Momo was used to hiding for her job.
Her thoughts, emotions, feelings- all of them cast aside to keep her family safe. Everything was for them! Even… if they had no idea it was.
Even, if it was for her parents who forced her into this life….
Even, if it involved hiding her job from her husband.
She loved her husband- maybe even more then she loved her parents- and the thought of him finding out about her job tore at her heart in such a way- that the façade almost cracked every time she thought about it.
Finding out your wife is a spy wasn't just something you have a calm discussion about after all.
Or, that is what she always thought.
The rising music filled her ears and momentarily escaped her from her thoughts- though she was quickly brought back as her assigned partner for the night waltzed back into view- the well of neatly kept back emotions brimming back up and threatening to dislodge at the sight of him. He hadn't noticed her yet, was still blissfully unaware of the news she was about to spring on him as he sipped his wine and scanned the room with his captivating eyes.
She stayed in the shadows, trying to sort through her thoughts quickly before the moment she had to approach him arrived. The sweet sway of the music helped slightly, watching him stand across the hall in a nice suit she hadn't known he owned brought a lot of feelings to the forefront, but the calm of the music helped her delicately place them someplace else where she could bring them back later when the moment was right, and her entire spy career wasn't hanging on her completing this.
She was a professional, and giving away that she knew him could endanger not only the mission- but him as well.
The dainty watch on her arm ticked smoothly to the designated time- and her body immediately moved out of the shadows and she started casually mingling with the crowd. Laughing with this woman- talking with this man- politely declining a drink on the excuse she was pregnant from that waiter- it was all routine for her. But, the person she was meeting on the other side was not the usual. Not the usual at all.
And drat was she conflicted.
Gliding in next to him, she wasn't surprised at his widening eye's as she slipped her arm through his, though his quick recovery did more to add to her growing suspicions that she wasn't the only one in their marriage keeping a secret.
He introduced her as his wife- and for once it wasn't a lie.
That made her feel odd- waltzing around the ball room on the job with her husband at her side was both refreshing and confusing. Their interactions with others was the usual and the same as it was for normal parties, and Shouto's presence was, as always, a breath of fresh air in her muddled and confusing life- a pleasant step up from Bakugou her usual assigned partner. But on the other hand, him being here brought so many questions- so many confusing and despairing emotions- that Momo found herself squeezing his arm more than once- and pushing his neatly combed hair back into place- just to check she wasn't imagining him.
He would always return with a gesture of his own- like a grasp of her hand, pushing her hair back, not letting go of her arm- all things she knew where him both checking to make sure she was real- and keeping her there beside him.
Not that she would leave of course- the mission was to important to just walk away from.
Midnight was drawing closer- the more the hour hand ticked on the giant foreboding clock above the heads, the more tightly Momo found herself holding on to Shouto. She guided him slowly to the position point, tucking them away into the folds of the shadowy corner where no one could see them.
She couldn't see his face clearly, but she could feel the sad realization in him as she pulled out a gun.
She really wasn't what she said she was their entire relationship.
Her hand clasped tightly around the gun, forcing herself to push aside the guilt that was threatening to take over and focus on prepping for the job. Shouto stepped back slightly from her, watching her in such a wearily way that she almost broke and reassured him. Almost, but above the dancing people and merging crowd, the giant clock ticked closer and closer to that crucial moment.
"Why didn't you tell me."
Shouto's voice was low, but filled with subtle pleading as Momo loaded her gun with ease, though she faltered at his question.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked in return, postponing her answering that question for as long as she could. Shouto cast his eyes at her with confusion.
"I quite doing this when I was eighteen. By the time I met you I considered it all in my past." She remembered that. Not that exactly, but him mentioning a few times during their dating that he had a past he was trying to move forward from- and that she was his new life.
And all she did was bring him back to the life he was trying to leave behind.
'Some new life I am.' Was all Momo could think bitterly.
"Then why are you here tonight?"
Shouto folded his arms and looked away from her and outwards the sea of moving dresses and suits.
"My father blackmailed me into doing this."
"What did he threaten?" The words left Momo's mouth before she could stop them. Simple though they seemed it held more truth in it then she would have liked to reveal. She knew Endeavor's favorite form of blackmail was threatening.
And, since Shouto had never told her, that meant only one clear, painful thing.
And as Shouto turned to her with a snowstorm of understanding and hurt in his eyes, Momo knew he figured out just what that thing was.
"You."
Shouto's answer was as simple as her question, though it sunk down deep into Momo as she knew her question had done to him.
If only she had told Shouto what she did- what she TRULY did for a living- then he wouldn't be standing next to her, hurt gleaming from his face as the truth about what she did and who she worked for coming out into the open in such biting ways.
Shouto appeared to be on the same train of thought, moving slightly so he was leaning against a pillar and face only half illuminated by a beam light. The distrust and pain even more evident in his eyes.
Momo couldn't look at him. Especially when he asked the question that she was dreading to hear. And the one she couldn't answer.
"Why didn't you tell me Momo." His voice was low, and her name rolled off his tongue as it always did and sent shivers down her spine- but unlike other times where the shiver was caused by the desire or love in his voice, this time it was caused by the disheartened decibels that escaped his mouth and revealed just how much this had cut him and his trust of her.
His image of his intelligent and loving wife had been pierced deep- and Momo could only pray as she tightened the strings of her dress that she would be able to repair it.
"I… can't tell you." Momo hated her feeble and lackluster answer. Hated how his emotions withdrew and concealed themselves at it, how his eyes turned cold as he accepted that he didn't know the person standing in front of him.
And seeing that scared Momo more than any mission she had ever been on.
"I can't tell you here." She corrected, onyx eyes lifting to gage the room as she slipped the gun back into her purse, and from the corner of her eye she saw Shouto look away from her. "I need to finish this and then when we get home- I'll explain everything."
"Will you really." Shouto asked plainly, his voice not betraying any of his emotions as he looked back at her unbelieving. "You won't just come home and pretend none of this happened?"
"I promise I-"
Someone was watching them. Her eyes fell onto a mop of indigo hair standing far off across the hall, his figure only barely visible through the crowd but his piercing gaze she could feel even through the crowd of people.
She didn't know who he was, but he was suspicious. Her well trained warning bells were giving her all the signals about him, and her mind was quickly going through all the possible things she could do to throw off his suspicion.
The answer jumped into her brain as Shouto's expectant voice called out to her.
"Momo, you'll promise what?"
Pivoting on her heels, Momo swiftly was in front of him- her mind replacing the worry brought from the conversation with only the thoughts of throwing the indigo haired man off their tracks. He looked down at her with his arms still folded, hair in disarray from all the times he had swept through it with his fingers.
Eyes glancing back towards the man, Momo spoke urgently, stepping forward as she did so they were toe to toe.
"Shouto quick kiss me!"
Surprise flashed through his features- though Momo did not witness all of them as she stepped forward even more and brought their mouths together, eyes closing on instinct as the familiar feeling of kissing him took over.
She knew in the back of her mind that she was on a time limit- that the clock was soon going to strike midnight and she would have to release herself from Shouto's arms that had wrapped around her waist and traced down her back, and that she would have to keep her promise and tell him everything about her secret life.
And that would most likely change their relationship forever.
After all, this would make Shouto question everything she tells him. Even her explanation he will question, forever the little thought in the back of his head reminding him that she lied once, she could always lie again.
Though as they broke apart, Shouto with his arms still around her and Momo not letting her interlocked fingers keeping her arms around his neck release just yet, she made a decision.
"Shouto…" She whispered, focusing on putting all the emotions she could allow herself for this one, one moment of openness during work. "I promise, that I will never lie to you again." He looked unbelieving, though Momo supposed she should have expected that. She had no time to ease his worries however, as the clock above struck twelve, and its announcement of the new night rang out around them. Signifying, she had to go.
Leaning forward one last time, Momo gave him a short peck on the lips, lingering a moment longer then she should.
She ran her fingers through his hair, fixing them back neatly again, and she whispered into his lips.
"Go home and wait for me Shouto, please."
And then she released herself from him and remerged herself back into the crowd, leaving a numb Shouto to lean back against the pillar and gaze up at the ceiling, lips pursed slightly as a small sigh left them.
And after a few minutes, he got up from the pillar, and also rejoined the crowd.
No sign of Momo anywhere.