Again, she patted her hands against the edge of her apron, groaning at the smeared imprints she left. She reached for the whisk but her finger cut the edge of the handle. The wirey tool clattered onto the floor, leaving flecks of chocolate spattered against the communal kitchen. Her gut knotted, seeing her struggle speckled before her. By this time most people were hiding in their dorm rooms, Shoto visiting his mother again. The whine and shuffle of a door being opened perked her up. Kairi swiveled, breathing when she saw Kaminari enter.

"Oh, it's just you..." she whispered, smiling with relief. It began a frown when she saw Mineta appear just behind him and she rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

"Well, I certainly feel special," Kaminari chuckled as Mineta drew back, slightly saddened.

"No, no I just got... nervous it was... someone else. Forget about it." Chocolate covered fingers streaked over her phone, sliding between a candy recipe and news alerts. She cringed at one, shaking her head.

"Everything okay?" Mineta asked quietly.

"It's... it's nothing. I'm just so tired. I'm trying to take my friends' advice and take some breaks from all the work I'm putting in but it doesn't change that my schedule is still busy. I had to see my counselor today and I had to run home and rush this before it gets too late and I run out of time. Not to mention, I haven't begun my homework yet. My latest test score went from an A- to a B and that's... strange for me. I've always had high marks."

"You are taking on a lot," Kaminari said, stepping closer into the kitchen and observing the artistic mess she had made of the kitchen. "I know becoming a rescue hero is important to you but take care of yourself as well. What are you doing anyway? I know you make your own meals once in a while but you can usually get through a recipe smoothly without much..." He powder piles on the table and the smears of chocolate on the ground. "Hassle."

"It's February 10th," Mineta scoffed. "It's clear that she's making chocolates for Todoroki."

"What? N-no, I'm...!" She fumbled with the whisk, running hot water over it and reaching for the dish soap. "I'm practicing baking..."

"You hate baking," Mineta said with a matter of fact air. She glowered her eyes.

"Okay, look maybe... I got convinced. Maybe I felt some sort of pressure because I'm concerned and worried I won't be very good at being a gr... great friend." Mineta raised a suspicious eyebrow to her. "And I don't know, isn't there something about giving a good friend of yours chocolates on valentine's day? Homemade?"

"If they're someone you have a romantic interest in, yeah," Mineta said. "You don't usually do it with friends."

"Well, why not? I mean why can't we just do it with friends? Why does it have to be just someone you like?" Her skin stiffened with the tension that reverberated from her heart, feeling caught by her classmates.

"Sure there's nothing wrong with that..." Kaminari agreed, looking across the unattractive globs of chocolate that sat in a mold tray. "But this seems like a lot of work, doesn't it? Especially since you don't like to bake."

"I, well, maybe I wanted to tr..." Furiously, she spun her arm around in her bowl, the chocolate growing darker in color the more she spun. The tension broke and defeat collapsed inside her. "Okay, okay! Yes, I got it in my head thanks to conversations around me and what I read online about valentine traditions and now I feel like in order to prove to Shoto how I feel about him I have to do this or else, you know... what's the point? Will he ever really know? Maybe it isn't obvious to you..."

"It's obvious," Kaminari and Mineta said in unison.

"Okay, maybe but does he know how much? Does he truly understand how I feel? Am I doing any of this right? I mean clearly I'm not doing any of this right..." She dramatically motioned to the mess around the kitchen. "But I thought by making it myself maybe it would mean more and I... I'm... failing. I can't get baking of any kind and this is supposed to be an easy recipe but I burned the first batch and chocolate is just so time sensitive. Baking is in general which is why I don't like it and everything just has to be so exact! I..." Before her classmates, she was already beginning to shake everything surmounted. Mineta and Kaminari exchanged looks. Kairi's phone pinged. She poked at the screen before the newest alert tangled through her emotions. "And this isn't helping. Earlier I received an alert that one of the less involved characters of QuirKey has been released which makes me mildly concerned - and now, apparently that goddamn paparazzo who interrupted my meal with my dad the other day... Well..." She turned the phone towards them. There was indeed a picture of Kairi looking sad while her father talked seriously. The boys took a moment to read over it before Kairi pulled it back, taking a glance at the content. It was a short detailed article about sighting her in public, and speculations about the seemingly heated discussions she seemed to be having. None of the predictions were correct, ranging everything from lectures about dating, to disappointment on grades, to lecturing on the proper usage of her quirk. She took solace in knowing not a single bit of her conversation about her mother was heard. "They're everywhere. Do you deal with this every day?"

"We've gotten used to it, though Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki get the most of it it seems. It's distressing," Kaminari agreed. "You just reach a point where it becomes every day."

"But I don't know if I can handle all this attention! Everywhere... I knew I would receive some as a hero but this is... invasive."

"Unfortunately if you and Todoroki go public you'll only receive more," Mineta said with somberness. He picked up a spoon from the counter, passing it between his hands. Kairi gulped, dropping the whisk into the bowl.

"Is this what being a hero is? Am I subject to this? All the time...?" Everything in her dropped, pulling and twisting til bile formed in her throat. She pressed a chocolate smeared hand against her gut. The stress was rising again. Kaminari immediately took to her side. He didn't reach for her, but remained close just in case. "All this pressure weighing on me, this attention... I want to help people, I want to make a difference. More than anything in life but all of this... is this worth it? Can I do this? If anything, with Shoto means more attention is it every something I want?" Her breaths grew short and tight just as Mineta ran to fetch a chair. Kaminari helped lower her into it and then picked up her phone, returning to the recipe for candies she had pulled up.

"Yes, you can," he said quickly. "Hoshino, it seems like it's impossible, true enough. And it's hard. It was hard for us and seems as if it's harder for you. But the whole class has watched you improve from the beginning. Your confidence has grown. You have fought past your stress and nerves to get to where you are. Situations that used to strike fear in you before now make you only minimally uncomfortable and you just deal with them. It's the same. Yes, it's an invasion of privacy and they should just leave us alone. But it's something we all learn to handle. We get stronger, we learn how to respond. We figure out tricks to get past them. Some of the heroes even make friends with some of the press who then help in getting others to leave them alone." Mineta nodded, following along.

"Yeah, you've done really well in class! You entered farther behind us and struggled with mental health, but you've shot to our level!" Mineta celebrated. "I am surprised by how much you've been able to fight and improve yourself. Not just as a hero but dealing with mental illness, and I'm sure we don't even know half the story."

"It's tough but you are strong enough to handle it. You've shown it, more than once. It is worth it, you can get past it. With time and practice, as you have been doing. I would go so far as to say not only can you do it, but you wouldn't be able to let anything be without reacting. Think about that boy that you saved from those apartments?" Kairi looked up at him. "You couldn't leave that alone. You had to jump in and do it. It doesn't even seem to be something you can control. It's in your nature to jump in and help, to save those in danger."

"And you're a natural at it too! You breezed through all those rescue missions!" Mineta added enthusiastically. Kaminari gripped her shoulder, warmth spreading on his smile.

"You can do it. You've shown you are able to, and we believe that hidden strength you have will carry you through this. It's frustrating, but with time, you'll be able to shrug it off."

"Baking... might be a bit different though," Mineta said, sliding a finger through a cocoa mess.

"Yeah... This is a disaster..." she moaned, looking over the chaos. "And I only have a little bit of time before Shoto gets home. Maybe I should just buy chocolate."

"Naw," Kaminari said, shaking her phone at her. "This recipe looks easy enough. We got time to kill. Mineta?"

"Yeah!" He shouted, raising the spoon as if it were a torch. "Let's get baking!" Kairi smiled, leaping up from her chair.

"Let's do a quick clean up then and start over!"

In moments the kitchen was clean again thanks to the efforts of all three of them. Baking became surprisingly easy with the other two helping. She kept eyeing Mineta, waiting for him to make another one of his unsavory remarks, but not a single word was said. He did, however, attempt to form a rather suggestive body part by manipulating one of the molds, but an annoyed smirk from Kairi was all it took in making him return the image to normal. In a mere half hour, they were ready to place in a fridge to cool.

"Thanks," she said, using a sponge to wipe down the inside of the bowl. Kaminari tossed a small carton of cream into the garbage before shoving a canister of cocoa powder back into a high cabinet. "I was feeling overwhelmed and like I wouldn't be able to get it done."

"It may seem like we got everything together," Kaminari said while he wiped the counter and Mineta cleaned the remaining particles from the floor. "But every single one of us has seen some shit around here, and dealt with shit. Things we expected, many we haven't."

"Almost all, if not everyone, is in some sort of counseling," Mineta said. "Some of it is the usual hero prep, some of it for things we've seen in training and the awful things we've seen in fighting heroes. Others are just normal life things we struggle with. Anyone who attends UA and isn't in some sort of counseling, I don't know how they're doing it."

"Not all of us are good at showing our emotions but... we're all dealing with a lot." The kitchen sparkled as Kairi looked it over, holding the trays with the chocolates on them. It had been impossible to think they would be able to finish in the nick of time but with their unexpected help, they had managed it.

"Which may be exactly why you and Todoroki need to be spending the time together you are," Mineta said. "It's about time something good happen to someone around here."

"Thank you...!" Kairi breathed, the gratitude spilling over and seeping into them both. They both exchanged the same proud grins. Kaminari reached for one of the trays from her, Mineta took the last one from the counter. The three of them delicately carried the chocolates as if they were precious gold, up each set of stairs til they reached Kairi's bedroom. She unlocked the door and paused, eyeing at Mineta carefully. He smiled innocently, only slightly convincing before Kairi rolled her eyes and allowed them in. She kicked opened the mini fridge in her room and quickly rearranged the few snacks that remained inside. The three trays fit just perfectly before they gave their good byes. Mineta lingered, his twitching eyes drifting towards the dresser. Fidgeting fingers hung at his sides. Kairi balled her fists, ready to take a step forward and swat at him. However, Kaminari jumped forward and grabbed his friend's wrist. "Sorry," he said before ripping the small boy out of the room and letting the door shut behind him.

She collapsed against her bed, curling against her pillow. A moment of peace. Finally, a few free minutes to let herself take a deep breath or two before launching into her homework. And, surprisingly, unexpectedly... she owed it Kaminari and Mineta. Kaminari wasn't the surprising one, she always got along well with him... but Mineta rose to the occasion. It wasn't enough to change her mind, for her to not feel annoyed and disgusted by his presence. So many of his comments and actions were... despicable and revolting. But it was intriguing and relieving to know that if a situation was dire and called for it, she could rely on him to happily lend a hand. There was some genuine care there, for certain. Even if he needed a complete adjustment on his approach towards women. Somewhere, deep inside... he cared for his teammates, no matter who they were.

The knock at the door snapped her eyes open and Kairi jumped to answer the door. A smile was ready-made, knowing it was Shoto back from visiting his mom. But the phone held out to display a message; first a link to a suspiciously familiar photo and then a text chain. Kairi swiped the phone, tapping first on the link that showed Kairi and Shoto standing intimately close to each other. They had stood behind a tree, behind a convenience store they just visited which they assumed to be quiet and often overlooked. They had only stopped at the store for a few things and she reached up to hug him for something. Clearly someone had been waiting. In order to access that point, someone must have trespassed into someone's yard. More knots inside again. Of course. So the press was overstepping their bounds in order to discover that yes, there was something more than friendly happening with them. There was no hiding it much longer - proven by the next chain of text Shoto had to show her.

Shoto! I understand we can't trust what the press shares but I know you're really close with the Hoshino girl! Are you two really dating? I would love to finally meet her! - Fuyumi Todoroki

Yeah, Sho, if there's really something going on with you two we need to meet her and make sure she's good for ya! Just kidding, sure she is. But we should see her! - Natsuo Todoroki

What about the weekend after Valentine's Day? Natsuo is coming home for the weekend, we could meet then! - Fuyumi

Yeah, bring her over maybe have dinner or something, Fuyumi can cook! - Natsuo

Natsuo! - Fuyumi

You want me to cook? Your funeral! - Natsuo

Kairi blinked, shrugging. "That doesn't seem so bad? I mean I wouldn't mind meeting them..." Shoto shook his head, tapping at the screen on his phone.

"That isn't the concerning thing..." he sighed. Twice he poked at his screen and then turned it around.

Shoto, we need to have a serious conversation about the Hoshino girl. Immediately. - Enji Todoroki.

Kairi's heart impaled itself on her ribcage, dread filling its place.