"I'm home," Tooru said quietly as she opened the door of her apartment. She left her shoes at the door and fell face first onto the couch. She let out a tired groan and rubbed her face into her sleeve. She raised her head at the sound of laughter.

"Long night, Tooru?"

Tooru moved into an upright position as she looked at her roommate. "Ochako! I didn't know you were still awake."

"I can tell," Ochako said with more giggling. "It looked like you were trying to bury yourself in the couch."

"I'm just so tired," she groaned, drawing out the syllables. She slouched back on the couch.

"You're later than usual," Ochako said. She moved into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of water, holding it out for her. "Work run long?"

Tooru screwed off the top and drained half the bottle, drinking like a dying man. She took a loud breath when she was done. "Thanks, I was really thirsty."

"You should start taking some with you," Ochako told her.

"You're right, you're right," Tooru replied. Ochako told her this all the time and Tooru always forgot. Not that it would be all that practical anyway. It was difficult enough to find inconspicuous places to stash her clothing, trying to add a water bottle to the equation would just make everything worse.

"So...work?" Ochako questioned. "Or did you go out somewhere?"

"Both," Tooru answered. "There was this new guy at work, it was so frustrating!" She made exaggerated gestures with her arms, feeling a small amount of satisfaction when her antics made her roommate laugh. "He totally showed me up and my boss scolded me. Then he made me go out for drinks with him to make up for it!"

"The new guy?"

"My boss." Tooru corrected. "But! But! This new guy was such a tease! Can you believe he flirted with me, just to distract me from getting my work done?"

"Really?"

"Of course, really!"

"You're not exaggerating at all?" Ochako asked her.

Tooru pouted, though she knew Ochako wouldn't see it. "When have you ever known me to exaggerate?" she asked.

Ochako didn't answer that, though she looked like she wanted to laugh. Her smile was bright as she said, "Well, that guy sounds pretty bad."

"Thank you!" Tooru cried, springing up from her slouched position only to lett herself fall back on the couch in relief. "I could sleep for a week."

"Well, maybe don't sleep that long," Ochako told her. "But do get some rest. You'll have the apartment all to yourself."

Tooru sat up and reached out to Ochako, grabbing hold of her wrist. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I picked up a late shift at work," she answered, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"At this hour? Ochako!" Tooru put her hands on her hips and a stern, scolding tone into her voice. It was after midnight, way too late for her friend to be heading out for more work. She worked too much as it was.

"I know, I know," Ochako said. "But we do really need the money."

Tooru couldn't deny that. Money was pretty tight between them, especially with her roommate trying to send as much of her money as she could back to her parents. They lived in a pretty nice place and nice places, even if they weren't fancy places, did not come cheep. Still, she was afraid her friend was going to work herself into an early grave.

"You work too hard," Tooru told her. "You can't keep this up."

"I just need to get another shift for rent this month. I can't keep having you cover for me."

It was moments like these that Tooru wished her face could be seen. It was hard to display the same amount of worry that was in her face with her actions. They just didn't translate the way she wanted and never had. Nevertheless, Tooru tried. She rose from the couch and wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug.

"Please take better care of yourself," she said softly.

"I will," Ochako replied, returning the hug. "Don't worry, I'm alright."

"You need to stop working so many hours for your parents," she added. "Or at least have them pay you."

"You know I can't do that," Ochako replied.

"I'll work harder, too," Tooru promised.

Her roommate laughed. "You're so reliable, Tooru. Thank you for working so hard."

Tooru hugged her tighter, not sure how else to convey her worry nor her sincerity.

The crime scene was hardly touched. There was a wall of tilted paintings and an empty pedestal where the stolen object had once resided. A few security guards were huddled to one side of the room, speaking to the police.

Her partner, Bakugo, walked ahead of her. His face was set into a perpetual scowl and his hands were shoved deep into his pockets. His shoulders were hunched and his hair was as wild and spiky as his explosive personality. He looked at the tilted paintings for a moment before turning to face her. "No wonder the thief didn't take anything else. Those paintings are ugly as sin."

"Bakugo!" she said in a scolding tone.

"What?"

"Would it kill you to say something nice for once?" she asked him in exasperation.

"Yes," he told her seriously.

Momo realized that trying to get her partner to behave was a losing battle, but she couldn't help but try.

"At least try not to blow anything up," she urged.

He scoffed as he turned away from her, but she took his lack of swearing and bluster to be consent.

"Which of you pathetic extras was on guard last night?" he yelled out.

One of the guards shuffled forward, giving them confused looks. She stepped forward before her partner could speak. "Hello. I'm Detective Yaoyorozu, and this is my partner, Detective Bakugo." Bakugo huffed as she showed the guard her badge. He was always so impatient. "What can you tell us about last night?"

"I wasn't able to tell who was here nor how many," the guard explained. "When I made my way here to investigate the alarm, they blinded me with a flash of light. I do recall hearing a female voice, though."

"Did they tilt all the paintings, too?" she asked.

"Yes, but there were no fingerprints on the wall or frames. The only thing missing is the diamond."

"What about the cameras?" Bakugo asked, pointing to the camera in the room.

"They were disabled earlier in the night," the guard answered. "I'm assuming the thief is to blame."

"Was there anything else left at the scene?" she questioned.

"We found a shoe. The police already collected it."

"A shoe?" Bakugo repeated. "The fuck is this, Cinderella?"

"What would cause someone to lose their shoe during a robbery?" she wondered.

"Stupidity," Bakugo offered.

"Not helpful, Bakugo."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go talk to the cops," he said. She watched him as he stalked off. She trusted him to get any useful information, even if she wished he'd be more polite and professional in his pursuit. She let her eyes travel around the room and lost herself in thought as she contemplated the crime scene.

Momo relaxed as she slid into a booth across from her partner. He'd been smoking at the booth while she'd been outside making a call, but he ground the cigarette into the ashtray as soon as she sat down. She sent him a grateful little smile and he scoffed and looked away.

"So," she began, cupping her hands on the table in front of her. "What do you think of this case?"

"I think it's going to be a dead end just like the others," he told her.

Dismay filled her at those words and her head drooped slightly. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Bakugo shrugged, looking off outside the booth, probably scanning for the waiter. "Not much else I could have said," he told her. "We have no real witnesses, no camera footage, hardly any clues."

"We do know more than we did before," she argued. "The thief has to be a woman."

"Yeah, this thief," Bakugo stressed. "There's nothing to connect this to the other robberies."

"You're right. We'll just have to wait and see if we get another apology card."

"Fucking stupid," Bakugo grumbled. "Who the hell apologizes for stealing?"

"Very polite thieves," Momo answered. "Our very polite thief."

"Fucking useless thief," Bakugo grumbled.

"He can't be that useless," she told him. "He's good enough that we haven't caught him yet."

"If these cases are related and our thief is a woman, does that help us at all?" he asked. "Is there any clue we overlooked? Any other dropped shoes?"

"I don't think so," she said, shaking her head. "I'll look over the case files again, of course, but there are so few details that I'm sure I remember it all."

Bakugo sighed. "That's what I thought."

"We can still dig around," she told him optimistically. "Maybe we can find somehting about the shoe or how the camera was taken out."

Bakugo growled. "Unlikely," he told her. He abruptly brought his fist down on the table and yelled out, "Can we get some service over here?"

Momo slumped down slightly in her seat. She was used to her partner's hot temper, but that didn't mean she was supportive of it. She placed her hand on his, speaking softly. "Bakugo, please."

"What? The service is slow as shit here," he responded.

"Don't make a scene."

"Tch. Too late for that," he told her.

She slumped further in her seat and resigned herself.

"Hatsume?" Izuku called out as he cautiously opened the door to his friend's workshop. He had been given a key and blanket permission to enter whenever he wanted, but he still hesitated a few steps from the threshold. He closed the door behind him, but didn't go further as he looked around. "Are you here?"

Hatsume's workshop was two rooms, the main room that he currently stood in and a smaller room in the back. The main room had piles of discarded inventions and worktables with scattered metals and materials. It was a very cramped and cluttered room, despite being large enough not to be. Izuku always itched to tidy up whenever he was here. He peered around a few of the worktables. He'd found her in a sorts of positions and places in her workshop before, including being on the floor.

"Midoriya!" he jumped as Hatsume's voice called out loudly behind him. Her voice was full of laughter as she added, "Did I surprise you?"

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" he responded.

Hatsume was dangling from the ceiling by a cord, goggles over her eyes and thick gloves on her hands. She fiddled with a belt around her waist until it clicked open, allowing her to drop to the ground. "So what brings you by today?" she asked.

His eyes instinctively darted around the room before he answered. "I, uh, got the diamond."

Hatsume took her googles off as she crowded Izuku's personal space. "You got it?"

"Y-yeah."

"Let me see it!" she demanded.

He shrunk away from her enthusiasm as he held out his bag, the diamond safely tucked within. She practically snatched the bag from his hands, spinning around as she reached inside and retrieved the diamond. He'd seen it before, but the utter joy on her face as she looked at the diamond still surprised him. The diamond was large enough that she couldn't close her fist around it and the light that passed through it reflected small rainbows on her palm.

"It's such a beauty," she said to herself.

"Yeah. Listen, last night..."

"Are you leaving it here with me?" she asked. "Can I study it for a few days or do you need me to sell it right away?"

"Oh? Uh... I guess you can keep it for a few days, but don't forget that you need to put it on the market before..."

"Yeah, yeah," she interrupted him. "I know, I won't."

Izuku sighed. "Let me know if you have anymore jobs for me or anything."

"I will. Where are you off to?" She took her eyes off the diamond briefly to look at him.

"I have to write an apology letter," he told her.

"Again?" Hatsume rolled her eyes. "You're going to get caught this way."

Izuku bit his lip and looked away. "Y-you're right..."

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" she smiled at him. "You're polite to a fault, Midoriya."

"I-I'm working on it," he said.

"See you later," she said, turning her gaze back to the diamond.

"See you later." With only a slight hesitation, Izuku turned and left her workshop.