Keigo: {You leave next Friday. Don't worry about it until then. Enjoy your festival today. Love you.}

Leinei stares at the message, sitting on one of the chairs in the backroom of the auditorium where they were holding the concert. Her heel was propped up on the edge of her chair, her phone resting against her thigh as she read it over and over again. She felt numb, after the meeting with Dabi the night before, the anxiety the day of, all of it overloading to her system.

Don't worry about it?

She sighs and presses on the message, holding it until the small menu pops up across the bottom of her screen. She clicks the three dots in the corner, then the remove option. Watching the message blip away from her screen, she hangs her head and brushes some of her hair away from her face. Locking her phone, she lowers her leg and leans over with her elbows balanced on her knees. She could hear the sounds of everyone else getting ready outside the door, the excited voices. The excitement, the anxiety, the fear and happiness radiating off everyone made her skin crawl, the careful tuning she had thought she'd perfected slipping away as tears prick at her eyes.

How can I not worry about it? Everything I built here-it's all going to come falling apart.

She covers her face with her hands, a soft sob in her throat as she feels a pit form in her stomach. Her classmates' faces flitted in her head, lingering the most on the small group she'd found that accepted her. She'd lose all of them if she left; they'd forget her, or they'd be so angry with her they'd never want to see her again. She wouldn't blame them-she would be angry at herself for letting this happen.

I don't have a choice.

"Hey, Lei?" The door to the room she hid in opens, Mina poking her head in. She sees Leinei hunched over with her face in her hands, her concern for her friend starting to well up inside her. "What's wrong?" She asks, closing the door until a small crack remains in case she has to call for someone else. "Are you anxious about today? It's going to be okay; we're all going to do great!" She punches the air above her head with one hand as Leinei wipes her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah you can say that," she replies as Mina lowers her hand and walks over to her friend. "I'm just…I'm just worried about messing things up. Everyone else has been amazing, and I don't want to ruin things-"

"You're not going to," the pink girl assures her friend, offering a smile to her as Leinei sniffles. "Today's going to go great. I think I did pretty good training you to pretend to have normal feet, and even then it's all fake it 'til you make it, so even if you get behind or forget, all you have to do is look at us and we'll help you. And even if we did mess up, no one would blame you as long as everyone has fun! That's what today is about!"

"Yeah, but everyone…" She rubs her eyes and takes a shaky breath, bouncing her knee as she lets her hands fall between them. "I don't want everyone to resent me."

I'm not talking about the concert anymore, am I? Well, she doesn't really have to know-

"I don't think anyone here could resent you," Mina responds, her voice soft and calming as she moves behind Leinei and starts to ease her hair into a braid. "One, you're dating Bakugo. The fact you can keep him from yelling all the time and everything else is noteworthy. Two, after everything you went through, losing your sister, being kidnapped by villains, you kinda earned a lot of merit from everyone. You would've earned it even if you hadn't been traumatized but hey, no one can blame you for not being at the top of your game. And if they didn't like you and wanted to say some crap to you, you got me, Sero, Kaminari, Kirishima and Bakugo there to back you up no matter what happens. No one is going to hate you over this. I promise," she finishes as she ties the end of the girl's hair off with a ponytail holder. "Now, clean those cheeks, we got a show to put on."

"Right," Leinei laughs, feeling a little relieved and enlightened by Mina's words. She stands up and takes a breath, then another one. The anxiety and depression that kept threatening to drag her back down eases up the slightest bit, giving her a chance to breathe as Mina heads towards the door. "Hey, can…can I tell you something?"

"Is it that you and Bakugo kissed and you didn't tell one of your best friends?"

"What? No! I mean, he's tried but something always happens-that is not what I wanted to tell you," she huffs, pouting a little as her friend laughs at her. She chuckles and smiles despite it, scratching at her wrist and seeing some of the healed cuts from her three day hideaway in her dorm. "When I first came here, I wasn't…really expecting to make friends. Or really even be accepted. I struggled a lot, and had a lot in my head telling me I didn't deserve you guys because of…something that happened before," she continues, feeling ashamed. "And I'm sorry for shutting everyone out when you all just wanted to make sure I was okay. I think what I'm trying to say is thank-"

Mina cuts her off with a hug, squeezing her tightly and pushing the breath out of the purple haired girl's lungs. It takes a minute for Mina to realize she's struggling to breathe before letting her go and laughing sheepishly.

"Sorry," she says as Leinei doubles over, coughing and holding her chest as she catches her breath. "I didn't know how else to stop ya without cutting you off. But you don't have to thank any of us for being your friend. It's not a chore, or a job. We genuinely love you and want to be around you. You're awesome, Lei."

She smiles as Mina grins, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly until the other girl scolds her and pushes her hand away. She tucks a few stray hairs that the former had pulled loose back into the braid as they walk out. The others were pacing around, a little worried until Izuku showed up, earning a scolding from Iida about the importance of being on time. The green haired boy apologized profusely, but held up the rope they had sent him to get so that Yaoyorozu could sleep before the performance.

In Leinei's pocket, she felt her phone buzz, but dismissed it as she took her phone out and placed it on one of the chairs in the room everyone had congregated in. It buzzed again when she was heading onto the stage.

Two Unread Messages

Shindo(Ketsubutsu): {Hey! What time is your guys' concert? Me and some of my friends got permission from your principal to come visit.}

Shindo(Ketsubutsu): {Never mind! We followed the crowd! Can't wait to see you perform! I know it's going to be awesome!

Onstage, her legs shook as they all waited in their positions, the tech crew above waiting for their cue to blast the lights on them. If she tuned her quirk right, she could individually pick out where each of her friends were lined along the rafters. She could sense everyone's anxious excitement around her, mixing with her own as she glanced over at Katsuki on his drums. She could see the way his hands shook, retuning her quirk to him and letting a sense of calm run into him like she had done Keigo the night before. He sat straight, looking over to her and shaking his head with a smirk before raising his hand and letting off a massive explosion.

The lights cut on as Jirou yelled her greeting, blinding everyone for a moment as the music started. As soon as she started moving, the initial stage fright melted away. All of her issues, her worries, her stress, it all melted away and all that was left was the song and dancing with her friends. All that was left was putting on this show, making people smile, showing the other classes that just because they were the hero course didn't mean they didn't care about the others.

Halfway through the song, Leinei's heart couldn't stop racing. Her lungs were burning and her legs felt heavy from the mix of excitement, anxiety, and action, but she didn't want to stop. Her face ached from the smile she had on her face, and her eyes were starting to hurt as well, despite her chalking that up to the bright lights shining down on the stage. She almost couldn't hear the band over the crowd's cheering and their own dancing, and it almost made her heart burst seeing so many people so happy in the space. Every chance she could, she looked out to the crowd, and saw an almost yellowish hue across the crowd, and across her friends on stage too.

She ignored it, and kept dancing through the end of the song, her legs turning to jelly as soon as the lights cut off. She couldn't help the laughter that bubbled from her lips as she heard the crowd's cheers die away and the shuffle of feet as they started to file out. She could hear them recapping the concert, voting which parts were their favorites, the yellow hue still not dying away with the lights off.

"Lei, you're crying," Mina points out, concerned.

"I-I didn't even realize I was," she says, raising her hands to her eyes and wiping the tears from them. She flinched away from her own touch, feeling how tender they were. "Ow..M'fine," she assures the pink girl as Katsuki and Denki come over from the band's setup.

"That was amazing!" Denki yells, throwing a fist in the air as Katsuki shrugs. "We totally need to do that again! And again, and again and-"

"I think one showing is enough," Yaoyorozu points out, gesturing to the mess they now had to clean up in the crowd's area. "I don't know about any of you, but I'd like to enjoy the festival too, before everything else closes down."

"We have to finish before the beauty pageant starts!" Mineta yells, starting off stage. "Come on! Stop slacking!"

"Did he really just accuse us of slacking?"

"He did and I'm going to beat the crap out of him for it," Mina assures. "After we finish cleaning up first. Come on guys!"

Everyone starts to follow Mina and Mineta offstage, talking about the concert and the massive turnout they hadn't been expecting. Leinei follows behind with a light giggle, feeling Katsuki's hand on her wrist to stop her. She does so, looking over her shoulder at him and seeing the tender look on his face, the soft smile on his lips.

"Katsu-"

She barely had time to get his nickname out before he cupped her cheek and pressed his lips to hers. A soft gasp of surprise catches in her throat, her eyes widening for a moment as her brain processes what exactly was happening. After she finally caught onto what was happening, she almost melted against him, her knees about to give out after everything so far. In return, he wrapped the hand that was holding her wrist around her waist to help support her, not pushing beyond his lips moving gently against hers.

The kiss barely lasted a minute, and they hadn't realized the regular lights had come on to help them clean up. Leinei was the first to pull away, her face beet red and her hand over her mouth as he smirked at her.

"You told me to surprise you," he whispers to her. "Surprise."

"THANK GOD THEY FINALLY KISSED!"

They flinched, not realizing they had accrued a small audience of their peers and friends. Denki had his hands in the air, having been the one who yelled. Mina had her phone out, either to take pictures or record, they'd find out later. Eijirou was bouncing on his feet, grinning wickedly as Hanta gave them thumbs up.

"And it didn't take someone almost dying this time!" Mina adds.

"Shut up!" Katsuki yells, letting go of Leinei as she stands there dumbstruck with a smile on her face still hidden by her hand. "Come on, we got cleaning to do, dumbasses!"

My first kiss…

I love him so much.