Toshinori knew that this was going to be difficult. Well, maybe not difficult but rather strange for this plan to take place but this was the only thing that he knew would help keep Inko safe even if she may not even be aware of it yet. Running a hand through his blonde locks, the young man heard the doorbell ring, causing him to get off of his couch and made his way over to the doorway before opening it. "Hizashi, Shouta. Thanks for coming on short notice, I hope you two didn't have a date or anything today."

A man that was a bit shorter than Toshinori, okay a good deal shorter than him but still taller than Inko stood in the doorway. He had long shaggy black hair and black eyes. If you looked closer, you would notice the beginning of bags starting to form under his tired looking eyes. He wore a simple black t-shirt and matching black shorts and of course, black sneakers. "Whatever Toshinori." He answered.

"Now Shouta! You shouldn't be so harsh." Said the other man next to Shouta. He had long blonde hair that, normally pulled back with hair gel to make it seem like wind kept it blown back at all times of the day. Toshinori wouldn't lie but he found it odd to see it down for a change, though he knew that he only had it down when he wasn't working at either job as a radio host or a hero.

He wore black headphones around his neck, had on a pair of orange sunglasses that hid his green eyes from people's view mostly. He wore a yellow muscle shirt, tight black leather pants with a few pockets and zippers along the legs. Next were the black leather fingerless gloves with a spiked leather bracelet on his left wrist and to finish off his outfit was a pair of black combat boots.

The man had a big smile on his face as he happily said "So, what did you need big guy?" Toshinori couldn't figure out how such a happy guy like Yamada could be with someone so… blunt, and dare he say it? Bland? No, well, unlively? Hm, maybe when they're alone Shouta was different but what would he know? Not like he was with someone to understand what it was like to be in love.

"I need to ask you guys to do me a favor. I promise it isn't anything that bad." Toshinori calmly said before adding "I'll make some tea, make yourselves comfortable." With that, he lead the way, hearing one of the guys close the door before making his way to the kitchen to get the kettle on for their tea. Thank god he managed to buy some more tea but, it was nothing compared to Inko's tea that was for sure.

"So, what made you drag our asses over here Toshinori?" asked Shouta, his tired eyes looking up at him, looking as if he would rather be in bed than here. Which may be true at this point.

"Well, you see I just started talking to this woman-"

"Oh you have a girlfriend! Who is she? What's her name!" Hizashi said with wide sparkling eyes.

Blushing madly, Toshinori held up his hands defensively. "Whoa! We aren't together like that or at all! She and I are just friends!" Toshinori sighed softly as he leaned against his chair and gave a dark look on his face. "I… I don't really know how to explain her situation."

"Then just spit it out, I have better things to do Toshinori." Mumbled Shouta.

"Shouta…" Hizashi said with a frown at the raven haired man.

How could he explain her situation? Would it even be right of him to tell his friends of what was going on in her life in the first place? Closing his eyes, taking a deep breath hoping to calm his nerves as he looked up at his friends and gave them a serious look. "What I say to you must never be repeated alright?"

Both of them almost seemed to stare at him with wide eyes. Well, Hizashi's eyes widened while Shouta still looked rather tired and bored but there was a hint of understanding within his tired orbs. When he saw them both nod, he went on. "My friend, Inko, she just got out of a bad relationship and… I think her ex is starting to stalk her. I met her at a bar one night on my day off and he was harassing her to the point that I think he was going to drag her out of the bar. She's scared, just going pale at the mere sight of him."

"You don't think she was abused do you?" asked Hizashi with a frown on his face.

"I am starting to think so." Folding his hands over on the table, Toshinori let out a soft sigh as he looked down at his hands. "Inko is terrified of this guy. Hell, the guy tried to use his quirk on me when I pinned him down on the counter at the bar. He's not stupid but I don't think he's all that smart either. He went to her work and she was terrified there too. I almost thought she would have vibrated through the floor."

"Must have been horrible abused then. You alright though?" asked Shouta.

"Yeah why? I mean I'm pissed at this guy for what he's possibly put her through but otherwise I'm fine." Toshinori answered honestly. Though he saw both Shouta and Hizashi look at each other before looking back at them. "You two alright?"

"Fine." Shouta mumbled before asking "So what do you want us to do? Unless there is proof of this abuse and him stalking her we can't do anything. We may be heroes but even we have to abide by the law."

"I know, that's why I was thinking why don't you spread word about Inko's café. Have them all go there on her break. This way, there is a hero there protecting her at all times of the day while the café is open and I can walk her home. It seems that it would work that way right?"

"You sure you don't like this woman?" asked Shouta.

"Yes I'm sure!" Toshinori said, his blush saying otherwise.

Hizashi chuckled a little but didn't tease the blonde man about it anymore than his boyfriend had. "Alright, now this Inko woman seems to have you captivated at the least. You want to help her."

"I saw her at the bar, if you had seen her eyes then you would be on the same page as me. She looked… dead. As if she had given up on life." His hands trembled slightly, he wasn't sure why that was though willed himself to stop as he took a deep breath. "I feared that if someone hadn't done something to save her then she would have taken drastic measures just to escape him."

Both of them had stared at Toshinori with concern after he said that. It seemed they were thinking the same thing, at least from the expression that he could see on their faces. Whatever it was, he had no idea what it could be. Though he knew that he had to do something to help Inko even if he has to ask other heroes to help him in some way. Letting out a soft sigh, Toshinori pushed himself up as he heard the kettle starting to boil. "I'll be back, I'll get the tea ready. But seriously, Inko's tea is a lot better than store bought brands." He chuckled a little before making his way to the kitchen and started to get everything settled.

He grabbed the cups and set them on a tray as he started to set. Grabbing the tea packets, the milk, sugar and other odds and ends. Just as he reached out for the kettle, his hand hitting the hot metal only to curse out "Ah! Fucking shit damn it!"

Holding onto his hand, Toshinori didn't think he'd burn himself. Normally he's always so careful when it comes to this but damn it all. Burns were the worst thing to deal with, made him he had a fire-related quirk to help him but sadly that wasn't the case. "Toshi you alright?" called Hizashi as he came into the kitchen with a frown on his face.

"Fine, just burned myself." Toshinori waved his friend off before turning to his friend. "Can you set this on the table for me? I'm gonna look for my first aid kit." He didn't turn to Hizashi as he went to look for his first aid kit. Well, one of many. Because of his quirk, he tends to break things even by accident. Or the fact that sometimes he was in his own world and would hurt himself one way or another. It would always irritate him to no end but at the moment he didn't care.

Letting out a soft sigh, his hand burning and it was starting to hurt. Looking around, he tried to think on where he had put the first aid kit that he kept in his living room. There were drawers from his desk. Did he leave one in his desk? Maybe.

As he made his way over to his desk, he noticed one long side table near the desk and he froze. That was a drawer that he hasn't opened in years. And to be honest, he wasn't sure why that was. Every time he tried he would feel a sense of dread, of pain. His body started to tremble without him even noticing, why didn't he move?! Why couldn't he open it?! Sounds would reach his ears though he wasn't sure what they were, they were all muffled to his ears.

"Toshi?" called Hizashi, it didn't completely snap him out of it though he just slowly turn to stare at his blonde haired friend. "You alright?" he asked, concern lacing his words.

Before Toshinori could even speak, he saw Shouta holding a blanket and throwing it over the end table covering it. Breaking the spell that it had its hold on him mere moments ago. Before he could stop himself, Toshinori fell to his knees and let out a shuddering breath. "You alright?" asked Shouta as he knelt in front of Toshinori. "Why don't you throw that thing out, you can't even look at it."

"It was my mother's, I'm not throwing it out because I… I can't…" Toshinori sighed softly, feeling ashamed of everything. Why was it that he could handle fighting villains yet when it came to a normal side table he just seemed to freeze in some kind of… well he didn't have the right word for it. It wasn't a memory because there were no images. Not even sounds for that matter or at least, no sounds that he could make out.

"Toshinori, you sit down and I'll get the first aid kit. You are useless right now." Shouta grumbled before making his way to the bathroom. Knowing that there was at least one of them in there at the very least. That left the tall blonde with his friend before Hizashi helped the trembling man to the kitchen to sit down.

"I'm fine Hizashi." Whispered Toshinori.

"No, you need to calm down and relax first alright?" Hizashi said with a serious look to his face.

"You know what causes this don't you?" Toshinori asked with a frown.

"No." Hizashi said quickly, a little too quickly for Toshinori's liking. He knew something, but then again this has been going on for years and no one would ever tell Toshinori what it was. Whatever it was though knew that he would never get an answer. Maybe it has something to do with whatever it was that he had forgotten. Or, maybe he was just over thinking this.

"So, why did you want us to help this Inko woman? There has to be something between you two." Hizashi said with a smile on his face.

"No, nothing is going on with us. We're just friends. Come on Hizashi, she could have been abused and I don't even know if she is really being stalked anymore. I haven't heard about any signs of Hisashi so I'm just assuming that he's left her alone for now but… I'm still worried." Shaking his head, Toshinori let out a soft sigh as he stared at his friend only to look back down at the table. "If he does show up, what if she has some kind of panic attack or something?"

"Maybe you should just play her guitar." Shouta said, causing Toshinori to all but jump out of his skin. The raven haired man just blinked slowly at the two blondes before taking his seat and opening up the little white box and started to wrap up Toshinori's hand. "If I recall correctly, you could play guitar pretty well. Maybe playing that would help her relax."

"I don't play for people, I can't even stand to perform in front of people again." Toshinori pointed out with a sigh.

"Yet you can do hero work without any issues?"

"Because I'm doing a heroes job, not performing in front of a live audience." Toshinori pointed out with a sigh. Looking at his now bandaged hand, the young man wondered what more he could do to help Inko. This was something small, but at least it would provide her some kind of protection though, there were still other things that he had to worry about. Letting out another sigh, the young man just couldn't help but think or try to think on what else he could do for Inko.

"Well, don't forget you'll be with her the whole time at the Hero Gala remember?"

"Yeah, but she doesn't know I'm a hero per say. Only that I work at a Hero's Agency." Toshinori pointed out with a sigh.

"Maybe one day you should tell her the truth should it lead to you two dating." Hizashi said with a big grin on his face.

Blushing madly, Toshinori groaned a little as he said "We're not together! I don't think we'll ever get together! Inko doesn't see me that way and I don't see her that way!" denied Toshinori.

Yet, the couple just looked at their friend, it seemed that Toshinori had no idea that he already had feelings for this 'Inko' woman. Whoever she was, they think that he was doing this for more than just one reason. More than just trying to protect a woman from an abusive ex, or just for 'a friend'. Though they couldn't be sure what it was completely since this was still Toshinori's life. Not theirs but, they would still help out their friend all they could.

"Alright, we'll help. So, what's the name of this café?" asked Shouta.

"The Emerald Café." Answered Toshinori.

"Oh, I already go there if I have morning shifts." Shouta mumbled before turning to his boyfriend. "It's that café that will make me those treats that look like cats."

"Oh yeah! I remember you brought some of those home one day, they tasted amazing! Sure, I'm in!" Hizashi said with a big grin on his face.

Figures, they'd do anything for treats. Though, they were his friends so he couldn't really blame them for that. He was still grateful for their friendship that much was true though he still just hoped that everything would be alright. Though, he still had some kind of nagging feeling in the back of his head that there was more to him wanting to help Inko than he let on. Even if it was on some kind of sub-conscious level.

"Look guys, the only thing I care about is her safety. I want to make sure that she can smile, be happy and not have to worry about her ex trying to ruin her life." Toshinori said with a small smile on his face. "If anything, Inko deserves all the happiness in the world that much I can say for sure."

Both men stared at her with frowns on their faces. Though they just stared at him with blank looks on their faces afterwards… Only for those to turn into grins. "You so like her." Said Hizashi with a chuckle.

"I do not like her that way!" shouted Toshinori, his face turning a new shade of red.


Meanwhile, someone sat in the darkness of the alleyway. He just stared at a wall that was covered in photos that he has secretly taken. This was interesting, so many pictures, so many of them of dear sweet Inko and she would soon be his again. Though, all he needed was the perfect plan to get her back in his life.

Inko just didn't know it yet. She was meant to be with him, meant to be with him and only him. It had been so long since he had been with someone else only difference was that it didn't end well with her. All he had to do was make sure that she wouldn't leave him like that last one had. Though, if he had too, then he may have to take matters into his own hands. What really pissed him off though beyond the fact that she had left him and managed to hide her new home somewhere else from him was who she was spending time with.

Picking up a photo of Inko with a tall blonde haired man, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the photo. This man was going to ruin everything. He would ruin his plan to have his Inko back in his life, but he would just have to find a way to get her away from him and him, away from her. But, that would be easier said than done. The man was strong, that was for sure. Maybe it would just be easier to just take Inko somewhere or… if he couldn't have her then no one shall.