-Shinobu's POV-

It had been over a month since I had started working both of my jobs, and I was running on fumes. It worked out that I was a bit of an insomniac, but with my sleeping schedule being inconsistent between working nights at least 4 times a week as well as working during the day at UA.

Despite all of this, I still made sure to make time to cook dinner and prepare lunches for Hizashi-nii because it was one of the only ways I could really thank him for allowing me to stay with him on such short notice, especially since he wouldn't allow me to help with rent at all. Even though I made sure Hizashi had his meals taken care of, I rarely found time to eat. Seikijirou had also given up on asking me about coffee after about two weeks and just asked me to let him know when I had time.

That was when I noticed Shouta increasing the time of our patrols, which looking back, I realized he had done every time Seikijirou mentioned meeting up outside of work. To be honest, it confused me, and I couldn't figure out why that was happening. Something told me it would have been obvious to any other person, but I frankly was not functioning well on my one meal and maybe 4 hours of sleep a day.

At my frustration, I released a loud yell at the boulders in the training building that I was currently in. By myself. At 2AM. Now, with all of my complaining, you may be wondering why I was here and not sleeping or eating. Two things: 1. I literally cannot sleep right now due to my anxiety that's been building up over the past month and 2. I'm just not hungry. I had gotten into these two bad habits during my work, and I was starting to understand Shouta's consistently scruffy appearance.

Thinking of the underground hero had me even more frustrated. He had started to be in my thoughts more and more often, even when we weren't together which frankly wasn't often. We may not spend tons of time talking about anything other than work, but he did regularly check on me to make sure I wasn't cutting again and was always quick to make sure any injuries I got during patrols or combat training were immediately seen to. After his stunt during our initial combat training, I found myself getting more and more flustered any time he got too close.

Despite his outward appearance and persona of being constantly tired and strict with students, Shouta clearly cared about the wellbeing of others. That's why he became an underground hero. He had admitted to me during one of our few conversations that had gotten a bit more personal, that he had never wanted to be a hero for fame. Instead, he merely wanted to help those in need, to make sure that there was one less victim of the atrocious acts often committed by villains. It was admirable on its own, and his usually apathetic tone had changed to one of conviction as he had expressed all of this while staring down at the city below us.

I had caught myself staring in awe at the man beside me and taking in his features unintentionally. His inky black hair had been blown out of his face by the gentle breeze that had graced us that night, revealing a strong jawline littered with scraggly black facial hair, piercing onyx eyes, and a muscular neck that led to broad shoulders. Shit… I've got it bad… He's your boss, Shinobu! And Nii-san's best friend! What the hell!

Luckily, I had managed to look away before he caught me staring that night, but still… I couldn't get the man out of my head. It was messing with my already anxiety-ridden mind, and I found myself growing more and more frustrated with myself with no way to get it out. There were no friends for me to talk to. Well, I had one, but he was always busy or at least that was my excuse for not contacting him about this. Kamihara Shinya, more commonly known as the Ninja Hero: Edgeshot, the no. 5 hero in Japan. He had been one of the sidekicks at Nightshade's agency before me, and since he and I had similar fighting styles and personalities, Nightshade had convinced him to train me.

We had hit it off right away and remained friends over the years. I had actually told him in a text that I was returning to Musutafu, and he had offered to take me on a sidekick, but I hadn't wanted to affect his reputation. Also, being the number 5 hero meant dealing with the press, something I was not the least bit interested in.

Shinya, Nii-san, and Shouta were really the extent of my friend circle, which meant I had no one to go to for advice in this situation. Nii-san would be pissed if I found out about my developing feelings for Shouta or tease me about it to no end, neither of which appealed to me. Shinya would tell me to just tell him and then move on based on his response, which would work if I fully understood my feelings for the dark haired man or anything about how to approach something like this. More than likely I would just end up cancelling both of our senses before Shouta could even think to cancel my quirk. The more I thought about the whole thing, the more my brain just seemed to go in circles, causing a pressure and frustration that I had to let out before I did something stupid.

"FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!" I yelled loudly as frustrated tears streamed down my cheeks, my Voice quirk successfully destroying an entire boulder to small rocks and dust in seconds.

"Well you've definitely gotten stronger with your Voice quirk," a deep voice commented from behind me, and I felt my heart drop. Not him… Not now… Refusing to look back at the source of my frustrations that was now behind me, I spoke in my usual tone, quiet, and trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"What are you doing here so late, Shouta-kun?" I questioned softly. A large, calloused was placed on my bare shoulder, and I tried to hide my face in my long silver hair.

"I should be asking you that question. You should be sleeping," Shouta responded trying to pull me gently to face him but I stayed bolted to where I was.

"I have permission from Nezu-san to be here. Plus, I can't sleep, and being able to control my Voice quirk is one of my conditions for both of my jobs anyways," I pointed out while signing, keeping my eyes trained on my feet, trying my best to not accidentally cancel either of our senses.

"Why are you doing this to yourself? Nothing will be gained by running yourself completely into the ground. It's irrational," he reasoned, but I wasn't ready to admit that he had a point. Plus, I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to. Not wanting to talk about the issue seriously, especially not with the source of most of my stress and confusion, I decided to try and play it off.

"Well, ya know… Go beyond… Plus Ultra… That's U.A.'s motto. If I'm going to help students, I should try and embrace the same values," I deflected, trying to let out a laugh but it was more of a humorless puff of air.

Based on the several moments of deafening silence, I had begun to determine that he was going to let it go and leave me alone; however, I never heard Shouta move, nor did his hand move from my shoulder. If he was trying to silent treatment me into spilling what was stressing me out, he had another thing coming. I spent years in a lonely deafening silence. It was more of a comfort for me at this point. Sometimes all the noise in the world around me overwhelmed me now, so standing there, in silence, with a warm calloused hand grounding me was almost more comfort than I could handle. Except that hand belonged to a man that had caused me a lot of confusion… Dammit, Shinobu! You know this is impossible! You should just let it go and not let it bother you anymore…

"Shinobu," Shouta uttered quietly, removing his hand from my shoulder and moving it to cup my cheek causing me to look up at him in shock and recoil slightly at his touch, causing a somewhat concerned expression to cross his face, "What's going on?"

"Don't wanna talk about it," I answered honestly while signing.

"Do you want to talk to Hizashi?"

Again, I shook my head no.

"Nightshade?"

I shook my head again a bit sad. Despite her motherly attitude towards me, when I tried to call her last week, she had apparently disappeared off the face of the earth. This wasn't too concerning. In spite of her older age, Nightshade had always been prone to up and leave for random adventures though she never told anyone where she was going. She was an odd old woman, had been one since before I had met her according to Vlad and Edgeshot.

"Do you have anyone you can talk to about whatever is causing you to be so frustrated that you're dropping f-bombs capable of destroying boulders at a high school at 2AM?"

Again, I shook my head immediately, earning a slightly annoyed huff of air to leave Shouta.

"Don't worry about it, Shouta-kun. I'll be fine. I'm being stupid. It happens sometimes," I stated plainly, my soft voice devoid of emotion as I began to force myself to shut down to try and avoid what was going through my head.

"Do we need to decrease the frequency of patrols during the week?"

His question shocked me. Did I need that? Would he think I'm weak if I said yes. My mind began racing trying to find the right answer as though Shouta was testing me. Tears began to sting my dry and tired eyes as my chartreuse green eyes met his onyx ones. Trying my best to blink them back, I shook my head and gave a shaky small smile. His expression softened again.

- Shouta's POV-

This woman was lying and was determined to not let me know whatever it was that was bothering her, but whatever it was, it was affecting her health at this point. She was trying to handle everything by herself, and from what I've observed of her the past month, this was a bad habit of hers, not that I had any room to talk.

When her eyes filled with tears, I found myself wanting to comfort her and help her with whatever was hurting her so much. Shinobu didn't cry much until she was at her breaking point, at least that was what I had observed, and Hizashi had confirmed that when I asked him about it.

The silver haired heroine in front of me was starting to really get under my skin. I couldn't handle it when Vlad kept asking her on dates. In order to prevent her from going, I had been increasing our patrols or changing the times to where there was no chance for her to go. It was lamentable, petty, and embarrassing to admit, even to myself. Even with all of these extra patrols, I found myself keeping a close eye on Shinobu, doing my best to make sure that her injuries were treated quickly, even doing so myself when it didn't look like she needed to go see Recovery Girl. She seemed like she had been handling everything fairly well which is why I hadn't stopped pushing her.

Shinobu was strong. I had seen that from the first day I met her, but she was strong in the way that silence is. The longer you are around her, the more you become aware of it. Initially, her strength, like silence, is unsettling and hard to notice, but once you realize what you're in the presence of, you find yourself admiring it and thankful for its constant presence.

Yes, Shinobu's strength was silent. It's why one never notices until something causes it to crack, to break. And in front of me, right now, Shinobu was breaking, and I had no idea how to fix it…

Song: Conversations in the Dark by John Legend