Chapter 28: Girl's day out

Sophie received an answer before she was home, tomorrow was a go for shopping for a cute outfit to wear. Shoto hadn't quite asked yet but she knew it was coming, he had been heavily dropping hints in the form of pointed questions. Was she free this week? Did she have plans? Did she like movies? What kind of food did she like for dinner? It was pretty obvious. She was pleased they were willing to help her, she didn't pay much attention to her clothing so what she did have was whatever aunt Sheri had bought for her. So, Sophie wanted to wear something new and more in Shoto's tastes, he was a bit reserved and he was raised by a man who was to hero and…also a bit of a jerk who wouldn't know a cute dress from a potato sack.

The next day came faster than she knew and she was late for their meet-up. She threw on some easy plain clothes and was running out the door without anything to eat. She stopped short outside the train station when she saw Fumikage waiting for her, in his hand he held a napkin wrapped breakfast bun.

"Well, now that is convenient." She approached as he held it out for her.

"Would have been warmer had you come out faster." He shook his head. "So, what is this about shopping?" He asked her following her.

"I need some new clothes." She stated, wondering what he was doing.

"Hm. What for?" He asked, they boarded together.

"Kage, are you following me?" She asked him, giving him a confused look.

"You invited me." He raised a brow at her.

"I what?" She tilted her head.

He pulled out his phone and she saw her mass text. She had invited several of the girls from Class A and…

"Oh crap!" She quickly pulled her phone out and scanned through the names she sent the text to.

Tsu

Ochako

Momo

Toru

Midoriya

Kage

"How did your names sneak in there!?" She nearly shouted in surprise; several people looked over at her briefly. She had forgotten that she sent it to Kage by mistake and had not corrected it.

"How should I know?" He asked her annoyed.

"That was supposed to be Mina and Kyoko, oh damn it's because I call you Kage and Midoriya on my phone!" She groaned.

"It gets worse." Kage chuckled quietly.

"What?" She looked up.

They had arrived at the next stop where she asked everyone to meet her. Everyone was there, everyone. Deku was surrounded by girls and he looked very nervous about it. Why the hell had he actually shown up? Kage too? Coming to a girl's day out trip? She stepped out, she and Kage walked over to the others.

"Um…hi Sophie…thank you for inviting me to join." Midoriya looked very nervous and uncomfortable.

Well, since she did this to herself, she may as well make the best of it, Kage was a surprise because he usually hunkered down in his room rather than leave it, calling it his cave of endless void or whatever. She smiled at him.

"Thank you for coming, I know you probably don't think you will be much help but I do need the opinion of a couple of boys to get it right," Sophie assured him.

"I-I will do my best." He blushed.

"Thank you! Now, ladies, and gentlemen. I need an outfit for a very important…casual outing with someone close to me. I need your help."

"Ooh, your boyfriend? Who is it? Bakugo?" Toru asked excitedly.

"What?" Midoriya looked at her shocked.

"No, not Bakugo. If it was him I wouldn't bother with a new outfit, because he would probably invite me to a sparring match and ruin it immediately."

The girls grinned, a few chuckled, they definitely could see that happening.

"So what do they like?" Ochako asked, her smile huge.

"Hmm...traditional Japanese stuff I guess. His room is pretty old school, the floors are tatami mats, they feel awesome." She sighed in pleasure.

"Um..you were in his room?" Momo asked in a near gasp, scandalized.

"Why?" Sophie asked confused.

"Momo is very sheltered." Tsu chuckled. "It's not unusual for boys and girls to spend time in each other's rooms as friends."

Sophie got it right away. "Oh! I'm sorry, I guess it's not too normal here is it?" She almost smiled.

"Regardless of that! Let's head to the mall! He may like traditional things but I bet he would love to see you in super cute clothes! Time for a fashion show!" Toru cheered.

They were on their way then. Kage and Midoriya stuck to the back as the girls all talked to each other, one would assume their conversations would be about boys and fashion and all sorts of cute things. But their conversations revolved mostly around training, battle strategies, and the best hero equipment available, and their uses. Midoriya ended up squished between them as he threw in his ideas, excited to talk about his favorite subjects. Sophie was pleased he was able to relax and enjoy himself. The mall was packed but they were able to find a few stores that sold women's clothing. The girls went to work looking for cute outfits. Sophie peeked through the clearance rack, her eyes idly wandering over things as she pushed them aside.

"Sophie...Um..." Midoriya came up next to her, his hands clutching his messenger bag strap, face a bit red and eyes downcast.

"You know, you are quite cute when you do that." She told him.

His blush got deeper and she tried hard not to laugh out loud.

"Did you find something that might work for me?" She asked him.

"Um, no. I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure, go ahead."

"Do you still hate Todoroki? Or is he the one you are meeting with?" He asked.

She paused, her eyes looking at him wide in surprise. Well, she either stunk at hiding her feelings for Shoto or Midoriya and Bakugo were the smartest people she knew. Bakugo probably saw it because he was very good at seeing the tiny details. Midoriya saw the big pictures but when he focused he could see the little things, his ability to think critically was not nearly as fast as Bakugo but he was getting there and it was noticeable to the teachers. She would need to be more careful regardless.

"I don't hate Shoto, he and I had a talk and I realized that my feelings for him were unjustified and cruel. Honestly, I didn't really hate him, but trying to hate him gave me a reason to push him away from me and keep him from seeing that...we both shared a lot of pain." Sophie looked at the clothes now, a tiny smile on her lips.

"Oh...that's good...that you don't want to be mean to him anymore. Sophie...you know you can always come to any one of us. I can't really speak for the others but I know that everyone in class 1A really likes you. I consider you a friend." He told her quietly.

Sophie looked at him again, her eyes soft.

"Thank you Izuku, I really appreciate that."

"Sophie! Fashion show time!" Toru called out.

She looked over to see a large pile of clothing near the changing rooms and she sighed. "I asked for this."

"You definitely did. We could try escaping." Midoriya smiled.

"There are too many of them," Sophie stated seriously. "We would never make it."

He laughed, they joined the others and Sophie began the montage of trying on clothing. The girls sat waiting for her and Midoriya once more looked uncomfortable, while Fumikage ignored everything while leaning in a dark corner of the area and looking at his phone. However, Dark Shadow joined the group and was helping set up outfits. The first was not her idea, it was mostly pink and white and she knew Toru picked it.

"Toru, I...am not a huge fan of so much pink." Sophie shook her head.

It was cute, a pleated strap jumper in pink and white that would pair nicely with a long-sleeved shirt, which Toru chose to be pink with some frills. This was also paired with thigh-high stockings in white with pink trim, Sophie did not own white or pink shoes.

"Well how about the boys! What do you think!" Toru asked Midoriya.

"Um...uh...you look very fresh!" He blurted out.

Sophie frowned at Toru now, of course, it didn't have much effect being as Sophie could not see her eyes. "Vetoed."

The other girls nodded agreement sagely. The next was clearly Momo, it was a dark pair of slacks and a longsleeved high neck sweater, it was cute but way too hot to wear.

"Momo...this is too hot." Sophie sighed. "And slacks?" She looked down.

"You look so refined, very classy." Momo smiled pleased.

Sophie looked at Midoriya and then Kage who was slightly smiling. Which was a bad sign.

"Vetoed." She sighed.

Tsu and Ochako teamed up to win with a perfect outfit and Sophie loved it.

"I think this is the one." Sophie stepped out of the dressing room quite pleased.

She wore a cute short-sleeved blouse in crisp white; with a white tank top underneath of course, and a high-waisted red and white plaid skirt that stopped at her knees. The skirt was a soft pleated material that let her legs breathe but didn't float too high up. She also wore a pair of red stockings and the whole ensemble would tie in perfectly with a pair of either knee boots in dark brown or pretty flats. Sophie loved it, not only was it comfortable and classy, it would match Shoto's hair color.

"That is perfect on you! With your black hair, it makes you pop! You should wear it down and either flatten it or curl it." Ochako suggested.

"I think you should braid it actually, you can add a bow." Tsuyu tilted her head.

"That's a great idea!" Momo clapped.

"You look really nice Sophie." Midoriya looked away shyly.

"Hey if you are going to wear that then you have to get these flats to match!" Toru appeared with a box of shoes.

They were cute little flats in white with a buckle going across the top.

"Perfect!" Sophie took them.

"Now that date night is out of the way, let's do some more shopping!" Toru exclaimed excitedly.

They ended up all buying a few new things, and Sophie added a few other things to her wardrobe that Shoto might enjoy. Midoriya's face was the color of tomatoes by the end of the fashion show and Kage was still brooding against a wall so they decided to have mercy on the boys and get lunch. They ended up going to a little place that was serving delicious barbeque.

"So are you going to tell us who you plan on seeing?" Toru asked slyly across the table from Sophie.

"I would rather not say." Sophie winked at the invisible girl.

"Awe, too bad, I was kind of hoping you would say it was Bakugo or Todoroki."

If Sophie had been drinking she would have to spit it up, and because she was not eating or unguarded she was able to hold her poker face.

"No fair! You are too hard to read." Toru complained dramatically.

"Toru you are adorable, thank you all for coming out with me and helping me pick an outfit. I may not seem like it but I don't really know much about women's fashion." Sophie confessed.

They all looked at her with blank stares. Her face began to heat up, she hid behind the menu.

"Sophie, that is so cute!" Toru shouted excitedly.

"I don't have much fashion sense either, I think everyone has their own unique tastes and they should wear what suits them most," Momo explained with a bright smile.

"If you need advice I am always here to help! My mom gets ideas from fashion magazines!" Ochako beamed.

"I like cute things, I can help anytime, kero." Tsu smiled with her head tilted.

"Thank you."

She wasn't used to this, doing normal highschool girl things. Shoto was one thing but...the last few weeks had been quite crazy and she had realized so many things about the way she lived before.

"Aaahhhhhhh! Why are you two with all the girls!" A voice screamed in the middle of the restaurant.

Everyone turned to see Sero, Kaminari, Ojiro, Shoji, and Mineta together. Mineta looked completely outraged.

"Hi, guys! We went out shopping and now we are doing lunch, we ran into Midoroya and Tokoyami and invited them." Sophie quickly protected the two boys from the wrath of Mineta. Even she knew that he was difficult when it came to girls.

"Oh..well..." Mineta had nothing to say to this.

"Are you guys doing lunch too? Join us! We can split the bill and have some fun." Sophie suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun!" Kaminari grinned.

"If that is alright with everyone else, I would like to join." Shoji nodded.

"Here let's grab another table and pull it close," Sero suggested.

Lunch was exciting and loud. Fumikage managed to find the darkest part of the seating area to sit in which amused Sophie to no end so she kept flashing him with her spoon using the light. He was not amused. After lunch, they all decided to do karaoke, so they dropped their new clothes off at a locker and they went. They had a lot of fun, Mineta sang a bunch of extremely raunchy songs that made everyone uncomfortable and Toru teamed up with Ochaco and Tsuyu to bring it home on a good note. She waved goodbye to everyone, then she and Tokoyami were headed home together with all of her new clothes in hand.

"You look like you had fun today." He noted.

"It was a nice change of pace." She nodded.

"You could have smiled a bit more, no one would fault you for it."

Sophie smiled at him now. "I did have fun, hawk." She informed him.

"Good, dark shadow was worried you were not enjoying it as much as everyone else did." He looked away.

"Dark shadow did huh?" She raised a brow at him in suspicion.

They both heard the crying and both looked for the little girl who made it. She was sitting under a lamplight that had broken, her hands rubbing the tears from her eyes and face. Sophie quickly walked over to her and knelt down.

"Hey sweetie, what's wrong? Are you lost?" She set her bags down and reached out to soothe the child.

"Why are you out in the dark alone? This lamp looks broken." Tokoyami looked up at it confused.

"No one will play with me." The child sobbed. "They ran away, they always run away."

"Let's take you home, do you know where you live?" Sophie asked her, her hand caressed the soft head of dark hair.

"Sophie..."

"Will you play with me?" The little girl looked up at Sophie, her in the dark.

Sophie smiled softly, such a sweet little girl, she just wanted a friend. Someone to play with her, someone to invite her over and include her in their games.

"I would love to play with you, I will talk to your parents and we can set up a play date," Sophie told her warmly.

"Sophie!" Tokoyami shouted.

"Kage don't shout." Sophie looked at him annoyed.

His expression was grim, and Dark Shadow was rising from him in the darkness, enraged. She slowly took her hand away from the little girl, the child giggled, Sophie looked back to the child, eyes lighting up with her quirk. The little girl looked at her now with shiny black eyes, her lips parted into a wicked smile.

"Play with me!" She reached out to grasp Sophie by the arm.

"Sophie!" Fumikage shouted.

"No!" Sophie called out as Fumikage grabbed her other arm and they were both swallowed by a darkness that cut Sophie off from all her senses.