Shota had never really been the type to show a lot of amount of affection towards people, mainly keeping those types of feelings to himself. In a sense, it was a way to keep himself protected from getting attached to people who may end up leaving or betraying his trust, especially with the uncertain times between heroes and villians recently.

But despite that known fact about him, he did have a small circle of people that he could call friends. And one of those people in that circle, was you.

You hadn't been in this friend group as long as say Hizashi, but you definitely had a strong bond with everyone in it, including Shota. So much so, that something Shota had never expected to happen was slowly starting to become more and more prominent whenever he hung out with you, both during hero work and outside of that.

He was gaining feelings for you, moreso than just as a good friend. And it was starting to become more and more difficult to hide it over time.

Tonight was no exception, not being able to keep his eyes off of you for more than a minute whilst sipping on his drink. It was meant to be a night of relaxing and hanging out as friends at a bar in downtown Tokyo, but all of Shota's attention and thoughts were on you, his heart skipping a beat any time you would talk or laugh as you were sat next to him.

Despite every hesitance in his mind, his heart couldn't help but speak for him.

"You look... nice tonight." Shota compliments in his usual gruff tone, his voice only just loud enough for the two of you to hear over the sounds of chatter around the both of you.