(( this is officially at a point in which the manga and this Fan fiction will deviate completely. Obviously its all been fairly AU, but after this point is 100% completely and definitely AU.

EDIT: Suneater has been edited into the fic following this chapter, and a few others, he does not play a major role however. Just thought. "Yeah Suneater is great!" and decided his inclusion could improve a few moments.))

Chapter 24

"The Biggest Big Bro"

Entertainment classes were not what Alarice would have thought them to be. They were awkward. They had Alarice feeling weird and out of place, and then embarrassed as she struggled to perform properly. Even if Mt Lady had been plenty encouraging, it had been obvious that even she found the skull-faced, Clydesdale-height hell-hound to be a little on the upsetting side.

She couldn't stop the embarrassed flush on her face afterwards, try as she might to get it to go away.

With a vacation however, came the very real threat for Alarice that she might be leaving UA for good.

On other hand, There were mandatory internships being enforced, so, at least for the 'Break', she'd still be here. Doing real hero work... she had some suspicion that it would be incredibly difficult for her to find an agency to take her on as an intern back in the states. Aizawa surprised her by talking to her one-on-one for a moment before handing her, her sheet of agencies.

"Since you don't have any connections of your own, you should take advantage of knowing classmates who do." Aizawa grumbled out, the bags under his eyes looked bigger than ever.

Alarice nodded to that, knowing she had a lot to ask her classmates. She had taken the task of inquiring seriously. She'd only managed a handful of classmates. Talking to Tsuyu for a good while about Ryukyu, and Kirishima for a bit about Fatgum, and both saying they'd put in a good word for her. Of the rest, she got a few agreements... and became an unwilling participant in hearing Mineta complain about his experience. He made his bed, he could lie in it.

She had come down to see who was down stairs to continue asking, when she was blinded by the seasonal cheer bathing the room. Santa-style hat was shoved on to her head, playfully, by Denki. A little cartoonish-looking dog-skull thing dangled off the end rather than a poof of white. It was cute, and she didn't stop the childish little noise that came out of her.

"Did you forget what today was? Don't worry, we'll remind you!" Denki tried to 'sing' back to her.

"Who made this?" She asked curiously before Jirou just dragged her into the group of kids, most of them already dressed-to-impress in a seasonal fashion. She noticed the tree with the presents underneath, and she started to sweat just a little.

"Doesn't matter 'rice, it's all about giving~!" Denki called from somewhere else, arming himself with another Santa hat. Ashido was offering her a coat of a similar style.

"w-wait it'll be to hot for me in that, plus this... I'll go change upstairs, I'll be right back!" She didn't have anything for anyone.. at all. The coat was a perfect excuse to rectify that, hurrying up to her room to find something she could give. She spied a piece of Present Mic knock-off merch she could part with. She had gotten it for a laugh and hopefully, it would serve the same purpose for some one else. Hurriedly shoving it into a clean sock and grabbing one of her more obnoxious hair ties and tying it off.

She reappeared as quick as she could, Sato bringing out the food, her mouth watering as she placed the hastily wrapped present under the tree. She also noticed their grumpy-faced homeroom teacher there, before she found herself roped into singing, along with Jirou, some Christmas tune she only barely knew. She spied Eri eating with Deku as she sang alongside her friends.

When it came time for them to 'exchange presents' Alarice was handed a strip of tape by Sero. He seemed far too amused with himself, when all of them gave the strip of tape a tug, pulling a unique present to herself. Catching it before it got too close, it being a large sword. She looked at Tokoyami, the only person It made sense to have brought a giant sword. They nodded to each other.

Alarice looked about to see who had gotten the knock-off Present Mic, and saw that Eri and Aizawa ( apparently counting as one person for this.) had received the sock. Aizawa was examining said sock wordlessly before opening it, and pulling out the terrifying knock- off from her.

Eri's eyes grew huge and a smile pulled on her face, taking it politely from the homeroom teacher's hands. She didn't seem to mind that the glasses sculpted onto the figure were completely wrong, or that the hair was orange instead of blond, blending into the poorly matched skin tone, or that the clothing was red instead of black... or that it was, in general, a cheap thing. "It's loud dad!" She cried out, pleased with it.

"Eri... " Aizawa looked like he wanted to just lay down, in fact he looked a little annoyed, even still holding the sock-packaging it had come in. Midoriya came over to investigate what Eri had gotten, clutching his own present to him.

"Oh, Eri that's a knock-off" Midoriya stated looking at the level of things wrong with it, but it was funny, and a smile tugged at him before he let out a little laugh.

"What's a knock-off?" Eri asked, sweet as could be.

"It's.. it means its a cheaper item, imitating another item." Midoriya tried to explain, gesturing at the red-present mic. "See his actual outfit is more black than red, they got the colors all wrong."

"I like red. He's mine." Eri said with a childish level of protectiveness over the figurine. Not really pulling it close, but not handing it over for more nosy investigation by Aizawa OR Midoriya. Much to Midoriya's amusement that she liked the knock off, and the other prepping for the noises his partner was going to make the moment he saw that figurine.

Alarice tried not to make it known too much that it was her sock, and from her, but she was pretty sure from the looks, that everyone knew who had given it.

000

She was riding with Kirishima, so she assumed it had been Fatgum, but it could be different. Sunshine was riding with, as well, but she was dead silent the whole time. She might as well not even have been riding with the two teenagers for all Alarice noticed. The heroine had to be with them since someone would need to make sure Kirishima got back to the school grounds safely, after Alarice was left to her first day of her first internship.

They got off at their stop, and Alarice practically jogged alongside Kirishima who was clearly very excited to see Fatgum again.

"Red! Its good to see ya' again!" The rotund hero, dressed in orange and black boomed as he greeted his previous intern. An empty box of Takoyaki lay on a table, nearby, and the room smelled strongly of it, to Alarice. Fatgum patted Kirishima on the back, the red head seemed to enjoy it, doing his best to return the favor.

"Sunshine." The golden one stated, casually but a note of sweetness to her tone. Shaking Fatgum's hand gently.

"Fatgum, ma'm, pleased to meet ya'." The big guy was notably gentler to Sunshine, Alarice noticed. Perhaps to be respectful to a pretty lady Heroine he didn't know yet. Then, he turned to Alarice and she felt like a rabbit, she had no idea what to do.

He was just, So BIG!

"You must be Alarice! Your taller than I expected! Hah! Taller than Red, here!" He patted her head, too! Alarice was unsure of what to do, he was far more energetic and exuberant than she had expected some one named Fatgum to be. She should have asked Kirishima more about him!

"y-yes, I mean Yes, I'm 8 centimeters taller than Kirishima.." Alarice almost put her face into her hand, why on earth was she still thinking about their heights?! She could feel her cheeks turn red and none of it seemed bother Fatgum "I'm sorry!... I mean... I'm Alarice Stone, yes."

"Hah! It's fine! This would be your first time getting to work outside of school wouldn't it?" Fatgum asked, all smiles and positive energy.

Alarice nodded again before remembering she needed to make a good impression. "y-yes, It is, Sir."

"No need for Sir's here, unless you want to be callin' me 'Sir Fatgum' and that's weird, you can just call me Fatgum. Now, what's your Hero name?" He pressed, with his larger voice that matched his incredible stature.

"Arariel Si- Fatgum" This time she did put her hand to her face, how was she this nervous!? She should be better than this..! No, she HAD to be better than this! His laughter was a bit less boisterous this time, and turning to look at Kirishima, he was smiling too. She felt the flush crawl to her ears instead.

"Solid name! An' ya showed up ready to work I see, too!" He gestured roughly to where the thin black fabric of her undersuit, the neck and legging part of it visible under her uniform. It was hard to not wear it, now that she had it back. She nodded sharply in-response. "It's good cuz we're heading out as soon as you finish suiting up. Can't go out looking like a little school girl, that wouldn't do!"

Alarice nodded and headed off into the gestured direction to change completely. When she came back out, to her surprise, Kirishima and Sunshine were still there. Sunshine was talking to Fatgum quietly, but she couldn't hear about what. Kirishima appearing to have waited for her to change before they left. "Just wanted to give you a final vote of Confidence, 'Rice."

Which came in the form of a fist-bump between the two teens. "Thanks for helping me out."

"It was no problem! Heck If any thing, it's always fun to talk to Fatgum! Kinda sad I'm not working under him again, but, next time maybe!" Kirishima responded, his energy forcing Alarice to smile and nod with him. She gave Kirishima a wave as he followed Sunshine out as the two of them would head to the train-station. Alarice headed over to Fatgum, seeing as she was ready to go.

"All black huh? 's pretty simple." He commented, Alarice just nodding quietly. Keeping up with him easily. "Yer not much of a talker are ya?"

"Yes. Sort of." Alarice said quietly, flushing and trying figure out what she should respond with next.

"That's no problem! You'll get along just fine with Suneater, you'll be workin' with him tomorrow!" Fatgum boomed out while She kept walking, thinking of questions for her ' new boss' essentially. "W.. when did you realize you had a quirk?" She asked quietly in return.

"Ah when I was a this tiny, weenie thing, I was probably about 5. Fell out of a tree, landed funky but I ended up fine." Fatgum explained, with good humor, how had he found so many high potential kids, with so much shyness? "How'd ya learn about yours, Arariel?"

"oh." Alarice didn't actually know how to follow-up on her side. "I .. don't remember. Dad said most.. um" She got quiet around a passing stranger, "Most hell-hounds show signs really early, like.. in the first or second years."

"Ha that's gotta be the cutest sight ever, and a handful all at once!" He had an odd voice Alarice couldn't quite place, it was bubbly but.. like.. Manly bubbly. He continued on his train of thought. "both a Puppy and a toddler at once!"

"Yup." Alarice answered, despite not really remembering, she'd never seen a young hell-hound besides herself, and her dad had some photos but apparently the baby photo had been lost. She tried to picture the weird skull face but puppy-sized and probably a good amount of stupid-looking. Fatgum continued on without hesitation on asking her more questions. Which she did her best answer, and realized he had to have known the answer to most of them, he'd probably been given her file.

"So, hows about we grab a snack? I'm hungry, and gotta keep yourself stocked up too!" Alarice cocked her head to the side, but just nodded, as the big man made a beeline for a small food stall that happily waved him over.

"aay Fatgum! Your usual today, sir?"

"Mhmm, Make it two this time." Fatgum gestured to his young intern. The man at the stall laughed, and nodded as he got to work on the order.

"They're just giving you all the young hero's, aren't they?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way, I love helpin' shape -p these young heros!" Fatgum handed over money to the young assistant, probably the owner's son. Alarice watched the two talk like good friends. She couldn't help but sniff and take in the smells and sounds.

"Ahh she's a quiet one, like that Suneater you got with you, usually." The owner commented, handing over the two boxes of Takoyaki. Fatgum passing the second to Alarice. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Arariel." She was holding the warm box, and the smell coming out was strong enough that she hadn't been noticeably hungry before but she could definitely eat. "Thank you sir."

Food obtained, the food stall worker waved to them as they left. Fatgum settling into a good pace to eat his Takoyaki and patrol. Alarice having a struggle at first before figuring out how to eat it and walk too. Alarice commenting that she liked it as they continued on a rather, so far any way, uneventful patrol. Alarice noting how many people, specifically, food shop owners who would try to flag down her new mentor.

"It's been kinda quiet, huh.." She commented not far behind him.

"It's early on a Monday, it tends to be quieter through here during the morning."

Their conversations were off and on as they went about the day, solving a few small problems, but it seemed consistently that he did a lot of talking to 'fans'. A few people talked to her, by extension of talking to him. A few conversations he pushed her into, including one where she accidentally admitted to being able to break-dance. That followed with a challenge, that was turned down in favor of completing the patrol.

By the end of her first day, despite it being rather smooth and only one guy needing to be dealt with roughly, it was exhausting. She was so tuckered out, in fact, that she barely noticed that Midnight had rolled up in what looked like a giant fur-covered van. The front of it had a freakish looking recreation of a dog's face on it. Including the "floppy brown ears" tacked onto the sides. She could barely make out the words along the side, that said it was a dog grooming van. Midnight was riding in the passenger side, waving at her, excitedly.