Izuku had spent the last week training harder than he ever had, and he was tired. He was up way too late last night doing science revision he had forgotten about because he was just so busy working out, not to mention all the strategising for potential events. All that to say he was probably more than a little less enthusiastic as All Might went on and on seemingly forever about the Sports Festival.

"What do you think Katsumi?"

"Huh?"

Katsumi was sitting on the other side of the sofa in the room All Might sometimes took the pair to at lunch. She looked up from the bento she was eating and blinked blankly at her dad.

"Izuku using All For One during the sport's festival?"

"Oh Izuku, yeah uh, well obviously he should use it as a last resort. It still breaks his bones and stuff." Katsumi rubbed at her eyelid as she spoke, half-yawning. Seemed she was just as tired as him.

"Exactly," All Might nodded, smiling. "Save it for the last round if possible. Anyways, your home training- have you-"

Izuku turned to Katsumi, "What have you been training?"

"Me?" Katsumi looked slightly taken aback, "Uh, training… what have I been doing for training?" She chuckled, "Well I've been running. Did Getting my stamina up y'know? And I've got that thing with Momo so it's all pre-tty good."

"Ah," Izuku nodded, "that sounds good!"

Katsumi seemed a little distant the last day or two, but she was always a little off and on with him. Everyone was busy at the moment with all their training so of course they were talking less. Besides, now she had other friends, Katsumi was a girl, after all. She probably preferred hanging out with other girls rather than him. It was good she was training with Yaoyorozu, she could help her with her quirk more than he ever could.

"Gosh," All Might smiled, "you don't need my help at all, do you Sumi? You're an independent one, so grown up!"

Katsumi raised her eyebrows but didn't bother looking up from her lunch, "If you think I'm so grown up don't call me Sumi."

All Might chuckled. Katsumi rolled her eyes and gave Izuku an annoyed look. He smiled back at her.

They were always going to be close, he didn't have to worry about that.

Katsumi knew what her next goal was- get that hand off his face. That would be one step closer to recreating the relationship they had before. But he had been so set on not taking that stupid hand off last night. She wasn't sure just how difficult it would be to convince him otherwise.

How funny, she had spent all those years barely thinking of him, pushing the memory of him away to the back of her head and locking it away with the rest of that time. Now, she was almost always thinking about him, even at school when she really should be trying to act normal. But how could she stop thinking about it?

She was grateful that at least he hadn't gotten involved yet. What Kurogiri said did worry her though, he might pressure Tomura into giving her orders to steal information or something. What on earth was their plan anyways? To kill All Might? That man had specifically told her that was not going to happen though. Yet that's what they rocked up to the USJ shouting. They failed though, and that poor Nomu thing was locked up for good.

Unless he had more. Shit. Add that to the list of things she needed to find out.

On top of having to worry about that, she was getting quite nervous that she had no clue what Tomura's next move was. Honestly, she should just ask him. He might just tell her now. Now he actually talked to her, she had a place to stand, to start working to change his worldview. It was her against Kurogiri and that man though, plus any disdain he held towards her. She just had to make him like her more than the men who had seemingly raised him. Easy right? Making a guy like her shouldn't be that hard. She'd done it before.

…

Not like that.

That would make everything so much worse, even if it would probably be easier. If anything she should be focusing on Izuku-

"Katsumi? You okay?"

The locker door banged closed as Katsumi yelped. She spun around to see Mina looking at her wide-eyed.

"Woah!"

Katsumi stared at her for a long second before she began to laugh, "Sorry!" she apologised, rubbing her neck. She inwardly kicked herself, she needed to stop spacing out in school.

Hagakure popped out from behind Mina giggling, "You were totally out of it!"

"Katsumi," Momo spoke up from the bench, "you have seemed quite tired recently."

Uraraka, sat beside Momo smiled sweetly up at Katsumi, "I bet you've been training super hard and that's why you're so tired! Isn't that right?"

"Yup." Katsumi barely glanced at her before opening her locker again to get her costume out.

"Anyways, guys," Mina clapped, getting everyone's attention. "I wanna get your opinion on something."

Katsumi almost began to space out again but stopped herself. She needed to relax. In school, she should think about school and when she got home she could think about her other situation. If she stayed so high-strung all hours of the day it wouldn't be long before she snapped. She needed to live in the moment.

"Opinion on what?" Jiro asked as she began taking off her school shoes.

"Well," Mina grinned, "me and Katsumi were talking the other day and I wanna see if you guys agree with me or her-"

Katsumi choked. She was definitely living in the moment after that comment. She quickly stepped towards Mina, eyes wide, "Woah woah woah don't you-"

"Don't worry!" Mina snickered, dodging Katsumi, "I won't tell them what you said!"

"Ugh- you!"

Tsu shook her head, "Just come out and say it."

"Okie! Well, out of the teachers-" she smirked, "who do you think is the hottest?"

Katsumi groaned, pressing her head against a locker door.

"Is this really appropriate?" She heard Momo ask.

"Ooo!" Hagakure squealed, "Wait lemme think-"

Katsumi turned around and scowled, "You all better think very carefully about what you say."

"Why?" Tsu asked, cocking her head.

"Ohh," Jiro chuckled, "I get it."

Uraraka turned to Jiro, "Do you have a pick?"

"Uhh-"

Katsumi groaned again, was this seriously being brought up again? She had to get Mina back for this.

Speaking of Mina, she'd been on her phone tapping quickly, a wide grin on her face. Suddenly she laughed and turned back to the girls.

"Have you guys seen what All Might looked like when he was at UA?"

"Mina!" Katsumi groaned, "Don't influence them!"

"Omg," Hakagure gushed, "I have actually! He was so hot!"

"Was?" Mina snickered, glancing at Katsumi who slowly turned to look at her, eyes wide.

"No! Not this again! Mina why did you do this!"

"I haven't seen it actually."

"Here," Mina grinned, presenting her phone to the girls sitting on the bench, "I got a photo on my phone~"

"Hmm, yeah you know what-"

"Ribbit, I guess he was quite handsome."

"That's my father guys," Katsumi said, burying her head in her hands.

"Wow, Katsumi, you really do look nothing like him," Momo noted, Katsumi ignored that.

Mina turned her phone off, holding her hands out, "Okay, I want to hold a vote about this because I assure you none of you are gonna say what Katsumi did."

Katsumi stared at Momo, looking for a bit of support. She pursed her lips, obviously finding her distress slightly amusing.

"I vote All Might!" Hagakure cheered, waving one invisible arm in the air.

"Ugh!"

"Okay," Mina clapped her hands together, her eyes twinkling mischievously as she looked at Katsumi. "We will start there! Please put your hand up if you vote for All Might."

Momo, Jiro and Tsu exchanged glances before they slowly raised their hands. Momo glanced at Katsumi once before she glanced away, the corners of her lips twitching as she took in Katsumi's shell-shocked face.

"Well," Mina grinned, triumphant, "it's decided!"

"I hate you all," Katsumi said, staring blankly ahead of her. The girls giggled.

"Hold up a minute," Tsu spoke up, looking over to the side, "Uraraka didn't vote!"

"Oh!" Uraraka looked surprised to hear her name, "Ah, I dunno, I don't think any of the teachers are that attractive." She smiled, laughing slightly before she looked to Katsumi, "Sorry, I hope you're not offended."

The hell would that offend her for? Katsumi's face turned sour for a brief second as she looked at the rosy cheek brunette. It was long enough for Uraraka's face to fall and eyes to widen slightly in recognition of the disgusted expression. Katsumi quickly turned away and began to untie her tie.

"Haha! No one agreed with yoouuu!" Mina cooed, wrapping an arm around Katsumi's shoulder. She groaned in response.

"You lead them to that answer," Katsumi glared at her before extending her gaze to the rest of the girls. "You all are evil for going along with this." At least it wasn't as bad as what Mina said last time. She turned her head to look at her, "Mina, you're the worst!"

"Hehe!"

"Why were you two even talking about this?" Tsu questioned as they began to actually get changed into their hero costumes.

"Because Katsumi told me what teacher she has a crush on and-"

"Katsumi has a crush on a teacher?" Tsu interrupted.

Katsumi breathed out and in, turning her head to stare at Mina who had just promised to not say anything about that.

"Wow," Jiro laughed, "I thought she just said a teacher was attractive. Can't believe she's moved on from Midoriya so quick."

Katsumi smiled painfully as she tried not to lose her shit.

"I do not have a crush on anyone. I merely mentioned to Mina that in my opinion, one of our teachers is hot"

"And that teacher is..?" Momo asked.

"Oh my god! Who Katsumi tell me pleeassseee!" Hagakure begged, bouncing past Mina to get in Katsumi's face.

Katsumi gritted her teeth, "Go away."

Hagakure grabbed Katsumi's shoulders as she whined and begged her to answer. Mina turned to Momo, an impish grin on her lips, "You don't know, do you?"

"This is the first time I've heard about it."

"Ribbit, should we guess?"

"Katsumi," Jiro's voice pulled Katsumi away from her struggle to keep Hagakure out of her face, "is this worse than when everyone was asking you if you and Midoriya were dating?"

"Yes!" She cried as she fended off Hagakure.

"Hagakure," Uraraka interrupted, "maybe you should give Katsumi some space."

Hagakure whined as she stepped away from Katsumi and towards Uraraka, accepting defeat.

Mina snickered, "If you want this over so badly Katsumi you should just tell them."

Katsumi looked over the faces in the room, as they looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath in.

God, remind her to never tell Mina anything ever again.

"Ugh, how do I switch the Pokemon!?"

"You have to go to the doctor's building where Nurse Joy is."

"What? So I have to go back? That's so dumb, if I get into another battle I'm dead!"

"Stupid, you can just heal them with the spray thingies."

"How do I do that?"

"You're not very good at this Tomura."

She was on her afternoon run and just so happened to have come across a shop with a Pokemon card display in the window. She hadn't meant to stop and stare for more than a moment but her mind immediately took it as an opportunity to wander backwards into the deepest corners of her memories. It was only when the door to the shop opened up and a tall man with short, almost buzzed black hair walked out that Katsumi snapped out of her stupor and went to turn around.

"Hey, girly."

Katsumi stopped as a gruff voice called out to her. There was a slimyness in that voice that would have put her off even without the pet name. She turned around, crossing her arms as she did so.

"You need something?" She asked coldly.

At a second glance, this guy looked like a criminal. Muscular with a hard, weathered face with a myriad of scars across his arms. His skin was coated with a thin sheen of sweat and he breathed slightly heavily as he smirked at her, dark eyes glistening.

"This shop, you been in before?"

"Huh," Katsumi's brows furrowed, if he was gonna creep on her she'd rather he'd just cut to it. Then she could just tell him to fuck off and leave. "No, I was just passing. What's it to you?"

He chuckled darkly, "No need to be all bratty. I'm just asking a question."

"Yeah, well, I've answered now." Katsumi's gaze was hard as she glared up, maintaining eye contact with the man. He looked down at her almost, hungirly. Not in the usual way an older man had approached her. This was darker, more disturbing.

He hummed, "You don't know the owner then?"

"What? No," Katsumi uncrossed her arms. The back of her neck tingled as her body prepared to fight or run away. Something in her subconscious really didn't like him.

"That's a shame."

"Right," he must be looking for the owner she reasoned, maybe they owed him money or something. Whatever, it wasn't her problem. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was more than ready to leave this weird conversation.

"I've got to go now," she said, her feet already twitching to start running again. "My dad's expecting me back."

"Of course," he grinned. "Good girl, listening to your daddy. Run along home now."

Katsumi's skin crawled, she had half a mind to fight the creep right there and then. She doubted her dad would be all that pleased with that though, even in this circumstance. Glaring she took a step back, carefully watching the man for a moment as he grinned at her and turned away, walking in the complete opposite direction.

Gross.

Well, she had wanted to stop thinking about her situation with Tomura and that had knocked her out of it. She felt gross the whole way home, worse than after the USJ attack. Just like then she hopped in the shower and though the sweat from her run was washed off by the warm water, the slimy feeling wasn't.

God, she hated being alone. She'd been approached by weird men before working out, and it was always when she was by herself. If she was out with Izuku she never got bothered. Maybe she should start working out with him again, but she didn't want to bother him like that. Plus, if she told him why she wanted him around he would surely freak out and get her dad involved. No thanks. It didn't even happen often enough to really be a problem anyway. She was just unlucky, and that was news to no one.

Besides, she wasn't good company at the moment anyway with how distracted she was literally every waking second. Well, even her dreams continued to be haunted just like almost every night for the last eight years.

Izuku needed to find his own footing. He didn't need her clinging onto his side all the time. Especially now he had new friends. That wasn't to say she was about to let herself be replaced by that sneaky pink cheeks.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice from downstairs. Her dad called a ten-minute warning for dinner, and her stomach rumbled. God, she was hungry. But dinner meant it was getting dark, soon enough she'd have to go see Tomura at the bar.

Katsumi wondered what he would say if she told him about the encounter she had with that guy. She wasn't sure why, she didn't even know what she would even want him to say.

Fuck, she had a science test tomorrow. She had no clue why she just remembered that, but she was thankful she did. Science was one of the subjects she actually disliked and had to put effort into being good at. Besides chemistry which she needed to be good at in order to use her quirk to its best potential, she tried her best to avoid Science. Leading her to do little to no revision on her first test of the year.

No need to panic though, she could use one of the textbooks Izuku gave her back when he was tutoring her. She could read through it while eating dinner. Then she should have enough time to make some notes to take to school tomorrow and go over during lunch- damn it was after lunch the test right?

"Ugh."

Katsumi dug through her draws trying to find that damn book. When did she get so much junk? Well, not all of it was junk. There was the purple camera Izuku had got her. Katsumi smiled to herself as she took it out of the drawer and placed it on her desk. She should totally get a photo with the girls with it. Even if they were annoying and she had some reservations about exactly why any of her classmates wanted to be heroes, she was pretty sure they were good people.

Looking back to the draw her eyes were drawn to a pile of books. On top was the other gift she'd received from Izuku, she giggled as she remembered that day he had given her the book. Her smile quickly disappeared as she remembered that awkward trauma dump she had given him. She cringed and moved the book to her desk alongside the camera. It might be useful.

The other books she assumed would be what she was actually looking for, the textbooks. But she found something else.

"1800s English Poetry," Katsumi snorted. She stared at the cover, some painting of a forest with a city in the background, black smoke filling up the sky. How basic, an image showing increasing urbanisation for a book focused on the 1800s. The book would obviously be full of Romantics. Wordsworth, Shelly and whatnot. Her mum definitely just picked the first one she saw. She had no delusions of her mother actually taking enough interest in her habits to remember this was the type of poetry she was into in middle school. The woman was just lucky, didn't think to pass any of that over to her though.

"Damn, when was the last time I read a poem?"

As much as she didn't want to even touch the book her mother had sent her for her birthday, she found herself wandering over to her bed as she began to flick through the pages, re-reading some of the poems she recognised. Well, she did until her dad called her down for dinner. It looked like she'd have to find that textbook later.