Just have a drink and you'll feel better
Just take her home and you'll feel better
Keep telling me that it gets better
Does it ever? - In My Blood by Shawn Mendes

I wearily trudged out of the office and ran full body into Shoto going the other way. "Oof!" We both staggered to a stop, and I laughed, "Sorry."

"Ready to go for the weekend?" He looked at a digital display, his brows raising. "You're here pretty late."

I followed his line of sight, "Oh NO!" I yelped, "I have to get Kaiden!" I darted away from him in a spike of parental panic. The daycare doesn't care that you're training to be a hero.

He followed me and together we raced to get Kaiden before I got a condescending phone call. Shoto in his everyday clothes, his cardigan flapping behind him as he chased a costumed girl down the sidewalk must have made a hilarious sight. Already, I could see the flashes of cameras and walkers slowing down and pulling out their cellphones.

Oh god. I fumed silently. Thank whoever cares that I am getting Kaiden. They couldn't post any more pictures after we entered the daycare. Some laws worked in a Hero's favor now.

I skidded to a stop, and wasted no time at all flinging the door open and resuming my run to the side of the office building that held the daycare. At the front desk, I gulped air, and Shoto stood behind me nervously looking over his shoulder for any idiots that might risk jail time for selling juicy secrets to criminal organizations or even tabloids.

"Uraraka, Kaiden, please." I puffed as I tried to look heroic after our madcap dash.

The front desk girl looked at me with round eyes. "Uravity?" Her light blue smock dotted with colorful farm animals wrinkled as her hand clutched the material. "Is that…? It's Shoto from Endeavor's Agency!"

Shoto put on his serious face, "It's better if you forget that and just get Kaiden-chan for us, please."

I didn't believe for one second that the girl would have done anything. I had chosen this daycare because the offices above us, being close to an Agency with as good a reputation as ours, were filled with executives and people who valued security for their little ones. But she heard the threat, and did not waste any more time staring at us. In the quickest turnaround time I'd ever experienced here, I had Kaiden in my arms.

Shoto fretted with the jogger, and finally, held out his hands so he could strap Kaiden in and we could get back to the shop. I handed him the baby, and waited for him to finish before holding the door open. We left the daycare, and I smiled at how much Shoto seemed to like my son. If I were to give in to this attraction between us, that would be important.

"What kept you so late?" Shoto broke my train of thought.

I snorted, "Your dad, what else? He wanted all his incident reports finished before I could leave. I think I was just so stressed out that I forgot all about the time."

We walked on together until Shoto was physically stopped from following me into the locker room and the shower I owed myself. He put out his hand to stop me from taking Kaiden in and finishing up for the day.

"I hope I'm not putting my nose in where it doesn't belong."

I blinked at him. That was the first time he'd ever even tried to put his nose in, so I absolutely wanted to hear this. "With an opening like that…" I raised my brow, and felt a curl in my lips.

He chuckled, his eyes sparkling in shared amusement, "Yeah, that didn't come out just right, did it? I just thought you've been working so hard all week. Maybe you'd like to call Tsu or someone, someones? And have a night out."

"I would, but my parents are the only other babysitters…"

He interrupted me with a large smile, "Then I can watch Kai-chan. We get along, and I learned how to take care of him when you were sleeping." He sobered, his countenance clouding, "Your parents were often busy or just emotionally tired. I miss that." He looked up, an embarrassed flush crawling up his neck, "Not that part, but watching Kaiden."

I was once again hit by his kindness. Not that I didn't think he was kind, because for all his emotional distancing when we were at school, he often showed surprising amounts of kindness and insight. But I was no longer convinced that it was merely Shoto's heroism or whatever guilt he may have felt over the events of that day. My heart, such as it was, melted. If I were waiting for a reason, if I were ever ready to see where this relationship is going, this was it.

I let the handle of the stroller go, and smiled, "Sure. I'd love that, actually. I should have enough diapers in his bag. There's formula and a couple of scoops of cereal in a little container. Just follow the instructions for the formula, and add half the cereal for his dinner. In an hour or two. He'll let you know." I shook out nervous fingers, "And then he'll be ready for bed a little while after. Just lay him in the center of your bed and roll up a couple of towels to keep him from rolling off." I laughed and poked him, "Don't wake him unless you need to!"

"Can I text you? That was kind of a big info dump there."

I swung open the locker room door, "Sure, Shoto. Anytime."

Shoto

A knock sounded at my door, and I ran to open it before it could wake the baby. Ochaco had warned me that he wouldn't like to be woken. I got there just as Katsuki had drawn back his fist for another go.

"What's up?" I blocked the door.

He tried to look around me, then looked me up and down, "If you have a girl in there just say so."

"I don't." I leaned against the frame, "What?"

"Don't 'what' me. What are you hiding?"

I huffed, "Nothing!" He glowered at me, "Come in, but be quiet."

He moved into the room, "Why be quiet? The rooms next to ours are empty." He smiled, holding up a six-pack, "Just wanted to see if you wanted to chill."

"Ochaco let me watch Kaiden. He's asleep in my bed, and I don't want to wake him."

Katsuki paused in the act of putting the beers in the fridge. He slid them in and turned to face me, "You volunteered?"

"I asked." I knew my face was wreathed with a stupid grin, "She seemed stressed, so I told her I'd watch him, and she should go out with Tsu and unwind."

Bakugo stared at me, his eyes a strange combination of confusion and hostility. "He isn't yours. What is your fascination with that baby?"

"I can't explain it." I jerked my body away, "Any more than you can tell me why you're being such an asshole right now."

"He…" Bakugo's mind is sharp, "He looks just like you. Is that it?"

"No. Stop being stupid."

"No?" His entire body was tense now, "You're stupid if you haven't realized how you are with him. If you slept with her, you had better tell her. If that baby is yours, I'm going to kill you."

"He isn't! I'd like to think I'd be a better dad than this." I'd meant the comment to be lighthearted, but I was suddenly annoyed by his thoughtless words. I stepped close, "We've been friends for a long time now, Katsuki. We've been working together for years. You knew Sachiko. You knew Emi. You know that I've had a fucking crush on Ochaco since I was 15! You used to tease me about it! If I slept with her, even once, wouldn't you know?" My fingers clenched into fists, "Wouldn't something about me be different?" I threw my head back and tried to stamp out the scream I could feel building in my chest, the fire I could feel roiling just below the surface. "I love her. She smiles for me, and when I touch her.." I sighed like a love-bitten fool.

"Glad to hear you say it." He grabbed my shoulders, "I know that you hadn't, but someone has. The evidence is sleeping on your bed." He gave me a rough shake, "You're scared."

I stumbled out of his grasp in shock, "Scared?"

"That she loves someone else. She just doesn't remember."

"I can't let her go."

Katsuki sighed and threw himself into my favorite armchair. He watched as I sat on the couch, "You might have to. You don't want to go down that road again. You must prepare to lose her." His face had softened into commiseration, "And Kai-chan."

I tried to hold back, but years of repression spilled out instead in the form of frustrated tears. I could feel them, pressing at the corner of my eyes, "I'm not strong enough, Katsuki. If she remembers that her heart belongs to some prick who hasn't shown his sorry-assed face yet, I will literally die."

"We can take him back. Right now. We can fire Ochaco or send her to another agency. You can give her to me or Moe for the last week of her training." Bakugo shook his head, "This is Sachiko all over again. You wouldn't listen to me then, but you will listen to me now. Even if she loves you too, it won't matter." He snapped his fingers, a micro-explosion, complete with a flash of light and a curl of smoke. "It could explode anyway. I know everything about explosions. This one will not kill you, Shoto, but you will be in misery for a long time. Stop now. Before giving your heart to her. Tell her the truth, she'll respect you."

"The truth is that I love her. She already has my heart." I didn't want to have to face the fall out, but I could not lie to myself, and I would not lie to Ochaco. "This isn't like Sachiko at all. She never loved me, and I only wanted to stem the loneliness." That hurt. It'd been nearly three years, but thoughts of her still carried thorns. Pouring my heart out to Katsuki wasn't exactly new, he was the second person that I called friend, and he'd lasted longer than Midoriya. "I love Ochaco and Kai-chan. If you think I won't fight for them, you're delusional."

He shook his head, "If you want to fight, I'm your man. Point me at them. But you're already deep in a war you could lose and the only thing keeping you from losing everything you hold dear is Ochaco's memory." He paused, "You should fuck her, then. She may just need a little kick."

I stared at him, my skin tight with embarrassment, "You want me to do what?"

He shrugged, "I want you to win. I don't want to be friends with a loser who can't get it up to win his girl."

I laughed, throwing my head back in near-silent, body shaking chuckles. Bakugo joined me and got up to grab a beer, "Want one?"

"Maybe one." I accepted the can of Asahi and turned on my television to sit back and chill with Katsuki. My thoughts turned to Ochaco and how very much I wanted to see her not just on the job.

After Katsuki left, Kaiden woke up and I couldn't get him back to sleep. I rocked him until we both fell asleep on the couch. I couldn't tell you how long he and I drooled together. When a light knock and a buzz in my pocket woke me it was after midnight.

I struggled to get my phone without jostling Kaiden, and saw that Ochaco had texted me. That was her knocking. I grinned, stuffing my phone back in my pocket as I went to open the door. I met her with a smile and Kaiden making little sleepy noises.

"You're so adorable with that patch of drool on your shoulder."

"It's a fashion thing." I chuckled softly, "Let me grab his bag. He was so good." I fetched his bag, slinging it into his stroller before gently buckling in the still sleeping infant.

Ochaco stood just inside the door, her bright brown eyes taking in my apartment. She lay her hand over mine as I tried to hand the stroller off, "Thank you, Shoto. I'm so glad you suggested a night out. I needed that."

I looked at our fingers, so close to intertwining and back up to her expectant visage. "Would you go on a date with me tomorrow?"

Her eyes lowered for a second before coming back to rest on mine with a happy glimmer, "I really think I would like that." She smiled, "Good night, Shoto."

AN/ So Shoto had his first serious girlfriend three years ago, Sachiko. Sachiko told him he loved him, and he was really protective of her, treating her way better than she treated him. Katsuki told him she was no good when she came on to him. Shoto refused to see it, and when he finally caught her, he was utterly heartbroken. A year or so later, around the time Dabi and Ochaco were together, he fell in like with Emi. He'd been haunted by his life experience with love (which is bad) and she promised to make him happy. He couldn't be happy with her, so he sent her away and just decided to concentrate on his hero work. Why did I include this? Just take my offering and love it.

Baby is coming up on six months! Baby's first year is amazing; drooling is caused (in babies, who knows for Shoto LOL) by teeth coming in.

My brother in typeface, thank you Mosevic.