The next day, Tsuyu visits for "something different."

You wake up from dreams you don't remember. It seems like you've slept hard the past couple of nights... And this time, you've slept in all the way to...

... When? What time is it? Actually... why weren't you in your bed? You fell asleep at the table? Your face is covered in crumbs from last night's dinner. Although the food is cold, the scent you woke up immersed in has set your stomach growling. It feels like you just ate. Well, anyone who fell asleep that way probably wouldn't stay that way for long.

You take a look at your clock. 5:00 PM.

...

It had been 8:00 PM or so when you ate with Tsu. That means...

You slept for almost a full day! Wiping crumbs and sleep from your eyes, you check your phone to confirm what you now know to be true: you'd slept almost an entire day. That's insane... You feel like ****, too. Is the lesson here not to use your quirk too much or you'll kill yourself? Or is the lesson you haven't used your quirk enough and need to train it more?

Before you can even think of an answer to that, there's a knock on your door. And then, before you can reach the door, it opens up. Tsu's standing in the doorway in her hero gear and holding two large, out of place shopping bags, one in each hand. Still, she's easily opened the door with her tongue on the knob. You have a stray thought: is it sanitary for her to lick things like that? Then again, why are you worrying about that? She probably licked at least five grosser things than your door knob every day in her line of work.

Anyway, Tsu looks kind of ticked as she crosses the threshold into your apartment, her flipper-clad feet squeaking against the floor. "Ren, you didn't lock the door. Ribbit... What have you been-?"

There are a lot of normal follow-ups to that thought. What have you been doing, leaving the door unlocked? What have you been doing for the past twenty hours? It must be pretty obvious you fell asleep in your food. Or, maybe her question was going to be what have you been doing to her? You realize you have no explanation at all prepared if you're ever confronted about this...

Her follow-up isn't any of the natural ones. Instead, as soon as she steps a foot into your house, her voice cuts off and her eyes widen. Her grip on her bags loosens... but as they slide from her fingers and fall to the floor, she catches one with her tongue and another with her foot with deft, automatic reflexes, looking back to normal. "Did you fall asleep at the table, ribbit? Have you been sleeping here since I left yesterday?"

Anyone would ask that, of course. You tell her you must have been more tired than you thought.

"Ren..." Tsu puts one of her bags on the counter in the kitchen, then walks towards you with the other bag shifting to her left hand. "Sorry if this is sensitive, but do you have a condition? Ribbit? You know it's not normal for people to sleep a whole day, right? Maybe you need to see a doctor, ribbit..."

All of these are normal things for a friend concerned about your health to say to you. What's slightly less normal is what she's doing while she talks. Passing by the kitchen, she snags the same roll of paper towels you'd used for her clumsy bandage before with her tongue, adheres a single sheet, and deftly tears it off. That's impressive, but what's more noteworthy to you is what she does next: she stops just short of sticking her tongue on your face, realizes what she's doing, and passes the sheet to her free hand. Then, begins toweling crumbs off your face.

Tsu's eyes meet yours as she finishes, and you realize you've been staring. She frowns, putting a finger to her lower lip with the napkin balled just below. "You need a bath, Ren. Want me to run you one, ribbit?"

You tell her you don't own a bath, but you probably ought to take a shower.

"Good idea, ribbit. Um... I'll let you handle that one yourself. Let me take care of things out here while you do, ribbit." Unbidden, she hops over to the table, grabs the spoils from last night's dinner, and dumps it in your mini trash before heading to your sink and dropping off the plate.

Part of you wants to just watch the pro heroine do your dishes, but you really do reek. Self-consciously, you grab some clothes, turning around to see if she's watching... She isn't. Instead, she's humming a song you don't know as she does your dishes. You've barely been here any time at all, so there isn't much to clean... What's she going to do when she finishes?

Well, you have some ideas. With those ideas in your head, you step into your bathroom. The small shower takes up about a third of the room. The toilet is another third, and the rest is the small bit of standing space. You get your clothes off and run the shower. As expected, it feels super weird to be butt naked with a cute girl in the next room over... You spend a little longer than you ordinarily would trying to get yourself nice and clean. You need all the help you can get: looking down at your body, you take in the low-effort figure you've maintained most of your life. Pale skin and only a little muscle tone... And, down there, you've never been particularly impressive, but...

Shit. You're actually pretty big right now. Your thoughts are running away from you. Well that's not convenient, considering the situation... You turn the shower a little colder than you'd ordinarily like it. Too cold, way too cold! You still aren't used to this place's water pressure, and you let out an impromptu yelp. Shit! Embarrassing!

"Ren? You need help in there, ribbit?"

... Aaand she heard it. You do need help, but you tell her you're fine as you crank the handle the other way a bit. Now you're in a hurry to finish up. Out of the shower, toweling off... At least your shame helped you lose that extra bit of manhood you were sporting. You put your patterned boxers on in a rush, then brush your teeth. A lot of the time, you don't even bother, but you want to put in at least that much effort for your visitor. You spit, then you throw on your t-shirt and shorts, then step back into...

Whose apartment is this? You can't have been in the bathroom a full twenty minutes, and your apartment is entirely changed. This makes no sense. You've lived here one weekend. You haven't had time to make a mess of it. And yet, the way everything's sparkling, your things are correctly put away, everything that could be thrown around is neatly folded instead... The place is cleaner than the day you moved in, the kind of clean people with way more money than you pay out the nose for.

There's just one thing missing. Your eyes travel up... there she is.

Tsu is clinging on all fours to your ceiling, her dark eyes turned to face you upside down. As she hangs there, her tongue is wrapped around a long, feathered duster, where she's getting corners of your ceiling that have probably never gotten attention. But being upside down on a ceiling is normal for her. What definitely isn't... The heroine's long green hair is being held back from her forehead, where it normally hangs, by a black headband with white frills. Her recognizable green ensemble has been replaced by a similarly frilled black blouse and skirt, a white apron, tall white stockings and short white gloves. Immediately, you recognize it as a cosplay maid outfit. The only thing out of place from the ordinary fantasy is she isn't wearing black high-heels: that would probably make it kind of hard to stick to the ceiling, so she's in bare feet.

Ignore all that! You're looking at the wrong part! With gravity doing its thing, shouldn't you be able to see-?!

As if she's reading you're mind, Tsu drops from the ceiling and whirls in place to land on all fours. She places the duster aside, then rises to standing, brushing down her skirt. It falls to about her knees, so it's pretty conservative... You can't even see a speck of skin between the hem and the stockings covering her long, powerful legs. Still, this is a girl your age, a hero everyone respects, dressed as not just a maid, but a cosplay maid... Is it fair to call it a fetish maid costume? Maybe it's not quite racy enough for that... Still!

"What do you think, ribbit? My quirk is pretty good for cleaning, actually."

You told her the costume was perfect.

"... I'm talking about the apartment, ribbit." With her tongue partially out, Tsu gave you a non-plussed look, tilting her head.

Oh, yeah! The apartment looks amazing. You don't think you've ever lived in a place so clean. You don't know if you've ever been in a room this clean, actually...

"Ribbit." Tsu shuts her eyes and nods. "That'll be the usual rate, then, ribbit."

... Uh oh. So far, this had been within your expectations when you controlled her yesterday. When you're in my apartment, you'll be my personal maid. But you hadn't expected her to actually request payment for this!

Seeing you panicking, Tsu claps a hand on your shoulder. "That was a joke again, ribbit. By 'the usual,' I mean your quirk."

Oh! You laugh nervously, since you have no way to pay her... That reminds you that you've really got to consider finding a temporary job... Actually, you slept in today, but this was the last day you could do that. For the next five days, you've got university orientation and classes starting... You'll have to meet new people... You'll have to figure out how to avoid standing out in a new environment, how to politely decline social obligations, how to get by...

You'll have to wake up from the dream, in other words.

Meeting Tsu was great, but... Could you consider this life-changing yet? Was a little taste of friendship and a clean room really enough to get you through it? You're not ready to wake up yet... Well, metaphorically, that is. Having slept so many hours, you're the opposite of tired. You consider that Tsu probably is tired, though. She did an entire day of hero's work and then cleaned your apartment, after all.

Tsu's expression had hardly changed, but you got the sense she was feeling antsy. You had to wonder: how good did your quirk-enhanced headpats actually feel for her? Did it bother her when she didn't get them when she expected them? You hated to do it when she worked so hard, but you wanted to test it. Like a true bastard pushing your luck, you told her you needed dinner before she could call herself done.

This time, you did see a wide frown appear on Tsu's face. "Ribbit..." You can hardly take that, looking at her ordinarily even expression fall in disappointment. She'd probably been expecting to get "payment" for both tasks. Point being, she really seemed to want it.

So, when she turned around to head to your kitchen and make your dinner, you surprised her by placing your hand on her head. As your maid for the night lets out a "Ribbit" of contentment, you think to yourself you could probably be satisfied with this... If it wasn't all ending after dinner, that is. Dinner with Tsu was pleasant (as long as you didn't end up face-down in it), but you wanted something exciting enough to keep you energized as you prepared to return to productive society at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow...

But you also have to be careful. You have no idea how much you can use your quirk right now before you end up passing out again. Is it better to think ahead? Somehow set up a nice treat for the generous heroine to give you throughout the week?

Or is it better to burn a single, unforgettable night into your brain right now? Geez, an unforgettable night? Really? What are you thinking of doing with the only friend you have, the only girl who has shown you kindness? The only girl who's made you dinner and cleaned your apartment? The one who's still a trick short of fulfilling a horny maid-fetish fantasy...?