The Sleepy Boss

Offer of Understanding

"Hmm... I may just have the thing." He says, getting up. "Stay here and have a look around." His voice fading as he goes into his bedroom. I get up and look at the three picture frames on the mantle. I walk over and look at them.

I pick up the one on the far left and look at it. It shows what it looks like a younger Rosco with two guys who looks like his brothers and a lady whom I'm assuming his sister. "Cute family photo." I say, setting it down.

I pick up the one in the middle and look at it. Rosco is in this picture as well, but he's in front of a sign that says "Las Vegas." I gasp quietly. "He's been to Vegas? When?" I look at the back of the frame. "1985?! Holy shit." I think to myself. I place the photo back.

Before I get to the third one, Rosco returns with a box. "Here it is." He says setting the box down. I walk back over to the couch and sit down. He opens the box and pulls out a golden pocket watch. "That looks quite spiffy." I say impressed.

He unravels the entire golden chain and reveals a clip. "Whatcha gonna do with that?" I ask him. "Can you make yourself into a balloon?" he asks. "Excuse me?" I ask.

I tap the couch, chairs, and coffee table. "You sure?" I ask. He nods and closes the box and places the watch on the lid. "Alright..." I say in an uncertain tone. I activate my quirk and make the furniture float in the air. Not high enough for it to break when it lands but high enough for my quirk to be straining.

I deactivate my quirk and breathe heavily. I stumble a bit and lean against the couch. "Here it comes." I say, as my body slowly start to float upwards. My feet soon take off from the ground. Rosco clips the watch onto my pocket and puts the watch itself into my pocket.

My body sinks back onto the ground. "Oh shit! It works!" I say happily. I walk around perfectly fine. "This is great." I say, smiling. "I could totally buy myself one of these for myself." I say, taking out the watch and opening it. It reads "8:53." I close it and start to unclip the watch but is stopped by Rosco.

"You can keep it." He says. I widen my eyes and shake my head no. "Oh no. You already gave me money. You are not giving me a thousand dollar, or more, watch. Hell no." I say continuing to unclip the watch. "Wait Y/N." he says. I stop and look up.

"Just keep it please. I have no one else to give it to." He says, sadly. I take my hands off the clip and put the watch back in my pocket. "Are...are you the youngest?" I ask. He nods and turns around towards the mantle, holding the three pictures. "I'm the youngest out of 4." He says, taking the frame on the far left.

"They died years ago." He says, running his hand down the glass. I feel bad for him. "I'm so sorry, Rosco. I didn't mean it like that." I say walking towards him. "I still don't understand why you want to give it to me of all people. You said you saw my fight. You know I kill people, so why?" I ask.

"I know you truly didn't want that path." He says, setting the picture back. "How would you know that." I say, folding my arms. "Just a hunch." He says. I chuckle. "You sure your quirk isn't just making stars appear in your palm?" I ask, jokingly. I check the watch again and close it.

"I should probably be getting back before he starts getting worried." I say, walking towards the door. "Wait. I have one more question for you." Rosco says. I sigh. "Fine. Ask away." I say. "You are an assassin, right?" he asks. My eyes widen. "Y...yeah why?" He hums and shakes his head. "Just asking.". "I have one more question for you too, Rosco." "What was your profession?"

He chuckles and turns around. "I was a doctor. With a PhD in quirk science and training. I used to diagnose quirks to younger children and help train older ones." He explains. I take a step back. "Your quirk's name is not called Levitation. It's called Altitude. The way you described it is somewhat true, but you didn't get the full truth." He says, patting the spot on the sofa next to him.

"The way Altitude works is...Yes you do have to touch the item, it being organic or not. But the way your quirk activates you may not understand. Here. Take this." He hands me a flask of a green gas. "Activate your quirk on this." He says. "I can't. Not while I'm like this." I explain. "Once my backstep is activated, my quirk is unable to activated." He shakes his head no.

I try and activate my quirk on the flask. When I do, the green gas floats to the bottom of the flask and gets a little heavy. Like it got denser. I try and deactivate my quirk but can't. The flask continues to get heavier. Rosco takes the flask from me.

I breathe heavily and feel myself getting heavier earlier than I normally do. "Your backstep is all in your head. Literally." He says. I lean back. "The only reason you feel light after using your quirk is because you think you feel light-headed, but in reality, you actually activate your quirk on yourself."

It all makes sense now. "It seems like it. Because when I was thinking about how heavy it was...I suddenly became my normal weight again..." I say, sitting up. I stand up and bow in gratitude. "I should really get going." I say, taking out the pocket watch and checking the time. "If I come back, will you train me?" I ask him.

Rosco chuckles. "Yeah. How about tomorrow around...5:30." He offers. I nod and smile.

"Sounds like a deal."