#liarielle

“Um, Asui,” Midoriya said. He held himself, cowering in the doorway like he didn’t belong, even though he was the one who’d knocked. Tsuyu smiled at him.

“Hi,” she replied, tilting her head and blinking slowly. “Did you need something, Midoriya?” 

It was the first time he’d sought her out like this. He shifted from foot to foot, and Tsuyu opened the door wider in invitation. 

“Want to come in?” 

“No,” Midoriya blurted, cheeks flushing. “I- I wanted to ask you something. Um, you have sisters, right?” 

Tsuyu hummed. It wasn’t a secret. “Yeah?” 

“Well, I was wondering if you could, I hope it’s not too much trouble—I want to learn how to braid hair. I don’t know how.” 

Of all the things Tsuyu had been expecting when she’d cracked her dorm room door open to see Midoriya in the hallway looking like he was guilty of some crime, it wasn’t this. She paused, then stepped back, gesturing. 

“I’ll teach you,” she said, and he caught himself on the doorframe, sagging. His unsure mouth turned into a broad smile, though it wobbled when she gestured for him to enter. 

The first explanation Tsuyu gave was too fast to follow. The looping motions were familiar, the loose hair over her shoulder being braided in demonstration. The second time she slowed, matching her deft fingers to his slow, fumbling movements. Cross over, like this. 

“It’s easier than I thought,” Midoriya admitted once he’d got the motions down. She caught him pausing to flex his fingers every little while, but no one had ever said Midoriya wasn’t a determined learner. “I guess I could have looked this up.” 

From her position on the floor, legs folded underneath as his fingers worked through her hair, Tsuyu couldn’t see his face. She could feel when he paused though, or tugged a little too hard against her scalp. Right now his hands were still. 

“I don’t mind,” Tsuyu said. “You know, my sisters begged me all the time to do their hair. I don’t have much of a chance to use my hair-doing prowess these days. It’s nice to teach someone.” 

He returned to his attempt. 

“Why did you ask, anyway?” 

“Ah...” A hand appeared at the corner of her vision to grasp at a hairband, then disappeared again. “Well—would you like to see?” 

She slipped the braid over her shoulder, feeling how it was loose in places, then ran her fingers along the back of her neck. He’d missed a small strand of hair.

But—

“Not bad,” Tsuyu said, turning so she could smile at him. Midoriya stood.

“Thanks, Asui,” he said. “Um... do you think you could teach me more, sometime?” 

“If you tell me why you want to learn.” 

“You’ll see,” Midoriya said, clasping his hands together. He bounced a little. “Thank you. Really. This was... nice.” 

“It is, isn’t it? Doing someone’s hair?” 

Tsuyu did see why, later. The answer was in the shape of a little girl, one hand tugging Midoriya to sit on the floor of the commons room after dinner. Midoriya laughed, a bright sound, and dutifully sat with Eri as they turned the TV on. Tsuyu followed curiously having finished her homework already, sprawling on the couch. 

“I can braid your hair,” she heard Midoriya say. Eri turned so fast her hair swung in an arc in the air. 

“Really?” 

“I learned how,” Midoriya said. “I’m... I’m not that good, but since you asked before—I wanted to do it for you.” 

“Will you?” 

Midoriya slipped a small hairbrush from his pocket and guided it through Eri’s locks. The soft light made it glow.

Eri wasn’t unlike one of Tsuyu’s sisters, unable to keep too still but not wanting to move too much as Midoriya parted her hair. He rotated his wrist a little, and then gathered the sections and began to braid. The TV murmured in the background, but Tsuyu had long since stopped paying attention to it. 

Midoriya was slow, but each move was careful and light. Silvery hair slipped in and out between his fingers as he twisted, crossing the sections over each other. He mumbled while he worked, brows furrowed, and Tsuyu managed to catch the pattern of his words as he reminded himself right, then left. 

“Here,” he said when he was done, turning on his phone camera and holding it so Eri could see his handiwork. Eri gasped, reaching back with her hands to touch the lumpy braid resting on her neck. She ran her fingers over it, twisting around to beam up at Midoriya. 

“Do.. do you like it?” 

“‘s pretty,” Eri blurted finally. “Will you do it again tomorrow, Deku?” 

Midoriya glanced over at Tsuyu, his eyes crinkling. She held out her hand in a thumbs up, and he turned back to Eri, tucking a stray strand of hair that escaped behind her ear. 

The one I am trialing atm is betterhelp.com after a few friends (and other social media people I follow) mentioned it a couple of times.

I literally only just signed up last night, so I can’t offer a review yet, but I did like that they have people experienced with chronic illness, and also offered “non-binary” as a gender option off the bat. (Which doesn’t directly affect me, but it was still encouraging to see other than “other” or having no option at all.)

2/2 Like fuck that is so powerful as a narrative tool, that a man’s mistake threatens to kill the world, and a woman says No and saves it. Like her NO truly means NO. And then Gaia and Aloy do the exact same thing I just adore the writers of this game for that narrative.

me, rereading secondhand for this: wow i love this

i was going to start with just nana & izuku, but i’m so soft for nana & gran, so i included fighting villains like you asked with a little bit of that dynamic! so of course this is going to be a long one i hope no one minds, i couldn’t help myself.

let’s go

[Sorahiko] paused to look at Nana. "And you'll come, of course," he said, but it was half a question. From here, Midoriya couldn't see Sorahiko's face—almost pleading.

"I'll come, of course," Nana said softly to her friend. She turned back to smile at Midoriya. "Don't worry."

Nana and Sorahiko were partners, so this part is Sorahiko tentatively reaching out in this familiar-unfamiliar relationship. But of course Nana will go with them. The “don’t worry” is directed at both him and Izuku.

Midoriya finally started working again as they stepped through the door, and ran to catch up, bursting between the two of them. He apologized hastily, and then looked at both of them with wide eyes.

"Don't- worry?" He looked at Sorahiko, flippant, and Nana, who was used to this kind of thing. "Wait, wait, what do you mean, don't worry? We're going to, you're taking me to fight, villains?"

I thought the first line here was a little bit funny, like Izuku.exe had stopped working once he heard they were going to go seek out and fight villains. Obviously, as we see upcoming in this scene, Izuku has a very different definition of villains, so he sort of shut down for a second. 

He’s super incredulous, while Nana knows Sorahiko is just Like That. She’s not fazed at all, because they’ve known each other for years, and it’s certainly something he made Toshinori do.

His voice grew small on the word villains. He was scared.

Nana frowned at the look on his face.

"Have a little more courage than that," she said, patting him on the shoulder. He flinched, and she pulled back. "I mean— Sorahiko used to make Toshinori do it all the time, when they were training without me. And I used to take Toshinori on patrol with me when I could. It's good experience."

Here’s the part where Nana almost-disapproves a little bit. It’s okay to be scared as a hero, but because a large part of it is fighting villains, she doesn’t understand why Izuku has such a strong reaction. It actually concerns her, because right now it seems like he might not be brave enough. They don’t know each other very well, so I thought this was a reasonable reaction, especially with how important One for All is.

But Nana is also very attentive. 

"Villains?" Midoriya said again. It was like he'd gotten stuck on the word and was now circling it, tethered by a line. "Don't you think that's a little— I hardly have any control over— I mean..."

"That's why we're going with you," Nana said soothingly. "We'll make sure nothing goes disastrously wrong. Chin up."

On the other side, Nana knows a scared child when she sees one. She’s definitely a mom, and someone who cares, so after she tells him he shouldn’t be scared she also tries to reassure him that she and Sorahiko both will be there.

And a little peek of Izuku’s inner thoughts, as best as I can show them through Nana’s perspective. He’s freaking out a little.

"Villains," Midoriya mumbled. He wrung his hands together; he looked a little reassured by Nana's offer of safety, but not by much.

"Oh, get that look off your face," Sorahiko said, spinning around. "It won't be as bad as you think. You'll be fine—you might not be able to take me, but you can handle a crook or two. It's not like we're facing S-Rank villains."

Color returned to Midoriya's face. "Okay," he said quietly, and that was that.

Now, Sorahiko does know about USJ (of course), so after Nana only semi-succeeded at reassuring Izuku he finally gives up and just tells Izuku it’ll all be fine. No S-Ranks here. It’s the reassurance that he really needs. ‘Course, Sorahiko has to sound grumpy-old-man while doing it. 

She'd seen the way his brow had creased when Sorahiko had mentioned the villain classification ranks they all followed. Most villains, of course, tended to be on the lesser scale—petty crime using Quirks was much easier, but there was always going to be the villains lurking in the shadows. All for One, looming, the puppetmaster of a whole organization of crime that haunted the streets and back alleys of Japan. That crept its roots of corruption into every crack it could squeeze through.

She bit the inside of her cheek and closed off her expression.

A tiny bit of “worldbuilding” to slip in there, though this is more-so based off of what we already have in canon with the classification. Also, it makes sense to me that it would be common to have a lot of petty crime, such as the bag-snatcher or the thugs the League hired. People who don’t get to use their Quirks in the system and resort to crime, etc, etc, because the definition of villain is so loose. 

But then of course there are villains like All for One. Nana hates him. Deeply. So much that sometimes it frightens even her how angry she is, but she doesn’t want to show it in front of Izuku right now, so she closes herself off.

"I don't know about you," Sorahiko started, "well. I don't care what you do, but leave me alone."

He glanced at the time, then nodded to himself and disappeared. Nana laughed.

"I don't suppose you’re leaving me alone, too?" Midoriya asked, a little sullen, and Nana shook her head. She'd hardly done anything all morning.

Sorahiko just doesn’t care. He’s done with people younger than twenty for now. In case anyone was wondering, he went off to take a nap, leaving Izuku and Nana to their own devices. 

I just thought it would be a small light-hearted break in the somber tone of the conversation, before we go back to it.

"Would you," Midoriya began, then dropped his gaze. "Would you spar with me then?"

Nana shook her head.

"I shouldn't." She shrugged at his pleading look. "Sorahiko's right. You need a break before we go out tonight. You don't want to be in a real fight and be dead on your feet."

When Izuku asks, Nana doesn’t agree to spar with him. Here, it’s because she believes she’s not his teacher. His training should be Toshinori’s responsibility, and then Gran Torino because of the internship. Nana will help eventually, but to her, it’s not her main role in the relationship with Izuku. 

They walked to the kitchen together. "I still don't understand why we're going to go fight some villains," Midoriya said offhandedly. "I mean, getting experience, sure—all my other friends are doing some light patrols, I think, but seeking out a fight?"

"Sorahiko can't just train you for the rest of the, what is it, the week? You'll get too used to his fighting style, and you'll get stuck. It's better if you're out there experiencing things yourself."

"If you say so," Midoriya said. She didn't think she was meant to hear that.

A little more slight disagreement, though of course from misunderstanding. Izuku’s a little disrespectful at the end there (and even, a little hypocritical considering the way he gets himself into things) but his point stands - that he’s concerned about a pro hero sanctioning him to go seek out villains, rather than how other pro heroes might work by assigning interns to light patrol, learning about agencies, etc.

"Can I ask you something?" Nana leaned back against the counter and watched Midoriya fill a glass of water. He handed it to her, then took another one out, and she nodded in thanks.

"Uh-huh," Midoriya said, filling his own glass.

"Why did you react like that?" Nana asked. "When we were talking about villains earlier."

Midoriya's face darkened. He stared into his glass, like he was looking for an answer in the way the water distorted his vision.

"You don't have to say," Nana said. "I understand being scared of villains. Everyone's scared. But you seemed to have a..."

She didn't know how to describe it. But she'd seen that look before on a few faces—and she'd seen it on Shinroku's face, struck pale.

Like I said, Nana gets that villains are scary. Of course they are, but it is a hero’s job to face them. So she still doesn’t get why Izuku is acting like this, and why he’s so scared, to the point where it reminds her of her own mentor facing All for One. (Haha, fun reference, yeah? Successor facing successor and predecessor facing predecessor.) 

"I don't think you know much about Class 1-A, do you?" He peeked at her face. "I guess you wouldn't know. Er, well... earlier this year, when we- when we went to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, for training... the League of Villains attacked us. It was— bad."

"The League of Villains?"

The League didn’t exist, to Nana’s knowledge, and she’s basically been given the Cliff Notes on everything happening. So here’s the start of the explanation... she hasn’t had a chance to learn much about 1-A or USJ or the League.

"That's.. yes," Midoriya said, "and they weren't just a— I mean, it was planned. They targeted us specifically. And the Nomu... Shigaraki..."

"Shigaraki," Nana said. She couldn't say she'd heard the name before; actually it was entirely unfamiliar to her. "He's a villain?"

God, I’m terrible, truly. Haha. The mention of Shigaraki... just a little bit of dramatic irony here where we’re all like “he’s your grandson!!!! He’s your grandson!” and Nana does not recognize the name at all. And this sets up for later: the only identity Nana knows of Shigaraki is that he’s a villain.  

"The leader, I think," Midoriya said. He tugged his lip between his teeth. "He was directing the others. He gave orders. And he hurt— it was re- really bad."

What Izuku was going to say here was how badly Shigaraki and the Nomu hurt Aizawa, but he couldn’t get the words out. It was really bad. I mean, timeline wise, Aizawa only got his bandages off basically after the Sports Festival, so the memories are still very fresh.

He tipped his head back and drank from his water deeply so that he wouldn't have to keep talking. Nana paused. She hadn't expected that.

"You're a first-year student," she said. "You..."

And now Nana is absolutely horrified because he is a Baby, U.A. He’s a baby!

"They want to kill All Might," Midoriya said suddenly. He set down the glass, and it rang dully. Water sloshed against the side. He gripped the edge of the counter with both hands. "And they— it wasn't human, it was- it was- strong... I couldn't do anything!"

A chill ran down her spine as more and more of the story unraveled. A creature, barely human if at all, that Midoriya referred to as a Nomu. A creature that had been built to kill All Might.

And she’s even more horrified because that’s Her Baby. It does not matter that Toshinori is like, four decades older or so, because he’s still her boy and they were trying to kill him. Specifically. 

Good day slowly turning to bad day.

"He beat it," Midoriya told her, but he seemed less happy about it than she would have assumed. "But... it was a real threat. It withstood him at a hundred percent of One for All.

“And that- that leader, Shigaraki, he would have killed… ”

Nana set down her empty glass. She lifted a hand, then remembered the way he had flinched when she had put it to his shoulder earlier and dropped it again.

Shigaraki would have killed Aizawa, and Tsuyu, and probably him and his classmates, and All Might. 

Here, Nana assumes Izuku would be happier because of the victory, but Izuku really isn’t. All Might won but the Nomu was a real threat to him, and his time limit was already so dangerously low. Izuku remembers All Might pushing himself past his limit. 

And back to earlier, Nana notices Izuku’s reaction. She wants to comfort him, but she thinks he might flinch away if she does.

“I’m sorry,” she said, though it didn’t quite feel like enough. “You shouldn’t have had to go through that.”

He was a kid. Strong, yes. Smart, yes. But in the end, Midoriya was at most fourteen or fifteen—no one his age should have encountered and seen what he had just earlier this year. He was already carrying enough of a burden, she thought, the legacy of the number one hero and the heroes before him.

Not much to say about this part besides it reads as it is on the tin, you know?

Midoriya shrugged uncomfortably. “Anyway, that’s all.”

That's all, like it was fiction, just a tale recounted. Nana didn't feel it. Horror was coursing through her veins. She couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for him.

It was true Nana had lived a rough life, but she had never faced anything like that so young and almost alone.

Nana adopts a child again. I think USJ was a really sad event, too, of course it shouldn’t have happened. And it was a bunch of kids who wanted to be heroes suddenly thrust into an extremely dangerous and traumatizing situation, their teachers were dying, and they were split up and scared and very much in danger. 

I tried to express that too, how horrifying it is as someone who is older than Izuku, to try and treat such an event so casually as a way of dealing with it. Like it’s over, it’s done. But it’s really not.

She certainly has a hard time in life, but Nana sympathizes a lot because she’s never lived something like USJ. No one should have to.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"It's over," Midoriya said. "Everyone lived, and recovered. So I'm grateful."

"It's good to be grateful," Nana murmured, bowing her head. Not everyone lived. Not everyone recovered.

And cut, here at least. Izuku doesn’t really want to talk about it too much more. He’s ready to move on from USJ, and get stronger... for himself, his classmates, and especially for All Might. And he really is grateful everyone came out alive though not unscathed. 

Not everyone lived, not everyone recovered. Tadao didn’t live, and Nana hasn’t recovered. 

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

ugh, tags. hands down. i don’t generally have a problem with titles and summaries because i think experience (and also FFN restrictions, lol) has made me fairly good at them if i say so myself. 

but tags? what the hell am i supposed to tag? i tag like, angst, and then i black out after that. on my dadzawa fics there have been multiple times where i forgot to tag dadzawa. 

it’s like you’d think i’d know what to tag now that i’ve been on ao3 for years but i’m (jokingly) grandma and i don’t get it how do the kids do it

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

the part where i grind my readers’ hearts into fine pieces, and roast everyone slowly in my little brazier of pain, and smile happily like a little cave creature

okay okay i dunno i just like writing! i like the part when occasionally the words just happen, and they happen in all the right ways that i know come closest to expressing what’s in my head and what i want!

100% okay! i made it bc i wanted to see something like this. i’m still slowly working through the commentary asks just because they take some time, yk, so this is like a nice little ask break!

9. is there anything that you’re proud of that your readers noticed?

i think some scenes or little details that i wrote into my fics that a few people picked up on the intricacy of!!!! i really like leaving implications rather than outright saying it.

as an example (i was yelling about this on discord the other day), i got a comment on white sails saying:

and i started yelling: 

and it's SUCH a small detail but it's one of MY favorite parts even though it's almost a throwaway line

“So, victor,” Kacchan drawls. “How do we win?” His eyes are narrowed, calculating. The rest of him is the picture of relaxed, heels kicked up on the table and arms behind his head, ruined only by the bruise forming where Izuku’s knuckles met his cheek.

but i wrote it in a very deliberately just this very small detail because like the way the fic is structured cutting between scenes, you never actually SEE izuku punch bk.

the only reason you know it happens is the bruise and you know it has to have happened between them volunteering (bk volunteering after izuku, FOR him)

and by the time they board the train; very small span of time and the implication IS that izuku was upset and scared that kacchan had volunteered bc he would have preferred to go without him [bakugou], with the two of them that means both of them could die

and thats why the punch happens but you don't READ any of that there's just a bruise

12. what’s something you learned about your own writing that you didn’t know a year ago/when you first started writing?

hmmm. 

well, i didn’t know i could write an entire fic in 30 minutes to the extent that i did. i knew i was capable of hitting a word count (generally between 800-1100 words) in that time, but i didn’t know that i could, like, write a whole ass fic.

(though, i actually started doing 30 min fics last year but i only wrote one, so what i really mean to say is i just didn’t expect just how capable and consistently i could do it. when i started that little challenge for myself, i was just kind of hoping i could do it!)

something i didn’t know when i first started writing about my own writing. hmmm. that i would like mentor-student relationships so much? it kind of crept up on me. a lot of what i wrote in the past, up until the past year or two years, had characters who were similar in age or i was writing about friendships or ships and not so much mentors. (though a few). i think i just never quite had the right combination or canon to draw from. but i really like it which is partly why i’m sticking around writing in bnha. i guess i just never expected that i would like something so much, but it does make sense to me why it appeals to me.