******

Aiko pushes and shoves against the crowd. She has to get to the panel in time and she cannot be late.

"Aiko san! Please wait!" Chino calls from where he's running behind her.

"If I wait I'm gonna be late for the panel. Do you want me to be late for the panel?" she growls turning only for a second looking down on the shorter boy.

Chino squeaks and shakes his head in the negative.

She turns back and runs into another guy. This one is unfortunately built like a brick shithouse. She falls flat on her ass as the guy turns.

He turns out to not be a complete ass though since he gives her a hand to get up.

"Sorry! " he yelps. The guy is wearing the hood from his hoodie up, with a ground zero themed mask and glasses. Aiko would comment, probably tear his head off for making her more late than she already was but her eyes got stuck on his shoes.

Who, in the everloving FUCK wears fucking crocks to a public occasion?

The guy stared at her for a while before he seemed to light up, "oh! Are you going to the Panel too?"

"Yes! You as well?" Chino pipes up from behind her before she gets a chance to respond.

"Yeah! I'm just waiting for-"

"Kiri-chan!" someone yelps from the side and Aiko turns to see a man close to her height run towards them, somehow not knocking into anyone.

The other dude was dressed similarly, only in hero Shouto themed instead of Ground Zero and thankfully without the crocks. His shoes seem to be a part of a Deku cosplay.

She really does not have time for this.

"I'm gonna be late!" she taps her foot impatiently at Chino. She's known the boy since they were in diapers and once he gets started talking to strangers he Does. Not. Stop.

"It'll be fine! Let's all go together! " 'kirichan' announces and side hugs the other guy.

Aiko speed walks behind them and has to admit having people who are built like that in front of her definitely helps to not get trampled by the crowd.

Even if this, 'kiri chan's ' friend doesn’t look much built compared to his companion due to his lack of height, Chino can comfortably walk behind him.

They reach the panel in ten minutes. And Aiko is pleased to see the heroes weren’t there yet.

She turned on her recorder. There had to be something said here that proved that pesky little know it all account wrong.

See, Aiko has a hero blog, and adjacent twitter, tumbler, and other accounts. She posts about everything related to heroes. Their quirks, advantages, disadvantages, hero rankings, criticism on said rankings, news etc.

And It's a damn good blog.

She's right about almost everything, and she's the second best hero blog account in Japan .

Second..... Only to SmallMight09

That account is right about everything. Every post, every source , every criticism everything is always right, and sometimes it feels like the heroes even take it as libel. And Aiko has had enough.

She has to write a blog entry better than SmallMight09 at least once. Because her blog is for all heroes, and SmallMight09 is a self proclaimed All might fanboy. Their posts on heroes Shouto or Ground Zero or Uraraka should not be better than hers damn it.

So anyway, that's why She's here right now. To get some gossip to post from this panel, and there's bound to be some misplaced information, the heroes that are here aren’t known to..... Get along.

About five minute after Aiko found her seat, ( in the middle rows between Chino and the other guy who came in with her) the two heroes make their way to the tables at the front. There's a cheer all around her and if one were to listen close enough, they could hear "Shouto " and "Ground Zero" cheers distinctly.

"Alright you fucks we're here, what do you have to say?" says Ground Zero (Bakugo Katsuki, her mind supplies) .

Shouto just sighs and picks someone from the front of the room.

"Uh, I just wanted to congratulate Ground Zero on the recent yakuza family case, and I wanted to thank him, one of the kids you saved is my brother's son, so thank you!" the lady bowed to show her thanks and was it just her or did Ground Zero soften a little?

"You're welcome or whatever. And tell your brother to make sure they keep the kid safe so he doesn’t get kidnapped again. " he grumbles.

Another lady gets picked this time, "Hero Shouto, is It true that you got engaged to Hero Creati?" She asks and there's a snort coming fome the man beside Aiko.

Hero Shouto stared at her for a few seconds, long enough to make her and everyone else in the room uncomfortable. He's not even the one to break the silence.

Ground Zero laughs, and laughs, and laughes some more.

"Holy- ha ha ha ha - holy fucking shit that's hilarious. " he continues laughing.

Then, Shouto, with the most deadpan poker face, -as was his MO- leans towards the mike, "I'm gay. That's not a secret. Why are you even asking-? Bakugo? Why-?"

Aiko knew this, anyone who keeps up with hero news properly knows this, Hero Shouto never actually explicitly said that he's gay, but, really, the man had just never bothered to pretend to be straight. And, Aiko supposed, this would be the final nail in the coffin for the naysayers.

Aiko felt the guy next to her shaking, when she looked over, he had a hand over his half white half red mask and- oh, he was laughing.

Aiko turned back to the panel where Shouto was still staring at the woman and Ground Zero was still dying of laughter.

When the Explosion Hero calmed down -somewhat- the panel began again,

The guy picked this time was sitting in the back,

"Ground Zero, just for the Memes, In your opinion, what's the height of stupidity? "

Ground Zero considered the guy for a Second, then turned to Shouto, "How tall is Deku?" he asks.

Theres a slight affronted noise from beside her but Aiko ignores it. Obviouslythe guy likes Deku since he has Deku cosplay shoes.

"He's shorter than your Ego, but I suppose most things are."

"The Fuck you say to me you- " he was cut off by what seemed like a vibration in his phone which he took out and checked.

Then he grumbled and put his phone in his pocket.

Aiko saw a movement out of the corner of her eyes and looked to see, 'Kiri-chan' put something in his pocket. She frowned, that was weird.

"NEXT QUESTION! YOU OVER THERE" Ground Zero yelled and she turned her attention to the heroes again.

"Hero Shouto, what are your opinions on the Current Number One punching hero Endeavour in broad daylight. " the guy who asked this had an id card that looked like a press pass, so, this was going on tv or news as well it seemed.

"He really deserves his title of Symbol Of Hope. Someone had to put Endeavour in his place. And I'm really really glad to have him in my life." There was even a hint of smile on his face.

"You two are great friends!" the man exclaimed before sitting down.

The look Shouto gave him was not one Aiko could place. She felt the guy next to her shake in laughter yet again, so hey, at least someone knew what was going on.

Ground Zero had his head down on the table but he was shaking too. Probably from laughter.

Shouto sighed and pointed to the guy directly behind her.

"Hero Shouto, we know all the heroes from your graduating class has a twitter account that's not the Official one. Why doesn’t Hero Deku have one?"

Shouto tilted his head, "he does, he just never bothered getting it Verified, probably so that he can fanboy to his heart's content."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Ah....... I probably shouldn’t say it. He could get upset if he can't blend in with other Hero Fans. "

The guy from before says something about setting a fine example of friendship and Shouto looks a little more dead inside.

After that the questions get more and more generic and Aiko wants to know why they're even bothering if that’s what theyre gonna ask since it’s mostly public knowledge.

The heroes take a small break. Bakugo immediately taking out his phone and moving away from the mike's range. Aiko huffed, if only she had a hearing quirk.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
I WANT YOU IN MY ROOM
LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER
FROM NOW UNTIL FOREVER.

BOOM BOOM-"

'Kiri- chan' fumbles with his phone. Even shushing it but to no avail Aiko rolls her eyes and turns to the front.

Only to see Ground Zero stiffen and turn towards the audience focusing on 'kiri-chan'. Kiri chan, who seemed to have given up on his phone and just pressed his hand on the speaker in an effort to keep it quiet.

He looks over at Ground Zero sheepishly and waved.

Ground Zero's left eye twitched.

"Uh, hey, Bakubro, we thought we might surprise you two after the Panel." the man removed his mask and sunglasses.

Holy shit.

Is that Red Riot?

She was in the same room as Shouto, Ground Zero and Red Riot? This is the best day ever!

"We?" Shouto questions.

Huh..... That's a very valid question.

"Hey Shouchan " the man next to her, took off his mask and glasses and hood and waved.

She sat next to Hero Fucking Deku for half an hour. Hero Deku, the symbol of Hope, the No. 1 hero. She sat next to him for half an hour and she had no idea.

She feels like kicking herself.

Shouto gets up from his chair to walk over and hug Deku.

Let her rephrase that to make a proper impact. The cool and aloof Ice Prince Shouto gets up from his chair to walk between five lines of chairs toinitiate a hug. a hug. Aiko can feel her brain (as well as her heart) melt.

And it wasn’t even one of those, 'Hey Bro Haven’t Seen You In Months ' hugs either. Shouto Just.... Held Deku for a long time.

Shouto Mumbled something Aiko couldn’t hear and Deku giggled. GIGGLED.

"I'm not going over there to hug you shitty hair" Ground Zero says. If Aiko didn't know any better she'd say he sounded petulant.

Red Riot, famous for being the only person not being exploded into a crisp for touching or hugging Ground Zero took the route Shouto took to go to the panel and hug the exploding Hero.

It's too much of a shame that she can't take fucking pictures.

Shouto pulls Deku to the panel and practically sits the other man on him with how close their chairs are.
As opposed to Red Riot and Ground Zero. Red riot sat with a hand thrown over Ground Zero's shoulder casual as one does.
(Except for the fact that no one in their right mind does. Ever. At all.)

That's how Aiko's two hero panel became a four hero panel.

***

Later she would scream at her laptop when SmallMight09 posted their meta on the panel before her and also post about the mission Deku and Red Riot was on.

Even later she would sit in silent shock with wide eyes when Hero Deku actually verifies his account.

She got back from giving Chino's boyfriend the shovel talk and turned on the TV when the announcement of Hero Deku and Shouto being together was announced.

She smirked, she may not have been better than Hero Deku about predictions but at least she was way ahead of the media about news.

********