It was a week before Percy found out whether or not he made it into the school. He had been in the middle of preparing breakfast for himself, wearing only the pair of athletic shorts he had worn to bed. Nezu had been kind enough to gift him an apartment, or rather, an entire damn building. Apparently U.A. used to have dorm-style living for the first years, but it went out of fashion years ago. Instead of tearing down the buildings, they had been converted into storage facilitates. It wasn't the he necessarily minded, but it was a bit on the lonely side, having the entire building just to himself.

Not that he didn't have the option of having company over. He was well aware of the fact that he still had Nejire's number in his phone, and a standing offer to hang out with her and her friends. Hell, the little pixie had all but demanded he call her to hang out with the three following the exam. For some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to do it, though. He couldn't explain it, not well, but he just couldn't bring himself to get that close to the bubbly girl or the smiling cartoon character. It felt like a betrayal. Like he was spitting in the face of those who were gone. He knew he was being stupid, that Annabeth would kick his ass for being so obtuse, but he couldn't stop it. Sure, his therapy was helping with the grieving process, but a small part of him just…couldn't do it.

Which was how he found himself spending yet another day on his own. He had been finishing up the batter to a fresh stack of hotcakes, when there had been a knock on the door. He took a moment to decide whether or not it would be worth throwing a shirt on, but ultimately decided against it. He had his share of scars across his torso, but nothing too gruesome, and he was more than secure in his physical appearance. He opened the door to find himself facing one of staff members from his interrogation a few weeks previously. Midnight, if he recalled her name correctly, dark violet hair, and sky blue eyes that were wide in pleasant surprise at his half-dressed status.

"Well, what do you know," she smiled hungrily, her tongue jutting out to lick at the corner of her mouth, "Christmas did in fact come early this year,"

"Can I help you?" Percy asked, not at all swayed by the attractive woman.

Her face creased into a frown, "Not even a blush? Where's the fun in that," she pouted,

"Ma'am," Percy said dryly, "I grew up being chased after by water nymphs and the literal goddess of love, you're attractive, but it'll take a lot more than nice smile and a pair of tits to make me go ga-ga."

Whether it was the casual name-drop of the goddess of love, or blasé manner in which he spoke, the heroine just blinked in surprise and utter speechlessness. There was a hearty chuckle, and Percy looked down to see the tiny frame of Nezu laughing up at him,

"Well," he giggled, "I never thought I would see the day that our very own R-rated hero would be rendered speechless. Truly Mr. Jackson, I look forward to the next few years with you. Though I must warn you," he said, wagging a conspiratorial finger at him, "You may have just issued a challenge you will be unable to win."

Percy looked back at the woman in question, who was looking at him in a way that he was entirely too used to receiving from children of Aphrodite, looking back at Nezu, he replied, "I think I'll take my chances." He stepped inside and waved the pair in, "Come on in, I was just getting breakfast going, hope you're in the mood for hotcakes." he said as he strode back into the kitchen.

"Oh, you don't need to serve us," Nezu tried to say but Percy just waved off the concern,

"Come on sir, you're putting me up here, the least I can do is give you some breakfast," he then turned around and looked at him, "Mind if I ask a potentially insensitive question?" Nezu nodded, bemused, "You do eat people food, right?"

The creature just laughed merrily, "Yes, indeed I do."

Percy just nodded and continued his work in the kitchen, taking the bowl of batter, he began to pour measured drops onto the griddle on the stovetop. "I assume this means that I made it in?" he asked over his shoulder, as Midnight and Nezu took a seat at the small island table in the center of the kitchen.

"Yes, you did." Nezu replied, sounding absolutely smug, as he fished in the pocket of his waistcoat and withdrew a small circular contraption. Placing it on the table, the machine came to life, and displayed a scoreboard of sorts. It was a listing of the ranking of the students, and what they had scored in the examination. At the top of the list was his name.

"Having scored ninety villain points, you already secured your place in our program, but you see there was a hidden aspect to the test." Nezu said, and Percy nodded to himself,

"I'm guessing we got points for helping people out or acting heroically or something as well?" he asked,

"You figured that out then?" Midnight questioned, brow raised in curiosity,

"Nah," Percy said, "But it figures. There's bound to be some students whose powers don't equate to combat, so I figured they would need to be scored differently. There can't be that many people on a yearly basis both willing AND able to take on the monster you let loose. So I was thinking the real purpose was to provide an opportunity for people with non-combat related quirks an opportunity to show off what they can do."

"Absolutely correct," clapped Nezu happily from his seat. The batter was bubbling up on the griddle and Percy took his spatula and flipped the hotcakes, so revealing the other side to be a perfectly toasted brown. Walking over to one of the drawers by the stove, Percy reached in and withdrew three plates, and set them down. "As I was saying, because of your actions, and your leadership in organizing rescue efforts, on top of your plan to draw the zero-pointer away from the rescue effort, you were awarded another forty rescue points. Giving you a grand total of one-hundred and thirty points, placing you at the top of the incoming freshman list. Congratulations."

Percy allowed a satisfied smile to reach his lips. He was never an overly arrogant person, but he was competitive, and he was pleased to hear that he had done as he had hoped, and wiped the floor with the competition. Seeing the cakes were ready, he scooped the breakfast onto the two of the plates, placed a slice of butter on top of each, before walking over to the fridge, and withdrew a bottle of syrup. Setting the bottle on the table, he grabbed, a pair of forks, some napkins, and placed the ready meal in front of the teachers.

"Thank you, sir, and please eat up, while they're hot enough to melt the butter." Percy said to the pair of them. The two thanked him, and set about digging into their meal, as Percy began pouring his own batter, thankful he had made such a large batch. "I take it that's not the only reason you're here however," Percy said, pouring his batch onto the griddle.

"Correct," Nezu said with a smile, as he swallowed a mouthful of hotcake, "And might I say, Mr. Jackson, absolutely delicious, Lunch Rush would be jealous to hear he has competition."

This time Percy did blush, muttering an embarrassed "Thank you." He had never been able to take compliments.

"Oh come on…" Midnight muttered under her breath, pouting as she shoveled another bite of fluffy heaven into her mouth.

Nezu dabbed at the corners of his mouth with a napkin, "Now, onto the other reasons that I'm here." Percy, having served up his own plate sat down across from the heroes. "Firstly, I would like to go over in greater detail what you'll be doing at school. Obviously, you will not be required to take part in the core curriculum, as much as it shames me to say, there have not been many innovations since your own time, so your knowledge of mathematics, English grammar obviously, and scientific processes will be sufficient. However," he continued, giving Percy a gleeful smile, "As you are no doubt aware by now, Japan is a very different place to the United States. As such, I will be having a few instructors come in to privately tutor you on Japanese culture. As a way to avoid….potential culturally sensitive issues."

Percy nodded, it was fair and more than needed. He had already made an unintentional ass of himself a few times, because he didn't exactly know even the basics of common courtesy of his new home. And honestly, as long as he wasn't stuck having to relive the same tedious subjects in high school, he was happy.

"You will also have to be taught the basic laws and world history necessary to get you up to speed with the twenty-third century. As a pro-hero there are many laws and practices that you need to be made aware if you are to practice hero work. This will be especially important given your- ahem, history- with hero law. While your classmates attend the normal curriculum in the morning, you will be attending these classes, and will be taking exams based on your own special curriculum at the end of each semester. Your enrollment in the school will be based on your own success with these classes. A fair deal, wouldn't you say?"

Percy couldn't disagree, not that he was in any position to argue. He didn't exactly have a fallback plan, and he was more than willing to play by the rules.

"Secondly," Nezu started, pointing over to Midnight who was in the process of finishing off her own plate of hotcakes, "Miss Midnight here will be going over the full scope of your, for lack of a better term, cover. For reasons that should be obvious, the true nature of your powers and your background will not be made public. Not the least of which being that nobody would possibly believe you." The diminutive creature said with a shark-like grin.

Percy snorted; he was still having trouble believing that the staff had actually believed his story. Sure, they had a human lie detector with them, but still, it was more than a little ridiculous. Percy had briefly felt a little shameful, letting out his most important secret as easily as he had, however he'd had little choice in the matter. It's also not like he could have lied even if he had wanted to. That, and with none of his people around to raise hell over it, it didn't seem as big of a deal as it once had.

Midnight took her cue from the principal to begin her own spiel. She slid over an envelope, containing several documents with Percy's new 'identity' across the table at him. "As we have already discussed," she said, her attitude switching on a dime to professional, "You were taken halfway through your sophomore year of college, after it was discovered that you had been hiding your abilities your entire life. You were living and studying in Japan, where your mother and you had moved shortly after your high school graduation. You don't remember what was done to you, only that you were placed in the cryo-pod at some point. Your quirk has been registered with the federal government, we named it Poseidonis, we hope you don't mind."

Percy just laughed, and said that he didn't, it was an apt description after all.

"And," Midnight continued, "We have taken the liberty of…altering all information about you to fit the story. Most documents of the pre-quirk times have been all but lost, for once a good, after the wars following their reveal. So, it wasn't hard to forge your new identity."

Percy had a thought, "So, I don't really know what the States are like nowadays, but if they're anything like they used to be, I can't imagine the government was too thrilled that Japan was taking custody, over returning me back to the US."

Nezu laughed, "Oh, they weren't. I received several very nasty phone calls from the American ambassador shortly before my announcement, but I made it quite clear that it was your intention to stay here in Japan, I hope you don't mind me speaking on your behalf."

"Not at all," Percy said, "I just didn't want there to be any, like, major international issues or anything over me. And sorry for making your life more difficult." he said, once more feeling a touch embarrassed,

Nezu just shook off the apology, "Think nothing of it." he eased, "You just focus on your academics, and allow me to handle the more pressing issues. It's not your fault, after all, that you wound up here."

Percy would beg to differ, he still felt that it was very much his fault that he was here. It was an issue that he still had not been able to fully get over, even with all of the aid from Hound Dog. He felt that his own rashness and arrogance had cost him his family, friends, and his Wise Girl. But he didn't mention it to the principal.

Nezu reached under the table, and passed along a large package over to Percy, "In there, are your school uniform, we had to get everything custom ordered, as well your schedule and books for the upcoming year." Nezu clapped his hands together and rose from the table, extending a hand to Percy to shake, "Thank you again for agreeing to this Mr. Jackson,"

Percy smirked and gripped the paw himself, "Like you gave me a choice in the matter," he laughed, though not bitterly. Sure, the little rat, thing, had tried to manipulate him, but at least he was up front about it. It helped that, to Percy anyways, the deal seemed to be mutually beneficial. U.A. got the exposure of having a powerful quirk, as well as someone from the pre-quirk era attending their school, and Percy got to learn how to be a superhero.

A win-win if he had ever seen one.

Nezu just giggled, and jumped down from his perch, "Come Miss Midnight, allow us to leave Mr. Jackson to finish his breakfast in peace,"

"Of course, sir," Midnight said, before giving Percy one more heated look, that spoke of an…interesting upcoming year, "Goodbye Percy~" she purred out,

Nezu continued to giggle all the way out the door, "See you in class Mr. Jackson,"

He said, before tossing a parting comment over his shoulder,

"And welcome, to your Hero Academia."

BREAK

Rumi barely contained the annoyed sigh as she made her second lap of her patrol. Right before she had moved to Musutafu, the city had one of the highest crime rates in country. That had been a week before it was confirmed that fucking All Might himself had moved to the city to set up shop.

All Might.

The number one hero, not just in Japan, but on the whole goddamn planet.

Within weeks of the confirmation, the crime rate had plummeted nearly fifteen points.

Now, Rumi didn't want to send mixed signals. Lower crime rates were most assuredly a good thing. She couldn't be mad that people weren't constantly in danger, and the city wasn't at risk of exploding every week.

But,

She was so. Damn. Bored.

In the last week, she had barely had anything to do at all! Not to mention that she was trying to crack the top-five this year, and not having villains to put away and crimes to stop, was having a serious effect on her numbers. The only plus side was that, at least now she had the time for something of a social life. Loathe, though she was, to ever be a part of a team of heroes, everybody needed friends in their lives, and prior to moving to Musutafu, she'd not exactly had the time. But with the recent decrease in criminal activity, she was able to actually see her friends more than twice a year.

It helped that apparently the Pussycats had been brought in to work for U.A. in some form or another. She didn't know what exactly, and Mandalay had been pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, but it was nice to be able to see them with relative frequency.

With a huff, she paused her patrol to stroll over to a nearby beach. For as long as she had been in the city, which granted was only about a year, Dagobah Beach had been better known as a scrap yard. Years of industrial waste and scrapped had either washed up on the shores or been deposited on the spot, for one convoluted reason or another. At least, until a few months ago. Apparently some good Samaritans had taken it upon themselves to rid the beach of the eyesore. The result, was a breathtaking view of the water, especially this time of day, where the sun was just beginning to set over the horizon, and the orange rays glistened beautifully off of the calm waters.

Strolling over, she paused at the top of a set of stairs down to the beach. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to be lost in the calming sounds of the waves gently washing over the sandy beach. The familiar salty scent of sea spray assaulted her senses, and she could feel herself almost instantly relax. She had grown up not too far away from the water herself, and the sounds and smells of the sea had always relaxed and calmed her nerves.

The ocean, and all of its mysteries had always awed her. How something so beautiful, could be so powerful and dangerous, she liked to think of herself as very similar. Untamable, powerful, and beautiful.

Opening her eyes, she felt refreshed, revitalized. At least, until she caught sight of the person seated in the sand a couple hundred yards away. She stilled, and she had to force herself to not react any more than that. Conditioning over several months of pursuit and giving chase, nearly taking hold as she recognized the man, calmly relaxing in front of the water. He seemed to have recovered from being homeless. Whereas before, he had been gaunt and thin, the product of months without proper nourishment, he was now large, the muscles in his back stretched tightly against the tight canvas of the t-shirt he was wearing. He had managed to get himself a haircut and a shave. His once ragged, and knotted mane of hair, was now neat and finely trimmed in a fashionable style, and the ratty beard of a young man had been shaved away, showing off the strong jaw and high cheekbones of a handsome man on the cusp of full adulthood.

She had almost not recognized him, if not for the enhanced senses granted to her by her quirk. But she saw his eyes, and she didn't think that she would ever be able to forget the image of those sea-green emeralds even if she wanted to.

Before she could fully comprehend what she was doing, her body was leading her in the direction of the man, and in no time, she found herself standing next to him, in companionable silence, just watching the waves roll up onto the beach. They sat there for some time, just basking in the comfort of the setting sun, and salt-scented aroma of the ocean.

"So, I take it you're not going to try and arrest me this time?" She heard him ask after a while. His voice jolted her a little, the last time she'd heard it, it was raspy from ill-use. But now, it was deep, and filling.

She sighed, "No, no I'm not." she said awkwardly, there was a lot that was needed to be said, but she wasn't really sure how to say it. She crossed her arms uncomfortably under chest, and she tried to figure out what she wanted to say. Luckily, Percy saved her the trouble,

"I'm sorry, by the way." he said, and she turned to him in surprise. He still wasn't looking at her, his gaze forever fixed on the water, a sad and melancholic smile on his face. "I did some reading, you know? After U.A. brought me in, I guess I did some serious damage to your reputation. I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to, I was just…" he trailed off, unsure of how to find the words,

"Scared?" she supplied, still surprised by the apology. Don't be mistaken, in the immediate moments following the press release, she had been incensed. She had been humiliated, her reputation slandered, because of some kind of some guy who hadn't known any better? But as the days had gone on, and she saw the backlash from the interview, she had been overcome by a new emotion.

Embarrassment.

She had been embarrassed. Not because she had been unsuccessful in bringing him in, though that still stung, but for another reason entirely. She was a hero, she was supposed to instill hope in people not scare them, and the one guy, more than anybody, who needed even a glimmer of hope, had been forced to live for months on the run. All alone, in essentially an alien world, with all of his friends and loved one's dead. Scared to show his face out of fear for being arrested for something he didn't understand, or have any grounds for understanding.

Percy nodded, "Yeah, pretty much. All of this," he waved a hand vaguely around, "Was just so overwhelming. I had no idea what to do, and then I kept seeing these guys starting shit, and I couldn't just sit back and do nothing you know? When I was a kid, I had been powerless to to stop some bad guys from doing some even worse shit, and then this happened, and I just kind of snapped I guess?" He sighed and scratched behind his ear, in an oddly endearing way, "I turned to beating up bad guys in the hopes I could get a meeting with Nezu, the principal at U.A. I figured he would be my best shot of knowing if I could get home. I wasn't really thinking that my actions would have the kind of consequences they did to you pros."

He paused for a second before he snorted, "Well, except for that guy with the fire powers. He was an grade-A asshole."

She couldn't help the laugh that sprang from her lips. The video of the number two hero having an entire koi pond dropped on his head was easily her favorite video of all time.

"Honestly," she said between laughs, "For that stunt you pulled on Endeavor, consider us more than square. You're right, he's an asshole and has had that coming for a long time."

Percy laughed, and Rumi found herself happier, she liked his smile, it was nice. She didn't like seeing a frown on his handsome features. Then it was her turn to frown,

"I'm sorry too, you know?" she said, and Percy finally turned to look at her, confusion sitting in those beautiful green eyes,

"Why?" he asked, incredulous, and then waved off her apology, "You have literally nothing to be sorry for. You were just trying to do your job; I can't hold that against you."

God he was going to be stubborn about this, wasn't he? "Just take the damn apology you jackass," she grumbled.

"Nope," he said, relaxed as can be, "Like I said, you have nothing to apologize for. Actually," he said with a snap of his fingers, cutting off her objection, "Since I can tell you're going to be stubborn about this, there is one thing you can do."

She quirked a brow at that, as a sudden pit of disgust formed in her stomach, "I'm not having sex with you, you chauvinistic little-"

"What?" he asked, incredulous, "No!" he said quickly, and the pit of disgust in her stomach evaporated at the immediacy of the rejection, for some reason she was oddly pleased by the slightly offended look on his. "The hell kind of man do you think I am?" he asked, sounding genuinely offended, and once again, Rumi felt the now annoyingly familiar twinge of embarrassment wash over her,

"Sorry," she said, running a hand through her hair to try and distract herself, even as one of her ears wilted slightly, "It's just…in this kind of work,"

He waved it off, "No, no, it's ok, I'm sure you deal with all kinds of jackasses. But no, I was going to say let me buy you dinner or something. My momma always told me that nothing mended bridges like a meal."

She was going to object, but her stomach chose that exact moment to protest, grumbling loudly. She had worked through her lunch today, and hadn't thought to pack anything for during her patrol.

Percy laughed lightly, and stood up, brushing the sand off of his jeans, and Rumi was suddenly struck by how much taller he was than her. She hadn't really thought much of it when he was a vigilante, mostly because she had been more focused on kicking his ass. But here and now, as he literally towered over her, looking immensely more filled out than the last time she saw him, it became immensely apparent just how big he was. She nearly had to crane her neck just to look at him.

He turned and began walking away, calling out over his broad shoulder, "Come on, I know a great place a few blocks from here." and for a brief moment, she contemplated just leaving, but she her stomach was almost painfully growling, and she was loathe to pass up a free meal.

If she got to learn a little bit more about the mysterious man, then that was just a bonus.

BREAK

"So, then he just starts shouting about how, 'it's hopeless' and that 'I'd be better off just giving up, because he had the best fighting record,' or some shit like that. By the way, does that guy realize that he sounds like the most cliche movie villain ever? Anyway, I just got sick of it, and he wasn't really paying attention, so I just dropped the pond on top of him and took off."

Rumi laughed loudly, trying not to spill the beer in her cup all over the front of her uniform. She had lost track of how long the two had been sitting there, but from the moment they had sat down, Percy had been captivating her with stories. He was a very good story teller, and boy did he seem to have a lot of them. But hands down, hearing him talk about his little showdown with Endeavor was easily her favorite of the night.

"I felt kind of bad about the pond, so I snuck back a few days later and refilled the pond with water. I got lucky that the koi survived, because I was super not looking forward to going all the way to the Middle East to try and find replacements." He said, taking a sip of the cola he was drinking. Despite being over two hundred years old, he was still considered underage for beer. He was sure he would have been served if he asked, but he was treading on thin ice as it was with the law and didn't feel like testing his limits.

"Oh my god," Rumi laughed, wiping a tear away from her eye, "Oh god that's so fucking funny." she calmed herself down, "So, the U.A. entrance exams are over, what place did you take?" she asked, changing gears,

Percy raised an amused brow at her, "I don't know if I should be proud or concerned about U.A. standards if you're just assuming that I got in."

She smacked him on the arm jokingly, "Don't be an ass," she laughed, "You managed to get away from me," she said, jerking her thumb at her chest, "If you didn't get in then I'd have to kick your ass for making me look even worse. So, what place did you get?"

Percy just rolled his eyes, and just raised his index finger in answer to her question. She nodded, pleased, "Good boy," she said, patting his back like he was dog, "Anything worse and-"

"Wait," Percy interjected, his hands raised to stop her, and an infuriatingly attractive smirk on his face, "Let me guess. You'd kick my ass?" he asked sarcastically.

"Awe that's cute," She cooed, "You're learning,"

He rolled his eyes again, but joined in her laughter. "My turn to ask a question," he said, and she gestured for him to go ahead, "Like I said before, after U.A. brought me in I did some research. You don't work with other agencies or heroes, mind if I ask why?"

She certainly wasn't expecting that; she had been expecting him to ask about her ears or even her tail, they were common enough with the men she talked to, but the question about her hatred of teams was unexpected.

She snorted, "Only weaklings join teams." She said, taking a sip from her drink, "If a hero isn't strong enough to do the job on their own, they aren't worthy of being a hero."

"Huh," Percy said, as she went to take another sip, "That's a shame, because I think we'd make a hell of a team."

She choked.

She raised a hand to cover her mouth as she coughed around the beer, and she felt a large hand on her back. A sudden warmth spread through her, starting in her chest, and working its way up into her throat, and suddenly her coughing stopped.

Slowly, she turned to look at him, and to his credit, he looked apologetic.

"Sorry about that," he said, shyly scratching behind his ear, "Didn't mean to make you choke like that."

"Was that your quirk?" She asked, ignoring the apology,

"Yeah," he said, "I can control water on basically every level, and beer is like ninety-five percent water. I just evaporated the moisture in your throat, and forced the water in the blood in your throat to relax the muscles and let the air flow more evenly.

She blinked at him. The level of control over his quirk that he just very casually displayed was…impressive. If he had that kind of control already, and if his physical stature was any measure, the man was going to be an absolute monster. The thought made her warm in an incredibly pleasant way. Then she remembered the comment that had caused her little episode to begin with.

"Why would you want to team up with me? And isn't a little early for you to be thinking about this type of stuff?"

He just shrugged, "I've seen videos of your stuff. You're a close-range fighter, I was too, back in the day, but I used a sword and I figured that since dismemberment was probably a little more frowned upon here, I would switch up to mid-long range. Which works with how I fight, either way, I just figured our abilities complimented each other pretty well."

She had to admit that he wasn't wrong. She was a close-combat fighter. She'd been training to fight with her legs since she was old enough to walk, and it was the backbone of her fighting style. She had seen enough of his videos to know that he less than graceful as a hand-to-hand combatant, but his quirk allowed him to distance himself from his opponents and tear them to pieces from a decent distance. It would be a great compliment to her style.

If she was considering his admission.

Which she wasn't.

"As to the other thing," he said, breaking her out of her thoughts, "I don't think so. Based on what I saw in the entrance exam, I'm going to be one of the better fighters going into U.A., I've got more active combat experience than any of the other kids there, I know that for a fact," his face grew dark for a second, and she filed the information away as something to ask about at a later time. "Anyways, supposedly I have to intern in my first year, and I was going to aim for yours." he said.

"I don't take interns," She was quick to say, still staring at him.

Then the bastard smirked.

Her foot beat a small rhythm under the bar as it started thumping slightly.

"Not until me you haven't,"

She snorted, finally turning away from him, her cheeks darkening slightly, "What the hell makes you think that I'd want you to intern for me. I don't do team ups, remember?"

"Wouldn't really be a team up, would it?" he said, with a causal shrug, "I admit I don't know much about interns these days. But back in the day, it was basically just code for office bitch." He wasn't exactly wrong. She knew of a lot of agencies that used their student interns and sidekicks as glorified secretaries or in Uwabami's case, a way to pimp her brand.

"Besides," he said, "The way I figure it, it would look good on your own resume."

"How the hell do you figure that?" she asked, unable to believe that she was actually listening to this, and somewhat taking the suggestion seriously. It had to be the alcohol; she always had been a lightweight. Being as short as she was, adding in her ludicrously low BMI, meant that it took very little to get her tipsy.

"Well," he said, fishing some of the ice out of the cup and biting into it, "How good would it look if, the guy you had been chasing all around town, was suddenly your intern. Not just any intern mind you, but your very first intern, who just so happens to be from the pre-quirk era. Think of how much business that would bring. I'm not really one for the lime-light, to be honest I kind of hate it, would rather just do my thing you know?" and he looked genuinely annoyed by the amount of attention he had been receiving. She could understand that, he had been the target of nearly every news story for the better part of three weeks, and there wasn't a day where there weren't reporters camped out in front of U.A.'s campus, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him.

"But whatever," he said, fishing out another ice cube, "Nothing I can do about it, but," and he pointed at her, "For you to bring in someone with that kind of publicity?" he shrugged, "You'll have more work and offers than you'll know what to do with." Then the bastard smiled again.

And she realized she had been played.

"You son of a bitch…" she said, only making him grin wider, "That's why you wanted to take me out to dinner?" she demanded,

"Guilty," he smiled, "I figure that I owe it to you to do something about the hit you took to your reputation because you couldn't take me in. I may hate having the spotlight on me, but if I can use it to fix the damage I caused, then it's worth it."

She huffed, but didn't leave.

She hated this. Hated him. Hated him for putting her in this position. Hated him for trying to fix it. Hated him for making so much fucking sense.

And it killed her to admit it, but he had a point. True, part of the reason she wasn't seeing as much action these days was the admittedly low crime rate, but she was also not receiving as much publicity and offers for work as she used to. Her highly publicized failures to bring in Jackson had done some serious damage to her reputation; she'd even lost some sponsors as a result. As someone who had a very public reputation of never taking interns, sidekicks, or partners of any kind, it would grab attention as it was. Having arguably the most prominent first-year as her intern would bring even more attention her way.

"I'm not saying yes." she finally ground out, "BUT!" she shoved a finger in his chest, "If you impress me…I might consider it." she said.

"Ok," he said slowly, amusement dancing in his distracting eyes, "And how do I go about impressing you?"

"You probably don't know yet, but U.A. hosts a sports festival every year. It's the most highly televised event of the year in Japan. You win the festival, on your own, without the help of your classmates, then maybe, MAYBE, I'll entertain the IDEA of giving you an offer."

He stuck a hand out, and she made the mistake of looking in his eyes. They were alight, almost like they were glowing in the soft lighting of the restaurant, and burning with a fiery determination that caused her stomach to flutter.

"I hope your ready Bugs," he said,

"Cause I'm gonna knock your goddamn tail off."

AN: There we go, chapter five in the books! Thanks for the love this is getting, and for all those concerned peeps out there regarding my other stories, I am working on them. Got a chapter of OP done, but I want a few more stacked up before I release anything. Thanks for the support, love you all and stay safe.

Love,

LilDB