Days had passed, and although Shoto had warmed to his classmates now that he had faced his past it was obvious there was still something wrong. He would set his gaze on the empty seat to his right for ages, wondering where the girl who sat there was. Day by day the seat remained empty and inside of him the confusion and hurt building. By the 4th day, Friday, he'd decided to let it go until he did see her again, though it was hard.

As 1-A sat in their last class of the week Shoto still found his attention fading, that was until his teacher announced the events of the following week.

"Ok listen up, as I stated at the beginning of the week, tomorrow you'll begin your internships with the pros. Make sure your paperwork is handed in by the end of the lesson." Aizawa said. Shoto already had his internship sorted, and as much as he hated him, it was with his old man. As the bell rang and students around him started packing up but he was too fixed, he didn't want to be but he was.

"Todoroki?" he heard Midoriya say, he snapped out of it and raised his head to see the boy and Iida standing in front of him looking concerned. As to not raise suspicion he decided to also start packing up, which worked. "Todoroki, who are you going to do your first internship with?" Midoriya asked, knowing what the likely answer was going to be.

"As much as I despise him, my father was the obvious choice." Shoto said standing up from his desk and picking up his bag. The two boys in front of him didn't say a word, Iida seemed still preoccupied with his brother's situation. That's why he'd left during the sports festival, he'd gotten a call that his brother had fought a villain and barely made it. That's why he chose to complete his internship in Hosu. To be close to his brother's hospital. Midoriya had kept the location of his internship pretty quiet, so Shoto didn't know who he was going to be with. As the three boys left the classroom for the last time for a week Shoto took one last look at Ashley's empty desk.

The internships started that Saturday and Shoto quietly followed his father around as he completed his rounds. He hadn't spoken a word to him, he communicated through nods and shakes of the head. Along the week his classmates shared their internship experiences on the group chat, something Shoto was not use to being a part of. The first day was drawing to an end as Shoto was finishing up his training drills in the agency gym when his father walked in.

"Tomorrow I'll have to attend the quarterly, I want you to go to the department gym and train while in the meeting. Otherwise you'll waste the day." He told his son and left the room not expecting a reply, which obviously didn't come. The only thought that went through Shoto's mind after his father's announcement, she is probably going to be there.

He barely slept that night, he was up anxious at the though of finally seeing Ashley again. It had been a week since that night, arguably the best night of his life so far, but for some reason she had not shown up at school nor his house since. Was she regretting what they did? Shoto's stomach sank as he though of the worst possible scenarios. Wake up time the next morning was at 6am to be able to get to the commission building downtown. The whole car ride there with his father, Shoto barely looked up from the ground and still didn't speak a word. Endeavour had gotten use to his son's silence over the years, at least now he was obeying him, so he didn't think much of it. As they got out the car Shoto's heart beat faster, he expected to walk in and see the girl sitting at her usual desk, earphones in and studying. His heart dropped when he walked in and saw the seat empty. Endeavour had walked in front of him and once he turned around he noticed Shoto had already walked away, toward the downstairs gym to train. Once again, Endeavour did not comment on his son's silence and instead headed to the meeting room down the hall.

As Shoto walked down the flights of stairs and he got closer to the training room he could hear loud banging and clashing coming from the room. When he opened the door he froze. There she was. Fearlessly using her quirk to lift up blocks of wood and threw them toward the training bots across from her. She managed to hit a few of them but a couple had gotten through. She ran toward them, dodging there hits and swinging her legs under them to make them hit the floor before she punched their faces in. A loud beeping sound filled the room, signalling the end of the training session, and the pieces of bots automatically cleared out to an opening in the wall. Shoto was still frozen in at the door in complete awe at her fighting abilities, he knew she was good but never really saw her in action other than the USJ incident.

Ashley wiped her forehead from the sweat the she'd built during training. Coming back to her senses she felt a second presence in the room and darted her head to the door to lock eyes with the boy. Something in her seemed to shift and she was almost surprised to see him there.

"Hey." she said softly, still looking and now sounding surprised.

Without moving much and after subtly gulping he replied, "Hey."

The two stood in silence for a few uncomfortable moments, avoiding each other's gaze. Ashley finally decided to break the silence, "How you be-" but she was cut off.

"You've been gone all week." Shoto commented, trying to contain his emotions. Although he felt all sorts of ways he was still new at expressing them. Ashley smiled sadly back at him, knowing what he wanted to ask.

"I was working..." she said back to him, still in that soft melodic tone. Shoto's heart sped up again, he didn't know what he was feeling and couldn't put it to words so he didn't respond. Ashley could see his internal conflict with his emotions, she didn't have to use her quirk. She had an idea, she quickly looked around herself to turn back to the boy.

"You're here to train? Let's train." she said to him. Shoto didn't move or respond but he sent her a questioning look with his raised eyebrow. She smiled at him. "Come on." she invited him over to the floor. He hesitated slightly before heading to the floor, he stood opposite her a few feet apart.

"Don't hold back." she smiled at him, almost challenging him. Did she want him to use his fire? He would hurt her.

"I don't thi-" he started.

"Don't. Hold. Back." she repeated, definitely challenging him. He was ready to use his ice when he felt a block. His ice wasn't manifesting. He looked at his hand confused and then back to the girl who was smirking back at him then back at his hands. What is happening? He asked himself. Suddenly, in an instant he found himself flying to the ground. Once he realised what had happened he met Ashley's eyes which were looking at him from above him smiling.

"I said 'don't hold back'" she repeated, again. Shoto sighed and decided to take on her challenge. He tried to swing his legs under her feet to floor her but she jumped out the way. He used the momentum of the swing to get back on his feet. He faced her, a small smile present on his lips at the promise of a challenge. "Well come on then." she smirked. He began running toward her and grabbed her left arm but she turned left with him and grabbed his forward leg and rolled down, making him roll to the ground with her. She had the upper hand, she blocked him by placing her forearm across his shoulders as she straddled him on the ground. He stopped for a moment as he felt his heart beat harder and faster as this reminded him of that night. She could feel his feelings radiate off of him and she smiled. To break the tension she gave him and out and grabbed his right hand which enabled him to break free and push her off of him and the tables turned. They continued to tumble over one another, trying to best the other. It was only a couple minutes until the two found themselves panting heavily; the sexual tension was undeniable, if somebody had watched them it would have been clear. Being so close contact with the other again was bringing back all those emotions. Finally Ashley had him under her again, one arm over his shoulders again and the other by the side of his head. That's when it clicked to both of them, those same feelings were going to keep growing unless they stopped. They froze for a while, just staring at at each other, the only sound in the room was their own heavy breathing.

Ashley snapped out of it first and her expression changed to one of worry with slight panic. She moved away from him quickly, stood up and walked away slightly. Her back was turned to him as if she was trying to hide herself from him. Shoto noticed she was trying to avoid the conversation but his new found emotional sharing side was not going to keep him quiet. He propped himself up and his elbows to stand up.

"Look, you obviously don't want to talk about it. I'm not good at this sort of thing myself but can't we have one normal conversation about it and then we can forg-" he started.

"'Normal'..." she whispered, just about loud enough for him to catch it. Her voice broke as if she had cried. Shoto looked over at her worried.

"What's wron-"

"Nothing I do can be normal." she turned back to him, she was holding back tears. His stomach and heart sank at the view of her. "I can't ever be normal! That's why I can't talk about it. Everything I do is monitored and reviewed, I can't have a normal life." she began ranting out, just more and more flustered with each addition. He was getting worried as he took a step toward her.

"Hey, hey... calm down, it's fine." he tried to calm her but she took a step away from him and shook her head.

"You forget who I am. I don't do this, I can't do this." she told him. It was like a sword to his heart. He hadn't really figured out with 'this' was exactly be he knew he felt whatever it was strong. He didn't know why but he felt like he had just been rejected.

"If you didn't want me around you could have just said..." he said to her, his tone changed to one of disappointment and sadness as he avoided her eyes and looked to the ground. Now it was Ashley's heart to feel heavy.

"Shoto... you know that's not it!" she said to. He shook his head and put his hand up to stop her form talking. A tear fell down her cheek as she knew it was too late, she had hurt him.

"You don't need to give me excuses..."

"It's not an excuse!"

"And why should I believe that?"

That was it, she snapped, "Because for the last ten years the only thing I have looked forward to every single day was the fact that I was going to be sat in a room alone with you in complete silence! Do you know how dangerous it is for me to hold onto something like that? I can barly make friends, let alone what we did! Everyday I would be excited I was on day closer to seeing you! For years!" She yelled at him while holding back some strong tears. He didn't say anything, he couldn't. She had said it all. The way he'd felt about their meetings every few months was the way she felt too.

They stood there looking into each other's eyes, Ashley looking at him lost and he was jut there with his eyes wide. That's when the door opened and the two turned to see who had come in. It was Hawks.

"Yo Ash, Eraserhead is done with the meeting an-... what's going on?" he said noticing the two seeming distressed, Ashley wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Nothing." she said coldly, walking toward the door and avoiding Hawks' gaze as she passed him. Hawks followed her down the hall with his eyes and turned back to Shoto who looked at the empty doorway with sad eyes. Hawks looked at him confused before running behind Ashley.

"Yo yo yo, what's up?" he called to her, the worry rising in his voice as he was a couple steps behind her as he chased her up the stairs.

All of a sudden she whipped around to face him, "Please! I...I just need to be alone." she snapped but then relaxed her voice as to not seem annoyed at him. He couldn't help but look at her with even more concern, but he gave in to her request and nodded back at her. "I-I'll see you at the briefing tomorrow. I'll be fine." she said, trying to hide her still upset face from him and turning around before walking away.

Hawks stood in the stairwell looking up at her as she cleared the stairs and went through the door at the top to get out of the building. He sighed to himself.

"None of this is fair on you..."