Mina loved the smell of smoke. It was such an appealing scent, almost seductive to her. She found it both soothing and exciting. Whenever she caught the scent of it in the air, she couldn't help but follow it to it's source.

Now fire... fire was the most amazing thing in the world to Mina. The way it danced in slow hypnotic waves, lunging and lurching in all directions. The bright, bombastic colors from red and orange to blue and white. The way everything it touched popped and crackled and turned to ash. Even the sounds, roaring and screaming for the sake of roaring and screaming. Mina loved it!

She met Todoroki the day the hero Endeavor's house burned to the ground. She followed the scent of smoke until she was drawn toward light instead. Her blood was pumping with excitement and she practically danced when the sight was finally before her. It was an astounding sight. Dancing, raging, screaming, singing as loud and beautiful as any fire she'd ever set herself. And in the center of it was the most handsome boy she'd ever seen, not the least because of the fire coming off of half his body and feeding the flames.

"You did this?" she asked excitedly.

He didn't respond to her, didn't turn to her, and she wondered if he could even hear her over the roar of the flames. She bounced closer to him.

"Who are you?" he questioned once she was close enough. The fire stopped coming off of him as he waited for her answer.

"Call me Alien Queen," she told him. She'd considered the name 'Demon Queen' when she was younger, it was something she'd been called sometimes, but she didn't want to live up to that name. Demon was too easy. Alien was something more, something unfathomable. That's what Mina wanted to be. "Your work is beautiful. Will you make more?"

He looked at her then and her breath hitched. It wasn't because of the thrilling mismatch of colors or the attractiveness of his face, it was because of the striking scar that marred half his face.

"Who did that to you?" she asked him. "Tell me!"

"Endeavor," he answered quietly. That would explain why the house was burning.

"Come with me," she said, reaching out for his hand. "They don't deserve you, but I think that I do."

He watched her for a moment, tilting his head as he thought, before finally reaching out and taking her hand. It was warm. She loved it. Mina smiled widely as she began to pull him away.

Todoroki didn't talk much. That was fine, Mina could talk enough for two when she wanted. He watched her a lot. She moved when she talked, made wild hand gestures and bounced on her heels, and he never took his eyes off of her for a second once he gave her his attention. The problem was getting that attention in the first place. He could be so withdrawn and quiet, staring at nothing and lost in thought. Mina hated it, but she let him be.

Todoroki wasn't just the fire starter she'd thought he was. His quirk was dual wielding fire and ice and, while the ice wasn't anywhere near as mesmerizing to her, she'd quickly realized it was really impressive.

"My acid can melt through your ice," she told him once. "That means one day I'll be able to melt through your heart."

Her intention was to flirt, but she was pretty sure he didn't take it that way.

"You'd never be able to gain that much advantage over me," he told her.

She sighed at that, pouted, but of course Todoroki wasn't the type to realize that he needed to apologize and so eventually she had let it go.

Mina became very protective of Todoroki very quickly. He was strong, of course, and he'd never lose to anyone in a fight- and Todoroki got into fights very often, having made it his mission to ruin Endeavor's name by trying to frame him for Todoroki's crimes or, Todoroki's contingency plan, having the hero's name associated with his villain offspring- but he had been hurt on the inside. His heart was scarred and Mina wasn't keen on letting anyone do something like that again. She wanted to make him feel better and she took to trying to make things "even."

"A scar for a scar, right?" she said when he'd caught her during her latest project, using her acid to mutilate people the same way he had been. "If I can't heal you so that you're like you were before, then I bring the whole world down to your level."

Todoroki wasn't the type of person to say "thank you" but she thought the look on his face, stunned and obviously touched, did so all the same. She grinned at him. His only obvious reaction was to move closer to her, standing over her as she continued her work.

Mina was more social than Todoroki was. This lead to her having way more friends and way more enemies. Mina's friendships usually involved things like spray painting walls, stealing from malls, and other equally fun but juvenile activities. Her fallout's often involved her using her acid to brand whoever had earned her ire. Once she had Todoroki, that evolved to her having him burn their hideouts, which did more damage but didn't lose her as many friendships. A hideout could be replaced, a brand could not be removed and people held grudges over that kind of thing.

She was pretty sure Todoroki only did it because it gave him another excuse to make Endeavor look bad, but she thought that he probably liked her enjoyment of the flames, as well. More than once she'd caught him staring at her as she danced around the fire and she took his attention as a compliment.

Todoroki didn't like to be touched. Mina attributed that to his being scarred and tried to ease his loneliness in other ways. Sitting nearby to him, offering affection that he never took her up on, complimenting him and telling him how much she wanted to touch him, which inevitably went from being friendly to flirty pretty quickly. Eventually, "does not like to be touched" became "does not like to be touched by anyone but Mina."

The change happened slowly. After a particularly bad fallout with one of her oldest friends, one that she liked so much she didn't want to brand or burn them afterwards, she'd thrown her arms around Todoroki and cried. If she'd been thinking she would have noticed how stiff he was, how surprising it was to not be pushed off or that he didn't use his quirk on her. Though if she'd been thinking, she'd never have done it at all. He didn't touch her back, but after that moment he didn't turn her down when she offered affection, even if he never admitted to wanting it.

So sometimes she would touch him to test the waters. She'd place her hand on his when they sat together, usually earning her a raised eyebrow but nothing significantly worse than that. She'd lean on him when she was tired and he'd only make a sound of acknowledgement that didn't hint toward annoyance or pleasure. It was enough for her. By the time she started hugging him, he leaned into the contact and she would grin broadly at him every time.

Mina had been half in love with Todoroki since the moment she met him, half on fire and wholly beautiful, but once she was able to hug him freely, she knew that she was entirely smitten. And, she suspected, Todoroki probably loved her, too. He wasn't good at feelings though, so she never told him this and she never asked. As long as he stayed by her side, she'd consider herself right.

Mina never liked fighting Pro heroes too often. It was usually more of a hassle than it was fun and having fun was what Mina wanted to do most of all. But sometimes she watched and lingered nearby when Shouto did so. It wasn't just for the fire. Well, it mostly was at first, but eventually it was because she wanted to look after him. She never expected that he would need protection, Shouto was strong enough to take care of himself. Still she watched from afar, keeping a careful eye on everyone's movements.

Then one time he was in a fight with Best Jeanist and Mt Lady, keeping them far away with his fire and making it difficult for them to get close enough to really hurt him. Best Jeanist couldn't use his quirk effective when the fire burned through the threads he manipulated and Mt Lady was trying to do less damage to her surrounding after a mess she'd made not too long ago, so everything was fine. That was, until Midnight showed up. She seemed to come out of nowhere and Mina was rushing forward with her acid immediately.

Midnight had been one of her idols, and maybe she still was, so Mina knew a lot about he quirk worked. The possibility that Shouto could keep the half dressed hero away was decent, but if she snuck up on him, Shouto was at a huge disadvantage. And Mina would be at a disadvantage fighting Best Jeanist. Mina considered herself good, but she didn't consider herself Top 5 Pro Hero good. Not like Shouto. One wrong move and he would have her pinned.

She saw the moment Midnight got close enough for her quirk to reach him and though Shouto's last burst of fire pushed them all away from him, he still started to go down.

Mina knew what she needed to do and she didn't hesitate to do it. She took off her clothes as she raced forward. Maybe it was a little embarrassing, but if Jeanist didn't have anything to grab onto her, she'd have a better chance of getting away. Luckily, speed was one of her best assets. She reached Todoroki in no time. He was heavy, but Mina wasn't a slacker. Even if it wasn't the easiest feat, she could pick up one boy.

The fire... was a problem. A very pretty, mesmerizing problem. She didn't have time to watch it and she had to keep reminding herself of that so that she didn't stop and stare. She'd almost gotten caught so many times before because she couldn't stop herself from staring into the flames, but Shouto was much more important than that. She wished that she had some protection as she raced into the flames to escape, the pain causing her to cry out and the smoke making her eyes water a bit.

Mt Lady's clumsy efforts to catch her resulted in the Pro Hero getting an acid burn to her hand and, luckily for Mina, also helped her avoid the flames a little. She was faster than Midnight, though she still caught a lashing across her back.

"Indecent girl! Haven't you any shame?" Midnight called after her.

"You're one to talk!" Mina yelled back. She gathered all the acid she could and threw a wall of it toward Midnight. She didn't look back long enough to see what damage she did. It wasn't long before she considered herself "safe" but she didn't stop until they were back at their hideout. Running through the city was embarrassing enough, not the worst but certainly not good, passing out was the humiliating part.

"Ashido! Ashido!" She woke up to Shouto calling her name. It was cold, very cold. Shouto was doing that. There was ice around her. "I didn't know what to do, you were hurt..." Shouto wasn't prone to babbling, this was new. It was also new when he threw himself on top of her. He was careful, but she still winced slightly.

"I'm okay," she told him.

"You don't look okay," Shouto told her.

She smiled at him. "It's okay. There's a number in my phone, a doctor, I'll be okay..."

Shouto quickly went to retrieve her phone, handing it to her so that she arrange a meeting. He stared at her, which at first she attributed to being because of her injuries before remembering that she was naked. She blushed. "Um... I probably don't look very appealing right now, do I?" she asked with a nervous laugh. "I'll, um..."

Shouto handed her something to cover up with. "You've always looked appealing," he told her. "Now probably isn't the time to say such things though, Ashido."

She laughed. Shouto was so practical sometimes. Only he could make a statement like that, complimenting her while she was completely naked, lack any hint of sexuality. "Mina," she told him. "Or you could call me Queen?"

He smirked at her, looked away. "Maybe later," he said. She couldn't help the way her heartbeat faster and her hopes skyrocketed. "Now really isn't the time."

"If it was though?" she couldn't help asking.

Shouto leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, savoring having him this close. He smelled like smoke and icy air, crisp and heady all at once. "Mina," he said softly. Shouto usually spoke softly, she liked it. "When was the last time I turned you down?"

She... couldn't remember. She'd started to take it for granted that he would brush her off and though she still flirted and made jokes, she didn't attempt to take them too seriously anymore. Her eyes flew open to look at her and he was actually smiling. Mina felt a giddy smile of her own spread across her face. "As long as you're already here," she told him, "You might as well kiss me."

To her surprise, he actually did.