The next seven months fly by.

Cathleen Bate does her job and she does it well. As Star and Stripe, she's always been motivated to do her best, to save as many people as she can. To make All Might proud. (Not that it's hard, All Might would be proud of her for making it out the door every morning. The man is such a wholesome dork underneath his unbreakable persona.)

But now?

Now Cathleen has a song in her heart and the memories of Inko's warm smiles. Frankly, it's practically unfair to the Villains she has to fight.

Cathleen never really understood just how much having someone to come home to could change how a Hero behaves. But now? Now there's a determination behind all of her actions, driving all of her decisions, and fueling her whenever a situation turns sour.

She's going to see Inko again, and not a single one of the Villains that pops up in her turf is going to stop her. She pities any of them that try.

The Midoriya's brief stay in Los Angeles to visit her was eye-opening for Izuku. Before they left for Japan again, he asked Cathleen to teach him English. While Inko is fluent, Cathleen is a native speaker. So now part of their weekly calls involves Izuku's English lessons. He's a voracious learner, tearing through the unfamiliar vocabulary and grammar much faster than Cathleen expects, but that's probably not saying much, and she's pretty sure her lessons are aimed at a younger audience than Izuku anyway.

Other than Izuku's newfound interest in being able to better communicate with Cathleen's brothers, not a whole lot changes. Cathleen sometimes asks about Inko's current legal cases, but there's confidentiality involved there, in much the same way that Cathleen can't always answer Inko's questions about her investigations and Heroic activities.

It's frustrating that they have to hide things from each other. Cathleen still hasn't explained her Quirk yet. National secret or not, it's a fundamental part of Cathleen, down to her very DNA.

Life goes on for them both.

In February, Cathleen makes sure to order chocolate for Inko. She doesn't think much about it. It's Valentines, you get chocolate for your girlfriend. Seems straightforward enough, even if it is chocolate propaganda.

She picks some she's sure Inko will love based on her café preferences and honestly forgets about it. She's a busy Pro Hero, she doesn't keep track of every order she places for Inko. During their next weekly call, Inko thanks her for the gift and that's that.

Or it is until a month later when Cathleen is forcibly reminded that White Day is a holiday that does in fact exist in some cultures. Japan, for example.

Zach sets down a large package on her desk and raises an amused eyebrow.

"I hope you're planning on inviting us to the wedding," he says.

Cathleen sits up, eyes bright. "It's from Inko?"

"Of course that's what you take away from this," Zach shakes his head, but Cathleen can see the fondness in his expression. "Yup. Looks like she ordered you something. Don't get so distracted thinking about her that you forget to open the damn thing like last time."

"That—that's not what happened!" Cathleen says, flushing, as she snags the box away from him. Zach laughs his way out of her office and, from the sounds of it, all the way down the hall.

The chocolate is delicious.

Her conversations with Inko are the highlight of Cathleen's week. She loves her brothers, don't get her wrong, she loves them dearly. But they're, well, they're her brothers in arms. They aren't Inko. They're her family, but they don't have the same effect on her.

Inko doesn't complete Cathleen, but her presence makes Cathleen better. More aware of herself and of how she is.

She sighs happily and marks off another day on her calendar.

110 days until she goes back.

It's only been a year since her first visit, but it's oddly nostalgic coming back to Japan again.

Cathleen made good time, thanks to careful planning on her part. She touches down on the second of July, giving her plenty of time to arrive in Mustafu for Inko's birthday. It's still wild to her that they were born on the exact same day. What was it that they had said? That it was like they're destined for each other?

Cathleen can't stop the dopey grin from stretching across her face.

There's just something about Inko that makes Cathleen feel like she's walking on clouds.

The Midoriyas aren't waiting for her at the Tokyo airport by mutual agreement. Seeing her off is one thing, but Cathleen needs to check into her hotel before she can go straight to their apartment. Not to mention how the apartment isn't set up for Cathleen to live with them, especially given the long-distance nature of their relationship. Cathleen would feel like she's imposing if they got her a room for her to stay in a few days a year.

She probably makes a bit of a scene on the train ride from Tokyo to Musatfu, given that she is a seven-foot amazon bouncing lightly in place from excitement.

She can't help it! She has too much anticipation to sit still!

The ride feels like it takes forever, but that's probably only because Cathleen's head is full of nothing but her girlfriend and every second that she has to wait for this train to arrive is a second where she isn't holding Inko's hand or talking or—

Wow, Cathleen has it bad.

She shoots a glance at the large suitcase sitting next to her. She won't be in Japan for long enough to spend Izuku's birthday with him in person—though she is absolutely going to call, God help any Villain who tries to start some shit that day—but she went ahead and brought along the gift she got for him. She hasn't decided if she wants to give it to him early or smuggle it to Inko and have him open it while she's in call with him.

Cathleen smiles to herself, imaging the look on Izuku's face when he sees it.

Eventually, the train shudders to a half as the announcement plays. It's Cathleen's stop.

Mustafu.

The city hasn't changed much in the past year, at least that Cathleen can see. She's sure it's actually changed quite a bit—new stores and restaurants opening, old ones closing, the usual affair. But the landmarks of the city? The architecture? That's all the same.

Once Cathleen's checked into her hotel room, she hops on a bus to the Midoriya neighborhood, sparing a glance out her window at the towering UA High School. She still intends on seeing it properly one day, but it's not why she's here.

The Midoriya apartment complex, much like the rest of the city, is exactly like Cathleen remembers.

She knocks on the door labeled 'Midoriya' and waits. She doesn't have to wait very long. Inko throws the door open and before Cathleen can even exchange pleasantries, pulls her down and kisses her.

Once they've had their fill (for now), Inko guides Cathleen into the apartment.

It's not quite the same as it was a year ago. The furniture is the same, of course, but the decorations have shifted with time. There are new pictures hanging on the walls. A book on Japanese Hero Law on the table for one of Inko's legal cases. The small potted plants visible on the balcony have grown out a little more.

"Ms. Bate!" Izuku says, running out of his room and trying to tackle her leg.

"Izuku!" She says, rubbing his fluffy green curls. "You've gotten so big!"

"I'm almost five!" he says.

"You are?" Cathleen feigns surprise. "How did that happen?"

Izuku laughs at her antics, smiling gently at him.

"Izuku, sweetie, could you clean up in the kitchen for me?" Inko says.

"Okay," says Izuku, dragging himself off of Cathleen and across the hall.

Inko sighs wistfully, pulling Cathleen onto the sofa.

"Cathy," she says quietly, the name sending a jolt of elation down Cathleen's spine, "I think Izuku's feeling down lately. All the other kids have gotten Quirks by now, but…"

"But Izuku's not going to get one," says Cathleen. Inko nods.

"He still wants to be a Hero; God knows where he gets his determination, but Quirks have always been something he's passionate about. He used to cheer from his crib when he saw me using my Quirk. You say he can become a Quirkless Hero, and I believe you. Even so…"

"It hurts seeing everyone else having something that you want and know you won't have." Cathleen nods, swallowing. "Do you think the other kids are…"

"No," says Inko immediately. "He—he would tell me."

"Alright."

"That being said, he hasn't spent as much time with his friends lately."

Cathleen doesn't totally know how to address this problem. Telling Izuku that he can be a Quirkless Hero is easy. All kinds of Heroes run around without physical Quirks, even in countries as saturated in flashy-Emitter types as Japan is. All Might's sidekick, Sir Nighteye, for example.

But if Izuku really is upset about the fact that he doesn't have a Quirk but the people around him do, well, there isn't much Cathleen can say about that.

He's so young to understand that the world is unfair.

"So, he likes Quirks?" Cathleen says.

Inko snorts. "He loves them. She spends a lot of his free time in front of the TV or on his computer researching Quirks or watching footage of Heroes fighting Villains so he can analyze them, what they do, how they're used, everything."

"I don't suppose you know where he got that from, do you?" Cathleen purrs into Inko's ear. Inko smiles, leaning into Cathleen.

"I may have had a hand in his natural curiosity… and his ability to research."

"I'm sure those are both useful for your clients."

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"Mom!" calls Izuku, jogging lightly back into the front room. "All the dishes are put away!"

"Thank you, Sunshine," Inko says, cupping her son's cheek and lightly brushing his face with her thumb. "Didn't you have some questions for Cathy?"

His eyes light up like stars.

"Ms. Bate!" Izuku practically vibrates with excitement that way children do, "Last week, in that rescue, you were so cool!"

He's referring to a pretty straightforward disaster she had to respond to. An apartment fire. No one was badly hurt, thankfully, though there was a scare when part of the roof collapsed, and she had to get to people trapped on the other side

"And you put out all the fires around you! And made all that stuff disappear! The robble…?"

"Rubble," Inko corrects gently.

"You made the rubble go away!" Izuku says. "How'd you do that?"

Cathleen's Quirk is a military secret, and her superiors would tell her that her girlfriend and her son are not appropriate confidants to reveal such heavily classified information. Cathleen knows better than to carelessly explain that she used an Order to make the rubble stop existing.

Izuku takes her moment of hesitation as an opening to keep talking. "I know you didn't want to use your strength to move it 'cuz you might make the collapse worse, but where did it go?"

That… Huh.

"I've never thought about it," Cathleen admits. Making something stop existing is actually one of her most common uses of New Order. Make the air stop existing, you put out a fire. Make debris stop existing and you can move people who were trapped. And once she rescinds the Order, whatever it is she vanished returns like it never left.

Hell, removing air doesn't even seem to cause a pressure difference now that she thinks about it.

"But it's gotta go somewhere, right?" says Izuku with his wide, curious eyes. "So you make it go somewhere and then come back!" He gasps, lighting up. "Can you teleport?"

Holy.

Shit.

Cathleen's spent a lot of time thinking through the potential applications of her Quirk, so the moment Izuku suggests it her brain automatically beings putting pieces together. She wants to slap herself, maybe cry, maybe bow down before the awesome might that is this five year old's brain.

How did she never think of this before?

A laugh bubbles out from Cathleen's throat; she can't stop herself.

How did she never think of this before?

Not her, not her trainers.

The biggest breakthrough Cathleen's had with her Quirk in years came because of little Izuku.

"What's so funny?" Izuku says with a pout.

"The fact that you're smarter than me," says Cathleen. Izuku's eyes go wide. "I'd never thought of that, but if that works…"

It could drastically improve her response time, potentially help her relocate victims in a disaster situation—though given New Order's limitations, she's doubtful—allow her to move Villains away from civilians…

"Do you want to help me test it?" Cathleen says. Izuku's grin is some strange mix of delighted and feral. Cathleen knows this because it's the same grin she herself is wearing. Inko, of course, is too refined to let her feralness show so easily—though Cathleen knows without a shadow of a doubt where Izuku got his sharp wit and gremlin energy—and instead lets mischief run rampant across her features.

They start with something simple: moving from one room in the apartment to another. They don't want to learn the hard way what happens if Cathleen fucks up and warps into something else. A few minutes of set-up later and they're ready.

It takes a few tries for Cathleen to figure out how to word her Order so that she actually teleports instead of accidentally flinging herself down the hallway. And while even she can (silently) admit that someone with her build ragdolling through the air is hilarious, it's not very practical.

Finally, she gets it with "Cathleen Bate is in the Midoriya Apartment Kitchen," as the key phrasing to get her Quirk to do what she wants.

The world warps and wraps around her, unraveling and reforming.

Cathleen blinks, disoriented but fortunately not nauseous.

It takes her a moment to get her bearings after reality peeled away from her and came back together, but once Izuku calls out in glee and runs in to greet her, she collects herself quickly.

"You did it!" he cheers, hopping up and down.

"And it's all thanks to you, little man," says Cathleen. Izuku gasps in delight, eyes gleaming.

"Cathy," Inko says as she slips into the kitchen, "I think… I think we might need to… renegotiate our weekly calls."

"I think so too," Cathleen says, already picturing how incredible it is that she can now zip on over to Japan—to Inko—whenever she wants. "But first, we should finish the test."

"Oh?"

Cathleen smirks and rescinds the Order.

Space warps around her once again and Cathleen finds herself back in the spot where she started. Exactly like she thought.

Izuku comes running in, his footsteps echoing down the hallways, and he hugs her leg again.

"You vanished!" he says.

"Yup," says Cathleen, giving his soft hair another ruffle. She can't help herself, it's like kitten fur. "Like how I make the debris come back, I have to make myself go back to where I started." I could also probably put a condition on the teleport so I can keep an Order free, but I really don't like the idea of using permanent Orders on teleporting until I'm confident I've mastered that little trick. Being able to cancel it if something goes wrong is invaluable.

Inko leans against the doorway, smiling softly at Cathleen. "So I assume we'll be setting up a designated landing space for you?"

Cathleen matches her smile. "That would be wonderful, Inko."

It only takes Inko about a minute to choose a spot in the apartment for Cathleen to teleport to, about a square meter in her office, marked with tape on the floor. They won't put anything in that square ever, and therefore Cathleen can warp there at will without consequence.

Cathleen notes the coordinates with her phone. Specificity is key when you're warping reality.

She also knows that none of her brothers are going to be in her personal office while she's away.

"Be right back," she tells Inko with a wink. "Cathleen Bate is in her office in Los Angeles." She can't keep the smile off her face as space warps around her once more.

She opens her eyes and finds herself where she said she would: her agency.

She's giddy. It's surreal that she can teleport now. Anywhere in the world, if she wants to go there, she can. She is going to kiss Inko so much!

Cathleen steps out into the hall. She raises an eyebrow at her brother.

"Hey Aaron," she says. "Kinda late to be here, isn't it?"

"Forgot something in my room," he says absently. He makes it a whole three steps before he freezes and turns to look at her.

"No one will ever believe you," says Cathleen, and she rescinds the order.

Cathleen blinks back to awareness standing in her space in Inko's office.

"Welcome back Cathy," Inko says. "How was America?"

"Lovely," Cathleen says. "But not as lovely as you."

Inko wraps her arms around Cathleen and squeezes. Cathleen chuckles quietly, brushing a few loose strands out of Inko's face.

It seems to hit them both at once, the reality of what Izuku's figured out. That Cathleen really can be here whenever she wants. A grip in her chest loosens as Inko stares up at her with watery eyes.

"Guess I'll be here for Izuku's birthday after all—" Cathleen starts, but before she can finish, Inko pulls her down and plants her lips on Cathleen's.

After their long embrace, Inko softly pulls away. "You know, now I'm expecting you to visit in person instead of calling."

"Oh Inko," Cathleen says, "I wouldn't have it any other way."