Even though it had only been a year and a half since she'd reforged her relationship with Anakin and Obi Wan it often felt like the three of them had been friends for decades. It was such an odd sensation, how they'd managed to fit so well together. Before arriving on Earth, with the chaos of the War, they'd still managed to find time to be together. Her and Ani… well, that was obvious. But also her and Obi Wan. She loved Anakin, she truly did, but she also understood why there had been the whispers that she and Obi Wan were romantically involved. Anakin would suffer through many of her favorite things, and suffer he did and make clear of said suffering, but in Obi Wan she found a companion who enjoyed such things. Trying out new restaurants, classical music, the works of Odam. While Obi Wan hadn't been able to spend much time as he might like on Coruscant they had been able to share such things via messages and calls. They had made it work. And as for Anakin and Obi Wan… well, she remembered Anakin's griping comments about how Obi Wan had made him feel stifled and coddled and how those had disappeared after his knighting and especially after Ahsoka had become his padawan.

On Earth however everything had burst out. It reminded her of Dewlip Blossoms after a night rain; the small little flowers suddenly letting their petals peel back until they were three times their original size, revealing riots of color for all those that glanced at them. Anakin and her were able to be an actual couple and with no War constantly dragging him away spend time together. Indeed it was more her training with Toshi that interfered more than Anakin's work as a hero and an inventor that kept them apart. Anakin and Obi Wan also had forged a stronger bond with no more secrets between them… and Obi Wan relaxing a bit thanks to Nemuri (who Padme had found to be a good friend as well). And as for her and Obi Wan they were now able to sneak off to try out a new restaurant that he had heard of or spend hours debating a book that Nedzu had suggested for them.

'He's like the brother I never got,' she thought to herself with a smile.

And him being her brother meant that… well… she sometimes delighted in his suffering.

"I LOOOOOVE your armor," a twenty-something woman in a rather tight t-shirt gushed as she pressed closer to Obi Wan.

"Well… thank you-"

"And your accent just makes everything sound so distinguished," another woman said to his right. "I've been to five Sports Festivals and never have I felt the words… penetrate me… like yours do."

"Well… that is… wonderful," Obi Wan said, words stilted.

"I just wish they'd show you on the big screens," a third woman said. "It's a crime we can't actually see you when you are doing commentary."

"What do you do at the school?" another asked.

Obi Wan forced himself to smile; Padme had seen him use that one when he had a pushy Senator ask if he could come to a meeting even when Obi Wan was covered in soot and grim and had been unable to wash up after a grueling campaign. "I teach the heroics class."

"Oh, a teacher," the woman said with a long breathy sigh.

"Can you give me an autograph?" the first woman asked, pushing herself back up to the head of the line.

"Well yes, of course-" He blinked when the woman pulled down her shirt to expose her cleavage. "I… uh…" He glanced towards her, eyes pleading for help.

Padme though merely waved at him and went to get in line for some snacks, leaving Obi Wan to deal with his fan club.

"I hope you're recording all this Nedzu," she said softly, not at all startled when one of the TV screens in the hallway suddenly flickered and the words "I'LL SEND YOU A COPY" briefly appeared.

Walking off she began to look around trying to figure out what she wanted to snack on. She had thought her hunger pangs were bad just training but with One For All thrumming in her veins it was like a gorge had suddenly opened up in the bottom of her stomach and there was nothing she could do to fill it. Well, other than eat.

'Honestly, how did Toshi survive just drinking those food pouches?' she thought as she stood before a booth selling traditional Japanese bento boxes and another selling "American Cheeseburger" that looked to be the size of R2. 'I wonder just how much of his time limit he would have kept if he had just eaten properly.' According to Chiyo the 'embers' of One For All were still rather strong in Toshi and while eventually he would be rendered quirkless it was possible that he'd be able to enter his All Might form, and maintain it for roughly the same timeframe as he had before, for another year.

She was about ready to get Obi Wan (if only so he could stand in one line while she stood in the other) only for her thoughts to be pulled away from food and to something else entirely. Thanks to her time in the Senate Padme had learned how to pick out conversations from the chaos and clatter that was life. A million voices all bickering and fighting… and sifting through those to find the only one that mattered. Obi Wan had once said, upon seeing her do that, that he wondered just how powerful in the Force she was; while not enough to be a Jedi all living beings were connected to the Force and thus it was possible that she was able to tap into it from time to time.

Whatever the case she knew how to sense an important conversation and listen in to it.

And what she was hearing was not making her pleased in the slightest.

"This little rebellion of yours has gone on fair enough, Shoto," a stern rumbling voice growled. "I have allowed your childish actions to go on because I had hoped that UA would show you just how utterly moronic they were. But you stubbornly refusing to see reason is no longer merely affecting your growth."

It wasn't anything utterly drastic. A bit harsh, yes, in terms of word choice, but Padme had heard plenty of parents say similar things to their children. Her work in relief efforts and the underprivileged had made her witness so such talks many times. A parent upset that their child wanted to leave home or refused to honor the traditions of their family or not wanting to take over for their father or mother when it came to running a business. The old and the young battling against one another to determine the path their lives went on.

It was a tale as old as time in Naboo, where the young always pushed to grow and evolve and the elders looked to the traditions of the past. Plays were written about such things. There was a popular song where an old woman and her young granddaughter bickering about such things. It was something Padme herself had wondered about, in concern with her own views. Would she remember when she was old and gray that she used to be a rebel and a fighter? Or would she become like so many of the elders she had once fought against and believe that SHE and SHE ALONE was the one to reach the line of perfection and all those that came after her were rushing off a cliff? She looked at Ahsoka and Padme worried she would soon become like her own mother, complaining that Ahsoka needed to slow down, settle down, take it easy.

But the man talking now… while his words were so much like what she had heard it was the tone that alerted her to the deeper problem.

Abandoning her need for snacks she walked down a side hallway, rather startled to find that what she had thought was a man talking in a low voice nearby was actually a man bellowing rather loudly far away. Turning a corner she found herself staring at the Number 2 Hero, Endeavor, looming over one of Ahsoka's classmates, Todoroki Shoto. He had been on Ochaco's team and done very well in the First Event though Obi Wan hadn't been pleased that he was using only half of his quirk.

It seemed his father was feeling the same way.

"When you go out there you represent our family. You represent me! And your weakness reflects upon me!" Endeavor glared at the boy who merely continued to stare at him with dead emotionless eyes. "Do you hear me, Shoto? I am tired of you acting out this way. You will use the quirk that I gave you. You will win the Sports Festival and utterly decimate your foes!"

"I will win," Shoto finally said. "With my ice."

Endeavor reared back and Padme's eyes went wide when the hero punched the wall right next to Shoto's head.

"I swear to you that if you fail in this… lose to those pathetic little weaklings… I will ensure that you regret it. Do not think you cannot be replaced."

"You have no more children," Shoto simply answered. "I am all that is left."

"For now," Endeavor said. "But there are options. You mother cannot do her duty-" And for the first time Padme saw Shoto show a hint of emotion as his eyes narrowed, "-so it is in my right to find another wife. Already I am reaching out to Might Agency…" He let that comment hang… and Padme felt her stomach curdle at the thought. "But there is still hope for you… but only if you do what is best for you. Win. None of these weaklings can come close to you. That screeching hot head… the quirkless boy-" Padme bristled at how vile he made the word 'quirkless' sound, "-that gravity girl… I have never even heard of her family so they must be less than nothing. And that orange freak-"

"Her name," Padme said, making her presence known, "is Tano Ahsoka."

Endeavor turned and stared down at her with dark eyes. They reminded her of a doll's, showing no emotion at all. Cold. Lifeless. Standing utterly against the flames Endeavor produced. Those that burned so hot and so wildly… surrounding two orbs that were utterly dead.

"This doesn't concern you," he said and then turned back towards Shoto, clearly assuming that she would walk away.

Padme instead stepped forward. "You mocked Ahsoka? That makes it my concern."

"And just who are you?" Endeavor asked.

'Who am I?' The thought bounced in her head. She had been thinking about it for a long time. Ever since she'd arrived on Earth and been able to shed away the lies and the secrets. To no longer fear what the Senate or the Jedi Council would think Who was she? Who did her heart want her to be?

"I am Amidala Padme," she said. "Ahsoka's mother. My husband is Skywalker Anakin, the pro hero Sir Steel. My brother is Kenobi Obi Wan, pro hero Negotiator and UA's Heroics teacher." She took another step forward, looking right up at Endeavor. "And I'm not walking away."

The heat of the flames Endeavor produced grew hotter and she felt One For All thundering in her veins. It was as if a multitude of hands were pressing themselves onto her body, steadying her as their owners whispered that all she needed to do was show Endeavor JUST how powerful she truly was.

But the #2 hero in Japan merely stared at her for a long moment… before brushing past her, knocking her in the shoulder with his bulk before he stormed off.

"You didn't need to do that," Shoto said quietly. "I know how to deal with my father."

"That doesn't mean you NEED to deal with him," Padme answered back once Endeavor was gone.

"No one has ever stood up to him," Shoto said and despite how bland his tone was she could detect a pinch of surprise in his words.

Padme smirked. "I'm not just anyone." Her smile fell though when she looked at Shoto. "I'm sorry… you're his son, I shouldn't-"

"No," Shoto shook his head. "No… you should have. Someone should have… a long time ago." He frowned. "I do not wish to speak of it."

There was so much she wanted to ask him. About his home life. About his training. About what having a man like Endeavor be the one to guide a child through their adolescence must be like. But she knew that it was Shoto's story to tell and his right to tell it. He deserved that much. It was clear that so much of his life had been taken from him; that his father had ensured there were almost no choices that were his own to make. Padme wouldn't do the same by forcing him to speak.

So instead she asked, "Do you know what he meant about reaching out to the Might Agency?"

For the first time since she'd begun to talk with him Shoto showed true honest emotion: disgust.

"Have you ever heard of Quirk Marriages?"

"I can't say that I have," she admitted.

"They're illegal now. A family would find another in desperate need for cash and purchase their child, usually a girl, for the purpose of having her sleep with their own child in hopes that the two quirks would create something more powerful."

Padme felt her stomach twist in revulsion. On Naboo such practices had existed but they had been in terms of lineage and social standing. Centuries ago there had been 'breeding books' that families would keep, much as loma racers would for prized stallions. They would showcase their family ties and barter off second sons and daughters to other families in order to increase their prestige in society. It had torn apart families when a child refused to be treated as little more than lifestock and seen bitterness and greed grow amount the elite and nobles.

It had eventually reached the point where The Six, the most powerful and ancient of the Nubian families, had only married amongst themselves, taking turns sending sons to court to marry the Nubian Queens of old. But the desperate desire to only have the strongest of bloodlines join their own had been their downfall when they'd become so inbred that when Gray Sickle had finally swept across Naboo all of The Six and the Royal Family had been wiped out while the more 'common' Nubians had easily pulled through. Where the 'poor' and the 'imperfect' had merely suffered from a day of two of misery The Six had died over the course of an agonizing month. After that the role of Queen had become democratically voted by and Naboo had worked to turn away from such petty things.

'But to do it with quirks…' Padme thought to herself.

Shoto kept speaking. "My father has the most powerful Fire-Based Quirk ever recorded. He has always held that he should be the Number 1 Hero. But he cannot match All Might. So he found a poor family who had a history of Ice Quirks and arranged to marry their daughter…"

Padme wanted to sweep the boy in a hug but knew it would only startle him. "Oh…" was all she could say.

"My eldest brother died trying to prove himself his successor. My sister and brother only gained my mother's quirk. I… hold both." He looked at her with solemn eyes. "I will not use fire though. I refuse to. They are his. The Ice is my mother's and though she…" he shook his head. "I'm sorry, we have gotten off point."

"It's fine!" Padme said quickly, trying to assure him.

"No, you asked about my father and the Might Agency. I only now have heard of those thoughts but I believe I know the answer: he wishes to purchase Star Might so he might have children with her, in the hopes of producing another heir should I continue to rebel."

Padme grit her teeth. "It will never happen."

"…perhaps," Shoto said. "But you do not know my father. He can be persuasive-"

Without a thought Padme entered her muscle form, clothing stretching to accommodate her larger frame and added height.

"Oh…" Padme said, realizing what she'd done. She looked at Shoto who was stared at her in shock (or, from what she'd learned, was shock for him). "You… didn't see this." She quickly returned to normal.

"You are Star Might…" Shoto whispered.

"I am," Padme said. "Please don't tell anyone. Especially your father-"

"He'd never believe me," Shoto admitted. But there was something else there. "I would love to see him meet you again."

That caused Padme to smirk. "Yeah… things aren't going to work out how he thought." She sighed, shaking her head. "Todoroki-"

"Shoto," he said and she understood how big of a deal culturally if was for him to ask her to call him that.

"Shoto… I know what it is like to stand in-" she almost said 'a great man' but caught herself, '-someone else's shadow. To have their hopes and dreams placed on your shoulders. So if you ever need to talk…"

It took him a long moment but then he reached into his pocket up and pulled out his phone. Padme, rather quickly, typed in her contact info before handing it back, the young man bowing. "Thank you," he said. "I must go… I need to prepare for the next round."

"Of course," Padme said, giving her own bow before walking back to the food court. Obi Wan was there and she couldn't help but snicker at how he was holding several buckets of popcorn in his arms.

"Ah yes, mock a poor man," he said dryly and Padme smirked before grabbing two of the buckets from him. "Where ever did you go?"

"I had a chat with someone… Obi Wan, as a friend… would you help me with something?"

"Of course."

"I want to destroy the Number 2 Hero."

Obi Wan blinked.

~MC~MC~MC~

As Shoto and Padme both left neither noticed a single side door, which led to a broom closet, slowly crack open.

A shaken Izuku stepped out, eyes wide.