A/N: I borrowed from the My Hero Academia setting so I wouldn't have to worldbuild, and ended up doing a lot of worldbuilding anyway. Oops. I think most of the MHA influence should be understandable from context, but just in case, in MHA superpowers are referred to as "quirks" and most of the population has one; professional heroes work out of Hero Agencies and have their own personalised costumes and so on. I recommend the manga/anime if you like superheroes, it's tons of fun.

My eternal thanks to Pixelsaber, TheSaintRyan, and ArcAngelofJustice, who did such amazing work as betas for this piece.

When they were called to downtown after some kind of explosion, Charlotte was fairly sure she knew what to expect. Panicked civilians, first aid stations, other professional heroes saving the day—

But it wasn't quite right. Most of the panicked civilians weren't dressed in the right clothes to be working in the business district, and mainly seemed to be passers by. Charlotte spotted several heroes, obvious by their various distinctive costumes, but their main role seemed to be helping the police set up a safety zone; she couldn't see anyone approaching the glass tower, which was smoking and had an entire chunk of the building missing about half way up.

Benny flagged down an officer to find out what was going on.

"Who are you guys again?" she said. "I'm sorry, so many people got called in, or just came anyway—"

"Knight and Maiden." Charlotte indicated Benny and then herself whilst the officer made a note. "What's going on? We were supposed to come help with the evacuation."

The officer was grim-faced. "The bombers took out a huge chunk of the building, but also some structurally important parts with smaller charges. It could come down at any minute and we're not supposed to let people inside, so we've been focussing on getting people out of the surrounding buildings. Some heroes went up there anyway, but things have been such a mess down here, we don't have a way to contact them."

Charlotte glanced at Benny. He was looking in the direction of the smoking glass tower. Well, I know what he wants to do. "We're going up, too."

Despite what she said about the building being off limits, the officer didn't seem inclined to stop them. Her shoulders slumped in relief. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Don't worry," Charlotte gave the officer her best 'reassuring the public' smile. "We're tougher than we look."

The officer unclipped something from her belt. "Here, take my radio." She smiled. "Good luck."

Inside, the lower floors were eerily deserted. Anyone who had been this low down had probably found their own way out. They went for the staircase, taking them two at a time. In the black armour that passed as Benny's costume, he was soon puffing several paces behind Charlotte.

She stopped to wait for him at the top of the 10th floor, but he waved her on. "People might need help," he said.

Personally, Charlotte was more worried about losing Benny in the chaos if the building did collapse, but when he frowned at her, she gave in and carried on.

On the fifteenth floor, Charlotte ran into the gap in the wall. The first sign was a telltale breeze from outside, carrying the stench of smoke. Maybe this was where everyone was? She opened the stairwell door and stopped.

The missing part of the building had looked large enough from outside, but she'd still severely underestimated just how much damage there was. She could see three, no, four floors up because the ceilings had just been obliterated. All the glass in the windows was missing, and some of the metal looked like it was beginning to buckle. Charlotte thought queasily of how much damage would be done if the building fell - all thirty stories of it.

What kind of bomb did this much damage?

"Is someone else down there?" a voice called.

Charlotte looked up to see a head peering over the gap. Another hero, judging by his blue patterned costume.

"Oh, some backup!" he said. "We've got over a hundred people to evacuate up here and it's going slow."

"I'll be right there," Charlotte called.

Getting up two more floors wasn't as easy as Charlotte envisaged, as she had to climb over rubble and some pieces of concrete large enough that she had to pick them up and move them. The stairs above her were even more of a mess - gods only knew how they'd managed to get the civilians down this far, even.

When she left the stairs, she found the seventeenth floor mostly gone. The civilians were having to hang on to the wall like a cliff face, edging along the tiny bit of flooring left clinging to it, which was shorter than the length of Charlotte's foot.

Wait, no - one of the heroes was levitating someone across the gap. But it seemed like he could only do one person at a time, and judging by the sweat rolling down his face, even that was an enormous effort.

The blue hero who'd spoken to Charlotte ushered the first two civilians towards the stairs, but there was a large, anxious crowd filling the other half of the room. Getting them all out to safety would take hours at this rate.

"Have you got a quirk that could help?" Blue asked Charlotte. "We were getting desperate, so we asked the civilians, but the only useful one was a weak reinforcement quirk." He kept his voice steady, probably not to cause a panic amongst the workers, but she noticed the tension in his jaw. "At least the floor isn't going to collapse on us, I suppose."

Well, she could throw people across the gap, but that would cause injuries, which might ultimately slow them down more - if the civilians would even agree to being thrown about in the first place. What they really needed was a way to fix the floor, get more people across and more quickly…

Oh, that's an idea.

"I can't help," she said, "but my partner can. I'll be back soon."

Blue glanced back over the rest of the civilians and frowned. "Hurry."

Rather than taking the stairs again, Charlotte simply dropped into the gap and landed back on the fifteenth floor. Somebody shrieked. Maybe I should've warned them about that.

Benny wasn't that far behind anymore, the thirteenth floor. He blinked at Charlotte when she appeared in the stairway.

She smiled at him. "I've got a job for you!"

And then she picked him up and put him over her shoulder. Benny squeaked as she started back up the stairs as fast as she could.

At the seventeenth floor, everyone baulked at the sight of her carrying Benny, who was twice her size. Charlotte waggled her fingers at them. It was a little inappropriate for the situation, but she couldn't resist - she never got tired of seeing people's surprise at someone in such a feminine costume who was absurdly strong. "Super strength quirk."

Blue blinked, then shrugged. "Makes sense. This is your partner?"

Charlotte nodded. "I thought you could use your barriers as a makeshift floor," she said to Benny.

His eyes lit up in understanding and he held his hand out in the direction of the missing floor.

Blue looked at the gap, frowning.

"...It's invisible," Benny said.

Charlotte was so used to his barriers, she hadn't thought of how weird they would be to other people. "Where does it end?"

Benny indicated with his arm, and she confidently strode across. There was still enough room for three people to walk abreast. It was a little strange to appear to have only thin air under her feet, but she hid her unease. "Knight's barriers can hold the weight of several cars," she called to the civilians, "so no need to worry about walking across it."

They were nervous at first, but at the urging of the other heroes, the workers started to cross the barrier. After seeing nothing happen to the first set, the rest were more confident, and soon they were streaming across the divide, being led downstairs by the other heroes.

We'll definitely get some coverage for this, Charlotte thought gleefully. Maybe they'll even mention us on TV? She felt like she ought to be handing out business cards but that would definitely be inappropriate.

Benny and Charlotte brought up the rear of the anxious procession as they went back down the stairs.

When they hit the ground floor, though, the building started to groan ominously. There were still at least a dozen or more people left inside.

"Get in the stairwell!" Benny shouted.

The groaning turned into a roar that covered any reply as everything began to shake. There was a deafening crash and a screech that went right through Charlotte. She barely kept her feet as debris rained down on them, held a few inches above their heads by Benny's barrier.

It seemed to go on for a long time, but eventually it stopped. Charlotte hardly dared to breathe, listening to the sound of rubble settling around them. A bead of sweat ran down the side of Benny's face.

The radio crackled suddenly, making everyone jump. Charlotte had nearly forgotten about it.

"Is everyone okay in there?" a staticky voice said. "Where are you?"

"The ground floor stairwell," Charlotte replied. Somehow, she'd gotten a thick layer of dust in her mouth. Gross.

There was an audible sigh of relief over the radio. "That's the opposite side to the main point of collapse! We can get you out in less an hour. Just hang in there."

Charlotte looked at Benny's clenched jaw and the rubble piled high above them. "We might not have that much time. I'm going to try to break us out."

The person on the other end started to say something, but Charlotte didn't hear it as she handed the radio off to Blue. He nearly dropped it.

"You think you can punch through that?" he said.

Charlotte cracked her knuckles. "Sure!" she replied confidently, although she'd never broken through something as thick as a building before. But how hard could it be?

The wall opposite was solid concrete. The first punch sent spiderweb-like cracks running through it. After the second, a few shards flew off it.

Benny wheezed suddenly and everyone was forced to crouch as he staggered and fell to his knees.

"Cover your eyes," Charlotte suggested.

She started to kick at the wall instead, ignoring the cuts on her legs from the concrete shards. Come on, you stupid wall!

Then finally her foot went straight through and it was only a minute's work to make the hole wide enough for people to crawl through. "Go, go!"

It was a tight squeeze for most of them, except for Blue, who shrank down to the size of a child to crawl through before returning to normal size. What a weird quirk.

At last, there was only her and Benny left. She kicked away more concrete, making the hole large enough for him to get through, armour and all. He waved for her to go first. The paramedics were already milling around the civilians outside, which meant Charlotte could safely ignore them and keep watching Benny.

She wasn't sure if the barrier was going to break first or if he was. His arm was shaking, which was a sign that he was having difficulty maintaining the barrier. Charlotte bit her lip. She couldn't wait anymore and grabbed Benny, hauling him out into the sunshine with the sounds of the debris crumbling behind them.

Charlotte took a deep breath and immediately choked on a mouthful of dust. She looked down to see that she was absolutely covered in the stuff. Her hair was probably caked in it too. Ugh, that was going to be such a pain to get out. Still, she felt pretty accomplished. She grinned at Benny. "We did pretty well, don't you think? This should definitely get us noticed."

Benny was still trying to get his breath back. "If you say so." But he smiled. "We did help a lot."

Unfortunately, after that evacuation, things went back to normal. Charlotte walked into the office every day a little less optimistic.

Beruka nodded to Charlotte as she entered. Benny was already there, sitting at his desk. "How was patrol this morning?"

He swallowed a bite of cereal bar. "I rescued a cat and her kittens?"

Charlotte sat at her desk heavily. It was more exciting than the 'nothing to report' of the last few weeks, but she'd been hoping for more after their important role in the evacuation. Blue even named them in an interview! But with another bombing only a week later, at a school no less, people stopped talking about the bombing downtown - with few deaths and injuries thanks to the professional heroes on the scene, it was just too boring to hold the media's interest. Charlotte knew the downsides to being boring and safe, but it was still disappointing.

"Did you hear anything new about the burglary gang?" she asked hopefully.

Benny shook his head. "Not today, but I noticed there's a store with a sale that ends on Saturday… I talked to the owner, he says they've been busy."

Now that's more like it! Charlotte grabbed their diary and started making notes to rearrange their patrols. These particular thieves normally struck in the early hours of the morning, so they both had to be ready to nab them if they struck later in the week. Charlotte and Benny had spent the last few weeks studying the burglars' MO. They'd stuck pretty religiously to the old textile district where the Knight and Maiden Agency was based, so there was no way they'd pass up the chance for an extra-large haul.

She hoped stopping them could be their gateway into better contracts, being asked to do missions with some of the higher ranked heroes… sure, bringing in one small burglary ring wasn't all that special, but it would be enough to get them some attention, and then Charlotte could work on doing what she did best - keeping attention on her. Well, and Benny, but he didn't care for the spotlight…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a mewling noise.

Charlotte looked up from the diary with narrowed eyes. "Benny… did you keep the kittens?"

"It's only temporary," he said, bringing a large cardboard box out from under his desk. Three kittens were already trying to climb out of the box, their tiny, fluffy tails springing to attention at the sight of Benny.

The mother cat, all black, reclined in the box. She looked at Charlotte for a moment and then dismissed her with a twitch of her whiskers. Benny began to stroke her head, and the cat purred loudly.

"How temporary?" Charlotte asked.

It was cute how much animals of any size adored Benny, but there were six fluffy little heads poking out of that box, plus the mother, and cats were expensive.

Benny smiled vaguely as a ginger kitten tried to pounce on his hand. "I called an animal shelter, but they don't open until later."

"You didn't have to bring them to the office..."

But that was when Benny picked up the ginger kitten, only to have it climb up his arm, sit on his shoulder, and start purring. He smiled and tickled it with one enormous finger.

Charlotte's objections died in her throat. Ugh, too cute. "Fine, we can take them to the shelter together later." She perked up. "We'll take photos! Social media loves kittens, and I'm sure the shelter wouldn't object to more publicity."

"Uh huh," Benny said. There were now three kittens on his shoulders and a fourth scaling his chest. The last two kittens looked ready to pounce. He was totally dead to anything other than the cute. Charlotte couldn't really blame him. The ginger one was now batting Benny's ear with a tiny, white paw.

She snapped a picture for later. Might as well make the most of how adorable they all were.

Charlotte had a few hours to take more cute photos before they had to deliver the kittens to the animal shelter. The social media response was great - it got shared twice as much as any of their previous posts. It was almost worth the identical heartbroken expressions on Benny and the kittens when they'd had to be separated. Poor Benny. She would've suggested that they adopt one, but they just didn't have the time to care for a pet; they both worked long hours at the agency. Maybe when they were more successful.

It made Charlotte more motivated to try cracking this serial burglar case, but there was precious little to go on.

"This police report on the gang's quirks," she said, wrinkling her nose, "totally useless! 'It might be an EMP Quirk that disables the cameras, or some sort of device that replicates that affect.' Just say you don't know, assholes!"

"There wasn't much to go on," Benny said.

He always gave people the benefit of the doubt. Charlotte suspected that the police simply didn't care enough about a small-time burglary ring when they had their hands full coordinating security for Prince Ryoma's coronation in two months' time.

Benny touched her shoulder gently. Charlotte realised she'd been gripping the desk so hard that she'd warped the metal. Dammit. I already broke that wooden one last month.

"...If you're worried, I can try asking Mozu to send us everything they have?"

It might not do much good, since neither of them were experts in analysis, but at least they'd know they'd failed on their own merits. She sighed. "I guess it would be better than nothing. I'll call Rinkah too."

Charlotte had been hoping they could handle this one by themselves - it would be their first solo bust, a big deal for a new agency - but with at least five unknown quirks, it was too much of a risk for just the two of them.

Benny's face fell. "She's scary."

She rolled her eyes. You'd think, being 6'6", with shoulders wider than many doorways and impressive facial scars to boot, that Benny would have a little more self-awareness about describing other people as scary. Of course when you actually knew him, Benny was about as scary as a daisy. But Rinkah herself was basically just a socially awkward grouch. Not scary at all.

The Oni was the up-and-coming star of the Flame Tribe Agency, run by one of the oldest quirk-using families in existence. Going all in on the theme, they only took people with fire- and heat-related quirks, family or no.

Charlotte wasn't expecting the Oni to show up in person, and was taken aback at the sight of the dramatic demon mask. Benny tried to hide behind his computer and look busy. It was a bad attempt, both because he was so enormous and because Rinkah knew them well enough they only used Benny's computer to watch nature documentaries during their downtime.

Rinkah removed the mask, revealing a small smirk. "You called?"

"Yes," Charlotte said. "I was hoping you would call back."

"I was in the area." Rinkah grabbed a chair on the other side of Charlotte's desk and collapsed into it.

Charlotte raised her eyebrows. Benny poked his head out from behind his monitor.

"This isn't your usual beat," she said. "Anything we need to be concerned about?"

"Probably." Rinkah rubbed her face. "Ugh. It's been such a long month. Could I get some coffee?"

Benny rose and made for their tiny kitchenette. "We only have instant," he said apologetically.

Rinkah just stared at him. "I don't care if it's poison. If it's got caffeine in it, I'll drink it."

He backed away slowly. "Uh, sure."

"Why are you here, Rinkah?" Charlotte pressed

"Short version, your burglars might be connected to the Black Bomber."

"The office building?" Benny said, poking his head out of the kitchen.

Rinkah nodded. "And the Izumo embassy and the school."

The thought of a secret connection to a really big case was exciting, but it sounded too good to be true to Charlotte. "I thought the word was that they weren't connected? The Black Bomber is just a media invention?"

"Well, sort of. Different motives, methods, organisations behind each bombing… except for one thing. The same explosive. High grade stuff that we haven't seen before."

Charlotte tensed and exchanged a look with Benny. When new technology became an issue, Nohr was usually involved somehow. A government-sponsored weapon that was 'leaked'. A Nohrian company getting too aggressive with their Hoshidan competition that President Garon just happened to have shares in...

They might officially have been at peace, but relations were still tense. Prince Ryoma and the President's eldest son, Xander, had been trying to encourage more cooperation, to increase trust and make the peace more meaningful. It was working, sort of - Charlotte and Benny had only been glared at a few times since coming to Hoshido. But it was hard to make significant progress when one party was determined to sabotage all efforts.

"Okay, so… how is this connected to our serial burglars?" Charlotte asked.

Benny put a mug of coffee down in front of Rinkah, backing away as though she might bite him. She just gave him an exasperated look before downing the whole thing in one go. Benny watched in horrified fascination.

"Thanks," Rinkah said. "Anyway. The ninjas think this 'Black Bomber' is selling this explosive on the black market for cheap. Not sure why they're practically giving the stuff away, but the price still runs into thousands of geld."

Charlotte started to catch on. "And this area isn't exactly the usual haunt of serial burglars. But if you know the area well and need to make cash quickly, then…"

"Exactly." Rinkah grimaced. "It's not a definite thing, but the ninjas are understandably on edge. Plus, they've run out of leads, so they're getting a bit desperate."

Benny frowned. "Who are 'the ninjas'?"

"Saizo V and Sting."

"...They work with Prince Ryoma."

Also known as the nation's most successful and beloved professional hero, Raijinto. Charlotte's mind was racing. She'd assumed that Rinkah would end up getting most of the attention if she and Benny asked for her help. That was just how it worked; she was already somewhat famous - way better for getting clicks than two foreign heroes who hadn't even been operating for half a year.

Two foreign heroes assisting the soon-to-be-King on his last case? Now that was a different story. Anyone involved would get an enormous amount of media attention. This really could be their big break.

Charlotte cackled, making Rinkah look at her in alarm.

"Of course," Charlotte said sweetly. "We'll do everything we can to help our dear Prince."

"What is wrong with her?" Rinkah whispered to Benny.

He just sighed.

Rinkah eventually suggested that Raijinto should come to the Knight and Maiden Agency to help investigate the burglars. Charlotte drove Benny mad scrubbing every visible surface in the office until Beruka, who pulled double duty as their secretary and their security guard, suggested the smell of bleach and furniture polish might give the prince a headache and asked if that was Charlotte's intention. If Beruka thought you were in danger of a social faux pas, it was definitely time to reign it in a little bit.

She made sure they were stocked with some high quality traditional teas that she'd heard Prince Ryoma liked. In honesty, she doubted that he would take tea in a strange place, but it left a good impression to be able to offer the expensive brands.

It was quite exhausting on top of her usual patrols. Benny offered to take some of hers on if she was so determined to get the office in perfect shape, but it wouldn't do to arrange everything for the prince only to lose all the goodwill she'd built up with the local businesses as a regular and a protector.

The last thing she had to do was to make sure their costumes were in top shape. They hadn't seen much serious action and the few minor tears to Charlotte's costume were ones she could mend herself. She tried to pound out the dents in Benny's armour, too, but he said he liked the character they gave his costume, which was otherwise pretty plain. He wouldn't even let her polish it, no matter how much she nagged him.

So by the time Saturday rolled around, Charlotte was exhausted.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Benny asked.

"Why?" She looked in the mirror and poked at her powder-covered cheek. "I don't look tired, do I?"

"You look nice, but that's not what I meant." He frowned. "What if we have to fight? Will you be okay?"

Charlotte always appreciated hearing compliments from Benny. She could be sure he meant them without ulterior motives being involved. She patted his arm. "Don't worry, Benny, this morning is just a strategy meeting. I'll nap before there's a possibility we'll get into trouble."

His scowl relaxed only a little.

She tried a different tactic. "Look, if we get a good review from the Crown Prince, we'll rake it in. We'll be able to expand! We can hire some junior heroes, get more admin staff so we can focus on real work…"

Benny's shoulders slumped. "I guess you're right."

Poor Benny. He was basically the perfect hero, apart from lacking any business sense whatsoever. Luckily, he had Charlotte for that. "It'll all work out," she promised. "Hey, and then we could get a cat! All the best agencies have a mascot."

He brightened at that. "But we should make sure we get one that produces less dander. You know, for people with allergies."

Charlotte had no idea what 'dander' had to do with allergies, but she absolutely trusted Benny's judgement when it came to cute animals and safeguarding people. She smiled and nodded. "Sure."

A/N: This was originally written for the Het Big Bang, so if you desperately want to skip ahead, the full story is already up on AO3 under the same name. Otherwise, look out for the next chapter in a week.

This was my first serious attempt at a romance fic, so I welcome any feedback and constructive criticism.