-TIME SKIP (3 Months- February)-

Sighing to myself, I managed to tame my usually frizzy wavy hair into some loose curls that now just reached my shoulder blades. Glancing back nervously, I eyed the form fitting dark blue formal dress that was sitting on my bed. Toshinori had surprised me with it when he picked me up from work this afternoon along with a pair of silver stiletto heels. My eyebrows had nearly lifted off my face when he had presented me with them, admitting nervously that there was a banquet for pro heroes tonight, and he had wanted me to be his date. It was sweet but unexpected. So far, only Enji-nii-san and Toshinori's best friend, Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, knew about our relationship at least in knowing that Toshinori was All Might.

I carefully lined my eyes with black liner and put on a layer of mascara to allow myself to look a bit more dressed up and put together. I finished off with a terracotta red lipstick and some pale neutral rose pink blush to try and bring a little bit of life into my pale complexion. After that, I nervously put on the dress. It was off the shoulders with a straight across neckline, a slit that went up to about mid thigh and was a mermaid style. Looking at myself in the mirror, a small smile graced my lips. Yes, it showed more than I usually did, including a tattoo that I had on my midthigh, well at least half of it. Toshinori hadn't seen it yet, but it was a black watercolor style tattoo of a flower and stem with several leaves coming off of it.

Next thing I know, I hear a knock on the door. Grabbing my heels to put on at the door, I ran to and opened the front door to see Toshinori in his hero form in a navy blue suit that matched my dress, a white dress shirt and a simple silver tie. My face flushed a bit. Although I preferred him in his normal form, I couldn't deny that his hero form was attractive as well. After all, it was still a part of him, and I loved every part of him.

That's right. I am in love with this man, but I haven't told him yet. Part of me was still afraid that he would end up running away, not that I'd blame him. I'm still a bit of a basket case. The cuddling and stuff has been great, but we still haven't slept together after almost 4 months together, and not that there's anything wrong with that… It's just that I feel bad, and the worst part is Toshinori has been a perfect freaking gentleman about everything.

"Wow, Rose…" Toshinori breathed, his jaw dropping slightly as his face flushed slightly, "You look absolutely gorgeous!" My face flushed in return as I looked down shyly and bent down to put on my heels, causing the slit to move slightly, showing part of my tattoo. "Nice tattoo!" I looked up and saw Toshinori with his signature smile on his face as he held his hand out to me.

"Thanks, Toshinori… You look really nice too," I replied with a shy smile as I looked up at his towering 7ft 2in frame and put my hand in his, "And yeah. I got it to cover some of my stretch marks from when I had Isha." Toshinori squeezed my hand lightly as he leaned down and spoke gently in my ear.

"You shouldn't hide those, dear. I'm sure you're just as gorgeous with them as you were before," he said sweetly, and I felt my heart flutter. I hadn't been self conscious about my stretch marks with Santosh because well they were half his fault, but Toshinori had never been married to my knowledge or had any kids. Not to mention, he was the number one hero and had girls falling all over him all the time I'm sure.

"You're too sweet for me," I muttered, embarrassed, "Let's just get this over with so a bunch of people can talk about how you could do better at this damn banquet." Though my eyes were trained on the ground, I could practically feel Toshinori's frown at my last comment.

"Let them try. I guarantee that you'll be the most beautiful woman there," he encouraged, his voice sincere. Remind me to have him get his eyes checked later. With that, I allowed Toshinori to lead me towards his car and drive us to the banquet which just happened to be at U.A.

~At U.A.~

Toshinori led me through the doors at the banquet hall at U.A., and I immediately felt an entire room of eyes staring straight at us. I felt my anxiety spike and a small flame sparked from my fingertips as I took deep breaths to calm down. My anxiety calmed a little bit as I felt the temperature increase causing me to look up to see Enji-nii-san in a sleek black suit with a black bowtie. By his side was Fuyumi in a pretty simple long light blue dress with spaghetti straps and a very irritated looking Shoto with a black suit that matched his father's but with a light blue bowtie that matched Fuyumi's dress.

"Nii-san! Fuyumi! Shoto!" I greeted happily, causing gasps throughout the room which were quickly silenced by Enji's angry glare and his flaming facial hair to grow much larger in his irritation.

"Aunt Kaera! The dress looks great on you!" Fuyumi exclaimed happily, "I'm glad it fits you correctly!" I gave her a questioning look.

"Oh, father told me that you needed a dress for this and I picked yours out at the same time that I picked out mine! I had no idea you were coming with All Might though!" she said happily, and I side eyed Toshinori.

"Just how long have you been planning this?" I questioned with an eyebrow raised as Toshinori gave a nervous but boisterous laugh.

"Ahhh… Well I found out a couple of weeks back, but honestly, after I asked for Endeavor's help, I kind of forgot to tell you…" All Might admitted, nervously scratching the back of his head. Endeavor scoffed at this, and Shoto just stared at us in shock as I glared half-heartedly at my massive boyfriend before sighing.

"Whatever… Let's just get tonight over with… I hate being social…" I muttered as I saw Shoto give a small smirk at this. He could totally relate.

With that, All Might led me around and introduced me to a couple of different heroes that were now teachers at U.A., and we went and greeted a couple of somewhat familiar faces including the hobo and the walking speaker which I was reminded once again were named Aizawa Shouta and Yamada Hizashi.

"Why are you even here?" the angry hobo that is Aizawa questioned tiredly. I shrugged and motioned to All Might who was currently talking to the little furball known as Principal Nezu.

"My boyfriend dragged me along. You?" I asked, showing my annoyance at the large crowd as I saw the dark man beside me smirk ever so slightly.

"Honestly… Same…" he answered honestly, and I turned and smirked as I saw his gaze soften on Yamada who was currently walking over with drinks in both hands.

"Y'all are cute," I told him with a smile, letting my southern accent through a bit, "Looks like we got off on the wrong foot. My name is officially Tsukibara Kaera, but you guys can call me Rose." He looked at me inquisitively as Yamada joined us.

"Oh yeah! You're that girl that was in a villain attack back in the U.S. around 6 years ago," Yamada acknowledged with a small frown on his face, "I thought I recognized you from the report I had read, but the name didn't match up." I nodded with a small frown on my face.

"Yeah… That was a rough time… The U.S. didn't allow quirks at the time, so I was forced to leave the U.S. and change my name. I would have been put in a maximum security prison if Japan had not allowed me to defect to here," I admitted honestly, and I saw the two look at me with a shocked expression at not just the information I just shared with them, but nonchalance when speaking about the subject. Right as it looked like Aizawa was going to say something, there was a throat cleared from behind me. I turned to see my boyfriend looking at me with a concerned smile on his face, which told me he 100% heard at least part of that conversation.

"Sorry to interrupt," All Might said with a big smile as he held out his hand, "But I was wanting to get at least one dance with my beautiful date tonight." At that moment, I noticed all the couples dancing a slow waltz on the dancefloor and my face flushed a deep red. If there is one thing that is an indisputable fact about me, it was that I cannot dance to save my life. My coordination is at an absolute zero. Still, the hopeful look on Toshinori's radiant face was pretty much impossible to say no to.

"Fine… But I can't dance to save my life," I muttered nervously causing All Might to chuckle as he picked me up in a tight hug as he pulled me to the dance floor and put his hands on my hips and lifted me to where my feet were on top of his, making me blush.

"Have no fear, for I am here," All Might said sweetly as I looked up at him in a low voice that only I could hear, causing me to blush and laugh at his way of using his famous line to cheer me up. I smiled brightly up at him as he led me through one very simple slow dance and then another, before we were interrupted by a familiar flame-faced hero.

"You can't monopolize my sister here the whole time. I'm going to have this dance," Enji-nii-san said gruffly, causing me to giggle as All Might smiled awkwardly and let me go to dance with the grumpy hero in front of us.

"Ya know, Nii-san, if you wanted a dance, you could've just asked instead of being rude to All Might," I pointed out with a slight scowl at his attitude towards Toshinori, but it wasn't harsh more teasing than anything else.

"Whatever… No one has caused you any problems here right?" he asked, struggling to show concern, something he clearly wasn't used to, as he led me through a very simple slow dance, only flinching slightly when I stepped on his feet a lot, "You really suck at dancing… We should get you lessons." I looked at him inquisitively.

"Why? I don't particularly enjoy dancing, Nii-san. I'm only out here because All Might wanted to dance," I pointed out bluntly causing him to scoff and give me his signature scowl.

"You think this will be the last one of these things you have to go to. You're dating the Symbol of Peace. You'll be expected to go to many more of these things, and you think he won't want to dance with you again? Plus, since you decided to call me Nii-san in front of the whole banquet when you entered, I can't allow you to embarrass the Todoroki name with such abysmal displays of a basic skill," the flame-faced hero explained irritatedly, "Since your fire control is getting much better, we will take one day a week of our training to focus on teaching you skills that you'll need if you're going to represent me as a younger sibling."

This took me aback. Did Enji-nii-san see me as an embarrassment?... I felt my eyes start to sting as tears started to fill my eyes.

"A-am I really an embarrassment to you, Endeavor-san?" I asked sadly, fighting my tears back and looking at him. It may seem like I'm being sensitive, but I thought I had found a family after so long of being completely alone. He glared in response.

"That's not what I said, but you should have thought twice before putting your name and face on my reputation before you were ready for the task. Same with All Might's. Granted if you screwed up his reputation, it would have been no skin off of my back; however, now if you screw up it will reflect on me as well," he answered roughly as we stopped dancing and his scowl intensified, "And you're not exactly stable most of the time."

That hurt… At that comment, I backed away from him slowly but nervously, almost tripping in my heels as my sight blurred from the tears in my eyes. Without thinking, I turned and ran out of the ballroom, allowing my wings to form as soon as I got outside, using them to fly to my apartment building before deactivating them, running into my apartment, and letting the tears fall.

Enji-nii, no, Endeavor was right. I wasn't stable. I was broken and screwed up human being that would just end up being a burden to him and to Toshinori. It wasn't fair to burden them and risk their reputations because of my selfish want to be around them. At that thought, I broke into heart wrenching sobs until a low, concerned voice broke through my mental panic.

"Rose… Sweetheart, what happened? What's wrong?" Toshinori asked as I looked up at him, my face no doubt streaked with mascara and eyeliner as I saw that he had reverted to his normal form. He took one glance at my expression and pulled me into a warm and loving hug as he rubbed soothing circles on my back as he pulled me into his lap on my bed. I buried my face into his chest and soaked in his warmth and comforting scent, not able to calm my sobs until he grasped my chin gently lifting my face to meet his gaze, "Rose, I heard what Endeavor said to you." My sobs stopped as my breath hitched, and I tried to avoid his gaze.

"Dear, look at me," Toshinori requested gently as he soothingly rubbed my cheek with his thumb causing me to look into his electric blue eyes which were filled with concern and a bit of anger, though it was clearly not directed at me, "Endeavor had no right to say that to you. You are not an embarrassment or a risk of being one to me. You're an amazing woman, and I was so proud to have you by my side tonight. My only regret was that I let you leave my side and had to hear him say those terrible things."

"He's right, Toshinori… I am unstable. I should've thought more about you both, but… I was just so… *sob* happy to finally have a family and not be *sob* alone anymore… I was selfish. I'm so *sob* sorry," I sobbed, tears falling from my eyes as Toshinori affectionately pressed his forehead to mine before pressing his lips to mine firmly, stopping me from talking as I melted into his sweet kiss. All too soon though, he pulled away, his eyes once again meeting mine as he had an unusually serious expression.

"He's not right. At all. Rose, you could never be an embarrassment to me. Because…" Toshinori seemed to look a little nervous before he took a deep breath before giving me a sweet kiss on the lips before pulling away just enough for him to be able to move his lips, which I could still feel on mine, "I love you, Rose." And with that, my heart melted, and every single one of my walls crumbled to dust.

"I love you too, Toshinori… So much…"

Song: This Is Me from The Greatest Showman