Author's Note:

I do want to apologize for the super late update! I changed jobs and had an adjustment period to get through but I'm here with this chapter now! It's light filler (which is what took me so long) but I still plan to update on Fridays (every other).

Ch. 20

Ami had been walking on eggshells around her uncle for the 3 months. Winter break was in a few weeks and she was worried about being home around her family for the first time since she left for U.A. She'd be hiding a big secret from all of them, but she felt bad mostly because they were always so supportive of her. Her uncle hadn't tried to pry too much into her relationship with Katsuki since the first time he'd addressed it, so in her eyes that meant that they were in the clear. She and Katsuki had been dating since late September, and it was December now. It took her 5 months to face how she felt about him and she should really be proud of herself, but all she really was was stressed.

Kaminari had kept his promise to not tell anyone about what he knew, which had greatly soothed her worries. While Denki was trustworthy, he talked a lot. He had come to visit Katsuki one day with Kirishima again while Ami was there, and she ended up sitting criss-crossed on Katsuki's bed, wearing one of his t-shirts and some shorts, while the guys talked. Kaminari had stuck to treating her like "one of the guys", luckily for her, not just "Katsuki's girlfriend".

Katsuki had also given her his shirt after that. It was black with a skull on the front, one that she now wore to bed every night.

After a calm spell he seemed to be worried about her again Ami had noticed. Or maybe that was because of the fact that they were going to be apart for the longest amount of time since they made up. Over the summer break they hadn't been on talking terms, so she'd spent that time with Mina and Kirishima as they'd become friends right before that break had started. So that time didn't really count.

They ended up spending the last few days before winter break participating in school events and going to the class's Christmas party. Ami had snuck a kiss under the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen and Katsuki had blazed about it for the next two hours until he could pull her away and return the favor tenfold. By the time they'd entered back into the common room from opposite sides, they were both flushed in the cheeks and grinning.

Mina had given her a knowing look while Kirishima had started shaking his head with a smile on his face. The two of them loved seeing their best friends happy, and they never failed to let them know that, but they also never failed to let them know when they were being too obvious. Luckily for them, they weren't obvious often enough to attract long lasting attention.

By the time winter break had finally arrived, spending time with Katsuki honestly hadn't made it any easier to part. So Ami had decided to spend the night with him so that they could be around each other for a little longer. While the break wouldn't be very long, Katsuki had gotten to the point of not wanting to be too far away from her for long. He claimed to not be clingy, but he always tried to find some way to be touching her as if it bothered him to not be.

She felt similarly.

Ami kisses his forehead and gently scratches the back of his head with her nails, smiling when he closes his eyes and hums happily. "So what are you doing for winter break?" She asks softly.

Katsuki shrugs, eyes still closed. "Spend time with my parents. Probably go visit my grandparents."

"Sounds fun though. Your parents are cool."

He snorts at that, "My mom is louder than me and my dad is... yeah, he's pretty cool."

Ami glances over at her phone, knowing that just in a few hours she's going to get the call from her uncle to head down to the front of the dorms to join him on the ride to her parents' house. 11 o'clock sharp. She had a little over 12 hours until then, and she planned to make the most of it.

With testing and training having consumed most of their time recently, Ami and Katsuki hadn't really gotten to spend much time together. While they did see each other in class, it was hardly the kind of time they really wanted to be spending together. Katsuki was stressed and Ami was burned out, so even spending the night together was rare these days.

"You?"

Ami shrugs, "Same pretty much. My cousins are coming to visit with them, and they haven't done that in a while." With some of her family being in America, it was more

to see them during the holidays.

"They're the ones who live in America?"

She nods then pauses for a second, "My dad's parents died before I was born, so I don't really have any family on his side. Just him."

"My grandparents own the company my parents work at." Katsuki explains. "That's how they met."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah," he wraps his arms around her and pulls her onto his chest. "Apparently my mom came on strong and my dad didn't know how to handle it." Rolling his eyes, he adds, "Sounds like her."

"You and your mom kinda share the same energy." Ami laughs. "Both really loud and really headstrong."

Katsuki shrugs, "There was a point where I would've hated to fucking hear that, but you're not wrong. She smothered me as a kid so it only really makes sense that I would've come out of it with pieces of her personality."

"My mom is..." She struggles to find the words for a moment. "I love my mom, but sometimes she can be a bit much."

"A bit much?"

"She fusses over me constantly, and I know it's out of love but it makes me feel like a baby sometimes." Michele Fujiwara was the eldest sister in her family, above a younger brother -Snipe- and two younger sisters. Along with that title came a strong motherly instinct and denial when it came to Ami growing up. "I'm worried that when I introduce you to her that she might... freak out."

"I promise I'll be on my best behavior."

Ami snorts softly, "That's not why I think she would."

"It's because you think that she'll see you growing up and she'll panic."

"...Yeah."

Katsuki kisses her forehead and tries to give her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Shortstack." he says. "What about your dad?"

"Dad's really chill, actually." Hayato Fujiwara would probably be labeled as a "cool dad". He let Ami express herself as much as she wanted and he was always there when she needed a break from her mother's obsessing. "I think he'll really like you."

"So he'll talk your mom down from the ledge you act like she'll be on." He lightly tugs on one of her braids. "Stop worrying. Remember, we got this."

Ami sits up, straddling his waist, and looks out her window. "Well, on a different note, we have some time left before the countdown truly begins." Then she looks back down at him. "What do you want to do?"

"Maybe finish the show we started? The last two episodes came out last night in the two part finale." He suggests, grinning when she bounces with excitement.

"I forgot about that! Yes!"

Katsuki grabs her hips to still her and clears his throat, "You might... not want to do that." He suggests, a blush tinging his cheeks.

Ami grins, moving her hips a little against the hardness pressing into her inner thigh. "Sorry, I forgot."

"You don't sound the least bit 'sorry'."

She rolls off of him and sits up by his side. "Show first?" She suggests. "Then maybe..."

Katsuki groans and mashes the heels of his palms against his eyelids. "If I think about that now then we'll have to switch it around."

Ami laughs and lightly runs her nails across the exposed skin under his bellybutton, making him jump slightly and swat her hand away playfully.

"Ami."

"Ok, ok! Show first, sorry!"

Ami's phone ringing the next morning wakes her up, and she groans in annoyance. "Damn it." Opening her eyes to the harsh light, she sits up slightly and looks over Katsuki's sleeping form to where her phone sits on his nightstand. "Katsuki, can you hand me that please?"

He grumbles a questioning sound in his sleep but doesn't move.

"Kats."

He opens his eyes slightly and looks up at her, "Hm...?

"My phone was ringing, can you hand it to me?"

He rolls over and blindly reaches for her phone, eventually finding it and pulling it off the charger and handing it to her.

She taps the screen... and immediately her heart plummets.

*Missed call from Uncle J* at 10:30 a.m.

"Oh fuck."

Katsuki's eyes snap open at the alarm in her tone. "What? What's wrong?" He sits up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Then she sees the text.

Uncle J: "I'm in the dorms looking for you. We're leaving a little earlier."

Ami jumps up out of Katsuki's bed and immediately starts pulling on clothes. "My uncle's in the fucking dorms." She hisses.

Katsuki's up in seconds, grabbing her bags and her charger cord so he can help her. "What the hell for?" He groans. "Is he in the common room or on your floor?"

Ami grabs her phone from where it had fallen on the bed and shoots out two quick texts.

Ami: Mina, please tell me you're up.

Then to her uncle.

Ami: Sorry, I was still asleep. Where are you?

She's dressed and ready to go before the first reply comes back, and she sighs in relief when she sees it's Mina.

Mina: Yeah I am! What's up?

Ami: My uncle's in the dorms. Can I say I was with you?

Mina: Well duh! Hurry over and I'll meet him with you.

Then another text comes in.

Uncle J: I'm in the common room now.

Ami wraps Katsuki in a tight hug and stands on her toes to pepper his face with kisses. "I hate that I have to go so soon but I'll see you when we get back," She sighs, placing her last kiss on his lips. "I'll text you when I'm alone and home safe."

Katsuki picks her up off the ground in a bear hug and kisses her back. "You fucking better," He says softly. "I'm gonna miss my girl."

She can feel her heart immediately melt, "I'm gonna to miss you too. I adore you, and I'm happy I got to spend one more night with you before I left."

Soon she's out the door, sneaking downstairs through the kitchen, and back up to the girls' dorms to meet Mina to head down again. Mina immediately takes a bag from her hands and they rush into the common room where Snipe is waiting.

Her uncle gives her a slight eyebrow raise when they come into view. "You weren't in your dorm?" He asks, looking over at Mina.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Snipe." Mina laughs, feigning a forgetful tone. "We had a sleepover and stayed up too late by accident."

Ami nods in agreement, cheeks flushed from trying to run quietly with her bags, "I thought I was supposed to meet you at the gates...?"

He examines her for a moment before shrugging, "Mimi wanted us back sooner, I came here as soon as she called."

Ami turns and gives Mina the biggest hug she could muster, both an I'll see you later and a Thank you so much carried in the action, "I'll see you when we get back!"

"Have fun!"

Snipe takes the bags at Mina's side and looks down at Ami, "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Ami! Mon bébé!"

"Hi mom," Ami wraps her mother in a big hug, rocking side to side with a smile on her face. "I missed you so much!"

"Oh what? No hug for your dad?"

Ami laughs and looks behind her mom to where her dad stands, arms opening up to receive the hug that came next. "Of course," She laughs.

"You have to tell us all about U.A." He says, holding her out at arm's length to look at her. "I heard Eraser Head is your teacher."

"Yeah, Mr. Aizawa is pretty cool." She tells him. "I personally got to see how his quirk works too."

"Sounds awesome!"

Her mother ushers them inside after giving Ami's uncle a hug and welcoming him back. "I have food waiting! Hurry up before it gets cold."

Over food is when the questions about school start. Ami had been expecting it, of course, but trying to choose her words carefully when explaining what she spent most of her time away from class doing was... stressful. Between her uncle's watchful eye and her parent's asking a ton of questions, she was having to tread carefully without sounding like she was. She couldn't pause or think for too long on certain answers without worrying that she was coming across as untruthful. Ami chooses to eat whenever she's being asked any line of questioning that could prove risky so that she could think while her mouth was full.

"Well I'm happy to hear you love it there." Her dad says, giving her an encouraging smile. "Your grades are still perfect and you seem a lot happier."

"I am," She says. "Much happier."

"While I did orginally like you at Seiai more, I do like that you're actually staying out of trouble at U.A." Her mother adds. "Your uncle says you're one of the top students in your class."

Ami shrugs and ducks her head, "I'm the third highest in the class, under Yaoyorozu and Iida." She decided not to mention that her #3 spot was closely followed by Katsuki. He hadn't come up the entire conversation luckily, and she was hoping to keep it that way.

But those hopes die as her uncle clears his throat to speak.

"I was originally worried about her," He begins. "She'd ended up making a friend out of a previously problematic student within the first month."

Her mother's eyes snap to her face, locking with hers. "Problematic how?" The question was aimed at her uncle still despite the look.

"He's one of the schools Big Three now, but his first years at UA had shown he was ill-tempered and aggressive. "

"He?"

Ami feels her heart in her throat. "He's not that bad," she says, feigning nonchalance. "Bakugo's a little annoying sometimes but he's a good friend now."

"Is that the boy you said she'd been training with?" Her dad was asking her uncle now.

Oh. So he mentioned Katsuki already.

"Yes."

Ami sinks her nails into her palm and sighs internally. Here we go.

"He hasn't gotten you into any trouble, has he?" Her mother's tone was sharp.

"No ma'am."

"Well," her uncle begins, pulling her eyes to his face. "They got reprimanded for training instead of helping the class clean up the dorm building."

"And why is that?" Her mother again.

"We were talking about an assignment and I didn't hear Mr. Aizawa when he said it." Ami lies softly. "But we cleaned the classroom up to make-up for not helping."

"Well that's good then." Her dad says, flashing her a smile.

Out of the corner of her eye she can see her uncle watching her face carefully as she nods in response.

He knew something was up. She could feel it. While she had no clue how he did, the way he was assessing her while Katsuki was the topic was enough of a give-away. He most likely didn't know about their trip to see his parents, but she should've known better than to think they were completely in the clear.

It was time to play the game of distraction.