"God places the lonely in families, he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy." (Ps 68:6)

* * *

The LOV were well away from the shore line when they noticed they were being followed.

"You should just warp us away," Compress said.

"Not sure that is good idea for him." Silk gestured to Dabi. She and Spinner were dragging him along mostly. He was barely walking.

"That stuff might choke him really bad," Silk said.

"I think for a few seconds he could handle it," Compress argued. 

"Wait," Lethe said, "perhaps it's a ninja. We could use that... No one can stop us now."

Kid had a point.

But in fact, the person who appeared when they waited was Mirko.

"What does she want now?" Spinner whined.

"I'll handle this," Shigaraki said.

"You sure you don't need back up, sir?" Compress said.

"You think I can't handle one rabbit?" Shigaraki snapped.

No, they didn't really think he could, but they didn't try to stop him.

Mirko leaned on the wall and waited.

"What?" Shigaraki tried to sound as irritated as possible.

"Just a warning: This isn't over," Mirko said.

"I'm aware. Is that all? That was a waste of time," Shigaraki said.

Mirko rolled her eyes.

"I started this," she said, "I'm not through yet... I do feel partially responsible for dragging all of you into it though. So, in all fairness...if there's more trouble with the Originals, call me." She held up a card. "Every hero has a direct line."

"And no villain would be stupid enough to use it." Shigaraki didn't take it.

"Fine." Mirko withdrew it. "Whatever. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I think we can all agree this...deal is over," Shigaraki said, "It was not a success. It's probably lucky that no one died because of your reckless actions."

Mirko took that with more meekness than you'd expect from her.

"Right..." she said, "Whatever." She shrugged. "Don't do anything to get on my list again. I bet after all this, I could easily take you all down."

"You can't dictate our actions."

"I know. I'm not Likstar."

That crack made him mad.

"You just wait. We'll be right back at the center of things soon enough, you self centered prick!"

"Sure." Mirko was unimpressed.

"Are you...trying to get us to do something bad?" Shigaraki was a little put off.

"If I could manipulate you that easily to give me an excuse to beat you up, what does it say about you, Face Palm?" Mirko said slyly, "Kind of easily provoked...but not 100% useless. So I'm letting you all off the hook this time around. I'm a woman of my word."

Shigaraki cooled down a little. Was that really all she came to say? What an idiot.

Of course, on the other hand, it was one less thing to worry about...

Maybe he should try not to ruin this. The League needed to be left alone right now.

"Fine," he said aloud, "What a surprise."

"There's the insult. I knew it was coming. Predictable." Mirko was bored sounding. "I really thought some gratitude was in order here. Did you count how many times I saved your miserable a---s today?"

"They were only in danger because of you!"

Mirko snorted at the phrasing of that.

"Well, so I rectified it. D---, even I can concede a little bit to be fair."

"Boss," Silk had followed him for some reason, "if I may, I believe the Pro is seeking some reassurance that we hold up our end of deal. No retaliation for...certain mistakes that were made."

"Did I ask you for help!" Shigaraki snapped at her.

"My apologies, sir." Silk bowed in what anyone else would have recognize as blatantly mocking him. "But I thought, Heroes put things very strangely, and we need to hurry."

Mirko didn't bother to deny any of that. She just waited.

"What am I supposed to say?" Shigaraki asked Silk very grumpily.

"I believe it's customary to state some plus side to all this and then agree not to cut each other throats this time around," Silk said, "But I'm sure you know better than I-- you're leader. I'll just let you handle this. Sorry for the interruption."

She stepped back looking really smug.

"Well, there isn't a plus side," Shigaraki grumbled.

"She's funny," Mirko said.

"What?"

"Nevermind. It's over your head," she shrugged.

"Shut up." This was getting uncomfortable. Shigaraki never had to end things on...well...non-antagonistic terms.

Dang pros and their way of wanting things to be guaranteed. It was ridiculous!

But he couldn't just stand there all night.

"The LOV will just forget this ever happened," he said.

"Fine." Mirko accepted that. "Well, I've got to get home... Just hope I don't find ninjas there when I arrive... S---." She turned around.

"You fight like a villain, by the way," Shigaraki said, by way of one last dig.

"Huh?" She looked back. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He was only too glad to explain. This would piss her off.

"I just noticed it earlier. You thoroughly enjoy crushing your enemies. You delete what you hate. It's almost inspiring, to a villain."

He was going for real condescending there.

Mirko just stared at him. "That's being like a villain, huh?"

"Yes."

"Seems kind of stupid to me. It's called loving what you do."

"And you love destroying things."

"I do not!--Anyway, what's wrong with that?" Mirko changed her tune real quick. Maybe she realized it was bs to deny it.

"That's just the point." Shigaraki thought she was missing it.

"You know, I'm just going to choose to take that as a very weird compliment and forget about it." Mirko decided to dismiss the whole thing. "Gotta bounce." She bounded away.

"What was that?" Silk asked.

"A failed attempt at an insult," Shigaraki said, annoyed.

"Why is it insult? I thought she was cool."

"No one asked you, Silk! Why don't you shut up!" Shigaraki was mad now. He stalked away.

Silk shrugged. "It's not like we can't appreciate being tough. I never understand exclusive villains."

* * *

Shine and Wally got back to UA in the early dawn hours of the day after the one they'd left it...so about 18 hours total had gone by, and they were exhausted. They slept till late afternoon.

Shine woke up because her arm started hurting again after pain meds wore off, and she had to dress it and take more, then she went back to sleep.

The students were concerned but let them rest.

When they finally got up to eat, Momo and Kaminari asked where they'd been.

"Really long mission," Wally said.

"Yeah...it was a real ride," Shine yawned.

"What happened to your arm, Miss Likstar?" Kaminari asked her.

"Oh...minor burn," Shine said.

Shoto looked right at her.

"Did you see Dabi again?" he said coldly.

(It was just them around who knew about it.)

"He was around," Shine said slowly.

Shoto got up and walked out of the room.

"He did that?" Momo said to Shine, worried.

"I made him mad," Shine said, "but he apologized later. He never did that before. I know he was sorry... He wasn't thinking, you know."

"That sounds kind of toxic, Miss Likstar," Kaminari said.

"Sometimes people make mistakes," Shine shrugged, "It's only toxic if it becomes a repeated cycle, and they are clearly just making excuses. Time will tell."

"You plan to see him again?" Momo asked.

"I think I'll have to," Shine said,  "He's going to be one of us now."

"Huh?" Kaminari blanked.

"Oh, not one of the class. I mean...one of us," Shine said meaningfully.

"Yeah," Wally nodded, between bites, "He finally cracked. Took long enough. One down, right?"

"Let's not make it sound like a game," Shine said.

"I meant more like a war, but okay," Wally said.

"You're serious?" Momo sank into a chair at the table. "He actually...for real?"

"I'd say so." Shine sipped some water.

"Wow... That's...unbelievable," Momo said.

"Yeah, that's true. I'm sure most of the people around here would not believe it," Shine said wryly.

Wally laughed, kind of weakly. "Oh, we're so screwed if this gets back to Nezu..."

"I think we need to talk to Aizawa actually," Shine said. 

"This is huge, though." Kaminari's eyes were big as saucers. "I thought you guys were nuts...but if you really got through to him...wow, that's so crazy."

"I wouldn't expect anything like a total change of his opinions," Shine warned, getting up, "That's never how it works. I think it'll take time... Right now my real concern is that no one kills him."

"But still, way cool," Kaminari said.

"You're so easy to impress, buddy." Wally ruffled his hair. "That's good. It's nice someone is happy about it... I mean, I'm kind of thinking the Peppermint Stick is going to be mad."

"But shouldn't he be happy?" Momo said, "What better outcome could there be of all this? If it's true...it's like you were right all long to interfere."

"Sweetheart..." Shine said slowly, "that is just why he would be mad."

Momo's face fell.

"Don't worry about it. You don't need to borrow trouble," Shine said, "We'll see. It might be fine."

She didn't really think for a second that Todoroki would take it calmly, but she didn't want to sound like a jerk. Maybe he'd surprise her.

[Yeah, I doubt it. This has drama written all over it.]

Before Shine and Wally left though, Momo, Jiro, Kaminari, and Bakugo (maybe) all mentioned what they'd done the day before when they were worried. The praying part especially.

"We thought it would be what you'd want." Momo was really not as sure now that they shouldn't have tried something more active.

But to the great embarrassment of Jiro and Kaminari, Shine started crying.

"You guys did that? That's so sweet... I'm touched. Wow..."

She grabbed them into a hug.

"Yeah, that's so cool," Wally said, "You guys are the best."

"I don't see why you're all excited over us talking..." Jiro was red.

"Because that's just what we would want," Shine said, "Plus, I think maybe it saved us. There was so much that went right that shouldn't have yesterday... Thank you."

"Wow, I never thought they'd be this happy," Kaminari tried to break the tension.

It worked. Everyone laughed, except Bakugo, who just went "tch", which was as close as he got to laughing with anyone but Camie.

It was a shame Shoto had walked out, Momo thought. He'd be glad they appreciated it so much...or would he? Maybe he was too angry right now...

"So how was your date anyway?" Wally asked Kaminari.

"Oh, uh, we haven't gone on it yet," Kaminari said, "Guess we kind of got worried."

"Oh, well, you have to go today!" Wally said, "You can't miss it."

"Our supervisor is telling us to go on a date..." Jiro said dryly, "This is so weird. You're weird, Mr. West."

"He's a hopeless romantic," Shine said, "So am I, though... I mean, not that hopeless, but you guys are just so cute."

"Stop it! You sound like our mom or our grandma!" Jiro was all red.

"You have to go out so I can spy on you from afar," Wally said, mischievously.

"What?" they cried.

"He's kidding," Shine said, "We'll do it up close."

"You'll...what?"

"Joking, joking, kind of," Shine said, "But you still should go. You kids need something after all this."

"Yeah, but Peaches when are you and the pokeball gonna get together?" Wally said.

"Me and...what?" Momo blinked, embarrassed.

"Never, Mr. West," Kaminari whispered, "Todoroki is dense as a...a...proton or something. What's the really dense thing?"

"I dunno. You're asking me?" Wally said, "Science was never my best subject."

"Todoroki is hopeless," Jiro agreed, joining the whisper, "If you told him you liked him, he'd just thank you and walk away. Guy doesn't have a clue."

"How tragic," Wally sighed, "At least I wasn't that bad."

Momo wondered what they were whispering about.

"Don't mind him. He's just teasing you," Shine said, "Of course you can't rush into something if you're not comfortable with it, though...but anyway, you know how guys are. They think everyone is into everyone all the time."

"I thought that was girls," Bakugo said rudely, "'cause they don't have anything better to do."

"You would know so much about girls," Shine said, "For the record, I've known way more men who rib people about liking each other than I have women. Y'all get more embarrassed about it. Like 'feelings? We can't have those! It's not manly!'"

"You sound like Kirishima," Jiro snorted.

"Yet most of the most famous love stories, poems, and songs were written by men," Shine sighed, like it was some tragedy of time.

"Just 'cause men do it doesn't make it manly," Bakugo said.

Shine snorted a laugh. "Right you are. Good retort...stupid to apply to art, but good."

"I thought it was how you do it, not what you do that makes it manly...whatever that is. I really don't get that word," Wally mused.

* * *

Aizawa was eager (for him) to hear about what happened to keep them away all day.

Of course they couldn't tell him much about it. But they told him it was dangerous and involving criminals.

"And the long and short of it," Wally said, sadly, "is that they may still be after us. And we don't know if they'll come to this school."

"So we had to let you know, if you want us to leave the campus. We don't want the students to be in danger," Shine said.

She shrugged. "I thought to myself, the students are constantly in danger anyway, and All Might lived around here when the LOV was hunting him...but they were never nearly as scary as these people are... Not that they're so very powerful, but the sheer numbers."

"Is this about the Metas?" Aizawa asked.

"Surprised you just said that to us, out right," Wally said, making a gesture of appreciation at him, "but nope."

"We're aware of them," Shine said, "but it's not them...though I'm sure we're on some kind of list of theirs by now too."

"And this has to do with your connections to the LOV, I imagine," Aziawa said, "which you won't explain."

"What is there to explain? You know as much as you would really need to understand the situation," Shine said, "We're just friends."

"You sound like you're denying being in a relationship, which is not what I want to hear about the LOV."

"Aizawa, if it's any consolation, the LOV is already weaker than it was when we first arrived," Shine said, with a weird smile, "And you know, we're not hurting anyone by chatting with them. If you cared enough to stop us, you would have by now."

"I can't. You know that."

"Then why talk about it?" Shine said, "I don't bother talking about things I can't stop to people very often. Now, what do you want us to do?"

Aizawa sighed. "If you leave UA, then you're on your own. Isn't that dangerous?"

"Sure," Wally said, "but that's not anything new."

"It was dangerous to stay here too. To us the situation is no different than before, but we don't want the kids to have more problems," Shine said.

"We're a hero school, not a summer camp," Aizawa said, "If you have a group of villains to deal with, why not just tell us? Maybe we could help."

"That's so nice." Wally was impressed. "Not what I thought you'd say."

Aizawa glared at him.

"And very kind of you to offer," Shine agreed, "but if we tell you, they may eliminate you too... Not sure if they'd bother... In fact, you'd be like a saint to them, I'd think...but the kids... Well, if they cared about the kids, I doubt us being here would make any difference at all. The sad thing is, we can't guarantee they'll leave you alone even if we leave. So...we're stuck. It sucks. But we thought we should be honest."

"Which is a nice change of pace." Aizawa was cutting. "But as you say, it won't matter. And I'd flay you alive for dragging us into this, except you've done nothing but get dragged into our conflicts since arriving, and you've never once complained or acted like it was more than was expected of you. We're all equally dangerous to each other. This is a war...so, if you want to stay, then I don't care. Nezu might not agree."

"Nezu is not finding this out." Shine's eyes narrowed. "I can't say for sure if he'd ever be involved in this, but I already don't trust him. He'd probably kick us out more to see what would happen than to protect the kids."

The fact that even without their suspicion of him, that sounded like something Nezu would do, with a smile and an airtight excuse, made Aizawa suddenly wonder if he should have been suspicious a long time ago.

"All right...we won't tell him," he agreed sullenly, "But who is after you? Why not just tell us?"

"We'll tell you some of it, okay?" Shine said, "You might need to know, on second thought."

They began to explain.

Aizawa was shocked. He'd never heard of the Originals.

"And you only found out yesterday?"

"Yes, you can thank Mirko for that," Shine said, "Oh, I should call her and make sure she's still alive. Excuse me." She got up and pulled out her phone, then..."Oh, crap...her phone got crushed...guess I'll have to go over in person."

"How did she know?" Aizawa said.

"Well, this is all off the record," Wally said, "but it was actually the LOV who got the leads. Crazy, right? They don't like these guys either, so they were okay with helping take them down. Plus I guess they have their smokey guy, too. Only he can prevent forest fires... You know who I mean, right?"

"No. I know Kurogiri is smoke, but the fires part made no sense."

"It's an American thing," Shine explained, "A bear...not important. My state animal, actually."

"Your what?"

"Each state has its own animal in America. And bird...and flower. Ours is the Grizzly bear, Quail, and Californian Golden Poppy."

"And why would I care?"

"I don't know.... Isn't your national tree the Cherry tree or something?"

"Why is it important right now?"

"What if I were cloned and you had to verify if it was me or not," Shine challenged, "And you could ask me those three questions. If they don't know, then it's fake. Random details are the stuff life is made of, Aizawa. You should care."

"I hate that you justified something this stupid," Aizawa said, "And it's still stupid...and off subject."

Wally told Aizawa more details-- about Karen also.

Shine stepped out to find out if Mirko was okay.

* * *

Kaminari and Jiro did end up going out. They played laser tag.

[Crazy story. My siblings and I theorized months ago what their first date would be, and we just felt like laser tag was it. Then just in the last month, I was reading someone else's fan work, and they said the same thing... I took that as a sign to keep the idea.

I love it when people in a fandom just somehow have the same vision for stuff. It really says how clear the character's personality is.]

It was awkward for Jiro at first...and for Kaminari.

"I mean what do people even do on dates?" Jiro wondered.

"I don't even know...have fun?" Kaminari said.

"We're both hopeless at this," Jiro sighed.

"Well, at least we're being hopeless together, right?" Kaminari said, "So neither of us look really bad... I mean, if you were great at this, and I wasn't, I'd feel really stupid right now."

"So you feel less stupid because we're both stupid?" Jiro said.

"Exactly," Kaminari said.

Jiro shoved him. "You're so dumb."

"Hey, that's just not nice," Kaminari complained, "You're supposed to like me."

"Doesn't mean you're not dumb," Jiro said.

"That just hurts, Jiro..."

"Don't be a wimp," Jiro said.

Kaminari frowned.

She paused.

"All right...sorry. I just get nervous, okay? I don't know how else to blow off steam."

"I wouldn't mind if you were kidding." Kaminari made a sad face. "But I think you're serious."

"I'm both," Jiro said.

"You can't be both!"

"Sure I can..." Jiro awkwardly grabbed his hand. She wasn't sure what else to do to make this better. "Let's just...play another round, okay? Maybe we're talking too much."

"Okay," Kaminari said.

Well, that did help. It was fun.

After that they got some tickets at the arcade that was also in the building.

More relaxed now, they were able to just talk about the games-- and the terrible music they were playing over the speaker.

Both of them had already silently decided not to go for anything like a kiss. Kaminari couldn't imagine Jiro being okay with that...and Jiro thought it was way too awkward still.

But it wasn't a disaster. By the end they felt more natural about it.

"So...am I not dumped?" Kaminari said.

"What?"

"I kind of thought if it went badly, that would be it..." Kaminari admitted.

"Don't be such an idiot," Jiro said, "I'm used to how you are. Why would one day change that?"

"Oh...wow..." Kaminari felt kind of dizzy. "That was...kind of more cute than I thought it would be."

"What? Shut up." Jiro blushed.

"Maybe this is going to work," Kaminari said.

[So, this concludes this arc. I'm calling it the Origin arc for the Originals. Or something.

But they will probably be back, from the looks of it. Other villains coming too, and lot more development. Next arc will be a bit more all over the place, but don't worry, it'll end with a bang. More shipping too. See you there!]