and you say, stay
Chapter 13: See You

AN: - mentions of heavy cigarette use in this chapter.
- implied abuse in the past also mentioned.

After the encounter with Dabi, Todoroki led them to the elevators in dead silence. The entire lobby had stared at them in fear, the not-so-subtle whispers of ' Demon Director' echoing behind them like a Gregorian chant as they passed by.

He doesn't let her go during the entire ascent to the sixty-fifth floor, although as the elevator goes up, his breathing slows down and the iron grip on her wrist slowly loosens. He still doesn't utter a single word by the time the elevator opens with a ding, but at least he's a lot more gentle when he leads her out and when they pass by the rest of the office, who do double-triple takes seeing the strange looks on their faces. Camie, in particular, takes one look at Ochako, the link between her and the Director, and skedaddles out the reception area as quickly as she can.

The door to his office closes behind them, and finally Todoroki releases her in favor of turning his back to her while taking slow, measured breaths.

He's angry, but for what she can't exactly pinpoint. There's far too much to take in, about Dabi and the past and the way these two men knew each other while she's stuck in the clueless middle.

Director Todoroki finally breaks the silence after an eternity. "Uraraka."

Unconsciously, Ochako braces herself. It's easy to imagine that he's more than curious about what happened back there. She isn't sure if she's ready to open up all those old scars and to relieve all that trauma, to be honest. This is going to be a long, uncomfortable conversation.

When he speaks again, his voice is strained. His hands pale as they clasp tightly at his back. "Did I hurt you?"

She blinks in surprise. "Sir?"

"In the lobby," he says softly, form unmoving. "I was violent with you. It was out of line. I'm sorry."

She looks down on her wrist, carefully rubbing the spot where his cold hand tightened. The blanching of her skin where his fingers had wrapped around her is gone. "I wasn't hurt, so no need to worry."

I was scared, though, she wanted to say, but stops herself.

"Nevertheless, it was wrong of me. If you file a complaint with HR, or if someone who witnessed it does, I won't deny anything. I will face whatever penalty they see fit," he tells her evenly. "You shouldn't deny anything too, if asked."

"Sir-"

"... I shouldn't hurt you, ever." The quiet way he says it makes her wonder if he says it more to himself than to anyone else. "Not for any reason. I don't want you to go through what I…"

His voice catches on something; he trails off on a seemingly small thought that she doesn't catch anymore. He sighs, quietly.

She's still shaken, but she gathers her courage and walks around him, so that they're three steps apart, face-to-face. After a deep breath, she tells him clearly: "I won't lie to them if they ask me. But I don't know why you acted the way you did. I'd like to know why."

She… honestly isn't sure if she's ready to hear his reasons. She should be surprised that there are things about the Director that she didn't know after nine years of being with him. Then again, the past is a tricky thing for anyone; there isn't really a need to dig up the skeletons of someone's past up until the point they tumble out of the closet and get in someone's way.

Todoroki's eyes flash. He doesn't look like he's ready to say anything, either.

"He wasn't lying when he called me baby brother," he says, after a thick silence.

Through the sudden numbness of her mouth, Ochako keeps herself quiet. With a nod, she urges him to continue.

"Touya. He's the oldest of the four of us," he admits with his eyes downcast, as if he's confessing to a crime. "He's supposed to be where I am today. But he refused, so he was cut off from the family and sent to the US instead. Enji made sure that all traces of him were erased from public record here."

So that was why she never knew who he was before now. "And you don't get along."

Todoroki shakes his head. "He hates that I am where I am right now. And he has good reasons for doing so, to be honest. But since he came back to Japan, he's been more… insistent on telling me why he hates me."

He looks pained when he stops speaking; it's clear to Ochako, then, how the injuries from the night before happened. "I'm sorry," is all she can say to that.

He shakes his head. "I was… surprised to see him interacting with you. It's why I lost all reasoning in the lobby. Nevertheless, it's no excuse to have acted the way I did."

It's a little overwhelming to hear him apologize again. But was that the only reason why he was so angry with his brother?

"Director… I have something to say as well." Maybe now is a good a time as any to open this up anyway, although the way the Director looks at her with more than worry alarms her so. "I… I think I've met Dabi… Todoroki Touya years ago. Twenty-four years ago, to be exact."

She pauses, looks for any flash of recognition, of surprise, of… anything in the Director's eyes, but he doesn't move. She goes on.

"I told you that I used to live in the neighborhood near the amusement park. Well, there was a fire there before, and I was... I mean, I don't remember much about it. I forgot how it happened, but I was there when it broke out… we were there when it broke out."

"You… and my brother," he says.

She nods. "I think he saved me."

Strange how... unconvinced she sounds, even to her own ears. Maybe because all of it is new, and not everything has sunk in yet. Dabi doesn't remember anything either. He didn't even remember who she was.

Todoroki processes all of this with a careful, neutral expression. His voice sounds too cautious when he says, "Have you remembered everything?"

She shakes her head.

"Do you plan on remembering everything?"

"... yes, eventually."

Surprisingly, he says nothing to stop her. Doesn't deny anything, doesn't put to question her memories. Doesn't do anything but to look at her with a grim sort of acceptance.

"Director… how about you?"

The question is out before she can stop herself. Now why would she ask this? She flinches from the flat way he asks, "What about me?"

She is being silly for this, but she can't help her eyes from running over the scar on his face. "I… I don't know why, but I thought the one who saved me... could have been you."

She saw all the evidence with her own eyes: all the burns on Dabi's arms, the weathered lines on his face, all that trauma, all that hatred for Endeavor. Everything makes sense if Dabi was the person with Ochako that day. But all those perfectly rational explanations don't stop the stubborn nagging feeling in Ochako's stomach that insists that there's something wrong with that theory.

And if was him-if it was Todoroki Shouto who took her out of that fire ages ago-then maybe there would be more meaning to them being where they are at this moment: in each other's presence, hopelessly gravitating towards each other despite all the chaos.

But Todoroki shakes his head and answers, "It wasn't me."

Ochako's mouth suddenly feels dry.

"... I'm sorry." His mouth opens hesitantly, choking on some explanations he can't give out just then, before he manages to say: "I wasn't there."

I'm not the one you're looking for.

"I… I see." She clears her throat awkwardly. "I'm sorry too. For assuming the wrong things."

Even so, the Director looks at her with a heavy emotion that's hard to identify. "It's all right," he says. His hand raises, almost experimentally, hanging in the air before he places it gingerly over her shoulder, as a gesture of comfort. "It must have been hard, Uraraka."

The grip on her shoulder tightens ever so gently. There's something unsaid there- I wish I was there for you- just the softest whisper of it that Ochako probably imagines in her head, as she bites down on her suddenly trembling lower lip. Strangely, it feels like everything she needs at that moment.

It makes her sure of what she knows now: that there's no need to put any other meaning to the fact that they're standing there together, face to face. Even though the boy who saved her all those years ago wasn't the Director, he's still the one she's in-love with.

"It's okay. It's all in the past," she says, keeping a mild tone that betrays the violent turmoil of emotions surging in her heart. She breathes deeply, erases all the tremulousness cluttering up her mind, and looks up at him with clear eyes. "We have other things we need to do, right? We don't need to talk about all that."

He agrees, obviously relieved. They can talk about the past another day. For now, it's back to business.

"All things considered, I can see why you thought the League of Villains would garner attention for our event," he says, with an obvious grimace of reluctance. "I'm not agreeable to this for obvious reasons, but if the Chairman's office has no problems, we will proceed with your proposal."

Ochako blinks. "Sir, are you sure? We can always get the Big Three on board instead."

Todoroki shakes his head. "Knowing you, you based this decision on hard data. You must have known that the likelihood of success is highest if we get them on board. I also know about their recent collaboration in Yaoyorozu's last movie, so perhaps we can also impress the Yaoyorozu Group with this."

She looks at him skeptically. "But I don't want either of you to be uncomfortable."

"I can set aside our differences for one night. I can promise you as much, Uraraka."

She isn't entirely sure about that yet. But he doesn't look like he's about to change his mind for any reason now. Maybe she can believe him that they can force some peace despite the trauma for just one night.

"All right." She bows to him in a show of gratefulness. "Thank you for agreeing to my impulsive idea, Director Todoroki. I'll make sure we succeed."

He's able to hide the exhaustion when he nods and says, "I know you will."

To everyone's surprise, the Office of the Chairman approves of having the League of Villains perform on the Flameon Art Center's opening day.

The marketing team did well to promote the event on short notice, but all it takes is for Shigaraki Tomura to tweet "we'll be at flameon next monday to destroy shit" for much of Japan to lose their collective minds. The main problem that the company faced now was that the general public was too interested in attending the event. It's clear that they need to increase the security for everyone's sake.

"We can manage as much," Shinsou tells the rest of the team in an emergency meeting called by Todoroki the next day. "We need some extra people to watch over the orchestra, too."

Right. No one knows how they managed it and why they did it in the first place, but The League's suddenly invited the Musutafu Academy's orchestra for a collaboration. That's another reason why people are going bananas-no-one imagined that these guys, who rooted for trash years ago (at least according to public imagination) would suddenly want kids from a local school to perform the soundtrack to The Goddess of Creation for the public, for free.

It's unprecedented, but it's all people can talk about. The LoV certainly knows how to garner public interest.

"Do you need help with any of those, Shinsou-kun? I know logistics isn't on us, but if you do I am willing to help." Monoma asks, tone cloying and controlled despite the accompanying thud of his foot over Mina's, who wasn't subtle at all in teasing him all throughout the meeting.

"Nah, we're good. But thanks." Amazingly, Shinsou's oblivious to everything. Or maybe he's just good at pretending that he is. "Apart from our other responsibilities, I've got a special interest in making sure the orchestra's safe."

"A special interest?" Iida asks.

"Mhm. Eri's there, see."

The members of the office look at each other oddly before looking at the still-oblivious Shinsou in unison.

"The kid I'm taking care of," Shinsou clarifies boredly.

There's a number of awful sounds around the office-Monoma the most audacious of them with the cough of a dying man, followed by gasps and cut-off chokes from the rest of them. Ochako can't help her jaw from dropping, and even Todoroki's eyes widen at the news.

"Shinsou-kun, are you a single parent?!" Mina sputters with a slam of manicured hands on the desk, not even trying to be courteous. "How-how did I not hear about this?!"

"Uh… I dunno, but-"

There's a soft cough from the doorway; everyone turns and meets curious big red eyes, a round face, long white hair in elegant braids. Ochako's heart softens at the sight; for a moment, she wonders if she's looking at a fairy. There are soft aaws from Mina, Camie, and Kirishima-kun as she carefully steps in.

"... a small person," Todoroki points out.

"Sir, they're called children," Ochako quips, glad she isn't the only one who gives him an odd look for that remark. "Hi, are you lost? How did you get here?"

"Eri-chan," Shinsou calls in mild panic, answering all their questions. "Sorry about this, Director-hey, I told you to wait at my office, right? How'd you get here?"

The girl-Eri-chan , apparently-softly pads inside the conference room without an ounce of fear. From the size of her she might be in grade school, probably second or third grade. She's dressed in a private school uniform and carrying a bright purple backpack in the shape of a cat that's almost as big as her, and a violin case.

Eri-chan shakes her head. "Sorry, 'Toshi. It's cold in your office, and I can't reach the AC. Can I..."

Her voice is tiny, face round and eyes big as she looks at the rest of the office and she's just-she's so cute , and the way she hugs Shinsou-kun- oh my god, why does he suddenly look a hundred times more attractive? Ochako can barely contain it; she could have sworn that the rest of the table, including Iida-kun, swooned at the sight.

The moment breaks when Eri points at the eerily calm Director Todoroki, with her little mouth open in curiosity. "Oh! It's the Demon Director!"

While the deathly chill of doom descends upon the other executives in the room, Shinsou coughs like he's on the brink of an asthma attack. "Eri, wh-Director, sorry, I don't know where she got that from-"

Eri looks up at him innocently with a shake of her head. "That's what the people outside said! They said that Toshi- nii is meeting the half-and-half Demon Director… isn't that your name?"

Oh, so she's a little sister. That definitely makes more sense, but it doesn't seem like anyone in the office really cared at this point that Shinsou isn't a single father like they thought, because everyone's quaking in fear. Ochako has half a mind to get all the names of the "people outside" and to make sure they remain outside for the rest of their work lives.

To everyone's surprise, Todoroki doesn't seem the least bit irritated when he answers, "My name is Todoroki Shouto. I'm not a demon, but I am a director."

"Like in the movies?"

"No. Like in a corporation," he says, before the paling Shinsou can interrupt their conversation. "I manage and direct all of the business ventures of this company. The way the offices are structured is as follows: other offices send their proposals, financial reports, projected earnings, and after the necessary assessments-"

"-he's the boss, in other words!" Ochako interrupts, glancing at the Director meaningfully to stop talking complicated business jargon to a third grader, for cryin' out loud! "And Shinsou-kun's from a different office, but he might work with us soon! Isn't that neat?"

There are shocked looks from the others in the office- oops, no-one was supposed to know about Shinsou's transfer yet, but Eri in particular brightens up at this. "That's awesome! Toshi-nii's gonna work for the Demon Director!"

"I'm not a demon-"

"Nii-chan, you didn't tell me you were working for a demon king! " Eri says, tugging excitedly on Shinsou's coat, unwitting of the corpse-like pallor over her older brother's face. "Like in Demon Player! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Now now little girl! Stop telling lies! The Director is certainly no demon!" Iida declares with a stern chop of his hand. "Demons are evil creatures who feed on the blood and energies of human beings! Moreover, they are mere myths! Fiction! The Director is certainly neither of those! Demons are malevolent beings who-"

Eri protests loudly. "No! Demons are cool! They're strong and they beat bad guys up… Demon kings are extra cool because they have lots of demon minions who do other cool stuff too!"

Ochako didn't need to strain to hear everyone's oddly depressed thoughts: So we're just demon minions to this kid, huh…

"I see. That sounds acceptable to me," Todoroki says.

He's enjoying this a little too much, isn't he?

Shinsou tries not to look too much like his soul left his body when he weakly says, "Eri, come on, we'll talk about anime later. Let's get back to my office, huh?"

"You're no fun," Eri says with a puff of her cheeks. "See you, Mr. Demon Director! You're super cool!"

"'Kay." It's definitely off-putting to see him wave back to the little girl with unwavering professionalism. "See you."

Shinsou can only bow once more in apology before throwing his little sister over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and zooming out of there in the speed of light. The meeting is over after that, with the other members of the staff hurriedly taking their papers and laptops out to escape the Director. Only Ochako is left waiting to accompany him back to their office.

"That went well," Todoroki says. He had a lot of doubts getting the League on board, but now that things are rolling it's apparent that things are working in their favor. Ochako sighs in relief.

Just when Ochako's about to babble something about the LoV, Todoroki suddenly talks again out of nowhere. "... I've always hated being called Demon Director. I ignored those remarks because it's a waste of time, but I wondered if anyone valued the work I do. And I wondered if I was really that cruel."

He looks into his hands then. Ochako remembers, with painful clarity, how he had gripped her arm just yesterday ago. People had called him Demon Director then, too.

"... but I know you don't think of me that way." Todoroki looks at the empty table with a wistful look. "It's the same for the rest of them. To me, that's all that matters. But it's strange. Being told that Demon Director was cool somehow made me feel… reassured. Is that strange?"

Ochako laughs. "I don't know, but that's good, isn't it? Being a demon doesn't have to be a bad thing, after all. As for me, I've always been proud to be the Demon Director's secretary."

" Angel secretary," he corrects, after a thoughtful pause. "That's what they call you. It's an interesting way to describe us."

Ochako blinks. "Is it bad?"

"No, not at all," he says. "I've always thought it was right for you."

They make the rest of the way up, with Ochako trying her hardest not to blush at the Director's blunt words. He keeps doing this, just saying things that make her heart want to fly out of her chest. She's sure that he's doing it on purpose, although the dull look on his face says otherwise.

"Uraraka," he says, right before they separate at the door of his office. "Tonight, do we-"

"Tonight sir?..." She checks her phone quickly to double-check their schedules. "Nothing is happening tonight. Is there-"

"-no. I mean… yes." He stares at her, mouth twitching with an apparent internal struggle. "I'm assuming that there is nothing happening for you tonight, as well."

She had planned to clean the bathroom after a month of putting it off, but she isn't going to tell that to the Director. She shakes her head.

"Good." Another beat of awkward silence. "So you are… allowed… to see me later."

"Allowed…?" Is he setting up another meeting for work? They didn't have any urgent tasks to finish, but something else must have come up. "If you need me there, I'll go, Director. So-

"No. Only if you want to. I mean-" His brows furrow in the way that they do when things aren't going the way he wants. "There will be dinner and drinks for two later at the Alderaan Grand. I made the reservations, which is why I know."

"... okay?"

"I will be there," Todoroki says. "You can join me, if you like."

Ochako blinks slowly one more time before her brain catches up to what he's saying. Dinner and drinks for two, a restaurant downtown, see me later only if you want to. It's ridiculously roundabout considering it's Director Todoroki she's talking to, but-

A date, you dum-dum. He's asking you out on a DATE!

(Properly, this time!)

When it finally hits her, Ochako chokes, floats, screeches in excitement, and hits herself in the head and in the gut a hundred times in her imagination before she catches herself enough to say, cool as a cucumber, "Oh. Of course. I'd love to join you, Director Todoroki."

There's a moment where the Director stares at her blankly, before his mouth gives way to the tiniest of smiles that makes it hard for her to keep her cool.

"Seven PM then," he says, tone too formal for the steadily brightening smile that's really giving her heart a hell of a time now. "See you, Uraraka."

She bows, quietly walking out of his office and shutting the door as quietly as she can. When she's sure she's all alone in the reception area, she gives in to the strangest urge to scream quietly while doing a happy little dance that's the stuff of blackmail material if anyone were to see.

Luckily, she doesn't notice the Director looking over his shoulder and smiling at the scene fondly before going back to his work.

Katsuki knew he shouldn't underestimate Yaoyorozu Momo for any reason, but damn this woman is tough.

He knew he was off to a rough start by the way her face darkened at the very mention of that half-and-half bastard's name. "Oh. I had assumed we were going to talk about something that actually mattered, Bakugou-san."

One hand taps ashes off her cigarette. Elegantly, purposefully. Katsuki isn't a subtle person, so he can't imagine how she makes the very concept of displeasure clear with this one motion.

He shrugs. "What'd you expect? You think I came to talk to Yaoyorozu Momo about the weather?"

"Certainly not." There's a quirk at the corner of her lip-a not-quite sneer, with just enough discontent to remain polite. "I just thought you were a more… astute journalist, that's all. Who would have thought that Ground Zero, who did those brilliant exposes on organized crime, suddenly wants to write an expose on my love life?"

It's clear that she has a talent for this-expressing many things with the subtlest of movements. Impressive, really, but obviously designed to tick Katsuki off, to make it apparent that he's going to get exactly nowhere with his line of questioning.

"Let's keep this simple, Ponytail. I really don't give a shit if you tell everyone that I'm a tabloid writer." He takes out his recorder and slams it on the table so hard the ashtray almost rattles itself off the uneven plane of the shitty cafe table. "But I'm the one who's gonna ask all the questions. All you need to do is tell me the truth. Comprende?"

She frowns. "Alright. We'll do this your way."

Katsuki proceeds to ask her questions about Todoroki Shouto-the basic-ass shit like how they met, when they got together, how they got together, when the break-up happened and why. Yaoyorozu answers them all under ten words or less each time, each response more lackluster than the last.

She finishes exactly two cigarettes during the entire bout. "Yes, we broke up on good terms. Are we done?"

Katsuki doesn't really give a shit about their dating life-in fact, it makes him sick to the stomach from how much he doesn't give a shit-but this line of inane questioning has a different purpose.

So, no, they're not done.

"Huh. Sounds like a lotta bullshit to me."

She raises one delicate eyebrow, takes his zippo without even asking for his permission to light up her third stick. "I see. Can't imagine why; I've answered all your questions properly."

He leans his forearms over the desk, peering at her until she flinches from the intensity of his gaze. "You're a fuckin' liar Ponytail and you know it," he drawls, reveling in how offended she looks. "I'm impressed. Makes me wonder if you're that good an actress, or if all the other bozos who interviewed you so far are just really shitty at their jobs."

This time, she doesn't hide the distaste on her face. "What gain could I possibly have from doing that? He's thriving where he is, and as for me…"

He'll give it to her-she does the dramatic, pained pause and everything to sell this bullshit. He'd roll his eyes, but he really needs to get past this sorry lie as soon as he can.

"Well, I'd like to say I'm managing quite well without him," Yaoyorozu says with a more practiced smile. "Whether or not we split on bad terms, it really has no bearing on how things happened."

"I wasn't talking about just your break-up. I'm saying, your entire relationship is BS. "

"... excuse me?"

He exhales in her space purposefully, making sure he's an unbearable as he can be. "Yaoyorozu Momo, the only direct descendant of Yaoyorozu Yoshinori, and Todoroki Shouto, the heir of Endeavor Inc. A fuckin' match made in capitalist hell, am I right? And you're telling me a match like that goes kaput without anyone doing anything about it?"

She narrows her eyes at him. "It happens, Bakugou-san. Just because we're similar in background doesn't mean that we're compatible."

Katsuki leers at her purposefully. It's very very subtle, but there's a wobble at the end of her sentence that tells him that he's getting somewhere.

"So if it were up to you, how long should that stupid pretend relationship with Todoroki Shouto have lasted?"

Her eyes flash dangerously, and Katsuki doesn't miss the involuntary twitch of the corner of her mouth. "You-" she inhales, schools her features into neutrality. "-are desperate, aren't you, Bakugou-san? Resorting to blatant lies just to rile me up? I thought you were better than this."

"Believe me, Ponytail, it's gonna get better," he says, smirking like it's a promise. "Better for me since this is gonna help me get to the bottom of things, and better for you since you can finally drop the act that you actually liked the guy. Won't that be nice?"

"I don't see the point of this," she says, eyes darkening. "I do not dislike Shouto. He is a dear friend of mine."

The woman's fuming-she finally lets go of that regal posture she has about her and stares at him with unbridled contempt. Katsuki thinks this is a better overall look on her, to be honest.

"For a girl who famously rebelled against her father to go to fuckin' Juilliard, I thought you'd have more balls to call your ex a dick, at least," he says boredly. "I mean… the fucker broke up with you using his secretary, right? I don't think even the nicest person on the face of the earth would be so kind."

Yaoyorozu sputters, losing more of that damned composure of hers. "How did-who told you- "

Katsuki smirks, cutting her off with the wave of a hand holding a burning cigarette. He isn't going to tell her that it was her beloved manager who slipped up. He'll give it to Jirou and Kaminari, those two can make anyone blabber on and on about important stuff without them noticing.

"Don't worry, no-one else knows. No-one else also knows about the part where you didn't put up a fight. It was almost like… you wanted the bastard to break-up with you. Because it's a sham. Because you did all that to make a fool outta the public."

She stares at him levelly, the effort to keep her face still obvious. Still, Katsuki doesn't miss the way her fingers shake as she puts the lipgloss-stained filter of her cigarette back in her mouth.

"... you're wrong," is all she says. A long trail of smoke flows out of a delicate mouth, and she stares at it pensively. "I didn't want the break-up. It has nothing to do with the public, but..."

He raises his eyebrows knowingly. Yaoyorozu glares at him.

"... our relationship kept Father and Uncle Enji quiet. We were allowed to do the things we wanted to do. Well," she cuts herself off with a frown. "At least, allowed me to do the things I wanted. But Shouto didn't need to know that."

Katsuki smirks. "You used the bastard. And he didn't even know it. Fuck, that's sneaky, Yaoyorozu."

"I don't appreciate your wording. But I don't deny it." Yaoyorozu cocks her head at him, a new curious glint in her eyes. "He had… important reasons to break up with me, and I did not force him to stay. I feel no guilt, nor resentment over what had happened. Although, I supposed Shouto had the same verbal lashing from Uncle Enji as I had from Father."

This is different from what Katsuki had expected, but they're finally going in the direction that he wanted the interview to go. "So he asked you out 'cause Todoroki Enji said so?"

There's a sudden thoughtfulness in her gaze. "You misunderstand. I was the one who asked him out. In front of a number of important people in the business. A setting where he couldn't say no, in other words."

Katsuki whistles lowly. "Damn. You're one manipulative motherfucker."

"I prefer the term… clever. " She stares at him with more discerning eyes now. "But you're not the least bit interested in that, are you? You wanted to find out if I resented him or not, so that I'd give you all the dirty details you're looking for. You're the manipulative one between us, Bakugou-san."

Katsuki smirks at her. "So you figured it out. Not surprised. You're not stupid at all, Ponytail."

"No… not at all," she agrees haughtily. "Needless to say, I refuse to say anything that will implicate him in whatever wrongdoing you think he might have done. Our conversation is over."

"You got all this wrong, Ponytail," he says, voice suddenly quiet that even he is taken aback. "Ain't doing this to aggravate either of you. I'm doing this to get to the bottom of things. A lot of people are… traumatized, y'see, including your shitty excuse of an ex. I'd like to find out why."

Yaoyorozu, who was in the middle of gathering all her things to leave him, stops dead in her tracks.

"Trauma," she repeats, voice harrowed.

He nods.

She stares down, shoulders sagging slowly from a weight that wasn't there before. "I see. Is this… to help Shouto?"

Truth be told, he doesn't know. Katsuki definitely isn't doing this to directly help that half-and-half bastard, but helping people out is why he searches for the truth so aggressively in the first place. Still, you can have the purest intentions when you dig up the dirt on someone's past, but eventually people are going to get hurt. He just hopes it isn't going to be Uraraka. Or that half-and-half bastard, because she's gonna feel that too.

(Much to his chagrin.)

He shakes all those annoying thoughts out of his head to look at the actress before him. "Yaoyorozu Momo. Do you know about a fire that happened twenty-four years ago?"

The conversation he has with Yaoyorozu ended up much longer. It was so long that they had to move out of the cafe and into Yaoyorozu's apartment at a nondescript neighborhood-a fancy thing with high ceilings and French interiors jarringly incompatible with the fancy porcelain ashtray they fill with three packs of smokes between them as the night wears on.

(Shit, he might actually get lung cancer after this story is over.)

It turns out that Yaoyorozu doesn't know anything about the fire, but her face had blanched at the mention of twenty-four years that Katsuki was able to dig out a significant amount of information from it. Surprisingly, Yaoyorozu is more involved in this shit than he could ever imagine. It makes him proud of his instincts, but also makes him hate the fucking dickwads controlling this country's wealth more than ever.

"Twenty-four years ago, Father wanted me to meet one of the Todoroki children. The heir of Endeavor, to be exact. It didn't happen-instead, on the day of the meeting, Father came home with all his staff, looking very angry."

There's a far-away look in her eyes as she says this, her hand gripping her other arm almost protectively as she blows another puff of smoke. "I wondered if it was because I didn't want to meet the boy… I was sort of afraid of him, you see. He didn't seem very friendly, and he always frowned when he saw me."

"And you didn't wanna be sold to the fuckin' Todorokis," Katsuki says.

"And I didn't want to be sold. Yes," Yaoyorozu concurs, sadly.

She goes on to tell him that Yaoyorozu Yoshinori declared very loudly in his household that their relations with the Todorokis are over, and that she was going to meet the Shishida heir instead. She wasn't too keen on this idea either, but as long as she went along with what that bastard wanted her to do, she got to do whatever she liked in between.

But one day, Yaoyorozu Yoshinori rushed out of his rare teatime with Momo in favor of an impromptu business trip somewhere. She didn't know what the fuck happened, but he comes back, calm and collected, and tells Momo that she's meeting the youngest Todoroki instead.

"Wait," Katsuki interrupts with a sharp gaze. " Instead? Ain't that half-and-half bastard the heir to the throne?"

Yaoyorozu nods serenely. "Not until that point. It's usually the oldest male child who inherits big businesses like this, Bakugou-san. Unfortunately, we're in that sort of society."

He ponders on this briefly. "So you were going to be set-up originally with Natsuo."

She looks at him oddly. "No. Why would it be Natsuo-san?"

Katsuki blinks. "Why not? Unless your old man wanted to set you up with Fuyumi-"

"Of course not. Neither of them were considered as the heir," Yaoyorozu says, the odd look not going away. "Touya-san was the heir until twenty-four years ago."

Katsuki actually, physically chokes on this.

Touya-there's another fucking Todoroki? What-how did he miss this-how did anyone miss this?

Yaoyorozu considers the look of confusion on his face. "Oh. Of course you wouldn't know. Touya-san was… disowned, to put it lightly."

Lightly?! "How the fuck did that happen? What happened to the guy? Did they kill him?"

She shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I… don't know. Father never mentioned him again, and Mother forbade me from asking other questions. Either way, it was easy for the rest of the world to forget about Touya-san. Both Father and Uncle Enji have the means to wipe anyone's names off of the public consciousness."

Katsuki can't help the look of disgust on his face. Yaoyorozu doesn't tell him off for it, and continues.

She was told to play nice with Shouto and to say nothing about the scar on his face and about his recent hospital stay. Her mother told her it was all an accident at home because Shouto was careless while playing with a cat. It gave everyone a good reason to watch over them with the precision of an electron microscope, in her words, and all the sense of suffocation that comes with it.

What follows is a careful, controlled friendship during their childhood and teen years, and then university. They got along well and she 'valued' him, though in a different way that their parents imagined. When there were already talks of betrothal and marriage, she decided to go to the US before anyone could stop her, thus stopping that BS right in its tracks.

Katsuki grumbles. "And you never knew how he got that scar."

"I can only assume certain things. You say that the fire in that neighborhood twenty four years ago probably involved Shouto. And I say twenty-four years ago, Todoroki Touya got disowned, and I meet Shouto for the first time with a new burn scar over his face."

She raises her finger and draws a line in between two distant dots hanging in the air. Katsuki frowns.

"It's utterly unscientific, I know," she admits quietly. "But that's the best I have now, Bakugou-san."

Right. She never saw Touya again, wouldn't recognize him even if she did. And she never met the other important person in the case, if not the most important one-Todoroki Rei.

But that says a lot about the Todoroki situation. It's clear that these two families were close enough to plan an arranged marriage for decades. But the only Yaoyorozu child has never even met the Todoroki matriarch. What kinda shit happened that forced Enji to keep his wife a secret from the world?

"I remember asking Shouto about her a few times," Yaoyorozu says quietly. "But he never answered me. I'm sure something terrible must have happened, but it's hard to draw conclusions with that sort of silence."

And so after that their conversation was truly over. Yaoyorozu calls it a night and escorts Katsuki out of the premises. She stares at him quietly at the doorway before asking, "You'll find out what really happened, won't you?"

Katsuki has nothing else to say to that but, "Of fucking course. Who the fuck do you think I am?"

She winces hearing all the foul words, but only responds with a regal good night. The door closes, and Katsuki is left alone with his nicotine-addled thoughts on the long, quiet walk home. The most prominent of them being:

Fuck.

This situation is more fucked up than he thought. Investigating this case is a direct challenge not only to Todoroki Enji, but to the head of the Yaoyorozu Group as well. Jirou's instincts about how this might fuck up his career might be more accurate than he thought.

His career is one thing though. The thing that already happened to Todoroki Touya, another. He isn't sure yet, but it's possible that Touya was pushed out of existence because of the incident. Todoroki Rei seems to be dealt with too. Katsuki doesn't know what 'dealing' means in this case, but he isn't about to risk the other person involved in this shit show, not if he can help it.

He can't help himself when he digs out his phone and dials a number he swore he wouldn't call until the time was right. He isn't thinking straight, but he knows it's all the adrenaline and the cigarette smoke burning his lungs with fervor.

" Hello? Bakugou-kun?"

And yeah, fuck it, he probably misses her, all right? So sue him.

"Yo, Roundface," Katsuki says, hating how tremulous his voice sounds. "Where the fuck are you?"

Ochako rushes out of the office, hops in and out of the train, and bulldozes her way into her apartment and into her closet in record time, all while engaging herself in a fierce metaphysical debate about the state of her being and the fact that she's going out with Todoroki Shouto that evening.

Maybe it's not a date, she had told herself about half a hundred times during the jarring sprint home, but… no, it might not be a date. It definitely isn't a date. The Director wouldn't be so charming. It's not a date-

She repeats the odd mantra even as she digs through her modest wardrobe. It's not a date, but, the Director has seen him in this outfit ten times for the past two months… and this one is too plain. Too pink. Too blue. Too flowery. Too… short, he's seen her in shorts on their first date, didn't he? Not that this is a date too, because it's not a date, but-

Ochako's beginning to panic. Why was her so closet so sad and lame?! Reiko-chan had a point giving her all those lectures about her fashion sense, after all!

In desperation she digs even deeper through the unfolded mess of clothes, wishing that she had more time to shop for clothes. Repeating her clothes over and over might have been good for saving money, but it's not for making good impressions on dates, even though this isn't a date.

Oh, but repeating clothes-that reminds her of something.

There's a little corner in her closet where the most expensive cloth-the Aoyama Yuuga dress that the Director gave her a few holidays ago-is zipped up in a protector, having never been worn before. It's a pretty thing-a short dress in pink, that shows off her arms and silhouettes her figure nicely, a fact she only finds out now that she's trying it out for the first time.

It fits her properly, to her surprise. With a few modest jewelry, including the necklace he gave her, she actually looks more than decent.

Yes. It's not a date, but… this will do.

She gets to work preening herself. She's in the process of making sure she doesn't smell like the sukonbu she had for a snack that afternoon when her phone rings.

Ochako takes note of two alarming things that moment-one, she has thirty minutes to go before she has to meet the Director, and two, Bakugou Katsuki is calling her.

She stares at her phone for a beat, wondering about the sudden numb feeling overwhelming her out of nowhere. "Hello, Bakugou-kun?"

"Yo, Roundface." The familiar rasp of his voice tickles her ear-it's much raspier tonight to the point of breathlessness, making her eyes widen in worry. "Where the fuck are you?"

"I'm just about to go out," she answers, deciding then that she really should be leaving now. "Are you okay? You sound-"

"I'm good. Real fuckin' good. Hey, listen-I need to see you ASAP. Can I?"

"Oh-tonight?" Should she tell Bakugou-kun about tonight? She can, technically, but knowing the temper of the two men involved, she thought that they'd rather not. "I have an important meeting to get to at seven. I'm not sure if I can see you… Maybe tomorrow?"

Bakugou makes a grumbling noise at the other end. "You sure, Roundface? It's about the thing we're looking into."

Ochako stops in her steps. "You mean…?"

"Yeah. Yeah. " There's the sound of people around him and the mechanical sound of the train. "I don't wanna tell you over the phone, but I think you gotta hear this, considering where you are right now. It'll be a few minutes, tops. What do you say?"

He must mean that it's related to Endeavor. There must be something urgent that he's expecting to happen. "Oh… if it's that important," Ochako relents, biting her lower lip. "I'm going to the Alderaan Grand now. We can talk outside for a few minutes."

"That's great. " There's an unmistakable grin to his voice then. "See you, Roundface."

And so, Ochako rushes to the Alderaan Grand in triple time. It's ten minutes to seven when she does a light sprint in her wedges in front of the fountain at the entrance, where Bakugou is already waiting.

He has his back turned to her when she approaches him. When he faces her, she sees windswept hair, with a thin sheen of sweat over his brow that tells her he also rushed there in a hurry. He smells more of a chimney than the last time they met. Ochako has a very bad feeling about this.

"Hey, Cheeks. Wow, you're extra pretty tonight, what the fuck," he says, apparently unminding of his own disheveled state.

Ochako tightens her mouth in response. "What happened, Bakugou-kun?"

"Nothing, nothing… Listen, I-" He looks all levels of stressed, none of the easy confidence that he usually has. She's nothing but worried as she watches him fumble over his own words for once.

Finally, he's able to form words. "... I dunno how else to say this, Uraraka. You gotta get out of Endeavor, right now."

Ochako's eyes widen in shock. "Wh-right now? But, I have two weeks to go-"

"No, you don't get it." Bakugou runs his hand through spiky hair, almost anxiously. "I found out some more things. I don't have everything yet, but it's big, okay? And if you stay there next to Todoroki Shouto, I'm not sure how safe you'll be."

She bites her lower lip tensely. "How can you say that? You don't have everything yet, right?"

"I don't, but I have enough." Bakugou leans in closer to her, looking left and right before starting to grit out words that make her heart race for the wrong reasons. "There're too many important people involved, not just Enji. The Yaoyorozu head's in this too. If you know about what could have happened to someone called Todoroki Touya-"

She cuts off a choke in her throat.

"-let's just say… I don't want anyone finding out about you, Cheeks," Bakugou mutters as his red eyes look into hers intensely. A hand is on her shoulder, grasp desperate as he speaks with uncharacteristic gentleness. "If those… giants find out that you were there to witness the fucking crimes that might have happened there, then-"

"-Uraraka?"

She whips her head to the direction of the uncharacteristically soft voice coming from the other side.

Todoroki Shouto stares at her, and then at Bakugou, an unreadable expression on his face.

" Fuck, " Bakugou curses under his breath. "You… and him-"

Ochako doesn't know what to expect, but with the tension palpably rising from either side of her, she can only predict a certain number of things happening. Most of them involve Todoroki and Bakugou beating each other's lights out, and none of them involve her stepping away from all of this in peace.

"... I'm sorry," Todoroki says.

… she definitely isn't expecting this.

"I didn't know I was intruding." His gaze is suddenly stone-cold that it hurts. "But it's all right. I understand."

"Director-"

"The reservations have been cancelled. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

What does he understand? Why isn't he angry? Why does he sound hurt ? No, this is all wrong, please. What was she saying? His name? Some variant of you got it wrong, you don't understand, it's not what you think, Bakugou-kun just got here-please don't go-

Please don't go-

It's over in an instant. There isn't a single ounce of hesitation in him when he turns around and leaves them, not once looking back no matter how many times Ochako stumbles over her words.

Long after the doors close behind him, the air remains cold and stifling-a striking contrast to the searing heat of the tears that flow out of her eyes, beyond her control.

AN: I... don't know how to feel about this chapter. I tried to be fair in the narration but! needless to say, the discussion in the bad effects of their trauma definitely isn't over.
ahhh, sorry that this chapter is so heavy on dialogue and everything else. I hope you still enjoyed it. thank you very much for the kind words last chapter and I hope this one is also worth the wait;;; see you in the next one!