I'm so glad that the goofy filler I wrote for the last chapter was well received. Thank you so much to everyone for their favourites, follows, and reviews— Wannabe Heroes has over fifty amazing followers now!

Thank you to oLainao for their review, which really made me laugh. To Otakugirl1996, thank you for keeping up with the story. I was so glad to hear from you again! And as always, to M, thank you for your support. My boyfriend agrees that you're invited to our wedding.

Edit: Supposedly FF . Net has something against exclamation points, so I apologize for the funny formatting.

Chapter Eleven: Election Day

Midoriya! ! ! ! I'm so sorry! ! ! I won't be able to meet you this morning. I guess I just got lost on the path of life today... I'll tell you all about it later, okay?! See you in homeroom! ! ! !

"Do you think that you used enough exclamation points?"

Koharu frantically flipped her phone away from her brother's gaze, and shoved him aside as hard as she could. Shouta laughed as he fell slightly off balance, stumbling closer to the curb of the road they walked along. "Fuck off, Shithead," she cursed as she clutched her phone closer to her chest.

"Oi, I'm just trying to help," Shouta retorted with a small grin. "I'm just wondering if you used enough exclamation points. We wouldn't want Midoriya to get the wrong idea and think that you know what a regular volume is."

"FU—!" Suddenly cognizant, Koharu clamped her mouth shut with a dangerous scowl, and Shouta's grin was scoundrel enough to earn him a smack on the arm. "Stop being an asshole!"

"Nah, don't think I will," Shouta posited. He then shoved his hands into his pockets, as if saying he wouldn't need them to defend himself against her.

He was right, Koharu thought, but it was still annoying. Her scowl deepened.

...but did she really use too many exclamation points?

Tentatively, Koharu rotated her phone to peek at the screen once more. She had texted Midoriya as soon as she returned home, but she had yet to receive any response from him. He took the train, didn't he? What else was he doing if not staring at his phone? Was he mad at Koharu for blowing him off?

Sneaking a glance at Shouta, Koharu briefly considered asking her older brother for his input. He had been a boy at some point, even if he was a swamp monster now. She couldn't remember much about Shouta as a teenager, but she knew that it wasn't that long ago that he had had friends. Or had it always just been Hizashi?

A hand shot out, smacking her in the forehead and shoving her off balance.

"Hey!" Koharu cried as she nearly toppled over, swinging her arms to catch her balance. "What the hell was that for?"

"Stop fucking staring at me," Shouta grunted out as he returned his hand to its pocket. "You wouldn't know subtlety if it slapped you across the face."

Koharu felt her brow twitching as she made a half-hearted attempt to fix the hair Shouta had messed up. "Was that supposed to be 'subtle', then?!"

"Well, your flirting with Midoriya sure wasn't."

"E— excuse me?!" Koharu squawked indignantly, caught off-guard by the change of topic. She held her phone in her fist and gestured aggressively at Shouta. "Don't be stupid! I wasn't flirting!"

Shouta's face was turned forward, but the way that his eyes slid to their corners to peer at Koharu spoke volumes enough for her cheeks to turn a bright pink. The teenager huffed as she turned her head away, her purple locks whipping fast enough to hide her embarrassment behind her long fringe.

"I wasn't flirting…" she weakly reiterated to the screen of her phone, upturned against her chest. It flashed to life as she clicked the lock button, revealing the time as 8:22, and still no new messages. She huffed again. Stupid.

Satisfied that he had ended her peace, Shouta returned to his own as the Aizawa siblings paced their way to school. It had always been Shouta's style to arrive precisely on time— wasting his precious minutes waiting around was irrational and being late was rude, and so Shouta was nothing if not prompt. Meanwhile, Koharu had always been an early riser and eager beaver, however a beaver with a particularly short attention span and a penchant for wandering until she became late.

Today, that translated into Shouta not trusting her to make it to school on time unless they went together. They had left with little time to spare, but the sands of time always seemed to dance their way around Shouta to ensure that the man was never late. Koharu had long contested this to be Shouta's 'True Quirk', but Shouta only attributed it to 'knowing how to read clocks' and 'not being a dumbass'.

"Oi," said Shouta suddenly, startling Koharu from her staring contest with the blank screen of her cellphone. Her train of thought slammed its brakes, and Koharu looked up to Shouta dumbly as he continued to announce, "I'm going to go ahead. Don't get into trouble."

Koharu raised an eyebrow at her brother. "Can I be trusted with such a serious task?"

Sighing heavily through his nose, Shouta began to pick up his pace without another glance back. "Just don't fuck off and get lost. I'll see you in class."

"Love you too, big brother!" Koharu called out to Shouta's disappearing back. She watched him until he was lost around the corner, and then Koharu slowed her own approach to school to a leisurely stroll. "Weirdo," she mumbled as she returned her attention to her silent phone.

She headed towards the school on auto-pilot, following the cracks of the sidewalk and dipping past oncoming traffic without raising her head. Most people she passed were engaged similarly, either hunkered over their phones or too dead-eyed to look up from the cracks of the sidewalk. Footsteps fell heavy on concrete, and as Koharu drew closer to passersby, she could hear them well: their footsteps, their breathing, the music playing from their headphones. As she passed them, she would hear it— muffled, but loud and terrible, fading in and out with a brush of their shoulders.

After rounding the last corner to U.A., the walkers came less and less— but the noise only grew. Raising her head, Koharu promptly recognized that the gates to her school were being crowded by so many bodies that she could only consider it a swarm. Reporters were crawling over one another to hound students as they struggled their way through the mass, hollering so many questions their voices were lost to the cacophony.

In the midst of it all was Shouta, walking unfettered. Startled journalists scrambled to clear his path, the crowd parting around him as he forced his way through with sheer intimidating aura. Cameras flashed around him, and even Koharu's eyes hurt from afar. Eraserhead hadn't gotten this much press in years.

Just down the road, Koharu stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Oh, she thought as her face twitched into an unintentional sneer with her realization. Shouta hadn't wanted the two of them to be seen together while he was wearing his "Hero Hat", which is why he dumped her around the corner. Those stupid reporters.

Koharu huffed deep from her chest, and shoved her phone into her jacket pocket. "Leeches," she allowed herself to mutter before fixing her expression back into boredom to continue her trek to school.

Shouta had already made it through the gate by the time she reached the crowd, but their attention was still fixed on the back of the retreating teacher. "Don't you think you're too scruffy?!" One of them called out, prompting Koharu to chuckle even as she internally seethed with hatred. The reporter, a brunette wearing a smart blue suit, continued to call out as she moved to follow after Shouta.

Koharu felt her arm twitch up as she recognized what would be coming. "Hey, stop—"

"Just let me see All Might—!"

Loud sirens rang out, giving only a moment's warning before heavy metal doors slammed down, closing the gate to the untagged intruder. Her hair was blown back by the force of it, and the stunned reporter dropped to her knees in shock.

Another reporter was behind her, having tried and failed to stop the brunette. "It's the U.A. Barrier," he informed her. His voice carried over the shocked silence of the crowd. "Or, that's what we call it. If someone tries to get in without a pass, the security system kicks in."

"What the hell is that?" Asked the brunette as she pulled herself. She planted herself firmly with her hands on her hips. "They think that they're so high and mighty— they could at least give a brief comment!"

"How's this for a comment—" Koharu said from the midst of the crowd. Multiple people startled as they realized that a U.A. student was standing amongst them. Her bored mask was slipping, giving way to hints of a scowl. "Couldn't you inconsiderate idiots at least wait until after school to menace us? Now I'm going to be late."

The crowd was so silent that one would have thought another barrier had dropped. Koharu's eyebrow twitched. The crowd descended at once.

"What's it like having All Might as a teacher?"

"How are All Might's classes?"

"How is the Symbol of Peace as a teacher?"

Koharu sighed, dropped her chin to her chest, and considered not for the first time that day just how much of an idiot she was.

~ o ~

"Good work on yesterday's combat training."

Fifteen minutes later saw Koharu sitting calmly at her desk, her uniform only slightly more rumpled than usual and most of her hair out of place. Shouta stood at the front of the classroom. He shuffled papers at his desk as he addressed the class, but Koharu's attention wasn't on him.

The class had already taken their seats by the time Koharu arrived, and she was quick to slot into her place next to Tokoyami, in front of Yaoyorozu, and behind the one and only Midoriya— who had the gall to avoid eye-contact with her when she had said good morning!

Sure, he had been his usual blushing, stamming self, and had returned her greeting, but Koharu wanted eye-contact. People who were friends and not mad at each other for ditching morning plans typically engaged in such leisurely activities as locking gazes. Koharu knew this to be true because she had seen it on the Discovery Channel, and had seen Hizashi and Shouta make eye-contact many times before.

No. Midoriya was definitely mad at her, and it was all that Koharu could think about.

That is, until half the class exploded up from their seats, hands held high and voices higher.

"I want to be class rep!" Kirishima shouted, both his arms shot into the air above him as he jumped up from his desk. "Pick me!"

"Me too!" Denki cried as he too jumped up. He used one hand to lean on his desk as he stretched the other as high into the air as it could go.

From the front of the room, Aoyama seemed to sparkle. "This job was made for me—"

"I want to do it!" Mina loudly cried as she jumped atop her desk, sending her pencils flying. Aoyoma screeched as one skittered over his shoulder.

"Silence, please!" Iida called as he stood up from his own desk, his posture rigidly straight. His arm was raised perfectly above his head, his hand high and fingers pointed to the ceiling. "This is a job with the serious responsibility of leading others! It is a calling that requires the trust of those around you," he loudly proclaimed. Having effectively caught the attention of his classmates, Iida continued on to suggest, "We should hold an election to decide on our Class President."

Winded by Iida's speech, Kirishima plopped back down to his desk. "Why would you choose that?" The redhead asked as he leaned against his chair, a casual arm slung over the back of it.

"We haven't known each other for that long," Tsu pointed out to the group with a finger held against her chin, a touch that Koharu was beginning to recognize as characteristic of the frog-like girl. "How can we have trust or anything like that?"

Kirishima's head bobbed in agreement. "If that's the case, and everyone votes for themselves…"

Iida, unruffled by their objections, maintained his upright posture as his gaze swept the classroom. "Don't you think that is precisely why whoever receives multiple votes here can truly be considered the most suitable person?"

"That seems pretty reasonable to me," Koharu added as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What better alternative do we have, anyway? We're not about to draw names out of a hat— no one would respect the victor. I vote for democracy."

"I vote for democracy too!" called a cheery voice from behind Iida. In the back row Uraraka had remained seated, either disinterested in the position or recognizing she was simply too short to be seen behind her eager classmates. Catching Koharu's eye, the two girls exchanged thumbs-up.

"What do you think, Mr. Aizawa?" Iida asked, drawing attention back to the front of the classroom. Shouta had already tucked himself into a sleeping bag, and was half-way to the floor. He dragged his tired eyes over the class.

"I don't care as long as you decide before homeroom is over."

Granted permission, Iida was quick to direct the class to write in their votes on blank sheets of paper, and Mina eagerly volunteered to collect all the completed slips in her hat for tallying. Everyone returned to their seats, and papers began to rustle as the class cast their votes.

Koharu pen hovered over her paper, posed in indecision. She had never been one to take on more school work than necessary, and being Class President sure sounded like electing herself for a headache. There was no question that she would be casting her vote for someone other than herself— but who?

Iida was the rational choice. Everything she knew about him screamed 'nerd' in that wonderfully dependable way: he would take the job seriously, and nothing would ever be missed. She had no doubts that Iida would make a fantastic Class President, and he clearly wanted it.

But Midoriya wanted it too. Koharu had seen his hand, shaking as he raised it, and had she not been sitting behind him, she would have missed the tremble of his fingers as they peeked just over his shoulder.

Koharu knew that Midoriya was not the rational choice. He was timid, often startled, and couldn't even respond to simple text messages on time. Their classmates may have flocked to him every time he entered a room, but the attention would make him clam up like he had never had friends before. Truthfully, Koharu wasn't sure that she could envision him in a leadership role. But... would voting for Midoriya mean that he wouldn't be upset with her anymore? Sure, Midoriya wasn't super confident, but he could really act cool sometimes, and Koharu liked him.

Just the fleeting thought of it made Koharu want to hurl. Had she become so hormone-ridden that she allowed things like friendship politics to impact her decision-making? Iida was the right choice, the rational choice— therefore, he was the only choice.

Her decision made, Koharu looked down at her paper, and was shocked to see her pen had made the decision for her. Scrawled in the upper right corner of the page, neat as her terrible penmanship would allow, were two decisive words:

Izuku Midoriya.

Koharu sighed, ripped out the sheet, and cast her vote.