I do not own these characters or the world, that belongs to our lovely author of MHA, Kohei Horikoshi. Also, cover art was a commission by me from the artist Krumbs. Follow them on if you'd like! They are extremely talented!

Edit: I'm a shithead and apparently my main body document didn't reflect the same changes in my uploading document so I had to delete this chapter and reupload the proper one. Apologies if anybody started in on this and it magically disappeared.

A/N: So even if you're only in this story for the IzuOcha times and inclined to skim or skip over other POVs, I HIGHLY discourage that with this chapter. I switch POV three or four times and if this chapter is skipped, then the chapter that follows this one will make very little sense in its later bits. IzuOcha isn't in this chapter, which hey I'm sorry if that is irritating, but to get the ume arc in the direction I needed it to go, I had to involve some other players. So beg my pardon, and hopefully some of you will enjoy a chapter that involves A LOT of the other characters. They deserve love too, you know?

Forty-Seven

But Things Get Complicated

Shota Aizawa walked along the path following Eri, Nejire Hado, Mirio Togata, and Tamaki Amajiki at a distance. Hizashi was at his side, also trailing behind the others. He was wearing a ridiculous looking button up black shirt that he'd opted to button up only half way leaving the upper half of his chest painfully exposed. In addition to his ridiculous shirt, he was wearing what Aizawa assumed were skinny jeans—in this case he felt that they were a bit heavy on the whole skinny part. Hizashi was a lean guy, but to wear pants that tight, well, let's just say it wasn't a fashion choice that he would've made. He struggled to recall if he'd ever seen those pants floating about their house before.

"Oh look! It's a Christmas tree!" The excited trill of Eri's voice made Aizawa stop looking at Mic's ill-fitting pants and toward his silver haired ward. He couldn't help but smile and feel a tiny dab of pride at the little girl.

She was dressed in a pink kimono covered in childish cherry blossoms with a red haori over it. He'd fussed over what she was wearing, fearing that it was too cold for a little girl to be out. Her hair was up and out of her face, in a bun that he'd struggled to get perfect for her. Long hair that was supposed to do more than just be in a pony tail really wasn't something he was too familiar with. Thankfully, Hado had stepped in and quickly swept up Eri's hair into the cute mop of hair that it was in now. He might have to ask Hado for suggestions or even a lesson on how to deal with long and unruly hair. Hado certainly had a lot of hair.

He cast a glance at the upperclassman and briefly admired her orange kimono and the way she'd swept back her long and luxurious hair into a sort of ponytail bun thing. There was a small rose hair pin that stuck out from behind one of her ears that was a nice touch. The girl certainly knew how to make herself look good, that was for sure.

"Silly girl those are fairy lights but that's pretty darn close to a Christmas tree if you ask me!" Lemillion who was holding Eri's hand, corrected.

While Eri had essentially become his adopted child, Togata was a constant presence in the little girl's life. His student Midoriya was another one who was often in Eri's day to day life, though not as often as the older student. Their rescue of Eri from her abusers seemed to have forged a sort of permanent bond between them. In many ways, Aizawa was glad that it'd been Togata and Midoriya that were so crucial to her rescue than some of his other students, namely someone more abrasive like Bakugo. As role models went, you couldn't get much better than either Togata or Midoriya.

"Ooooh, see those candied applies, Eri? Should we get one?" Hado suggested as she skipped ahead of Lemillion and Eri. She stood before the vendor and pointed excitedly at it, a broad smile covering her face.

"Yeah! Those are what Deku let me try. Come on Lemillion!" The silver haired child started tugging insistently on Lemillion's hand.

"Oh yeah, great find Hado! Come on Eri let's go!"

Aizawa and Mic trailed behind, only half paying attention to Eri leading Lemillion toward the food vendor. Hado stayed where she was her gaze shifting from Lemillion and Eri to Amajiki. Her brilliant smile seemed to broaden just a hair more when she gazed at the socially awkward teen.

"Come on Amajiki, let's get one too!" Hado surged forward and grabbed Amajiki's hand who's face immediately took on a pink hue, as she tugged him along with her.

Aizawa watched the display with mild interest. Amajiki was a perpetually awkward teenager and seemed to suffer from an incurable form of shyness. He saw bits and pieces of himself in the younger boy, though he'd never been as awkward or painfully shy as Amajiki was. He'd always been more of the quiet, antisocial loner that for whatever reason attracted a loudmouth like Hizashi and the perpetually cheerful and upbeat Oboro.

"Young love, ah, to be young and in love," Mic said with a soft snicker as he too looked on at the group now buying candied applies.

"Is that what you're picking up Mic? Young love blossoming? Bit of a cliché, don't you think?" Aizawa asked sardonically.

Hizashi let out a laugh and gave Aizawa a playful slap. "Oh come on. It may not be Sakura season yet but the plum blossoms mean that spring is just about here which most definitely means young love is gonna be out on full display."

Aizawa snorted. "Right."

"Always the pessimist, aren't you?" Mic said with an eyeroll.

"I prefer to call it being a realist," Aizawa replied without a hint of emotion.

"Are you just bummed because you're little angsty emo protégé isn't as much of a natural with the binding cloths as you were? Let it go, Eraser. He'll get it eventually." He looked over at Aizawa, glasses low on his nose and gave him a carefree grin.

"Shinso is doing fine with the binding cloths and I'm just being a realist. Plum blossoms might mean spring but that doesn't equate to romance but neither do cherry blossoms. They should be more focused on hero studies anyway rather than on adolescent flings."

Mic gave a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. "Adolescent flings? I think I'm a little offended. Ever the Debbie downer, aren't you?" He paused briefly to look back over at the students and then looked back at Aizawa, "Well Debbie downer or no, I'm gonna go get a candied apple. Want one?"

"No," Aizawa said with a slight head shake.

"You're such a buzzkill sometimes," Mic exhaled dramatically and made his way over toward Lemillion—who was helping Eri eat her candied apple—Hado, and Amajiki.

Aizawa looked on at the group, quietly enjoying their happiness at a distance. He was especially glad that Eri looked like she was enjoying herself. Her life was much, much better than it had been when she'd been kept by Overhaul. She still had a long way to go but she was able to smile now and had learned to read and write very quickly. He briefly glanced at her horn, the little nub no longer a nub but an actual proper horn. It wasn't anything like it had been when Deku had taken out Overhaul, but its growth showed that she had accumulated some amount of energy.

He sighed heavily as he thought about the upcoming days and the fact that they would likely ask Eri to use her quirk to try and rewind Lemillion back to when he'd had his quirk. They had been practicing a lot and she had gained some amount of control over her ability to rewind things, but she had a long way to go. He had no doubt that she would one day make an extremely powerful hero, but the road to that was a long one.

If she could restore Lemillion's quirk that would be quite helpful, considering what was on the horizon for all the heroes and his students. Months of well laid plans were about to come to fruition when a carefully planned raid on the League and the Paranormal Liberation Front waited on the horizon, an ambitious plan that focused on three major locations for the villains. He wasn't sure when it was going to happen but he knew it would likely be very soon. He just hoped that the heroes and his students were ready for whatever fallout came with such an ambitious attack. An undertaking of this size carried huge risk of catastrophic failure but the possibility of success outweighed that risk…or so the commission had claimed. He wasn't so sure…

"Look mistletoe! That means you kiss!" Eri cried in excitement as she pointed at a larger overhang of plum blossoms that hung above Amajiki and Hado.

"Oooh, better get to kissing then!" Urged Mic who had a candied apple of his own now and stood next to Amajiki. He gave him a playful shove closer to Hado. Aizawa rolled his eyes. He was such a child sometimes.

"That's actually a plum tree Eri and those are plum blossoms, but good job! Mistletoe usually does mean kissing!" Beamed Lemillion with a gentle pat on the little girl's head.

"What? Kissing?! No! It's just flowers, that doesn't mean kissing!" Amajiki's voice was panicked and high with anxiety. Poor kid, thought Aizawa sympathetically.

"It's okay Suneater, we don't have to kiss. It isn't actually mistletoe so no one expects you to do anything," Hado said with a smile and a gentle pat on the taller boy's shoulder. Aizawa thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes as she spoke. Maybe Mic was right and romance was in the air…

"Oh you guys should totally kiss! They should kiss shouldn't they Eri?" Lemillion asked with an excessive amount of enthusiasm. He looked at the little girl who looked back at him and grinned.

"Yes!" Eri squealed with delight.

"What? Why? No one else is kissing! Why do we have to do any kissing? Mirio?!" The anxiety in Amajiki's voice only continued to grow.

Lemillion suddenly leaned down and gave Eri a quick kiss on the cheek and then turned expectantly back toward Amajiki. "See? Now you guys should totally kiss!"

Eri blushed red briefly and turned away from Lemillion bashfully. She faced the panicking Amajiki and serene looking Hado. "Kiss! Kiss!"

"Mirio that doesn't count! She's a kid and Hado, well Hado, help me out!"

Hado tilted her head as she looked at Amajiki. "I could just kiss you on the cheek if it'd make you less anxious."

"No! It's still a kiss! Mirio!"

Mic was suddenly at Aizawa's side and gave him a surprise peck on the lips before boldly turning back toward the students. "Well now Suneater, it seems everyone here has gone with the tradition of kissing under the plum blossoms but you and Hado. Muster up some bravery and kiss the girl!"

"Tradition of kissing under the plum blo—Mirio is that true?! That isn't a tradition I've heard of!" Protested the ever-reddening Amajiki.

Then to the surprise of everyone, but perhaps most of all to Amajiki, Hado moved from her position and over to Amajiki's side where she gave him a very gentle kiss on the cheek before pulling away and giving him a playful smile. Amajiki was stunned into silence and simply stared back at his friend with wide eyes. The edge of his mouth seemed to be stuck in a perpetual battle between turning into a frown or twisting into a bashful smile.

Poor kid, thought Aizawa as Eri, Lemillion, and Mic all cheered.

"Way to go Suneater! Now you've completed the tradition of getting a kiss under the plum blossoms!" Lemillion gave the shell shocked Amajiki an exuberant thumbs up.

"Wh-what, was it actually a tradition?" Squeaked the dark-haired boy.

"Yes!" Eri said with excitement while at the same time Lemillion cheered, "Definitely not!"

"It's okay Amajiki, let's just go enjoy the festival," Hado said soothingly and began moving away from the ashen colored Amajiki. She moved to the other side of Eri and took the little girl's other hand. Both she and Lemilion skipped along ahead, gently swinging the little girl in between them. Amajiki mechanically started to follow.

"You're a dick," Aizawa said with a glare at Mic.

"What? I'm just helping young love blossom," Mic said with a far too self-satisfied smile. Aizawa rolled his eyes and slowly followed after the group.

At the same time on the other side of the festival and in the general vicinity of where Uraraka and Deku had first met, Mineta paced back and forth around the torii gate. He'd seen Midoriya earlier but he was certain that Midoriya had seen him and so he'd had to vanish. Since vanishing, he'd not been able to resume spying on his classmate; he couldn't seem to find him. He was most definitely not longer at the torii gate since he was there himself…waiting for Ashido who was ridiculously late.

He looked down at his phone in irritation and frowned. He'd sent her at least fifteen text messages and she'd responded saying that she was on her way but that was at least twenty minutes ago. What was taking her so long? This was the climax to their story, their search for the truth about Midoriya and Uraraka. He was taking it seriously, deadly serious; why couldn't she?

Mineta cast a nervous glance around him, unable to shake the feeling that someone somewhere was watching him. When he'd first gotten that sense he'd wondered if Midoriya had spotted him and if that was who was watching him…but he was fairly certain that if Midoriya had seen him and identified who he was, that he would've approached him already. That hadn't happened, however. Despite no one making their presence known to him though, he couldn't shake the feeling that there were other eyes on him, somewhere hidden in the crowd.

"Wow, you look really conspicuous," came a girly and very familiar sounding voice.

Mineta whipped his head around in the direction of the voice and sure enough, Mina Ashido stood in front of him. She wasn't dressed fancy—secretly he'd been hoping that she was going to wear something that was revealing or that showed off her ample bosom—but instead it was just a deflating pink hoodie and blue jeans. Even dressed plainly though, she was still hot. Maybe not as hot as Asui but still hot.

"You're awfully late. Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's late to keep someone waiting? And what's wrong with my outfit? I think it adds to the sense of cloak and dagger," Mineta said in his most convincing spy voice. He looked down at his ensemble and felt like there was nothing wrong with it. It might've been a little on the nose, but so what?

"Your fedora doesn't even match that trench coat which is like three times too large for you," she observed, her voice heavy with judgement.

Mineta looked at the tan trench coat that was in fact, trailing a little on the ground, and gave a shrug. So it didn't match the fedora and it was a little bit big for him, none of that really mattered; what mattered was that he was spying and to spy to the fullest of his ability, well he had to look the part.

"I happen to think that my color choices add to whole spying thing, but whatever," Mineta shrugged and then gave Ashido a healthy round of elevator eyes before giving her a thumbs up. "Even dressed down, you're still smokin' hot."

"Ack, keep your perversion to yourself!" Ashido snapped and slapped Mineta right across his face.

"Ouch!" Mineta protested and rubbed his cheek. "That was totally uncalled for. You are far too violent Ashido. It was a compliment!"

"Compliment or not, it was unwanted and unwarranted." Ashido crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. Clearly, she wasn't in a very good mood.

There were a few curious glances directed at the two of them and Mineta remembered that he was in public and that if Ashido slapped him in public chances were that someone might think he was harassing her and try to intervene. That really wouldn't be ideal, so he'd have to watch his manners.

"Okay, sorry…now are you ready to get to work? How far behind Uraraka were you? Was anything about that suspicious?"

"I have no idea how far I was behind her. I left a good while after she did. How long have you even been here? When did you leave?" She asked with curiosity.

Mineta gave a snort. "I left the second Yaoyorozu dragged her upstairs. I knew the moment she got home early that my plan had succeeded."

"Kinda counting your chickens before your eggs hatch, dontchya think?"

"What do chickens have to do—oh never mind! Back to the current situation: I spotted Midoriya shortly after I got here. He was by himself but spent an awfully long time looking at his phone," Mineta explained as he deviously began rubbing his little hands together. Yes, it was all coming together quite nicely…

"So where is he now? Is Uraraka with him?" The pink haired girl asked, her tone uninterested.

"You were supposed to keep tabs on her, clearly that was too much for you," Mineta sniffed and looked at Ashido with derision. "As for Midoriya, well I was watching him but I'm pretty sure he caught sight of me so I had to bail. Last I saw him he had run into an old woman but I had to hide. Haven't been able to find him since. Didn't see Uraraka with him but that was a while ago so they easily could've met up."

"I told you you look conspicuous. Why didn't you just dress like a normal person?" Ashido rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm sorry, I don't see you really pulling your weight in this arrangement, do I? You let Uraraka get a super lead on you. What was she wearing? Did she leave with anyone? What was her mood?" Mineta demanded, narrowing his eyes at his far taller classmate.

"I have no idea what she was wearing or what her mood was," Ashido sighed dramatically before continuing, "when I left she wasn't there. I didn't want to look suspicious so I made sure not to leave when she left or so close that she'd pick up weird vibes. Before I left though, Sero told me that Uraraka had left with Asui, so your idea that this was their little hot date might not be right."

"Dammit," hissed the miniature boy. If Uraraka left with Ashido, well, that didn't exactly spell out secret, romantic rendezvous. But he'd set the scene so perfectly! Another thought hit him and he frowned at it. Perhaps Uraraka, Midoriya, and Asui had all agreed to go together, one big happy stupid group of friends. How…boring, wasted, plutonic. He shuddered at such a hideous word.

"What's the matter? You think that you might be wrong about I don't know, everything?" Mocked Ashido.

"No I—" He started but stopped and abruptly turned around to look behind him. There was nothing there but the crowd. People of all different types mixing and mingling, no sign of anyone familiar…but he couldn't shake the feeling that someone in that crowd was watching him specifically.

"Mineta? Hello!" Ashido called and gave the future hero a gentle shove. "You got a plan or what?"

He cast one more tentative glance into the crowd behind him, willing something familiar to leap out at him, but nothing seemed recognizable. Maybe I'm just being jumpy, he thought to himself before reluctantly turning back toward his classmate.

"Well we should get away from torii gate. That was where Midoriya was when I last saw him so I imagine if he's here with Uraraka or anyone, they'd of gone further in. Come on," Mineta nodded toward the crowd and began merging into the throng of festival goers.

Sighing, Ashido watched the pint-sized pervert start to dissolve into the crowd. She was going to have to go after him if she didn't want to lose him to the crowd like he'd lost sight of Midoriya. Ashido reluctantly followed after Mineta.

A few minutes before Ashido had arrived to rendezvous with Mineta by a food vendor that was selling cold soba, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kirishima all lingered. Todoroki was happily sucking up soba noodles while Bakugo stood on the other side of the path, close to a large plum tree, looking on in the direction of a large tori gate that marked the quickest path to the train station. Kirishima stood awkwardly between Todoroki and Bakugo, not entirely certain why he was here in the first place.

He'd been happily going about his work studies yesterday evening when he'd gotten a text from Bakugo asking him if he wanted to tag along with him to the festival. That by itself was weird not to mention that Todoroki was also in tow. Bakugo seemed to tolerate him alright but always seemed particularly prickly if Todoroki referred to them as friends or acted even slightly chummy with him. It was all just kind of a weird scene.

Since they'd arrived—Todoroki and Bakugo had arrived together, apparently having left Endeavor's agency together—they'd not really done any normal festival activities. In fact, aside from stopping at the soba stall at Todoroki's insistence, they hadn't done any festival stuff. Bakugo had only had eyes for the crowd, his gaze always directed elsewhere, somewhere deep into the throng of people.

"Bakugo, dude, if I knew that you wanted to come here to people watch I think I woulda passed. Can we like do some actual festival stuff?" He asked, hoping his voice didn't sound too whiny. He felt as bored as a little kid in Costco.

"Would you like some soba?" Todoroki asked thoughtfully. Kirishima looked over toward the two toned boy and shook his head. "It's not bad, actually." He eagerly slurped up more noodles. Kirishima was briefly distracted by what he assumed was obvious happiness on the other boy's face. Weird that soba is like the only thing that makes him light up, he thought to himself.

"Can it you two. We're watching for perverts," Bakugo growled, his gaze still fixated on the festival goers.

Kirishima raised an eyebrow at that in confusion, Todoroki mirrored his reaction. "We are?"

"Perverts?" Todoroki asked between noodles.

"Duh! Not like I asked you to this because I wanted to hold your hand, gross," Bakugo said with a snort and briefly turned away from his people watching to wrinkle his nose at Kirishima.

"Why did you ask me to come along, then? Did you want to hold my hand?" Todoroki asked. Kirishima turned to stare at him in shock. Did he have a death wish? Was he stupid? Judging by the curious and innocent expression on Todoroki's face though, it was probably a legit question.

"Ha! Fat chance of that, and no, I told you I was going and you followed along," the ashen blonde snapped in response, turning his head back toward the direction of the torii gate.

"I don't really remember our conversation going that way. I believe that you said you were going to the local Ume Matsuri and that since Endeavor was letting us off that I could come along—" Todoroki was interrupted by an irritable growl from Bakugo. The slightly shorter boy left his post and was suddenly in Todoroki's face, his eyes ablaze with irritation.

"Like I'd invite you along icy hot for fucking fun! Pfft!" Bakugo snarled.

Kirishima stared at the two and again wondered why he'd been invited along. And what had Bakugo meant by watching for perverts? Was this some sort of covert hero thing? But Todoroki had said that Endeavor had let them off early so chances were that they weren't doing any real hero work.

"Calm down guys," Kirishima said in a soothing voice and stepped between the cool and collected Todoroki and the fiery inferno that was Bakugo. "Bakugo man, why are we here? What did you mean that we're watching for perverts? I'm all for hanging with you but this is kind of…weird."

Bakugo's crimson murder gaze softened lightly as it flipped from Todoroki to Kirishima. "Our resident class creeper is here. He's over there by the torii gate, I'm not certain but I'm fairly sure he's up to something and knowing him, it's probably something perverted." Bakugo pointed back toward the torii gate. Kirishima followed his outstretched hand and for a moment the crowd of festival goers parted and he could see a diminutive looking person in what looked like a coat that was too big for him and a hat that didn't match the color of the coat.

Wait, was that actually Mineta?

"Why is he dressed in a trench coat that is clearly too large for him?" Asked Todoroki who had finished his soba and was also now looking in the direction Bakugo was pointing. "Are you fearful he is going to flash someone? I'm fairly certain that would result in his expulsion."

"Fuck, you're dumb. No! He might be a horndog that's constantly on the prowl for snatch, but he's not that stupid," the crimson eyed explosive boy explained, clearly annoyed that Todoroki had suggested such an outlandish idea.

Kirishima didn't think it was that outlandish. He didn't really take Mineta as one who'd flash and risk severe punishment, but it made some sense to think that that might be what he was doing considering the way he was dressed and his general sex obsession.

"I don't see why that is a stupid assertion, Bakugo. Given Mineta's nature and the stereotype associated with male trench coat wearers—"

"Oh, give it a rest icy hot, damn! You sound like a robot sometimes, but like, dumb. Ugh. He's not here to flash anybody but he is here to stalk somebody or stick his nose where it doesn't belong," huffed Bakugo.

"You think Mineta is stalking someone? Someone from our class? Why not just go to Mr. Aizawa with that and like, dude, I don't think Mineta is that messed up. He might be well, yeah like you said a horndog, but he isn't a creepy stalker type," Kirishima said in Mineta's defense.

Sure, Mineta was definitely a lecher, but a creepy loser who went around stalking girls? No. That just didn't quite seem right. Maybe years from now when he was in his fifties and didn't have much to lose, then Kirishima could see it, but not right now. He opened his mouth to speak again but froze when he a mop of wild pink hair caught his eye.

"Is that Ashido?" He asked in a shocked and breathy voice. She hadn't said she was going to the festival. He was fairly certain that if she'd been planning on going that they would've gone together. He pulled out his phone and briefly looked at his last few messages from Ashido, blushed furiously when he saw that her last message to him had been a selfie of her in a cute bra, and hurriedly put his phone away. Sexy photo aside, she'd made no mention of the festival.

"Raccoon eyes? Hmm," Bakugo said in a gravelly voice as he too looked in the direction of the torii gate.

"It must be a coi—" Kirishima started but the words died on his tongue when he clearly saw Ashido stop where Mineta was and start talking to him. They were far enough away that he couldn't hear anything they were saying and he'd never been good at reading lips, but he thought that her expression looked irritable. Why was she here? And why was she meeting up with Mineta of all people?!

"Maybe they agreed to meet here," suggested Todoroki.

Now it was Kirishima's turn to get into poor Todoroki's face. "What?! Why would she meet up with him? They aren't together! That's a stupid idea! She is not dating him!" Todoroki blinked in innocent confusion at Kirishima's outburst. Bakugo watched the interaction with curious interest, a flash of understanding in his eyes.

"I never suggested that they were dating, just that perhaps they agreed to meet up here," Todoroki mediated, his voice quiet and calm.

Always the picture of cool and collected. Bastard thinks Mina shows up here for a date with Mineta of all people! Ridiculous! He thought to himself petulantly before aggressively turning away from Todoroki and charging into the crowd. I'll just go talk to her myself. I don't care about whatever weird ass reason Bakugo asked me here for, my girl is here now and that little lech is probably creeping on her!

Before he even got an arm's length away, a strong hand locked onto his bicep with a vice grip. He'd been so focused on getting away and toward Mina that he nearly lost his balance once that hand sealed around his arm.

"What the hell man?!" He snapped and looked back to see it was Bakugo who held onto him.

"Cool it dude. They're clearly not here together. Raccoon eyes looks like she's about to break his jaw," he paused briefly as all three boys looked in the direction of the girl in question and all were surprised—aside from Bakugo—when Ashido abruptly slapped Mineta across the face.

"I wonder what he said for her to hit him," mused the ever cool and calm Todoroki.

Kirishima felt a wave of relief wash over him briefly at that display but still felt uneasy seeing them meet up. Was it planned? Was it an accident? What hadn't she told him?

"See? Now relax. You can go kick his ass if he tries anything but for now, let's just wait and watch," Bakugo said as he released Kirishima's arm.

"Is Ashido the one you think that he's stalking?" Todoroki asked curiously.

"Pfft, no, idiots—I never said that I thought small fry was stalking anyone! Fucking listen!" Bakugo let out an irritable sigh before casting an even fouler look in Mineta's direction. "I said he was up to something, I don't know what that is but if we follow him I think we'll find out."

"But what about Min—er Ashido," Kirishima stopped when Bakugo shot him a look that was a cross between a warning glance and perhaps sympathy. Honestly, he wasn't too sure since if it was in fact sympathy that he was seeing, well, he'd never actually seen genuine sympathy on Bakugo's face before.

"If we keep a tail on them then I'm sure whatever that little shit is up to and if raccoon eyes is involved, will become clear," Bakugo explained his voice somehow gentle while also being gruff and threatening.

"So you want to spy on them?" Todoroki had tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes just barely narrowed. His face was its normal visage of neutrality but Kirishima thought he felt like there was a hint of judgement in his question and expression.

"No, I want to tail them and make sure that the fuckin' pipsqueak isn't up to anything shitty."

Kirishima took a deep breath and looked briefly between Ashido and Bakugo. Ashido looked like she was still annoyed and from what he could see of Mineta, he also looked like he was relatively irritated. It did not appear to be a friendly meet up. Okay maybe Bakubro is right…his senses are usually spot on so, even if I want to go punch Mineta and then do festival things with Mina…I can wait, Kirishima thought to himself.

"Alright man, I'm with you," Kirishima said with a nod.

"Fuck yeah. You coming icy hot?"

Todoroki looked between the two boys and shrugged briefly. "I'll follow along for now."

At the same time Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kirishima were watching Mineta and Ashido, they were also in fact being watched. Unbeknownst to any of the young adolescents, at the opposite end of the festival, Hawks, Mirko, and Endeavor loitered. While none of the adults could see any of the students, Endeavor had asked Hawks to utilize his fierce feathers to keep tabs on Todoroki and Hawks had been more than eager to comply.

When Midoriya had asked for leave to attend the festival, Endeavor's kid apparently hadn't sought any leave for himself despite Endeavor extending that exception to him as well. Sometime down the road Endeavor's other tagalong—Bakugo—and his kid later did take him up on his offer. Once that had come about it had only been a short time later when Endeavor rang up Hawks to ask him to covertly keep an eye on Shoto. Hawks knew that the relationship between Shoto and Endeavor was strained—not that he'd ever been made privy to why that was—but he assumed that Endeavor asking to keep watch over Shoto and his friends, less so his friends, was mostly because Endeavor was trying to find ways to be close to his child. Hawks could get behind that.

When he'd flown down onto the street that overlooked this entrance of the festival, he'd casually sent a few text messages to both Mirko and Endeavor to let them know he'd arrived. He'd also sent a few of his feathers out searching for Endeavor's kid, per his request. A very short while later he'd located his idol's child and let Endeavor know who had arrived literally moments later.

Mirko had strolled up the street just a short time later, causing Endeavor to raise an eyebrow in question. When he'd asked for Hawks' help, he'd not requested that Mirko to tag along. Hawks had simply given him a playful smile and said, "whoops, guess I told her I was here, didn't think she'd actually show up. My bad."

Now Hawks was leaning over some hero merchandise that was on display at one of the festival shops. A dangly and colorful keychain caught his eye and he couldn't help but giggle at the sight of this particular keychain.

"Hey Endeavor, check this out, somebody out there is making merch shipping us!" He held up the little keychain which depicted a cartoonish looking Endeavor and equally silly looking Hawks holding hands with a pink heart between them. "You want it?"

"NO!" Endeavor practically growled and shot a murderous glare at the winged hero. Hawks could barely contain his laughing.

Endeavor was currently dressed to blend in, but anytime Hawks looked over at the gargantuan man he had to stifle a giggle. Endeavor's 'blending in' consisted of a baseball cap that had the brim facing backwards, a pair of sunglasses that looked like the ones that Morpheus from The Matrix series wore, an oversized plain white tee shit, and faded blue jeans. To top off the whole look he wore a pair of extremely gaudy golden sneakers. Whoever had helped Endeavor achieve his commoner look should be fired. To add to the fact that Endeavor was failing horribly at blending in, was the fact that Mirko wasn't exactly blending in either. While she didn't look like she'd gotten dressed in the dark, she was far too eye catching to not be noticed.

When he'd first caught sight of her long fuzzy rabbit ears cutting through the crowd of people on the street, he'd made his playful remark to Endeavor but was unable to follow it up with anything when she'd come into full view. His breath had caught in his throat as she made her way through the crowd, a soft smile on her normally cocky face, her hair swept up and refined.

Instead of donning her usual hero attire or something casual, Mirko had shocked both Endeavor and Hawks and shown up in a formal kimono. Aside from the small smattering of delicate pink cherry blossoms that covered the sleeves and bottom of the kimono, it was otherwise a kimono that seemed very Mirko. It was primarily white and while there were pink cherry blossoms, the majority of the girly flowers were a shade of purple—clearly her favorite color. The obi was also purple with gold cherry blossoms and what looked like red plum blossoms. Hawks was surprised to see that the knot on her obi was a Taiko knot which was typically delicate and feminine. Not that Mirko wasn't those things, they were just things that Hawks didn't think she put much thought into.

What made this little display of femininity even more impressive, was the fact that Hawks had picked out this particular kimono and its obi for Mirko. He'd sent it to her with a cheeky little message and had thought that the chances of him ever seeing her in it were slim to none. She'd not even acknowledged its arrival so he wasn't sure if she'd even opened it, but then she'd come here and dressed in what he'd bought just for her.

The sight of her all dolled up had made his stomach dance and flip with excitement and joy. Had she dressed up just for him? He'd honestly not been convinced that she would join them when he'd messaged her about the festival, but here she was. Her face had healed up since last he saw her and she just looked…radiant. It'd been a while since they'd last been with each other and he was painfully aware that at that last encounter he'd been starting to come to terms with the fact that he might be in love with her. Now, seeing her dressed up and smiling coyly at him that same heavy emotion came back with force. He was in love with the number five hero.

"Why are they shipping you two? You like radiate asexuality, Endeavor," Mirko said in response to Hawks' showing off the ridiculous little keychain.

"Because the people can sense our chemistry. Our bromance," Hawks quipped with a playful smile at the rabbit hero. In truth, he was finding it hard to look away from her.

"Are you ever going to stop using that ridiculous term? We do not have a," Endeavor paused to sigh in disgust, "bromance."

This time Mirko laughed. "Ooooh number one, sensitive subject, huh?"

"Oh enough of that! Hawks! Has Shoto moved anywhere else?"

"Nah, he's still chilling at a soba stall. Bakugo is with him and so is another kid, Kirishima might've been the name?" Replied Hawks with a shrug as he continued to passively receive information from his feather that was close to where Shoto currently was.

Endeavor's shoulders relaxed at little at his mentioning of a food vendor. "Ah, that is good. I was concerned he might get hungry. I don't know how well he feeds himself when he isn't at the agency."

"Who knew daddy Endeavor was such the doting dad?" Teased Mirko as she snatched up the keychain of Hawks' and Endeavor and started handing money over to the shopkeeper in exchange for it.

"Please don't ever call me that again Mirko." Endeavor shot an imploring look in Mirko's direction.

"Ya know, I kind of like it. Maybe I'll start calling you daddy Endeavor," Hawks said with a sly smile and finger pressed to his chin as if in serious contemplation.

"Maybe if your hordes of fans hear you calling him daddy Endeavor it'll catch on," suggested Mirko as she took the keychain and handed it over to Hawks who couldn't help but smile like a kid at a candy store.

Endeavor huffed in exasperation. "Will you two act your age? You are worse than children!"

"Sorry daddy Endeavor, how would you like us to act?" Mirko asked with a sly smile as she suddenly slid over to Hawks' side, placing one arm round his waist and hooked one leg sensuously over his hip. "Would you prefer horny teenagers?" Hawks burst out laughing.

"You are pro heroes! Act like them!" Endeavor commanded, his currently not inflamed mustache briefly igniting.

Mirko rolled her eyes and released Hawks. "Come on Hawks, let's leave buzzkill betty and go play some festival games." She stuck her tongue out at the number one hero before taking Hawks' hand and tugging him along behind her.

"Sorry number one, number five demands my assistance. What kind of pro hero would I be if I denied her?" Hawks called over his shoulder and batted his eyes playfully at Endeavor.

"Oh fine! Just stay close so I don't lose you in the crowd and if Shoto moves or goes elsewhere let me know," huffed the number one hero and crossed his arms dejectedly.

Mirko looked over her shoulder at Hawks and smirked. "Daddy's got control issues."

"Seems that way," Hawks agreed and looked from Endeavor to Mirko. She smiled mischievously at him and he felt like his knees might give out under that playful gaze.

Yup. In love.