Shouto walked up the stairs slowly. It seemed to go on forever with the same rhythmic motion. One step, then another, and another. He sighed. Maybe I should've taken the elevator. He kept going until he came to his floor. His hand grabbed onto the handle and swung it open.

Down the hall, there it was. He practically ran to his door and unlocked it. He stood at the doorway, looking into his apartment. There were still items thrown about from his morning rush. He sighed again and shut the door. I'm gonna need to clean, but first. He smelled himself and groaned. Shower.

9:41 PM. Shouto pushed the broom back into the pantry and walked off to the bathroom, phone in hand. He brushed his teeth as he went through his emails. Interview. Interview. Hero survey. Fan mail notice. Dental clinic. Insurance. Hero papers. Mission statistics. He washed out his mouth and shut the bathroom door, making his way to his room.

He climbed into bed and inhaled deeply. It was always so nice to get into bed at the end of the day. He plugged his phone in, setting it on the bedside table, and pulled the covers over himself. His eyes closed and his body untensed. It was peaceful.

"Yaoyorozu?" a little voice nudged at her side.

"Hmm?"

Momo rolled over, finding Aki at the side of her bed. He rubbed his eyes and frowned at the ground.

"Is something wrong?" she got out of bed and crouched down next to him.

"Can I have water?"

"Of course, let's go get some." she smiled and clasped his hand.

The kitchen was dark and quiet. Momo switched the lights up and picked up Aki to her side. She grabbed a cup and filled it at the water dispenser. Aki was clasping at her hair.

Momo handed the cup to him. He held it as she walked back to her room and shut off the light. Aki's lower lip was trembling, he fussed until she let him on the ground again.

"Is something wrong, Aki?"

"When am I going back to uncle?"

Momo stopped. He stared up at her with those big blue eyes. She put a hand on her chin to think. She patted Aki's head with a small smile.

"Probably some time soon. I'll ask Todoroki in the morning, okay?"

"Okay." he waddled next to her.

"I'll tuck you in again, come along."

"Mm." he grabbed onto her hand.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Shouto jolted up from his bed. The left side of his face felt completely numb and he could barely move his right leg. He looked at his phone, finding the usual dozen notifications on it, but there was even more.

"What the fuck?"

Shouto got out of bed, clicking through the notifications. About half of them were text messages from various people. The other half were emails.

Todoroki, you're so irresponsible. I swear to god. - Jirou Kyouka sent 3 minutes ago

We need to talk. - Ashido Mina sent 30 minutes ago

Shouto scrolled all the way down, finding a text message from his boss. There was only a link and a single word, explain, at the end of it.

He didn't think much of when he clicked on it. The page took a few seconds to load. That's when he realized. Shouto smacked himself on the forehead. In big, bold letters was a headline that would keep Japan talking for months:

Japan's Hottest Bachelor ISN'T Single?! Frostfire spotted with newly debut heroine, Creati!

"Yaoyorozu are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

She placed her phone down onto the dresser. Aki tugged on the hem of her shirt. Momo bit her lip, thinking back to the article's title as she flipped a pancake. Aki climbed up a chair next to the stove to watch, making sure to keep his distance from the hot surface. He watched quietly, blinking with those soft blue eyes of his.

"Did you call Frostfire yet, Yaoyorozu?"

Momo flipped the pancake again. Thoughts were swirling around in her head. What will Todoroki think? Maybe I shouldn't have gone with him. Uwabami is going to be upset with me. I have to do some interviews or something so this all can go away. Maybe I should talk to Todoroki about it. It'll be hard for us to avoid each other because of Aki. Momo looked to the little boy, he was waving a hand in front of her face. Or maybe we shouldn't be taking care of him at all.

"Yaoyorozu, why's there black stuff coming from the pancake?" Aki pointed to the pan.

"Oh dear!" she snapped out of it.

Momo flipped the pancake onto a plate. She looked at it, seeing the black parts and burnt edges. She sighed and turned the heat off for the stove. Aki quizzically looked at her, reaching a hand out to grab the pancake. Momo stopped his hand.

"We can't eat that one, Aki. It's burnt."

"Aww."

"Now, what were you asking me? I couldn't hear you." she turned the head back on and went to grab the bowl of pancake batter.

"Did you call Frostfire?"

"Not yet. He's probably on his morning commute right now."

"What's a commute?"

"It's uh, it's when people travel to work like how people drive or take the train."

"Wah? My daddy takes the train every morning after breakfast. My mommy made lots of food."

Momo softly smiled at him. The truth hurts, but this little boy… She reached out a hand to stroke his head and cup his cheek. Aki pouted at her as she touched him, whining at her love.

"I'll make you lots of food too, okay? Just like your mommy!"

"Really?!"

"Yes, now go grab some berries from the fridge. Let's upgrade these pancakes!"

Shouto grabbed his jacket and keys, moving towards the front door of his apartment. Buzz buzz. He looked to his phone on the counter. A text message was plainly displayed on the screen.

I'm picking you up today. Get outside. - Midoriya Izuku

Shouto found the car parked outside the building. He tapped on the top of it to find Midoriya inside. He was dozing off quietly, but quickly opened his eyes. He rubbed them and unlocked the car for him. Shouto slipped inside with a sheepish look on his face.

"So," Midoriya pulled out of the parking space.

"So?" Shouto shrugged.

"You and Yaoyorozu?"

"It's not, uh, we're not-"

"I'm not here to harass you about it, but I hope you talk to her about it."

"I'm going to see her later today."

"Todoroki…"

"In private, not in public."

"Todoroki?" Midoriya lifted an eyebrow at him and his eyes widened.

"She's dropping off Aki at my place before she goes to work."

"Who's Aki?"

"He's the kid I saved from the fire a few days ago. We're taking care of him until," Shouto stopped. Wait, how long are we taking care of Aki?

"Todoroki, hold up," Midoriya pulled over and parked near a restaurant, "you're taking care of a kid?"

"Yeah?"

"With Yaoyorozu?"

"Yeah…"

"Todoroki, you don't have the time to take care of a kid. You're on emergency duty, where you could be called in at any time. Have you thought this through?"

"No…"

"Talk with her tonight. Don't be like this," Midoriya sighed, "you're more responsible than this."

"Sorry," Shouto slunk down in his seat a bit.

"Why are you apologizing? You don't need to. You," he sighed again, "you worry me."

"I'll talk to her, I kind of need to."

"Yeah, do that. Also, did you buy groceries for the week yet? Usually we make lists with Iida on what to buy, but we didn't get the chance to this week."

"Yeah, I bought some a few days ago. I just used the list from last week."

"Didn't you buy 2 containers of whipped cream last week?"

"Uh…"

"Todoroki!"

"It goes well with oatmeal in the mornings," he pointed out.

"Alright, alright, that's not a lie." Midoriya chuckled.

Shouto shook his head and turned away to look out the window. They passed by towering buildings and pedestrians. He followed the strings of the people on the sidewalk. Red strings went over mail boxes and through trees, connected to small pinkies. He turned to Midoriya, glancing at his string. It had the faintest glow to it.

"Hey, Midoriya?"

"Yeah, Todoroki?"

"Where did you go last night?"

Midoriya stopped. He has the most terrible poker face. A sheepish smile came to his face, probably trying to think up something. Shouto looked at his string again. It was glowing brighter as Midoriya's face went red.

"Well! Uh, I went home," he nodded his head.

"Why?" Shouto leaned closer to him, a little suspicious.

"I thought I left the stove on!"

"Midoriya, you don't cook. At most you use the microwave and toaster."

"I-I," he stopped at a red light.

Pedestrians walked past the car. People went on with their lives with briefcases, sunglasses, and phones connecting the world. Shouto watched Midoriya's string twist over itself and float up into the air. His face was bright red and there was sweat on the sides of his face. He attempted to keep his eyes on the road, his leg bouncing for the light to turn green. The string relaxed as Midoriya's grip on the steering wheel did too. He took a deep breath in and out.

"Todoroki, can I tell you about it later?"

"Yes, but-"

"Huh?"

"Why can't you tell me now?"

"It's…" he trailed off and looked around the streets, turning the corner. "It's complicated."

"Does it involve…" Shouto held his tongue.

"Yes. It's something about me and Uraraka. I can't tell you now, but I will tell you soon."

"Okay. I'll tell you how tonight goes soon too." he nodded.

"I'm glad. Let's work hard today, Shou."

"Mm."

"Yaoyorozu, can we get this?"

"Um, Aki, where did you find this?"

"Near the fish!"

Momo smiled helplessly at the little boy. Aisles of food, spices, and products lined around them. She had a small shopping basket in her hand. A black cap and sunglasses hid her identity and a small cap on Aki's head kept him safe from public eyes. He held up a damp box of crackers to her. Momo took the box from him and sighed.

"This box is wet. We should find where the crackers actually come from and get a dry box."

"But it's the same crackers," Aki looked over the box, tracing the animal designs on it.

"Y-Yes, it is, but-" Momo stopped. "Actually, Aki. You're right. Let's get this box."

"Yay!" he put in the basket and hopped off to look at other items in the aisle.

Momo sighed. She went back to looking through snacks. She couldn't find her favorite potato chips anywhere. Maybe they went out of business? She grabbed a different brand of chips and walked around, trying to find Aki. Momo could hear him scurrying along, grabbing whatever box entice him.

Aki ran up to her again. He held a box of crackers. On its box were pictures of popular heroes from Deku to Ground Zero. There especially was Frostfire, smacked straight in the center of the picture. Momo smiled as Aki tugged on her sleeve.

"Yaoyorozu, I want this one!"

"You already got one box of crackers. If you want this one, we should put the animal crackers back."

"But I want both!" he frowned, grabbing the box of animal crackers to have in his hands.

"Well, let's think about it," she kneeled next to him. "If you take a box and someone else takes a box, then you both get yummy crackers. But, if you take both boxes, only you get crackers and no one else does anymore."

"Huh? But there's more crackers there," he pointed up.

"But there's a limited amount, Aki. There's not enough for everyone to have lots of yummy crackers. There's enough for everyone to have one box of yummy crackers though. We have to make sure everyone gets one."

"Why do we do that?" he followed Momo as she started walking back to the snacks aisle to put back the crackers.

"Because everyone is like you too. You want yummy crackers, don't you?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"Then we have to make sure everyone gets yummy crackers because you are part of everyone."

"Oh! I like that better than 'sharing is caring' because that one doesn't make sense."

"Really now, why do you think that?" she grabbed the box of animal crackers from him and put them back on the shelf.

"Uh,"

Shouto huffed as he chased the thief. Bags, cash, watches, and all alike were spilling out of the thief's enormous mouth. He soon enough got tired of chasing and stopped. He slid his right foot forward and right arm with it. A curt downward movement made ice form all around the thief, encasing them in a box. He exhaled a cloud of ice and waited as the police sirens got louder. Not much today, huh?

There was already a crowd of people gathering to look at the twisted and jagged cage. A news van got there faster than Shouto would have expected and were already rushing to him. He tried to look busy, beginning to heat his left hand to melt the ice for the police to take the villain away.

"Frostfire! Frostfire! Can we have a word?!" the reporter ran out of the van with a microphone already ready. A cameraman rushed out behind them with the camera already on their shoulders.

Shouto mentally cursed himself and put on the decentest fact he could, "Of course. What would you like to know?"

"There's been many smaller crimes in this district for the past few months such as thievery with this villain here. You've answered plenty before about the crime rates, but I'm with GGossmer Magazine to ask you about the new hero, Creati. Are you and her seeing each other?" the reporter shoved the microphone into his face.

"If you would like an interview, you will have to schedule that with my hero agency. I'm working right now, ma'm." he wished the police cars would come sooner.

"Could it be that you are? Do you two have a child together?! Are you secretly married?! How's-"

"HEY!"

A police officer appeared, coming out of his car and walking towards Shouto. Shouto sighed as the reporter shrunk and slunk away. He gave a glare at the cameraman, who quickly left to the news van as well.

"Afternoon, Frostfire," the police officer tipped his hat to him. "Whatcha got here?"

"Regular thief. Seems like they have a mouth enlargement quirk." Shouto blasted a hot shot of fire to melt a hole into the ice. Inside was the thief, huddled in a corner.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" they screeched.

"Nice job there. We'll get them out of your hands so you can get back on patrol."

"Thank you." he whispered, tilting his head to where the news van was.

"Of course. Anything for the coolest hero out there." the police officer winked.

Shouto sat down on the couch of his apartment. He just got done with the day. It was long, stressful, and full of way too many people asking about his love life. He scowled at the thought and ran a hand through his hair. He had showered at the agency's locker room, but his hair still felt disgusting. There was a run in with a slime quirk villain earlier today. The smell of sewage couldn't get out of his hair.

There was a soft knock on the door. He stood up, stretched, and walked towards it. The first knocked was followed by many other ones. These knocks were loud and short. Shouto opened the door, finding Yaoyorozu and Aki. Yaoyorozu carried brown paper bags of groceries with her right hand holding onto Aki's hand. Aki had a lollipop in his mouth. He waved up at Shouto with a grin.

"Hi Frostfire!"

"Hi."
"Are you doing okay?" Yaoyorozu had a soft look to her eyes.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," he nodded at her. "Let me help you."

Shouto grabbed the bag of groceries from her. She smiled and let him do so, ushering Aki into the apartment to shut the door. Aki shyly observed the small hallway into the apartment's living room. Shouto placed down the groceries into the kitchen and walked back to pick up Aki.

"Hi Frostfire!" he grinned and stuck out his tongue, which was dyed red from his lollipop.

"Hey Aki," Shouto gave a small smile back and ruffled his hair, "ready to go to bed soon?"

"No!"

Yaoyorozu laughed at that. She tried to put a hand over her mouth and stifle it, but she stopped when she caught Shouto's eye. She blushed, cleared her throat, and started collecting herself.

"Well, I best be going now. My shift starts in a few hours and I should get debriefed on villain cases."

"Uh, yeah." Shouto started blushing too.

Their red string glowed and grew taut as she turned around for the door. He let Aki go down onto the ground and grabbed onto her wrist. Yaoyorozu turned back, a bit surprised.

"Wait, I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" she placed down her purse and stepped forward.

"Uh, one second."

Shouto picked up Aki and took him into the living room. The little boy sucked on his lollipop, enthusiastically pointing at the pictures on the walls and decoration items. All of those pictures and items had been gifts from UA friends over the years. A small All Might figurine, a class picture in their third year, another picture but they were all adults in their hero costumes now, multiple small plushies of heroes and food items from Ashido, and other items were placed randomly about wherever there was an empty space.

"Aki, do you like cartoons?"

"Yeah!"

"What's your favorite cartoon?" Shouto placed him down onto the coach in front of the TV.

"All Might Versus the World!"

"Woah! Really? That's my favorite too. It's an older one." Shouto grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, going straight to a streaming service to find the cartoon.

"Are we going to watch it?!"

"Mhm," he started playing an episode then patted Aki's head, "I need to talk to Yaoyorozu for a little bit, but I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay!"

Shouto rushed back to the hallway, grabbed onto Yaoyorozu's wrist—which made her yell considerably loud—, and pulled her into his bedroom. He shut the door and made sure he could faintly hear Aki cheering with the TV show. He sighed and sat down at his desk when Yaoyorozu plopped down onto his bed. He blushed and closed his eyes, still facing her but having his head tilted to the ground.

"I have to talk to you about a lot." Shouto opened his eyes and forced his blush to go away with help from his right side.

"We both have a lot to do. Do you have any way to contact Aki's uncle?" she looked so far away on the bed.

"I have a business card. I didn't get the chance to call though."

"Mmm." she turned away from him, staring at the door.

Shouto watched as the red string glowed brightly in the dark room. He hadn't even turned on the lights with the moonlight from the window lighting things just right. Yaoyorozu sat there, her brow knitted tightly and her lips pursed.

"Also," he stood up and walked over to her.

Yaoyorozu scooted over on the bed, allowing Shouto to sit down. He kept a distance from her, but kept his eye contact. He couldn't be embarrassed about it now.

"I'm sorry about the media."

She smiled sadly, "You can't really control the media, Todoroki."

"I'm still sorry. I've talked about being around female friends with my boss before and I decided to not listen to his advice yesterday."

"It was nice though." she tapped her leg, "It was one of the most eventful days I've had in years." she was looking up wistfully at the ceiling.

"Mm, I'm glad."

Shouto lied back onto the bed. He rested a hand onto his forehead and stomach as Yaoyorozu looked down to him. She had a curious glint in her eye. A small smile came onto her lips and their red string began to glow brighter. Shouto sat back up and cleared his throat. The string kept trying to pull them closer together. Their hands were practically brushing. Yaoyorozu blushed.

"We really should go out a watch Aki now. He might set something on fire if he gets too excited." Yaoyorozu stood up and collected herself.

"Mm." Shouto followed her as she walked out the bedroom door.

"You can talk to his uncle in a bit. I bought some groceries, snacks, and clothes that Aki wanted. They're in the bags by the door."

"Oh," Shouto spotted them, "thank you."

"No need to thank me. We had time this morning and I wasn't sure if you had much food at your place since pro heroes are so busy."

"No really," he stopped as she stood in front of the apartment's front door to leave, "I appreciate it."

"Oh, um, then of course." she smiled brightly.

"Yaoyorozu!" Aki ran up to her from the living room.

"Oh Aki I-"

He hugged onto her legs tightly. Yaoyorozu flushed a bright red and giggled. She crouched down in front of Aki and pat him on the head.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Be good to Todoroki."

"Are we going shopping again?" he looked up at her with bright eyes.

"No, we'll do something else. Maybe go to the park. Is that okay?"

"Mhm!" he gave her one last hug and rushed back to Shouto's side.

"Well, goodbye now. Take care, Todoroki. Don't let anything burn down while I'm gone." Yaoyorozu smiled and winked at him.

"I won't." he chuckled and shut the door as she left.

The red string's glow ceased and relaxed as Shouto heard Yaoyorozu's footsteps get more distant. Aki tugged on his shirt. The tug practically pulled him backward. He sighed and turned around to Aki. Shouto picked him up from the ground and looked straight at him with a frown, but his eyes remained playful.

"You can't tug on people's shirts so hard, Aki. It's rude."

"Sorry Frostfire." he looked away from Shouto and fumbled with his fingers.

"You don't have to call me Frostfire all the time too. You're allowed to call me Shouto."

"Really?" he looked up at him wide eyed.

"Yup. Now, do you want to keep watching TV or get ready for bed?"

"TV! TV!" he cheered.

Shouto chuckled, "Alright, but only for a couple more minutes."

"Yay!"

Shouto grabbed the bags and hustled to put everything away. He heard Aki giggling in front of the TV with All Might's voice going on about he's going to defeat a villain. Shouto sighed and looked up to the pictures on the walls. Right there on the refrigerator door, held by pink magnets that Ashido had chosen out, was a picture of the great hero himself. He smiled to himself, placing some eggs into the fridge.

Little footsteps scurried over to Shouto. He turned to Aki who was holding onto the remote. The boy had a worried look on his face as he looked down onto the buttons.

"Shouto! There's no more cartoons on the TV!"

"Let's see what's wrong."

He glanced over to find the channel had been switched. It was now on the midnight news, which was discussing recent villain attacks. Shouto grabbed the remote, pressing the cartoon channel's number for the TV. Aki jumped up and down as he heard All Might's voice on the TV again.

"There you go." Shouto handed the remote back to him and he scurried to the living room.

The pro hero sat down on the kitchen floor and sighed again. He grabbed into the grocery bag, pulling out chips. On the front was himself, a picture of him with some flame and a small smile. He grimaced at his own face and opened the bag of chips.

Ding! Shouto placed down the chips, grabbing his phone. A message popped up from Yaoyorozu with emojis and exclamation points. He smiled, gazing over the message again and again.

Good luck taking care of Aki! He's a handful, but I believe in you! 3 - Yaoyorozu Momo

Shouto sighed dreamily and smiled at the little message. She was great. Yaoyorozu was the greatest and Shouto couldn't contain how he felt. His heart burst with joy and he had to slowly put his phone down to prevent himself from jumping up. She makes me happy.

A/N: I've been in a really big funk with writing lately. There's a lot of projects I've been working on and I'm excited to share it with you all soon. Thank you to those who have looked forward to this. I plan on ending this fanfic soon within about 8ish chapters. Then, maybe we'll have another red string of fate story?