"I'm so glad we get to hang at your palace again," Jirou beamed, setting her overnight bag down on the floor with a thump.

Momo chuckled as she closed the door behind them. "Thank my parents for deciding to take a trip to Venice right around your birthday." Her expression changed to a mildly irritated one. "Also, please—it's not a palace."

Jirou stuck her tongue out at her friend. "Sure."

Momo smiled back. She was glad to have Jirou's company considering how quiet and empty the house had been lately. She was a bit surprised her mother had been so willing to let her have not only Jirou, but the rest of her female classmates over. And for a sleepover at that. The thought put a little more bounce in Momo's steps. She'd never had a sleepover before. Or even been to one, for that matter. The more she thought about it, though…her mother hadn't said a word about the party nor Tetsuya Seto in the time between the aforementioned event and her flight out to Venice. It was a bit strange, really, considering what she had whispered to her when she had whisked her away from all the young people at the party…

But there were more exciting things to look forward to now. The rest of the girls would be coming shortly. Since Jirou and Ashido's birthdays were so close together, Momo had rationalized this was a perfect opportunity to get everyone together to celebrate both of them. However, the girl still valued the one-on-one time with her closest friend and had invited her to hang out a bit earlier.

"Did you invite any of the guys to come?" Jirou asked curiously as she followed Momo up the spiral staircase.

"Did you want me to invite the guys to come?" the vice president shot back over her shoulder.

"I wouldn't have minded," she shrugged, giving Momo a mischievous grin as they stopped at the top of the stairs.

Momo smirked, crossing her arms. "Somehow I have a feeling my parents would not have been okay with me inviting guys to sleep over."

"You're such a goody-goody, Yaomomo," Jirou pouted jokingly. "But fair point."

"Who would you have wanted me to invite, anyway?" Momo asked just for curiosity's sake as she led them through the door to her room. The thought of hosting their entire class had crossed her mind, but there were certain people—ok, maybe just Mineta—who she had mentally banned from sleeping over under any circumstance. There was no way that would turn out well. "Kaminari, maybe?" she added with a teasing lilt.

"Yeah, probably," Jirou mused, seemingly unfazed by her friend's implication. "And Todoroki, I think…"

The mention of the boy's name brought a strange feeling over Momo. "I didn't know you were close to Todoroki."

"I'm not really," Jirou shrugged. "But you are, right?"

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Momo said innocently. Thoughts of the party and the conversation she had with the half and half hero ran through her mind. Jirou didn't know about any of that, though.

Momo's eyes darted to Hime who, having heard the two of them enter, approached Jirou to brush herself up against her leg, mewing up at the girl. Usually Jirou would've been distracted by the cat, but apparently the topic at hand had her total attention.

"Uhh I have eyes, y'know," Jirou quipped, then brought her earphone jacks up and waved them near her friend's face, eyes narrowed. "And insanely good ears."

"Are you implying you've been eavesdropping on me?"

Jirou mock-gasped. "Excuse you, I have some class." She raised an eyebrow. "Why, do you have something to hide?"

Maybe. Momo considered all that she hadn't told her best friend. She still felt semi-conscious about being open about her life outside of school. Then again…she considered how quick she had been to tell Todoroki about herself the night of the party. Sure she could've chalked it up to her own nervous energy due to the circumstances at the time, but even then, sharing with him had felt so…easy. Momo was touched he also felt comfortable to share a bit about his family with her as well. It made him feel a bit more relatable. Closer.

"Has Todoroki been over to your house before?" Jirou asked suspiciously when she didn't respond.

Momo hesitated to answer. The girl wasted no time in interpreting that as she wished.

"Wow, he has hasn't he?" She continued, her earphone jacks jabbing questioningly at the air.

Momo chuckled back nervously. "Maybe."

"What, just the two of you? Alone? While your parents were away?" Jirou smirked, poking her best friend in the shoulder incessantly. "How sly of you, Yaomomo…"

She shook her head, waving her hand dismissively. "No, nothing like that." The urge to just tell Jirou about everything that had happened was stronger than ever. She laughed nervously. "Do you really want to know the drama that is my life?"

"I mean if you're going to lead in with that…" Jirou crossed her arms. "I don't know, am I really your best friend?" she countered.

She had a point. Momo felt a pang of guilt at being so secretive towards her. If she could speak so openly to Todoroki about her life, how could she not to her best friend? She sighed. "Sorry, I guess I just thought…you might be offended if I talked about my 'wealthy people problems'."

Jirou sighed, pressing a hand dramatically to her chest. "Yes, I'm terribly offended you invited me to stay at your palace."

"It's not a palace, Jirou," she responded, feeling like a broken record.

"That's what a rich person would say," she teased. When Momo didn't say anything, she cleared her throat. "I'm serious though, you can tell me anything. While I may not understand everything about where you're coming from, I promise I'm a good listener." She waved around her earphone jacks to emphasize her point.

Momo sighed in relief. "Okay…" She plopped down on top of her king-sized bed, patting the area next to her for Jirou to sit down.

It felt freeing to let everything out. She told Jirou about how her mother had insisted she invite an escort. How she had invited Todoroki and the group of "friends" she often hung out with at these parties had upset her. About the conversation the two of them had had in her bedroom ("Ooh, just the two of you alone? In your bedroom?" Jirou teased). There were some parts of that she still left out, though. While she was touched he had trusted her enough to share with her, Momo had the feeling Todoroki didn't want others to know about his own familial issues. Her own family issues were another story…

Jirou was silent after Momo had finished telling her everything.

"Y'know, I was going to be slightly offended you didn't invite me to your fancy party but after hearing about all that…" she put her palms together in front of her face and inclined her head towards her friend. "Thank you for sparing me."

Momo laughed. "Thank you for listening."

Jirou leaned back, letting her head plop down on on the bed. She twirled one earphone jack around her finger, processing everything. "So the guy you were referring to when we were at the mall—the one your parents are trying to set you up with—his name is Tetsuya Seto?"

"That's right."

"Why him, though?" Jirou looked up at her curiously.

"I mean, aside from the fact he's also from a wealthy and well-known Hero family—"

"—Uh, so is Todoroki," Jirou said pointedly.

"—I guess his quirk is 'complementary' to mine," Momo said. While her mother had never outright stated the why, Momo knew the woman well enough to figure what her thought process was.

"Huh?" Jirou's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I thought you said his quirk was kind of useless."

"Hey! I just said it's not particularly suited for fighting," Momo pouted. The memory of Tetsuya picking Hime's fur off of her dress at the party—and getting a little too close for comfort—flashed across her mind. "It allows him to understand the molecular structure and makeup of anything he touches. He'd be best suited to doing research or investigation or something like that."

Momo let herself fall back against her pillows next to Jirou. "But in combination with my quirk…"

Jirou stroked her chin pensively, the wheels turning in her mind. "I see…it would almost be like an enhancement for you, huh?"

Momo nodded. Honestly, the set up would benefit her more than it would him. Her mother was evidently looking out for her best interest. If they worked as a team, she'd potentially have a much easier time creating things she wasn't familiar with. And if her mother was thinking much further ahead—should they have any kids that inherited both of their powers…well, they'd potentially have a prodigy on their hands. Ugh. Momo pushed the thought out of her mind. She hardly wanted to think about relationships yet, let alone marriage, let alone children…

Next to her, Jirou sighed. "Wow. Who knew living the high life could be so hard."

"At least you get to benefit from it," Momo sassed. Poking fun at others still didn't feel completely natural to her, but being friends with Jirou was slowly but surely changing that.

She sat up when phone suddenly went off. "Ah, it seems everyone else just arrived." Momo hopped off the bed. Jirou was still lying across the bedspread, too comfortable in her current spot to get up. An insistent meow from below shifted Momo's attention. "…Aaand Hime is hungry. Jirou, would you mind getting the door while I get this princess something to eat?"

"Man, your cat sure lives up to her name." Jirou jumped up. "I'll feed Hime. I have no idea how to work your security system thing."

"That works." Momo smiled at her as she walked towards the door. "Thanks—the cat treats are in one of the matryoshkas on top of my desk."

Jirou looked over, scanning the row of dolls until she saw one that was painted like a cat. "Ah…got it." She stooped down to ruffle the fur on Hime's head. "Time to eat, Hime…"

Satisfied that that was taken care of, Momo hurried down the stairs so the rest of the girls could join them, nearly tripping on the top step in her excitement. She had spent more time than she should have looking up what a typical girls' sleepover was like the night before. Snacking, painting nails, face masks, talking…tonight would definitely be a lot of fun.

All her research had also led her to the conclusion that there was one topic that was bound to come up at some point during the night. The thought of it gave her a strange feeling in her stomach. She never liked those kinds of conversations. While Jirou had skirted around the question, Momo knew others—Ashido, for sure—would be far more direct.

She had rehearsed an answer in her mind so she would be prepared.

That train of thought brought to mind a certain red-and-white-haired boy.

I wonder what Todoroki is up to tonight…

Hmmmm, what could Todoroki possibly be doing with his free time? (Take a wild guess~you're probably close)

Second party in a row for Momo but hey, they're on break so there's a bit more time for fun =P

On a slight tangent, I was inspired to write an angsty-ish Todomomo one-shot last week so hopefully I'll have that up soon..as well as a plot for another multi-chapter fic vastly different from this one. What have I done . At other fanfic writers...is this what happens!? You start one multi-chapter fic and then you want to write them all... ^^;

As always, thanks for reading!