I've had a lot of time on my hands recently, so I've been able to do more chapters than usual. I'll have to do more work soon though, so I'll be back to updating once a week soon enough.

The sports festival was over. Most of the audience had gone home, as did the contestants and teachers. Only a few people remained, Peter and Toga being among them.

Peter had been stuck at the coliseum for a while because everybody wanted to talk to him and Toga was there as well because she didn't want to leave alone. Now that everybody had finally left, they were alone, which was not good.

Peter still wasn't fully past what happened. A small part of him wanted to beat up Momo and Todoroki.

"Why did they even do that? Do they pull this with everybody they see together? What's wrong with them?" Peter was so busy screaming at them in his head that he didn't even notice Toga staring at him.

"Peter? You okay? You've been acting weird for a while now?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine, totally fine. Nothing's wrong here." Peter cringed at his own terrible lie.

Toga just shook her head.

"Alright then. If everything's fine, let's go. I'm sure everybody else wants to see you."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the bench they were sitting on. Peter just followed along, barely registering his feet touching the ground as he did so.

Had he imagined what happened? That had to be it, right? He'd had crushes before, but this was the first time he'd actually kissed somebody. It had to be fake.

Toga led him to the train that would take them to the bar. Neither of them said a word the entire time. Peter could feel everybody around him whispering about the two of them. That was to be expected. After all, people around the world watched the UA sports festival, so of course people knew about him.

"Psst. Hey, dude!" Peter lifted his head to see who was speaking to him. It was a kid with blonde hair who looked a few years older than him.

"Hey, I just wanted to say, great pull, man. You got lucky." The blonde kid flashed him a thumbs up. Peter was confused until the stranger pointed at Toga, still disguised as somebody else.

Peter let out a defeated groan and put his face in his hands. It wasn't his imagination. It happened, and everybody in Japan and beyond watched.

Finally the train ride ended 10 minutes later. Peter grabbed Toga and got out as soon as the doors opened. He hurried the short distance to the bar, practically dragging Toga behind him.

Before opening the door, he heaved a deep sigh. He knew they would all make fun of him to no end as soon as he opened the door. But he couldn't just disappear.

"Toga...all I ask is that you don't make this worse. Please."

"Hm? Whatever do you mean?" She asked with a cheshire grin.

"Just...please don't say anything to embarrass me."

"Like what? What shouldn't I say? Ooh, should I tell them you grabbed me and brought me into a passionate-"

"NO!" Peter shouted back. He could already feel his face turning red. Toga just shot him a smile and pushed the door open.

"GRAB HER!" A pair of hands shot through the doorway and grabbed Toga. She disappeared into the dark building, leaving Peter alone in the alley.

"Wha-TOGA!?" Peter forced the door open, only to be met with darkness. He reached for the wall next to him and flicked the light switch. He was met with the sight of Toga in a chair surrounded by the other villains.

"...Okay, what did I miss? What's happening here?" Peter asked, completely clueless as to what was going on.

"Who is this Peter? Why is she here?" Spinner growled.

Peter was lost until Magne came up to him and bent down next to his ear.

"They don't know it's Toga. Only me and Kurogiri do."

She walked off to rejoin the others, looking satisfied. Peter only groaned.

"Guys...it's Toga. She just transformed because she wanted to see me at the sports festival."

None of them said anything. The villains kept looking between Peter and Toga, who was still in the chair. Finally, Toga broke the silence with her crazed laughter.

"You thought I was somebody else? That-that's amazing! You guys...you're so dumb!" As she spoke, her body seemed to melt, turning into grey sludge. In a few seconds, the unfamiliar girl was gone, and in her place sat Toga.

A very naked Toga.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Peter immediately covered his face. For some reason, he seemed even more embarrassed than Toga. The bar's occupants were already used to this, so their reactions were far less panicked. Still, they weren't happy.

"Toga, you were explicitly instructed to stay behind." Shigaraki growled angrily.

"Meh, that order was boring. I wanted to see Peter beat people up in person."

Shigaraki growled at her but said nothing. Instead, he stalked over to the bar and sat down in front of Kurogiri.

"Well, I feel congratulations are in order." Mr. Compress clapped Peter on the back. "Congratulations my friend, you've become a man this day."

"DUDE!" Peter shouted at him. Compress just chuckled and backed off.

"Which reminds me, I need to have a talk with you Peter. Toga, get out." Magne's demeanor suddenly changed, from amused to sinister.

"But-"

"Toga, leave. And put some clothes on." Magne ordered. Toga looked like she wanted to protest, but she just closed her mouth and walked out of the room.

"Now then, would you like to tell me about what just-"

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Peter instantly declared. "That was all Momo's and Todoroki's fault. They forced me to do it, I didn't want to. I mean, I did want to, but, wait, no! I...ugh." Peter's shoulders sagged. He felt defeated. He could hear the villains laughing at him.

"I don't care about whose fault it was, I care about what happens from this point on."

"Huh?" Peter looked at Magne in confusion.

"Listen, you clearly like the girl. I just want to make something very clear. You will not try to pull anything or take advantage of her, or I'll kill you. Toga is like a little sister to me. Don't ever forget that." She sounded completely serious.

"Uh, y-yes, I promise. I'll treat her nicely."

"DAMN IT!"

"PAY UP BOYS!" Magne shouted happily.

"Wait, what?" Peter didn't understand why everybody except Magne looked dejected.

"You two were really obvious, you know that? The way you look at each other, the way you talk, I mean seriously, it was the clearest thing ever. We had a bet going on when you would finally admit it. Well, I didn't hear any denials when I said you liked each other." Magne smugly collected her payout from everybody else, one by one.

"You what!?" Peter realized she was right. He didn't deny it. He just went along with what she said.

"Yeah. I still can't believe Dabi thought it would take a year for you to admit it."

"What? The kid's shy. It felt like a safe bet." Dabi shrugged as he handed Magne his money. "Definitely felt safer than your bet. I thought you were crazy when you said it wouldn't even take a month."

"I'd better be getting some of that money." A familiar voice filled the room. Every head turned to the far corner of the bar, revealing Toga to be standing there in her familiar outfit. "If you made a bet involving me, I should be getting some of the payout."

"Yeah, yeah. Fine, here." Magne grumbled and shifted through her stack of money. She cut it in half and then did the same with one of the halves. She handed Peter and Toga a quarter of the payout each, about 5,000 yen. [1]

"Now that that's out of the way, what do you say we celebrate?"

"Aw yeah! Great job Peter, you gave us a great show."

"Who knew it could be so much fun watching children beat each other up?"

"Attention. No alcohol tonight. I already had to deal with you getting drunk earlier. I have no plans to do so a second time in the same day." Kurogiri announced.

"Speaking of which, how the hell are you sober already? It's been like 4 hours." Magne stared accusingly at the guilty party, both of whom just shrugged their shoulders.

Peter felt himself relax at the sight in front of him. After a solid day of competing, it was nice to relax with some friends like this. Granted, those friends were all villains and they were celebrating in a bar, but still.

It was certainly more welcoming than Mirko's apartment. She never really interacted with him at all. Whenever he came home, she would greet him, but that was it. There was never much interaction or talking. At least here, he could do both those things.

The celebration was nice at first. Kurogiri apparently had a special shelf full of non-alcoholic drinks that he gave everybody. The other villains chatted happily, teasing Peter about random things and asking him about his moves. At one point, Spinner got into a friendly bout with him. Peter easily beat him, of course, but the lizard-man took it well. No sooner than he had been knocked down did he start laughing again.

The peace didn't last long. Twice made clones of the others and used them to grab bottles from behind the shelf. It didn't take long for everybody to get drunk after that. Thankfully, nobody started fighting, but there was some yelling. After nearly an hour of drunken raving, everybody was passed out on the floor except for Peter, Toga, and Kurogiri, the only ones who decided not to drink.

Kurogiri only scoffed at the sight before him, knowing the responsibility of cleaning the bar would be his. He did feel some satisfaction knowing that they would all be experiencing wicked hangovers the next morning.

As for Peter and Toga, they had been calmly watching the chaos ever since Twice got his hands on the alcohol. Through all the yelling and occasional crying, they just sat at the counter watching.

"So, any idea what happens now?"

"Well...no, not really. I guess I keep going to school. Oh, but one of my teachers will be finished with...a certain project soon. I'll show you guys when it's finished." Peter was excited to see Karen again. Still, he felt a thought nagging at him.

"Toga, I've been meaning to ask you. Is there...a reason that this is how you choose to do things? Killing, stealing, impersonating, and all that? I mean, it just doesn't seem like a good way to change society."

Toga's expression darkened.

"What would you suggest then? You think we should just march up to city hall with some fancy signs? Shout some cheesy slogan and demand better treatment?" Her voice was scathing. She was clearly pissed.

"No, no, of course not! I'm just saying, you know how the people here are. They think anybody who even steals a wallet is a deplorable villain. Even if you're trying to send a message, anybody who sees what you do would probably just think you're some unruly villains acting out for no reason."

Toga still looked angry, but her frown did slightly vanish.

"I mean, I know you guys are trying to do good. Your methods are...questionable, but you still have a good end goal. The problem is that with the way you do things, nobody will take you seriously. Every message you try to send will just be interpreted as a cruel villain doing whatever they want."

"...What are you saying? You know as well as I do that a million different people have tried a million different ways to achieve the same goals as us only to get nothing. What do you think we can do that's so different?"

Peter didn't have an answer. Quirks had been around for a long time, there had to be plenty of people who disagreed with the way things were."

"...I don't know. The only thing I can think of is...flawed, at best."

"What's that?"

"...Vigilantism." Toga groaned loudly in response. "Just hear me out. People don't listen to villains because they see them as nothing more than the villains they appear to be. But I've noticed that the civilian population doesn't seem to hate vigilantes, only the heroes do. When I was out doing my own thing, people weren't exactly calling for my head. It was just the heroes that kept giving me trouble."

"That doesn't mean anything. How does being a hero help? Peter, you know what we're like. We enjoy being bad. We were all criminals long before we gave ourselves a purpose. You really think we can just turn around and start saving people?" Toga sounded disbelieving.

"I'm saying it could be a good move, that's it. People like vigilantes, even if the heroes don't. If you became vigilantes, you could still preach your views and maybe people would be somewhat more likely to take you seriously. It's unlikely, but they're more likely to listen to vigilantes than to villains."

Toga stared at him for a few seconds before sighing.

"It's...different. You're right, I know that, but I don't want you to be. People hate us, they always have. We could be actual heroes and they'd still fear us. Who wants to be saved by the hero who melts people, or the hero with a blood fetish? We're freaks Peter. We always have been. At least when we're doing bad things, people expect us to be freaks instead of trying to make us something else."

There it was again. That same issue. She still thought she was just some freak. It was like they barely even thought of themselves as people anymore.

Peter could feel himself steadily growing angrier.

"Stop it."

"Hm?"

"I said stop it. You're not freaks. You're people. You're normal people who were dealt a bad hand. People are afraid of things they don't understand. Maybe you're right, maybe people did hate you from the beginning. But that's only because they didn't care enough to try to understand you, so they decided to be afraid of you. There's nothing wrong with you, so stop saying that."

Peter finished his rant with a huff. He hated it when they talked about themselves like that. They weren't monsters. He had seen good men turn into terrible people all because of one terrible instance. These people had been screwed over for their entire lives. It was a wonder they weren't openly strolling down the streets murdering people after all they had to deal with.

"...Thank you." Toga spoke so quietly that Peter barely heard her even with enhanced hearing. "It's...nice to remember that nice people like us. It means a lot that you want to help us."

Peter slumped into the bar stool he was sitting on. He felt defeated by the way things were going. He said he wanted to help them, but what had he really done? Told them stories, said they were normal, and partied with them. None of that helped them, it just kept things the same as they always had been.

He felt a sudden weight on his side. He turned and saw Toga leaning on him, her head bent onto his shoulder.

"I know what you're thinking. Stop it. We don't expect you to magically fix everything in a week. You're a person, just like us. I may be crazy, but I'm not so crazy to think things will be that easy."

Peter was surprised. Toga had changed a lot ever since he had showed up. The first few days, she never talked about anything but blood. Slowly but surely, she deviated. She became more calm, less erratic, and though she still talked about blood a lot, it was far less than usual. She was becoming more…"normal" the more time she spent with him. It wasn't bad, it just felt strange.

"Alright," he sighed. "I'll stop being so hard on myself. I'll find a way to help you guys, I promise."

The two of them sat at the counter for a few minutes, just staring at the other villains slumped on the ground. Some of them were still clutching empty bottles. Twice had piled the clones he created on top of himself like makeshift blankets, leaving only his head visible.

Peter only half focused on the scene in front of him. Honestly, he was still kind of freaking out about Toga leaning on him. She hadn't said a word for a while now, which was unusual. He slowly turned his head, expecting her to be asleep. To his surprise, her cat-like eyes were wide open.

She noticed him staring and gave her familiar cheshire grin, almost like she was teasing him. Peter quickly looked away, not wanting to look creepy for staring. This earned him a small laugh from Toga.

"...You still owe me."

"Huh?"

"You said it yourself. That was your classmates' fault. You still owe me a proper kiss." Toga answered cheekily.

"Wh-what?" Peter wasn't sure how to react.

"I mean, i-it's not like I don't want to. But, she can't just suddenly say that!"

Peter looked around to make sure nobody heard her, only to remember that everybody was already passed out.

"If you're embarrassed, everybody's knocked out. There's nobody to watch."

"Please stop teasing me." Peter groaned.

"Who said I was teasing? Maybe I really do want a kiss."

Peter whirled his head in her direction. It was impossible to tell if she was serious thanks to her usual smug grin.

"...You know what? Screw it. Better here and now than somewhere they can make fun of me. Just do it Peter. Do it and get it over with before somebody wakes up."

His entire face red, Peter grabbed Toga by the shoulders and kissed her. It felt strange, being the forward one. Usually, everybody had to do everything for him, point out every signal, make every move, and tease him over every mistake. Being the one to do things felt...very odd.

He didn't know it, but Toga was even more surprised. She was only half serious before, she didn't actually expect him to make a move. She didn't stay shocked for long though. This was what she wanted after all. Instead of questioning it, she just decided to be happy and enjoy it.

A few seconds passed, then a sharp noise cut through the air. Peter sprang away from Toga, looking around quickly. Next to him, he saw Kurogiri, making direct eye contact with him while he calmly wiped a glass. Peter was at a loss for words. He could feel his face growing redder with every passing second.

"...Dude. How long have you been standing there?"

"I've been here from the start. You just forgot about me. I must say, it was very touching, listening to you two."

"I'll say. That was great."

"Good job Peter. I knew you could do it."

"THE HELL!?" Peter jumped in surprise. The villains were beginning to pick themselves off the ground, sending smug grins in Peter's direction, much to his dismay.

"But, you, how?!"

"What, you actually thought we were drunk?" Spinner looked genuinely surprised by Peter's cluelessness.

"Not a chance. Twice could never sneak back here without me catching him. He took special marked bottles. There was no alcohol in them, it was just fruit juice." Kurogiri cut in.

"What?! But...what was the point of this?" Peter's blush was beginning to creep down his neck and up to the roots of his hair.

"Uh, mood." Magne answered as though it was obvious.

"Perfect situation for this to happen. We wanted to see it for ourselves, not just through a TV screen. I'm proud of you Peter." Dabi swung one arm over Peter in a half-hug.

"I hate you guys!" Peter cried.

"Your heartwarming speech says otherwise." Compress teased.

Peter just continued to groan while the villains continued to alternate between congratulating and teasing him. Toga just sat in her stool, also blushing, but smiling regardless. She wasn't in on this, but she wished she was. She had a sneaking suspicion this whole thing was Magne's idea, so Toga made a mental note to thank her "sister" later.

3 Hours Later, Nezu's Office

"Mr. Tsukauchi, I do hope there is a good reason for calling this meeting. I can only imagine that you must have good reason for calling a meeting at 1 in the morning." Principal Nezu passive-aggressively stated as he sipped his tea.

"I apologize sir, but there is something that requires your attention immediately. I tried to speak with you during the sports festival, but there were far too many people."

"I see. And why are Mr. All Might and Mr. Aizawa also here?"

"Because sir, Aizawa is both Mr. Parker's homeroom teacher and a great spy, and All Might seems to have a good relationship with Mr. Parker." Tsukauchi replied honestly.

"You called me out at this hour to talk about Peter? This better be good Tsukauchi." Aizawa made no effort to hide his annoyance.

"Please bear with me, I'll try to make this fast." Tsukauchi reached into his bag and pulled out a folder, which he handed to Nezu. The mouse principal opened it and flipped through the documents inside.

"I'm sure you all remember the young girl Mr. Parker was with near the end of the festival?" Nezu nodded, Aizawa groaned, and All Might laughed in response. "Well, you see, that's the problem. The girl."

"What's the problem?" Aizawa leaned forward slightly.

"I find myself wondering the same thing. These papers you've given me seem to be police reports and witness statements."

"What? Is she a criminal?" All Might asked, clearly shocked.

"No, nothing like that. You see, she's dead." Tsukauchi stated bluntly, to the surprise of the others. "She was found 3 months ago in an alley, drained of her blood and with 28 stab wounds on her body." [2]

Aizawa immediately snatched the folder from Nezu, scanning through the papers as fast as he could. There was a picture in the folder between all the documents. There was no denying that the picture was the same girl Peter was with. Aizawa set the papers down with a huff.

"So, what do we do about this?"

Well damn, actual drama for once. That's unusual.

[1]: This isn't an exact comparison, but for those of you who don't know, 5,000 yen is around 50 dollars.

[2]: Yeah, I know I'm going to hell for making that joke. But you know what? Totally worth it.

Hopefully I can get another chapter out soon. Until then, thanks for reading and remember to leave a review.

Aren signing off.