Warning: this chapter contains depressing crap, and underage drinking. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 2: Just How Bad It Really Is.

Ms. Yung's POV.

I really hit the jackpot with Nico. He washed all the laundry and did the dishes while I was gone. He also kept Akari entertained at the same time. He was like an angel from heaven. He laughed when I told him that, and said that his last name was in fact; di Angelo. Which literally translated to; of Angels. Today was the second full day of having Nico in my house. It was also Thursday. I got off work a few minutes early today, and walked home. The window in the kitchen was open, and I could hear singing coming out. I walked quietly over to it to try and hear what song was playing.

To my surprise, it wasn't a song playing. Nico was singing! His voice floated through the window.

"Sometimes I just want to drown out
All of the thoughts in my mind. too much going on at the same time.
I wish it would stop and I've tried but, life just sucks then we all die.
That's just reality yeah, don't lie to me.
Yeah, I'm messed up. but I don't want to be." He sung. What in the world was he singing?

"I Wonder if I'm good enough
But maybe I've had just too much;
To drink, to smoke, to swallow,
I'm drowning up my sorrows.
There's rules I'll never follow;
Pretend there's no tomorrow!
I wish there was no tomorrow." What the…?

"But I'm empty inside, yeah, I'm empty inside.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die.
Yeah, I'm empty inside, I just don't feel alive.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die." What the hell was this song?!

"Wish I could erase my memories; so I could stop feeling so empty.
I wish this stuff wasn't so tempting,
But it's hard to resist when there's plenty of things I could do to mess me up.
I want to let go, but I'm feeling so stuck.
So all I can do is fill up my cup,
And sit here alone and hope no one disrupts.
That's just reality yeah, don't lie to me.
Yeah, I'm messed up but I don't want to be.
I wonder if I'm good enough,
Maybe I've had just too much;
To drink, to smoke, to swallow,
I'm drowning up my sorrows.
There's rules I'll never follow;
Pretend there's no tomorrow!
I wish there was no tomorrow.
But I'm empty inside, yeah, I'm empty inside.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die.
Yeah, I'm empty inside, I just don't feel alive.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die."

This song just got worse and worse!

"My body's shaking,
My head is aching,
It feels like my heart is breaking.
My body's shaking,
My head is aching,
I can't fix this mess I'm making.
But I'm empty inside, yeah, I'm empty inside.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die.
Yeah I'm empty inside, I just don't feel alive.
And I don't want to live, but I'm too scared to die." He finished the song.

Just how depressed was this kid? I made my way back to the front door, and opened it, making lots of noise. Nico immediately stopped humming, and came to see me.

Nico's POV.

"Hi, Ms. Yung!" I said coming out of the kitchen. I hope to all the gods I know that she didn't hear me singing. She smiled at me.

"Hello Nico. Where's Akari?" she asked, looking around.

"She's sleeping. I think I tired her out playing tag." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. She let out a laugh.

"There's something that hasn't happened in a while! Someone tiring out Akari." She chuckled some more. She lifted her face and took a deep breath. "What are you making?" she asked. I smirked.

"It's a surprise!" I told her gleefully. I was making chicken and dumplings because Akari said it was her favorite.

"Oh? Well alright then. Kato should be home soon." She went upstairs. I heard the shower turn on. I sighed in relief. She didn't hear me singing then. If she had, she would've said something about it. I heard the school bus pull up outside. Kato was home. I opened the front door, and was pounced on by an over enthusiastic 7-year-old.

"Nico!" he yelled. I picked myself off the floor, and patted his head.

"Hi Kato." I said. He ran inside, and towards the kitchen. A shadow grabbed him, and pulled him away.

"Nah, uh! Dinner is a surprise!" I told him sternly. He pouted, and ran upstairs. I chuckled at his antics. He really was a good kid. Didn't start fights, didn't whine and complain about everything constantly. A timer went off in the kitchen. I went in, and took the chicken out of the oven. I put the dumpling mix on the stove, and started cooking it with the chicken.

A few minutes later, I set it down to simmer, and put a lid on it. I went into the living room, and used the shadows to start folding the laundry that had just finished. One of Akari's skirts had a hole in it. I summoned some thread and a needle from the shadows, and sat down to fix it. This was something I could most definitely do. I had to fix my own clothes all the time. Ms. Yung came downstairs.

"Oh!" she said, when she almost ran into the laundry that was to the naked eye, folding itself. She stepped gingerly around it, and saw me sewing.

"Nico, what are you doing?" she asked. I held up my work.

"Fixing Akari's skirt. It had a rip in the seam." I pulled the thread, and knotted it off. I sent the needle and the rest of the thread back into the shadows. I folded the skirt, and put it on the pile of other folded clothes. The laundry was done. I traveled Kato's clothes to his bed so he could put them away, I picked up Akari's clothes, and took them to her room myself.

I opened the door silently as a ghost. She was still sound asleep. I used the shadows to open her dresser, and put her clothes away. then, I left her room just as quietly as I'd entered.

"Nico," Ms. Yung called out quietly. I traveled to right next to her.

"Yes?" I asked. She jumped a little.

"Oh! I was just wondering when dinner would be ready. I need to wake Akari up in time." She said, still a little flustered.

"Let me see," I looked at my watch. "It'll be ready in about 10 minutes." I told her, before going back into the kitchen. I heard her going upstairs, most likely to wake up her youngest.

I set the table and spooned out the potions before levitating them into the dining room at their appropriate spots.

"Dinner's ready!" I called out. Kato came rushing downstairs as fast as he could. Ms. Yung came down next carrying a sleepy looking Akari. Said sleepy child perked up almost immediately when she saw what was for dinner.

"You made my favorite!" she squealed. She pushed away from her mom, and ran to hug me.

"Yeah. I did." A ghost smile passed over my face. I picked her up, and set her in her chair. "And now you have to eat it." I announced. She giggled, and dug in. Kato did likewise.

"That was delicious" Ms. Yung told me once all of our plates were empty.

"Thank you." I said. I picked up all the plates in the shadows and sent them to be washed in the kitchen. Kato watched as the shadows ran the dishes through the water, scrubbed them, then dried and put them away.

"That is so cool!" he said, pointing to the dishes.

"Yeah, I guess it is." I answered nonchalant. I stretched. "I'm going to my room." I announced, and shadow traveled to my bed.

I woke up at precisely 5 o'clock. I stretched my wings, and made a pull up bar above my bed. I jumped, and put my legs up at a 90-degree angle. Raising my legs, I tapped my nose to my knees. Back to 90. And up, and down.

After maybe 30 of these. I changed the pullup bar to gymnastic hoops. I pulled myself up so that my arms were straight out. I pulled my legs us into the splits at the same time. And down, and again.

I continued my morning exorcise routine until 6, when I stopped, and took a shower. I was downstairs making pancakes at 6:19. Maybe 5 minutes later, Akari was downstairs bouncing around with energy.

"Pancakes!" she announced. If the rest of the family wasn't already up, they were now. Kato came down next, rubbing sleep from his eyes. The pancakes finished. I put them on the table.

"Wait a minute before eating; they're hot." I told the kids before going into the laundry room. I put the last load of clothes in, and turned it on. I walked back into the dining room. Both children were counting.

"45, 46, 47," I let out a chuckle. They were counting the seconds that they had to wait before eating!

"60!" they yelled, and each of them grabbed food, and wolfed it down. Ms. Yung came downstairs, dressed and ready to go to her job -I still didn't know what she did- she looked at the kids, and then at me. She shrugged, and grabbed a pancake on the way out the door.

"Don't be late to the bus stop!" she yelled to Kato.

"Yes mom!" he yelled back. I rolled my eyes, and settled down to watch Akari for the next 9 hours.

"Ok, you have tonight off. Try to be back by dinner tomorrow!" Ms. Yung told me.

"Yes ma'am." I responded. She smiled, and shut the door behind me. I shadow traveled to the nearest store. I used the shadows to summon some cash from, well, I'm not exactly sure where it came from. I walked into the store, and grabbed a six pack of beer. I drew my hood over my face. The store clerk didn't spare me a second glance. I bought the beer.

"Keep the change." I told her. she nodded, and went back to texting. I left the store, and shadow traveled to the roof of a building. No one was in sight. I popped open the first one, and took a long sip.

A voice in my mind berated me. 'you're only 15!' it chided.

'shut up me.' I told it. I'd been through hell and back. Literally. I could do whatever I wanted. A door opened behind me. Footsteps were getting closer. Schist.

"What are you doing here?" someone asked me. It was a male voice.

"I could ask you the same." I responded, still not looking at the person I was speaking to. I heard the shift of clothing.

"I'm escaping my father. He's being unbearable right now." The stranger told me. It had the ring of truth to it.

"I'm drinking." I held up the bottle. "You want some?" yeah. I just offered beer to a total stranger. So what?

"Uh, I'm not old enough." He replied. I let out a chuckle. it sounded rather maniacal.

"I'm not either." I told him. I turned to look at him, and my breath was taken away. there was a boy, my age. Half of his hair was white, the other a bright red. He had two different colored eyes. A brown one, and a blue on that looked like someone had burned the skin around it pretty badly when he was younger. He was also drop dead gorgeous. Let's not forget that part. I robotically held out a bottle to him. he took it slowly, and sat down maybe three feet from me.

"So, I'm Nico." I told this strange looking boy.

"Shoto Todoroki." He told me.

"Cool name. doesn't that mean Delta? That's opposites. What a fun name." it did mean opposites. I knew Japanese.

"Yeah."

We sat in silence for a while. The clink of glass on concrete was the only thing that could be heard other than our beating hearts. No one was on any streets nearby. Guess it really wasn't safe at night, so I can't blame them.

"My father named me for my quirk. My right half is ice, my left is fire. I don't use my left half in combat. I hate my father, and his quirk. I'll show him that I can defeat everyone just on my mothers' side." Shoto told me. Whoops. I think he's really drunk. I looked down and sure enough; Shoto had two empty bottles next to him, and was still holding the third. I guess we halved them. I was out, duh. I started before him.

"So, what do you plan on doing with your life?" I asked.

"I'm going to go to a prestigious school and become a hero. And I'm going to do it all only using ice." Shoto said firmly. He was so confident. Wouldn't it be nice if I had that kind of concrete plan for my own life? "What are you doing with your life?" he asked me.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to try to get into a good school, but my pow- quirk isn't really cut out for hero work." I almost said powers. I needed to fix that.

"What's your quirk?" he asked, his words slurring together. Yep. He was drunk off his ass. Kind of like me after all six.

"Umbrakinesis. That and some other fun stuff." I answered. He'd probably forget everything that happened tonight.

"That's cool." He said, before he started laughing uncontrollably. "I'm cool too!" he announced, before freezing the right side of his body. He laughed harder. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah you're cool, but you need to defrost yourself before you get hypothermia." I told the very drunk teenager. He nodded mutely, before the ice melted, and he was normal-ish again. Then, he passed out. Well, I couldn't leave him alone. Especially if this was his first time drunk. I floated him over to the door, and propped him laid him down on a newly summoned bed. I made a chair for myself, and sat down to watch over the two of us.

About 3 the next morning, Shoto finally woke up. He opened his eyes and let out a moan.

"My head hurts." He muttered. I let out a soft chuckle.

"That is was happens when you drink three beers all within an hour." I told the teen. He whipped around to face me. Well, he tried. Instead, he turned to me, and then clutched his head.

"Owwwwwww." He moaned. I sighed, and came over.

"You've got to trust me for a moment. No matter what happens, don't pull away. ok?" I asked. He nodded hesitantly. I took a deep calming breath, and put my hand on the sides of his head. We were really close. I hoped this didn't back fire like it did last time. I focused my energy, and dropped my barriers. I heard him gasp. That meant he felt it too. Damn. I'd hoped that it was only people like Will who felt that. Oh well. I pushed my energy into a healing form, and eased his headache. Then I sat back.

"Better?" I asked. I was poised to run should he try the same thing Will did. He nodded, and stood shakily.

"Yeah. Thanks Nico." He said. His words were minced, and to the point. Great.

"You're welcome Shoto. Or do you prefer Todoroki?" I asked. He rubbed his temples.

"Shoto is fine. I have 3 siblings. Not that I ever see any of them." He muttered.

"Ok then. Uh, I should probably head back." I rubbed my arm. I wasn't going back just yet.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Around 3 in the morning." I answered. He gave me a sidelong glance.

"What would your folks think if you came back right now?" he asked.

"They don't know I'm not there. I used the shadows to get out of my house. I left a trip wire on my door. If someone opens the door, I can be back in an instant." I lied. Well, it was close to the truth. No one at camp knew I wasn't there. they thought I was dead. I couldn't ever go back, but I could go back to Ms. Yung's house in an instant.

"Oh." He said, looking into the distance. "I told my father that I was leaving. Not to wait up for me, lest he never get any sleep. I can't go back. I don't want to go back. I'm not sure where I'll stay, but I'm sure that I'll get into one of the good schools, then I can stay there." wow. He really had his life all planned out.

"Well, I would offer for you to come to my house, but we don't have a spare bedroom. That and my mom would throw a fit, and yell at me. She'd also think you were my boyfriend. That would be really awkward." I told him. I was just making up more and more things. I needed to keep track of what I was saying.

"Yeah. That would be kind of weird." He agreed. An idea hit me.

"I can give you some money for a hotel." I told him. he raised an eyebrow.

"Are you rich or something?" he asked.

"Nope!" I popped the 'p'. "I can summon money with the shadows." I held my right hand out, palm down. And summoned a wad of cash. It plopped onto the roof. I picked it up with the shadows, and held it out to him. he looked at the shadows on the roof with an expression of awe.

"That is one powerful quirk." He told me, taking the money. I smirked.

"That's nothing." I told him. then, I summoned a handful of hellfire. He jumped a little at the black flames dancing on my hand.

"What is that?" he questioned. I threw the hellfire to my other hand, and back again.

"This is what I've called hellfire. It's very useful. The most helpful is that I can decide what it harms, and what it doesn't. Catch!" I threw it at him. his left hand shot out, and he caught the ball of black flames.

"Wow." He whispered, reverently. A ghost of a smile fluttered across my face. He bounced the black flames on his hand, before throwing them back at me. I caught them, and turned it into a bird. The bird flew off into the distance. He watched it, before turning to me.

"Just how powerful are you?" he asked. I cocked my head to the side.

"I'm not sure. Strong enough to kill this entire city with a thought. Strong enough to save them all. My quirk is dark aligned, and everyone always sees me as a dark creature. Well, I do have wings, but that's aside from the point. I could go head to head with All-Might and you would hard pressed to decide the winner." I answered slowly. Oh, the things you tell others at three in the morning.

"Are you serious?!" he exclaimed. I nodded, then shook my head.

"No. I would win against him. I know something he doesn't. I'm probably the strongest person alive. The thing is, I don't want to fight. When I fight, I kind of lose myself a bit. It's not something I like to do."

End of Chapter 2.