Sorry about the wait, here's chapter 4.

I don't own BNHA.

Doko disembarked from the train, finding himself in a familiar place. The district of the city where he lived. The familiar scent of the Ono family restaurant. The familiar sound of Mr. Kobayashi's sprinklers on his front lawn.

As the train zoomed away behind him, he stepped out of the relatively small station and began the five-minute-walk to his home.

Aizawa had expressed as much surprise as the man was like to express when Doko had asked for permission to depart the dorms this weekend. Among the twenty Class A students, he was among those who left the dorms the least often, and Aizawa even knew why, somewhat. He'd met Doko's family after the battle at Kamino Ward, when the dorms had first become a thing, and discovered how…difficult they could be.

"You're going home?" the pro hero Eraser Head had asked.

"Yes, on Friday for just a short time. And then on Saturday I'll be out at night."

Aizawa had raised an eyebrow. "Yaoyorozu has also put in a request for that time."

"Err, yeah." Doko had scratched the back of his neck, with a quick glance around to make sure no one else was listening. "We're kind of…both going somewhere. Together."

That clearly took Class A's homeroom teacher even more aback than he was before, but then he sighed and relaxed. "Whatever. Use protection."

"Now hold up a second. That's not the situation at all!"

"Use it anyway. You never know."

Blushing and somewhat irritated, Doko had gone on his way.

Aizawa was the easy part, anywho. The hard part was ahead of him, inside his childhood home.

There was a chance that Yaomomo's parents had already called his, since he'd gone ahead and given his mom's number away. His mother would not be happy if she'd gotten the call unsolicited, but if Doko could beat them to the punch…his chances of actually going to the gala might be greatly improved.

It was curious, wasn't it? Earlier this week he'd been aghast at the very thought of having plans this weekend. But here he was, facing the people that put him most on edge to try and get to some fancy party. It was completely mental, and yet…

A sparkling, glowing image flashed through his brain. Momo turning her head toward him, her eyes half-lidded, her glossy black hair floating up in the air…

Doko swallowed, and turned onto the path to his front door.

He decided to knock, since he was technically showing up unannounced. He wasn't sure if his parents would actually be happy to see him. They might just put me straight to work.

The door opened. It was his mother.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "You got here faster than I expected." There was an edge of suspicion in her voice.

Doko did not understand. "What are you talking about? You were expecting me?"

She held up her phone. "I sent you a message five minutes ago to get down here from that dorm. We have to talk."

"Oh." Doko looked at his phone, which he hadn't checked since leaving the train station. Sure enough, there was a message.

He winced. "I suppose you got the phone c-call, then."

"That's right." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Sure you didn't see that message before you left? Sure you didn't just…teleport here?" The word that described his Quirk came out with hesitation, as if it was poison to her mouth.

Doko had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes. "It's illegal to use my Quirk in public like that."

"It hasn't stopped you before."

"It would have taken me much longer than five minutes. I can only teleport ten meters at a time."

"Whatever. Get inside, boy."

Doko sighed in relief and walked past her into the house, feeling her eyes on the back of his neck. She closed the door behind them.

When he came into the living room, he asked, "Where's Akane?"

"Your sister is staying late at school, for volleyball practice. And a good thing, too. Seeing you would have just been a dreadful distraction."

"Oh y-yeah, how's the volleyball going? Is she g-good?"

His mother's eye twitched. "She's amazing. And she does it all with her natural human strength."

Akane, like his mother and father, was Quirkless. Doko would have liked to see her today, but there was nothing for it.

"I g-guess Dad's at work then?"

"Yes. It's just me and you, boy. Now." She held up her phone, showing the record of a call with an unknown number. "Do you want to explain to me who Momo is?"

Doko's eyes darted toward one of the chairs in the living room, but since his mother wasn't sitting down, he remained standing as well. "She's my class's president. I gave her your number."

"I figured that out on my own, thanks. My human brain works just fine."

Doko had to suppress a shudder. When his parents were in slightly worse moods than usual, they would start to refer to themselves as humans, with the implication…that he wasn't one.

"My question is, Doko, why did you see fit to give her my number? Her mother called me, acting as if we were friends. Acting like…we were the same. Just because we both gave birth to hero students."

"What did she tell you?"

"Something about a party, that this Momo harlot invited you to."

Doko closed his fist. "She's not a harlot."

"Oh yeah? What does this girl look like?"

"She's tall. She's got normal black hair that she keeps in a ponytail." That was important to say. His parents liked normal black hair, as they themselves had it (along with Akane). Doko's dark silver was an abnormality.

His mother narrowed her eyes again, as if deep in thought. "I remember her from the sports festival, perhaps."

Doko had an inward spike of panic. His parents HAD watched the sports festival at the request of Akane, which meant…they'd seen her Quirk! If they figured out how overpowered it is, they will never let me get closer to her.

"She was teamed with you in that second event, wasn't she?"

"Err…yes." He couldn't exactly lie to his mother's face.

"What's her Quirk? I remember seeing her with metal."

"Ermm, well…sort of. She can convert her body fat into protective material. It kind of looks like metal, I guess." That was a lie, or at best a half-truth, but he figured he could cover for it later.

His mother wrinkled her nose. "The girl uses her body fat?"

So she thought the Quirk was disgusting. That was slightly better than realizing it was powerful, though. Powerful Quirks were his parents' least favorite. Doko sighed in relief. "Yeah. She's super smart, though. She gets the best grades in our class."

"Yet she isn't smart enough to know you for what you are, if she decided to invite you to this…party," said his mother. "You'd do good to refuse."

He'd kind of expected this angle of attack. "It's too late for her to ask someone else, though. The theme of the gala is partners. Didn't Mrs. Yaoyorozu tell you?"

His mother's eyes widened. "Did you say…Yaoyorozu?"

Doko briefly glanced away, confused. "Uhh…yeah? The woman you were on the phone with?"

She blinked. "She just introduced herself as Momo's mother. As if I was supposed to know who that was. Do you mean Yaoyorozu, as in…the business conglomerate? With billions of dollars?"

"Yes," said Doko. "That's her family. Why did you think they were holding a gala?" His heart was racing a bit now. On one hand, his parents hated other successful people, especially those that relied on Quirks (which he was pretty sure the Yaoyorozu family did, if Yaomomo had such a powerful one). But, nothing motivated his parents more than their own potential success. If his mother would just see what she might get out of him going to this gala…then he'd be good to go…

His mother stepped out of the room, dialing on her phone.

Doko waited in the living room, swaying awkwardly and patiently. He could hear the sound of his mother's muffled voice. It sounded…sweet. Cloying, even.

He deadpanned, slouching, as he realized what was going on.

His mother came back in, holding her phone against her chest with a very fake smile. "I just called her back. You're good to go."

Doko blinked. "What did you tell her on the phone the first time?"

"Don't worry about that. I just told her that because you'd never properly introduced us, I was confused by her first call and reacted wrongly."

"Great. You pinned the blame on me. Classic."

"Don't you take that tone with me. You better not mess this up, especially since it's a girl you're getting in good graces with. A marriage might be just what we need to get out of this sty of a house."

"Haha, sure. Whatever you say." He kept a reasonably light face on as he retreated to the stairs. "I'm gonna pick some stuff up that I need from my room. Such as my suit. It's clean, right?"

"Should be. Not like you've worn it recently," she replied from behind him.

Doko dropped the facade once he got into his room, clenching his fist in anger. I better not mess this up, huh Mother? As if I'd even give you any money that I might get out of this. And then, half a second later, as if Momo would even want to marry me in the first place. Don't get ahead of yourself.

At least I'm getting to go with her…

He packed up the things he needed and withdrew from the house.

…

"No, those are the wrong curtains. They need to match the tablecloths, see? Go get the other ones. Well, if they're dusty, then dust them! Goodness gracious!"

Momo watched as her mother ordered people around, dominating the center of the hall. The gala would take up two whole rooms in their family mansion, the dining area and the dancing area. Currently, there were servants swarming everywhere, setting up tables, forming the stage, and altogether operating on the whims of the lady of the house.

Tara Yaoyorozu was, in all respects, a taller, older version of Momo. The faint lines on her face currently worked for her, however; she'd aged like fine wine. And her hair, though it was the same glossy black as Momo's, was more wavy than spiky. Momo had always felt a little resentful of the fact that her mother didn't have to use any product to get her hair to look like that, while her own hair was a daily chore to tame.

When Tara took notice of her daughter approaching, her soldier-like expression softened into a bright smile. "Hello, dear!" she said. "I've just gotten off the phone with your partner's mother. And by just, I mean it was a few hours ago."

"Oh, right," she acknowledged in a sort of squeaky voice. Momo hadn't really been planning to talk about Katayama, but…

"She was awfully rude at first, but then she called back and said she didn't know who I was," said Tara, making a funny face. "I guess I did introduce myself as your mother, rather than as Yaoyorozu. I just figured that boy would have told his parents all about you."

Momo blushed. "I'm not that worth talking about," she mumbled.

"Oh, nonsense. Even if you say he's just a friend, I'm sure he's head over heels already. It's inevitable, darling. You look like me, after all."

"Don't talk about him like that," she said, sounding more forceful than she meant to. "Katayama isn't like other boys. He's not…simple."

"Well, I would hope not. I don't want you going after anyone simple."

"You're not making any sense, Mother. Haven't you always said you don't approve of me dating?"

"Well, your father does not. But I've been talking to him. And we've been thinking…for this gala only, we've decided to open our minds a little."

Momo frowned. They can't mean…they're trying to see if Katayama is viable, for me?! But it's not even like that?!

"That's not what he signed up for!" she snapped aloud. "You're not being fair to him! I swear, if you or Father give him a hard time, then…"

Tara raised her eyebrows. "Then you'll do what?"

Momo opened her mouth, and closed it, briefly baffled. Heat was rushing to her ears again.

Her mother laughed in a singsong kind of way. "Protective, aren't you? Maybe I was wrong about him being head over heels. Perhaps it's the other way round."

"That's not…" Momo pouted. "Heroes are supposed to be protective."

"Even to other heroes?"

Momo blushed even deeper, her heart skipping every other beat. Why am I so flustered? It's not…it's not like that!

Tara laughed again. "Relax, dear. I'm only teasing you. But your father and I are going to meet this boy, at least. Just because we'd like to meet at least some of your classmates."

"Well, they've been here before," Momo muttered, trying to cool down her face. "If you'd just been at the house at the time, you could have met them…"

"You know how busy we are. Speaking of which…" Tara pulled out a pocket watch. "Would you look at the time? I have my call with the Crown Prince soon! Katsuragi, hold down the fort!" she called to the head servant.

Katsuragi bowed deeply. "Of course, Mistress. We'll be getting those curtains right away."

The Crown Prince of where? Momo wondered, as her mother hurried out of the room.

In any case, the gala was just barely twenty-fours away…she needed to get ready. Both physically and mentally.

…

It was time. Well, technically it would be time in five minutes. It was currently 5:55.

And Momo was very much regretting her decision to even let the girls know what she was doing tonight.

"Looking good, Yaomomo!" Mina called with a huge grin on her face. Toru whistled from behind her.

They were both sitting on the couch. Sitting at the kitchen counter were Tsu and Ochaco.

"You do look very nice, ribbit," Tsu commented. "It must be fancy." Ochaco nodded in agreement. "I hope you have fun, Yaomomo," the bubbly brunette said encouragingly.

Momo paced back and forth in the common room, her heels clacking against the floor. Where is Katayama? Does he plan on coming down at the last possible second?

"It's the moment of truth!" Mina declared with a smirk. "Soon we're gonna see who she invited! He's going to arrive!"

"Didn't you two come up with theories?" asked Tsu.

"Oh, we have a few," Toru answered vaguely.

"Can you guys shut up?" Momo muttered.

"You ought to calm down a bit, yeah?" Ochaco suggested, a nervous smile on her lips.

"Yeah, don't worry about those two, ribbit."

"I should never have said anything."

"Well, we know it's not any of those guys," Mina said, thrusting her finger backward over her shoulder.

On the other side of the common room, Bakugo and Kirishima were playing against each other in a fighting game, very loudly, not paying attention to what was going on. Jiro, Todoroki, and Kaminari were flanking them. Todoroki was watching with a great deal of interest, but Jiro seemed…unfocused.

"That's another round to me!" Kirishima said with a grin, slamming his controller down.

Steam blew out of Bakugo's ears. "Again," he growled.

Kaminari cackled. "Face it, fire-for-brains! You're not gonna beat him!"

"I've beat him at everything else! This stupid game is no different!"

Todoroki blinked inquisitively. "Why would you call it stupid? You've been committing a great deal of time to it." He seemed genuinely confused.

"Shut it, Icy-Hot!"

Kirishima laughed and turned to look around at the girls. "Whoa," he muttered quietly, suddenly getting a serious look on his face, a faint dusting of red on his cheeks. "What are you all dolled up for, Yaoyorozu?"

"She's going to a gala at her family mansion," Toru explained with a smirk. "And she's taking someone."

"Huh?" Kirishima blinked. Both Todoroki and Jiro looked up for a moment, briefly distracted.

"Wait…" Kaminari narrowed his eyes. "This isn't what I think it is…"

"Is it Iida?" Kirishima asked. "That would make a bit of sense. Galas are for fancy upper class people, right?"

"Nope," Mina said, sticking her tongue out.

Momo raised her eyebrow at the pink girl. "How would you know?"

"Toru and I ruled out Iida immediately."

"Is it Midoriya?" asked Todoroki in a calm voice.

At the kitchen counter behind them, Ochaco fell backward off her seat with a very loud crash. Tsu let out a frog-croak that sounded curiously like a snort.

"Don't you dare suggest that, Half-and-Half," Bakugo snarled, suddenly inserting himself into the conversation. "There's no way Deku could get with Ponytail."

"Yeah, haha…" Ochaco mumbled, letting Tsu help her back into her seat. "There's n-no way…"

"You guys are all stupid!" Kaminari wailed.

Jiro gave him a derisive look. "You're one to talk, Jamming-yay."

"No, you don't get it! There's only one person it could possibly be!" He clutched his head in despair and defeat.

Mina's smirk widened. "Kaminari's got it."

At that moment, Doko Katayama walked into the common room wearing a suit and red tie, his newly cut hair immaculate.

…

The second Doko walked in, a bunch of his classmates had insane reactions that he was forced to immediately ignore. Everyone was freaking out in every direction, and yet, they all faded away.

He could only look at Momo.

Her hair was even glossier than usual, and she'd put some sort of product in it to make it wavy. Two strands of it dangled on either side of her face, framing it, and the rest was in a ponytail that wasn't her usual. It still stuck up, but it did so in a more curvy, refined fashion.

She was wearing a red dress, the same red as her hero costume. It had a deep cut like a V, not going all the way down to her waist like the cut in her costume but going definitely past her boobs, meaning she was not wearing a bra. The dress had another cut on the lower side, revealing a large portion of her left leg.

Wrapped around her shoulders was a fur coat like the one Mina had on her hero costume, except it was white instead of brown. On her right wrist was a frilly gold bracelet, and on her feet were dark black heels that brought her up to his height…and then past it by nearly an inch.

She was perfect.

Doko could only smile, as all their classmates shouted around them. Beyond the common room outside the window, he could see the car waiting for them.

Momo smiled back.

He stepped up to her and offered his arm. "Shall we?" he asked, enjoying himself immensely.

"We shall," she answered, intertwining her arm in his.

They walked out together toward the car, leaving the common room of the 1-A Heights Alliance in chaos.

That was fun. Next chapter will be the party in its entirety (unless I end up writing more for it than I expect to)