~Kanami's POV~

"Kana-chan! I'm bored!" Milan whined from the kitchen.

I giggled softly, sometimes I wondered which of us was the parent in this relationship. I took a look at my reflection in the mirror and grimaced as I looked at the long scratch on my neck. It hadn't been deep enough to need stitches or anything but it was a little difficult to hide. Luckily it was winter so a turtleneck dress wasn't amiss. I dabbed some antibiotic ointment on the cut and covered it with a bandage before adjusting the neck of the soft black turtleneck sweater dress.

When I exited the bathroom, I found Milan dramatically laying on the floor outside of the bathroom, her arms and legs splayed out. She let out a dramatic sigh. "I'm bored."

I giggled. "What do you want to do?"

"Let's play a game!" Milan leapt to her feet.

"Hm, I'll play Go or Shogi." I offered.

Milan instantly deflated, "something for those of us with a lower IQ please." She sighed, "how on earth did you end up liking games for grandfathers? I don't get it. I exposed you to so many better games."

I shrugged. In truth, I saw a news article that said Endeavor liked Shogi and Go. I learned how to play and found I really enjoyed them too. It was probably silly and would probably never happen but I'd often fantasize about getting to play a game with my father. Would I be able to defeat him in either game? Would he be proud if I did?

Milan's phone started to ring loudly. Her ringtone was a very inappropriate rap song that always gained her weird looks in public when she forgot to put her phone on vibrate. She looked down at the screen and sighed.

"It's work." She exited the hall and went to take the call. She was a photographer for a big nature magazine. Sometimes she got to travel to really exotic places, occasionally, I'd get to go with her but most of the time her company wouldn't allow it so I'd get to stay home alone. Her neighbor, a nice older man who would often play Go or Shogi with me would check in on me every now and again if she was gone for an extended period of time.

I retreated to the living room while she took the call. The news was on. Endeavor was on the TV. I glanced around to make sure Milan couldn't see me and let a tiny smile slip as I realized he was being asked about the fire the night before and my escape. The civilians who were unhurt were cheering my name behind him and it was really grating on his nerves. He caved and snapped at them to shut the hell up and the camera panned away.

I giggled quietly.

"What's so funny?" Milan asked as she returned to the living room, her camera bag in hand.

"Nothing." I straightened up and turned to her, looking pointedly at her camera bag and the overnight bag in her other hand. "Will you be gone long?"

"Two nights. That's it." Milan smiled. "I can ask Mr. Torino to check in on you if you want, I bet he's where you learned all those old man games."

"That's okay, it's not that long." I offered her a reassuring smile, "I'll be okay."

"I'll bring you back a souvenir." She promised.

"Sounds good, be safe!" I called after her as she headed for the door.

After Milan left, I hurried to my room and changed out of the sweater dress and into some workout clothes. I headed to what was probably meant to be a formal dining room that Milan had converted into a home gym during one of her health crazes, which she quickly lost interest in after a month. I turned on the projector and connected my phone to it and found a video of some of Endeavor's best fights. I projected it onto the wall and looked at the other wall of mirrors before stretching.

I ran through a couple of fighting maneuvers, practicing some kicks and punches and safe falling techniques. It would be really helpful if I could strengthen my ice quirk to block off an area to keep villains from trying to flee. I closed my eyes and concentrated before casting both my hands outward. Two walls of ice shot up around me from floor to ceiling. I glanced at the two open spots and frowned. I'd need to be able to get four walls up at the same time.

I spent a few hours practicing with my quirks, running through combat maneuvers and studying Endeavor's fights and copying some of his moves. I'd managed to recreate his fire spear. Deciding to call it quits so I wasn't too exhausted to go on a patrol later I went to take a shower and changed into another turtleneck dress, a more form fitting flannel material and less bulky sweater material. I braided my crimson and white hair before tucking it in a cute festive hair wrap that looked like a fashion choice and not someone trying to hide their identity before grabbing my purse and stepping into my boots.

When I exited the house I spotted Mr. Torino laying in the snow outside of his house and felt my heart drop. "Mr. Torino!" I raced to his side and let out a panicked shriek as he suddenly jumped to his feet.

"I'm alive!" He exclaimed. Mr. Torino was a short man at around 120cm. He walked with a bulky wooden cane and often wore what I would imagine a retired cowboy would wear. Cowboy boots, denim pants, a big bulky belt buckle and a button up shirt. His short gray hair was always sticking up in crazy spikes and I couldn't ever tell if it was a fashion choice or laziness.

"Don't do that!" I let out a sigh of relief. Sometimes it was hard to tell if Mr. Torino was senile or just a silly prankster.

He turned to me with a smile, "little Kana-chan, where are you off to?"

"I wanted to run to the bookstore." I smiled.

"Milan said she'd be out of town for a few days, will you be alright on your own?" He pondered.

"I'll be fine, but maybe we could play Go tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

He smiled, "sounds like a plan. If you need anything while she's away, I'm only a house or a phone call away."

"Thanks, Mr. Torino." I beamed. "Do you need anything from the store?"

He waved me off, "no, I'm alright. Go have fun."

I waved farewell and headed into the city. It wasn't too far of a walk especially when the cold didn't bother me. There were a lot of kids my own age and high school age milling about in various school uniforms. School must have let out recently.

Milan insisted I attend online schooling and rarely let me out of the house on my own, so my only friends were Milan and Mr. Torino, who was ancient. I'd never really gotten to spend any time with kids my own age. Someone walked into me as I was lost in thought and I nearly lost my balance. I tightened my core muscles and managed to stay upright and turned to see who had walked into me.

My heart constricted in my chest as I spotted a boy nearly a year older than me with hair like mine and eyes the same color as mine though where my right eye was teal his was gray and where my left eye was gray his was teal. He looked right through me, as if he had eyes for one thing only and everything else was inconsequential. I'd seen his picture in mom's hospital room, Shoto, my older brother.

A few steps behind him was our father, he wasn't wearing his hero uniform. It was the first time I'd seen him dressed as a civilian. "Shoto! We weren't done talking." He growled and hurriedly caught up. His teal eyes flicked to me before he paused.

I hurriedly bowed my head, "sorry for bumping into you."

"It's fine." Shoto grumbled and sidestepped me, not once seeing me.

"Excuse me." Our father huffed, his tone attempting to be polite, but failing. He placed a hand on my shoulder to move me out of his way and paused once more.

My heart thundered in my chest. I could feel his gaze on me.

"What happened there?" He asked after a moment.

I looked up to meet his gaze to try to see what he was referring to. His eyes were on my neck, due to his towering height, he could easily see the bandage that was supposed to be hidden by the turtle neck.

"Cat." I lied.

He still hadn't moved his hand from my shoulder. "Have we met before?"

I hurriedly averted my gaze once more, "no, Sir."

He didn't reply.

I glanced in the direction Shoto had gone, he was nowhere in sight, "the boy you were stalking appears to have gotten away."

"He's my son! I wasn't stalking anyone!" He snapped.

I giggled at this.

His anger seemed to lessen and he slowly removed his hand from my shoulder, "avoid cats." He mumbled before walking away.

"Will do." I smiled. My smile faltered as I watched him walk away. My shoulder tingled where he'd made contact. I'd played through so many father daughter scenarios in my head, us having a heart to heart conversation, bonding over our love of grandfather games and in so many of them he'd put his hand on my shoulder like he had then. Tears welled in my eyes.

I hurriedly shook my head and straightened myself up before resuming my trek to the bookstore with a lightness in my step.