"Runnin' through this strange life. Chasin' all them green lights,  Throwin' out the shade for a little bit of sunshine.

  Hit me with them good vibes. Pictures on my phone likeEverything is so fine.  A little bit of sunshin

Crazy lately, I've been findin'Tryna write myself with somethin'.  You just tryna get a word, and life is not fair.

  I've been workin' on my tunnel vision,  Tryna get a new prescription,  Takin' swings and even missin', but I don't care

I'm dancin' more just a little bit,  Breathin' more just a little bit,  Fail a little less just a little bit 

 My life is woo-hoo!I'm makin' more just a little bit, Spend a little more to get rid of it,  Smile a little more and I'm into it

[I, I, I, I-I've been runnin' through this strange life,  Chasin' all them green lights,  Throwin' out the shade for a little bit of sunshine

 Hit me with them good vibes,  Pictures on my phone likeEverything is so fine.  A little bit of sunshine]

Another day, another selfish moment.  I've been feelin' helpless. Sick of seein' all the selfies, now I don't care.

  Found myself a new vocation,  Calibrated motivation,  Almost had to change the station,  Headin' somewhere

I don't really know any other way to say this. Can't slow down, tryna keep up with the changespunch that number and name when I clock in.

  And now I feel I'm out here with a cane when I walk in. Basically, life is the same thing unless you don't want the same thing.

  Probably should've really got a feature, but I didn't.  I've been savin' up the money 'cause it's better for the business

[chorus]"   

* * *

Shine told Wally all about her conversation with Rumi, and they both decided it was time to pay the LOV a visit again.

They did it with zero warning, in early evening.

Mirko was there at the time and surprised nearly out of her skin to see them.

Spinner was glad though. "You guys missed a lot."

"So we heard," Shine said, "but we're hoping to catch up... Wally and I are leaving in a couple days for our wedding. Not to worry, we'll only be gone for about a week this time, maybe less."

"You're only going to go on a week long honeymoon?" Medea said.

"Oh, it'll be longer than that in our world." Wally winked at her. "It'll just be that long here."

"This makes my head spin," Medea complained.

"You get used to it," Shine said. "Think of it as having a game on one screen, a book on another, and social media on the third. Each one has its own timeline of progress for you. You can switch between them at will, but the progress will still be different."

"You know, that makes sense," Spinner said, "but you'll miss a lot more."

"Well, we needed that break," Shine said. "It's almost a year in this world now, you know. Minus the 6 week break. That's a long time...but as I was saying, before we go, we thought we'd chill with a few of you who aren't coming to the event. And that means most of you. If you want to come hang with us. Hawks knows all these spots where people don't ask questions. Want to come?"

"Uh...sure." Spinner had never been invited to hang out with anyone casually. "Can I invite Kitsune...? She's probably all over that kind of thing."

"Of course. She's cool," Wally said. "Foxy...get it? Sorry, bad joke."

Shine rolled her eyes.

"Well, Rumi, how about it?"

"I guess I have nothing better to do," Mirko said.

Shigaraki entered the room. "I thought I heard your annoying voice. So you're back Likstar...West."

Wally waved. "Still haven't warmed up to me, huh?"

"Don't mind that. He just doesn't like men," Shine said. "Seems to be a running theme with our friends here."

"What do you want?" Shigaraki ignored her remark.

"We want you to come hang with us so we can catch up," Shine said. "I heard we have a lot to talk about."

"Oh, he'll never agree to that," Compress muttered from the kitchen.

But Shigaraki was actually kind of...not in a great place right now with having anyone to ask for advice. Ujiko was out, and AFO was inaccessible because of that. In fact, that was starting to bother him a lot. He had no clue what to do next.

Shine was not the usual type of person he'd listen to, but her ideas worked, and he was out of options. If she was offering, it might be stupid to turn it down.

So with no fight whatsoever about it, he said, "Whatever. Where are you doing?"

He assumed it would be some rooftop or corner somewhere.

* * *

"This is a dance club," Mirko stated, when Shine had protaled them to it.

"Is it?" Shine said, grinning. "This is the one Hawks kept bugging us to go to. Don't worry, no one is going to recognize any of you. He told us it's super discreet."

"This is a bad idea." Shigaraki immediately wanted to back track. "I thought we were just going to discuss business."

"We are," Shine said, "along with other things. Now don't worry so much about it. Like I said, no one will recognize you, and if they do, I can just zap you out of there."

"Whoa." Kitsune came walking up. Shine had brought her here too. She was dressed for going out. "This is a lot nicer than I expected. This looks 5 star." She glanced at Spinner. "Hey, Don."

"Uh...hey..." Spinner was still really bad at this.

"Dude, tell her she looks cute or something," Wally hissed at him.

"I can't say that! That's creepy!" Spinner said.

Wally face palmed harder than Shigaraki.

"I still say this is a bad idea," Shigaraki said.

"Are you scared?" Mirko said casually, not making eye contact.

"No," he said. It was definitely a lie.

"Look, Hawks is waiting inside," Shine said, "so make up your mind."

"Hawks is here?" Shigaraki said in a different tone, though he didn't notice it was different.

"Yeah...how do you think we found it?" Shine said. "It was his idea. And he wanted to talk to us to."

"He did, did he?" Shigaraki scowled.

He thought to himself, Hawks is just going to try to get them to agree that Mirko should have ditched the League after that thing Ujiko pulled. He'll make it sound like it was our fault Ujiko did it.

"Is that a problem?" Wally was confused.

"No. Fine, let's just get it over with," Shigaraki grumbled.

"Hmm, nice hat by the way," Shine said. "It's cute."

Shigaraki gave her a death glare.

"Anyway," Shine straightened her hair, "how do I look by the way?"

"How could you look anything less than gorgeous?" Wally was smooth as cream.

[Image by Onerose, original template by original creator.]

Shine blushed.

"Ew," Mirko said.

"Oh, shut up," Shine sassed her. "You're just jealous."

"Of that? It was so cheesy," Mirko said.

"Are we late?" Miss Joke walked up, Aizawa was in tow.

"You invited more people than I thought," he said flatly.

"The more the merrier, right?" Wally said.

"Come on, Donatello." Kitsune grabbed Spinner by the arm and dragged him inside.

"Should we have left Medea alone?" Silk wondered.

"Ah, she can handle Toga," Compress said. "Anyway, she had studying to do."

"You two sound just like parents on date night," Wally said.

"Yes, well, you could say we all co-parent the little spitfire together," Compress said drolly.

"Don't we know what that's like," Shine said emphatically.

* * *

Inside it was loud. And a lot of lights.

Spinner and Shigaraki, both being recluses, wanted to shrivel up and die on the inside. Shigaraki in the past would have probably just destroyed the whole place.

But, as he knew Shine would never let him get away with it, he just went real quiet.

But Hawks had a reserved side room for them that you could look out at the fun through but was much quieter so you could hear yourself think.

And Fuyumi was there.

"So we invited the LOV this time," Hawks said in a nonplussed tone.

"Come on, man, they're our peeps," Wally said. 

"And you didn't," Shine said. "We did."

"Likstar isn't stuck up like you," Shigaraki said, just by way of digging at Hawks.

"Like you know anything about that." Hawks frowned.

"Can we just try to get along?" Fuyumi said the same refrain she did at home.

Hawks scowled. "I'm gonna get a drink." He left.

"What is his problem?" Mirko wondered, sliding into a seat next to Fuyumi. 

"Who knows?" Miss Joke said. "Eraser, look at how big that dance floor is."

"Yeah, just means more idiots can fit on it," Aizawa said flatly.

Miss Joke pouted.

"This is awkward," Kitsune said, as they all tried to find room to sit.

Shigaraki didn't want to sit down at all. He just leaned on the wall uncomfortably.

"Dude, that's so creepy. Just sit down," Kitsune said.

"Don't mind him. He's just like that," Mirko said drolly. "It doesn't mean anything."

Shigaraki frowned.

"Want to throw down?" Kitsune asked Spinner.

"But there's no one to fight..." Spinner said, confused.

Kitsune gave him a look.

"I think she's saying she wants to go dance." Wally nudged Spinner.

"But...uh...I don't know...I..." Spinner sputtered.

"Oh, come on, you can do it." Kitsune tugged him off. "If a fox-footed person can, you can. I'm not afraid to look a little odd."

"I give that relationship a month," Compress said.

"Either that or she's a good influence," Silk said.

"Nice mask," Shine said. He'd put on a different style of one to be less recognizable.

"Tell the truth, now," Miss Joke said. "Are you just ugly under that? Or are you afraid you'll dazzle everyone too much with your beauty?"

Compress shrugged. "Bit of both, maybe? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is lucky for some of the people sitting here."

"Let's just go get drinks," Silk said to him. "I hate the small talk part of evening. Call us when it's serious talk time." They left.

"Well, sit." Shine motioned at Shigaraki. "We should talk now."

"And that's our cue," Miss Joke said, getting up. Aizawa followed.

Mirko twitched her ears. "I'm going to make sure Hawks isn't doing anything dumb," she said. (Like calling the cops.)

"I, uh, I'll go with you," Fuyumi said.

They left too.

"So, what's up?" Shine asked Shigaraki.

"Ujiko has disappointed the League." Shigaraki never eased into things.

"We know what happened," Wally said, sipping some juice, "but it's too bad about that."

"You never liked Ujiko," Shigaraki said.

"Why would I like someone who would stab his own allies in the back?" Shine said. "He always struck me as the type."

Pause.

"I...recognize that you might have attempted to warn us, in your way," Shigaraki said, "but in his absence, no one is in touch with Master. And our resources are less than ever... I don't like to say it to the rest of the League, but it's looking bad."

"Oh, wow," Wally said. "I never thought I'd hear you be that pessimistic about it."

"AFO always took care of everything," Shine mused. "Now he can't. Ujiko proved an untrustworthy mediator. This is the time it is hard. But all groups have times like this, Tomura. It's at these times you decide whether or not you can go on with things."

"If it wasn't for Mirko's assistance, we'd already be out of resources," Shigaraki said, "but that's going to end." He scowled.

"Why?" Wally said.

"End of summer," Shine reminded him.

"Oh, right."

"If Hawks doesn't end it first." Shigaraki sounded way bitter.

Shine had noticed it earlier too. She smiled slightly. "You think Hawks has that kind of influence?"

"Who's to say?" Shigaraki lapsed into his vague way of talking.

"Mind if we ask?" Wally said. "What did AFO want...? I mean, did you ever know?"

Shigaraki remembered when Mirko had asked him the same thing.

"No," he said, flatly. "It didn't matter."

"So, may I ask, then, what did you do all this for?" Shine inquired. "All Might was AFO's enemy, but you hated him. Now he's basically taken care of, but you kept the League going. You guys changed your prerogatives like hats, and your only consistency is that you stick together and don't like Heroes."

"I didn't have a real dream," Shigaraki said mechanically. "Didn't we talk about this before?"

Shine and Wally looked at each other.

"We want better things for you," Shine said slowly.

Shigaraki had never really listened in the past when she said things like that, but maybe after all the upsetting of Ujiko's schemes and Stain and all the rest...he was just a bit less sure of ignoring her.

He kind of looked up, puzzled. "What does it matter? What does it benefit you anyway?"

"Does it need to benefit us?" Shine said. 

Silence.

"No one does something for nothing," Shigaraki said.

"I suppose," Shine said, "but our reward isn't anything you can give us. God sees to that. At this time, we're just interested in seeing you get your God-ordained destiny."

"To destroy?" This poor, brainwashed person replied to them with a straight face.

Wally would have found this funny any other time, but it wasn't funny to see how utterly hopeless Shigaraki was...it was just sad. So this was what Shine found so painful about his story. This was all he thought he was. It wasn't just that he liked it... What else had he ever liked? Or been allowed to like.

"Tomura," Shine was somehow still calm, "if you couldn't destroy things, what would you do?"

"If I couldn't... That doesn't make any sense," Shigaraki said.

"I just mean as a thought experiment. Let's say you lost your quirk because of some drug or something, tomorrow. What would you do?"

That question, they knew, would push at every level of brainwashing that AFO had ever instilled in him.

And it did, sure enough. Shigaraki felt kind of sick and panicky even thinking about it. He assumed that meant because the idea of not destroying was odious to him--but in reality, it's usually just fear that causes such a reaction, not the idea of loss alone.

"Even without a quirk it would still be nature," he said dully.

Shine knew it would be hard to do this. "But did you ever destroy things before your quirk surfaced?"

Shigaraki's memory was still kind of short there. He'd still not remembered it all...and it was making his head hurt to even try...

"I don't know." His voice got harsh again.

Wally gripped Shine's hand, as if to say, "Careful, he could freak out. We're in public."

Shine gripped it back.

"That's okay," she said soothingly. "It was just a question. But maybe it's not all there is to it, quirks."

"Likstar, what does this have to do with the League?" Shigaraki didn't want to talk about this anymore.

"I'm getting to it," Shine said. "You wanted help, right? There may not be a better time to ask this question. If you didn't need to destroy things, what would you do?"

Shigaraki went still.

"Nothing," he said. And you could tell from his tone, it was hardly even him speaking.

Shine almost started crying right there, just from pity.

Wally felt bad too.

"Nothing at all?" Shine said slowly. "Nowhere to go, no one to hang around?"

What use would the League have for him, then? Shigaraki couldn't see why they'd even stay together in that case. And AFO would probably not have taught him either... What was the use of even asking the question?

"No," he said.

Shine couldn't help it--She started crying then.

Wally rubbed her back.

"What's wrong with her?" Shigaraki snapped a little bit out of his daze.

"She feels sad because of what you just said," Wally said.

"That's nothing to cry over." Shigaraki was mystified. "Get a grip, Likstar."

"Only making it worse..." Shine said sadly.

At this untimely moment, Mirko returned, no Fuyumi with her. She just had a drink.

"What on earth?" she said. "Why are you crying?"

Shine just grabbed a tissue out of her purse.

Mirko cocked her head.

"If you two could just give us a minute," Wally said. 

"Give you a..." Shigaraki said.

"Come on, dumba--." Mirko grabbed him and yanked him out of the booth. "Don't just sit there! Gosh, that's so embarrassing." She moved farther away.

Shigaraki followed, not sure what else to do. "I don't know what her problem is. All I did was tell her the truth."

Mirko stopped at the edge of the dance floor. "Yeah, well, that was probably upsetting enough," she said. She eyed Miss Joke, who'd somehow gotten Aizawa to agree to take a spin. "I do not get them."

"But I didn't say anything wrong!" Shigaraki felt the childish need to defend himself because it was almost like he'd gotten caught doing something bad... He still vaguely remembered that feeling from being a kid.

"Knowing you, it wouldn't matter," Mirko said.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Shigaraki said.

Mirko sniffed. "Likstar cares about everyone. Even you. She's gonna get upset. She does it with me and all those stupid kids. You probably just said something she thought was sad."

"Well, she's a moron," Shigaraki said. "Imagine getting upset over something like that."

Mirko shook her head to herself. "Sure. A moron. Or we are." She was more talking to herself there.

Kitsune and Spinner were on the floor, but Spinner looked ready to die.

They came over to where they were.

"Hey, Mirko--uh, I mean, Rumi," Kitsune said. "You want to vibe?"

"In public?" Mirko said.

"Oh, come on, you're not gonna let me be braver than you, are you?" Kitsune said. "Or do you just have no rhythm? Spinner's getting all shy about it, so I need someone. What do you say? Two animal quirk little people."

"I'm not that little," Mirko said.

"Yeah, well, I didn't ask to be this petite." Kitsune flexed her fingernails. "I mean, you're a bunny, and you're still taller than me. But my parents are tiny. Oh, well, I'm just twice as feisty to make up for it. Come on, you're not shy, are you?"

"I---" Mirko was probably going to say no, but before she could, Kitsune just grabbed her and yanked her out there.

"I don't think dancing is my thing," Spinner said to Shigaraki. "Do you feel really out of place here? Because I do. Kitsune says I'm just in my head too much, but I don't know what to do about it."

"I hate crowds," Shigaraki said.

"Yeah." Spinner tugged at his collar. "Still, it would be kind of nice to be out with friends in a way...if we weren't, like, you know, Villains."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"Oh, you know--it's not like we can do normal things," Spinner said.

Shigaraki had no remark for that.

https://youtu.be/AHMzyjyBoik

Mirko felt really awkward trying to dance...not because she couldn't, but because people she knew were there and might see her. She didn't want to get crap for it later...but then she thought what the heck? Might as well just go with it.

"That's it," Kitsune said. "Hey, you're not bad. What was all the fuss about?"

"Forget it," Mirko said.

Shine and Wally came out of the booth.

"Compress and Silk wanted a chance to talk," Shine said.

"No, they wanted to make out," Wally said.

"Well, whatever it was, we're not sticking around to watch." Shine made a face. "Sorry," she said to Shigaraki. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't," Shigaraki said. "I still don't get your problem though."

"Well, it's sweet of you to say I didn't, but I think I did," Shine said.

Spinner snorted. "Shigaraki isn't the type to be sweet, whatever that means."

"Oh, sure he is," Shine said. "On accident. Anyone can slip up. I see the girls are dancing... I need to take my mind off all this. How about it, Wally?"

"Oh, sure," Wally said. "I can make all those other slow pokes look bad. But if Hawks is the one controlling the DJ, like it looks like he is, I think we all know what song he's gonna put on."

Sure enough, a second later, the music changed to samba.

The people on the floor went with it, they didn't seem to mind at all.

"Ah...I don't really know how to do this," Kitsune said.

"It's not that different." Mirko actually was used to this much by now. "Just follow my lead." She adjusted her movements.

"Hey...you're good at this," Kitsune said.

Shine and Wally started samba-ing too.

Hawks, of course, was all about it.

"Hey, want to try?" he said to Fuyumi. "Remember this movie?"

"Yeah, but...I...uh...I can't dance," Fuyumi said.

"There's nothing to it. You just have to match the beat." Hawks took her by the hand. "You can do it."

"I'll...try..." Fuyumi wanted to sink through the floor, but at the same time, she didn't get the opportunity too often, and she kind of wanted to see if she could do it.

https://youtu.be/rqa1jXnSXmE

[Hot Wings--I Wanna Party]

The music was kind of contagious. You couldn't help but smile.

Even Spinner kind of started nodding his head. "What...? It's catchy," he said sheepishly.

Shigaraki didn't care for music. "They're just sounds."

"Well, yeah, but they sound good," Spinner said. He watched the girls. "They're pretty good at this."

Kitsune was laughing as she tried to keep up with Mirko.

Shigaraki watched... He wasn't looking at Kitsune though.

Spinner noticed but said nothing.

Shine and Wally spun around pretty fast.

At the end of that song, Kitsune dragged Mirko over to the boys.

"Sure you don't want to try again?" She gave Spinner the doe-eyes.

Spinner hesitated. "I--"

"Oh, for the love of--" Mirko used her foot to shove him out there. "Just go for it, Raphael."

"It's Donatello," Spinner corrected.

A new song came on.

https://youtu.be/KIAZWfSmNOU

[Dancin'-- Aaron Smith, I love this song.]

Mirko started tapping her foot again.

Spinner did it better, now he'd gotten a bit more into the fun of it.

Shine and Wally, though, were the eye-catching couple at the moment. They might not have been the most skilled, but they just seemed to be having so much fun, other people on the floor looked at them and then started getting into it more.

Mirko tilted her head. 

"Look at them." Hawks joined them, Fuyumi in tow. "They know how to throw it down. What's wrong, Rumi? Your two left feet get numb?"

"I got better moves than you do in my sleep," Mirko said.

"Ouch," Hawks said.

"I thought you were good," Fuyumi offered. "But you don't like it."

"No, it's just..." Mirko paused. "Nothing." She looked down at her feet.

"Well, I kind of want to go back out there," Hawks said. "Come on, put your money where your mouth is." He grinned.

Mirko tossed her hair. "Fine. Dance off, but I'm not dancing with you, Bird Brain."

"Whatever," Hawks said. "You'll lose either way."

They got a little more out there.

"I'm glad to see them having fun," Fuyumi commented to Shigaraki.

Shigaraki was scowling.

"What's wrong?" Fuyumi really didn't seem to understand that he was a Villain, and Villains weren't ever happy.

"Nothing," Shigaraki said.

Fuyumi followed his line of sight. "Did you want to try dancing?" she asked.

Shigaraki wouldn't ever have done such a thing. "No. I hate this."

"It is a little awkward," Fuyumi said. "I mean...I hardly ever leave my house except to work, and I don't do much like this. Is that why it's awkward for you?"

"I just don't like all this," Shigaraki said. "People, they act like nothing is going wrong in the world. It's nauseating."

Fuyumi was quiet for a bit.

"Is it nauseating because you can't think like that?" she asked.

"What?"

"I...kind of think I feel the same way sometimes," Fuyumi said.

"You...but your father is a Hero." Shigaraki couldn't compute that--though ironically, his grandmother had been a Hero too, and that had done nothing for her son's perspective on it.

"I know." Fuyumi was used to it. "But things aren't perfect. When I see other people who seem happier than me, I do feel jealous. Sometimes it would be easy to hate them. I know my brothers have had that problem a bit. And I know my father hated All Might for having what he couldn't have--being a better Hero."

"Endeavor hated All Might?" Shigaraki had never been interested in Endeavor before.

"Yes," Fuyumi said, "but now he says he doesn't, because he got what All Might had, and he realized that it wasn't what he thought, and in fact, it's a lot harder than it looked. And that he's not worthy of it. But he's going to do his best. With us too. And I get angry about my dad sometimes, you know, but...I don't know. What's the point of dwelling in the past? We can't change it. I'm glad that we're getting a second chance to make it work. Sometimes I do resent people with better families though. But you know what? Miss Likstar has made me realize something. She has had a rough life too, from all Shoto has told me, but he says that she's not bitter about it, and she believes the best of other people. And you see--she seems happy."

Shine did indeed seem happy... It was kind of annoying.

"So you know, I think maybe the happy people we see, they aren't always the ones who have it easy," Fuyumi said. "They just have this ability to overcome the hard stuff. I mean, look at how many people are in here. I'm sure some of them had a bad day. Some of them maybe have a rough life, but they're trying to enjoy some time out of their day."

Shigaraki glanced around. "Because Heroes make them think it's okay."

"I...don't know. I never really think about that," Fuyumi said. "I kind of think most people don't, most of the time. They just want to live their lives. Heroes help us, I guess, but like you said--my dad's a Hero. That didn't make me feel any safer growing up. I feel safer now because he's a good person, but that's not really anything to do with being a Hero."

Shigaraki thought Dabi certainly hadn't felt any safer for having Hero family members either... The situation really wasn't as simple as he once thought...and that kind of bothered him. There was Ren, too. He just seemed to worry more because Mirko was a Hero.

The world was complacent still...but then Fuyumi was saying it wasn't true. Still, what did she really know?

The whole thing was getting to be way too complicated for comfort.

Finally the others came off the dance floor.

"That was fun," Miss Joke said.

"Don't make me do that again..." Aizawa said.

"Because you're bad at it?" Hawks jibed.

"No, because he'd have to look at you," Mirko said flatly, wiping hair out of her face. 

"I think we should sit down for a while," Shine sighed. "I'm bushed now."

Shigaraki still didn't think she'd given him the kind of useful advice he was looking for...but because the subject seemed likely to upset her...and the others would probably get mad if he did that...maybe it was best to just leave.

He started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Mirko asked.

Shigaraki didn't even answer.

"He's probably just done," Spinner said.

Mirko started to follow--Hawks grabbed her shoulder. "Wait, Rumi. Maybe it would be better to talk while he's not around."

Mirko turned to give him a strange look. "Why?"

"I mean, the DJs and us need to confer," Hawks said.

Shigaraki looked back in time to see this--and scowled. He knew it. Hawks was just going to try something.

That pissed him off.

He came back that way. "Butt out."

[Hmm, wonder how this will end.]