Tenya parted his lips to remind her of his name, but before he could stop himself, he smiled in return, his gaze refocusing on the same scenery as well.

“It seems like it, Princess.”

Staring at the princess, Tenya patiently, obediently waited his turn as the princess’s parents to introduce her to him, and his brother to do the same. The moment they stopped in front of him, Tenya found his spine straightening to the point that he nearly felt it snap.

A soft sound caught his attention as the princess gave him a soft, playful smile. Against his better judgement, he found himself returning her smile. It was only after his brother lightly bumped his arm that he remembered how someone other than another royal looking a royal in the eye could be seen as disrespectful. He nearly launched himself forward with his bow.

“Your Highness! I am Tenya Iida, the second son of the Iida family. It is a pleasure to meet you!”

Looking at the floor, he caught sight of the tip of a red shoe scuttling back in surprise. For a second he feared that he might have scared her. It wasn’t until a light chuckle brought his attention back up to the king and queen that stood on either side of their daughter.

The king looked to Tenya’s brother, giving him an affectionate clap on the shoulder. “A fine younger brother you have there, Sir Tensei.”

Tensei bowed slightly at the waist, enough so that it was a clear show of respect, but not so low as to make himself seem unworthy of their presence. “Thank you, my king.”

With an approving nod, the king stood aside as he placed a gentle hand on his daughter’s back, urging her forward. “Momo, introduce yourself.”

The tall girl in front of Tenya slid her perfectly manicured hands over her dress, lightly pinched the fabric and lifted it ever so slightly off the floor as she went down into a curtsey. “I am Princess Momo Yaoyorozu. It is pleasant to meet you as well, Sir Iida.”

A jolt of happiness shot through Tenya so fast that he could barely keep the grin off his face. Even with his family’s last name, he was too young to apply for a full knighthood, so of course he lacked the title she had called him by, but it made him feel happy nonetheless.

Her father chuckled good naturedly. “Sir Iida, hm? What do you say Tensei? Do we have another Iida knight in our presence?”

Tenya’s eyes widened as he looked to his brother to gauge his reaction. Usually one knight in a family was already a prestige, but whenever another knight came from the same parents in that family, it was seen as an insult for there to be more than one. For a heartbeat he feared his brother’s scorn, even mockery. Instead his brother flashed him a gentle smile.

“I believe so, my king.”

Pure, no holds barred admiration was all Tenya Iida ever knew, especially when it came to his older brother, Tensei.

For years Tenya was taught by his family that pride and prestige would get him anything he wanted. If he took everything he did with an equal dose of seriousness and pride, then he’d get far in life, almost as fast as his legs could go.

Because of the metallic pipes protruding from his calves, Tenya was no strange to being mocked by those who didn’t know how fast those pipes could force him to run when the need arose. When push came to shove, Tenya had no trouble showing just what his legs were capable of.

Because his family had been one long generation of knights that served the heirs of the Yaoyorozu rulers. At the age of seven, he was going to meet the current heir to the throne, Princess Momo Yaoyorozu.

At first he had been unsure about the possibility, but his brother had quickly reassured him that the sooner he met the princess, the sooner he’d be able to form a strong enough bond with her to help him climb his family’s social status ladder.

It wasn’t quite the way he wanted to go about it, but if his brother reassured him that it was the right way to go about it, then he would do so without question. His brother was usually right.

Standing proudly in his best formal wear, Tenya looked across the ballroom, standing beside his brother as they waited for the king and queen to make their appearance with their daughter.

It was the first time the princess would meet the nobility of the people she would one day rule over. If he felt nervous, he couldn’t imagine how she felt. Yes, if he made a mistake, he would be mocked for it, but it would be forgotten within a week. If she made a mistake… well, she wouldn’t have time to live it down.

That was a fate he wished on no one.

“Hey, stand still. You’re going to run out of the room at this point.”

Tenya paused as he looked to his brother, who wore a sheepish smile as he gently patted his brother’s back. “S-Sorry, big brother. I’m just a little nervous.”

To his surprise, Tensei gave him a gentle, knowing smile. Unlike him, Tensei had already met the princess, seeing as he was already a knight in the royal family’s service. He already knew what to expect.

Each time Tenya had tried to get any information about the princess, his brother had simply smiled and told him to be patient. It made him question whether he’d like the princess in the first place since his brother never spoke about her.

Granted, he was technically forbidden from speaking of the royal family outside the confines of the palace, for their and his sake. If he was caught conveying the Yaoyorozu family’s secrets, or even so much as details of what they did in their private time, then not only he, but his whole family, could be sent to the dungeon to await some or other trial.

Before he could try to ask his brother a question about when the announcement ceremony would begin, a fanfare of horns sounded, drawing everyone’s attention as a man and woman dressed in fine clothing walked over to a set of identical thrones as a young girl around Tenya’s age followed them, her long black hair tied back from her anxious face.

After he left Thirteen’s house, Shota headed back home, stopping by an apple orchid along the way.

When he stopped at the end of the hill, a soft smile spread across his usual scowling face. As expected, the cottage home was dark, save for a couple of candles burning in the living room. Before he left, he had asked his husband, Hizashi Yamada, to see to it that their children were already in bed by the time he got home. As expected, the usually energised blonde hadn’t listened to him. Or more likely had been twisted around their youngest’s pinkie. Not that he’d be surprised.

Because they were both naturally males, conceiving had been… a struggle at best. Eventually they had decided to adopt, which even in the elf community had been a pretty hard thing to do, until one day they were allowed entrance to the orphanage where they met an indigo-haired boy. He had such bags under his eyes that Shota had to blink to make sure that he wasn’t staring at a younger version of himself.

As it turned out, the boy had a gift for controlling others with his mind if they responded whenever he asked them a question. Most of the children at the orphanage had been terrified of him because of it, but as expected, Hizashi had been drawn to the boy immediately and within less than five minutes he got the boy laughing, a feat no one else had ever been able to do apparently.

Since that day the two of them had bonded with the boy as much as they could. It wasn’t until Hitoshi, who still went by his original last name, Shinso, for reasons he refused to tell them, was nine years old when Shota had lost his balance out of nowhere that it had scared Hizashi into a pure, no-breaks panic when he saw his usually fleet-footed husband down on the ground, vomiting whatever they had for breakfast that morning.

After a trip to the local healer, the three of them found out that Shota was carrying. Not a disease or something violent that caused his body to give in on itself, but instead something both he and Hizashi had considered nothing less than a blessing since day one. A baby.

When they told Hitoshi, he had worried that they wouldn’t want him anymore, and as usual, it had been Hizashi that had calmed the boy down and reassured him that no matter what, they would always want him as their son. The relief on his face had nearly broken Shota’s heart over how scared the boy had been about possibly being abandoned. On that day he had sworn to ensure that neither he or the baby ever felt that way again.

The nine months that passed had been both good and bad, the worst part being the constant nausea and of course physically pushing the baby out, but the early morning kicks that he had felt during those months and the first moment he took Eri into his arms, he had felt love in its purest form.

Hizashi had taken to being a natural diaper-changer and bottle-feeder whilst Hitoshi instantly snapped into the role of an older brother. Shota still remembered the day he went to check in on Hitoshi and Eri when two of Hitoshi’s friends came over, Denki Kaminari and Neito Monoma.

Hitoshi had been sprawled out on his back, exhausted after a night of Eri’s late-night crying so Denki had thought it a good idea to paint his sleeping friend’s face whilst Neito had shown Eri that he could replicate the small horn she had on the right side of her forehead.

Needless to say, Shota had left Neito and Eri alone, however Denki had received a bit of a talking to about what he had done. When Hitoshi awoke and found out what his friend had done, he held Denki down whilst Neito took to painting on Denki’s face on Hitoshi’s behalf, leaving Eri giggling and applauding her elder brother’s revenge.

Even though the human and elf realms were fairly separated, Denki had lived close enough to the orphanage that he had become quite close friends with Hitoshi, so when he found out his friend had been adopted, he had dragged Neito with him to Hitoshi’s new address and the three of them had simply continued being friends.

At first Shota had been worried that Neito would say something to upset Hitoshi with the way he usually talked, but it seemed that both Hitoshi and Denki knew better than to take Neito’s words to heart. And the moment that Neito saw Eri for the first time… he nearly had to beat the blonde boy off with a stick to keep him from snatching the new born from her crib whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Remembering all those moments, Shota had to blink the second light suddenly shone in his eyes. It took a couple of seconds before he realised that Hizashi was standing in the doorway with a smile and a sleeping silver-haired toddler resting against his shoulder.

“Are you coming in?” Hizashi asked in that smooth sing-song voice he knew sent a shiver down Shota’s spine. Shaking his head in response, Shota made his way to the door, stopping briefly to kiss his husband. “Mmm welcome home mama~”

Shota smiled as those words instantly warmed his chest.

“I’m home.”

“That’s it for today you two. Don’t forget to practice at home too,” Thirteen’s last words had been to her two students as she watched them head down the path, back to their homes. With a smile on her face, she turned and gathered up her books.

With a wave of her hand, she teleported herself back home. The moment she did, a familiar feeling crossed over her. A feeling that only ever appeared when he did. Waiting until she was inside, Thirteen pulled the black veil away from her face, revealing the smile beneath it.

“You know, for someone as sneaky as you, you’re not very good with hiding your presence.”

Shuffling behind her confirmed that there was indeed someone else inside her home. Normally if something like that had happened while she was out, she would have already been weaving signs all over the place and blasted them out a new makeshift exit. Except this intruder she knew. She trusted.

As predicted, Shota Aizawa stepped out from behind the shadows. Dressed in black on black, the black-haired elf looked her over with a droll stare, those black eyes of his seeming almost as lifeless as the way he slouched forward ever so slightly like he was carrying the weight of the whole realm on his shoulders.

“That’s only because you have a tracking spell on me,” he said in that deep voice of his, an arm rubbing at the back of his neck as if trying to rid himself from some sort of stiff feeling. Of course he knew that she would never place a tracking spell on him without his consent, but that didn’t stop him from attempting what he deemed to be a joke.

“Now how else would I be able to keep an eye on you?” she went along with his tease as she began putting her books back in their shelves. Shota crossed the room in one long stride of his legs and helped her with the shelves that she just couldn’t quite reach. She flashed him an appreciative smile. “Shall I make us some tea?”

Shota nodded his answer. With a wave of her wrist, Thirteen listened to the kettle warm up on the opposite end of the wall. With that done, she picked up a jar from the middle of her dining room table and held it out to him.

“Cookie?” This time he only held a hand up in decline. She shrugged and took one out for herself, daintily biting into it as she motioned to the nearby couch for him to sit. He did so, stretching his long legs out to their full length. It wasn’t long until his head tilted back and his eyes shut. “Long day?”

“You could say that,” Shota confirmed, tilting his head back a bit further, “the fire king has been causing trouble again.”

Enji Todoroki, the hellfire king, or Endeavor as he was more commonly known. She didn’t know him personally, but she had heard enough about him to know who and what he was, mostly anyway. She didn’t know much about the man, but there was always something about when people talked about him that left her with a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“What is he up to this time?” she asked, half expecting Shota to simply say that the king was simply working on his last nerve. What he said next, she couldn’t have prepared herself to hear.

“He’s after the dragons.”

The kettle screamed.

“That’s it Hanta. Aim before you swing!” Hanta and Ochaco’s teacher instructed as she watched Hanta use the sticky substance that flowed from his elbows stick to the nearby trees to help him move around the area.

Thirteen was a fully qualified mage with years of experience in the field under her belt. Her own specialised magic consisted of using her own body to pull objects towards her and causing them to disappear. She was a small woman, but one no one dared to get on the wrong side of.

Just because she was nice, didn’t mean that she was going to let anyone walk over her. Not only had her magic assured that, but her involvement in helping to keep the peace between kingdoms. Their own kingdom owed quite a lot to the mage, but she never claimed recognition. All she asked was for time to spend training her students, namely Hanta and Ochaco.

With a smile behind the veil she usually kept over her face to keep her identity a secret, even from her own students, Ms. Thirteen went by her alias number, never so much as telling anyone her actual name. Both Hanta and Ochaco had tried various methods to find out what it was, but around every corner, their teacher avoided the subject.

In fact, she encouraged the two of them to use pseudo names as well. She claimed that it was for their own protection in the future should they choose to serve their own or another kingdom. Neither student took serving the kingdom as a serious goal, but they had, as usual, taken their teacher’s words to heart.

Hanta had chosen Cellophane, whilst Ochaco went by Uravity, each basing their protective identities on the magic they were most qualified in. Thirteen had recommended the method for making it easier for those who required their services to know what they were more or less capable of without revealing too much. They assumed she spoke from experience given the fact that she had chosen a number as her own protective name.

Listening carefully to her instructions, Hanta had learned to practically swing from one branch to another like one of the spiders he sometimes saw when he swung past certain trees in the area. At first he had nearly been frightened half to death each time he encountered one that seemed to appear out of nowhere, but by now he had learned to recognise which trees to avoid.

He wasn’t as worried about the arachnids anymore. He just found it safer – for all of them.

“Excellent! You’re showing vast improvement Hanta!” Ms. Thirteen called up towards him before she turned to face her other student.

Because of her specialty in causing herself and the objects around her to float with barely any restrictions, Ochaco often opted for a pair of pants instead of the traditional skirts female mages wore. Even though it was frowned upon, Thirteen was often seen in a pair of pants more than a skirt, claiming that it was far more comfortable and far less restrictive in terms of fast movement.

When Ochaco first began experimenting with gravity magic, Hanta had to often help her by trying to catch her with the tape from his elbows. It had been good practice for the both of them, and now they were nearly completely independent of each other in terms of requiring assistance from the other mage-in-training.

She still remembered the time Hanta had gotten himself stuck between three narrow trees and had to rely on Ochaco to float up and help to cut him loose. Unlike most, Hanta had taken his mistake in stride and helped Ochaco in turn when she nearly floated away from their training area once.

Currently Ochaco was upside down, trying to keep herself from feeling dizzy whilst staying in one place. It was a tricky training trick on its own, but Ochaco had insisted that she wanted to try it. Just like her male counterpart, she was an adaptive person. Her students brought her nothing but pride, and for that she was grateful.

Naturally she had other students that she trained on a daily basis, but every morning since their first requests to train them, the two of them had been the fastest to improve, and the ones to take her training to heart.

Unlike most of her students, they didn’t compete for her approval either. Instead, when they felt they needed it, they were quick to help each other. If they kept up their progress, she had no doubt that they could make it big in the mage world when the time came. The only question she had was whether they would want to do so in the first place.