Third person pov

Harper was going to fucking kill them.

Taking her shortcut had certainly helped. What would've taken until midnight was cut in half, assuring Harper that they'd land at camp around sunset, if not before then. Definitely not optimal, but it was the best she could do in the circumstances. They clearly hadn't planned for her knowing this back way either because they didn't see a lot of earth monsters in the beginning. Any of the golems Pixie-bob had previously made either were useless or had to travel a fair distance to intercept them. Again, shit could be better, but Harper was taking any win she could these days. No matter how small it was.

That being said, she was tired. So, so fucking tired. By the time they got to camp, they were all covered in sweat and dirt. Maybe even a little blood! They normally didn't make it this hard. Maybe it was because she was there and they wanted to fuck with her, or maybe they saw how much firepower Bakugo had and wanted to put it to the test. Not to mention Izuku punching through everything and Iida kicking. Don't even get her started on Shoto almost starting three forest fires and then encasing everything in ice. Harper's head was killing her from temperature change alone. Nevermind the swarm of panicked thoughts. What was even worse was that, somehow, she could hear Aizawa's thoughts! All the way out in the middle of the fucking forest! 

"Oh my god, you made it! I'm so proud of you! Did you hear my words of encouragement? I was cheering you on the entire, entire, entireeee time. And your aunt, Mandalay, showed me baby pictures of you on her phone! I can't believe you dressed up as her when you were five for Halloween. I love it. You're so cute." Aizawa's inner thoughts bounced cheerfully as 1-A slumped out of the forest, Harper and Kirishima tiredly bringing up the rear. Harper was really dreading having to deal with her hyperactive relatives after that shitshow. She just didn't have the energy. She'd missed them, but enough wrangle them after all that? No. Never. "Look at you! You look so cute; like you just went through a traumatizing war or something!"

That was a contradictory statement, but Harper didn't have time to think about that. Her gaze swiveled to her aunt, who was excitedly looking for her in the crowd. As though she hadn't just put them through the Bootcamp survival course from hell. Whatever. They probably based it off what they could do rather than what a bunch of teenagers could. That was so like them. None of them had been able to get their teacher certifications due to the fact that they kept almost killing the kids by accident, so they settled for hosting summer camps under the supervision of people who actually knew how to do their jobs instead. That being said, Aizawa had agreed to throw them off a cliff. So how safe were they?

"You said it would only be like, three hours!" Mina cried, looking like she might actually break out into tears at any given moment. Harper couldn't help but grimace. "I haven't gotten acid burns on my hands since my quirk first awakened, but now look at me! I can barely stand, and I smell, and I just want to cry."

"That was hell." Shoji's thoughts claimed.

"Milk." Ochako's were oddly morose. Harper still had no idea what the hell her obsession with milk was, but she had to agree with this one. Sad milk just fit the fucking mood. Not to mention Izuku's shirt had gotten ripped along the way, which wasn't helping Bakugo. Harper was tempted to strip herself and give Midoriya her own shirt just to get the blonde to put it back in his damn pants. 

"I guess we timed it based on how long it would take us! Sorry!" Mandalay chirped, smiling apologetically. Harper clicked her tongue. "Where is Harper? I know she's in there somewhere. Kota still doesn't believe me when I say she's here. He's missed you so much, Harper! I know you can hear me. Come out and say hello to your poor cousin. He's been hoping to see you, even if he won't say it. You know him."

Harper sighed, giving Kirishima a firm clap on the back before moving to sacrifice herself to social contact. He shook his head sadly, giving her a two-finger salute that she had to appreciate. Honestly, Kirishima wasn't feeling too bad! Pretty manly, actually. And Harper was so fucking badass out in the woods, leading them like a pro. It had been epic. He felt like an amazon warrior or something! Aching muscles, burning lungs, covered in sweat. It was so manly!

"Yeah, no need to rub it in. Feed us before Momo keels over. She uses lipids for her quirk, you know. You practically starved her." Harper rolled her eyes as she stepped out. Seriously. Harper could almost feel Momo fading as she spoke. A grimace grew on her face when her aunts and uncle all let their stares snap to her, expressions becoming radiant with far too much joy for her to handle at the moment. Harper could hear Jiro and Hagakure's thoughts paying their respects to her as she stepped up to her death. At least someone knew the gravity of her sacrifice.

"Harper!" Tiger boomed. In all his cat-eared, skirt-wearing glory, he swept forward and pulled her up into his arms. Harper allowed herself to be lifted off the ground, going limper than a dead deer. Save for the few pats she gave him on the back briefly to satisfy his need for a hug. He knew getting anything else out of her while she was this tired wasn't going to happen "My, she's gotten so big! Look at her! She looks like a true hero, coming out of the woods as she did. I never thought I'd see the day. I always knew she had the potential for greatness! I almost couldn't believe it when her parents told me she was going to be a hero!" 

"Oh my god, look at you! You've gotten so, so, so tall!" Ragdoll squealed, swiping her from Tiger to pinch at her cheeks. Harper just let it happen, her face flushing with mild embarrassment as her class stared. She was honestly lucky they were here. Aizawa would be taking hella pictures if they weren't. Harper didn't need to be blackmailed. Did she care enough for blackmail to work, even? She guessed it would depend on her mood at the time. "A hero! She's going to be a hero, and she even picked a cat hero name! I'm so proud! Meeeow!" 

"I told you she was here! Doesn't she look good? I always told you she'd be one of us. You didn't believe me, but look at her now." Mandalay was beaming with pride, hands planted firmly on her hips. Pixie-bob nodded happily in agreement. "She went through that course like a pro. I never thought she'd take the lead like she did, but I'm glad she did! This just proves how capable she is!"

Harper allowed herself to be doted over, trying to ignore the amused thoughts of her peers. Most were still pretty distracted by how absolutely shitty they felt. Too distracted to really care about her getting smothered, anyway. Save for Izuku, who was on the verge of taking notes. Aizawa was also staring and cooing over the entire scene. Kirishima too, though he seemed more nervous than amused. He'd been freaking out the entire way here about 'officially meeting' her family. As though they wouldn't absolutely adore him. That's just how they were. 

Harper tried not to. She resisted the urge as hard as she could, but she just couldn't help herself in the end. She had to smile. Harper was anti-social and not the most cheerful, but she did love her family, even if they were overbearing and vaguely obnoxious. They brought out the best in her and were one of the few things that could put her in a genuinely good mood. Coming here, even if had been hell to get through those woods, felt a lot like coming home. Living with Tsukauchi was nice. She loved him too, and that apartment had become her home too. But this was where she'd grown up. It was a different sort of comfort.

Her classmates were dropping like flies behind her. Sato was laid out on his back, staring at the sky in a scarily blank manner. Mineta had pissed himself in the beginning, so he stank. Harper wasn't sure how long Koda would be able to keep breathing. She didn't even want to look at Aoyama. He wasn't even sparkling anymore. Ojiro was also thinking about his tail possibly falling off. Could that happen? Harper didn't want to wait and find out. This reunion needed to get over with so her classmates didn't keel over on her. 

Harper found herself searching for Kota. And found him. Punching Izuku right smack in the dick.

"Goddammit," Harper grumbled, pulling away from her aunts and uncle. "Kota! We talked about this, you little shit!" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh my god, scoot over. It's not going to be a good surprise if we're not hidden." 

"I can't scoot over anymore, Elijah! I'm too fat for this!" 

"Aw, Hunny. You're not fat."

"Then what am I, dear? And if you tell me I'm squishy, I'm feeding you to the bears."

"I wasn't going to say squishy! I was going to say thicc with two C---" 

Harper entered the kitchen with Kirishima to help cart out food, Kota on her hip. The little boy had his face buried in her shoulder and had refused to let go of her the moment he saw her. The realization of just how much her absence had effected him weighed on her. She'd visited fairly often in the past, talking to him frequently on the phone and having him over while the Pussycats were on missions. Her cousin was a lot like her. They'd both lost people they were extremely close to at a young age, which sure, so had the rest of their family, but Harper and Kota were a lot closer in age. The gap was still large, but not as large as it was between Kota and, say, Mandalay for example.

"It's really Harper! And she's going to be a hero? Heroes don't... I don't..." Kota's thoughts grumbled. "But it's Harper. If it's Harper, it's got to be okay. She knows what it's like and... and she gets it."

"So you grew up here?" Kirishima asked as Harper's eyes scanned across the kitchen, her brows furrowed. She seemed to glow now that they were here. That's the only way the redhead could really describe it. He had no idea coming back home would change her so much. Was this what Harper was really, actually like? He wasn't saying she was being peppy or necessarily cheerful, but she sure seemed a lot lighter and more comfortable. The stress must've really been getting to her. Even exhausted from the forest, she looked more awake and lively than he'd seen her in the months they'd known one another. He... sort of loved it more than anything else in the world. "She's so much more radiant than I realized! How did I miss it?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I helped build this place." Harper could still remember the days with her older brother, running about and helping clear out shrubbery, place mud so they could tile, and paint walls. Harper had been the smallest, so her brother would have her stand on his shoulders so she could place mouse traps in the brand new vents and change out old filters. Looking back on it, she couldn't help but smile. She missed him. A lot.

"That's insane. You must be having so many flashbacks." Kirishima grinned. "She seems so nostalgic. I've got to learn everything about this place that I can! It's obviously important to her. She's taken the time to listen and experience the things I like, so I should definitely invest myself in this." 

Harper absentmindedly rubbed Kota's back as she walked towards one of the waiting food carts, pausing when her quirk began to whir softly. Familiar. There was something-- someone-- familiar in this room. Someone who wasn't Kirishima or Kota. She looked around, eyes scanning the massive cooking area in search of who it could possibly be. There was no one, and she couldn't quite place where they were or who they were, for that matter. She had her suspicions, though, and they made her heart rate spike through the roof. She tensed, letting Kota slip to the ground carefully to land on his feet before she-

"Surprise!" 

Kirishima jumped a solid three feet in the air as two figures leaped out from behind one of the empty food carts, hands in the air and beaming grins on their faces. Harper's mouth slammed shut, her teeth audibly clacking together and her eyes going wide with surprise. Kirishima looked wildly between his crush and the two new arrivals. They looked familiar, actually. He'd seen them before. But where did he know them from? He glanced at Harper again, having to do a double-take when he saw the tears in her eyes. He sucked in a sharp breath of air. Harper almost never cried. 

"Mom." Harper choked out, shaking her head as they approached. They wrapped her up giddily, and Harper hugged back hard. "Dad." 

She'd thought her parents might be here. They were required to be under the protection of heroes twenty-four-seven, and they had to be somewhere the villains weren't likely to find them. She'd suspected it may be here with her aunts, uncle, and cousin. But now it was real, and they were in front of her, and she missed them. She missed her parents more than anything. Before UA, they had been her only friends aside from Kota, Auntie Shino, Auntie Ryuko, Auntie Tomoko, and Uncle Yawara. She saw them every day, and they understood her better than anyone ever would. 

She missed watching Gossip Girls with her mom and dad on Sunday evenings, or helping her dad struggle not to burn food in the kitchen because he couldn't cook, and had passed that down to her. Harper yearned for the early mornings where her mom would force her to do Christmas Pinterest crafts at three in the morning no matter what month of the year it was. The jokes, the laughter, the hugs no matter how much she grimaced. She missed all that. She loved her parents. Being away from them for so long made her realize just how much she hadn't appreciated them.

There had been a lot of stress since going to UA, but it felt like it was all crashing down at this very moment. Like a tidal wave. She'd been struggling for months to keep Sero and Stain's heads above the water, and was afraid of being kidnapped again or killed. The stress of having to save Iida's life was fading, but there was this inkling in the back of her mind wondering if he'd experience a recessive period. Kurogiri-- god, she loved him, but he was obnoxiously overbearing. They were constantly trying to take him away, too! It was a fight just to insist he stay with her. Separated from her and her ability to give him emotion... she didn't know what would happen. Even now it was hard, the connection between them stretched taut by distance but held firm by concentration and habit.

"Look at you! You've gotten so tall! I can't believe it. The pictures your teacher sent us really didn't do your growth justice." Akiara Rye sniffled, hugging her daughter. "I've missed you so much, Harper. You're so strong, and we're so proud of you. Your brother would be too. I hope you know that."

"She's right! But they did help fill the holes in my scrapbook." Her dad laughed, tears streaming from his eyes as he practically lifted her off the ground. Harper gave a wet laugh, shaking her head. "She looks so healthy and more awake than I've ever seen her. Harper, has your coffee addiction gotten worse, or could you have gotten a real-life?! Oh my god, I want details. This is amazing. Drama? Oh my god, tell me there's drama!" 

"I just can't believe you guys are really here. I've missed you both so much." Harper pulled back. She paused when she realized Kirishima was still awkwardly lingering behind them, rubbing his arm anxiously. She could feel how unsure he was. He was afraid to meet her parents. Harper glanced down as Harper latched onto her leg, looking away haughtily. Kirishima tensed behind her as attention fell to him. "There's a lot to tell, but first, I think I have someone you'd like to meet."