maneuvering through

A Guarantee

5:06 pm

Shouto, you don't have to come tonight. I'm picking someone.

A hero's life was unforgiving.

It only had been hours since the mission and they barely get enough sleep, yet he was back on his usual patrol. No, he wasn't miffed due to lack of sleep, he's stronger than that. After being dropped by a chopper at the first sign of daylight, most of them succumbed to exhaustion while traveling back. And being from a different agency he had to take a separate ride back home. He had to watch from afar as Momo's team was being lifted and further into the air leaving him on the ground harboring the heavy weight of anxiety and guilt. Most of the time during the flight, all he did was mull back over the words and things that shouldn't and should have been done and said. A nudging worry clung to him until back in Endeavor's.

His mood flushed down the drain and he felt twice the misery after receiving her text. Earlier he's stuck arguing with himself if she's upset with him or not, and her short text just proves she still was. The only silver lining he could list for the day was there had been no villainous incident for another record and just some petty crimes the cops could handle. To say the least, and ashamedly so, when Momo started giving him the silence, he lacked motivation, which was pathetic and amateurish. Right now, earlier than he should have, he started taking the path to Endeavor's.

This was getting bad.

He shouldn't be acting like he was now, but he wondered what Momo had been doing. Why wouldn't she let him come tonight?

'Maybe because you pissed her off by being too overprotective?'

But he didn't mean it that way, she's just recovered from her injuries. Should he give her space and distance himself? Could he do it? Because right now he was staring intensely at his idle phone waiting for a message or a call from her. His world had gone upside down just thinking of her.

He pulled his wallet out and stared at the photo of Momo smiling back at him.

It seemed like time had moved hypnotically slow and his eyelids began to weigh heavy and demand sleep. He could hear her voice inside his head saying, alternating don't come tonight, I'm picking someone else.

Wait. Someone?!

He shot right up from his stupor...

'Never in hell's way it would do.'

Her expression was far from what he expected should she greet him at the front door.

Far from anger or annoyance.

Her brow knotted in confusion. "Shouto, I thought I told you to take the night off and rest?"

'Did she say that?'

But she opened the door and allowed him inside. Her usually quiet television was flashing and emitting some kind of a bubbly and animated song. He first hand spotted a crown of dark hair, and his palm began to sweat, clearing another noiseless step the crown cascading into a shiny bob that ends to her chin.

'Her. A girl.'

The head turned to face him and was met with a pair of definitive purple eyes. She was blinking at him, questioning his existence and intrusion. All while stuffing cookies in her mouth.

"She's Hiyori-chan," Momo spoke from behind. "She's one of the rescued kids."

He glanced to his side to get a good look at her face.

"S-Is she the one you're picking?" He asked, feeling increasingly dumb for grappling with such unfounded worries as his gears finally got around the matter.