I wrapped my arms around myself as everyone just stared at me. For as long as they knew me, a hero was all they knew I wanted to be. Dropping a bombshell like that was probably the last thing they had expected to hear.

"You're lying, right?"

I lifted my head to see Ollie taking a couple of steps back as he shook his head. My lips pressed together as I wasn't sure what to say. After the traumatic events I had just witnessed, I thought he would have understood. I thought he would have just been happy that he had his big sister back.

Out of all my friends, I thought my brother would understand the most.

My head shook from side to side. "I don't want to—"

"No! You're lying! You have to be a hero!" Ollie screamed. "You're my sister! You've always wanted to be a hero!"

"Ollie," I whispered as my hand started to reach out towards him.

"No! Get away from me!" he shouted as he turned away and started running out the door.

Not knowing what else to do, I quickly scrambled up to my feet to chase after him, but someone grabbed my arm, preventing me from reaching him. I looked back, seeing Sakura shaking her head before she looked at Kaito and jerked her head. I turned to see the guy nodding his head before he took off after my brother.

Why? Ollie was my brother, not his. I needed to be the one to explain to him why I didn't want to be a hero. If I didn't, then he'd never understand.

As if sensing I was going to pull away from her to chase after them, I felt something wrap around my waist, dragging me back to the seat I was sitting in. I looked down, seeing a thick green vine wrapped around me. It wasn't going to leave, at least, it didn't look like it was.

It was just like in that nightmare I had. Was telling them how I truly felt going to be my downfall? Should I have waited a bit longer to tell them? Or at least, should I have started failing my classes instead of dropping that bombshell on them? I started to rub my hands up and down my legs as I squeezed my eyes shut.

This was all my fault. If only I had just bottled everything inside me like I always did, none of this would have happened. I would still be unhappy, but at least they wouldn't feel betrayed and abandon me.

They were all going to leave me because of this and forever be mad at me, weren't they? It was going to be everything I feared of but worse because it was actually going to happen. It was all my fault.

"Tami, look at me," I heard my friend, Sakura, say. "C'mon now, I'm just asking you to look at me."

It was now or never. I slowly lifted my head to see Sakura's green ones staring me right in the eye. She didn't look disappointed. Instead, she just gave me a soft smile.

"Kaito-kun and Oliver-kun have been getting really close lately. He even calls him 'Little Hero,' which is honestly adorable," Sakura told me. "If anyone's going to get through to him, it'll be Kaito-kun, no worries."

I nodded my head as I felt her vines slowly pull away from my waist. With them gone, I turned my head away from Sakura, so I was facing the table. My elbows hit the top of it as I let my head fall into my hands.

However long I was gone, it was enough time for Kaito to form a better relationship with my brother than the one I had. That wasn't good.

"How long have you not wanted to be a hero?" I heard Raiden ask.

"Forever," I whispered. "I-I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I-I just—I just wanted to make everyone happy, so I-I did what was expected."

"Oh, Tami-tan," Sakura exhaled as I felt her slip into the empty seat beside me. I looked to where she was over to where she was sitting. "You shouldn't have done that! I would've still called you every day after school if you went somewhere else."

"Surely your parents would've understood as well," Raiden agreed.

"You're not mad or—or shocked?" I asked.

"Shocked, yes, but I could never be mad at you, Tami-tan!" Sakura exclaimed. "Besides, you've got to know what you want to do, not what anyone else wants you to do, and go for it."

I smiled as I looked at her. There wasn't an ounce of spite in her, like she had in the nightmare I had the other night. Sakura truly meant what she said, and if that wasn't enough, there was a warm smile spreading on her face.

"Thanks Sakura," I said, before I turned to look at Raiden to see what he would think.

The boy leaned back in his chair as he shook his head. "It makes sense. Here, I thought you weren't trying your hardest because your Quirk limits what you can do, but that wasn't it at all. It was because you didn't want to get caught, but didn't want to look like you didn't at least try, wasn't it?"

For once, someone figured me out. I looked down at the table as I wrapped my arms around my stomach. Out of all the ways I had expected this to go, I didn't think people would ever catch on as to why I did what I did. My plan was to fail out of U.A., meaning I would have to change career paths. Never have I ever imagined someone would realize how I truly felt about everything and why I did the things that I did. It wasn't supposed to end up that way.

Things would've been so much easier if I had just flunked out already, but flunking out this early would've been impossible. Not to mention, it would've been suspicious. My family would have thought I just wasn't trying. That was why I wanted to be decent in my classes. If I was decent in my classes, then it would just look like I had just fallen behind and just wasn't cut out to be a hero.

I just wasn't sure how they would react knowing that wasn't the case, that I just never wanted to be a hero. Now, I had even more reason for not wanting to be one. It wasn't because of what I went through. It was because I had learned who my father was.

He was a hero and had fallen deep into the dark side. If I tried to continue down this path, I would do the same thing. I was certain of it.

"Is that true?" Sakura asked.

Slowly, I nodded my head. "Sorry for being such a failure, and for disappointing you guys. I-I'd understand if you guys didn't want to talk or even—"

"Are you kidding? Tami-tan, we've been friends since we were like nine! I don't expect to find another BFF anytime in the future. Even if you don't want to be a hero, that's cool. After school, or even on weekends, we can still hang out," Sakura said. "Besides, I need someone to go shopping with."

Her comment made me chuckle. I looked up at her just to see her holding out her fist. It was a small gesture she had always done as she knew how much I hated physical touch, but wanted to show her support in some way. But that wasn't the case, at least, not after what happened these past few days.

It wasn't that I was afraid of touch. For years, yes, but was it because I didn't like it, or was it the fact I was scared of forgetting something again? I would give family members hugs without a second thought, but when it came to someone else, I hesitated.

The memory of seeing Raiden for the first time in a long time came flooding into my mind. I didn't think twice about pulling him into an embrace. It wasn't horrible either, not as much as it could have been. The sounds, the memory, everything that made physical touch so horrible didn't seem to happen back then. It was almost as if that was gone.

Looking up at Sakura, I took a deep breath as I slowly opened my arms.

Her eyes widened for a moment before she smiled and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. For a moment, I could feel my body tensing up, but I didn't have any reason to. Sakura had accepted me for who I was, and that was enough.

Sensing that I was still a bit uncomfortable, Sakura slid out of the hug and smiled at me. "I'm always here for you. Don't you forget it, okay?"

I nodded my head.

"So, if you don't want to be a hero, then what do you want to be?" Raiden asked.

I turned my head to look at him. His plate of food was cleared off while he just slumped back in his chair. He didn't look upset or angry, but rather, Raiden looked interested in what I had to say about what I wanted to be.

There was just one problem with his question.

"I-I don't know," I told him. "I didn't really think about it. Something that I could do with my Quirk. I mean, it's what makes me, me right?"

Raiden shook his head. "You're not you because of your Quirk. If someone took that away from you, you'd still be Tami."

Sakura whipped her head from me to Raiden back to me, looking confused. While she did, I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks before I looked down. I didn't want Raiden to see that.

Luckily, he didn't have time to comment when Sakura was distracted by something else.

"Where the hell did that come from? Geez! I knew you've grown a bit soft these past few days, but this is a whole different person than the guy I had to do my research paper with," Sakura pointed out.

"Oh shut up. I'm just taking what Mr. Elastic said earlier this year seriously, that I can't be so focused on my Quirk, but I should somewhat care about those around me. Can't tell you how many times he had to remind me that in our hero classes," Raiden claimed. "It's nothing more than that."

"Mhmm, just remember she has a boyfriend," Sakura reminded him.

"Yeah," Raiden said softly. "I know."

Once again, I snapped my head up to look at him, noticing the tone of voice he was using. It was different from what I was used to. Normally, I thought Raiden would've come off with some snide remark or would've ignored the entire thing, but he seemed bothered.

Looking at him wasn't much better. The boy looked down, over towards his left shoulder while his arms were crossed over his chest. Since he didn't have his U.A. jacket on, I noticed his muscles were twitching a bit. It was almost like he wanted to use his Quirk, but he was holding back.

What was going on with Raiden Yamamoto?

"I still have some time to, uh, think about what I want to be and stuff," I said, breaking the silence. "But, shouldn't Ollie and Kaito be back by now?"

Sakura grabbed my wrist to look at my watch that wasn't there. She glared up at Raiden for a moment before she let out a quick sigh and pulled out her own phone and showed it to me. I knew what she was going to say before she said it. Only five minutes had passed by, not even. Even so....

"Don't worry, it hasn't been long," Sakura told me. "But, if it makes you feel better, we can go after them."

I nodded my head, smiling at Sakura. As much as siblings would normally fight with one another, I tried my hardest not to do the same with Ollie. We still argued from time to time, and would give each other a hard time for sure, but we were still siblings.

No matter what, I wanted to make sure that I was there for him. While I wanted him to be there for me right now, telling everything was going to be okay, I had to remind myself he was nine. It was probably a lot to process.

Actually, I knew it was a lot for him to process right then. He looked up to me as someone who would be this awesome hero. Hearing me finally admit that wasn't what I wanted had to have been hard on him. It was probably the last thing he wanted to hear.

While I kept repeating this to myself, I couldn't get over the fact that it hurt. His reaction was one I was afraid of facing when I finally would come out and tell people I didn't want to be a hero. If he acted like that, Mom and Peter might have the same reaction.

"Don't worry, he'll come around," Sakura promised.

I looked up, seeing her standing in front of me with Raiden by her side. Both had their backpacks slumped over their shoulders, but Raiden had his hands tucked inside his pockets. Sakura, on the other hand, held out her hand, giving a big smile.

At least, if my family wouldn't come around, I'd still have my friends to fall back on. Hopefully, over time, they'd come to understand. It might be asking a lot for that to happen, but at least things were turning out better than I had thought. After having that nightmare, I was worried things would have turned out for the worst.

Sakura and Raiden walked in front of me as we walked out of the restaurant. On the way out, Raiden paid for whatever food that still needed to be covered, but it didn't take long as we walked down the sidewalk, towards where I lived. If Ollie was going to be running away from me, the first place he'd go to was our home. If we didn't see Kaito or Ollie on our way there, it was more than likely they would end up there.

Despite being Quirkless, Ollie was always careful of his surroundings. I wasn't worried that much, except for when it came to those villains. Still, I wanted to be there to explain to him what happened. My brother deserved an explanation. He might not agree with my decision, but he deserved to at least understand why.

How was it I was going to explain everything to him?

The thought escaped my brain as I saw something in the corner of my eye. I stopped and turned my head feeling my heart stop. In the alley was a boy with vibrant orange hair. That orange hair made him easy to spot. No one else was around. I pulled away from Sakura and Raiden as I knelt beside him, seeing that he was breathing ever so slightly as he laid there.

"Shit, that's not good," I heard Raiden curse as I tried propping Kaito up into a seated position. Even though I was touching him, he didn't make a move, almost as if he was out cold.

I looked up seeing Raiden kneeling down on the other side of Kaito. He didn't say a word as he swiftly wrapped his arm under his armpits and lifted him up. Despite standing up, Kaito still didn't wake up.

By the time the two were standing, I noticed something fall. Instead of getting up, I saw a small note laying on the ground. I picked it up and unfolded it.

The air stilled around me as I read the words written on the note.

Tami, you should know better than to run away. If you want your brother to be safe, you will come to this address alone. Trust me when I say I will know if you try something, and if you do, your brother will get the repercussions.

Flipping it over, I saw an address, probably to the place they had me captive for a while. I didn't want to go there, but what choice did I have? They had Ollie. Since they had Ollie, there was nothing I could do. I had to do what they wanted me to, otherwise I might never get the chance to see my brother ever again.

I would have taken off that very moment to find my brother, but someone snatched the note out of my hand. Looking back, I saw Sakura standing there, looking back at me once she read what was on it.

"You're so not doing this alone," Sakura told me as she tucked it into the pocket of her blazer. "We're doing this the right way this time, so no one gets hurt."

Author's Note:

Just when you think things are starting to get calm, something bad happens. Oof! What will Tami and her friends do now?

As for this chapter's questions, being that Tami has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up, I want to know, when you were younger, what was one thing you wanted to be when you grew up? It's kind of fun going down memory lane and thinking of all the things you could be.

Yelp, until next time, take care!

Character Spotlight: Oliver Davis
Quirk: None
Likes: Heroes

Song: 39 seconds by Marcus Warner