Written

25 - Ayano II

The One Where The Main Character Temporarily Loses Her Spotlight

"A-ya-no."

Ayano? As in... "Is Ayano a friend of yours?" you asked, feigning indifference. Your sister was probably home by now. Was she wondering where you were? Probably not. She's in that phase where she doesn't care about me or Hideo anymore.

"Yes! Van wants to visit Yan, too."

"How do you know her?" you asked. Now you were skeptical. Was Ayano also dealing with things similar to you? You dismissed the thought — there was no way.

"Van ran into her. Yan looked like (y/n), so Van befriended her! And spent time with her," Van explained, waving her bunched hair around. "Van wants to meet (y/n) and Yan's big brother, also!"

You looked to Shoto. The moment he saw your eyes, he knew that you had already changed your previous decision to send the small girl away. He shrugged to let you know that he was on board.

"Okay." You stood up. "I'll introduce you. Let's go."

—

You sat anxiously on the floor with Shoto right by your side. You strained your ears to hear any noise coming from Ayano's room. She had never brought friends home before — she hadn't even mentioned having them. It made no sense that her first friend that you knew of was a little girl. The daughter of strange villain, no less!

"Well? I thought you'd have told me by now, but I guess I'll have to ask you straightforward." Shoto broke the silence with an odd thing to say. You prepared to ask him what he was talking about until he continued. "What is Van's quirk?"

Van's... quirk? "I didn't know she had one," you thought aloud. "They never mentioned it, so maybe it hasn't manifested yet."

Shoto didn't answer right away. No, it took him some time to realize that it hadn't occurred to you to ask such a common question. "You didn't think to ask?"

"Guess not." You shrugged, then brought a finger to your lips. "Anyways, shh." You scooted to the wall closest to your sister's room and pressed your ear against it. It was quiet. Man, are they even talking?

A knock on your door shocked you into banging your head on the wall. Rubbing the bruise-to-be, you stood up to greet whoever was on the other side. You didn't get a chance to, however, because your visitor, with her hair in her hands, welcomed herself.

"Ooooh," Van cooed. "(Y/n) has a nice room." Her eyes wandered every corner of your bedroom, her feet following her gaze in order to see more. She eventually noticed Shoto and gasped. "Daddy said a girl and a boy shouldn't be in a room together."

Shoto rolled his eyes and half-heartedly threw his hands up. "Oh no. We're breaking the rules."

"Then I guess Wook also broke the rules," you laughed, recalling the excessive amount of time you spent alone with him. Shoto whipped his neck to you, assuming the worst. "Don't worry, he didn't do anything weird."

"Van will be off to Yan, then." With that, the little girl left.

Why did she even come?

—

"So?" Ayano prodded for answers the moment Van returned.