Part 2

Sero hurried into Hot Topic, hoping to find Kaminari inside. Instead, all he found were Bakugo, Jiro and Tokoyami on the sales floor.

"Where's Kaminari? I've got something important to tell him," he asked Jiro, who had been closest to the door when he walked in.

"He's off for the day, what did you need?" she asked, setting down the shirt she'd been folding.

"I wanted to tell him what happened. We went to Hooters yesterday with Mineta-"

" - Why would you go to Hooters with Mineta of all people?!"

"It was Denki's idea. Nevermind that. Anyway, the waitress we had was amazing. Like, damn," he said, unsure how to describe Yumi.

"Get to the point! We're working here," Bakugo called out from the back of the store.

"Mineta was being a pervert as always and she got him kicked out of Hooters. He's banned from there."

"That's good. The waitresses shouldn't have to be subjected to his nonsense for a good time," Jiro added as she began folding the shirts again.

"That's not the best part. I went back to Hooters after they closed, because I wanted to apologize to her about something I said and-"

" - What did you say?"

"Not important! Anyway, I ended up getting a date with her," he said, still not believing his good luck.

Jiro looked at him, brow raised. For as long as she had known Sero, which was forever, he'd always had high standards when it came to girls. Hence why he was still one of the few single guys left in their friend group.

"Describe her," Jiro said, heading towards a shelf in the corner of the store so they weren't blocking the entrance for customers.

Sero smiled as he recalled what Yumi was like. "She's smart. She's spunky as hell. Put Mineta in his place real quick. She even smacked him over the head."

"I like her already, but tell me what she looks like," she said, giving him a side eye as she organized the shelf.

Sero flushed. He was never one to be vain about looks, so how was he supposed to describe her without making it seem like he cared more about what she looked like?

"Hanta?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Well….you see…"

"Sero, are you trying to tell me she's hot? Did you ask her out because she's hot?"

"No, I didn't ask her out because she's hot! Although it didn't hurt-"

"Hanta Sero, you truly are human after all!"

Sero put a hand over his face, trying to hide his embarrassment as Jiro was now fully committed to this conversation.

"Come on, tell me what she's like. I won't judge," she said low enough so any customers in the store wouldn't hear them.

"She's short, maybe around your height. She's got long sapphire hair, these beautiful amethyst eyes and the perfect hourglass body I've ever seen."

Jiro stared at him for a moment. This girl sounded way too good to be true. "Are you sure that happened, Hanta? I mean...it's a good dream, I guess."

"No, it actually happened. She exists and we have a date on Thursday."

"Sure you do," Bakugo said, coming up over to them. Despite the two's best effort to keep quiet, he could still hear them from the register.

"It's true," Sero insisted, not sure why neither of them believed him.

At that point, someone walked into the store. "Yumi, why are you going in there?!"

The three turned as a blue-haired girl walked into the shop. "I just need to get something," she said to a girl waiting outside for her. Despite wearing a black hoodie, her neon orange shorts peeked through.

"That's her," Sero mouthed to the two as they watched Yumi walk over to the cabinet with the Arctic Fox coloring.

She scanned the rows of dye, unaware that she was being stared at. Grabbing a bottle of Poseidon, she walked over to the register. Tokoyami rang her out, and she left without noticing the group in the corner.

Once she was gone and out of ear rang, Jiro looked at Sero. "Dude…," she was too speechless to finish her sentence.

"No way she agreed to a date with you," Bakugo said with some skepticism. "She's way out of your league."

"I got a better shot than you do with Cinnabon over there," Sero said, pointing to the green hair boy across the store, working the Cinnabon counter.

Bakugo gritted his teeth. "Bullshit."

Keigo chuckled as he walked into the store. "Now, now. Let's not get the boy's hopes up. This is the first time in forever that I've ever actually seen Sero get excited over anyone."

Sero glared at him. "Funny. Don't you have work to do?"

"I'm on my break," he said with a shrug.

Sero rolled his eyes a bit. It seemed like Keigo was always on a break. "What do you want?"

"A name. Her's more importantly. I wanna see what kind of woman you've snagged yourself. You know, make sure she's not some kind of man-eater or something. I'd hate to see you go missing. No one makes my smoothies the same way you do."

"I'm touched," Sero said sarcastically, unamused. "It's Yumi Mizuno."

"Thank you!" Taking out his phone Keigo turned around and walked out the door.

"Why do I feel like that was a mistake?"

Jiro was still gaping at all that had transpired. "Dude, how exactly did this happen?"

He shrugged. "It's like you told me, I met a woman who put me in my place and made me realize I don't know shit," he said, thinking back to the previous evening.

"AND I WASN'T THERE TO SEE IT!"

~.~

Over at Spencer's, Keigo leaned against the counter as he scrolled on his phone.

"Hey, you wanna do some work?" Dabi asked, coming up beside the blonde.

"In a sec. I'm curious about that girl Sero has a date with. Apparently, she's new to the mall. Gotta make sure she's an ax murderer or something," Keigo said, not looking up from his phone.

Dabi leaned over his shoulder to look at the searches. A lot of the articles that popped up seemed to be ballet-related. His brow raised. "Ballet?"

Keigo let out an irritated sigh. "It's all that keeps popping up. I'm trying to find her social media accounts, not articles!"

"Maybe try reading one of those. There's gotta be a reason for so many." Reaching over, Dabi tapped on one of the articles.

The two skimmed over the article. It talked about an upcoming performance of the 'Swan Lake' that would be happening in Russian. The article was dated a year ago.

"Russian ballet?" Keigo asked. It sounded like they'd click on the wrong article.

The article talked about a Yumi Mizuno being the youngest dancer to ever take up the dual role of Odette and Odile. There were no photos or videos attached to the article.

Dabi's interest now peeked. Grabbing Keigo's phone, he read through article after article. They all talked about this star ballet dancer taking on these big roles at a young age.

He finally found an article that gave them some answers. "Prima ballerina assoluta recipient to be the youngest dancer to receive the title," he said, reading the title of the article. It was dated a year ago. The article went into a brief description of the dancer's career. Listing notable dances that even he was aware of.

"Prima ballerina assoluta? What the hell is that?" Keigo asked, wondering where this rabbit hole had led them.

"No idea."

Now Shinso was invested, as he pulled out his phone and did some searching. "Prima ballerina assoluta is a title awarded to the most notable of female ballet dancers," he said, reading the first line off Google.

"Interesting," Dabi said, scrolling down the page there was a Youtube video. The two looked at each other before Keigo took back his phone. He clicked on the video.

It was a clip from Swan Lake, specifically Odile's scene. The two watched as a young girl, with black hair and amethyst eyes, performed the dance of the black swan. She moved with such speed, grace, and beauty that it seemed like she seemed weightless. She glided around the stage with perfection.

"That's her alright."

"Wow."

The clip ended, with an option to watch another. For the next half hour, the two found themselves watching her performances in ballet shows. All videos had been recorded at least a year ago, some longer than that. They eventually came to a video that appeared to be recorded backstage. They could clearly see Yumi in focus as she did a series of Pirouettes. She was flawless in her execution.

Whoever was recording spoke in Russian, but there were subtitles.

"Princessa Yumi, how kind of you to grace us with your presence," the person behind the camera said.

Yumi stopped doing her pirouettes and laughed.

"You humble me. I am no princess," she replied in perfect Russian.

"Come on now. Your technique is flawless! So skillful as well. Aren't you a contortionist as well?"

"Kind of. I'm still working on it."

"Show us how flexible you are."

Yumi chuckled a bit. "Alright."

The guys watched as she readied herself before bending backwards. Her fingers inched closer towards the ground as she bent backwards. Keigo thought her spine would snap any moment. When her hands were placed firmly on the ground, she kicked one leg over before kicking up the other. She flipped over with such grace, landing on her feet in a perfect stance. Keigo had to admit, it was kind of alluring.

Dabi smirked. "I think the kid bit off more than he could chew."

Keigo sent Sero a text.

'Dude, you're screwed. The girl is WAY out of your league. Trust me.'

It took a few moments for Sero to respond.

'What are you talking about?'

Keigo just sent him links to the videos he and Dabi had just watched.

"He's in God's hands now," he announced, putting his phone away.

He felt oddly unachieved now, and wanted to get back to work.

~.~

Sero sat nervously at the table, waiting for Yumi. It was Thursday night. Looking down at his watch, the time read 7:10. Yumi was late. He had offered to pick her up, but she'd insisted on meeting him at Cheesecake Factory.

Maybe she isn't going to show, he thought nervously.

He had watched all the videos Keigo sent him. Afterwards he'd done his own sleuthing. Everyone had been right. She was way out of his league. Maybe she'd figured that out the other night.

At a table far out of Sero's line of sight, Jiro looked down from her menu. She and Kaminari had decided to come along and spy on this date.

"His date still isn't here yet," she said, looking at Kaminari as he fiddled with his silverware.

"Maybe she isn't going to show up," he said, concentrating on the silverware pyramid he was working on.

Jiro frowned. Sure Sero had a bad mentality when it came to women, but he didn't deserve to be stood up like that.

"Maybe we should go join him," Jiro suggested just as a woman walked past their table.

"Sorry, I'm late. The bus was running slow," Yumi said, taking a seat at the table.

Sero looked up at her as she came to the table. Up until now, he'd only ever seen her wear hee Hooters uniform or a black hoodie over her uniform. She wore a white blouse with a navy pleated skirt and black booties. Her long hair was let down, creating a blue cascade behind her. She looked stunning.

"It's fine. No worries," he said, glad not to be stood up.

A waitress came over to get their drink orders.

"I'll have a strawberry lemonade," Yumi said, looking up at the guy before looking at Sero.

"A black ice tea please," he said, looking at Yumi.

Once the woman walked away, Sero sat back in his seat. He felt more relaxed now about this.

"So do you take the bus everywhere?" It seemed risky, considering how late she got out of work.

Yumi smiled a bit. "For now. I have my license, but I need to save for a car. Unfortunately I haven't started making a lot of money yet."

"What about your parents?" he asked. He couldn't imagine any parents being okay with their young daughter taking the bus home late in the evening.

"Back in Virginia.I moved out here by myself about a month ago. I doubt they'd help me," she said. Sero noted a distant look in her eyes, but decided not to push it.

"If you want...I could pick you up from work everyday until you can afford a car," he suggested as the waitress brought over their drinks.

Jiro nearly choked on her drink as she listened to Sero offer to pick Yumi up from work.

"You okay?" Kaminari asked, handing Jiro a napkin.

"Yeah. I'm just surprised how quickly he's taking things," she said, wiping her mouth with the napkin.

To her surprise, Yumi just smirked at the offer. "Is that your way of getting the girl?"

"Nah. I just know you get out late, and the streets aren't necessarily safe - "

" - You think I can't take care of myself?" She raised an eyebrow, expecting a stupid answer.

"Actually, I'm sure you can take care of yourself. But it would give me peace of mind knowing you're not putting yourself into situations like that," he said, having a sip of his tea.

It was true. The idea of Yumi walking home after midnight from whatever bus stop she got off at made his stomach turn.

Yumi lowered her brow, having not expected that answer. "If you're sure you want to."

"I insist. I'd rather make sure you got home safe, plus I'm sure you wouldn't mind getting home a lot quicker than the bus could get you," he chuckled.

Yumi smiled a bit. It was true that she didn't get back to her apartment until almost 1 in the morning some days.

The waitress returned and took their orders. Sero ordered the Thai chicken salad while Yumi ordered the chicken & broccoli pasta.

For the next two hours, the two talked and laughed at jokes made. Sero didn't question her about the videos he'd seen. He decided to ask her at a later time.

Jiro, for her part, decided to leave the two alone somewhere around 8pm. It looked like the two of them were enjoying themselves and Denki was starting to look bored with the spy gig.

"Come on hun, let's go," Jiro said as she paid the bill for their meal.

Walking out, Kaminari wrapped his arm around Jiro's shoulder. "What did you think?"

"I think Sero finally met his match," she said with a smile.

~.~

It was almost midnight when Sero pulled up in front of Yumi's apartment complex. They'd spent the whole evening at the Cheesecake Factory just talking until they were asked to leave around 11. So they continued their conversation out in the parking lot.

Sero was amazed by the woman in front of him. Never would he have believed someone like her existed in a place like Happy Valley, Oregon.

"I really had a good time," Yumi said, turning her body towards him.

"Yeah, I did too." He honestly had.

He couldn't remember when was the last time he'd enjoyed himself like this. Sure he was always hanging out with Kirishima and Kaminari, but this was different. It was upsetting that the evening had to end.

Reaching out, he brushed some stray strands of hair out of her face. The back of his palm moved against her cheek.

Yumi smiled and looked away.

"Something wrong?" he asked, wondering if he had messed up.

She bit her bottom lip a bit before looking at him. "Do you think that...whatever this is….what's going on right now...can we take it slow?"

He noted the sad, scared look in her eyes. Maybe he was overthinking her request, but something told him she was used to guys taking advantage of her.

"Sure. No worries," he said, taking her hand. Bringing it up to his lips, he planted a soft kiss on it.

Yumi smiled, leaning forward and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you."

Unbuckling her seatbelt she opened the door. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said before getting out of the car and closing the door. Sero sat there and waited until she was inside.

Sitting back in his seat, he smiled. He had to wonder how the hell he'd gotten so lucky with a girl like her.