It's about 4 in the morning when the alert cuts through the silence, "I-Island security system is now operating in normal mode." 

The sound shakes me out of my panicked thoughts. I haven't gotten an ounce of sleep, just staring up at the stucco ceiling all night. I reach for my phone, texting Ochaco, Eijiro, and everyone else I know to be at the reception to see if they're okay. When nobody texts back, I turn my phone off and set it on my chest.

Despite me checking it every minute for the next hour, the screen never displays a message from anyone. The room begins to shake subtly which makes me shoot up in bed. I scramble off, my bare feet meeting the cold floor as I look outside. 

The hot orange cloud of an explosion billows out from the top of the central tower. I turn away instinctively, not wanting to see the damages. I sit on the floor for a while, watching green, white, and gold light flash on the opposite wall, the room shaking every now and then. 

Somehow, Kayda and Reina are still asleep, curled up on the giant bed, but they're shaken awake when a huge blast thunders across the island. In horror, I turn back to the window to see a bright white light and debris being thrown in every direction. 

As the light dies down, everything seems calm. Smoke clouds rise from the tower, but it's miraculously still standing. The sisters run to the window and we all watch for anything else to happen, but nothing does. 

About 5 minutes after the sun rises, my phone vibrates. I lunge over the bed to grab it, toppling to the floor on the other side. 

Ochaco 💕: Hey! We're okay, just got caught up in a villain attack. I'll meet you guys in a few hours. We have to talk with the security team and then I need a nap

What does she mean 'just'?!? That explosion looked like it killed people!

I receive similar texts from everybody, including Todoroki, but Bakugo and Eijiro are still radio silent. I give them ten minutes before racing out of the suite and down to their room. 

I pound on the door, hoping they had chosen not to go at the last minute and turned back, instead asleep in their beds, but after a while of nobody answering (and some yells from neighboring rooms), I can tell nobody's in there. I sit against the door, eyelids drooping, going through every possible scenario in my head as to why they're not answering my texts. 

At some point, I must've fallen asleep because, next thing I know, somebody's kicking my leg. 

"Ey, get up," a familiar voice growls. 

I shoot up faster than even I thought possible, wrapping my arms around both boys. "You're okay!" I illuse. They stumble back, alarmed, but one pair of arms wraps around me in return. 

"Fuck off," Bakugo snaps, forcing my hold off of him. I don't even care, putting both my arms around Eijiro instead as the blonde unlocks the door. 

"I thought you were dead! Why didn't you answer my texts?!?" I ask, pulling back and examining my friend. He appears to be scraped up, but not injured. 

We walk into the room as he explains, "I forgot my phone in here. But even if I'd have had it, it'd probably be broken by now."

I only now notice Bakugo's appearance. The entire left arm of his shirt is torn off. "Leave it to you to ruin a perfectly good dress shirt."

He loosens his tie and pulls it off, throwing it on the ground as he glares at me, unamused. His hands twitch as he undoes the buttons to his vest. I notice his entire arm is practically spasming. 

"You should've seen Todoroki," Eijiro exclaims, drawing my attention back to him. "The whole left side of his shirt was burned off!"

I look away to hide my flaming cheeks, remembering the last time he did that. The image appears in my mind, but I do my best to shake it away. There are more pressing matters. 

I walk up to Bakugo as he sits on the edge of his mattress, struggling. "Gimme your hand."

"Hell no," he says, clenching his teeth as his shaking hands refuse to work properly. 

"Just let me fix your arm, you ungrateful cactus!"

He glares up at me, so I take the opportunity and grab his hand, closing my eyes and activating Echolocation. His whole body seems to tense up in response. I'm sure it feels really weird for him, but I need to see just where his arms are injured. I quickly locate the areas and create the sound to soothe them, then let go of his hand as fast as humanly possible. 

"What the hell was that?" He gasps as the sound fades away. 

"I think what you were trying to say was 'thank you,'" I correct. "Recovery Girl isn't on the island and you completely trashed your arms. I'm not gonna be here every time you decide to go past your limit. Now if you'll both excuse me, I'm gonna go pass out since I spent all night awake, worried that you were all dead!"

I walk out and slam the door. Rubbing at my eyes, I hurry back to our suite. I guess the fatigue finally caught up to me. That was a little unnecessarily mean.

I walk through the room, ignoring the Fujinos as they stare at me, and flop face first into the bed. 

"Hey, Koto?" Ruri's voice calls from the door. I make a small noise of recognition. "We're heading out to the expo. You wanna join us?" I shake my head. "Okay, I'll leave a key on the coffee table. Text me when you're awake and are ready to head out. We'll find somewhere to meet you."

I lift a hand to give her a thumbs up and she closes the door on her way out. 

•°•°•°•

It's about 11am when I wake up again. I resign myself to getting up, not even bothering to try to fall back to sleep. I put on my hero costume, including my mask to hide the ever present bags under my eyes. I put my hair into the tight braids that fall to my mid torso, having grown accustomed to them being a part of my costume. 

While I still have time to myself, I go over the songs I had promised to perform today, making sure I remember the choreography. 

When I'm warmed up enough, I tweet out that I'll be performing in 20 minutes so people at the expo should keep their eyes peeled. Grabbing a key and putting it in one of my more secure pockets of my coat with my phone, I run outside, looking around for a good performance spot. 

As the time ticks down and I debate just performing in a random spot, I find the dancing fountains with LED lights illuminating the water. 

Perfect.

I quickly text Ruri as well as our class group chat where I am and they I'm doing a performance if people wanna come watch. Most of my classmates reply that they're on their way and I receive a threat from Mina to not start until she's here. I mentally go over the song again, sitting in a small area of shade. 

The girls must've been hanging out together, because they all show up at the same time along with Reina. She's probably been hanging out with them instead of her family all day. 

I'm shocked to see Eijiro has managed to drag Bakugo along, but he doesn't look happy to be here. I'm sure he'd rather check out the attractions in which he can destroy things. 

I pick some points over the area to begin illusing music. Mina cheers and starts grooving along already. I hop up onto the edge of the fountain and dance along it, earning some cheers from a forming crowd. Silently praying that I don't fall and make a fool of myself, I do a backflip off the stone onto the ground. It could've been smoother, but it was pretty good for not having practiced hip hop in a while. I go through my practiced routine for a bit until it gets to the more lyrical part when I go over to the edge of the crowd and pull Mina in. 

I remember when we played Just Dance that she happened to be an amazing dancer, so why not include her in this? Not to mention her teal and purple hero suit already looks like a dance costume. Her dark eyes light up as the crowd cheers when she starts dancing at the beat drop. 

"Nothin' I can see but you when you dance, dance, dance
Feel a good, good creepin' up on you
So just dance, dance, dance, come on
All those things I shouldn't do
But you dance, dance, dance
And ain't nobody leavin' soon, so keep dancin'
I can't stop the feelin'
So just dance, dance, dance
I can't stop the feelin'
So just dance, dance, dance, come on"

I'm sure the wide smile on her face matches mine as we continue dancing. I picked this specific song because it was upbeat and easy for everyone else to dance along to. As expected, those crowded around to watch and record are bopping along with us. 

Through the undulating crowd, I catch a glimpse of a scowling Bakugo with his arms crossed and refusing to dance with the rest of his squad. I sincerely question if Kaminari has a death wish as he hip bumps the angry boy. I have to keep a laugh in as Bakugo glares at the other blonde. 

It's astounding that his face can go from that to smiling like a kid. Even if he won't smile willingly. The memory of last night replays in my head as my eyes flicker over to him again. Despite the scowl on his face, all I can see is the boyish grin. 

And like that, I'm falling. Literally. My foot scuffs the ground and suddenly, the pavement rushes towards me. I tuck and roll, going up into a handstand and flipping over to try to save it. Thankfully, it seems to work because the crowd cheers, but I still try to fight the embarrassed blush that threatens to cover my face at the fact that I just tripped in front of all these people mid-performance. 

I paste a large smile on my face as Mina and I perform the rest of the song so nobody can see how the embarrassment is eating me up inside. As the song comes to a close, Mina yanks me into a side hug and we smile for the cameras. 

"Thanks, Koto," she whispers in my ear, squeezing me tight. I reciprocate her action with my own tight hug. 

For a while afterwards, we pose for pictures with people, introducing the world to the hero Pinky. Kaminari and Eijiro approach us in the middle of the crowd, pretending to be nervous fans. They can't manage to keep up the act because, as Sero takes our picture, none of us can stop laughing.

When the crowd has dispersed and we meet up with the rest of our class, I mention that I'm doing another performance later by the huge light show. 

"Aren't you going to the cookout All Might invited us to?" Midoriya asks. 

Confused, I check my phone. Lo and behold, there's an email invitation from the number one hero himself. "I guess I'm going. The performance was gonna be after dark anyways. I'd love it if all of you came to dance too."

"Yes!!" Mina squeals. "You gotta do it guys! It was so much fun!"

A lot of the class agrees except some of the less enthusiastic students. Tokoyami, Shoji, Todoroki, and Koda say they'll just watch. I'm amazed that Koda actually speaks to tell me as such, but I smile encouragingly at him. Bakugo of course just scoffs at the invitation to make a fool out of himself in front of everyone. 

We agree to meet as a class in front of the expo at 4:30 to head to the barbecue. After the plan is made, groups begin splitting off. I debate whether to go with the girls or with the Bakusquad, but I feel a hand on my shoulder that seems to make the decision for me. 

------Author's Note------

Hey guys!

What time is it?

Fan art time!

Thank you so much lovelyavvz!! As always, it looks amazing! I was supposed to put the bird picture in the last one, but apparently it didn't save correctly so whoops. Here it is now and I love it! We've got our little songbird Koto with cockatoo Mic. And of course, the great sketch of Koto.

As always, thank you guys for the love and support you're showing my story! I really appreciate it. ❤️