"And then what happened?" Tomomi asked, eager to know how his dad would handle the situation, Takeshi furrowed his brows, and he tried to think what was the best way to explain what happened.

"Well..." Takeshi hesitated but decided to simply power through it, it's not like Tomomi would imitate him in his stupidity, she surely was smarter than that.

"Love comes in many forms Takeshi, it seems that you found a peculiar one" Hamada explained, Takeshi had asked him what to do since he had the social skills of a rock, and the answer Takeshi heard made him sigh.

He understood the concept of love, he was a loner, not an idiot, he had read about love in many places and how it was supposed to go, but he never really thought he would find it in such a way. But he still decided to do something about it, he followed his gut instinct since he was a kid and he would be dammed if he didn't do it again.

"Alright, explain then" He hurried him.

"Well you see, there's love at first sight, obsessive love, and many more..." He started counting the amount of love and their differences and how he was knowledgeable about them.

"Get to it Hamada" Takeshi didn't have all the time in the world, well he did have more time thanks to Aiko. [Gotta thank her for that] he thought before focusing on Hamada once again.

"Geez okay then, it seems that you are really invested in Aiko" He said not expecting an answer.

"She's... a nice person" he answered in a low tone.

"... that's it?" Hamada didn't expect an answer, but he somehow still ended up disappointed and complained reflexively "Don't you have anything nice to say about her?".

"I'm not advertising her..." He said, hesitating before continuing with a slight blush "...but there's a lot of great things about her"

 "O ho~? seems like you want to hide her before someone takes her" he teased him to see his reaction.

"Do I? " Takeshi thought for a second, if she wasn't going to be with him he at least wanted her to be with a nice person, he knew that the number of bad people there really were in the world. The thought of Aiko not smiling actually did make him a bit angry, enough to actually lower the temperature of the room purely out of the amount of tension.

"I guess I really do like her" Takeshi said in defeat, ut with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I can feel that" he said as he hugged himself to keep his body temperature "No trace of doubt there" 

"So any ideas of how I should go about this"

"Honestly... not really, you both already basically live together and make each other feel comfortable, you both skipped a lot of the fumbling about that normal couples do" Hamada said, he himself had some experience dating women, but calling him an expert would a great mistake.

"I don't really know she feels about me though"

"Well she at least cares about you, that's something alright!"

"She did say that she didn't want her employer to die before paying her"

"That was probably a joke that I would make" Hamada thought before adding a said joke to his mental library of decent jokes "Anyways I would say something like testing the waters to see if she likes you" he ended as he walked up to the coffee maker.

"What if she gets uncomfortable?" He asked in concern, he definitely did not have confidence in his ability to 'test the waters'. Hamada froze up for a second before simply looking at him as if he was an idiot.

"Who are you and what did you do to Takeshi?" he said.

"Did I say something weird?"

"Yes, a normal person would say that, but I expected you to say something along the lines of 'I will apologize if I fail but I'll do it anyways' you know? decisive and stuff " Hamada said as he took a sip of his coffee before muttering 'needs more milk'.

"... I-... I'll see what do I do" Takeshi said as he stood up, the break was coming to an end and he was punctual at everything ever since he became Chief of police.

"Don't forget to thank me for forcing you to hire someone to take care of you! see ya!" Hamada waved while walking in the opposite direction, Takeshi took a look at his back before simply walking to his office.

[I do need to thank him for that]

Takeshi, who was now aware of his feelings, decided to simply be sincere, he believed that for all the teasing that Aiko did, she was most vulnerable to complete and utter honesty, so he was going to be that. He had already seen her get derailed whenever he answered with the truth, but he never initiated the conversation, so he did just that.

He simply, sincerely thank her for making him acknowledge his health and taking take care of him for the past 3 years, that just made her brain short circuit for a few seconds before frantically saying that 'it was her job' and that 'he shouldn't even sweat it' before calming down and trying to tease him.

It didn't go well for her, he mostly admitted to most things and eventually even got her back. She had to calm herself during that dinner before she got even more flustered about how she basically already lived with him, and almost fainted at the thought that she was paid to do that.

After a week of back and forth between the two, which range from uncomfortable to tense, Takeshi had gathered enough courage to actually follow through with his decision, no matter the consequences.

It was the evening, at this hour Aiko was supposed to go to her home but like always, had decided to simply stay and accompany Takeshi, it was something that had been happening for most of the 3 years they spent together, so neither of them batted an eye to that. they were watching a movie which just ended and Aiko was readying to go.

It was one of those days where nothing really happened, both made some chit-chat over dinner but mostly remained in a comfortable silence that both liked. Aiko had loud parents that loved to talk for no reason most of the day, so she relished silence even if she was sociable, Takeshi was accustomed to it already, but Aiko's just... being there, made him more relaxed than ever.

Takeshi simply sighed and tempered his resolve. once at the doorstep of his house before Aiko went to her house.

"Yoshino" He called her, she didn't even look at him before answering comfortably.

"Takeshi-kun~ you know that you know that you should call me Aiko at this point we're familiar with each other!" Aiko said reflexively, a simple way to make the other person flustered. Never really worked on Takeshi, but he hasn't given up on it yet.

"Aiko" He called her in a soft tone, Aiko immediately needed to take a second before slowly turning her head to him.

"Y-yes Takeshi?" Aiko said, she generally spoke with the -Kun suffix, to remind him that he was younger than her and that he should loosen up a little.

"I got something important to tell you" He said in his serious voice.

"Okay?" She replied, she only got to hear his serious voice only when got called by the police, so him getting worked up over nothing was nothing but a bit stressful.

"I'm extremely thankful for everything you did for me, it was probably one of the first times someone actually cared for me this much to scold me back to health, so I have many thoughts about you" sincerity spilled over his voice, something that she was adjusting still.

"I'm s-sorry for that!" She quickly replied she did not know that her job was being analyzed so thoroughly by him.

"Don't worry about that, I don't have any good ways to express my thoughts but I can assure you that I think about you constantly" He continued while reassuring her, she still didn't feel safe about this conversation.

[Damn, I'm I that annoying?... I'm not getting fired am I?, Wait does Takeshi hate me? I hope not, that would be...] her thought rapidly switching sides from bad to worse, she was thinking about all the mistakes she commit through her short 3 years with Takeshi.

"Aiko, you are childish to a fault, making important things seem like a breeze and small things seem like huge inconveniences, you have a lot of care to give to people even when you don't benefit from it. You're a great person that always does her best even when she is not acknowledged by anyone, and I respect that from you" He said, ignoring her plight.

"I-I.. what are-" She got cut off before she even got to register what was going on.

"What I'm trying to say here is that... I think I love you, Aiko..."

"?!!"

All the thoughts stopped for a moment before the sudden rush of blood that made her blush snapped her out of her daze, making her thoughts swirl like crazy trying to make sense of the conflicting information, the preconception that Takeshi never really talks about his feeling, and what he just said slowly sinking in.

"That's what I wanted to say... Have a good day" Takeshi said before closing the door, but he suddenly felt how the door opened again and his shoulder was grabbed, he turned to the hand that was holding him.

"N-now where do YOU think you're going?" Aiko said, she used her quirk to hold him in place, she was not going to let him just walk away after the bomb she just dropped on her. not when her silence could be taken as a negative, she WOULD make sure of it.

"I- well I already said what i-" He was actually surprised at Aiko's iron grip, coupled with the fact that her eyes said that he wasn't getting away from this.

"What about what I got to say y-you stupid cop!" she shouted, she slowly let go of his shoulder once she knew that he wouldn't close the door.

"Right... sorry for trying to run away" he admitted, he was too nervous to take into consideration how it would be taken to basically confess and then run away from fear of the answer

"You better be! Leaving a poor cute girl to fend for herself after receiving her first confession" She said while pouting and looking away, she did open her eyes to take a look at Takeshi's expression.

"You're 26, the cute part is true though," he said as matter of fact, making Aiko's hands tremble before she crashed into him. her lower height making her head be against his chest.

"Dammint Takeshi, why you gotta be so damn dense and lovable at same time!" She said, at first weakly pushing him before eventually ending with a hug. Takeshi was stunned because of her actions and words, but his arms did hug her out of instinct. A minute passed where both of them were hugging but refusing to meet each other in the eyes.

"Umm so... do I see you tomorrow?" Takeshi said, his voice almost cracking midway through his sentence, Aiko slowly removed herself from his arms before looking at him in the eyes.

"...Yes, have a good night Takeshi!" She said with a smile that went from ear to ear, she immediately turned around and started walking home, with a light hop on her step.

"You too, Aiko" Takeshi said loud enough for her to hear, he observed how she momentarily froze before continuing on her way just a bit faster than before.

As Takeshi closed the door, He moved up to his bedroom before collapsing on his bed, he was really tired, the amount of tension that he accumulated was more than he thought, and he never talked a lot. It was probably the first time he talked about his feelings so extensively, as he closed his eyes, an image of the smiling Aiko popped into his mind.

[I feel so tired... and yet happy]

Closing his eyes with a smile on his face he started to drift off to sleep.

[I'm totally bragging about this to Hamada]

BioedwinMX

The One piece announcement is interesting, things are going to get pretty hype! in like 2 years probably, Anyways the Fanfic also got to #4 on MHA which is pretty cool, Thanks for reading as always!