Hello earthlings! I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.

School. Hurray. It was better than having to deal with all of the old women in the village staring at him and thinking about what a dirty half-breed he was everytime he went down to get supplies, at least. And he had his friends.

There had once been a time when Izuku had been genuinely excited about school. Specifically, he'd been excited about UA. And he still was! He was so grateful that he got to go to the best school in the kingdom and train to be a Hero! It was just… stressful. Kind of. With all of the almost dying and stuff.

And the fact that Tsuyu was still acting weird around him. When he'd walked into the common room of the dorms, she'd instantly gotten up with Uraraka and walked upstairs. At least the brown-haired girl had shrugged apologetically at him as she left. He'd probably done something to make her angry because that was all he ever did, making people angry.

It was fine. Everything was fine. He was completely fine.

"'Ey, Midoriya!" Kirishima said, grinning at him and throwing one arm around his shoulder. "How was your break?"

"It was fine, how was yours?"

"It was too short. Did you hear what Jiro said Yaoyorozu said Aizawa said yet?"

"Uh… I don't think so?"

"Well, apparently there's some kind of… special work study happening. Like, a few kids from this class can apply and a working Hero might pick them up and start teaching them in the field."

Izuku nodded. That could be an absolutely amazing experience. Or it could be dangerous and possibly end with him and/or his friends being hurt and/or killed. The second part was much more likely.

"Everything ok?"

"Yeah, of course, why?"

The red-haired boy shrugged. "I dunno. You just seem kinda… less excited than I thought you'd be."

"Oh, no, I'm excited! It sounds really cool! Sorry, I've just been traveling for a few days because I was told to stay off of the main road so it took longer than it should have and I'm really tired and kind of out of it and it's just been a really stressful first couple of months here and- sorry."

"Don't be. It was a really, really stressful year. I hope you get some rest!"

"Thanks."

Iida and Todoroki walked into the room together, talking to each other quietly. Izuku quickly said goodbye to Kirishima and went over to talk to his friends. "How was your father?" he whispered as soon as he got to them.

"He was fine," Todoroki said at his normal volume. "He mostly stayed out of my way, and I stayed out of his."

"What did he think about All Might…"

"All Might decided not to take back the throne and stay here as a teacher while he keeps looking for an Heir."

Izuku was pretty sure he looked confused, because Iida looked at him with concern. "Do you not think this is a logical course of action?"

"Ah, yeah! Yeah, it's a great plan! Sorry, I'm just… tired." He'd forgotten that his friends didn't know that All Might actually had found an Heir and had had an Heir for longer than he'd been working at UA. He trusted his friends completely, but all it took was one word to the wrong person and he'd be even more of a target than he already was. However, Shigaraki might already know. So it might be more useful to tell his friends than to keep it a secret. He'd talk about it with All Might later.

The two boys seemed to buy that excuse and walked over to the nearest unoccupied sofa, sitting in a row on it with Todoroki in the center. "My father was angry," Todoroki said. "Even though he got what he wanted, he might not be able to keep it long-term. As soon as All Might finds an Heir, he'll likely be ousted."

"So that means that… you're…"

"Officially I'm still the heir. For now. But as soon as the real Heir is found, my father loses all power he ever hoped to have. The whole reason he had my mother give birth to me will be gone. I will not be king."

Izuku and Iida looked at each other cautiously before the taller boy slowly said, "So… are you alright with that?"

"As long as my father is miserable, I'll be alright with that." He wasn't telling the whole truth. It was hard to tell with Todoroki, since he was usually flat in tone and face, but he was leaving something out. Izuku decided not to push it. They'd been friends long enough for him to know that pushing Todoroki about what he was feeling never exactly worked.

"Ok."

"Yaoyorozu might be upset. I will talk about it with her when she gets here."

"Oh, I think she's already here. Apparently she told Jiro about something Mr. Aizawa said to her, about this work study program-"

"No, she is not arriving until later this afternoon."

"Then how would she have told Jiro?"

"They have been exchanging letters all break."

"Wasn't Yaoyorozu in another kingdom?"

"Yes. Apparently she paid for the letters to be sent magically."

"Huh." Izuku hadn't really known that the two of them were such good friends. He guessed it made sense. When he thought about it, they were together a lot.

They sat on the couch and talked about their breaks for a few more minutes, but none of them had done anything more interesting than sneaking out of school to rescue one of their classmates from one of the most dangerous villains in history, so there wasn't really much to say. Izuku decided to go up to his room to try and get some sleep in a bed instead of on the ground of a forest where villains could jump out at him at any moment.

On his way up the stairs, he saw Kacchan coming down.

The two boys stopped and stared at each other. Kacchan looked exhausted. He had huge shadows under his bloodshot eyes, and his hair was sticking out in even more directions than it usually was. He also looked furious.

"Um… hi!" Izuku smiled, but he was pretty sure it looked more like a grimace. "My mom says-"

"Don't fucking talk to me."

"Huh?"

The boy stalked past him, brushing by him and pushing him into a wall- not hard, but enough. "I said don't fucking talk to me."

Izuku could do nothing except watch as Kacchan went down the stairs and turned the corner.

What the hell?

Sure, they'd become less close in the past couple of months. Kacchan probably still hadn't forgiven him for purposefully dropping a building on him, which was fair. But he hadn't really been aggressive towards him. They'd just sort of been… avoiding each other.

They'd known each other for a decade. He was the only one who knew about Izuku's history with the other boys in the village. Even when he was in a bad mood, even after their friendship had kind of fallen apart, he'd never actually… touched him, in any kind of cruel way. He respected him. They respected each other.

But Kacchan had pushed him, shoved him out of the way, hadn't said anything, hadn't apologized, just like the boys from the village, the ones that had hurt him and yelled at him and pushed him and hit him and Kacchan was one of them and he couldn't count on him and-

"Um… Midoriya? Are you alright?"

Ojiro and some floating clothes that were probably Hagakure were looking at Izuku, who only then realized he'd fallen down and was sitting on the edge of the staircase hyperventilating. He looked up at them and nodded, forcing a smile. "Yep, great, how was your break?" he said in one breath. His voice was crackly.

The two other students didn't look convinced. "Do you need to go to the hospital?" Hagakure asked cautiously. The clothes moved slightly towards him, and the gloves reached out towards his shoulder.

Without meaning to, Izuku shied away, pressing himself as far into the wall as he could go. "Yep fine everything is great I'm great I'm going upstairs now bye!" He tried to stand up, gripping the banister for balance, but his legs were too weak to hold him up for long and he couldn't breathe. All of his thoughts kept swirling in a circle around him, trapping him in a tornado.

Shigaraki… All for One… All Might… Kacchan… Tsuyu… the previous Wielders… the Sword… his mother… his friends…

He had to get upstairs. Had to get up the staircase. He couldn't just stay there while his classmates stared down at him, the same way that the boys from the village had stared down at him and laughed and laughed and laughed as they kicked him and called him a halfling freak.

No, no, he couldn't think of that. He had to get to his room. Ojiro and Hagakure were not like the boys but he couldn't let them see him break down and he had to get to his room.

So he staggered up the staircase. Ojiro looked extremely concerned but got out of the way to let him struggle past without touching him or offering to help, and Izuku was extremely grateful.

Somehow he got to his room. Opened the door, his bag still on his shoulders. The room was the same as it had been before he'd left.

Izuku collapsed on the bed and tried to hold off his first full-on panic attack in years.

It was stupid. He could fight villains that would traumatize the bravest Hero imaginable, but he couldn't take being pushed slightly by one of his teenage classmates.

God, he'd be a terrible king.

He needed to get up. He needed to stop spiraling. He needed to do something, anything useful because he knew that just sitting there wasn't going to help him, he knew that as he just lay on his bed more of the people he was supposed to protect were dying, but his lungs weren't getting in enough air and nobody cared, nobody would ever really care about him which was fine because he was going to fail everyone and get everyone killed and he couldn't, couldn't, couldn't do that because because because-

Breathe. He had to breathe. In, out, in out. He tried to think of a song. An old trick his mother had taught him. Try to focus on the song, and maybe the thoughts in his brain will quiet down. It sometimes worked.

It wasn't working.

So all he could do was ride it out, hyperventilating on his bed and shaking frantically trapped in the tornado of his thoughts and digging his nails into his thighs and trying to not make noise because he couldn't disturb his classmates and make them think he was a burden because he was the king, he had to be strong, and he stayed there like that for at least thirty minutes before it stopped. Not because he'd been able to calm himself down, but because it'd just stopped.

God, he was so weak. He couldn't even stop his own panic attack. He couldn't control the things happening inside his brain.

His nerves still felt shattered, though, and his legs still weren't really working, so he stayed in bed, staring at his ceiling and trying to breathe through the waves of panic that kept coming and trying to overwhelm him, trying to pull him back into the storm.

Izuku was weak, useless, some stupid halfling, not fit to be a king, because of him his friends had all nearly died many times, because he was weak, they didn't care about him, they wanted him to die, everyone would be better if he left… thoughts he usually could just send away, but they just kept coming.

When he was much younger, he'd had really bad panic attacks. His mom had always been the one to coach him through them, and when he was ten or so they'd gone away. Or at least they'd started happening less regularly. He'd had one two days after Kacchan had left the first time and he'd been all alone and some kids from the village had targeted him… but he hadn't had one since meeting All Might.

He tried not to think about them. They weren't exactly the kind of things heroes did.

Someone knocked on his door. He didn't answer. They knocked again.

"Midoriya?" Iida called through the door. "Some of our classmates have requested that we all go to get a meal at one of the campus restaurants together, to celebrate the fact that we have returned to school. Would you like to come?"

Iida. Iida was safe. He was Izuku's friend. He would never do anything to hurt him.

He'd thought that about Kacchan once, and look where that had gotten him.

That was different. Iida was safe. He cared about Izuku. He was rich, and brilliant, and brave, and powerful, and really shouldn't care about him and he wouldn't blame the taller boy if he did, but Iida would not leave him.

And Todoroki. The prince of the kingdom and one of its most powerful young sorcerers. He was friends with Izuku. He cared about Izuku. And Uraraka, who was one of the most brilliant witches Izuku had ever met and one of the kindest. And Tsuyu, who was an amazing animal spirit and who seemed to find it hard to show how much she cared sometimes but who cared about him. They all did.

Until they realized what a failure he was and they left him, they all left him, because everyone left him eventually and that was just how the world was meant to work because he was useless.

"Midoriya?"

They were inviting him somewhere. That meant they cared about him . That meant that he should go out with them and eat food and be their friend because they were his friends and that was the kind of things friends do. Right. So the normal thing to do would be to go with him. So Izuku forced himself to his feet and walked to the door, smiling when he saw Iida.

"Yeah, sorry it took me a second to respond, I was thinking- not really thinking about anything bad, just thinking, and-"

"It's alright. I was not bothered by it."

"That's good. I'm glad!"

"Are you alright, Midoriya?"

"Uh… yep! Fine! All fine! Why do you ask?"

"You don't look… the way you usually do."

Did that mean he thought Izuku looked bad? Why did it matter if he thought Izuku looked bad? Why was he thinking about that? He was used to people calling him ugly, so it really shouldn't matter, but for some reason it did. Maybe he thought Izuku only looked bad right then because he'd just finished with a panic attack which meant he could tell something was wrong and would think Izuku was weak and everything would be wrong and he had no idea how to respond to that because his brain was just so, so tired.

"I'm fine. Great! I'm back at school! Whoo!"

"Hagakure-"

"Did she tell you something? It's nothing, it's fine, I'm just tired, it was a long trip here, I'm fine!"

"You-" Iida blinked and then shook his head. Like he was giving up, which was good, Izuku wanted him to give up, but it was still a little bit disappointing for reasons he couldn't explain if he wanted to. "You would tell me if something were wrong, correct? After all, friends are meant to help each other. You always help everyone else, and-"

"Oh, yeah, I'd tell you! You'd tell me, right?"

"Yes, but Midoriya-"

"See? It's fine. Let's go find the rest of our classmates!" Izuku smiled brightly (or as brightly as he could, he hoped it didn't make him look any uglier or weirder) and walked down the stairs. A few seconds later, Iida followed him.

It looked like essentially everyone in the class was already in the common room of the dorm. Even Shinso was there, which was weird. He almost never came to whole class events. The only person not there was Bakugo. When everyone looked at Kirishima (who was the designated Bakugo expert), he just shrugged.

"I think he's kinda tired… he's probably asleep or something."

"Hasn't he been at the dorms for forever?" Jiro asked from where she stood next to Yaoyorozu. Or practically on Yaoyorozu. The girls were really close to each other. Which was weird, but Izuku decided to ignore it.

"I don't know. I guess… I don't know. He's Bakugo. What can you expect?"

"Ok. Are we all ready?" Todoroki asked. "Before anyone says anything, I am paying for all of this."

"Really? Are you ok with that?" Uraraka asked anxiously. "There are a lot of us…"

"It's my father's money."

"But technically it's All Might's money, right?"

"He likes us. He'd be fine with it. Besides, he allowed my father to take the throne until he finds an Heir. So it's technically the Heir's money, but since no one knows who it is yet, it's my fathers and it will annoy him immensely when I send him a letter asking for him to send me more money and my sister guilts him into doing it. So yes, I am ok with it."

"Would this be considered treason?"

"No."

Uraraka nodded, grinning slightly. "Then let's do it!"

So they all went down to one of the nicest restaurants near the dorms.

The problem was, it was kind of… awkward.

No one in the class seemed to really be speaking to each other. They were all giving each other weird looks, like there was something they wanted to say but weren't. Even Kirishima's group seemed quieter than usual, even though the red-haired boy himself was one of the few trying to keep the conversation going. He, Izuku, and Yaoyorozu looked at each other questioningly, apparently the only ones to notice, or at least, acknowledge, the weird awkwardness that lasted throughout all of the dinner at the extravagantly fancy restaurant that Izuku never would have been able to afford.

It was a relief when they all went back to the dorms, but then they just sort of stood around in the common room, not really saying anything. Finally Tsuyu spoke up.

"Izuku, Tenya, Shoto, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima. Please come outside with me for a few minutes."

They looked at each other but followed the frog spirit and Uraraka outside.

And then they all stared at each other for a few seconds while waiting for someone to start talking. Finally Yaoyozozu stepped towards the shorter girl. "What's this about?"

"You… you all… you all broke the rules of the school."

"Yes, we did."

"And because of it, you all could have died."

"But we didn't. We were able to save Bakugo and come back safely. Everything worked out for the best."

"But it could have ended with my friends dying. And I… I was too scared to do anything."

Tsuyu started crying. There was no lead up to it, but suddenly she was sobbing. Uraraka wrapped her in a tight hug, rocking back and forth slightly while the rest of them just stood there, not sure what to do. Izuku had never seen Tsuyu cry before. He'd never seen her do anything resembling crying before.

"I wish I'd been brave enough to go with you!" she gasped out. "I wish I hadn't… I wish I'd been able to ignore the rules the way you did!"

"It is always good to stick to the rules!" Iida said loudly.

"Not if the rules are stopping you from achieving your goal," Todoroki added. Neither of them were being that helpful, but none of them exactly knew what to do either and at least the two of them were saying something.

"I'm supposed to be a Hero, and I could not even break the rules to rescue a friend!"

"We all feel that way," Uraraka said quietly, looking down at Tsuyu. "We all just… we want things to go back to the way they used to be, before the camp. When… when we didn't have to worry about all of this."

Izuku moved towards the girls and wrapped his arms around them in a tight hug. A few seconds later, Iida, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu all joined them, with Todoroki standing a few feet away and only reaching over to put one hand on Tsuyu's shoulder.

"It's ok," Izuku whispered. "We probably shouldn't have done it anyway. You were right, it was breaking the rules."

"I know that, but at the same time that you were doing something wrong and breaking the rules, you were saving one of our classmates, one of our friends! And I couldn't do anything!"

"It wasn't your fault. None of this was your fault."

They stayed like that until Tsuyu stopped crying. She pulled away from the rest of them, gripping Uraraka's hand. "I'm sorry," she muttered, wiping her face. "I didn't meant to start crying."

"There is nothing wrong with crying! All of us have cried many times!"

"Yeah, it's manly to cry in front of your friends!"

"None of us blame anyone else in the class for not coming with us," Yaoyorozu said gently. "We made our decision to break the rules, and you made your decision to follow them. None of us are mad, and I promise that none of us will be mad at you if something like this happens and we have to make the same decisions."

Tsuyu nodded. "I understand."

"Good. Uraraka, do you?"

The brown-haired girl nodded. Izuku reached over and squeezed her shoulder, and she smiled at him slightly.

All of them went back inside the dorm building, where everyone was still sitting there awkwardly. Iida stood in front of the chairs and made a speech about everyone becoming their own types of heroes and rules existing for a reason and that no one blamed anyone else for making a different decision than they would have and at the end of the day they were still friends and, more importantly, a class training to become Heroes together. Then a few other people started crying and someone suggested having another big class-wide sleepover, so they all dragged blankets down the stairs and into the common room.

Even Shinso. Izuku had been kind of surprised to see him interacting so much with the rest of the class. Apparently he'd really bonded with Jiro and, while it made much less sense to Izuku, Kaminari, which meant that he was more-or-less accepted into both Kirishima's group and what Izuku called the quiet group, which was Jiro, Tokoyami, Shoji, Koda, and sometimes Yaoyorozu.

Looking at Shinso reminded Izuku of everything. How the Koshai had asked to talk to All Might. How much Izuku had to do to fix the parts of the kingdom that Endeavor had broken. How difficult the journey would be, and how he was not at all capable of ever being the king of anything.

It was easier to not think about that when he was surrounded by his friends, though.

Tsuyu had cried in front of other people, and Izuku hadn't thought she was weak for showing she was suffering. He'd never think any of his friends were weak for showing they were going through something hard. So why should it have been different for him?

Should he tell someone about how much pressure he was under, about the panic attacks, about the anxiety, about the constant fear that villains were about to attack or that eventually his friends would leave him? He'd want his friends to tell him about those feelings, so it only made sense that they'd want him to talk about it with them, right?

No. He was different from them in one main way. They would never have to be responsible for an entire kingdom. They would never be the ruler of Uyay. And that was why Izuku had to be strong and not let anyone see that he was actually just a weak, scared little boy.

It was easier not to think about that, though, when he was surrounded by his friends talking and whispering and laughing and slowly starting to relax for the first time since the attack on the training camp. They were safe. They weren't alone.

Izuku wasn't alone.

And maybe he would tell his friends everything. Someday. But he did not think that night was the right time for that particular conversation.

So instead, he just closed his eyes and relaxed further into the nest of blankets and pillows he'd made for himself. He'd deal with everything else in the morning.

"So we might not be the heirs anymore." Shoto leaned into the princess's dorm room, where she was finishing up her morning routine for the first day of classes.

Momo did not look up from the tea she sipped on her bed, simply nodding at Shoto. "I presumed."

"Does your mother know?"

"Not yet. I assumed King Endeavor would send her a message. Hopefully he would not. If Mother finds out, I may be pulled out of UA and sent back home to be trained in the traditional ways."

"Don't you miss your home?"

"I have found friends here. Many good friends. And I am learning how to fight in ways beyond just those of my people, which will be an asset when I eventually return home."

"If you return home. There is always a chance that All Might will not be able to find an Heir, and then you will be the queen as originally planned."

"Yes. That is possible."

The two of them stared at each other, not really knowing what to say.

Momo had been one of Shoto's first… friends. That seemed like an adequate word to describe their relationship. Since they were ten years old, they'd been betrothed. If that didn't make them friends, it was likely nothing would. Besides, Shoto had never exactly had any friends before coming to UA. She would be a perfectly fine wife. She was one of the most intelligent people he'd ever met, as well as one of the kindest and bravest and she was, he'd been told, beautiful. He did not really see anyone as beautiful versus not-beautiful

They referred to each other by their first names, because in theory one day they'd be making an heir together and it'd seemed wrong not to. She'd been the only person Shoto'd been allowed to play with when he was younger, so they had a lot of history. She had made an effort to understand him even though he'd always had many, many issues with communication. He was pretty sure they were friends.

But they'd never really talked about what it meant to be the future king and queen of Uyay. There had never been any reason to talk about it. It was always going to happen, and there was nothing they could have done to ever stop it. But things had changed.

It was entirely possible they wouldn't rule together.

"How do you… feel? About all of this."

"About me possibly not becoming the queen of Uyay?"

"Yes."

"It is… I will do what is best for this kingdom and for my own."

"How do you really feel?"

"I'm not sure."

She was drinking tea while sitting on her bed. Momo never did that. Her training had taught her to always sit at a table when she ate or drank anything, and there was a perfectly good table only a few feet from the bed. Shoto noticed that. He wasn't sure what it meant.

He stepped slightly further into the room. Momo gestured for him to come all the way in and he did, closing the door behind him.

"I just… Mother raised me with the intent of me being your queen, or at the very least somebody in Uyay's queen. I have been sent away from my home to Uyay for long stretches of time, to the point where it is almost more my home than my mother's kingdom. I was taught everything I need to be a queen. My entire life, I was going to be the queen of Uyay. And now…"

"It gives you options."

"What?"

"I don't have to be the king anymore. If All Might finds an Heir, then… then I'm no longer the heir to the throne. I can just be a Hero or drop out of the academy entirely or… I can do whatever I want to do."

"Do you not want to be king?"

"I don't know what I want anymore."

Momo nodded slowly. "I want to be happy. And have friends. People who I trust, like you and the others in this class. I'm sure if I don't become the queen, then I will just be sent back home to Mother."

"Do you want that?"

"I miss my parents, and some of my teachers. But I don't miss being… alone. Besides, I have been trained to be a queen. I'm sure my mother will tell me to marry someone else, some other rich or powerful man."

"You could refuse."

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

Momo shrugged. "What else am I good for, besides a political arrangement?"

"What?"

"I'd be an awful queen if I had any sort of power, and Mother knows it. That's why she wanted me to come to Uyay, where the spouse of the Ruler has no political power. I could not mess things up here, but I would be competent enough to handle a situation for a short amount of time, especially as there was a lot of unrest when our betrothal was announced."

"You would be a good leader. You're-"

"I am a poor leader. During the midterm tests, I nearly caused my entire team to fail because of a mistake I made. I freeze up whenever I am in a difficult situation."

"You handled both the invasion at the USJ and at the training camp fine."

"There were many other options that would have been better than that which I took in those two scenarios. Besides, I am simply not very powerful. I'm not a sorcerer. I'm simply well-trained."

"You are one of the most impressive fighters I've ever met, magical or not," Shoto said, and he meant it. He knew Momo would know he meant it too.

"I am not worthy of being queen. So in that regard, I suppose it's for the best that you are no longer likely to be the next king. After the Heir is announced, I will likely go home to my mother, where she will find another person for me to marry. But I… I do not wish to leave Uyay to marry a stranger."

"Then marry me."

"What?"

"Either way, whether I'm king or not, you can marry me. Our parents will still be friends, and I will still have plenty of political power, so even if I don't end up becoming the king, you can stay here and we can marry."

"Don't you want to marry someone who you actually are in love with?"

Shoto shrugged. "No."

"No?"

"I was always planning on marrying you. Unless you don't want to or you find someone else or another way to stay in Uyay or go where you want to go, I would be happy marrying you."

Shoto did not fully understand his friend. She was one of the most competent people he'd ever met. The fact that she did not see her own worth or go against her mother's wishes did not make sense to him. But then again, he had never truly gone against his father. Endeavor had wanted him to be a king, to train as a Hero, to marry Momo, to refuse to see his mother, and he had. The only real rebelling Shoto had ever done was when he'd refused to use his fire sorcery, and that had ended abruptly.

But he had options.

He understood that it could put Momo in a bad position. If her mother wanted her to marry a king, and he was no longer a crown prince…

However, he was pretty sure that he did not want to be king. It was hard to tell sometimes, hard to distinguish what he felt from what he thought he should feel, but he was pretty sure that, even if All Might offered to let him be the Heir, he would refuse.

He did not say that out loud, however, as he waited for Momo's reply.

"You know that I do not… love you, in that way. And I do not think I will ever love you in that way. I don't think I can."

"Yes. I sort of guessed that."

"I know you did. Just like how I suspected the same about you."

Shoto was not one hundred percent sure what his sexuality was. The few times he's talked about it with anyone, and by that he meant once when he'd told his friends and once when he'd told his siblings, he'd ended up just saying he was gay. That was the easiest. The truth was, it was more… complicated than that. However, he was well aware he was never going to have romantic feelings for any girl. Even Momo, who was the exact kind of person he could have seen himself falling in love with.

Even though Momo was not going to be interested in him anytime soon. He'd never asked, but he was pretty sure she only had romantic feelings for women. At least they were on the same page in that regard.

"So with that in mind, yes. If I have no other options, I will marry you." Suddenly her face turned red and she nearly dropped her tea. "I did not mean that the way it sounded, I apologize-"

"I understand." And he did. If Momo could find a way to avoid marrying someone else that she didn't want to, Shoto would be happy for her. She was his friend, and nothing else. If she could find another solution, he'd love that.

Not that he fully understood the problem. Why she couldn't just tell her parents off and marry someone she actually wanted to. Gay marriage was actually legal in her home, even if it wasn't in Uyay.

But Momo's family was probably more complicated than he'd realized, and he would respect that because she was his friend. And while he didn't understand why she didn't understand how capable and strong she was and why her family couldn't see that she would be perfectly competent as something other than a political bargaining tool, he would be there for her.

Coming to UA had taught him that that was what friends were supposed to do. Be there for each other. No matter what.

He'd never been good at having friends. He'd never really had a lot of them. It was a combination of his father trying to isolate him from everyone and his own brain not allowing him to understand social rules everyone else got instinctively. But he had friends. He'd made friends, at UA. And they were his.

Not people his father wanted him to be friends with. Not all of them were people who'd benefit him as he took the throne. They were just his friends.

Momo smiled at Shoto. He smiled back, slightly. And then she stood up from her bed and put her teacup on the table, already in her uniform.

"Let's go. Mr. Aizawa asked to meet with all of us before classes start."

"Alright."

The two of them walked out of Momo's dorm room together.

It was a nice day, there were no villains actively attacking them as far as Shoto knew, he was with a friend, and he no longer had to be the king.

He was the closest thing he'd ever been in his life to free.

This chapter is what fully kicks off Todoroki and Yaoyorozu's arcs and I'm so excited. The two of them are some of my favorites, and I can't wait to write more of them in the future. Leave a review with questions, constructive criticism, and/or words of encouragement! Later, potaters!