Reiko watched Hitoshi take a large puff of his juul and smoke came out of his nose. Ryuko could do the exact same thing with an actual cigarette. She had done it before, which was very... cool?

"Is the food good?" Momo asked Reiko. "I don't usually cook or anything."

"It's decent."

"Oh you're eating that stinky shit?" Richard asked. It wasn't that weird in New York either. She would bring stinky noodles and usually sat alone too. It was usually the "uncultured" kids who would say that, because it was obviously really new compared to their food.

"Shut up." Hitoshi sighed, taking a piece of meat from Momo's box and took a large bite out of it. "It's ok. Not shit or anything." He shrugged and sat next to Reiko.

Reiko's face turned a faint pink that clashed with her hair. Momo looked over and noticed the bright cheeks.

"You're silent, what's up with you?" Hitoshi asked.

"Oh, well, I don't exactly know what to say." Momo laughed. "But uh. Feel free to take food, I ate a lot today!" Momo laughed, only eating one of her rice balls. "They taste really good." She said, covering her mouth with her hand as she ate.

"Give me a piece." Reiko said, taking a bite from the second rice ball. "Does your maid not think you eat enough?" She asked. "Cuz goddamn, this is a lot." She sighed.

"I eat a lot. I'm not really hungry today, so go ahead." Momo offered up a lot of her food. Yui shook her head, and refused the offer. Richard was being an asshole, which left all the food to Katsuki, Hitoshi, and Reiko.

✨✨✨✨✨

Aha a two weeks left. Prom was soon. Nejire got to flip off all of the teachers on graduation. Which- to be honest? Amazing. She had work and she planned on bullying Moe the entire time. Today was a lovely day compared to the previous one.

A warm smile greeted her at the door by the all so familiar Tensei Iida. "Hey Nejire! Uh, Todoroki wanted to speak with you once your shift was over."

Ok, now she had some connections, and that was the whole reason she got the job, but like... maybe she had too many connections. "Oh for what?" She leaned on the front desk and stared at her friend with a squint.

"I don't know. I don't wanna know either." Tensei laughed and gave her a cookie. It was really warm, and gooey. "It's a brookie! Cookie and brownie? Ya know? I made them with my wife. Tomoko loves that kind of stuff." He laughed and showed her the little dish full of brookies. "Bye dear!" He said as she left and started playing some new music in the lobby.

"Look at the little shit head i had to bring with me." Moe sighed, tapping her foot. She was talking about Genesis. "She's knocked out cold."

"Awww!" Nejire whispered and stuck out her bottom lip. "She's so pretty!"

"She's always sleeping. The doctor said it was fine, so I dont bother with her." She said, using her free hand that wasn't rocking her baby, to write on her files. "How's you and Natsuo?" She asked.

"Oh, well he's-" Nejire cut herself off and realized the mess in front of her. Well, not really a mess, more like a neat stack of paper she had to organize and stamp off.

"Oh, and! Did you hear about Ochako? She lost a finger. Ya know, from that fight with Himiko?" Nejire gasped. "Yeah! I was just as shocked! Kugo was so mad!" Moe laughed as she talked about the newest gossip.

"She didn't! She did?" Nejire gasped. Moe just nodded and showed her a picture of Ochako sticking up her index finger. Clean off. It was her left hand as well. "Well, she isn't getting married." She joked and looked at Genesis.

"Don't look at her too long. She'll wake up." Moe groaned. "I'm serious! She can't even see, but she can sense it somehow." She laughed quietly, rocking the carrier with her foot.

Nejire chuckled and began her organizing, which was annoying as hell. The man was literally busy a week ago, how did he rack up so many cases in a week? Like sir?

"Oh yeah, you know Enji wanted to bully you right." Moe mumbled, stamping away her papers. Nejire raised an eyebrow. Bully? "Oh right, you've never really met him, have you? He's just a bitch. Wanted to talk to you about something."

"Isn't he your father-in-law? Don't you live with him?"

"I do. Only cuz we needed the extra support with this little gremlin on our hands." Moe snickered, looking down at her baby. As if she had kicked the basket, Genesis woke up in a startled glare and started screaming.

"Can I hold her?" Their little neighbor asked. Oh shit it was Inasa. Moe shrugged and handed her over. "She's such a pretty little girl! So gorgeous!" He gasped, playing with her lightly.

"You can keep her right now." Moe sighed. "Touya is busy with song writing and the studio, so I sadly have to bring my innocent daughter. I'm about to start paying Fuyumi to watch her after school." Moe dramatically huffed, laying her head on the little seat her hand made for herself.

✨✨✨✨✨

Enji Todoroki's door was big.

Enji Todoroki was a big man.

Nejire opened the door slightly, forgetting to knock on the door. She pushed it open and peaked her head through. "Hey, um, I'm Nejire."

"I've been waiting for you. Come sit." Enji's voice was booming. It practically echoed in the room.

There was a velvet chair in front of Enji's desk, most likely for meetings. Nejire felt as if she were in trouble at school and she were facing the principal.

"Did you need something from me?" Nejire asked.

"I feel as though my son doesn't know about your current occupation." Enji said, reminding Nejire of how she had kept it from him. Nejire shook her head and stared at her knees.

"Are you going to tell him? Please don't, I really like being his friend."

"You mean girl friend?" Enji asked. Nejire's entire face fell flat and she just sighed.

"No, we're just friends." She said, as if it was the hundredth time that entire month.

"Well, from how highly he speaks about you, it's easy to assume otherwise, ya know?" Enji chuckled and pressed his fingers to his forehead. She blushed, realizing everyone in their house probably thought they were dating. "Anyways, do you, ever plan on telling him about your occupation? Moe has been trying not to let it slip up." He asked.

"It... depends. I don't wanna now that I know he's so against it." Nejire sighed. She twirled her hair and looked around, noticing every simple thing.

"Now, I think it's weird to have a conversation in my own hone, especially since Natsuo is in class most of the time, so I asked to see you after your shift." Enji explained, "But I think we'd both benefit from trying to get Natsuo to stop believing in those "lives". They're not human." Enji whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"Let me explain, you've had to hide your job from him, right? Lying, changing the topic, stuff like that?" Nejire simply nodded. "I'm saying you should try and convince him to change his mind. I'm going through the same exact thing you are ya know?"

"I know."

"My son is in training for this as well. And now that it's public and the general community knows about it, I think for his own safety, it'd be best if Natsuo was... not fighting me everytime I brought up work."

"He's talked about going to protests and all, but he doesn't want to because he could risk getting hurt because of your job."

"See, I care about my son. I don't want him going to those and getting hurt."

"Yeah, my mother had to close up for the night." Nejire sighed. "I actually have to catch a bus soon. My mother and I aren't on speaking terms and Shinya is busy and all, so can we wrap this up in like, five minutes?" Nejire asked, looking down at her phone.

"Oh of course, but please, consider the benefits of this. No more lying, you're finally able to let your real opinions slip through, and you don't have to worry about him getting hurt. I'm not asking you to get him to join us, but just to change his views that ya know, contradict us?"

"Ah. Makes sense. But... I'll have to think about it." Nejire sighed. Kinda weird that she was asked to convince her friend to stop believing in his beliefs, by his own dad.

"I understand, but please consider it. He just shuts me out whenever I try to talk about it, but you already work here and you're his friend, why not ask you." He chuckled. "You can leave now, thank you for your time young lady."

"Uh, your welcome. I'll see you again soon." Nejire thinned her lips and began to leave.

✨✨✨✨✨

The next day, Mochi and Malachi were doing something they absolutely dreaded. Wearing some of their old church clothes, they were sitting at some French restaurant. Ryuko always recommended it, so why not.

"You know you could just apologize, right?" Malachi whispered, sitting down. "You really hurt her feelings."

"I know I hurt her, but I was trying to tell her the truth. And... I feel awful for what I said." Mochi sighed.

"I know, and you didn't have to do this either. I could've done this alone." Malachi whispered, his usual red glasses switched out for black ones that looked more professional.

"I know, but he wanted to talk to me, it won't mean much." Mochi whispered, fixing her hair and pushing back the few strands of hair that slipped out of her pink headband. "You know, the cafe all screamed at me for considering this yesterday. Today as well. And I don't blame them." She wiped her lap and placed down the napkin form the table on her thighs.

"When is this guy going to get here?"

"He's almost two decades late to Nejire's life, so this isn't surprising." Mochi sighed, rolling her eyes. "He's staying in a hotel, right?"

"Of course. I love Nejire but I'm not torturing you." Malachi whispered.

As they waited for about fifteen more minutes, Mochi got annoyed as hell. Couldn't be responsible for once? Great. Eric was a bitch already.

"Hey, sorry I'm late!" A white haired man loudly said.

"Hi..." The couple said through gritted teeth. Mochi was already heavily biased, but Malachi was pissed off by how long they had waited for him.

"Oh, uh... who's this?" Eric asked, looking at Malachi. He had a confused look on his face. Mixed with disgust, but certainly confused.

"That's my husband." Mochi grumbled. "Malachi, meet Eric Monroe. Eric, meet Malachi Lafayette." Mochi sighed. She hadn't said Malachi's last name in a long time, mainly because it felt weird to say. Maybe because it was a historical figure? She didn't know.

"Ah. I see. You're really married to him? And can I say, you look a lot different than you did last time!" Eric said. She really didn't. She had darkened up a bit, but she was still the same height, body shape, even hair length. She preferred it short, so it wasn't a big deal or anything to her.

"I really don't."

"No! Like you really do! Like, so different." He said, blinking his eyes.

"Anyways, why were you late?" Mochi asked, gripping Malachi's hand. He was there to make sure her temper didn't get too out of control and end up with her in jail.

"Sorry, I was out with a friend. Didn't even get much time to change." Eric apologized, and Mochi realized he was wearing a stained polo and some golf shorts.

"I see."

"So what convinced you to finally meet me?"

"Nejire."

"Who?" He blinked. Mochi was really about to hurt him. She had certainly told him! She sent him her photos when she was born!

"Our daughter?"

"That's how you say it? Well damn. You really gave her one of those... exotic names. I wonder if she'll ever get a job with it."

"She... already has a job. She's an assistant for that hot officer everyone's talking about. The damn French kid from theatre." Mochi laughed, remembering when she and Eric made fun of him back in highschool. She still did it, mainly because his dumbass started dating the one person she trusted with her daughter.

"Well, that's nice."

"She's the only reason I'm here as well. She wanted to meet you, and we got into a fight about it, so now, you're only in front of me because my daughter wants to meet her biological dad." Mochi said, getting her point straight across, so that she didn't have to spend more time here than she needed to.

"Oh, so you didn't wanna see me?"

"No. My daughter does. That's why I'm here."

"Aww, you're hurting my feelings. You really didn't wanna see me?" He pouted and took a sip from his glass of water.

"No, why would I?"

"I don't know, you seemed so happy to invite me to dinner. Didn't know you were gonna bring this guy too." He sighed. "So how have you two been doing?" He asked, attempting to be polite.

"Fine."

"Oh well I've been amazing!" Malachi beamed, "our bakery has been doing good too!"

"You actually did that dumb idea? I'm surprised." Eric sighed. "I thought you were smart enough not to open a damn bakery." She sighed and just put up with his shit. Nejire wanted to see this asshole and she was gonna sit herself through his bullshit too.

"It's one of the best in the city." She mentioned, rolling her eyes. "So yeah, I am smart enough." She hissed. "How's the past two decades been?" Mochi asked, slouching back in her chair.

"Oh, well I kinda got arrested! For the stupidest thing too!"

What the fu-

"Oh god- what was that?"

"Well, assault?"

"Wait, huh? Like can't go within 100 feet of a school or-" Malachi asked.

"Of course not! I got into a little fight with some guy. Probably your brother." Eric laughed. Malachi blinked. "He looked a lot like you, now that I think about it." He showed a photo of the guy, who was a dark skinned male with dark eyes, despite Malachi having hazel eyes.

"I don't have brother." Malachi laughed.

"Cousin?"

"My cousins are all white." He said. "My grandma is white, she had some other kids that are white, I'm slightly mixed, that's all there is about me and my whole race story." Malachi explained.

"Ok that's enough race talk, let's talk about Nejire, since that's the only reason we're here." Mochi sighed. She was uncomfortable for Malachi, who was clearly trying his best to be polite.

This man was tiring.

Nejire was worth it but this man was a damn nightmare.

✨✨✨✨

Teehee, there's a few hidden Easter eggs within the last names for Malachi and Eric. If you know your American history, teehee.

Monroe and Lafayette?

I'll explain later tho, so like-

Oh and these are all micro aggressions that I haven't had the "pleasure" of experiencing, but I can say the whole "exotic name" thing was avoided purposely in my family. My entire family has white sounding names, so that it would be easier to fill out applications. I honestly wish I didn't have my name because it's a boys name and it doesn't really fit too well. I wish it was way more cultural like the girls at my old school, cuz they were all so pretty and just were amazing. Except a few people. Those people could suck my pinky toe.

Crystal_creeper

Eric has been introduced