After climbing twenty-four floors, we finally made it to the penthouse. Yuga opened the double doors, revealing a beautiful—but gaudy—interior. The walls were painted gold and the floor was rose marble. The furniture looked almost too palatial to sit on, but all of us were so exhausted he crashed in every red velvet chair we could find—breathing a sigh of relief from the comfort.

"This is as fancy as Donald Trump's bathroom!" Denki commented, sinking into the cushions.

"Oui. It's also getting quite dark. It's about time I light the scented candles~" Yuga lifted up a butane lighter and proceeded to light over fifty scented candles in the room. The blending of that many different essences was nauseating, but at least it wasn't the smell of dead rats and hobos.

As my friends relaxed in their newfound haven, I noticed Katsuki on the balcony. He had not spoken much since Yuga found us, so I knew it was really bothering him. I walked up behind him and snuck my arms around his waist and squeezed him tight.

"Yo," was all he could get out. He was so deep—he couldn't even express any words!

"What's wrong?" I asked him. "Don't you like it here?"

"Long day, I guess."

"Yeah, but you've been acting off ever since Yuga showed up. Something's wrong!"

He stared into the great unknown of the city and said, "I promised I would always protect you—and I failed."

"How so? I'm still here."

"I was showed up by a guy who wears Skechers Twinkle Toes. I keep thinking—what if he hadn't been there? I was so scared I'd hurt you with my explosion, that you almost got hurt anyway. . .or worse."

The wind blew dramatically through his hair and I swear, Yuga was playing 'Flightless Bird, American Mouth' on his cellphone Denki had just charged for him.

The song may have been cheesy, but it did make Katsuki look ten times hotter. It really set the mood.

I took Katsuki's hands in mine and interlaced our fingers. As we locked eyes, the depressing background of our beloved city destroyed enhanced his features even more. I heard the faint screeching of Nomu in the distance and explosions erupting everywhere. None of that mattered, however, because I was loved by the greatest guy in the whole world. . .or U.A. High School at least.

"It's okay, Katsuki," I comforted. "Even in the apocalypse, I've never felt safer than when I'm by your side~"

Katsuki's eyes softened at my response. He leaned in to kiss me, but saw all of our friends staring at us with their noses pressed against the plate glass. "WHY YA STARIN', STALKERS!?"

"Get a room!" they heckled.

"WE'RE ON THE BALCONY FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!" he yelled. "GET A LIFE!"

Katsuki stomped back in, leaving me abandoned on the balcony.

"Wait! Missing something?" I hinted.

"Oh, yeah." He returned and picked up a bag of Fritos. "Forgot my corn chips." Then went back inside.

I followed him with a groan.

"Yo, are those corn chips?" Eijiro goggled. The growling of his stomach was louder than Chewbacca.

"Don't even think about it!" Katsuki protected his bag with a sneer.

Yuga chirped, "Do not fret! There is more tortilla in here~!"

Denki then turned to Hanta who was eating tater tots on the luxurious sofa. "Yo, Sero. Gimme some of yo tots."

"No way, man. Get your own!"

"I'm starving!" Denki kicked Hanta in the leg, causing the tots to fly all over the room. Yuga screamed as the greasy tots pumbled us.

"Sacre bleu! Invaders! Intruders! Le greasiness!" He immediately pulled out his mirror to check his reflection for the thousandth time today. "Well. . .at least it's still sparkly!" he vocalized, always able to look at the "bright" side of every problem.

"Ugh! Idiot!" Hanta grunted.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," said Katsuki as he bit into another corn chip.

"Oh, really?" I said, punching him in the arm—causing his chips to fly south for the winter.

"WHY!?" he yowled, falling to his knees with a defeated look on his face.

"Think I'm an idiot now~?"

"I didn't mean you! Every time I badmouth the others, I automatically exclude you!"

We all burst out laughing at the insanity—probably because we were going insane ourselves. We entered U.A. thinking we were going to be battling villains, but now we were battling for corn chips and tater tots. We had sunken to a new low.

After that, Yuga decided we should play a board game to pass the time before dark. Supper consisted of Spam and baked beans smothered with tater tots and corn chips. Delicious.

Even though it would have been nice to stay a few more days to rest up in this awesome penthouse, we knew our friends needed us more than we needed comfort. So, we decided to hit the sack so we could start early the next morning searching for our friends. Finding Yuga gave us a sense of hope. Our other friends were out there. They had to be.

The Next Morning. . .

It was a relief to sleep somewhere actually safe and comfortable for once. Waking up was hard because I just wanted to stay there forever and forget about this cruel world. But the determination to find my friends was stronger. I stood at the mirror in the bathroom and brushed out my unkempt hair while listening to the conversation in the other room.

"Man, it makes me wonder. If Mineta's still alive—I wonder how much pervier he'd be if he hasn't seen a girl in a month and finally finds one," Hanta shuddered.

"There's no way that pest's still alive," Katsuki jeered. "He has to be dead. I'm not believing for a second he'd survive against a Nomu on all his own."

"If Aoyoma survived—I bet he could too," laughed Denki.

"Well, my sparkle is just too fabulous for those mal bird people~" Yuga tee-heed.

Katsuki banged his head against the wall, muttering, "I don't know what I'll die from first. The Nomu or you guys and your obnoxious yakkin'!"

Denki quoted, "As Shinsou would say—I'm already dead on the inside."

"I miss poor Shinsou. . ." Mina frowned. "I doubt his Quirk can do anything against the Nomu since they can't talk."

"One less mouth to feed," Katsuki scorned.

Eijiro chuckled and threw an arm around his annoyed friend. "No need to be so bitter, Bakugou! Save that aggression for fighting the Nomu."

"Oh, just turn into a rock or something!" Katsuki escaped his grip and went to put on his jacket.

Around this time, I finished getting ready and approached my friends. It seems like it's been forever since everyone looked this healthy (physically and emotionally). Staying in that gym with all those strangers was bringing everyone's mental state to a new low. Leaving was probably the best idea we've had in a while.

"You guys ready yet or nah?" Katsuki was already at the door, impatiently stomping his foot against the floor as he waited for us.

"Let me get my satchel~!" Yuga grabbed a backpack I had not noticed before with a print of My Little Pony on the front that was also covered in sequins.

Hanta raised an eyebrow. "My Little Pony, eh? You a Brony?"

"I seized it from a young lady who was sleeping in the gutter. I am sure she had no need of it~"

"You sure she was sleeping, dude?" Eijiro asked.

"Why would I disturb the sweet dreams of a young mademoiselle~?"

I cut him off, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because we're in the apocalypse!?"

"Oh. Well, I didn't think of that~" He then started to worry. "Do you think she's alright~?"

Katsuki answered, "If she wasn't then—she is now."

"Don't be so insensitive!" I scolded, nudging his arm.

"It was just a joke. Calm thyself."

When everyone was set for the day, we followed Katsuki and exited the building. The sky looked the same as always—except there seemed to be a veil covering the atmosphere with a layer of fluorescent, fiery smog. The only source of light we had was cars burning nearby. Luckily, Yuga had some pollution masks stashed in his backpack. He must have raided a hospital at some point.

"This pollution is quite unflattering to our complexion. Here, put these on~" Yuga gifted them to us and we used them to cover our mouth and nose.

Hanta said, "Aoyoma's the only one with a backpack here. We need to find some ourselves and get some food while we're at it."

We agreed with him. We weren't sure where we were going, but we just kept up our journey.

"We need some M16s," Katsuki said.

"Why? We have Quirks," I reminded.

"Cuz I just like shooting stuff, duh."

I rolled my eyes and said, "I think the less stuff we carry—the better. Let's just stick to our Quirks for now. They're good enough for self-defense."

Hanta reasoned, "Hey, man. My Quirk isn't that good. I can use all the help I can get. Like, what am I seriously gonna do? Tape their beaks shuts?"

Denki added, "Yeah. And I'll go stupid if I use my electricity. What if I'm just fumbling around like an idiot and they body-slam me?"

I tried to object, but Mina cut me off. "As long as you protect us, we're not gonna tell you how to do it!"

"I'm a lover not a fighter~" Yuga drawled.

I could obviously see I was outnumbered in this discussion. "Alright, fine. If we happen to come across a bunch of random M16s, be my guest."

We walked for what seemed like hours in the middle of nowhere—looking for our friends while avoiding Nomu. I was starting to get tired, but I had to carry on with my comrades. I was pretty sure everyone was going insane at this point—either from dehydration, stress, or fear of never experiencing their first real kiss. Because Katsuki, Eijiro, Denki, and Hanta started marking their face with mud from the gutter like they were football players. I couldn't tell if they were trying to act like hooligans or heroes.

We all felt like death because the sun was beating down on us as if we were worms left to die on the sidewalk. Yuga was on the verge of passing out, so Eijiro threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes for the rest of the way.

At long last, we stumbled upon a deserted military base in the middle of nowhere. I plopped to the ground, exhausted from torturing my legs.

"Finally!!" Mina cried. "We found a place to rest!"

"It may have food and a change of clothes also!" Denki added.

I couldn't move because the ground had suddenly become as comfortable as a cloud. I was either losing my mind or hallucinating.

I groveled in the dirt. "You gotta go on without me, Katsuki. Just leave me some ammo, a little water, some chips if you have 'em."

"It's literally five feet away." So, Katsuki grabbed my legs and drug me into the mess hall.

"Could you carry me like a princess. . .?" I asked. "Like, Zelda or something? Instead of some savage barbarian."

"Well, EXCUSE ME, princess."

"I'll take that as a no," I sighed.

Then all of the sudden, he lifted me up in his arms and skipped across the threshold like he was also losing his mind. It was the most romantic moment of my life!

Mina awed and held her hands together, saying, "They're so cute!"

"If only someone carried moi~" Yuga hinted.

"Sure, dude!" Eijiro lifted Yuga up by the scruff of the neck and body-slammed him through the doorway as if he had just scored a touchdown.

"MY MACUP!!!" he squealed as he nosedived into the floor.

Katsuki looked at me and said, "There, you happy? Don't ever tell Deku that I did that."

"Where ever he may be," I worried.

Inside the mess hall, we were ecstatic to find MREs—which apparently meant 'Meals Ready to Eat'. But after pulling them out of the package, and heating them with their own heating elements, I soon realized they were not meals ready to eat—but meals ready to barf. The meat tasted like cardboard and the rest of the food was unidentifiable.

"Are we dead yet, guys?" asked Denki. "This is horrible."

"If we were dead—the food would probably taste better," I scoffed.

"Tastes better than my mom's food," Katsuki remarked while gobbling up three meals.

"Ew! How can you eat this trash up?" Mina gagged. "It's so gross!"

"It takes a gross personality to eat gross things," Hanta remarked.

"Which is worse? Eating this or the rats that Gran Torino resorted to!? Now, quit whining and shove it down your throat, Tape-Boy! At least it's hot." Katsuki was already digging in his fourth pack.

After finally being able to swallow the piece of cardboard meat in my mouth which I've been chewing on for five minutes, I got a better look at Katsuki's face paint.

"Why are you wearing that chiz on your face? No tellin' how much toxic waste is mushed in that dirt!" I protested.

"All the great avatars wear face paint."

"What? The blue people from Pandora?"

He looked offended. "NO! Not those Smurfs! I meant the avatars on video games. Ya ever played Left 4 Dead?"

I replied, "Wait, is that the game you were playing with that disturbing, demented, emo kid in juvie the time I picked you up?"

Hanta said, "Wait—Fumikage went to juvie?"

I shook my head.

"Do you think they'll have M16s here?" Eijiro wondered.

"They probably have everything," Mina remarked.

Denki said, "I just hope they have camo. Chicks dig the woodsy look."

"We're not huntin' deer, guys. We're huntin' zombified Nomu!" Katsuki barked, obviously getting sick of the conversation.

"Ew! I don't wanna wear camo pants!" Mina nearly barfed from the thought—or from the food.

Fed up, Katsuki snapped, "Then make skirts out of them or something, pinky! I don't care! Or wear the same dirty rags you've been wearing a month!" Then he stormed off to look for the locker room.

But what he said actually gave me an idea.

As the SpongeBob voice over would say, Three hours later.

Mina and I paraded out in our brand-new, camouflage miniskirts which resembled the design from the ones we used to wear at U.A. Our tops were white blouses with camouflage ribbons tied around our necks. We looked like the girls from Shiketsu High School with their cute regalia.

"Guys! Come over and check us out!" Mina yelled.

"What took you guys so long to change into—" As soon as Katsuki caught a glimpse at our super adorable outfits, his overprotective jealous streak took over. "What are you wearing? I don't want the other guys gettin' any pervy ideas!"

"We look just like we did back in U.A.," I reasoned.

"Wow, (Y/N)," Hanta teased. "You look so hot; my eyes are on fire!"

"You'll be on fire if you don't take those eyes off mah girl and put them back in your sockets!" To prove a point, Katsuki threw an explosive ball at Hanta—which he quickly dodged.

"But Katsuki!" I interjected. "Do I look good?"

Katsuki blushed in embarrassment, at a loss for words for the first time in his life—afraid to say anything because he always seemed to screw it up. Finally, he blurted out, "You look so good that I'm honestly tempted to ditch this quest and these losers and ride off with you on some random horse in the sun."

Now, it was my turn to blush. Katsuki just had a way with words that melted my heart.

Hanta snarked, "Wow, that was about as profound as a bootleg Hallmark movie that's for sale at the Dollar Tree."

"I still can't figure out what you see in him, (Y/N). That you couldn't see in me!" Denki wondered out loud.

"Braincells?" Katsuki answered.

When they proceeded to search through the piles of military clothes. The guys each found exactly what they were looking for and they acted just as excited as a little boy who had just beaten Super Mario Bros. for the first time.

~~~

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