"What happened here?"

Ayumu wiped at her running nose and blinked back more tears before facing the hero. "Oh. You're here."

Aizawa nodded. "I had a work emergency that delayed me, or I'd have been here before everything started. Is the meeting already over?"

"No. Dabi just pissed me off."

Hawks had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, but she wasn't exactly pleased with him, either.

"I told them it was a bad idea to have you here." Aizawa blinked tired eyes as if just noticing a change with her. "You had your twins. Congratulations."

"Thanks." She sniffled and blew her nose into her tissue again; at least she'd been smart enough to bring those. Her hormones were still a damned mess.

He nodded, his red rimmed eyes flicking between the other hero and the woman. "Hawks, d'you think you could give us a minute?"

Keigo's sharp gaze narrowed. "Why?"

"Because I'd like to speak with her privately for a moment."

"It's okay, Hawks," she assured him, and the winged hero sighed.

"If you're sure. I'll be right on the other side of the glass." He stepped inside and leaned against the wall. She didn't doubt that he could still hear them, but it felt a little more private.

"You okay?"

Ayumu huffed a bitter laugh. "Peachy. Just had to deal with Dabi trying to barter to hold me and my children captive again, is all." She pushed her hair back. "If he thinks I'd allow that, he is sorely mistaken."

"That's what he wanted? Whatever information he has, I doubt it's worth that."

"I know it isn't. There's nothing that would convince me to let him near my children."

Aizawa smirked. "Do you have a picture?"

Ever the proud mother, she pulled out and unlocked her phone. "Better than that. Live video. Hawks put it up so I could watch them while we were out."

"That's a little creepy," he murmured. "But thoughtful, I guess." There was a pair of children held by the white-haired Todoroki girl as she rocked in a chair. They had similar squished faces. "They're cute."

She flushed. "Thanks. The one on the left is my girl, Hanako. The other is my boy, Daiki."

"So…" He turned to look out at the city. "How are things with Hawks?"

For some reason, she thought he might be on edge. "Fine. He's trying to convince me to move to a house outside the city, keeps showing me real estate pages he thinks I might like."

"Are you a city girl?" Aizawa leaned against the rail as they spoke.

She shrugged and leaned forward beside him, forearms on the cool metal. "Not particularly. I'm just— it makes me feel weird, thinking of buying a house with him."

He nodded. "Have you thought about my offer?"

"Of living at UA? I don't know how exactly that would work. Besides, I don't know how Keigo would react."

"Are the two of you together now?" His red-rimmed eyes were serious.

"Oh. N-no." Although things had been more intimate lately with the pair of them sleeping in the same bed as often as not, and co-parenting. And…

"In that case, would it be inappropriate if I asked you out?"

Her gaze snapped to his eyes, trying to read the sincerity there. "On a date?"

"Yeah." His cheeks were pink and he was studiously staring outward.

On the one hand, life was currently complicated, what with being a new mother, the former captive of a villain, and the current live-in something of Hawks. On the other, Aizawa was attractive, mature, and kind. And he had no problems with her Quirk.

"We could start with something low pressure. Maybe just grab coffee?" he suggested at her reticence.

"Okay." She was surprised at the speed at which the word came out, but her chest fluttered with excitement.

A smile tugged at his lips. It made him look less exhausted. "Okay, then. I suppose we should get in there, huh?"

"I suppose…"

They made their way inside, Hawks falling into place behind Ayumu as they went to the meeting room. However, the villain and the former president were gone. Only the flame hero and Mera remained.

"What happened?" she asked the sleepy man.

He stood and wiped a hand across his eyes. "We will be in touch, Miss Sato. Hawks, I will see you at our next meeting." Then he took his leave.

"What the hell!"

"Calm down. I'm sure they didn't reach any—"

She rounded on the winged hero. "No. Do not tell me to calm down. They sat here and listened to Dabi, and who knows what the hell was said. And— and he was the one who demanded I come!"

"I know, dove. I'll talk to them, alright? But you know I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." He pulled her toward him to sooth her, noting the way Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "What do you say we get back to the kids, hm?"

She pulled away to glare at Endeavor. "I don't suppose you'll tell us what happened."

"It's not my place." The big man had the grace to look uncomfortable.

"Of fucking course not." She rolled her eyes in dismissal, then turned toward Aizawa. "I'll text you."

The little ones were down for the night (or a few hours if she was lucky) and she had her head in Keigo's lap. His fingers combed through her hair, soothing her until she felt like she was floating.

"So how did your conversation with Eraserhead go?"

Ayumu blinked up at him. "Hm?"

"He, uh, asked you out, huh?"

"You heard that?"

He nodded. "And you said yes."

"I said yes to coffee," Ayumu corrected. "I don't think I'd be up for a date-date with anyone right now."

"What about us?"

Ayumu's brows twitched together. "Keigo…"

"Don't." When her lips parted, he continued, "Don't say my name like that. You know how I feel about you. I know how you feel about me. So why not be together?"

Ayumu sat up, sighing as she brushed a hand through her hair to neaten it. "You're too young to be in a relationship." He was too young for her in general, really. Dabi had been straddling that line, but since it had only been play, she'd overlooked it.

"I'm not that young. I'm old enough to risk my life, old enough to understand the consequences of my actions."

"You're twenty-two and I'm pushing thirty." she countered.

Keigo rolled his eyes and leaned closer to her. "You're twenty-eight. In the grand scheme of things, six years is nothing."

"I'm a single mom and you're the heartthrob hero." She hated having this conversation, especially since there was no way to win without hurting him. She knew Keigo would drive her there if she let him.

"One of those kids is mine," he said. "Single dad and single mom, birds of a feather."

He flashed that killer smile at her, and Ayumu huffed to hide her laugh. Why did he have to be so damned cute? "The commission will never allow it."

His eyes tightened. He was the commission's golden boy. They'd never allow him to be tarnished by a woman like her. Even if she wasn't sullied by Dabi, she was not someone who would add to the image of Hawks. Older, openly bisexual and kinky, with a slightly dirty past. Ayumu was honestly surprised they'd allowed Keigo to claim the twins as he had, even if it was currently kept quiet.

After a moment of quiet contemplation, Keigo cupped her cheek. "They can't control that. I wouldn't let them stop us being together. They owe me for the shit they've put me through— what they've put us through."

He'd crept closer, and now he pressed his forehead against hers.

Her eyes became hot as she tried to fight off tears. The words were on the tip of her tongue. She needed to say them, to put to bed this silly image he had of them becoming a family and living happily ever after. But his golden eyes were so clear and sweet and close, she couldn't bear to break his heart.

"We deserve happiness." His thumb stroked lovingly over her cheek. "Think about it?" he murmured. She nodded. Keigo laid the gentlest kiss to the corner of her mouth before pulling away.

Ayumu scrubbed her hands over her face and leaned back against the couch cushions. She wished she could go back to the day before she met Dabi, when her biggest worry was getting over heartbreak.

Her chest panged in retaliation, her kids flashing through her mind. Regretting them seemed wrong, but she knew their lives wouldn't be easy. It was a cruelty, what Dabi had forced on them all.

What she had blindly walked into.