and you say, stay
Chapter 16: I Shouldn't Have Done That


"Gods! I'm so stressed!" Mina cries as she stumbles into their makeshift workstation. She's wearing flats instead of her usual platforms today, so she means it this time. "I can't believe we were at the beach just this morning! I miss it already!"

And so it was. They woke up before sunrise, hastily took showers, and tried their best to function even though 90% of them had a hangover from drinking until the early morning. It was a miracle that Iida was able to drive them as fast as he did, for once beating all the red lights instead of being the slow, law-abiding motorist that he was. With just the medicinal juice packs that Tooru had chilling in Chief Midoriya's fridge, they all went straight to the art center to prepare for the two-day event.

"I feel it too, gurl," Camie agrees, even though she looks as chill as ever. "Too bad for these gorge tans that we can't even brag about, for real."

There's no time to brag, much less see the rest of the team. Mina just dropped by to chug on the vitamin waters in the station, probably because Kirishima nagged everyone on the groupchat to hydrate.

Ochako gives them a cheesy grin. "It's okay, we've got less than 72 hours to go! We'll be free before we know it!"

"Well aren't you bright and shiny," Mina grumbles. And then, her eyebrows wiggle. "Oh, but it's so obvious why you're in a good mood, Ochako-chan~ You've been on that phone since the early morning, haven't you?"

Ochako's eye twitches. "I was just using my phone a little bit this morning…"

"A little bit?! You were glued to that thing the entire ride, honey! If I was your mother, I'd have plucked that thing right off your hands and had your eyesight checked!"

Mina actually looked like a Tiger Mom right then, with her hand on her hip, her eyebrow raised and her monologue unstoppable. Ochako can only whine behind the stack of boxes she's carrying as Mina goes on, until-

"-so I guess things between you and that… mystery person are going well, huh?" Mina ends with a wiggle of her eyebrows. "Gosh, I wonder which person who gets up at the ass-crack of dawn has gotten Ochako-chan's attention… curious, curious~"

Uraraka Ochako (0430H): Good morning, Director!

Director Todoroki (0435H): Good morning, Secretary Uraraka

Director Todoroki (0436H): Or should I say, good meow-ning

Director Todoroki (0436H): [image attached: ]

It's not who you think, Ochako thinks desperately, as she tries in vain to laugh it off. "Oh gosh I wish we could talk more but we got aaaall these pizzas to deliver to the LoV right now!"

"Hmm? Trying to weasel your way outta this one, huh?" Mina says with a pout, facing Camie. "Speaking of which, Demon Secretary, how come you guys are doing pizza delivery to the LOV instead of following the Demon Director around like usual?"

Unminding of her brand-new nickname, Camie answers, "We gotta make sure the LoV's vibing. Meanwhile, Directoroki's gonna be chilling with Hawks the entire day. Chairman's orders, yo. Yaopapa galleries are top priority."

"Yikes," Mina says, a trace of sympathy in her voice. "Gosh, Yaopapa's something else, isn't he? I feel like throwing up when we met him last week! I hope we don't run into him too much in the next couple days, ugh!"

She leaves soon when Iida reprimands her in the groupchat for being 45 seconds late to their next task. With her out of the way, Camie and Ochako walk to the concert hall where the League of Villains are holed up for rehearsals.

Ochako isn't the biggest fan of the LoV-at least, not as big a fan as Reiko, who had cried when Ochako gave her backstage passes. But she knew enough about their impact-words, melody, stage and media presence that has everyone going insane over them. She didn't know what to expect coming in, though.

Upon pushing the door open with her shoulder, the music immediately thrums through her, shaking the very core of her bones.

In a word, it's hypnotizing, and it's hard to pinpoint why. They are a dissonant mess at first glance, but somehow there's an underlying structure to Compress' rapid fingers working the keyboard, Spinner's angry slapping of the bass, Twice's manic beating of the drums, and Toga's merciless shredding of the electric guitar. At the forefront is Shigaraki Tomura, vocals warbling, barely perceptible at the mic but somehow radiating power with each movement. For some reason Ochako (and everyone else in the theater, for that matter) can't look anywhere else but him.

The thread that Shigaraki uses to pull their attention snaps when he turns away and steps back for the instrumentals. Ochako releases a breath she doesn't know she's holding.

"What the fuck, he's amazing," Camie whispers beside her. Her eyes are wide with awe. "I thought my heart stopped back there."

"Me too," Ochako whispers back urgently. She decides with herself not to look up at the stage again. The pizzas weren't getting lighter, and she didn't want to lose herself while she's working.

Except the sound of a guitar has her looking up at the stage again. In an instant, it's as if all the air has been sucked out of the room for the second time today.

It's hard to make him out at first since his presence is so subdued, but she finds him.

Ochako wouldn't be surprised if it was from his insistence that his side of the stage was dimmer, so that he with his dark hair and clothes are swallowed in the shadows. His stance isn't as flashy as Toga's, who's practically devouring all the attention on her side; his eyes are trained on his guitar and nowhere else.

Still, Ochako can't pull her eyes away from him-raven hair, snow white skin and the flare of blue eyes, glowing in the dark. The way his adorned fingers fly expertly over the fretboard, the silent confidence in his posture. She can't explain why-after all, Shigaraki is obviously the center of the band, mediating all the chaotic energy into something that strikes , but looking at him she instantly knows that this is a song that Dabi wrote.

"Ocha-babes? You with me?"

Ochako snaps back to reality and gapes at Camie, who's staring at her with a quirked eyebrow.

"You okay? Almost dropped the pizzas there."

"Oh-" Ochako says, just as the song ends and raucous applause comes from varied directions in the theater. "Yeah… uh, they're really good, huh?"

Camie hums affirmatively. "I didn't know you were a Dabi fucker too. You and Hawks should totally fangirl together about that."

"I'm not!" she says, probably too defensively. She does not like how Camie's smirk looks. "... let's just get everyone fed already."

Camie chuckles and follows her out.

Seeing the two secretaries with their food, most of the band comes up to meet them excitedly, except for Shigaraki who disappears with Kurogiri backstage. Spinner, with his fearsome facial tattoos, is the first to dive into a box of cheese pizza, while Twice and Toga immediately start complaining about how greedy he was.

"Don't fight, children!" Magne, the assistant manager for the band, screams. To Camie, she pleads, "Honey, help me sort this out, won't you? I'd die if these knuckleheads accidentally broke something in your lovely theater-"

"Yes, ma'am," Camie says with a salute. "Ocha-babes, is it okay if you update the bossman for now?"

"'Kay," Ochako mumbles passively, as she watches Magne try to corral her gang like a kindergarten teacher trying to stop a baby brawl. Camie helps by taking photos with Toga happily posing for her with finger-hearts while the boys fight behind them. What a tough job it was for Magne to keep them in line…

She takes out her phone to update the Director about their work. Let's see… LoV rehearsals going well… stage design and lights being arranged on schedule… Iida reports no problems...

Uraraka Ochako (1203H): In other words, everything's going as planned on our end, Director.

Uraraka Ochako (1203H): I hope things are okay there too.

Director Todoroki (1204H): They are, thank you.

Director Todoroki (1204H): At the very least, I have not found a reason to remove Hawks yet.

Uraraka Ochako (1205H): Gosh. Please don't kill him, Director.

Director Todoroki (1206H): I won't. At least, not until the next 72 hours are up.

She has to stop herself from replying immediately. She'd noticed recently that it's too easy to forget how quickly the time passes when she talks with the Director. She's only able to hold herself back to remain professional. We can talk more after work, she tells herself brightly.

"Hey there, Astronaut."

Ochako raises her eyes and immediately sees bright blue eyes peering at her. She almost drops her phone in surprise.

Now that he's off stage, Dabi's trademark medical mask is off. His high-collared jacket is unzipped at the top so that she has a clear view of his face. "Watch it. I don't want you to wreck your phone. Your shitty boss'll blame me if you do."

Ochako laughs awkwardly. "Oh… no, it's fine, don't worry."

Dabi raises his eyebrows, a cocky smirk on his lips like always. Strangely, Ochako doesn't find it as offensive as she had before. In fact he didn't seem to have his guard up at all today, a stark difference from the last time they met face to face.

"Er… I hope you don't call me out as a fake fan or anything since I only listened to you guys casually before this, but you guys are amazing. My ears are just-" Ochako finds herself stammering, cheeks warming up even though she doesn't want to. "And you. You play guitar really, really good-"

"Aw, how sweet of you, li'l fangirl," he sneers lightly. "I got that. I saw you staring from up there."

Her face flushes hot again. "Li'l fangirl?! You're so full of it! Did you forget who's in charge of buying you meals and other things for the next two days? You have to be nice to me!"

He laughs again, but it's not mean at all. She's temporarily in awe looking at him, because it's so strange to be around him without the usual heaviness surrounding him.

"Yeah. Pizza. Wow. True gourmet," Dabi comments with a twist of his mouth. "I was hoping you guys would save me from a hundred days of suffering from this shit."

Ochako snorts. "About that…"

She takes a separate bag and hands it over to him. "Here! We got you something else."

Dabi stares at her skeptically before taking out the food inside. "Huh. Chicken," he says in actual awe.

She nods. "I was told by Kurogiri-san that you wanted to eat something else! Of course we thought that far ahead."

Well-that was partly a lie. Takami gave her a heads up about how picky Dabi was, and advised her strongly to make sure he eats something. At the same time, he told her never to mention his name in front of the guy.

You know how I am around celebrities… very, very shy, Takami had told her, with an unconvincing grin.

Dabi actually looks a little lost for words. "Didn't think anyone cared that I was dying here. So. Thanks."

Ochako wanted to tell him that he was being silly-of course people are gonna care about him, he's part of one of the biggest bands in the world. And if anything, at least she was there to make sure that at least, he wasn't having a bad time. She owed him that much.

But he cuts her off with a chuckle before she can speak up. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort, but uh. I don't eat a lot of chicken either."

Ochako's brows furrow. "Oh. You're allergic?"

"Yeah, you can say that." Gosh, Hawks wasn't kidding when he said he was fickle with food! "I'll text you next time about food, though. If it's not a bother."

Oh, that could work. They've been exchanging brief messages about the upcoming event anyway. It won't be a bother at all. "Anytime you need something, just text me, okay?"

Before Dabi can reply, someone with twin buns slinks next to him and nudges him hard at the ribs. "Dabi-kun, you're mean. How could you monopolize Ochako-chan like this behind my back? Hi, Ochako-chan, is this jerk bothering you?"

"Ah, Toga-san!" Ochako bows politely. "No, he wasn't! Um, you were great up there! I didn't know you were Slurp Mask, I wish you told us the first time!"

Toga Himiko giggles and takes both of Ochako's hands in hers, unminding of the exasperated roll of Dabi's eyes. "I would have, but Chitose-san said I had to keep quiet… I was dying to tell you though! I didn't want to lie to you! You know that, right? I don't like lying to the people I love, nosiree!"

"Oi, you're being creepy again, Fangs," Dabi quips. "Leave the shortstack alone. She's with me."

"Ehh? Says who?" Toga protests, just as another wave of heat goes up Ochako's face. "I saw her first, Dabi! She's mine!"

There isn't much that Ochako can do when Toga clings to her like a possessive koala except to silently ask Dabi for help. Dabi looks ready to pry the girl off of her, until another commotion happens on stage.

She can understand, suddenly, why Magne looks perpetually stressed when mocking hoots and rowdy curses are thrown at Compress, who started playing something on the keyboard for fun.

"The fuck is that, old man?!" Spinner yells from below the stage.

"You don't know this song? It's a classic!"

"It's old as fuck, that's what it is! Like you!"

"Shut up, you have no taste!"

Nevertheless, Compress doesn't stop playing the tune. To be fair, it is a classic, and it only takes a few more bars before the rest of the room starts grooving and singing the first lines of the song. At one point, Spinner goes fuck it and jumps on the stage with one of the spare guitars lying at the back.

After that, it was like completely flipping a switch. Ochako stares, awed, as the stage crew and the rest of the staff convene at the front of the stage and start dancing and singing along.

"The fuck," Dabi mutters under his breath.

"Oh, I love this song!" Toga swoons. "Ochako-chan, you should dance with me, okay?"

"Huh, but how-"

"Like this, like this!" Toga takes both of her hands, starts waving them around in time with the music, pulling her closer. "Relax, okay? Gosh, you're good at this, Ochako-chan! We should hang out together all the time, right?"

"Uh," Ochako stammers, looking up at Dabi for help just because there's nobody else there. To be fair, Dabi seems to understand. He moves behind Toga, possibly intending to render her immobile by grabbing her by the arms, but someone else beats him to it.

"Yo, I'm getting major FOMO here," Camie says, dancing her way towards the girls. "Himiko-chan, come on, I wanna groove witchu too!"

Toga squeals and lets Camie take one of her hands. She doesn't let go of Ochako just yet, though, and she isn't sure how obvious her distress was. Camie notices and looks at Dabi with a tilt of her head.

"Buddy you aren't getting out of this one," she says, hooking her free arm around Dabi's, who stiffens immediately. "Come on, let's party!"

Ochako looks just about as horrified as Dabi does. What if he gets violent? A moment passes by where his eyes flash, as if ready to do just that.

To her surprise though, Dabi does nothing else but roll his eyes and doesn't pull away. "Whatever."

Ochako is stunned as Camie smugly leads him and Toga into a circle of some sorts, so they can dance side to side. It starts out weird, with Ochako awkwardly moving as much as Toga wants her to and Dabi standing like a statue next to her. It's soon apparent that Camie is a really good dancer, so good that Toga is completely enamored with her after just a few seconds of watching her.

"Honey, you're so good at this," Camie says. Not flinching even when Toga screeches happily, she gestures to the front and center of the stage. "You wanna go get Twice? Look at him, he looks ready to cry over there."

Toga makes a face, but relents when it turns out that Camie is accurate: how his eyes look weepy behind his mask is a mystery, but he does. "Fine. But only 'cause you say so, and 'cause he's super annoying when he cries."

And just like that, Camie gets Toga off of Ochako and far away so she can breathe again. Twice brightens up from afar, given new life now that Toga is twirling along next to him.

Ochako releases a breath. "Wow. Toga-san is, um… passionate, isn't she?"

Dabi scoffs. "It's okay, you can say creepy. Stalkery. Needs to be locked up in jail with the key thrown to the sharks. We all do."

"That's not a nice thing to say," she says. Still, she bites her lower lip, tries not to chortle even when Dabi stares at her skeptically. "You guys are all mean for saying that!"

"Well, the same is true for most of us anyway." Dabi gestures to his bandmates, yelling out the song lyrics drunkenly all over the place. "Look at them and tell me they don't belong in the Tartarus basement with a straitjacket on."

This time, Ochako can't stop laughing. "Well, maybe you do, but-"

It's a joke, but her laughter dies down in the next second she sees the flash of distress in Dabi's eyes. Tension is clearly etched along the stress lines of his face, and for a second Ochako thought he looked small and frightened of something painfully real.

"Oh, I didn't mean-"

But it doesn't last very long-in the next moment, Dabi puts his hand on his face, and when he pulls his hand back he's wearing that irritating self-assured smirk that he always has, so that Ochako can't believe she fell for anything.

"Aw, were you worried that you hurt my feelings, li'l fangirl? Ain't that cute."

Ochako puffs her cheeks and turns away. "The hell! I thought you were serious! See if I do anything for you again!"

He hums, looking at her in interest. "Doesn't matter to me. Besides, it's hard to take you seriously. You're still dancing."

Huh, so she was. If moving her shoulders side to side and bobbing her head in time with the music can be counted as dancing. She shrugs. "W-well… Mr. Compress is really hitting that keyboard really well, so…"

He scoffs. "You're not even doing it right."

She trails off when a cold hand takes one of hers, raises it over her head, gently guides her so that her feet goes around a small circle where she stood. The world spins around her in time with the music, and when she stops she's looking right up at raven black and snow white and blue.

Something stubborn and vague tugs at the back of her head. Like a movie with missing frames, a background with chunks of scenery missing. But there's an undeniable picture there begging to be formed: a backyard, with yellowing grass and a tree. A jacket that's not hers, the thickness of her breath. Someone with kind eyes watching her from behind. The very same pair of eyes, looking down at her like they do now.

Wide-eyed and ruminating, Dabi stares at her as if surprised at what he did too.

She lets go of his hand, grip shaking slightly as she does. He lets his hand drop quietly to his side, gaze looking down and to the side as he processes things. In her own mind, the image is disjointed and insensible, but real. She wonders if he's come to the same conclusion:

This has happened before .

Ochako rubs her hand, still cold from his touch, wondering why it felt strange.

Somewhere in the distance, the song comes to an end, followed by loud applause, Compress bowing and revelling in compliments and calls for an encore. The noise is enough to break the moment between them, and she gets her bearings back enough to look up at him. "Um… if you don't like the chicken, I should buy you something else," she stammers lamely, turning to leave.

"Hey."

Thoughts are running through his head; she convinces herself that she can hear the rapid pace of them as he stares at her, quietly raises his hand and places it on top of her head.

Ochako stares at him, stunned.

"When all this is over," Dabi finally says, voice so soft she couldn't believe it's from him, "When we don't owe anyone from this damn company anything, we should set things right."

The memory tugs more insistently now, odd and broken, dodging her understanding, begging to be formed. She has no choice but to nod. "Okay."

He lets her go, just as Shigaraki reappears on stage and gets everyone's attention. "Let's get back to work. The kids are about to go here for rehearsal," he grumbles, and the rest of the room instantly follows, like soldiers following their platoon leader. With some obvious reluctance, Dabi pulls his medical mask over his nose, zips his jacket up, and glances at Ochako one last time before moving on to the stage as if nothing has happened.

As the music blares in her eardrums, messing with all her senses, Ochako goes back to the broken images in her head and wonders why all she can think about is where Todoroki Shouto could have been.


"And the event ends with a private party for our investors and other special guests. So, Miss Yaoyorozu can do whatever she likes by this time," Takami Keigo says with a flourish of his hand, as he proudly shows everyone the program. "Does her team have any questions?"

Kendo Itsuka, Yaoyorozu's manager, hums thoughtfully over a stack of papers. "This looks great. But can we get the program and the press attending the Shishida Jurota event next door?"

Takami smiles at her brightly. "You haven't asked them personally? I thought you were close friends with Shishida and the artists contributing to his gallery."

Kendo smiles back. "Let's see the final program anyway, Takami-san. I know you've done measures so that Miss Yaoyorozu doesn't run into anyone unsavory, but it won't hurt to be sure, right?"

Shouto doesn't miss the cutting gaze in her eyes, instantly realizing that this woman can handle herself around a guy like Takami Keigo. By the way Yaoyorozu calmly looks on, she might be even more formidable than she looks.

"Wow, you're sharp, Kendo-san!" Takami laughs, pulling out his tablet. "Okay, I'll give you this. Stays between the two of us though, okay? There's a lot of high-profile people attending the other event too, see? Look-"

Shouto unwittingly spaces out, hand drifting automatically to his phone to check his messages. He ignores the unread ones from the Chairman, as well as the groupchat with his staff where Kirishima sends another don't forget to hydrate, bros! Message.

Instead, his thumb drifts idly and hesitates over a message sent five hours ago. Her profile picture smiles idly at him, along with the preview of her last status update. Utsushimi has sent him the rest of it through the staff groupchat so they didn't have a reason to send a message again, which was okay, because it means that everything is going smoothly. For professionalism's sake, he's decided to speak with her casually after her all the day's work is done.

"Todoroki-kunnnnn. It's called flirting!" Midoriya's drunken ramblings from that early morning drive back home replays in his head. "You're f-flirting with Uraraka-san! It's cute, but don't mess it up and scare her off, okay? You're really, really awkward-"

He frowns upon the memory. He had almost dropped Midoriya off along the street if Satou had not stopped him and if he didn't know that the executive would prostrate himself in apology once he's sober (he does).

The strange lightness of his mood also helped. His mouth feels strange, wanting to curl upwards the entire way home, until the morning, and all throughout work.

Until this moment, where his head feels heavy. It's been a long day, and as per orders of the Chairman he needed to arrange things and accompany Yaoyorozu for a photo/video shoot around the empty gallery for her vlogs as part of event promotions. It was interesting at some points, but they have been at it the entire day and he's feeling drained.

As he puts his hand up to rub his eyes, he hears the conversation around him stop.

"Need a break, Director?" Takami asks. "I can get us some coffee."

Shouto shakes his head. "The sooner we get this done, the better," he says. "If all of you are well enough, we should continue."

To his surprise, even as the others around them make affirmative sounds, Yaoyorozu shakes her head and stands up. "I don't need coffee, but I do need some fresh air. Director, won't you join me?"

Shouto blinks in surprise. Before he can reply, Yaoyorozu turns, with a decisive click of her heels that doesn't leave room for anyone to say no. With a glance at Kendo and Takami, who nods and shrugs respectively, he quietly follows her out to the balcony.

It's a large space enough to fit close to forty people, with an impressive fountain that reflects the moon above. Yaoyorozu walks past this, opting to stare at the city below near the edge, where it's much too chilly for the fresh air that she claimed she needed. She must have lied; Shouto begins to suspect as much when she takes out a cigarette from her purse and lights it up without an ounce of hesitation.

She glances at him with raised eyebrows. "Do you want one?"

Shouto shakes his head. Uneasily, he stands next to her as she blows a puff of smoke in the opposite direction. "I didn't know you smoked," he says, after a beat of silence.

"Of course not. I made sure you never knew."

Was it possible to keep such a thing secret, when they've dated each other for a month and have been friends for far longer than that? "Why not?"

"Secretary Uraraka," she answers vaguely. At the look of confusion he sends her, red lips curve outward and stain the filter of her cigarette. "She's afraid of fire, isn't she? You told me after you introduced me to her. I didn't want to do anything terrible to someone you obviously cared about."

"Obviously?" Shouto repeats.

" Obviously ." Yaoyorozu gives him a humorous look. "Come on, Shouto. I'm not stupid."

Of course she wasn't stupid. She was consistently on the top of the dean's list in UA and would have graduated with high honors if she didn't transfer out in the middle. Shouto also knew that she finished some masters courses and wrote a few academic papers during her first years as an actress. He didn't imply that she was stupid in any way, but all the same…

"It's okay." She smiles at him serenely. "You didn't know how much you liked her then, but I can see now that you've realized it. It's about time, really. I'm happy for you, I truly am."

"How do you know?" Shouto says, trying not to look too red-handed. "About how I… I mean, about Secretary Uraraka and I."

She shrugs. "Call it intuition. That, and… you keep smiling down on your phone the entire day."

"I see." Out of instinct, his hand comes to his pocket to grip his phone. "It… could have been anyone, though."

"Is it?" Yaoyorozu instantly looks amused when he shakes his head vehemently. "See? There are no new dating rumors about you, for one thing. And to be more blunt, you aren't as terrible to her now as you were before. At least, you're not interrupting our time together with some excuse so you can bring her to where you are with some new assignment for the two of you to work on."

Ah, he did that frequently not long ago, didn't he? It feels like a lifetime ago that he treated Uraraka differently. "I guess I'm trying to improve myself."

She nods. "You are. You're changing for the better, Shouto."

He looks up at her in surprise, just as she puts out a cigarette on one of the ashtrays she placed on the ledge. "I want to make sure you don't ruin things between the two of you no matter what others may say about it. I think it's going to be difficult, especially in the coming days."

"What makes you say that?"

She gives him a withering look. "We've been talking about the media coverage for this event the entire day, Shouto. Since the two of us are going to be seen together most of the time, there will be stories. You didn't notice that your corporate team took videos of the two of us?"

Of course he noticed, but there was nothing romantic about their interactions. It was mostly separate shots of them talking about the event, with some shots of Yaoyorozu showing the team around the gallery while Shouto walked in the background. It was amicable, like how their relationship was in actuality.

"That's enough for most people to jump to conclusions. Sadly, not enough for Father. I won't be surprised if he pressures us to spend more time together than necessary."

It's not enough for Enji, either. "You're right about that," he mutters. He should tell Utsushimi to do extra management of that issue with the PR department after this event.

She sighs, lights up another cigarette. Shouto notices with some worry that her cigarette case is nearly empty. "Believe me, I think it would be… troublesome if we're forced into things. In fact I hope something happens tomorrow that will kill any idea of us being together. For the meantime we have to brace ourselves. Understood?"

He nods, surprised at the authoritative tone of her voice that he's never heard before. "Understood."

She smiles, wearily this time, as she works on her second cigarette. Shouto has always thought that Yaoyorozu is a beautiful person, albeit a lonely one despite her polished smiles and regal stance. He doesn't think he can feel what he felt for Uraraka for more than a decade, but he immediately understood how anyone could fall willingly to her feet.

She looks different now though, with her hair down and smoke coming out of her suddenly honest mouth. "Hey, Shouto."

He turns to her. She inhales, making him wait for a moment or two before finally facing him. When she speaks again, there's an odd look in her eyes like she's preparing herself for the worst. "How's… Aunt Rei doing?"

Shouto keeps his face and his voice still, despite the instant turmoil underneath. "Why do you ask?"

"We're friends," she says quietly. "Isn't it normal for me to ask how your mother is doing?"

No, it wasn't normal. She has never asked again since he avoided the question more than twenty years ago. Yaoyorozu's in a strange mood the entire time they were here.

But then again, Shouto is in a strange mood too. After ignoring the pangs in his chest, he answers, "She should be okay."

She stares at him carefully. "It sounds like you aren't sure."

He shakes his head, after a moment's hesitation. It's been a while since he knew where Mom was. It's been a while since he asked himself where she could be hiding and how he can meet her again.

As expected when he thinks of her, his heart grows heavy and the scar on his face stings. He closes his eyes, wills the feeling of boiling water away. "No," he answers, voice even.

Yaoyorozu's gaze softens. "I'm sorry," she says. "You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. But don't you want to know for sure how she is?"

Again, Shouto shakes his head. It's enough for him to know that Natsuo is keeping her safe, far away from him or Enji or the other villains in the corporation.

Besides, if he pushes things on his end, "It'll be too troublesome."

She stares at him carefully, a genuinely worried look in her eyes that makes him wonder where the curiosity came from. She's seen the bad sides of his family for years now, but she rarely pressed him for details because of the restrictions placed on them. Why would she want to find out right now? What did she want to know?

He doesn't get enough time to be suspicious over it, though.

"Troublesome. Right." Suddenly wistful, Yaoyorozu puts out her second cigarette and places her case in her purse. "We both lead troublesome lives, don't we? Did you ever think that it would be nice not to have this kind of life?"

Shouto blinks. "What do you mean?"

"You know…" Yaoyorozu shrugs, gesturing over the massive city below them. "Haven't you wondered what it would be like if you weren't where you were right now? Look at all the other places you could be right now."

He stares at her carefully, because there aren't many moments in his life where he wasn't sure where he needed to do next. The old man didn't make it hard for him to figure out the 'correct' path. That's not true for the rest of his life, though.

"So you've never thought of it? Doing things, going places, seeing people that you liked, and not what your family wanted?" Yaoyorozu asks honestly.

"No, I don't think…"

He trails off when his eyes stray in the direction that Yaoyorozu looks at, and out of nowhere he remembers Uraraka. They've been all over the city and beyond for the past nine years, but when he gazes upon the different clusters of lights down below he thinks of her, and her face-shocked when he proposed to her in the tiny neighborhood she lived in, wide-eyed in front of MightyLand, when the lights first came on, angry after his altercation with Bakugou, red-faced and shy pressed up close to him in the subway.

He wouldn't have met her if he didn't do as his father said and became one of the top executives of Endeavor. For that he'll never regret anything. Still, it doesn't change the fact that taking her as his secretary all those years ago was the first of the few decisions he made, thinking of himself rather than the future set out for him. Asking her to marry him is the second thing. And now a slew of impulsive thoughts of doing things, going places with her despite what his family wanted are entering his mind.

His hand unconsciously grips his phone in his pocket.

"See? We're not that different." Yaoyorozu smiles at him. "Don't worry about it. I think about living a different life often, too."

He nods. On the surface, it's easy to say that Yaoyorozu is a blessed person, but as someone with a similar background, he knows enough to see beyond that. "Maybe you'll get what you want someday," he says, meaning it honestly.

She smiles, unconvinced. "I hope you're right."

They both look at the entrance at the sound of footsteps. "Hey, you two!" Takami says, a big smile on his face. "You guys were taking a while, so I wanted to make sure how you're doing! Momo-chan, everything good?"

Yaoyorozu smiles graciously and bows her head. "Of course, Takami-san. Director Todoroki and I were just making conversation."

"Good, good," Takami laughs, gesturing to the person behind him. "Well, in any case, Uraraka-chan dropped by here to get you anything the two of you might need. Like coffee, snacks, maybe a new pack of cigarettes for you-but don't worry, Kendo doesn't know anything about that part-"

Yaoyorozu coughs, just as Shouto sends a sharp glare at Takami's direction. "No… I'm fine, honestly. Please, Uraraka-san, don't worry about it."

Secretary Uraraka bows quietly. "Then I'll reconvene with Kendo-san inside, if it's alright."

"Nah, I got this part handled, don't worry!" Takami laughs, waving his hands around. " I can actually hand over Shouto-kun to you now if you'll have him~"

Uraraka's cheeks instantly turn pink. "Well-I can wait until everyone is formally done, so-"

"And I'm telling you, we're practically done for the day," Takami sing-songs. "Unless you wanna talk with him a lil bit more?"

Yaoyorozu looks uneasy for a beat, before smiling politely. "No, we're good. We've got an early start tomorrow, and Itsuka and I need to go home as soon as we can."

"'Kay! That's actually a good idea," Takami says, escorting her inside. "Shouto-kun, Uraraka-chan, we'll see you tomorrow bright and early here, okay? Don't be late~"

"Right," Shouto grumbles, as the other man disappears inside. Despite himself, he sighs deeply and rubs the space between his eyes with some irritation.

Uraraka clears her throat beside him. "Do you have a headache, Director? I have your medicines here."

Always efficient, she brandishes a painkiller and a bottle of water for him. It's ridiculous how prepared she is for any situation that it's comical. Shouto wonders why he's never noticed before.

Right. I was terrible to her then, he thinks, remembering Yaoyorozu's accurate appraisal of him. "It's okay. I don't need those," he says.

She looks up at him in concern. "You don't look okay, though. Do you want a different painkiller? I can go get that for you now."

He nods. "That's a good idea."

Just as she's about to ask what he wanted, he goes for it by stepping into her space, taking her hand and entwining his fingers with hers. A shot of warmth from her skin hits him like a warm drink in the winter, spreading into his system pleasantly. His eyes shut by instinct to relish the feeling.

Strange. It's just the touch of her hand. Objectively speaking this should do nothing to relieve my headache, he thinks idly, squeezing her hand a little. But it does.

When he opens his eyes, Secretary Uraraka is more flustered than he's ever seen her, face an impressive shade of pink. "Director, a-are you feeling okay? You're acting pretty weird…"

He shakes his head. "I'm okay now. But if you hate this, I'll let go of you now."

He'd hate it though, so it's a relief when she stammers a 'no'. "Of course I don't hate it. I'm just… surprised, that's all," she says. And then, after a beat of silence, she adds, "This feels nice for me, too. Not weird."

"Good." He looks at her, wondering why it felt too long since they've last seen each other, and why she looks a little… different. "Secretary Uraraka. Are you alright?"

She blinks, snapping her head up in attention. "Oh, I am. W-why wouldn't I be?"

He stares at her in curiosity as she frets a little inside her head, before she sighs and makes up her mind on something. "Sorry. That's a lie," she says, quietly. "Something happened today, and I'm really torn about it."

"Is that so?" Shouto asks. "Tell me. I can help."

She shakes her head. "Sorry, Director… this is about your brother and me." And then, seeing the way he froze hearing it, she bites her lip. "'Do you still want to hear about it? I know that the two of you aren't okay, so…"

Strangely enough, despite his chest stinging at the thought of the two of them together, he doesn't feel the surge of anger he expected to have. "No. If it's bothering you, I'd like to hear about it."

Uraraka looks at him, surprised once again. He can't blame her. Even under pretense, he's never this generous with anyone. He's surprised at himself too.

"Well… okay."

And so Uraraka obliges.

As if not trusting herself to stand up, she sits down along the fountain's edge, staring at the surface wistfully as she tells him about her encounter with Touya that afternoon. How different he seemed, how he looks more familiar the longer she looks at him, how she's more sure as ever that they have met before. From the sound of it the picture in her head isn't complete yet, but there are specific details surfacing in her mind that never came up for the past decade that she's been searching. She tells him that there's bound to be more of that, maybe, if they talk a little more.

All this makes Shouto uneasy, but he doesn't say anything until after she's done. "I see. So you want to meet with him after you resign."

She nods.

"And you're asking me if I'm okay with it."

Again, she nods. "I know that it's weird to ask, since I won't answer to you anymore once I resign, but… I need to know anyway, you know?" She bites her lower lip and looks down on where their hands are still linked. "All I want is to know what happened, and nothing else. I don't want you to misunderstand anything. I don't want to do anything that will upset you."

Shouto feels her hand tremble nervously in his grasp, as if expecting him to actually be upset. To be angry, to become that person who treated her violently in the lobby before. A wave of regret passes through him as he feels her uneasiness.

It's alright now, though. He's trying to change. And honestly, even though he's deathly afraid of what they will find out, of all the things that he's kept hidden until now, he knows it's not his place to stop her.

So he releases a breath, steps just a little closer to her, to look right into her eyes. "I don't know if I won't be upset," he tells her honestly, "but I won't stop you."

She blinks in confusion. "Why not?"

Because even though he's torn about confessing everything to her right here, right now, he knows that he can't. That he shouldn't. Even then, he shouldn't stop her from doing what she needs to do, either. He'll think about what he'll do once she finds out everything, including the possibility of losing her forever.

It's hard to think of those things, even as he holds her now, with the moon high up in the sky and on the surface of the rippling water, distorting their reflections in a pretty way.

"I know how important this is to you," he finally says, forcing himself to shelve his negative thoughts. "I'll just have to accept things, including what you might find out about my brother."

Her hand stops shaking in her grasp. "Thank you, Director. I really appreciate this," she says quietly.

She stands up from the fountain's edge, letting go of his hand momentarily to peer inside. "Oh. Everyone has left already," she says, stepping in the undeniably empty ballroom. "That was quick. Director, we should leave soon, too-"

She's cut off when he reaches out for her hand again and pulls her in for an embrace from behind.

He feels her freeze in his arms as he does.

He doesn't mean it, really. Maybe it's the moon playing tricks on his mind, or the ideas Yaoyorozu injected in his mind about living a different life, having what he wanted to have for once. Maybe it's the realization that he wasted the nine years he spent with her treating Uraraka in a way she didn't deserve to be treated. Maybe it's hearing that Touya's memories are coming back to him. Maybe it's the fear of losing her again, and the folly of the brave face he's putting on despite the weight of his mistakes over his shoulders.

But just this once… just this once, let him hold Uraraka Ochako close to him. Let him believe that despite the things that are going to happen, despite all the time he wasted, he can hold her close like this. And if she pushes him away-

-she does, but just enough so she can turn in her place to look at him in the eye. Brown eyes shine in worry.

Of course she's worried that he's out of his mind. Even if they're alone now, they're still superior and subordinate at this moment. He should really keep his hands to himself. "Sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

To his surprise, she disagrees. She steps up and impulsively puts her arms around him, burying her face into his chest.

She looks up at him after a beat, cheeks flushed but eyes determined. "You're right. You shouldn't have done that," she murmurs quietly, "... but just a little bit should be okay."

He can't stop the smile on his mouth as he returns the gesture, letting the warmth seep in further. "Okay. Just a little bit, then."

Later, when they waste enough time bordering on suspicious, they let each other go, walk at a professional distance from each other, and come down where Shouji and the rest of the team are waiting for them. They bid each other goodnight, with Uraraka opting to take the commute home with some of her workmates while he hops in his car for the drive home.

It's a difficult time for his mind to come to terms with everything, but at least he feels warm on the way home.


AN:I debated a lot about what to show in this chapter since I'm bracing myself for possible comments re: dabi and ochako (_), and also the scenes don't feel as impactful as I had envisioned, but I figured I'd go ahead with these scenes anyway because I think it's important in a different way. Specially Shouto and Momo's relationship, and how they want the best for each other despite their tough childhoods;;; ^^''

Anyway, Todochako hugged! On purpose this time, so yay! This is burning faster than I thought... Ahhh, but I miss Bakugou;;; do you miss him too? Is Dabi gonna get in the way too?Should he? If LoV were a band how do you think they'll sound like? aggh I'm so confused about what I want to do right now so. Let's see what happens next T_T