Chapter 14

"Are you ready Kaori-chan? Time to go. It's the gala today, remember?"

Kaori glanced up from the tablet Yamada had lent her. It was today? Yamada had told her about a gala for heroes to gather that supposedly happened once a year. They were allowed to bring family, and Yamada thought it'd be a fun thing for them all to do.

Glancing down at her casual attire that most certainly wouldn't qualify for any formal events, she looked back up at Yamada worriedly. Even Aizawa had dressed up a little, looking less shabby than usual.

"Should I change?"

"Oh," Yamada said, looking down at Kaori's clothes as if realizing for the first time how casual it was. "Do you have anything formal?"

"Not really. I mean, there's that Eraserhead costume."

Yamada grimaced. "Uh. I don't think that's any better. You should be okay like this. Gosh, we need to take you shopping soon. I keep forgetting," He quickly checked his watch and made a face. "We have to move or we're going to be late. Shouta?"

"Yes, I'm ready," he said grouchily. Aizawa wasn't nearly as enthusiastic and had been moping around the entire day. Kaori echoed his sentiments. A stuffy gala wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend her day, even if it was one with heroes. She never felt comfortable in those settings. Socializing in them always felt forced.

People were already milling about by the time the three had reached the venue, with the majority of them standing around the center and mingling. The sound of quiet conversation and the soft music playing in the background reminded Kaori of her prom. A low chandelier hung on the ceiling, and Kaori felt oddly tempted to try and swing it with her quirk. Thankfully, not everyone was dressed up to match the occasion, so it wasn't just her who was out of place. Some of the heroes were wearing their hero costumes even. It looked somewhat absurd in the fancy setting.

Small paper tents were on each table denoting the names of the person who was meant to sit there. It took Yamada a while to find the ones with their names, and Kaori was able to find the one for herself It was one of the few words she could read.

"Now, Kaori-chan, why don't you go find some of the kids to play? Shouta and I are going to go talk with some of the other heroes if that's okay with you. But we'll still be very close by." Yamada gestured at the gaggle of kids who looked older than her standing in the distance, and she didn't recognize any of them as characters from the show. "Or you could come meet them with us, but it might be a little boring for you."

"No, I'll be okay on my own." She hadn't been great at dealing with other kids, unfortunately. Even with all her years of experience in socialization, it felt like they were on a completely different wavelength than her. She never knew what to say and always felt awkward, especially with kids she had never talked to or seen before. Izuku was different, though, and she wished he was here as well. She knew he'd have given anything to have come see the other heroes.

"Try not to cause too much trouble," Aizawa added, giving her a stern glance. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."

Kaori rolled her eyes. She was probably the most well-behaved kid in the world; Aizawa just didn't know how tough normal kids were to deal with. She knew she was a real menace when she was a kid the first time around.

"You too," she said.

"Brat," Aizawa grumbled.

"Have fun!" Yamada called, and they were gone.

Kaori surveyed the area, looking for a place to hide until it was time to eat. She didn't want to interact with the heroes or the other kids; she was content to observe from afar. There were a lot of heroes she recognized, both from the show and from watching the news. She had to admit, it was kind of cool seeing them in real life.

Her eyes landed on a boy with white and red hair split evenly. He was sitting down, all by himself, with his hands tucked neatly on his lap and his eyes trained on the empty plate in front of him. There was no scar on his face to speak of, to her relief.

Kaori's practically leaped up in excitement. Another chance at befriending a canon character! Todoroki looked awfully lonely.

Her excitement faded a little after further thought. Should she talk to him? She wasn't really in a position to help him, and interacting with him would only make her feel worse; that she knew his problems and couldn't do anything. Besides, would he even want to interact with her? Izuku was always friendly so she knew he would've been receptive to her approach. With Todoroki, she wasn't so sure if he would even want to socialize, and she didn't want to make a bad impression on him so soon.

However, she was unable to resist. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she didn't even try. How much damage could she do, anyway? He was only four.

"Hi there," Kaori said, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm Kaori."

Todoroki spun around at her touch, his eyes flashing with surprise. Kaori jumped back in alarm. "Sorry! Did I scare you?"

It took him a few seconds to respond. "No. I'm fine," he said slowly. "Why are you here?"

"I got ditched, and I thought I'd say hi to you since you're alone too," she said. It was kind of a flimsy excuse. "So um. What's your name?

"My name is Shoto Todoroki," he said. His voice was so soft Kaori had to strain her ears to hear him. It was so different from how Yamada talked. She had to plug her ears sometimes when he got too excited.

"So, can I sit?" she asked, pointing at the empty chair next to him. She hoped she wasn't being too presumptuous.

"I guess so," he said, his face still showing no expression. He looked almost as stoic as Aizawa, but Kaori still saw a hint of uncertainty and shyness in his mismatched eyes.

"Thanks!" Sitting down, she struggled to think of what to say to him. Even though she was somewhat familiar with Todoroki from the information on the show, she still had no clue what to say, and he wasn't making things any easier on her.

"So, do you like All Might too?" she asked, cringing inwardly at how utterly awkward that sounded. It was the safest topic she could think of.

He nodded, his eyes brightening a little. "Yeah!"

"Do you know if he's going to be here today?"

"My dad said he's not coming," he said. "He was happy about it." His face said he didn't quite agree.

"Aw, that sucks. Why's you're dad happy about it though?" Kaori had been hoping to have a chance to talk to All Might about what had happened to her parents today, but she supposed a gala wouldn't be the best venue anyway.

"Yeah, my dad and All Might don't get along," he said, though Kaori already knew. "He doesn't like it when he shows up on the news."

"Oh," she said. She felt like she shouldn't ask more about the topic, for some reason.

A beautiful woman with long white hair and gray eyes approached the table, and Todoroki immediately perked up, a small smile lighting up his stoic face.

"Hello," she said, smiling at Kaori serenely. "I see you've made a new friend, Shoto. Who's this?" Even her voice was elegant.

"Mom! This is Kaori."

"Hi," Kaori said, awe-stricken. Her white hair looked so pretty compared to hers, which was always messy or tangled unless she spent hours combing through it. She wondered if she'd look like her when she grew up.

"Shoto, your dad wants to introduce you to some people. Would you like to come?" she asked. Shoto's face fell, his previous smile vanishing in an instant. Kaori got the feeling that it wasn't a choice. Had he already gotten his quirk, and Endeavor was trying to socialize him into hero society early?

"I think I should go then," she said, standing up. She didn't want to see Endeavor at all. "Bye! It was nice meeting you."

He waved at her shyly, but he still looked down. Kaori almost didn't want to leave him alone with his dad.

"Goodbye, Kaori-chan," she said. Kaori caught the hint of strain in her smile. She looked very tired, suddenly. "Thank you for keeping Shoto company."

Nodding, Kaori darted off.

It was at times like this that Kaori wished she didn't have knowledge of the show. How could she pretend like nothing was wrong when she knew how much he was going to suffer under Endeavor? What could she do anyway? She had already done the best she could, which was talking to him for a bit even if they hadn't talked about anything substantial.

Shaking her head lightly, she dispelled the negative thoughts. Aizawa and Yamada were already sitting down back at the table. Besides them, Midnight and a few other heroes she know were there too. Thankfully, they were all preoccupied with talking to each other and she was able to quietly sit down next to Yamada.

"Did you have fun with the other kids?" Yamada asked, grinning at her.

She nodded. "I met a boy," she told him. "He seemed nice."

"That's good. I'm glad you're being more social. Only talking to Shouta and I every day must've been boring, huh?"

"Kaori-chan!" Midnight exclaimed, her bright gaze landing on her. "You're here! Why didn't you say hi to auntie, huh?"

"Um… I…" She glanced at Yamada uncertainly. "Hi…" Midnight scared her a little.

"I hope you're putting the costume I gave you to good use?" she asked.

"Yes?" she lied.

"That's great! Hizashi! You should've sent me pics!" She pouted at Yamada, who only stared back unapologetically.

"Maybe I will, when you stop asking for them so constantly!"

Kaori shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't sure if she liked her photos being bartered like this. Had Yamada been taking secret pictures in the past without her knowing? She hoped not.

"Nii-chan!" came a loud voice to her right. Turning around to look, she saw a boy with dark blue hair and eyes. "Guess who I saw just now! Guess. Guess!"

"Indoor voice please, Tenya," the hero she didn't know said. Kaori eyed the boy with renewed interest. Maybe coming to this Gala wasn't the worst thing in the world if she got to meet two more canon characters.

"Sorry," Tenya said quietly, his face turning bright red. "But I saw Endeavor! His beard was really made out of fire, just like you said. It's so cool!"

"That's Ingenium," Yamada told her in a lowered voice. "He's a pretty new hero, had his debut a year or two ago, I think. He's been doing very well though."

"Ingenium," Kaori repeated. Kaori looked at Ingenium curiously. He looked normal, except for the protruding engines at his elbows. It was hard to reconcile this smiling and happy man with the injured one she remembered from the show. Aside from that, he looked extremely young, and if Yamada hadn't said something, she would've just assumed that he was here as a plus one.

"Yup! You should say hi to the boy next to you. He's Ingenium's younger brother and the son of the two heroes over there." Yamada nodded towards the couple sitting next to Ingenium.

Kaori turned towards Tenya, who had finished his conversation with his brother and was looking at her curiously. "Hi there!" he said. "I'm Tenya Iida. What's your name?" He stuck his hand out rigidly, his movement strangely robotic.

Kaori hesitantly shook his hand, wincing at how tightly he was gripping it. His face was so earnest she couldn't bring herself to pull away. "I'm Kaori Kurotobi," she said. "Nice to meet you."

He nodded solemnly. "Is this your first time coming to one of these events? I had to beg my parents for a month to bring me— they kept saying I was too young. But you look even younger than me."

"Um. Yeah, this is my first time," she said.

"You came with Present Mic, right?" he asked, his eyes gleaming. "That's so cool. My brother said he's worked with him before. Is he your dad? You guys don't look very alike."

She suddenly felt very out of place. All the kids here must all have heroes as parents, all except for her. Why was she here? Was she intruding?

"Hey Tenya," Ingenium said suddenly. "Look! It's Best Jeanist!" He pointed, and Tenya's gaze immediately followed, sparing her from giving an awkward response. Had he done that on purpose?

"Woah!" Tenya exclaimed.

While Tenya was distracted, Ingenium turned and grinned at her. "Hello!" he said. "Kaori, right? Mic's told me about you.

Kaori smiled weakly. "Only good things, I hope."

"Of course!" Yamada said, ruffling her hair. "There's nothing bad to say!"

Kaori knew that was a fat lie, but she appreciated Yamada for not exposing her. She couldn't help but feel that if it had been Aizawa, it would've been a very different story.

"Kaori! You saw Best Jeanist, right? Do you think he'd give us autographs if we asked?" Tenya asked, finally turning back to their conversation. "We should go!"

"Not now, Tenya. Maybe when we're all done eating, okay?" Ingenium said.

"Aw, okay!"

After meeting All Might, she's lost a lot of interest in gaining autographs of her favorite heroes. Besides, she was living with Aizawa and Yamada. She still thought Tenya's enthusiasm was endearing. It reminded her a lot of Izuku, but a bit more on the milder side.

Finally, an emcee tapped on a mic, and all the conversations ceased. Kaori was starving at this point. They hadn't had anything to eat since Yamada thought they should get the most out of the buffet. The speeches took forever, and while the first few were mildly interesting as they gave her an insight as to hero society, the rest all sounded the same and Kaori just wanted to eat. Tenya didn't look like he was faring much better, and his legs kept fidgeting anxiously. Kaori smiled. So he wasn't a complete rule-following robot since birth.

After her hands had gone numb from clapping mindlessly after each speech, it was time to eat. Yamada helped fill her plate up with food as she pointed at the ones she wanted from the buffet tables. It all looked mouth-wateringly good, and she wished she could try them all. However, Yamada refused to give her more after the plate was half-filled. He knew her eating habits too well.

Everyone else around her was eating and talking, and she didn't know what to do with herself. Yamada's conversation with the rest of the hero might as well be in an alien language for how much she was understanding, and she knew there was no way she could add her input.

Getting up again, she told Tenya that she was going to grab more food for herself. Neither Aizawa nor Yamada stopped her so she took that as a go-ahead.

Some of the tables were too tall for her to reach, and others had lines that were too long for her patience. She wandered around for a bit until finally deciding on getting some soup. Flipping all the lids of the soup pots one by one, she finally stopped at the miso soup. It was a bit of a boring choice, considering how common it was in Japan, but it was a safe one. Some of the other ones looked a bit questionable, especially since she couldn't read what the words on the paper plaque said.

Carefully, she grabbed a bowl and the ladle that sat at the side. Immediately, a wave of hot vapor hit her in the face. The soup was hot! The ladle set on the side was slightly too long and heavy for her to hold steadily, but she was determined. Scooping up as much of the miso soup as she could, she tried to pour it into the bowl, but her unsteady hands spilled it all over the hand she was using to hold the bowl.

"Ouch," she hissed quietly. Her entire hand felt like it had been set on fire. It hurt like hell! Tears gathered in her eyes, and she began to panic a little trying to figure out what to do. Why the hell was the soup so hot? It had only touched her hand for a second or two, and it hurt this much already?

No one else around her had noticed her plight, and she wasn't sure if she should be thankful for that or not. Unsure of what her next steps should be she wiped her wet hand against her shirt, wincing at the painful raw sensation it left behind. The soup bowl she had tried so hard to get wasn't even halfway filled, but she didn't think it would be a good idea to pour more in. Hesitantly, she picked up the bowl and returned to her table.

The others were still chatting away merrily back at the table, and none of them seemed to notice her pained expression. As much as it hurt, she didn't want to interrupt their conversation. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves, even Aizawa who had moaned and grumbled about coming here, and she was sure they didn't have much time to just hang out and chat like this, considering their careers. She shouldn't make a fuss. She knew Aizawa would get annoyed and reprimand her, thus ruining the mood for everyone else.

Which meant she had to solve the problem herself. The pain was steadily increasing now, and she could almost feel the heat at her fingers spread. It didn't seem like it was going to go away on its own. She had to do something to mitigate it, or someone would inevitably notice.

"I need to … uh, go to the bathroom," she said, poking Yamada's arm.

"Oh! Want me to go with you?" Yamada asked, turning away from his conversation.

Kaori gave him a blank look, in her pain unable to form a response, which was enough of a response it seemed, for Yamada's face colored.

"Or…how about Midnight go with you?" he quickly suggested. "Nemuri, could you take Kaori to the bathroom?"

"No, seriously. It's fine. I have legs, you know," she said anxiously. She needed water, now! "Just point me in the direction."

"Good idea," Midnight said, completely ignoring Kaori. "This way, Kaori-chan."

Kaori resisted the urge to bang her head against the table. However, she didn't see a way out of it. Midnight stood and slung her arm over Kaori's shoulders, steering her away from the table.

"So, how's Shouta and Hizashi treating you at home?" she asked cheerfully. "You look better than the last time I saw you, so they must be doing something right."

"They're… great."

"Oh, and Hizashi told me you got your quirk! Congrats!" she continued, not fazed one bit by Kaori's non-committal answer. "Air manipulation, huh? Super exciting!"

She grunted in agreement.

"And the way it manifested! To make Hizashi speechless, that's something else." She laughed. "It's never happened before, for as long as I've known him."

If it wasn't for the pain, Kaori would've been annoyed by her statement. However, the only thing she could think about was getting the horrible pain to stop. She wished Midnight would walk faster.

"Oh! Here we are! That was fast," she said, stopping in front of the women's bathroom. It took all of her willpower not to sprint in as fast as she could.

Even the bathroom was unnecessarily fancy. Everything from the sinks to the walls was golden and shiny. Kaori didn't care much for decor and quickly walked toward the marble counter where the sinks were. At least the lights weren't too bright, and she couldn't see how bad the burn looked. Neither could Midnight.

"I just need to wash my hands," she told Midnight, who was still hovering behind her.

"Let me help with that," she said, her hand reaching over to grab Kaori's.

"No, I'm fine." Kaori was annoyed by all the babying. Couldn't they tell that she was a fully capable and mature person? She grumbled internally at the misfortune of appearing as a kid for the thousandth time since she was born. She couldn't even be trusted to wash her own hands.

Almost tearing off the tap handle in her haste to turn it on, she stuck her hand through the stream of cold tap water. It instantly took the burning sensation away, and she sighed in relief. The slight warmth remaining told her that it wasn't exactly a cure, but she'll take the relief when she can.

"Ready to go Kaori-chan?" Midnight asked after a bit, looking at her expectantly. Kaori grimaced. Would the pain return as soon as she takes it off the tap? Her hand looked red still, even in the low light.

"Just um… give me a minute," she said.

"Why are you still running your hand through the water? Wasting water is bad," she admonished lightly.

"I—" she had no excuse. Reluctantly, she turned the tap off. Her hand instantly started to burn again, this time even more angrily, as if it was mad that the water had stopped. Kaori slumped, accepting of her fate. "Let's go."

Midnight grabbed hold of her right hand — the uninjured one, thankfully — and dragged her along enthusiastically. The walk back to the table felt even longer than the first time around. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.

Tenya finally finished his food when they got back, and he started to enthuse about his brother, but Kaori just couldn't listen to the mundane drabble despite her best efforts. The pain was the only thing she could think about, and she'd check her hand every second she got. The dim atmosphere made it difficult for her to check the severity of it, but she could see blisters that had formed at the side of her pinky and index finger. She wished she had a phone to google burn treatments, but she already had a good idea what they'll say. Probably just to run it under water some more.

She glared at the bowl of miso soup sitting in front of her innocently; her greatest nemesis. Taking a spoonful, she was even more enraged to find that it tasted bland. This was what her suffering amounted to?

"Kaori-chan? Are you feeling okay?" Tenya asked, his eyes shining with concern.

"Yep," she said with a grimace, forcing down another spoonful of terrible soup. "Soup hot."

Tenya nodded, then immediately launched into another spiel about his brother's latest hero bust. She nodded along like she was listening carefully, still wanting to leave a positive impression on the boy despite her pain.

After what felt like an hour had passed, the pain had gotten unbearable, and Kaori was on the cusp of tears. She longed to make another bathroom trip yet didn't want to seem weird. Was she in the wrong for not telling the adults about it? She didn't want to ruin their rare day off for something so trivial.

Clamping her hand around the icy bottle of coke Yamada had grabbed for her earlier, she tried to get any form of relief she could.

"Ouch," she yelped. The coolness had the opposite effect and it almost made it feel like she got burnt again. She retracted her hand, cradling it gingerly against her chest.

Aizawa and Yamada's heads snapped to her immediately at her yelp, to her chagrin. They have been paying some attention to her, after all.

"What's wrong?" Yamada asked.

"I burned my hand when I was getting the soup," she said tearfully, the pain finally winning over her desire to keep silent.

"Oh no, let me see," Yamada said, turning his chair over in her direction. Dutifully, she held out her hand for him to see.

Yamada examined it closely, using his phone as a flashlight to see more clearly. Under the harsh white light, the burn looked a lot worse than she had thought. The back of her palm was now covered in an angry red, with yellow blisters forming at the sides of her fingers. Already, some parts were peeling, and Kaori reached out to get rid of the peeled skin instinctively.

Yamada slapped her hand away gently. "This looks bad. When did this happen?"

"Before I went to the bathroom," she said, looking at his face closely for any signs of anger, but only found concern.

"Why didn't you say so then?" Aizawa asked, craning his head to look.

"I didn't want to interrupt you guys. I can deal with it. I'll just go to the bathroom again." She stood up, pushing her chair in.

"No, don't bother. We'll be leaving early."

"Aw, why? It's not even that bad," she protested, flapping her left hand around. The wind it created seemed to help a little in alleviating the burn, and she continued doing it despite how dumb it must've made her look.

Aizawa stared pointedly at her. "If you had spoken up about it earlier, we could've had Recovery Girl help, but unfortunately, she had to leave for an emergency." He pointed at the table right next to theirs, and sure enough, there was an empty seat.

"Bleh," she grumbled, wrinkling her nose. "Can't I just get someone to freeze my hand?"

"Don't think you're supposed to do that kid," Yamada said. "Let's get you home first and patch it up."

Kaori frowned. In a Gala full of heroes, were there not one that could heal a minor injury like this? Recovery Girl must be in high demand in the hero world if that was the case. "But I don't want to be the first ones to leave." She gestured at the tables around them, all still filled with people in the middle of their meal. "You guys are making it a bigger deal than it has to be."

"Oh, so that was why you wanted to wash your hands for so long earlier. You should've just told me!" Midnight piled on.

"But I-" She stopped herself from arguing more. She'd hate to make a scene.

"We're leaving. Now." Aizawa said sternly.

"Fine," Kaori said reluctantly. "Bye, Tenya. See you around."

Looking more than a little confused, Tenya nodded. "Bye Kaori! Maybe we can talk about heroes next time."

It only took Aizawa and Yamada a few minutes to say their goodbyes.

"I'll see you soon, Kaori-chan," Midnight said. "Be more careful next time, okay?"

She could only nod, already fearing the reprimands she was sure to get later on.

The way back home was painful, Kaori had her hand in the bag of iced water the hotel manager had provided. It helped, but she had to move her hand around the still water constantly or else the temperature would rise.

"Careful not to spill it on the car," Aizawa warned as he eyed her from the rear-view mirror.

"Leave the kid alone. She's in pain."

"It's her own fault for not telling us sooner."

"But I had a good reason!" Kaori argued. She had only done it because she hadn't wanted to ruin their night, so why was he making her out to be the bad guy here?

"It's not a good reason," Aizawa said in his exasperated voice. "

Kaori grumbled. It was impossible to win in an argument against Aizawa. He always shut her down without thinking of her point of view.

By the time they reached the apartment, the water was already warm and tepid. Aizawa took it from her and dumped it out in the kitchen sink.

"I'll go look for a medkit," Yamada announced. "Bathroom cabinet, right?"

"Top shelf," Aizawa said. "Come here, Kaori-chan. Internet says to run your hand under water for ten minutes."

Aizawa pulled a stool out for her, and she stuck her hand under the tap. It was soothing.

"This sucks," she grumbled. This was not how she envisioned how her day was going to go. Being tethered to a sink was boring as hell.

"You brought this on yourself. There were so many ways you could've avoided this, like asking one of us to get the soup for you," Aizawa said. "Why'd you decide to pour the extremely hot soup on your own?"

"Okay, I get it!" She resisted the strong urge to fling some of the water in Aizawa's face.

Aizawa studied her burned finger carefully. "But seriously, all that from the soup?"

"Yeah! It wasn't even good soup," she said indignantly.

"Well, that's one less thing you're allowed to handle from now on. I guess I should go have a talk with the manager next time," he said, drawing back.

"Not my fault they made the soup so hard to handle," she complained.

"And I expect you to tell me about any injuries next time," Aizawa continued. "This one is minor, but it makes me afraid of what you'll hide in the future."

Kaori opened her mouth to protest; she was getting seriously sick of all the monitoring. But in Aizawa's perspective, she was just a four-year-old girl who thought she knew better than everyone else. What could she say to convince him otherwise? "It was nothing I couldn't deal with on my own," she said uncertainly. "If it was a broken leg or worse, I would've told you."

"It's okay to ask for help," he said. "I'm not going to be mad this time because it's the first time, but you won't get a second pass, okay? Come straight to me if you ever get hurt, even if it's just a bruise."

"That's silly," she responded. She was touched by his concern, nevertheless.

"The medic is in the house!" Yamada's yell put an end to their conversation, and Kaori looked over to see him wave a medkit in the air. "Alright, let's see the damage."

Kaori watched as he loosely wrapped some bandages over her fingers. His hands were gentle, and she relaxed. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as before and she could only feel a dull throb. Maybe Aizawa was right, and she should've just told them right after she got the injury. The decision seemed so stupid now that she didn't feel as defensive anymore.

"Aside from the burn, did you have fun?" Yamada asked as he started putting things back into the medkit.

"Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen that many heroes in one place. It was kinda cool," she said.

"See? The outside world isn't that scary, right?" He smiled. "Let's start getting you out of the house a little more. Maybe you can make even more friends."

Kaori nodded. She supposed getting a tiny burn was a small price to pay for making friends with Tenya and Shoto.

Okay, I finished this one faster than I expected. Also, next chapter in a week or two, just needs like an hour or two of editing and it'll be finished. Pacing will speed up next chapter, btw. Thanks for reading :) also thanks for the comments last chap, appreciate it.