This makes me want to die. Flat out. Full stop. Die. Here I am, sitting next to Ryuko Tsuchikawa watching the bar like a hawk, the lights all bright and the drinks non-stop. Her blue eyes widen at some young guy making conversation with the bartender.

“I’mma go talk that tasty looking stud up.” she says to the others, almost catlike in her movements.

“Good luck, Ryuko! Don’t let it out of the bag! Pahahaha!” The woman across from her, Emi Fukukado, Miss Joke, cackles like a witch and I almost want to bang my head into the table.

There is no amount of liquor that can make this night go any faster, and all of this is because Aizawa and Mic had to bail on me. I knock back the cherry wine mixed with cola, the buzz barely tickling me when rising from the tunnel vision I’ve had burning into the karaoke machine in the corner and the 40-something year old pot bellied salaryman crooning into it.

When Freddie Mercury said, ‘Do anything with my music, just don’t make it boring’ he didn’t mean butcher Somebody to Love in barely hit high notes! But then, fake friendly and dolled up like she’s still thirteen is the newest star to the bunch out of the four of us.

Yu Takeyama, platinum blonde hair and purple eyes with a dress that pretty much screams, ‘LOOK AT ME, I’M HOT!’, speaks to me.

“Yoo hoo, Kayama-san!” she exclaims with a happy grin, “There’s some really cute guys out tonight! Oh wait, I forgot, you’re too old for most of them!” that sends Fukukado onto the table again, losing her shit.

“Hey! I’m not that old, Takeyama! I don’t see YOU mingling!” I snarl, “Plus it’s none of your business what I do or who I spend my nights with!”

Fukukado laughs harder and all I can do is bury myself into the drink I have. She’s already drunk, Ryuko’s buzzed, and Takeyama is completely sober because she needs to ‘watch her image’.

Fuck off with that shit. As I’m trying to enjoy the only good thing so far, the door swings open and there’s a new pair strutting in from outside.

“See? I told ya, Koyurei! It’s not that bad!” There’s a girl with yellow green flames for hair leading in with a guy who looks like he wanted to be anywhere but here with a heavy black coat on and sharp, dull blue eyes.

His hair is wavy and… white with red splotches almost like someone got busy with the ketchup and it sprayed everywhere. Takeyama gasps.

“No way.” her mouth drops open, “There’s… oh my god, that’s…”

He looks uncomfortable. Sitting ramrod straight at the bar with his jaw set and scowling at whoever met his gaze, his hands even on the bar surface, drumming nervously. He’s buzzing with the energy of ‘I don’t want to be here, why in the HELL am I here?!’

Yu gets a… certain smile on her face and gets up, “I’m going to shoot my shot with Enavant!” she decides, fixing her hair and heading over to him. What happens is nothing short of a stonewall.

No matter what she tried, the boob jiggle, the compliments, nothing could budge him. Nothing but a cold stare meets her, and a soft but strong sounding, “No. Thank you.” his voice rumbled with power but a steady calm. Despite how jumpy and shivery he was. His friend went off to do some karaoke and probably dumped a five song run into it, singing some poppy number. Yu flounces back to us with a frustrated huff.

“Urgh! Everything I tried and he didn’t budge?! What is he, dense?!” when that gets to me, I get up.

“Takeyama, sit your ass down before you pop a gasket. Watch the master at work.” She scoffs and Fukukado loses it AGAIN for the millionth time. Getting over there, he’s sitting almost on guard, but there’s something I notice about him.

He’s sad. There’s a heaviness to his shoulders, tired circles under his eyes gouged there kind of like Aizawa’s. He looks at me. Shorter but still ramrod straight. His eyes meet mine and I almost melt down to nothing on the spot.

“Are you here to flirt with me?” his voice billows over me like a warm blanket. I almost want to cave and just say yes but that’s not why I want to do this. He’s scared, and sad, and probably wanting to go back home and cry or something.

“No. No, I just noticed how you’re squirrelly, are you okay?” I ask, getting on the stool next to him with a smile.

“I’m fine.” he denies, “Just… I’ve never been here before. All these people…” he drifts off with a soft expression of worry and fear, “They scare me.”

“Well, preaching to the choir there…” I sigh, “My name’s Nemuri,”

“Koyurei.” he answers with a soft, barely-there smile. But I just focus on the area around us. Even though everything bothered me, Koyurei wasn’t so bad. We both sit silently. The pregnant silence between us broken by him surprisingly enough.

“So, are you a hero too?” he asks.

“Yeah, Rated R Heroine: Midnight. You?” I order another drink, this time something stronger, and smile at him. He caves and orders… more soda.

Huh.

“The Shining Flame Hero: Enavant, means Onward in French.” he smiles, “I know, it sounds like Endeavor, which… is the point!” he huffs and crosses his arms with a puff of blue fire from his mouth, cheeks reddening.

“You admire him, huh?” I lean close, seeing him look at me and drop the smile. His gaze sharpens and flames ignite on his face in an almost crown-like mask. His hair billows gently in the hot draft.

“No. I don’t. I want to surpass him!” the thunder in his voice strikes like heat lightning and shakes with conviction. Deep down inside my heartbeat quickens, heat rushes to my cheeks and I cover my mouth with thoughts of that thunder being purred in my ear outside in the alley…

No, no no no, keep those thoughts down, Nemuri! I down the stronger drink and he looks almost longingly at the Karaoke machine towards the back of the joint. Patting his shoulder and grabbing his hand, I drag him along behind me to the machine.

There’s a lot of options, but surprisingly enough he takes the lead on it. The song he picks is Heroes by David Bowie, one of my personal favorites but when he starts singing… It's not bad. It’s full of emotion, almost like he’s coping with the fact something went horribly wrong.

But then he grabs my hand and we dance, not close, more like spinning. He’s yelling like he’d do in the song, just yelling his head off and smiling. It’s like I’m the only person in the world. But once the singing is done, he’s right back to quiet again.

It almost makes me want to get that back out of him but something tells me its best kept to himself. But watching him sleep now, out of the memory of meeting him and letting him change my world?

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep him away from all the shit outside. The rabid crowds, the clamoring media, all of it just working to break me down. But for the man sleeping soundly next to me, the man I gave my all for every day, nothing is too much.

He’s warm, his muscular body so close to mine, wrapped in my arms. He’s shorter than me but holding him like this makes me think that he almost never was held like this. He’s normally a sign that the hero society we’re in is doing well.  He’s the future, he’s the one going onward. So it’s only natural there’s such a huge backlash. The son of Endeavor, the brightest sidekick, the most rising of the rising stars, and he resigns. When day comes, he doesn’t wake up first, he sleeps soundly.

I’ll let him sleep. Wiggling out of his grasp, I head into the bathroom and turn on the light, fluffing up my hair and sighing at my bags and age, lifting my chest, “I’m not sagging…” I sigh, “And I'm not that old.”

Studying myself in the mirror, I smile, looking back in my bed and seeing Koyurei sleeping soundly. I’ll fix this. I’ll make it right. We can be heroes, forever and ever. I hope he’ll be okay with it.