Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life. A lot of it had been due to his Quirklessness, some of it not. Most of that ‘some’ came from his delusional belief that he could still be a hero, but that ship had sailed. 

He had been told by everyone to give up. He had been beaten down, mocked, bullied and worse, but took it all on the chin and kept his dream in sight…

And then All Might had saved him from a villain and ruined his life in the span of three minutes.

“It’s okay to dream, but it’s important to be realistic.”

Realistic. Right.

Realistic for Izuku was hurling himself off the nearest ten-story building sometime between now and the next five years, but what would All Might know about that? It wasn’t like he’d be able to understand what it meant to be Quirkless.

Despite the excruciating pain it had cost him, he couldn’t ignore All Might. Not when the truth had so clearly been staring him in the face all this time - he just couldn’t bury his head in the sand and ignore reality anymore.

So he gave up. 

Considering the fact that he hadn’t considered trying out for the General Studies Course (and that Bakugou had threatened to kill him if he showed his face at U.A.), it was no surprise that he wound up going to the same crummy high school that most of his classmates at Aldera washed up at. 

It wasn’t all that great.

Sure, Bakugou wasn’t there anymore to torment him, but that just meant that his old classmates had a strong sense of duty in picking up the slack Bakugou left them - which meant he got beat up a lot. And even if it wasn’t as bad as Aldera anymore, it wasn’t like people were going out of their way to make friends with Izuku. What if they caught his Quirklessness, like a disease? At least the teachers were a little nicer, but he had a funny feeling that was just because he knew his place now. 

Also, he had no plans for the future post-graduation. It wasn’t as if businesses didn’t check for Quirks before hiring; in most cases it made sense, what with wanting to hire someone with the right Quirk for the right job, but in his case it just meant his applications would go straight into the bin. 

All in all, it sucked. But it would have been survivable if not for one little detail.

Thanks to some sick twist of fate, he had to walk past U.A.’s main gate on his walk between the train station and school.

Every day. 

Twice.

It was like the universe was mocking him for his failures. 

Izuku didn’t really appreciate it, to put it mildly.

He was pretty paranoid about walking by the former school of his dreams. There was no chance he was going to risk being found lurking around by Bakugou - he’d probably accuse Izuku of stalking him or something and then beat him senseless, and that wouldn’t be fun for anyone.

At least when he got held up by people like Tsubasa after class it meant that he didn’t have to do much waiting once they were finished using him as a punching bag. By the time he made himself a little more presentable and limped around the corner to U.A. it was usually well past the time any students from either school would still be hanging around.

There’s a silver lining for everything, right?

Well, not really. There wasn’t much silver lining to him having no opportunity to do, well, anything with his life, but who’s keeping track of that?

No one. No one besides him, at any rate.

Izuku sighed quietly, hoisting his backpack a little higher up onto his shoulders. Why did he even bother?

His eyes were trained firmly on the pavement in front of him, doing his best to avoid looking at the large, black gate that lined U.A.’s property directly to his left. Izuku knew from experience that if he looked, he’d just get depressed. 

Well, more depressed than he already was.

Was he depressed? Personally, he’d simply call it an acceptance of reality to act the way he was. It wasn’t like–

Izuku didn’t know what had happened, but the next thing he knew he was airborne. He had been shoved violently backwards, the air fleeting from his lungs as he let out a strangled gasp.

He was sent flying. Literally. Izuku went from 0 to 90 in no time flat.

There was a little bit of resistance as he continued his backwards trajectory, but it was only for a moment - until he hit a lamppost. 

Headfirst.

Yeah, that one hurt. Someone screamed and it might have been him.

Izuku gasped in pain as a bolt of white-hot pain shot through his body, unable to do so much as groan as his body locked up. His vision swam as he went limp and fell forward, fully expecting to kiss the pavement, but was caught at the last moment.

His head was swimming, but he was still able to barely make out a pair of big, blue eyes looking down on him in concern… right up until his eyes rolled back and he passed out.

–

Nejire… was in a bit of a pickle.

She was running a bit late thanks to Snipe-sensei getting on her case again about taking spars a bit more seriously, but could he really blame her? When she wasn’t fighting Mirio or Tamaki, it was a cakewalk!

But Snipe didn’t want to hear it! He gave her a real earful after class, ensuring her parents were going to be more than a little ticked off with her. She would have just texted them, but her phone was dead! And she couldn’t use Mirio or Tamaki’s either since she had told them to go on ahead!

Long story short, she thought she could be forgiven for being in a bit of a rush.

The universe clearly disagreed.

The moment she made it off campus (and away from Nedzu’s pesky cameras that would catch her flying home the moment she tried it) Nejire made a break for it, powering her Quirk up to 100% and shooting down the sidewalk. It wasn’t like there was ever anyone loitering outside U.A. this late in the day anyways, so she was in the clear!

Until she wasn’t. 

Nejire grunted as she bumped into (bowled over) somebody at what wasn’t much more than a brisk pace… for her. 

For the poor sap she hit, it was a bit more impactful.

The stranger let out a squeak of surprise as they were suddenly launched backwards at a speed that would have left most of her classmates chained to a bed in Recovery Girl’s office… and that was putting it gently. Maybe Aizawa-sensei was on to something when he told her she needed to put a lid on her Quirk in public. They went through a metal post-office box, letters and envelopes flying everywhere in a flurry as it was turned to scrap by the force, and came to an abrupt halt as they slammed into the lamppost that stood on the corner the stranger seemed to come from.

“Crap!” Nejire shouted, wincing at the way the beam bent inwards from the impact (alongside the absolutely agonizing gasp they let out). She rushed forward to catch them, duly noting that they were definitely a boy, even with their smaller frame and long-ish curly hair. 

“I’m so sorry!” She cried, but it didn’t look like the boy heard her. His emerald eyes were unfocused and hazy, and it only took a second for him to pass out due to what was likely shock. The boy’s body went limp as he fell forward into her chest, with only the soft rise and fall of his own chest keeping her from worrying that she had accidentally killed somebody. 

Crap. Super crap. It didn’t look like she was going to make it home at all at this rate - she might be headed for jail instead!

There was a lot to deal with. 

First and foremost she had to make sure that the boy was alright - and that wasn’t exactly easy. By some miracle the back of his head wasn’t a bloody mess (and the same went for his back - while it went unscathed, his poor backpack wasn’t so lucky), but she knew that there was plenty of opportunity for him to have a concussion - or worse. 

He also had a handful of bruises on his face that made Nejire hesitate, but it wouldn’t make sense if he had just received them. She hoped Recovery Girl hadn’t packed up for the night yet.

There was also the little issue of, ah, postal crime she had just committed. Several dozen papers flew around her in the gentle spring breeze… as well as a handful of papers that were leaking out from the green-haired boy’s backpack. 

Nejire quickly took off her uniform jacket and laid it on the ground, quickly depositing the boy on it as she flew around to gather up all the papers she’d released into the wind. Lucky for her, none of them had gone far, and it only took a few minutes to sort out what was his and what was a postal product. 

She didn’t have a great solution for fixing the mailbox, but that could come later. For now, duct tape would have to do. 

He’s surprisingly light, she thought to herself as she hefted him into her arms, already turning back towards U.A. and speeding away.

She really hoped Recovery Girl was still there. 

–

Izuku’s eyes fluttered open slowly, but as soon as they were wide enough he hissed in pain at the glare of fluorescent lights. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes, only to hesitate as he realized that he had zero clue where he was - and that wherever he may be, the bed he was resting on was softer than usual.

“Hello there, dearie,” A soft voice called, making Izuku crane his neck to the side to get a good look, “How are you feeling?”

He squinted his eyes as he tried to make out the speaker. For some reason he felt like he’d heard their voice before–

“Recovery Girl?!” Izuku gasped, completely bewildered. “Wait, where am I?”

The woman smiled. “Yes, that’s my name. I’m surprised I still have fans these days!” She chuckled quickly, “And you’re at U.A. You took quite a hit out front and one of our students brought you inside, but you still need to answer my question.”

He felt like pinching himself. Was this real life? Was he dreaming? 

Izuku moved to sit up, but a lance of pain spiked through the back of his pain and ensured him that he wasn’t asleep.

“My head hurts,” he mumbled, quickly laying back down, “Did anybody get the license plate of the truck that hit me?”

At his words Recovery Girl scowled, sending a look over towards the other side of the room that made Izuku realize that there was a third person in the Youthful Heroine’s office.

The girl that sat quietly in the corner of the room winced guiltily. “Um, you didn’t get hit by a car,” she mumbled, wringing her hands together awkwardly, “It was me.”

Izuku blinked.

That was… not what he expected to hear.

The girl was clearly a student here - the uniform gave that much away - and seemed to be familiar with Recovery Girl if the way the heroine sighed in exasperation meant anything. She had long, straight periwinkle hair, as well as a pair of big blue eyes that sat on a very pretty face. 

Of course, she also had… other features. The sort that made Izuku blush like an idiot and had him quickly look away before he started staring.

“This is Hadou Nejire,” Recovery Girl began, “Third-year Hero Course student at U.A. Apparently she saw fit to use her Quirk to help get her home quicker, which led to both your injuries as well as destruction of public property.”

With each word, Hadou’s head dipped further and further down. “I’m really sorry,” she insisted.

Recovery Girl scoffed. “Sorry doesn’t cut it. You should know better, young lady.” 

Hadou just nodded at her words, harsh as they were.

Izuku felt really awkward. He had a lot of questions floating around in his head right now, not the least of which being what kind of Quirk she had to allow her to run into him with the strength of a freight train, but that wasn’t really appropriate to ask given the setting.

But when was the last time someone had apologized to him, much less meant it? Maybe it was All Might when Izuku had asked about being a hero. Maybe it was his mother when he asked her the same question. Maybe she didn’t even mean it and was only saying it because she was in trouble.

But still…

“Um, it’s alright,” he muttered, “Accidents happen.”

Hadou’s eyes snapped up to meet his, surprise clearly marred across her features. “Really?”

He shrugged awkwardly, slightly uncomfortable with the awe in her gaze. “Y-yeah.”

The girl beamed at him, but Recovery Girl was quick to put a damper on her mood. “Just because the boy has forgiven you doesn’t mean I have!” She snapped, pointing her cane accusingly at Hadou. “You should know better! And you destroyed our mailbox! And that lamppost! And his backpack!”

Wait, what?

“Huh?” Izuku breathed out.

Hadou looked especially guilty as she revealed the sad remains of his backpack. It had a giant hole torn open on the side, and looked like it had been by an industrial grade presser - and that likely meant his notebooks were in a similar state.

He deflated like a balloon leaking air. “Oh,” Izuku mumbled, “I see.”

At least it wasn’t his spine.

Recovery Girl cleared her throat awkwardly to grab his attention. “U.A. is willing to provide you a compensatory backpack as well as medical services for your injuries as a sign of our goodwill and an apology for our student’s reckless behavior,” she stated, “But we would appreciate it if you agreed not to press any charges, young…”

“Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku.” He said quietly.

“Young Midoriya.” Recovery Girl finished with a smile, but her words made him feel even more awkward.

“Um, I won’t press charges or anything,” he said quickly. Not only had he moved on (although he was more than a little sad about the state of his backpack and notebooks), but he didn’t think he could afford nor win a lawsuit against U.A.

Plus it would’ve felt a little wrong to try and sue a Hero School. That would be like trying to sue an orphanage, or maybe a church.

Hadou let out a sigh of relief as Recovery Girl clapped her hands together. “Wonderful!” She said gratefully, “Hadou-san, why don’t you go and grab Midoriya-kun one of the backpacks we have in the school store. If anyone asks, tell them to bring it up with Principal Nedzu.”

The girl nodded and flashed Izuku a bright smile, but was quick to accept the dismissal as it was before she was shooed out of the room.

Recovery Girl walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek that made Izuku grimace, but it did its job. His pain evaporated in an instant, only to be replaced by the sudden urge to take a nap as his eyelids began to dip.

He yawned slowly. “If I said I was going to press charges, were you going to kick me out?”

The heroine looked personally affronted by his words. “Of course not!” She groused, “I’m a doctor! And Hero! It’s my job to help people!”

Izuku’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “S-sorry.”

Recovery Girl opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the door flying open as Hadou rushed in, breathing heavily and with a U.A.-brand backpack in hand.

“I got it!” She announced proudly, “If you think about it, this is actually kind of an upgrade! Your old backpack was kind of old, you know! And this one is bigger and U.A. quality! No way it gets taken out by some measly mailbox!”

Recovery Girl scowled. “Thanks for reminding me that you committed a federal crime, Hadou-san. After you escort Midoriya-kun here home, we’re going to have a long chat with Nedzu on proper Quirk usage and spatial awareness.”

Izuku and Hadou both paled, albeit for different reasons. Hadou was freaking out over the fact that her teachers were likely going to skin her alive, and as for Izuku…

“E-e-escort me home?!” He blurted out, “Sh-she doesn’t have to d-do that!”

The doctor shook her head. “Yes she does,” she said vehemently, “My Quirk drains your energy reserves to quicken the healing process, and I’m not going to allow you to walk out of here unsupervised while you’re at risk of passing out. Speaking of which, here.”

Recovery Girl retrieved a small gummy bear from a jar on her desk before offering it to Izuku. “Eat this. It’ll help revitalize you.”

Izuku hesitantly took the candy, but it was rather tasty. “Thanks,” he replied (after swallowing the food in his mouth, of course), “B-but, ah, I think I’ll be okay, really! I don’t want t-to trouble any of you more than I already have!”

She gave him an unimpressed stare. “She sent you through a mailbox and into a pole. You’re not the one causing trouble here.”

“R-right.” Izuku chuckled awkwardly, pulling at his uniform collar. “B-but still–”

“It’s okay!” Hadou interrupted, “I don’t mind! I’m a Hero, it’s kind of in the job description!”

She giggled slightly, but her laughter quickly died out as Recovery Girl gave her yet another sharp look. “B-besides,” Hadou chuckled, forcing out a laugh, “Maybe we should give Recovery Girl some time to cool down!”

“W-we?”

“Yep!” Nejire was quick to grab his backpacks (both the new one and the old one) and run for the door before Recovery Girl could reprimand her once more. “I’ll be waiting outside for you!”

Izuku blinked as the girl made herself scarce, completely lost for words by her actions. “U-um…”

Recovery Girl sighed. “That girl doesn’t know when to quit,” she muttered fondly, giving Izuku a sideways glance, “Try not to end up here again, okay kiddo?”

He gulped. “W-wasn’t planning on it.”

The youthful heroine chuckled at his words, a wry smile on her weathered face. “Dearie, things rarely work out the way we planned.” She gave him a pat on the back. “Now, I’m sure you don’t want to keep that young lady waiting for you - she might just throw you through another mailbox!”

After a moment Izuku nodded slowly, pushing himself off the cot and making his way towards the door. “Th-thanks, Recovery Girl.”

The doctor smiled and waved off his thanks, shaking her head softly at him as he exited her office. But as soon as the door closed, Izuku froze. 

How was he supposed to get out of here?

–

“Wow,” Hadou giggled once she finally saw him show up at the gate, “You sure took your time there!”

Izuku rubbed his arm awkwardly. “Um, s-sorry. I got lost.”

She nodded in understanding. “No worries! I totally get that, U.A. is kind of a maze! Even I get lost inside sometimes!”

Hadou started walking, but quickly stopped herself as she turned back towards Izuku. “Where do you live, by the way? Also, why were you walking outside U.A. so late? Don’t other schools let out at the same time as us? Are you a high-schooler too?”

Izuku blinked as she barraged him with questions. Hadou was like a literal ball of energy - she was even rocking back and forth on her heels as she awaited an answer. When was the last time he’d seen someone so…

Bouncy?

It reminded him of himself… if he was four again.

Realizing she was still waiting for an answer, he quickly shook his head. “U-um, I live in Musutafu. I take the train to get home. Y-yes, my school lets out at a normal time, I just s-stayed late. And yes, I’m a first-year high school student.”

Hadou’s eyes sparkled as she watched him answer her list of questions, making him feel more than a little overwhelmed as he stared down bashfully at his shoes, scuffing one against the pavement.

“Wow!” Hadou gasped, “I can’t believe you can keep up with me! Most people get lost by the second question! But since you live in Musutafu already, why didn’t you just go to U.A.? Are you a delinquent? Do you have horrible grades? Do you not like heroes?”

Izuku fought down the urge to wince - and boy oh boy was it close - as Hadou continued wondering why he didn’t end up at U.A.

As it was, he settled for a weak shrug and to start walking to the train station. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, “I guess it just never seemed realistic.”

Hadou raised an eyebrow at his tense form, following along beside him. “Realistic?” She repeated slowly almost as though in disbelief, “U.A. has the highest application rates of any high school in the country! It’s not realistic for most people to get in, but they still try! Did you not want to go? Is your school better than U.A.? What school do you go to?”

Man, she asked a lot of questions. Was this what people thought he was like?

He shook his head quickly at that thought. Of course not. Aside from the fact that Hadou was apparently a third-year student in U.A.’s prestigious Hero course and he was a complete nobody, she seemed rather easy going and pleasant. The same could not be said for him.

“I thought about it for a while,” Izuku sighed, “B-but it doesn’t matter. I’m… h-happy where I wound up. I go to Musutafu General.”

Hadou hummed as she processed his words, bobbing her head as she walked. “Never heard of it! But I probably don’t know the name of most schools around here that aren’t U.A. I’m sure most of them aren’t that good. You seem kinda cagey!”

“C-cagey?” He stuttered out in surprise.

“Mhm!” Hadou seemed completely unfazed by the way he turned a new shade of scarlet and nearly tripped over his own two feet. “And a little stiff and awkward, kinda like my friend Tamaki! I’m sure the two of you would get along pretty well! Heck, I’m pretty sure you’d get along with all my friends! You seem like a nice guy.”

Izuku had no idea how to respond to what Hadou was saying anymore. She went from calling him cagey and awkward to saying he’d fit right in with her friends in no time flat, and he was no longer able to tell what was an insult and what was a compliment… if any of them actually were either.

He forced out a laugh that sounded phoned-in even to himself. “Thanks?” He tried, “Um, you’re really nice, too.”

She beamed at him. “You think so?”

Izuku wasn’t sure whether or not this was a trick question. “Uh, yes?” He began, “I mean, you took the time to bring me to Recovery Girl after you hit me, and you’re still carrying my backpack for me…”

Hadou’s eyes trailed down to her hands, where, lo and behold, both the tattered remains of Izuku’s old backpack and the sparkly new U.A. product sat. “I guess I am!”

She gave him a bright smile. “Thanks, Midoriya! That’s what you said your name was, right? Anyways Midoriya, most new people I meet think I’m overbearing because of all the questions I ask people, but I’m just curious, you know?”

Izuku just nodded slowly. He could kind of see why people would be intimidated by the amount of things she asked, even if he wasn’t personally off-put by it. “I’m sorry to hear that, Hadou-san. And yes, that’s my name.”

She gave him another bright smile. “Nice to meet you, Midoriya! My name’s Hadou Nejire, but you already knew that!”

“L-likewise.”

–

In no time at all they had made it to the train station, just in time for Izuku’s train somehow.

He turned to face Hadou, trying his best to meet her eyes. “W-well, thanks, Hadou-san,” he stuttered, trying his best to not sound like a complete idiot, “But, ah, you don’t have to come with me on the train or anything. I mean, I’m sure you have more important things to do, right? I’m sure I’ll be fine from here…”

Hadou pursed her lips, a soft frown on her face as she pondered his words. “Well, Recovery Girl said I had to make sure you made it home safe, right?” She asked, “What if something happens after you get off the train? I’d be responsible, and we can’t have that!”

Izuku wanted to point out that villain attacks were statistically improbable for the average citizen to fall victim too, but kept his mouth shut after remembering what had happened to him this time last year.

He could still feel the sludge all over him. Gross.

“I guess,” he mumbled, looking away from the older girl, “But don’t you have to get home too? It wouldn’t be fair for your parents to be upset with you because you had to escort me the whole way…”

Hadou just gave him another easy shrug. “Yeah, but I talked to them earlier while you were unconscious! They know I’m going to be late now… and they’re a little more upset about the whole ‘knocking-someone-into-a-lamppost’ situation.”

She shuddered at the thought, likely fearing whatever retribution might await her once she finally returned home herself. “A-anyways,” she continued, shaking off whatever nerves she may have had, “You sound like you don’t want me around you. Am I making you uncomfortable?”

Izuku made a strange choking sound at her words, completely unprepared for that bomb of a question. “N-no! I mean– you d-don’t–”

He continued to sputter like an idiot for a few more minutes, with Hadou considerate enough to let him make a fool of himself without interruption. It took a while, but he was eventually able to stop squawking like a dying parrot. 

“Wh-what I meant to say,” he muttered, trying to clear his throat, “Is that, um, it’s not that I have any p-problems with you or anything, it’s just that, uh, I don’t know, I just don’t think you should have to go so far out of your way for me…”

Izuku’s face flushed red as he felt Hadou’s eyes trained firmly on him, with his own dipping down to his feet. It got even worse when he realized that there were people in the crowd, also waiting for the next train, snickering at his little display.

God, could this day get any worse?

When Hadou started to laugh, he realized that it could.

Where was the nearest hole? He’d like to crawl into it and die.

Those thoughts came to an abrupt end when Hadou reached over and ruffled his hair.

“You think too much!” She giggled, still running her fingers through his hair, “Where’d you get that idea from? Wow, your hair is really soft! I wish I could get mine to feel like this, what’s your secret? Is it your Quirk? Do you use conditioners? You really are like Tamaki! You two should meet! I wonder if–”

As the train slowly pulled into the station, all Izuku could afford to do was wordlessly step off the platform and aboard his ride. He was too far beyond his wits’ end to do anything else.

And, of course, Hadou stepped on right behind him without a second thought.

–

The train ride was mercifully quick. It helped that he didn’t really have to travel far to reach his stop, and that Hadou eventually got bored of playing with his hair - it reminded him of how cats kept themselves amused by playing with yarn.

He bit back a sigh as he thought about all the stares they had received on the train. Most of the boys looked like they wanted to kill him, and most of the adults kept laughing at them.

It was more than a little embarrassing, to say the least.

“And then my friend Mirio was like, ‘No problem!’ and he phased through the wall!” Hadou prattled, “His Quirk is Permeation, by the way, and it lets him phase through objects. It’s pretty cool! He’s slated to be one of the highest rated heroes when he graduates! Anyways, he phases through the wall to go and grab my bag, but he forgot that there was a whole other class in the room, and that his uniform comes off when he phases! He gave those second years a pretty bad scare! And also got detention, which I felt kind of bad about, but he just laughed it off! Pretty awesome, huh?”

Izuku just nodded along to the story. It was a bizarre one, but Hadou seemed to have bizarre friends. The world was pretty bizarre these days, too, so maybe it wasn’t so odd to have a friend who could phase through his clothing and another who seemed to be afraid of his own shadow yet able to take on a small army of villains without issue.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “You’re friends seem pretty cool.”

Hadou smiled. She smiled a lot, actually. It seemed like she had one by default, and one had to work to make her frown. She seemed even more excited than she was earlier now, hovering slightly above the sidewalk pavement as they walked thanks to her Quirk. 

It made him feel even shorter than he already was, which was kind of humiliating, but whatever.

“I know, right?” She said, “And I have a bunch more friends! And even more stories! What about you, Midoriya? Are your friends as cool as mine?”

He frowned. The answer was no, of course. He didn’t even have any friends. The fact that Bakugou was the first person to cross his mind when she asked was pretty damning evidence of that.

But he didn’t want to seem like even more of a loser than he already was.

“...N-not really,” he said quietly, already figuring out just how he was going to spin this lie, “They’re cool, b-but none of them have done anything like that.”

She hummed. “That’s fair.” Hadou nodded. “But you must have some fun stories, right?”

Izuku gulped. That was a little harder to lie about.

“Uh… I don’t go out that much?” He tried.

It sounded like a lame excuse. He knew it was a lame excuse.

“Well that’s lame,” Hadou commented, confirming his suspicions, “I mean, I don’t get that much free time anymore either, being a third-year and all, but I still make time to hang out with my friends!”

“Trust me,” Izuku sighed, “I know.”

Hadou continued on a tirade about the importance of hanging out with friends, which then spilt over into a discussion on how she met Mirio and Tamaki, which turned into another story about Mirio (seriously, he was starting to learn more about her classmates than his own), which turned into–

“Um, sorry to interrupt,” he said quickly, cutting Hadou off from her latest tangent about Tamaki’s eating habits, “But this is my apartment.”

His companion blinked before looking to the side and realizing that there was, in fact, a small apartment complex to their left. “Oh!” She hummed, “Nice place!”

“Thanks. C-can I have my backpacks now, please?”

“Hmm?” Hadou’s eyes turned down towards her arms, which still held both his ruined and new backpacks. “You sure? I can walk you to your apartment if you–”

“Th-that won’t be necessary!” He blurted out, “I mean, um, you’ve already done so much, and it’s not like any of my neighbors are dangerous or anything! I’ll be fine.”

Hadou eyed the building, and Izuku had no idea what she was looking for. It wasn’t like he lived in a bad neighborhood or anything, and the complex was about as cookie-cutter basic as it came. “Alrighty then, if you say so!”

She offered him the backpacks, and Izuku was acutely aware of the fact that he was probably going to get some stares when he brought a U.A. backpack into class tomorrow.

Heck, it might just get stolen from him. That wouldn’t shock him in the slightest. 

“Thanks,” he grunted, trying his best to not show that the items weren’t too heavy for him to carry. That would have been humiliating. “Um, for carrying them, and coming with me. You really didn’t have to.”

Hadou shrugged, her smile not waning in the slightest. “I already told you, it’s no problem! It’s the least I could do for launching you through that mailbox, remember?”

Oh, right. She had nearly killed him an hour ago. It already felt like forever ago.

To his surprise (and her delight, even if Izuku didn’t know it), he started to laugh. “Yeah,” he snorted, “I guess so. Still, I appreciate it.”

Hadou beamed at him for a moment before a brief look of remembrance flashed across her face. “Before you go,” she added quickly, “Do you have a phone on you?”

Izuku blinked, before pulling out his phone. “Yeah, do you need to make a call?”

She smiled at him as she took it from his outstretched hand. “Nope!” she giggled, causing his brow to furrow.

“Then why did you need mine?” He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Did you need the time or something–”

“Done!” Hadou proclaimed proudly, before handing him his phone back, “Check your contacts.”

Her words make Izuku pause. “Huh?” He did as instructed, however, and he couldn’t hide his shock as he opened the app. 

Nejire Hadou

There it was. He was pretty sure his jaw was somewhere on the ground beneath them.

Hadou giggled as she looked at his shocked expression. “What?”

“Uh…”

He had a lot of questions at the moment. Why did she give him his number? Was this a prank? Did she see that he had, like, no other people in his contact list?

Izuku didn’t voice all of them, but he did ask the first one. Hadou just laughed again.

“Why not?” She asked, “You seem like a nice guy, and I like meeting new people, so you should text me sometime! We can hang out without needing to take you to Recovery Girl! Plus, you still need to tell me about how you got your hair to be so soft!”

Apparently, she didn’t really learn her lesson from earlier, because she fired up her Quirk and started to fly up into the sky - and Izuku continued to stare at her like a dumbass. 

“Bye, Izuku!” She waved at him as she slowly disappeared from his view. “Don’t forget!”

The fact that she called him by his first name didn’t even register in his head until hours after they parted ways.

As for Nejire, she was pretty happy with how things went - aside from how they met in the first place of course. But if that hadn’t happened, maybe they wouldn’t have met at all!

So it was worth it to her. Maybe not to Midoriya (yet), but she’d just have to show him it was!

Besides… Nejire liked his eyes. She definitely wanted to see him again.

Hopefully he remembered to text her! 

Based on the look on his face, there was no way he could forget.

Chapter Text

Izuku did not forget to text Hadou.

No, his decision to not send her a message was, in fact, very deliberate.

At first glance, this may seem like a dumb move. On closer inspection, it may seem downright idiotic for him to be graced with a beautiful girl’s number and then choose to not message her. Some people might even think it would be the biggest mistake of his life to do such a thing.

To all of those people, Izuku would simply tell them to face the facts.

For one, Hadou clearly felt bad for him - she threw him into a lamppost for crying out loud - and there was likely a certain amount of pity at work in her giving him her number. She was probably just doing it to be nice.

Also, there was a pretty good chance that she didn’t actually give him her phone number. He’d been on the receiving end of that more times than he could count - someone starts acting nicely towards him for a day or two and gives him their number to hang out, and then when he goes to use it it’s fake… or he’s already blocked. He’d rather save himself the humiliation if that was the case.

Finally, if she didn’t do it out of pity, and if she really did give him her number, then it was only a matter of time before she realized how much of a loser he was. Somehow the topic of his Quirk never came up beyond her questions about how soft his hair was, but he was sure that if she knew the truth about it she’d be disgusted, terrified, offended, or a mix of all three - a trait that everyone aside from his mother seemed to share regarding his status.

Besides… Izuku was a nobody. He doubted she’d even remember him in a week if half the stories she had told him were true. 

Hadou certainly lived an exciting life. Or maybe that was just how it was at U.A. It wasn’t like he’d ever know.

It didn’t take long for him to forget about his chance encounter with the U.A. student. Life went on without a care in the world for his feelings (even if his mom was completely flabbergasted as to how he came home with a brand new backpack and his old one in tatters), but everytime he opened his phone and saw her name it stirred something deep inside him. 

Izuku didn’t know why, but he couldn’t find it in himself to delete her number. Maybe he was just a sentimental fool - actually, that was probably it. He felt too mean if he deleted the number, even if it didn’t mean anything.

Plus, the fact that there were only, like, four other numbers in his phone meant it felt pretty tough to remove one of them. It wasn’t a very good look for his self-confidence.

But that didn’t matter. What did matter was his grades (and making sure they were good enough to pass, but not too good as to look like he was cheating), and his ability to hide from Tsubasa and the rest of his douchebag classmates who suddenly had a renewed interest in him.

More specifically, a renewed interest in his backpack. More than a few thought he was making fun of them for being unable to pass U.A.’s Hero exam. Of course, that was an incredibly stupid idea with even dumber reasoning, but Izuku didn’t bother explaining himself. It would be a waste of oxygen.

Oxygen that was much better spent running for the hills once the final bell of the day rang out, signifying the end of classes.

And that it was time to book it.

“Heya, Deku ,” Tsubasa sneered, already stomping over to his desk (his wings were too tiny to support his flight anymore) with three kids behind him, “It’s kind of rude to keep dodging our questions, you know? We just want to know where you got the backpack from?”

Izuku didn’t bother so much as twitching at the name Deku anymore. Thanks to Tsubasa, he’d had the pleasure of hearing that name for the next three years. It clung to him like glue now.

That didn’t mean that he was okay with hearing it from now until the end of time, though. He hated that name more than just about anything else; it was just a constant reminder of how he and anything he ever did was completely worthless.

“From the same place I got my last one,” he said quickly, already on the move.

One of the cronies behind Tsubasa snorted. “From the Salvation Army?”

“Oh, I know!” Another jeered, “It’s gotta be from the homeless shelter!”

Tsubasa shook his head slowly. “No, no,” he said calmly, “U.A. wouldn’t give up their goods like that… he must’ve stolen it!”

Yeah, it was time to go.

The good thing about being a scrawny Quirkless kid is that nobody ever expected you to charge at them, so even with his lanky frame it was still enough for most of them to flinch back in surprise for a moment - which was exactly what Izuku wanted.

“Hey!” Tsubasa shouted once he realized Izuku was making a break for it, “Get back here!”

Unfortunately for the winged boy, he had taken far too long to react. Izuku had been doing this for years with Bakugou, and nobody could quite compare to the fierceness and determination the blonde had for beating him up. Tsubasa just wasn’t up to snuff.

By the time he had reached the door, Izuku was long gone.

–

Izuku’s lungs burned as he hurried down the street, each breath weighing him down further and further as he fought to escape his classmates. He couldn’t hear them shouting from behind him, but that meant little - he’d seen some of those kids run in gym class, and they could be fast .

Musutafu General wasn’t exactly in the nicest part of town. For better or worse, U.A. sucked up all potential investment money in the area like a sponge, which made it great for people who got it. For people who missed out, or didn’t want to go?

Not so much.

The only saving grace was that U.A. was technically a private school - it meant that while their methods, teachers, and just about everything else could be fitted to their needs, it also meant that district funding only went to other schools in the area.

Not that it meant much. He’d seen the board meetings for his school, and with the way those people acted it was more likely than not that the entire system was a giant money-laundering scheme. 

Oh well. It wasn’t like he needed a good education or anything.

When his thoughts started to spiral out of control into the random and bizarre like this, it helped. It meant he was focusing on something instead of the aches in his legs from pushing himself too hard, and that meant he had a chance of getting away from Tsubasa today. 

Of course, making a break for it also ran the significant risk of running into Bakugou , a decidedly worse fate for Izuku, but the odds of that couldn’t be high, right?

Hopefully not. Bakugou wasn’t one for loitering around school. As horrible a person he was (and yes, Izuku could finally see past his rose-tinted glasses on this one - Bakugou was not his friend and not a good person), he was a hard worker and rarely had time for frivolities like ‘hanging out’ when he could be studying or training.

He wondered if Bakugou made any friends at U.A. Probably not, considering how he treated those around him at Aldera, but there was always a chance. Maybe he’d meet someone just as stuck-up as him.

Izuku snorted at the thought, slowing down slightly as he reached the corner where he’d pass U.A. Yeah right, he’d be more likely to try and kill that person than befriend them.

Once he made it to U.A. he was usually in the clear - heroes sometimes patrolled around the area, and it was kind of out of the way for Tsubasa or his cronies to chase him all the way to U.A., funny enough.

He grimaced as he swiped the back of his hand across his forehead, his arm now slick with sweat. Gross. His hair was going to be a pain in the ass to wash later.

Whatever. It was better than getting clobbered. Again.

He knew that Tsubasa must be pissed , though. Izuku still remembered the day after the U.A. entrance exam, with him sniffling and sobbing about how unfair it had been. 

Call him crazy, but Izuku wasn’t sure Tsubasa quite understood the meaning of the word ‘unfair’.

The backpack must have been driving him crazy, though. Izuku didn’t take any pleasure in it, but he certainly didn’t feel sorry for the boy. Maybe he would have if the boy had been nice to him at one point in his life, or if he didn’t feel as empty as he had since All Might had crushed his dreams, but–

“Look out!”

Izuku flinched back reflexively at the words, but it wasn’t enough. Whatever was coming at him was fast , and he had a strange sense of deja vu as he went flying backwards for the second time in twice as many days.

He squeezed his eyes shut, fully expecting to end up flying through yet another mailbox, but something shot out and yanked him to a stop, just as quickly as he had been launched. Instead of flying through the air, he found himself wrapped up tightly… by something very soft.

“Dang it!” A familiar voice cried, “Not again!”

He peeked his eyes open, and suddenly everything became a lot clearer.

Hadou Nejire peered down at him as she held him in her arms awkwardly, a sheepish smile on her face.

“Heya, Midoriya!” She greeted casually (or tried to at least), “Uh, fancy seeing you here!”

Izuku blinked slowly, finally realizing exactly what that softness pressing into his face was.

“...Hi.”

–

“Something on your mind, Nejire?”

Mirio frowned as Nejire completely tuned him out - wait, that wasn’t the right word. It was more like she didn’t hear him in the first place.

It had been like this for a while now. Two days ago she had been in higher spirits than usual (although she wouldn’t say why, to Mirio’s exasperation and Tamaki’s slight amusement), but that mood had dampened quickly between yesterday and today. Even on her bad days Nejire had never really been, well, in a bad mood, but they were starting to approach that territory. 

“Nejire?” He tried again, to no avail. “Hello, Earth to Nejire?”

It was almost comical how ineffective he was at grabbing her attention.

Mirio sighed. Almost.

“Just relax,” Tamaki said quietly, filling out Ectoplasm’s homework sheet, “She’s clearly just in her own little world.”

“Yeah,” he agreed gruffly, “Which is why I’m concerned. Remember the last time she was this focused on something?”

Tamaki frowned for a moment, rubbing his chin in thought before shaking his head. “Nope.”

“The prank she played on Present Mic and Eraserhead?” Mirio reminded him, “The one she planned for like, three weeks?”

His shy friend shuddered. “Oh. That . Why would you remind me?”

Mirio laughed at Tamaki’s antics. “Because that’s how she is now! Look!”

He turned Tamaki towards Nejire’s desk, where the girl was staring at the chalkboard ahead of them though no real attention was being paid to it.

Tamaki frowned. “Been there. But this isn’t the same as that.”

He gave the purple-haired teen a sideways glance. “You sure? But–”

Nejire’s phone buzzed in her bag, and in the blink of an eye she snapped it up into her hands. She eyed the device eagerly, but the look faded as soon as she read whatever message had popped up. She sighed quietly and placed her phone back into her book bag, but yelped in surprise as she turned back to the front of the classroom and realized Mirio had popped up in front of her.

“What was that about?” He questioned, not unkindly.

Nejire blinked. “What was what about?”

“You look like your pet goldfish died,” Tamaki chimed in, still at his desk, “And that you’re waiting for a text saying you got a new one.”

Nejire turned towards him slowly, eyes alight with confusion. “I don’t have a pet goldfish?”

Tamaki sighed. “It’s a simile.”

“What Tamaki means to say,” Mirio clarified, leaning forward to rest his palms on her desk, “Is that you’ve been all wonky! You’ve been kinda mopey the last two days, and you haven’t told us why. Something going on?”

She hummed. “Uh, nope! I’m good!”

“You’re not a very good liar.” Tamaki muttered.

Nejire’s cheeks turned pink as he called her out, squirming in her seat slightly as Mirio started to laugh. “It’s nothing,” she mumbled, “Don’t worry about it.”

Mirio’s smile dimmed. “If it’s bothering you then it’s not nothing,” he said encouragingly, “You wanna talk about it?”

No, she didn’t. It was dumb. She wasn’t gonna get upset about a boy she had known and talked to for a collective hour not texting her, that would be silly!

She put on a bright smile for her friends. “Really,” she insisted, “Don’t worry about it!”

Mirio and Tamaki shared a look. “…If you say so,” Mirio shrugged. “But you know we’re here if you need us.”

Nejire nodded happily at them, and began to half pay attention to Mirio’s discussion of the upcoming Sports Festival.

So what if she really enjoyed Midoriya’s company? Or liked how he answered just about every question she threw at him, without her needing to repeat herself? Or —

Nejire slapped her cheeks, earning another weird look from her friends before she waved them off. 

She needed to get a grip. Not everyone wanted to be her friend. She knew that.

It made her sad that it looked like Midoriya didn’t either.

–

Lucky for her, she did not wind up in detention (or worse, Snipe’s office) after classes ended for the day.

Unluckily, she still ended up walking home alone. Mirio apparently had some sort of secret meeting with Principal Nedzu and All Might  - that was going to take some getting used to, having All Might be a teacher of all things - and Tamaki had to leave early for a dentist appointment.

That didn’t surprise Nejire. With the stuff she had seen him eat for his Quirk, it was a miracle he still had teeth in the first place! She wondered why his Quirk didn’t help him with that. What if he ate crocodile or shark? Could he replenish his lost teeth? Or was that the reason he was going in the first place?

She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for that, she had to get home! Her mom was making omurice for dinner, and she couldn’t afford to miss that!

So she may have decided to use her Quirk again, sue her! Actually don’t do that - she lucked out with Midoriya not pressing charges, but there were definitely people out there who would. But hey, she had done it before loads of times, and she had only hit someone once! That was a pretty good track record, all things considered.

At least until she hit a pedestrian (again).

“Look out!” She cried, barely seeing the blurry outline of a person right before impact. They flinched backwards, but it wasn’t enough.

Sure enough she launched them backwards (again), but she was determined to not take out yet another innocent bystander. She lunged forward, arms wide open as she prepared to try and catch them instead of letting them kiss the pavement.

And it worked! Barely. It was a pretty close call, but any outcome was better than the one four days ago. Still…

“Dang it!” She cried, “Not again!”

She looked down at the poor sap she had hit, and was immediately hit with a sense of deja vu as she realized exactly who she had hit.

Again.

“Heya, Midoriya!” She tried, letting out an awkward laugh, “Uh, fancy seeing you here!”

Midoriya blinked slowly, seemingly trying to come to terms with the fact that she had tried to run him over again… and then he started to blush like crazy.

“…Hi,” he squeaked out.

Why was he blushing? Was it because her boobs were in his face? Probably, yeah. This was a little embarrassing to have happened again. Maybe she should put him down. But first…

“What a coincidence, huh?” She tried to joke, “I mean, what are the odds?”

Midoriya looked like he was blue-screening. “Um… pretty low?” He eventually tried.

“Yeah, probably!” She giggled at his reactions. He was kind of funny when he was flustered! “Or maybe it’s destiny!”

“D-destiny?” He choked out.

“Mhm!” Nejire nodded. “Every time I try using my Quirk to get home early, I run into you!”

Midoriya gulped. “U-um, didn’t Recovery Girl t-tell you not to do that?”

Nejire sighed. “Yeah,” she groaned, “But where’s the fun in that?”

“N-not running me over?”

She froze like a deer in headlights at his words. Midoriya immediately, almost reflexively, shrunk back, but there wasn’t exactly a lot of space for him to do that considering his position.

“Crap!” She whispered, her head immediately darting over towards where she knew Nedzu’s cameras were hidden, “ Please don’t tell any of my teachers that I hit you again!”

Izuku gave her a strange look - whatever reaction he’d been expecting, that… wasn’t it. 

“Uh…” He wasn’t sure how that was the first thing she thought of. “I… won’t?”

It came out as a question because he didn’t know how he would even do that. What, did she expect him to bang on U.A.’s front gate and demand to speak to the manager?

Whatever the reason, his response made Hadou breathe a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Midoriya,” she breathed out, “You’re a lifesaver!”

Izuku blinked. “N-no problem,” he muttered, her bright smile making him slightly more embarrassed, “U-um, you can put me down…”

Hadou froze in return, slowly remembering that she was still holding onto him like a big teddy bear with very fluffy hair. “Oh, right!” She exclaimed, slowly setting him down (and returning to the pavement herself), “Sorry about that!”

“I-it’s okay.”

Things got quiet for a moment between them, but Izuku wasn’t sure why. Hadou hummed as she stared at him for some reason - until a lightbulb seemingly went off in her head as she snapped her fingers and pointed at him.

“Why didn’t you text me?” She asked, “I told you not to forget, didn’t I?”

Oh. Right.

Izuku winced; this wasn’t going to be fun to answer.

He rubbed his arm slowly, eyes on anything but the taller girl in front of him. “U-uh…” he mumbled slowly, racking his brain to remember his excuses to himself, “I… k-kinda figured you were just being n-nice.”

Hadou cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy. “I was?” She replied curiously, “But I still wanted you to text me.”

Izuku gulped. There were no right answers, were there?

“Um, I meant more like you, ah, you felt bad…” God this was awful. Could an actual truck come and take a swipe at him now? He’d accept it gratefully. “Like, you gave me your number, but you didn’t really expect me to use it…”

Her smile dipped. “Why would I do that? That would be kinda rude, wouldn’t it?” 

He sighed. This was not going well. Every time he tried to talk it was like he dug his hole a little deeper. 

“I don’t know, I guess I was just being stupid. Sorry.”

Smooth, Izuku. The one time someone actually goes out of their way to be nice to you you have to go and spit in their face. He was such a loser. The old him would have jumped at the opportunity to make friends with somebody, anybody , but he had to go and ruin–

“That’s okay!” Nejire said, shaking Izuku out of his thought spiral, “But now you know, right?”

He blinked. She didn’t think he was a total dick? “Uh…”

The longer he went without speaking a real word, the more her smile dipped. “I mean, if you don’t really want to talk, that’s fine too, I just thought–”

“I-I-I d-do!” He blurted out, taking the older girl by surprise (and making himself feel like an idiot, but when was that not the case?), “Y-you’re, um… I like talking to you too. I j-just, um, I’m not the best conversation starter, I guess? S-sorry.”

Damn, he could not talk to pretty women. Or women in general. Or people in general. Or–

You know what, Izuku just couldn’t talk to others. Let’s leave it at that.

He kind of expected her to laugh at him. Still, when she did start laughing, it was quite a blow to his already non-existent self esteem. 

It looked like everybody was wrong; when you hit rock bottom, you can still go down.

“Alright, silly,” she continued, still laughing, “Have it your way. Give me your phone number!”

…

“Huh?”

Hadou offered him another beaming smile, so bright it made him avert his eyes. “You heard me! If you aren’t good at starting conversations, then I’ll start them!”

She pulled out her phone and looked at him expectantly, which made him immediately belt out the same string of seven numbers he’d memorized since he first got his phone. Hadou stuck her tongue out as she created a new contact in her phone, jabbing at the buttons as quickly as she could.

“Alright!” She nodded at her phone, and then looked at him. “One last thing, say cheese!”

“What?”

Click

Izuku winced as the flash on Hadou’s phone went off, briefly making him blink stars out of his eyes. “What was that for?”

“I needed a picture for your contact!” She exclaimed proudly, “It came out good, take a look!”

He leaned back in surprise as a phone was thrust in front of his face, coming face to face with himself from a few moments ago - his eyes were wide as he stared at the camera and it looked like he was trying not to have a stroke.

“...You think that came out g-good?” Izuku breathed out.

Hadou nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed, “It’s very you!”

Well, he couldn’t argue with that. Cowardice and social ineptitude were two of his main features, aside from being Quirkless and having green hair, and it looked like all four were on full display in her picture.

“Do you want the picture?” She asked, “Oh! It can be the very first text message I send you! It’ll be like a historic moment!”

“H-historic?”

Hadou nodded. “Yep! I remember all my first messages with my friends! It’s usually a good way to tell what kind of friendship I’ll have with them.”

That was a first. He’d never heard of… anything like that. “Really?”

“Mhm!” She smirked. “Look at Tamaki, for example. You remember Tamaki, right? Shy, strong, purple hair, clams? Yeah, you do. The very first thing I texted him was a super uplifting message about how cool he was, but he took two days to respond and all he said was ‘thanks.’! It was kind of disappointing, but that’s just how he talks! Me and Mirio are always more upbeat than he is, which is fine, but when Tamaki talks he speaks from the heart! Not that we don’t, but he chooses his words a lot more carefully than we do, kind of. You know what I mean?”

“D-does this mean I’m going to be judged on how I respond to the picture?” Izuku gulped.

Hadou shrugged easily. “Well, maybe!” She quickly tapped a few buttons on her phone, and suddenly Izuku’s own phone buzzed. He pulled it out after a moment, and sure enough, he had received a text message from ‘Nejire Hadou’. “I mean, it doesn’t really matter if you respond now since we’re talking and texting, but you catch my drift! Hey, take my photo now!”

Her request caught him off guard. “W-what?” He squeaked, “T-take your photo?”

Hadou rolled her eyes playfully. “Duh!” She giggled, “I just took your picture, now you have to take mine!”

“Um…” Izuku started, “I don’t really use pictures for my contacts.”

His… friend? Compatriot? Attempted murderer? Whatever she was, Hadou gasped as though he had committed a heinous act. “What?!” She shouted, “But how do you know who’s texting you?”

There were two possible answers to this question. One was the (objectively true) claim that nobody ever texted him aside from his mother, so he wouldn’t need to check beforehand, but that was lame so he chose not to say that.

“I j-just, um, read the name?” Izuku said slowly, “I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve never done.”

“Well then!” Hadou clapped her hands together. “No time like the present, am I right?”

She leaned in slightly closer to Izuku (which was still more than enough for him to start blushing like an idiot again) and gave him a bright smile as she closed one eye and stuck her tongue out.

At his hesitancy to take the photo, she stuck a finger beneath her eye and pulled down, making her open eye even wider and giving her an even more comical appearance. “Come on,” she teased, “Or I’ll make the photo even goofier!”

Izuku gulped. “W-wouldn’t you rather have me take a, um, normal photo?”

Hadou shook her head happily. “Nope! My picture, my rules!”

It came out kind of sloppily, considering she was speaking with her tongue sticking out. 

Either way, Izuku recognized a losing battle when he saw one. With a flick of his hand the camera was open, and she finally stopped making faces at him when she heard the telltale click of the phone go off.

“Ooh, how’d it come out?” She asked eagerly.

Izuku opened the photo and winced. “Um, it’s kind of blurry, sorry,” he admitted.

Kind of was an understatement. His hands must have been shaking like crazy when he took the photo. You could still make out Hadou and the ‘funny’ face she was making, but it was tough.

“It can’t be that bad!” Hadou insisted, “How badly could you mess up a photo?”

He wordlessly flipped his phone around, fully intending to let her eat her words…

But then Hadou laughed.

“Pff!” She put a hand over her mouth to cover her giggles, “That’s hilarious!”

Izuku sighed. “I’m not exactly a photographer.”

Hadou shook her head. “Definitely not. But you should send me that, it’s great!”

“You… want it?” He asked slowly, as though he didn’t believe his ears. 

Hadou nodded, wiping away her tears from laughing too hard. “Of course! It’s a riot! I need that photo!”

He stared at her in disbelief. Izuku could see why some people would be overwhelmed by Hadou now.

“Okay,” he agreed dumbfoundedly, sending her the picture. “There you go.”

The moment Hadou checked her phone, she started to laugh again. It really wasn’t that funny, was it?

Who was he kidding. He had a horrible sense of humor. He probably only disliked it because it was him who took the photo. Another stellar example of his skills.

“Anyways…” Hadou took a deep breath, finally muffling the stream of giggles that had been flowing from the moment she had seen his picture, “What’re you doing out here? Didn’t you say you had, uh, extracurriculars or something?”

Izuku hummed. How could he lie here without revealing the fact that he had a) already lied about that last time, and b) could continue to lie about why he would sometimes come home late from school?

“Uh, it’s a pretty c-casual thing,” he tried, “Sometimes I have stuff to d-do, sometimes I don’t.”

That seemed to work. Vague enough to not raise suspicion but also somewhat true - sometimes he got held up, sometimes he didn’t. It was really a 50-50 bet most of the time.

“I see, I see,” Hadou replied, “Does that mean you don’t have any plans for the rest of the day?”

He blinked. Where was she going with this? “N-not really?”

“Sweet!” Hadou whooped, “Want to go get something to eat? I’m kind of hungry!”

…

“E-eh?!”

Nope. He definitely couldn’t handle this. Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. Izuku was out.

Hadou blinked at him in confusion as he turned as red as a strawberry. “Everything okay?”

Izuku was fairly sure he was shaking like a leaf at this point. “U-u-uh, n-not that it sounds b-bad or anything it doesn't , um, I-I think I have to g-go home and eat? Like, dinner?”

Her eyes went wide at his words. “Oh, man!” Hadou groaned, “I knew I was forgetting something! How could I forget about the omurice?!”

She threw a panicked look down to her phone, presumably checking the time, and gasped. “How is it already 4:15?!”

Hadou gave Izuku a strained smile, already starting to run. “I gotta go!” She announced, “Omurice is waiting for me! I’ll see you around! No, wait, I’ll text you! We can hang out some other time, but only if you want! Don’t leave me on read! Also I still need to know about your hair!” 

With a flash of yellow light Hadou was gone, probably using her Quirk to rush home… again.

Izuku wondered if hitting people was just something that she did as a pastime. There was no way he was the only one, right?

Oh well. No use in thinking about that now, he needed to get home, wash up, and eat.

…And text Hadou, if the way his phone was starting to vibrate like crazy meant anything.

Man, he was so out of his depth talking to her. Was he even going to survive the next time he saw her?

Probably not. Still, for some strange reason, the thought of seeing her again… 

It made him feel better than it did before. Even if she was a lot of, well, everything, he did like talking to her. 

But if she hugged him like that again (even if it wasn’t really her intention, it was basically a hug she caught him in) Izuku was definitely going to die.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Hadou was as rapid a texter as she was a speaker.

Case in point…

Nejire

hey

u doing anything later?

or are you one of the ppl who goes to school on the weekend?

ua doesnt really enforce that but idk what its like for ur school

does ur school even have weekend classes?

Izuku stared at his phone in shock as the waterfall of texts poured in. It was only 7:30 and Hadou was clearly already operating at full capacity. He hurried to type out a response that satisfied her ever-burning curiosity.

Izuku

Hhi, Hadou.

No, I don’t have any plans for ttoday. My sschool offers weekend classes, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tteacher actually show up for them, so I don’t bother. Does U.A. really not enforce Saturday class?

He placed his phone down after sending the second text, thinking it would buy him some time to at least start eating his breakfast, but it was buzzing before he could even pick up his fork.

Izuku accepted the fact that he would have to multitask when the phone started vibrating so frequently it almost flew off the table. How was it even possible to type that quickly? Maybe it had something to do with her Quirk - with how… excitable she could be, that wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest.

Nejire

lol you even stutter when you type thats great! how do you even do that?

anyways no ua is tough enough as it is the teachers usually offer weekend classes as a remedial/study hall kind of thing and even then its usually a thing general ed takes advantage of but some teachers like thirteen and ectoplasm will offer extra credit if you want it. well not you because you dont go to ua but you know what i mean

ANYWAYS what i was trying to say earlier was that we should hang out today! i dont have anything planned and you said you dont either so we should do something that doesnt involve me running you over? that probably wouldnt be very fun unless youre a sadist or something but thats like really weird and you dont seem weird and it didnt look like you enjoyed getting thrown into a pole but hey i dont judge

so ice cream? we can do something else if you want that was just a suggestion, im down to do whatever

Man.

He was so not cut out for this. 

Nejire

u there?

At her next text, Izuku scrambled to get back to typing.

Izuku

Yes I’m here, ssorry. I was just reading your messages.

It’s not a stutter, they're just typos. It would be pretty bad if I couldn’t text without stuttering.

That’s nice I guess, having the extra day off must be nice for you guys.

And now came the hard part. 

Hadou wanted to hang out.

With him.

Was he dreaming? Maybe he should pinch himself - nope, definitely not a dream. 

But why? What was her endgame? And why was she calling him a sadist? Was this a date ?

No, of course not. Who would want to date him ? The idea was about as laughable as him being a hero - and he knew full well how realistic that was.

A friendly outing. With a very pretty girl. Who for some reason wanted to interact with him. 

Izuku

Ice ccream sounds good if you want

Hey, if she was going to be nice to him he might as well embrace it. It was only a matter of time before Hadou found out he was Quirkless and immediately dropped whatever interest she had in befriending him, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to for a while.

Also, ice cream. Who didn’t like ice cream?

Nejire

great! i know a place, ill text you later with the location and the time! cya! 

–

It wasn’t a date. It wasn’t a date. It wasn’t a date.

Izuku had to keep repeating that same mantra to himself over and over, otherwise his head might’ve exploded from embarrassment.

He had no real idea where he was, aside from somewhere in uptown Musutafu. She had texted him the location of some ice cream parlor he’d never heard of before, and he was waiting patiently outside, standing beneath the large, multi-colored ice cream cone sign that slowly spun around. 

To be honest, he was kind of surprised by the fact that he was the first one there. Considering how, uh, energetic Hadou was, he expected her to be the first one here by a mile.

A small, nasty part of his mind was already whispering to him that she was never going to show up, and that she had just been stringing him along to do this exact thing once he finally put his guard down.

But for some reason, Izuku didn’t think Hadou would do that. 

Of course, he could always be wrong (like he was about a great many things) but –

“Midoriya!” A now-familiar voice cheered, “Over here! Midoriya!”

Izuku turned towards where he heard the voice, only to jump as he realized Hadou had arrived - and was already right next to him. 

“Ah!” He jumped in surprise at the girl’s speed, with Hadou bursting into giggles as she witnessed his reaction. “U-uh, h-hi.”

“Heya!” Hadou gave him a brief onceover, slowing down as she read his shirt. “Why does your t-shirt say ‘pants’?”

Izuku sighed - it seemed like he found another person who could not understand his choice in fashion. “It’s supposed to be funny,” he explained quietly, the wind already gone from his sails.

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “I don’t get it.”

“No one does,” he muttered, “It’s m-meant to be ironic.”

At least she hadn’t commented on the rest of his clothes. He kind of expected the reaction to his t-shirt, what with just about everybody else on the planet receiving them the same way, but he was also wearing a simple pair of jeans and a white undershirt with long sleeves.

Hadou hummed. “It kind of suits you,” she said, “It’s kind of weird seeing you without your school uniform on though. I couldn’t really imagine you wearing anything else, it fit you too well! If you had a default outfit, I’d bet it was that one, but this one is good too! What do you think about my outfit?”

Izuku blinked at the barrage of information she just dumped on him, before hesitating as he replayed the question she posed to him in his head. Hadou spun around in a circle to show off her choice of clothing better, her skirt twirling in tandem with its owner. She was wearing a loose periwinkle blouse that matched the color of her hair, as well as a white t-shirt underneath that could barely be seen between her neck and the blouse. Her skirt was a slightly darker blue, going down to her knees with frills along the entire article of clothing. 

“U-um, it’s nice,” he commented, doing his best not to stare, “It m-matches you really well.”

“You think so?” Hadou asked, “Thanks! I like blue, it’s my favorite color! I might be a little biased because of my hair though. It’s kind of a pain to upkeep, though, and brushing it takes forever ! Did I keep you waiting? Did you already order something? You live in Musutafu, have you ever been here? This place is pretty nice, so I’d assume you’ve been here before! It’s really good!”

He shook his head slowly. “Um, no to e-everything. I only got here a few minutes ago, so I haven’t even been inside, and I’ve never been here.”

Hadou gasped. Loudly. “ Really?! ” She asked, seemingly in shock, “That’s horrible! Well not the just getting here part, but you’ve seriously never been here before?!”

Izuku shrugged lamely. “I’ve n-never even heard of this place before, s-so no.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s horrible!” Hadou cried, “Hold on, we’re gonna fix that right now.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but any words that would have come out died in his throat as Hadou reached out and grabbed him by the hand, practically dragging him into the ice cream parlor. His blush turned nuclear as he stumbled behind the taller girl, nearly tripping over his feet like an idiot in no small part thanks to the fact that he could barely remember how to walk. 

Also, she was kind of moving quickly. That didn’t really help things.

As Hadou pushed the door open, a small jingle went off from the bell above the door. A few heads turned towards them, mostly from workers, but no one paid them any real mind.

Considering how strong Hadou’s feelings were about the place, it was rather… vacant. There were customers, sure, but considering that it was only a little past noon on a Saturday, there wasn’t anywhere near the level of foot traffic that Izuku had expected. 

There was around half a dozen workers standing behind the counter that displayed all the flavors of ice cream that the parlor had to offer, with most of them busying themselves either with scooping out whichever flavors the eager customers (mainly children or middle schoolers) were pointing to or tinkering with one of the many machines that were whirring along. He could make out which one was dispensing soft-serve ice cream and one that layered toppings on, but nothing beyond that.

There were easily over two dozen flavors available, from the classic vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry to more exotic options like birthday cake, pistachio, peanut butter, and even black licorice. The floor was a checkerboard style of black and white tiles, while a red and white tablecloth of a similar pattern covered each table. Upbeat music played at a low volume wafted slowly across the building, and Izuku was reminded of a sort of theming he had seen in some pre-Quirk era American movies.

Of course, none of that mattered because he was still trying not to have a heart attack.

“–Midoriya? Midoriya? Anyone home?”

Izuku blinked as he reentered reality, realizing Hadou was poking him in the shoulder (and still holding his hand, for some reason) with a look of slight concentration on her face.

His face flushed once more. “S-sorry,” he began, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, “I kind of spaced out for a second. W-what were you saying?”

She gave him a smile. “No worries!” She exclaimed, “I do that all the time! Aizawa hates it!”

“Who?” Izuku felt a little lost by the end there, but he understood the gist of what she was saying.

“One of my teachers,” Hadou said flippantly, “He’s a real piece of work! Anyways, I was just asking about what you were planning to get?”

Izuku hummed. “Um, I don’t know, p-probably just regular ice cream?” He eyed the multitude of flavors arrayed on display. “Y-you said you’ve been here before, right? What do you like to get?”

Hadou’s eyes lit up at the question. “Yeah!” She exclaimed, “I love this place! Me and my friend Yuyu found it one day when we got lost on the train after one of our first days at U.A., and from the first bite I had of their ice cream I was hooked! The trip is kind of out of the way for me, but it’s super worth it because–”

“Next!” One of the employees called, shaking Hadou out of the start of her spiel.

Unfazed, the girl quickly took her spot in front of the counter, Izuku in tow, and gave a friendly wave to the worker. “Hello!” She greeted cheerily, “I’ll have my usual, please!”

The worker blinked. “Um,” he replied slowly, his voice unnaturally high considering how large he was, “I’m sorry, who are you?”

His voice had a slight lisp, probably owed to his thick lips. Based on his frame alone he would seem rather intimidating, but considering how he held himself it was likely he was somewhat mild-mannered. He wore a simple white and pink striped t-shirt, along with a tiny little nametag that sat atop his left pectoral.

Hadou frowned. “What do you mean? She questioned, “I’m here all the time! Everyone here knows me, are you new here?”

The boy (because he couldn’t have been much older than Izuku, if at all) nodded to confirm her suspicions. “Yeah,” he said, shrugging, “I only got hired a few weeks ago. So, uh, how can I help you?”

Hadou completely ignored the worker, instead taking the time to look around behind him for someone else. She brightened as she saw a face she recognized, immediately waving her hand to get their attention.

“Hey! Mika!” She called, “Mika!”

The girl who was working at the soft-serve machine’s eyes lit up at Hadou’s voice, immediately turning her head towards the periwinkle-haired girl. “Nejire-chan?”

The female worker quickly made her way over to them, smiling brightly at Hadou as Izuku and the male worker stood awkwardly to the side. “Oh my gosh, it’s been forever!” She greeted, “How’ve you been!”

Nejire offered her a megawatt smile. “I know, right? Sorry, but I’ve been kinda busy at U.A. for the past few weeks, what with the new school year and all. How are you doing? How are your sisters? Your mom?”

The woman (Mika, Izuku supposed) laughed as Hadou continued to ramble. “You don’t need to apologize, little-miss-hero,” she chuckled, “I know all about just how busy you are these days! Everyone’s doing alright, thanks for asking! And…”

Her eyes landed on Izuku, a mischievous glint in her eyes that really worried him. “I see you’ve been busy. Finally found yourself a boyfriend?”

If Izuku thought he was blushing like an idiot earlier, there were no words to describe how embarrassed he was at that moment. He finally freed his hand from Hadou’s in a panic, choking on his spit and mumbling incoherently.

Hadou just laughed. “Nah, this is just my friend Midoriya!” She explained, “I met him a few days ago! He said he’s never been here before, but he lives in Musutafu! Can you believe that?”

Mika shrugged. “It’s a big world, you know,” she reminded, “But we’ll be sure to accommodate him. Nice to meet you, Midoriya.”

“L-l-likewise,” he mumbled, eyes trained squarely on the large tub of root beer ice cream in front of him. If he focused on anything else, he might just die of embarrassment.

“Hey, Tanaka-san,” the other worker asked, regaining her attention, “Do you still need me over here, or…”

Mika waved him off. “You’re good, Satou,” she said calmly, “Go and see if Maya needs any help with the slushie machine, I’ll take it from here.”

The boy nodded and was quick to disappear into the back of the parlor, with Tanaka turning back to Hadou and Izuku. “You know, Nejire,” she hummed, “Satou here is going to U.A. too! He’s even in the Hero Course! Maybe you’ll see him sometime.”

“Ooh, maybe!” Hadou nodded. “He seems nice! But I’m here for one thing and one thing only today!”

Tanaka smirked. “I’m sure you are. The usual?”

“Yep!” She confirmed, “As for the flavors… how about one birthday cake, one cotton candy, one rocky road, and one strawberry!”

Wait, what?

The worker nodded, already moving between each tub of ice cream to fill out Hadou’s order. The four scoops of ice cream were placed into a massive waffle cone, with the entire thing then being coated in sprinkles, hot fudge, chocolate chips, and a few marshmallows. Finally, Tanaka grabbed a single plastic spoon from a small dispenser behind her and stuck it into the sugary monstrosity she had created, offering the treat to Hadou with a smile.

She looked ecstatic . 

“Thanks!” Hadou said happily, eyeing the ice cream hungrily, “Oh, I’ve missed you!”

Tanaka then turned towards Izuku once more. “And how about you, kid?”

To be honest, his appetite had kind of evaporated once he saw the cavity-inducer disguised as ice cream that Hadou had ordered. But he knew saying nothing was just about the stupidest thing he could ever do, so he kept it simple. “Ah, one scoop of m-mint chocolate chip, please.”

She nodded at his request, a knowing look in her eyes. “Cone or cup?”

“A cone is f-fine.”

“Gotcha.” Tanaka handed him the cone with practiced ease. “That’ll be 300 yen.”

Izuku nodded, quickly handing over the requested bills with his free hand. “Thanks,” he said quietly, before sparing a look towards Hadou (who had already started to dig in to her abomination of a meal), “Um, d-does she–”

“Nejire’s got a tab with us,” Tanaka quickly explained, “Makes things easier - she’s our best customer! I’ll just add it later.”

“Mhm!” Hadou nodded quickly. “C’mon, Midoriya! Let’s go get a table!”

Yet again she grabbed him by the hand and led him away (causing him to repeat the same exact motions he’s been going through over the past few minutes), with Hadou’s friend behind the counter snickering silently to herself all the while.

Hadou led them to a small booth in the corner of the parlor, quickly sliding onto the bright red cushions with her mountain of ice cream. Izuku took a little more time himself, mostly trying to get his heartbeat back to human levels, but eventually took a seat opposite Hadou.

She hummed in delight as she went to town on her ice cream, with Izuku doing his best not to stare as she ate. They fell into a somewhat awkward silence - well, awkward for him. Hadou seemed to be having a blast. 

He took a lick of his mint chocolate chip scoop. It was good, but for some reason tasted a little sweeter than he was used to. Not that that was an inherently bad thing or anything, but it was still a little unexpected. 

But why did Hadou like it so much?

Well… only one way to find out.

“Um…” He started slowly, nearly losing his nerve once she turned her attention away from her ice cream and back to him, “You r-really like this place, huh?”

He ended with an awkward and forced laugh, already regretting opening his mouth, but Hadou just nodded enthusiastically. “Yep!” She agreed heartily, “It’s great! Aside from that new guy I know everybody who works here, and they know me! They know just how I like my ice cream, which is great, because if I asked any other ice cream parlor for this kind of order they’d probably refuse to serve me.”

He spared her cone a look, and realized he could barely even see the ice cream beneath all the toppings Tanaka had added. “...I see. It, ah, does seem v-very sugary.”

“Which is why it’s so awesome!” At his somewhat perplexed look, she decided to elaborate. “See, they use an old American recipe for their ice cream which means it’s got even more sugar than usual, which for most people probably isn’t the healthiest, but it’s awesome for me! I really need energy and stamina for my Quirk, and this place is great for that because not only is this stuff great at raising my tolerance for energy, but the sugar highs that it gives me lead to massive crashes that work like stamina training! It’s perfect!”

Izuku didn’t know about the science behind that, but who was he to judge someone else’s Quirk - especially one that he knew just about nothing about. Besides, Quirks were bullshit. ‘Science’ and ‘laws of physics’ didn’t really apply to them.

“What is your Quirk, Hadou-san?” He asked (before quickly backtracking), “I-if you don’t m-mind me asking, of c-course.”

She shook her head, already starting to take out spoonfuls from her ice cream again - she seemed to be targeting the birthday cake scoop with extreme prejudice. “Not at all!” She replied, “My Quirk is called Wave Motion. It’s kind of, like, super complicated, but to keep it simple it lets me release my vitality in the form of shockwaves, like this!”

Hadou briefly left her spoon to sit atop her sprinkle-covered creation, and placed her hand out towards him with her palm facing upwards. A small yellow spiral, no taller than a pencil, suddenly appeared in the air above her hand, swirling around like a miniature tornado in slow motion before she dismissed it with a wave of her hand.

“I can do a lot of cool stuff with it,” she elaborated, slowly returning to her ice cream, “Or, at least, I think I can. Coming up with new ideas for super moves is tough! But I have a lot I can do with it already - remember how I flew around you when I walked you home that one time? That was thanks to my Quirk. I have a lot of control over it, especially the size of the spirals, and I’ve trained with it a lot! The only downside, if you can call it that, is that it can be kind of slow sometimes since it always comes out in a super wide arc, but if I give it enough ‘oomph’ it’ll still be pretty quick! What do you think?”

Now, Nejire wouldn’t admit this until much, much later to him, but the way his eyes had completely lit up as she described her Quirk to him was the first moment she realized that there was something special about Izuku to her.

“Wow!” Izuku gasped, eyes wide and mouth open in amazement, “That sounds–”

He cut himself off as soon as he realized what he was doing, causing Hadou to look at him in confusion as he tried to play it off as a cough.

“You okay?” She asked, eyes wide in concern.

“Y-y-yeah,” he stuttered, “S-sorry. M-m-must’ve had some i-ice cream go down the wrong p-pipe.”

Real smooth. Izuku took another lick of his ice cream, trying to hide how he really wished he was at home all of a sudden. “Um, but yeah, y-your Quirk seems really c-cool.”

He cringed at the way he sounded like a little kid. Even after all this time, he still turned into a four-year-old whenever he learned about Quirks. He couldn’t even hide his weirdness for more than fifteen minutes.

He was such a loser.

Nejire didn’t say anything about the minor scene he had caused, but her eyes certainly showed a level of concern. Midoriya didn’t see it, of course, being far too preoccupied with doing anything but meeting her eyes.

Hmm. This would take some tact.

“You think so?” Nejire asked, calmly ignoring the fact that he was curling in on himself, “Thanks! A lot of people either think my Quirk is kind of terrible because of the drawbacks, or think it’s just fluky that I got such a powerful one.”

Izuku blinked. Was she still talking to him?

He spared a glance up towards Hadou, and sure enough, her attention was focused on him. Was she waiting for him to respond?

“U-um…” he started, awkward as ever, “I’m s-sorry to hear that. Your Quirk s-seems like a strong one, sure, b-but, ah, I’m s-sure you had to put in a lot of e-effort to make it so.”

He took another tentative lick of his ice cream, unsure of how Hadou would respond. Or if she even would respond.

Nejire hummed to herself slowly. She could tell Midoriya seemed interested in her Quirk - before he bottled himself up, he definitely seemed enthralled by her discussion of it. But she didn’t know why he’d hide his interest so suddenly. It was the most passion she’d ever seen out of the boy (at least, aside from when she asked him if he didn’t want to interact with her).

“Yep! I’ve had to do a lot of training to get to where I am today,” she agreed, testing the waters, “So what do you think?”

Izuku blinked. “Th-think about what?”

“My Quirk, silly!” Hadou giggled, “You seemed like you had something to say about it earlier, right? I wanna hear!”

His face became flushed again. “O-oh, um…” Izuku trailed off slowly, before forcing a laugh and a fake smile, “Y-you don’t want to hear me t-talk about any of that! I’m, um, s-sure I don’t have anything interesting to say, hah…”

He looked back down quickly, grimacing slightly at his excuse, and that was when Nejire realized what the problem was.

And it made her upset - though she had enough control of herself to not show it.

Hadou hummed, twirling her spoon around in her hand as her ice cream began to slowly melt before slowly shaking her head. “Sure I do!”

Izuku looked back up in alarm. “H-huh?”

She gave him a toothy smile. “I love talking about Quirks!” Hadou explained, “And I want to hear what you think about mine! I won’t bite, promise!”

Izuku gulped. Hadou seemed pretty insistent on hearing his opinion, but…

Why? No one wanted to hear him talk about Quirks, and for good reason. It was creepy, stalkery, annoying, he could go on and on for hours about why he should just keep his mouth shut.

So why was Hadou acting like that wasn’t true?

Realizing that she was still waiting on an answer from him, he cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter - he felt more tense than just about anything in the world.

“W-well,” he started, trying to muster the nerve to speak honestly, “It seems like a, ah, Quirk with a low floor and a very high ceiling, if I’m being honest. Y-you said you’re Quirk was the reason you could fly, right? H-how does that work - if you d-don’t mind me a-asking!”

Hadou giggled at his mannerisms. “Like I said earlier, no problem! To fly, all I have to do is emit some spirals from my feet and I can hover, and then to move I can either increase the output from those spirals or I can change their direction - it helps when I use my hands to help stabilize myself as well, but I’ve been flying for so long that I don’t really need to use them if it comes down to it.”

Izuku nodded. “That’s v-very impressive, Hadou-san. I c-can’t imagine how long it took you to perfect your flying.” He took another lick of his ice cream. “Um, it seems like you’ve really pushed yourself with your Quirk, which is something a lot of people sometimes either don’t do well enough or take for granted entirely, and that’s good, b-but, ah, are those the only two applications you’ve found for Wave Motion?”

Hadou blinked, her easy smile faltering slightly at his words. “What do you mean?”

He winced. “I-I, um, y-you’ve trained your Quirk very well - and it shows, a-and I’m not trying to take away from the amount of work you’ve put in! B-but, um, are flight and combat shockwaves the only things you use it for?”

She put her hand up to her chin, deep in thought. “Yeah?” Hadou replied, with the word coming out as more of a question, “Is that bad?”

“No?” Izuku hesitantly responded, “U-um, there’s definitely nothing wrong with the way you have been using it, and you’ve d-definitely been training the right way. B-but, well, Wave Motion is literal energy, right?”

Hadou nodded, leaning forward slightly in anticipation. Feeling brave, he pressed on. “W-well, uh, a l-lot of this is speculation, but there are probably a lot of other ways you c-could apply that. Once you’ve created a spiral, can you use it to boost another person’s output? Can you release it from all over your body? If you can, you can probably use it as a forcefield. Could you use it to amplify your voice, like Present Mic? Can you alter how wide the cone of each spiral is, to make them more efficient?”

The moment he realized he had started to ramble, Izuku slammed his hand over his mouth, completely humiliated once again. “N-nevermind,” he whispered hurriedly, “I’m s-sure you’ve already t-tried all that stuff.”

His eyes darted to his lap, ignoring the way that Hadou’s eyes had continued to widen. “...No, I haven’t.”

She’d been too busy training herself to be able to use her Quirk all these years, after all, why would she bother with trying to change how Wave Motion functioned?

They were each in their own separate world at that moment, with Izuku continuing to sink into his seat while Nejire slowly outstretched her hand to summon another spiral - only this time, she tried something she’d never done before.

She tried controlling exactly what she wanted the spiral to look like.

“Holy crap,” she whispered, staring down at her hand in awe, “Midoriya, look!”

He raised his chin up, only to join Hadou in staring at her hand. Instead of the compressed, tornado-esque spiral that occupied that spot previously, a taller, longer, almost corkscrew-like spiral sat in its place. The spiral was less compressed, with a smaller arc around each rotation, so much so that this new spiral would likely comfortably fit inside the previous one.

“Look!” She whisper-shouted, “This is… this is…”

Hadou trailed off, seemingly lost for words as a wide grin threatened to split her face in half. 

“Holy super crap!” She repeated, eyes alight with possibilities as she eyed Izuku, “And you weren’t gonna share your thoughts?!”

“I-I d-didn’t want to m-make assumptions?” He weakly defended, “Um, I’m glad I could h-help?”

Hadou was literally buzzing with excitement. “You did a lot more than help, smarty-pants! This is so much more efficient than before, who knows what else I can do! You, apparently! What other stuff did you think I could do again?”

“U-um–”

Before he could formulate a response, she shook her head. “Nevermind, forget the ice cream!” She tossed her (now empty) waffle cone into the nearest trash bin, quickly standing up and reaching for Izuku. He yelped in surprise as she grabbed his hand for the third time today, but she paid him no heed. “We’re gonna go do some Quirk testing! And you’re gonna help me– unless you don’t want to?”

Even though she gave Izuku the option to decline, he could tell that Hadou was really hoping he’d go along with… whatever she had planned. “O-okay?”

“Great!” Hadou whooped, “There’s no time to waste!” 

Izuku had a funny feeling that her sugar high had kicked in by this point, and that this may have had an effect on her decision making as of right now. “What do you– ack!”

He choked on his spit as Hadou beelined for the exit, practically being dragged behind her as he held on to her hand for dear life, with his other hand still clinging tightly to his single scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Despite the terror that was coursing through his veins, Izuku couldn’t help the small feeling of warmth that bubbled up in his chest at the way Hadou was so… herself. The way she was so enthusiastic about everything, the way she encouraged him to speak his mind, the way she was so headstrong, all of it was a lot to take in - but it was what made Hadou, well, Hadou.

It was nice to have a friend again.

Chapter Text

Izuku recoiled in pain as yet another fist smashed against his face, his head snapping backwards as his teeth rang out from the impact against his jaw.

Laughter echoed around him as he was pushed around in a circle between Tsubasa and his friends, each one taking their turn getting a few hits in on his prone body. He tried not to yelp or cry out, since that just emboldened the group in their attack, but it was tough when Izuku was getting turned into a human punching bag.

“Did you really think you could keep running away, Deku ?” Tsubasa sneered, shoving him to the ground just to have one of the other boys yank him up by the back of his collar, “You’re pathetic!”

He socked him in the stomach, which would have made Izuku double over in pain if he were able to. As it was, he could only gasp in shock as the air left his lungs, shaking in his tormentor’s grip.

Tsubasa turned his back on Izuku, and through his hazy eyes he thought he could see the portly teen rummaging through his backpack.

“H-hey!” Izuku tried to shout, but it turned into a wheezing fit. He could feel blood dripping down his face as he hacked up a lung. “G-get away from that!”

“Make me!” Was the only response he received.

He struggled to free himself from his classmate’s grip, but another boy came up to him and held his arms back. 

Tsubasa, ever impatient, didn’t bother rifling through his bag - instead, he simply turned it upside down and dumped all the contents out onto the grimy tile floor. Izuku kicked and cried in protest, but that just led to someone else coming over and hitting him square in his solar plexus. 

“!” Izuku froze, his body locking up as his nerves erupted in pain. The student holding him up by the back of his neck dropped him, and he hit the ground unceremoniously. 

“Do you still write in those stalker notebooks?” Tsubasa asked, not waiting for an answer before he continued, “Or was Katsuki able to get it through your head that you were a fucking freak?”

He was a little busy trying to remember how to breathe, but even if he wasn’t Izuku wouldn’t have responded. He knew better than to humor them with a response - his only hope was for Tsubasa and his cronies to get bored and give up on messing with him.

A boy with blue hair and an extendable neck for his Quirk that Izuku remembered from Aldera peered over Tsubasa’s shoulder. “Whatcha got? Anything good?”

Tsubasa rolled his eyes. “Nope. Just regular notebooks, paper, and some other useless junk. Must’ve known better than to bring them to class today, little rat.”

He kicked Izuku’s stuff down the hall, before turning back towards his vulnerable form on the tiled floor. “You know Deku,” he began coldly, “You really should just give up. You’re worthless. The world would be a better place without you, obviously. You used to worship Katsuki, didn’t you? Why don’t you do us all a favor and take the advice he gave you last year?”

Tsubasa kicked him in the gut for good measure (with his cronies laughing up a storm at the action), before stomping down the hall with his friends in tow. Izuku, for his part, just laid there and tried to keep himself from sobbing. If he started crying, they won. 

They won a lot.

Taking a shuddering breath, he slowly crawled back towards his backpack, wincing at the way the teeth on one of the zipper tracks was completely ruined. 

He liked this backpack…

This wasn’t the first time he’d been suicide-baited this year. After Bakugou told him to take a swan-dive off the roof and pray for a Quirk in his next life last year, it was like a dam had been broken - spider lilies wound up on his desk more often than not, and ‘helpful’ notes constantly found their way into his locker. It was still better now than it was during middle school, but Tsubasa and the others made sure that Izuku knew exactly how valued he was.

It took Izuku longer than he would like to admit to finally pull himself off the floor. He stumbled as he started walking towards his scattered belongings, nearly falling over more than once and leaning against the lockers for support. It took some time collecting them, with most of the papers winding up in the trash due to the dirty footprints smudged over them.

He grimaced as he wiped at his face with the back of his sleeve, realizing that his lower lip had been busted as a result of one of the punches he had received. Blood marred his uniform, and was likely smeared all over his chin. That wasn’t going to be fun to explain to his mom. 

At least they didn’t take his phone. It was still secure in his pocket, as silent as it had been all day.

To be honest, that was kind of surprising. Hadou usually texted him a lot , and he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong on Saturday to warrant her ignoring him, but what did he know? Maybe she was just crashing out from all the sugar in her system.

Already brainstorming excuses for when he got home, he slowly made his way downstairs and towards the entrance. Izuku really hoped nobody was waiting right outside for him.

It had happened before. More than once, actually, so if he was smart he’d actually–

“Hi Midoriya!” A now familiar voice called out to him the second he pushed open the door.

His stomach sank faster than the Titanic. How was she here?

Izuku had barely stepped foot outside into the cool spring air before Hadou had spotted him, and he was strongly considering slamming it shut and running for the hills.

Unfortunately, she didn’t give him the time to do so.

“Surprised to see me?” She asked, bounding up the steps in front of the school, “Because you should– woah! Are you okay?!”

Hadou gasped in shock. He tried not to react as she cringed at the state of his face, but it didn’t look like Izuku did a very good job at that because Hadou immediately looked guilty.

“Are you okay?” She repeated, softer this time, “What happened?”

Izuku looked away, unable to meet her eyes. “I-I-I’m f-fine,” he stammered quietly, “U-um, what are you d-doing here? H-how did you even find m-my school?”

She ignored his questions, gently reaching out with one hand and using it to tilt his head towards her. He squirmed uncomfortably beneath her scrutinous stare, but her eyes showed nothing but worry. “You look horrible!” Hadou commented, “How can you say this is fine? Were you in a fight?”

He shook his head to the best of his ability, which wasn’t very well considering she was still grasping onto the bottom of his face. “N-no!” Izuku insisted, “I-I, uh, f-fell. D-d-down a s-stairwell.”

To him, that wasn’t the worst excuse in the world, but it clearly didn’t work on Hadou. She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “A stairwell?” She repeated.

“Y-y-yeah.”

Hadou’s frown deepened. “A stairwell that gave you a black eye?”

Welp. That wasn’t good.

Izuku froze like a deer in headlights. “U-uh, I… m-must’ve hit my h-head on the r-railing?”

If the first lie didn’t fool Hadou, there was no chance this one did either. Still, he could hope for a miracle.

The thing about miracles, though, was that they didn’t come around too often. And for Izuku, they didn’t really come around, period.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, clearly not enjoying the fact that Izuku wasn’t telling her the truth, “But if I’m not mistaken, didn’t you have bruises on your face the first time we met too?”

Fuck. 

Izuku was trembling by this point - he knew exactly what she was talking about. That day, Tsubasa had been taking his deep-seeded frustrations over failing Shiketsu’s entrance exam out on him, and had left him quite a few parting gifts in the process. Nobody had questioned them then, and for good reason (since he had been thrown into a pole), but now?

He felt like a dam about to burst. Hadou was looking increasingly concerned as he stammered and stuttered out nothings. “I-I guess I’m just c-c-clumsy?”

The sentence was punctuated with a smile, but it came out as a twisted grimace.

Izuku really hoped Hadou would buy it. But he kind of knew she wouldn’t. He squeezed his eyes shut, already preparing for the worst–

“If you say so,” she said slowly, sighing as she pulled her hand away from him, “Sit down on the steps for me.”

He blinked. “Huh?”

Hadou had already turned her back to him, dropping her own bookbag and pilfering through its contents. Not wanting to upset her any further (because she could definitely tell he was lying), he did as instructed, dropping his own backpack to the ground alongside him.

It only took a few moments for the periwinkle-haired girl to find what she was looking for, and once she turned towards him he realized Hadou was holding a small first-aid kit. She spared his scuffed backpack a single, unhappy look before dropping down in front of him.

“W-what are you doing?” Izuku asked, leaning backwards in surprise and nervousness from her proximity to him.

She cracked open the tiny teal box before responding, pulling out a small piece of cotton and a bottle of peroxide. “What does it look like?”

While Hadou didn’t sound mad, per se, she certainly didn’t sound pleased. It made Izuku wince guiltily, and he couldn’t help but realize that he was the reason for her ire.

“Y-you d-don’t have to h-help!” He said quickly, taking the older girl by surprise, “I-I, um, s-sorry. I’ll be okay, really! I d-don’t want to t-trouble you.”

Hadou stared at him, eyes wide, until something clicked in her head. She poured some of the alcohol onto the cotton ball, leaning forward with it until she was only a few inches from his face (something that made his head feel really warm).

“You’re not troubling me, Izuku,” she whispered kindly, meeting his gaze evenly, “You’re my friend, and I’m a Hero. It’s my job to help people. Can I help?”

Izuku gulped. She was really close. And using his first name. He felt like his judgment might have been a little clouded, but he jerked his head up and down anyways. “O-okay,” he mumbled.

Hadou smiled. “Thank you,” she replied, before it immediately dimmed, “Brace yourself, this might sting.”

She pressed the cotton against his cheek (he must have been bleeding more than he thought) and he flinched back slightly, an apology already forming on his lips. “S-s-sorry–”

“It’s okay,” Hadou assured him, “It’s not your fault.”

They both fell silent for a few moments, with Hadou tending to his cuts and Izuku hissing a little bit whenever she moved onto a particularly painful one. It went on for a while, but he never really became any less on-edge.

In the middle of placing a bandage across his forehead, she suddenly spoke up again. “Do you trust me?”

“Huh?” Izuku breathed out, confused. “Y-yes?”

She hummed, choosing to let silence pervade for a few moments before she locked eyes with him again. “You can talk to me if something’s bothering you, or if you need help with anything, you know. People shouldn’t have to deal with their problems alone. Okay?”

He shuddered as she pressed a small ice pack against his eye, but only partly from the cold. “G-got it.”

Izuku was glad that Hadou didn’t keep pressing him on it, but he couldn’t help but feel more than a little worried about what her opinion of him was now. Did she think he was a compulsive liar now? Did she dislike him for lying? Did she think he had lied to her about other stuff, too?” 

“I don’t think you're a liar, Izuku,” Hadou replied.

He slammed a hand over his mouth faster than should have been possible - miraculously not hitting Hadou in the face in the process - completely mortified. 

He thought he had finally got control of his muttering. 

Clearly not.

“S-s-sorry,” he mumbled after a few seconds passed, face as red as Mars. “I-I, uh, I know my m-muttering is creepy, b-but I–”

“It’s not creepy,” Haduo murmured, “ You’re not creepy.”

He didn’t have the energy in him to argue with what was an undeniable lie from her, so he just looked away in shame. Hadou watched him with keen eyes before continuing on her job, a worried frown on her face.

It wasn’t very hard for Nejire to figure out that Izuku was hiding some things from her.

–

“Done.”

It took longer than Izuku would have liked for Hadou to finish with the first-aid kit, with it getting to the point in the day where the sun was starting to dip, but he wasn’t about to complain about her taking the time to clean up what he was sure looked like a crime scene on his face.

“T-thanks,” he muttered, “U-um, really though, y-you didn’t have to–”

She cupped his face again, and that was enough to shut him up immediately. “It’s okay.” Hadou offered him a sweet smile that made his gut do backflips. “Thanks for letting me help.”

Izuku blinked. Why was she thanking him? “Uh, n-no problem?” His brow furrowed slightly after a moment. “B-but, um, w-why are you at m-my school– n-not that it’s a p-problem, or anything!”

He waved his hands placatingly in front of him, but she just giggled as he became more and more flustered. “Thanks for reminding me,” she replied, already turning back towards her bookbag to deposit the first-aid kit and retrieve… something, “I was gonna text you, but I wanted it to be a surprise! Remember how we were testing out Wave Motion the other day after we got ice cream?”

Izuku nodded. She had dragged him halfway across Musutafu in a single bound, with the two of them winding up at an old, trash-filled beach… or so he thought. Apparently Mirio, one of Hadou’s friends, had cleaned the entire beach up over the course of most of last year, which was frankly incredible. Anyways, the two of them had spent the better part of the afternoon theorycrafting and doing tests with her Quirk, and Hadou claimed that she would need some time to herself afterwards to cope with the fact that Izuku had turned her understanding of Wave Motion on its head in the span of a few seconds. She had left that day exuberant, giggling something about ‘showing the others next time they had training’, but Izuku wasn’t one to pry.

“Good! I knew you would,” she praised, before pulling out a crisp, white, sealed envelope, “Well, not to brag or anything, but even though it’s only been two days I’m pretty sure I’m going to win the Sports Festival now thanks to some of the stuff you showed me! From what I have shown Mirio and Tamaki, they’ve barely been able to handle it, so imagine what happens when I casually reveal neither of them can even break my forcefield!”

“C-congrats?” Izuku said slowly, slightly confused, “But I didn’t s-show you anything? A-all the work was done by you, I j-just came up with some i-ideas…”

He looked away quickly, bashfully tapping his index fingers together beneath her astonished gaze. Izuku missed the way her mouth went from an ‘o’ to a wide smile, jumping slightly when she sat down right next to him and starting playing with his hair again.

“You’re really sweet!” Hadou enjoyed the way that he sputtered in shock. “But no, that was all you! I’ve had my Quirk for thirteen years, and I’ve never even thought about those ideas for it! You can take credit for this one!”

Izuku’s face continued to invent new shades of red with his blushing. “Uh… i-if you s-say so?”

“You still haven’t told me how you get your hair so soft,” she commented, “But anyways! So, I wanted it to be a surprise, so I had to remember what the name of your school was, which was hard because it was super generic and boring. I eventually did, and then I had to look it up - did you know it has an average rating of less than one star? That’s really bad, I still don’t get how someone as smart as you wound up in such a crappy school! You’d probably fit right in at U.A., but I guess that means we might not have met yet and that would suck a lot, so I guess it’s fine. So I found your school, and I decided to surprise you and show up after your class let out and give you this!”

Hadou offered him the envelope she was holding with a bright smile, one which he hesitantly tried to return as he accepted the paper. He made sure not to brush against her hands, eyeing the paper in confusion.

“I-it’s addressed to you?” Izuku said, reading off the address information. “From U.A.? W-why would they not just, um, g-give it to you?”

“Open it and you’ll find out!~” Hadou replied in a sing-song voice, “Go on, open it!”

He nodded slowly, taking care not to damage the paper or whatever was inside as he sheared the top off. Digging around for a moment, he realized the only thing within was a long, thin piece of paper with special markings across it. Hadou continued to watch on eagerly, rocking back and forth on the step and hoping he liked it.

Izuku’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he finally pulled out the paper, realizing exactly what it was immediately.

A ticket to U.A.’s Sports Festival.

“I could tell that you really liked Quirks based on the way we were talking about Wave Motion,” Hadou rambled, “So I thought you might like to go and see the Festival in person! You can finally meet my other friends, and I really want to introduce you to them! I think you’d like them a lot, and I know they’d like you! Also, I want you to be there when I win! It’ll be fun!”

He didn’t say anything, instead continuing to stare at the small slip of paper in his hands.

Sports Festival tickets weren’t exactly cheap - aside from the fact that they never really had time, money was the main reason his mother had never taken him to see one in person. The third year’s Festival was especially exclusive, what with it being the last one most people saw before those students became full-fledged heroes. 

And he now had a front row seat. The ticket even had his name on it.

He didn’t realize he had started shaking until he nearly tore the ticket up with how tightly he was holding it.

“Izuku?” Hadou asked quickly, “Are you okay? Do you not like it? I-I can take it back if you don’t want it! Are you upset–”

He laughed at her. A wet, shuddering laugh that made it really hard not to cry right now. 

“N-no,” he breathed out, choking up slightly, “I-it, um, it’s a-amazing. I j-just–”

Izuku paused, unable to meet her eyes. Deep breaths, deep breaths. It would be really embarrassing if he burst into tears. “I d-d-don’t g-get gifts a l-lot,” he finally hiccuped, voice barely above a whisper, “B-but this must have c-cost you a lot. A-are you sure you want to give this to m-me ?”

He barely felt the arm she reached around his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile as she squeezed his arm. “Of course I do,” she said softly, “I’m glad you like it.”

A wobbly smile formed on his lips, and he was sure he was quite a sore sight with his bruises and busted lip, but it was the happiest he’d felt in a long time. He could already feel the mistiness in his eyes. God, he was pathetic. He knew he and his mom were criers, but this was ridiculous. 

“I d-do.” Izuku agreed, pawing at his eyes as he sniffled, “T-this means a lot t-to me. T-thank you, Hadou-s-san. I-if there’s anything I c-can do to repay you– hrk!”

In the middle of his sentence, Hadou, seemingly decided she’d heard enough, wrapped her other arm around him and pulled him in for a hug - abruptly shutting him up in just about the most efficient way possible.

His blush turned nuclear - no, Chernobyl - as she practically placed him in her lap, wrapping her arms around Izuku’s torso and pulling him close as she rested her head on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure if he was as still as a statue or shaking like crazy, but Hadou didn’t seem to care. 

“You don’t have to repay me,” she whispered, her breath making him seize up as it tickled his ear, “It’s a gift. I wanted to give it to you, no strings attached.”

Hadou pulled back slightly, allowing herself to lock eyes with Izuku - and he was sure that he looked like a hot mess. “Buuut…” she said slowly, tilting her head to the side with a mischievous grin, “If you want, I wouldn’t hate it if you started calling me Nejire.”

She was going to kill him. She was going to kill him, and she wasn’t even trying. He was going to have a heart attack at this rate, and he was going to die. 

But… that probably wouldn’t be the worst way for him to go.

Even before he opened his mouth he knew he was going to stutter like an idiot. “O-okay, N-N-Nejire.”

Izuku turned his head to the side quickly, unable to take the way she was beaming at him, but that just meant he had even less time to react as Nejire yanked him back in for another hug.

“Now if you’re gonna use my first name you better not go back to ‘Hadou’,” she warned, “You hear me?”

Izuku nodded, almost robotically. “Y-yes ma’am.”

Nejire snorted. “Ma’am?” She gasped dramatically, “How old do you think I am?!”

“S-sorry.”

She poked his forehead. “You don’t have to apologize, silly.”

“S-sorry.”

Instead of poking him again, she playfully rolled her eyes and started playing with Izuku’s hair again. “For real this time, tell me what the secret to hair this fluffy is!”

He blinked. “Um… conditioner?”

Nejire nodded slowly, taking in his sage advice. “Alright, more conditioner. I’ll let you know how that works out.”

She continued to play with his hair with one hand, keeping her other one wrapped around him - since it wasn’t like he was hugging her back, she was the only one keeping them close together.

Izuku blushed as another thought entered his mind. Would Nejire get mad if–

Almost without thinking, he slowly reached his arms around her sides, his heart pounding in his chest before he realized what he was doing. He tensed, immediately ready to apologize and get up–

Nejire hummed, moving her arm around so he was a little closer to her - and now unable to pull back his own. 

“Hugs are better with two people, don’t you think?” She asked.

He nodded dumbly, with most of his motor function abandoning him as he realized how they must look to an outsider. A warm feeling blossomed in his chest as they sat there… one that he just knew would spell trouble for him in the future.

Because now, Izuku had a crush.

This wasn’t going to end well.

Chapter Text

For the umpteenth time, Izuku checked the time on his phone. 

11:06

Just like it was the last time he checked.

Izuku sighed. He was overthinking things again.

Probably. He couldn’t be sure of anything anymore - his life was getting weird.

Currently, he was seated at one of the benches in front of Kiyashi Ward’s infamous shopping mall, waiting patiently at Nejire’s behest. She had invited him out here for what she referred to as a ‘Super awesome and fun shopping trip’, accentuated by many exclamation points, and Izuku wasn’t the kind of person to turn that down.

Scratch that. He wasn’t the kind of person to turn down anyone for anything, much less his only friend for an outing that seemed like it would, for all intents and purposes, be fun. Izuku didn’t know what exactly Nejire had planned - when he had asked all she replied with a ‘You’ll see’, followed by even more exclamation points and even a winking face emoji.

Izuku was so engrossed in his thoughts that it took him a few moments to realize his phone had begun to buzz like crazy again - and he fought down the small smile on his face as he saw who it was… as if there was any doubt.

Nejire

are you here yet?

im here now

youd think with how popular this place is theyd get a second main entrance right? or at least some more smaller entrances?

have you ever been here before?

is that you? i think i see you

Izuku

I’m here.

He peeked his head up from his phone–

“Boo!”

“Ah!”

Izuku was not proud of the way he screamed, nor was he proud of the way he practically flew off the bench in shock.

Nejire giggled as he leapt backwards, slowly reeling herself back onto her own to feet. She had used Wave Motion to hover up close to him, placing her face right in front of Izuku’s to give him quite the surprise once he finally looked up.

And maybe a bit of a fright. But how could she resist?

“Hi Izuku!” Nejire greeted, seemingly uncaring of the way he was grasping at his heart, “Fancy seeing you here! Sorry about scaring you!”

Izuku took a deep breath to calm down. Having a heart attack would certainly ruin whatever plans Nejire had. “H-hi, N-nejire.” He thought about denying that he was scared, but there was no way she believed him. “Um, i-it’s okay.”

Nejire. He was still trying to get used to calling her by her first name. When was the last time anyone , let alone a girl, wanting to be so casual and friendly with him? 

Not since he’d been diagnosed as Quirkless, that was for sure.

What would she think if she knew the truth?

“How’s your day going?” She asked, shaking him out of his thoughts. “Anything fun happen yet? Any crazy plans?”

“Um, it’s good,” he replied, “I, uh, haven’t really done anything interesting yet aside from eat breakfast, b-but that’s not very fun, or interesting I guess… and I don’t know what my plans are yet.”

Nejire smiled. “That’s good!” She began, “Means you don’t have anything planned aside from this. We’re gonna be spending a lot of time here today– if that’s okay with you!”

Izuku shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “L-like I said, I didn’t have anything planned…”

She beamed at him, and his heart immediately felt like it was going to beat out of his chest again - only this time, it wasn’t out of shock.

Her fashion choice for today was quite similar to what it was when they went to get ice cream a few days ago. Another skirt and blouse, but her skirt was white this time - and a little longer, if he had to guess. Her blouse was pink, and she had a small stuffed unicorn that doubled as a purse hanging off one arm.

As for himself, the less that was said about his outfits the better. At least, according to literally every person he had ever met. Shorts were fine, but not a shirt that said ‘shorts’ as well.

He’d show them. Once these shirts were finally popular… oh, who was he kidding. They’d never be popular.

“Great!” Nejire clapped her hands together. “Let’s get a move on! There’s a lot of stuff to do here, and I wanna do as much as I can! Have you ever been here before? This place has everything!”

He shook his head. “I usually d-don’t go shopping that much, especially not this far from my house..”

That much was true, at least. Izuku worked as many odd and part-time jobs as he could find, but that didn’t exactly equate to a lot of spending money. Still, he’d built up a decent amount of change over the past year now that he wasn’t spending it all on Hero merchandise.

And by selling some (most) of his All Might memorabilia. 

“Trust me,” Nejire giggled, “We’ll be doing a lot more than shopping!”

Izuku blinked. “Huh?”

She grabbed his hand - predictably making him blush and sputter again - and easily hefted Izuku up onto his feet. “Come on!” Nejire beckoned, already walking towards the main arch that marked the entrance to the mall, “We’re burning sunlight!”

Nejire must have forgotten that she was still holding his hand - leaving Izuku to try his best to not trip over himself as he followed (was dragged) behind. 

“S-slow down!” He cried, “Please!”

Alas, his pleas were unheard. At least, unheard by Nejire. A few older people who were observing the pair had a good laugh as the woman pulled her (presumably) boyfriend into the mall for a day of fun.

–

“...Mini golf?”

Nejire nodded eagerly. “Mhm!” She looked really excited. “Mini golf is great! There’s a few good places around my home in Akita, but I’ve heard really good things about the one here!”

The employee working at the stand in front of the course nodded. “Hero Golf is the most popular mini golf chain in all of Japan. It is very highly rated at all locations.”

Despite the positive message the words conveyed, the girl looked completely and utterly bored as she spoke. Nejire was clearly unfazed, but it certainly made Izuku pause. 

“So this one is good then?” She asked, smiling as she received a slow nod. “Awesome! Why is it so popular? Why is it called Hero Golf? What’s the price to play? Do you guys have any of those fancy painted golf balls that we can use?”

The worker shrugged awkwardly, her short, black hair bobbing slightly from the action. “Dunno. Prices are on the wall.”

She clearly was a little overwhelmed by Nejire’s wall of questions - something the periwinkle-haired girl didn’t seem to notice. Regardless, her eyes immediately shifted towards the wall of prices, and Izuku could already tell his wallet was going to be crying for mercy by the end of today.

“2000 Yen?” Nejire read aloud, “It has to be good then! C’mon Izuku, let’s go!” 

His friend - and boy, was that weird to think? - wasted no time in forking over a handful of crumpled bills, quickly moving on to the putts and (normally colored) balls. Izuku was a little slower, limited by the fact that his Quirk - or lack thereof - did not mean he needed a bottomless pool of energy to function, as well as the fact that the price made him hesitate.

Still, Nejire seemed to be dead-set on playing, and had already forked her money over…

The girl stared at him in confusion as he opened his wallet and began to count out 2000 Yen. “She paid for both of you.” 

Izuku froze in confusion, already halfway through handing the girl his money. “W-what?”

The worker shrugged, splaying out the 4000 Yen Nejire had given her for Izuku to see.

“Y-you don’t have to pay for m-me!” He squeaked out, embarrassed. Was it a bad thing that seemed to be his default emotion when he was around her? “I-I can pay for myself!”

Nejire shook her head quickly, not even taking her eyes off the assortment of golf balls as she responded. “Nope!” She said, her tone leaving no room for argument, “I invited you out here, so I pay!”

Izuku gulped. That was true, but wasn’t the guy supposed to be the one who paid? Shouldn’t he at least pay for himself? “W-we can go fifty-fifty, really! You don’t have to be so g-generous!”

She pretended like she didn’t hear him, turning back to the attendant. “Are these all the colors you have?”

She nodded, and Nejire sighed. “I’ll take the blue one then. What color do you want, Izuku?”

“...Green,” he mumbled, defeated.

Nejire quickly plucked the two colors from the rows of golf balls. “Got it! Now come here and pick out your putt!”

He did as ordered, grabbing the medium-sized club slowly. “I’m ready, I g-guess.”

She blinked. “Are you sure?” Nejire questioned, “You haven’t even tried out your putt! What if it’s too small?”

“Um, I think it’s f-fine,” Izuku replied, “I’ve never played mini golf before, b-but–”

“You’ve never played mini golf before?!” Nejire interrupted, flabbergasted, “No way! This is unacceptable.”

She smashed her fist down into her hand, a fire in her eyes as she spoke. “We’ll have to play, like, five rounds to make up for this! You’ve been missing out on so much!”

“F-f-five rounds?!” He stammered, “I– w-we can’t do that!”

Nejire frowned. “Why not?”

“It would probably get boring.” The employee said quietly.

He nodded frantically. “P-plus, that would be twenty-thousand Yen! T-that’s so much money! E-even if you pay for this one, I c-couldn’t ask you to spend that much!”

“Free game if you make a hole in one on the bonus hole.” The worker added.

Izuku turned to her, exasperated. “N-not helping!”

Nejire shrugged, realizing that he was done rambling. “That’s not really a lot of money for me!” She said cheerfully, “Ryukyu’s agency pays really well! Especially when you’re her number one sidekick!”

For some reason, that got the worker’s full attention - even more than Izuku. “You work for Ryukyu?” She asked, her voice finally holding a modicum of emotion, “Really?”

“Yep!” Nejire nodded. “Nejire-Chan, at your service!”

“I-is it really a good idea to announce your Hero name when you’re not in costume and anonymous?” Izuku wondered aloud, before blushing and slamming his hand over his mouth when the black-haired girl glared at him.

“Maybe not, but I trust her!” She teased, “Unless you were planning something, Izuku?”

The girl’s eyes widened as Izuku stammered out a million different words at once. “Wow…” She trailed off slowly, before realizing that she still had two customers. “Um, I’m Kodai Yui, in class 1-B at U.A. Do you think I could get an internship offer from Ryukyu?”

Nejire’s eyes eyes lit up. Literally. Izuku was pretty sure he could see sparkles in them. “No way! That means you’re my kouhai!” She was practically vibrating with excitement. “I’m in 3-A! I’ll have to keep an eye on your performance in the Sports Festival! If you impress me, I’ll definitely put in a good word for Ryukyu!”

Kodai nodded, a determined look on her face. Izuku was starting to feel like a third wheel, which was especially bad because Kodai was an employee and couldn’t even go along with them. “I will.”

“I like that enthusiasm!” Nejire laughed, “But we gotta go - I have to teach my friend how to love mini golf! See you later, Kodai!”

She ran away towards the first hole, leaving Izuku to awkwardly trail behind like a lost puppy.

A lost puppy who was probably about to get his teeth kicked in at mini golf, if the way Nejire was talking meant anything.

–

A lost puppy he may be, but not one who was losing at mini golf.

“How are you so good?!” Nejire whined, flopping backwards dramatically as his ball rolled into the cup, “There’s no way this is your first time playing, liar!”

She pointed accusingly at Izuku, who put his hands up in surrender. “W-what?! No I didn’t!” He cried, “W-why would I lie about t-that?!”

“I don’t know! But you did!” Nejire pouted, puffing her cheeks out in frustration. “It’s impossible for you to be winning by so much!”

Izuku looked away from the older girl before he started blushing. He didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose or not, but she looked adorable when she made that face. “M-maybe I’m just lucky?”

“You’ve had three hole-in-ones!” She protested, causing him to cough into his shoulder awkwardly.

“Y-yeah, but they were all on the easiest holes!” Izuku had a feeling that he wasn’t going to win this argument. “P-plus, you had one t-too!”

She shook her head. “Irrelevant!”

Izuku sweatdropped. Wasn’t she supposed to be the older one? Like, graduate and become a Hero in a few months older one?

Speaking of…

“You, um, n-never mentioned you were a sidekick with Ryukyu, n-not that you had to!” Izuku said, desperate to change the topic, “Do all Hero students become sidekicks before they graduate?”

Nejire went from pouting in frustration to smiling like he’d just hung the moon for her. “I haven’t?!” She gasped, “Oh, yeah! It was because you always seem to get awkward whenever I talk about Heroes.”

Izuku felt affronted. “T-that’s not true,” he mumbled, “I like Heroes.”

It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t as true as it had once been either. He realized that a lot of pros sat atop broken pedestals once he took a step back from the idolatry and analyzed them objectively. All Might was obvious (as was Endeavor), and he’d seen some shady rumors about Hawks flying around, but even the lesser renowned Heroes like Death Arms and Mount Lady that patrolled Musutafu had plenty of skeletons in their closet that likely could have sunk their careers.

If anybody aside from Izuku had cared to look. Who’d believe him ? 

And who would care?

“Oh!” The sound of Nejire’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “My mistake! But yeah, I work under Ryukyu! She took me in as an intern last year after the Sports Festival but I’ve moved on to a full-fledged sidekick! Or at least I will be once I graduate. I’m in a little bit of a gray area; I guess you could call me an apprentice? That sounds good. But no, not every Hero-course student becomes a sidekick. Most do, or at the very least join a larger agency and take direction from a senior Hero - Endeavor’s a pretty good example of that. Tamaki’s been with him once or twice, so he’d know more about that than I would, if you could get him to open up to you, that is, he’s pretty shy! Anyways, a lot of people become sidekicks, but some, like Mirio probably, start out as straight up Heroes! Most of them flame out because they aren’t ready for that level of responsibility, but there are fallback options… usually. Depends on how well liked you are! People don’t want to offer a job to an arrogant crazy person! But if you’re just a bit overwhelmed, usually larger agencies are willing to offer you a helping hand.”

Izuku blinked. Her response had taken them through three more holes of mini golf. Did she even breathe during that tangent? “That’s interesting. Do Heroes usually only do their scouting based on things like the Sports Festival? It seems kind of, I don’t know…”

“Risky?” Nejire finished for him. “Yeah, it kinda is, but that’s only part of it! Most agencies are happy to share information about up-and-coming prospects with each other - even if there’s competition on the ratings ladder everybody’s goal is the same, in the end. Plus a lot of Heroes have an ‘in’ with their alma mater, so they’ll usually offer whatever information they ask for about students if they’re probing for an internship. Again, everyone wants the same thing and there’s plenty of money to go around, so it’s a very uplifting community!”

He didn’t know about all that. While the goal of a Hero was certainly to stop or limit crime, everyone did things differently - case in point, Mount Lady. She was clearly using her body for more attention, and her exploits since her debut had only increased since then.

Izuku had a funny feeling that she didn’t care too much about purse snatchers.

“No!” Nejire cried as he hit his ball forward, “This can’t be!”

It was like magic. Izuku putted the golf ball forward, it rolled up the ramp at just the right angle and speed to fall into the Gang Orca blowhole (ew), out the side of the Hero’s likeness, and straight into the cup.

Another hole in one.

Sidenote, this place didn’t seem very impressive. It had Hero ‘theming’, if you could even call it that, but that mostly just meant there were giant decals of a bunch of the top ten sprawled across the walls. Most of them weren’t even very accurate - one of the stickers of Mirko turned her into an actual rabbit. The mini golf itself seemed fine, not that he could compare it to anything, but Nejire seemed to be having fun.

He certainly wouldn’t pay 2000 yen for it, at any rate - and technically he didn’t, but that just made him feel even guiltier about Nejire paying for him.

“Gah!” Nejire screamed, “How can you be so good at something you just started!”

Izuku felt more than a little unsure of how he was supposed to respond. “Um, I-I’m sure you’re doing good t-too?”

She pulled out the scorecard, eyes narrowing even more as she read. “You are at thirty-three strokes,” she huffed, “Par is fifty.”

“And how many are you at?” He asked, knowing full well it was a trick question.

“...Sixty-five.”

Her voice was so small. She sounded so defeated.

“S-sorry.”

Nejire blinked, and all of a sudden she was back to normal. “Why are you apologizing?” She asked, head tilted to the side like a puppy, “You’re winning!”

“W-well, yeah,” he agreed quickly, averting his eyes down to his feet, “But you want to win more, right? Y-you play a lot more than I do, and, uh, seem to like mini golf more? It’s not really f-fair for me to just be better…”

She hummed. “Well life isn’t fair either, you know? Besides, it’s just a game! I’d rather have fun and lose to you than play on my own, you know? I had a good time!”

Izuku’s face flushed. He couldn’t tell if it was her fault or his that she made him blush just about every time she said something positive about him. “I had fun t-too, N-Nejire.”

“Good!” She gave him a bright smile. “But we’re not done yet. Whole day is open, remember?”

He nodded slowly. “Didn’t that employee also say there was a bonus hole to try?”

Nejire looked past the final hole, eyes lighting up as she saw a sign that said ‘Hole 0’. “Ooh!” She quickly made her way over to the hole, placing her ball on the turf and wiggling from side to side as she angled her swing.

The level seemed, well, not very fair - it was a simple upwards ramp that shrunk in on itself as it went higher. The hole itself was blocked off by a thick grate, meaning even if you did manage to launch the ball perfectly up the ramp (there were no guard rails, by the way, so if you missed you didn’t get a second chance) there was still a fifty-fifty shot that it wound up hitting a piece of wood instead getting to the hole.

Also, the entire ramp was moving side to side. You kind of had to time your shot perfectly to even have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it.

Nejire certainly didn’t. 

The taller girl huffed in frustration as her blue golf ball was sent careening into the darkness at the bottom of the ramp, never to be seen again - at least by her. Izuku was pretty sure they had a collection system somewhere. “Phooey!”

“G-good try.” Izuku tried to offer her some comfort, but she just stepped back with a sigh and looked at him expectantly. “I-I guess it’s my turn?”

He placed his ball on the green, focusing more on the way the ramp moved than his shot. Nejire was behind him cheering, and it was kind of distracting considering it was the only noise around either of them. For some reason this entire golf course was empty, which was weird considering it was the weekend and the worker in the front said something about this place being very highly rated. 

Whatever. Izuku certainly wasn’t going to complain about the lack of people around him. And all it meant for Nejire was that she could talk as loud and as much as she wanted.

He hummed, swinging his putter once, twice, and finally hit his tiny green golf ball on the third try, sending it up the ramp, right past the grate, and straight into the hole.

Izuku was not prepared for the way a siren started blaring the moment it went in, nor Nejire’s whoops of victory.

“Alright, Izuku!” She cheered, “Great job! I’m a little grumpy that you hit another hole in one, but this one was worth it! Free game!”

A rickety old ticket machine that sat next to the hole’s sign sputtered to life, printing out a single yellow ticket with dark orange highlights. Nejire was more than happy to pull it out and hand it to him, giving Izuku a good idea of what he won. “This ticket gives the holder the right to one free game of HERO GOLF at the location at which said ticket was provided.”

He squinted at the tiny wall of text that ran across the bottom, the fine print straining his eyes. “This ticket is invalid after ninety days have passed, any significant management changes, if it was discovered to have been obtained fraudulently via Quirk use, if a major federal holiday passes, or at the employee’s discretion.” 

Izuku blinked. “T-that’s a lot of rules.”

“Pssh!” Nejire laughed, “Who cares about that! It’s a free game! You’re probably the only one to have gotten a ticket out of that thing in, like, forever!”

He shrugged. “I guess I just got l-lucky…” Izuku turned around to look at Nejire, who seemed pretty happy on his behalf, “But, uh, y-you can have it, i-if you want.”

Izuku held his hand out to her, and it took a moment for her to realize that he was offering the ticket to her. “What?” She asked, “Why? You won it! It’s yours!”

“Yeah…” He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “B-but like I said earlier, y-you like mini golf way more than I d-do, so you’d probably enjoy it more than mE–!”

He was unable to finish his thoughts, in no small part due to the fact that Nejire pulled him into a hug halfway through his spiel. Izuku was pressed tightly against her chest, and could barely think before she unintentionally smothered him in her boobs.

“You’re too nice, Izuku!” She cooed sweetly, either uncaring or unknowing of the way Izuku was struggling to free himself. “I’ll take it, but only because you’re such a good friend!”

What? Did that even make sense? No, right? Could she let go? Even if her hugs were nice this was a little too much!

Someone up above must have heard his prayers, because she finally, mercifully let go after a few moments. He was sure his face was beyond red, but all Nejire did was giggle and take the ticket from his still-outstretched hand, pocketing it before taking it herself.

“C’mon!” She giggled, pulling him along, “I have more stuff I want to show you!”

It took him longer than he would have liked to realize that they had accidentally stolen the putters.

–

After narrowly averting the disaster that would have been being arrested for theft, Nejire decided that the best course of action would be to get a snack from the mall’s food court. Of course, the two of them had vastly differing views on what constituted a snack, so while Izuku slowly pecked at a fresh pretzel, Nejire went to town on several cinnamon-coated pretzel nuggets, a slice of pizza, a churro, and a salad (for health reasons, of course).

If Izuku didn’t know any better, he’d have no idea where all those calories went. As it was, however, he knew that there was a better chance of her burning all of that energy before dinner than her gaining any weight.

But that was nearly an hour ago. Now, Nejire was showing him another one of her favorite hobbies…

“S-shopping?!”

Nejire nodded. “Mhm! I love coming to the mall with money to spend, there’s so much stuff that looks nice!”

Izuku (despite several repeated offers to pay her back for mini golf being refused) could already feel his wallet starting to restrict. “...I see,” he muttered, “U-um, what kind of shopping are we d-doing?”

She hummed. “Well,” Nejire began slowly, “Window shopping is the best way to get a real idea of how you want to spend your money, but…”

Her eyes suddenly turned critical, looking him (or more accurately, his outfit) up and down. “We definitely need to take you clothes shopping!”

“W-what?!” Izuku squeaked, “What’s wrong with my c-clothes?”

“They’re fine… aside from the kanjis,” Nejire informed him, “Like, really? ‘Shorts’?”

“I-I told you it was supposed to be f-funny!” He squawked, “I d-don’t need new clothes!”

Nejire shook her head. “Denial is the first stage of the road to acceptance, Izuku!” She started dragging him to the nearest clothing store, completely unaffected by his desperate attempts to release her grip on his wrist. “You’ll thank me later!”

“Wait!” Izuku begged, “Please! We can do something else! Anything!”

“On to bargaining already, wow!” Nejire chuckled. “You’re moving quick!”

When he started to scream, nobody came to his aid.

–

It felt like hours until Nejire finally released him from her evil clutches.

…

Okay, it was probably closer to forty-five minutes, but the point still stood.

His arms struggled to carry all the different bags of clothing (there were only three bags, and each didn’t have more than three or four relatively cheap-yet-good shirts), but Nejire seemed to be content with that. She had served as the judge, jury, and executioner on his fashion choices for the future, which was… fine. Nejire was probably the only person who would care about what he wore in the first place - aside from his mother - so he didn’t mind that much.

Still, being told all his favorite shirts were a disaster wasn’t exactly the greatest boost to his already nonexistent self-confidence.

But hey, when you’re at rock bottom you can’t go any lower, right?

“Alrighty!” Nejire said happily as they exited the latest store on their visit, “We only have one more spot!”

She had stopped dragging him around by the hand (he couldn’t take much more of it), but she didn’t need to. It wasn’t like he was going to run away or anything. Nejire pulled out the map she had picked up by the entrance, quickly scouring it for a second before pocketing it and marching away. “Let’s go!”

“D-do I really need more shirts?” He questioned, hurrying to make sure she didn’t leave him behind, “I don’t think my wallet can take any more abuse…”

“Well, you could’ve let me pay for it then!” She teased, not unkindly. It was true that she had offered to pay for his new clothes, what with Nejire being the sole reason he was buying anything , but he waved her off. For one, he couldn’t ask her to pay for so much stuff, even if she was, in her own words, ‘loaded’. Also, Izuku still felt guilty about her paying for the mini golf… even if that was a drop in the bucket compared to the costs he was accruing now. “Anyways, you don’t have to worry! This last stop is for me!”

Izuku blinked. “F-for you?” He repeated, perplexed. In all the time that they had been shopping, she hadn’t done anything more than give a few glances here and there. When he had asked, Nejire sheepishly replied that she had ‘more than enough clothes already’.

Undeterred, the Heroine-in-training nodded. “Yep! One last stop, I promise!”

She seemed happy enough about it, but something in the way she said it was seriously rubbing him the wrong way. Regardless, he just nodded slowly and followed along behind. 

Until he saw where Nejire was taking him.

A swimsuit shop.

“I need some new ones for summer,” she said simply, walking in without a care in the world.

“O-okay!” He replied, standing as still as a statue in front of the entrance with his voice unnaturally high, “I’ll w-wait out here for you!”

Nejire paused, turning to look at him in confusion. “Huh?” She asked, “Why would you wait outside?”

Izuku gulped. “O-oh, you know!” He let out an awkward laugh. “I-I definitely don’t need a new bathing suit o-or anything and it’s not like you’d need my opinion on what to get s-since I clearly don’t know fashion plus I’d p-probably just slow you down if anything!”

He was well aware that he had fallen back on his old habit of muttering again, but he didn’t care. Those were all valid reasons, but the real issue was that he didn’t think he could keep himself from acting like an idiot if he started imagining her wearing the swimsuits she picked out.

Or worse, made him watch as she modeled them like he had with the t-shirts. He would almost certainly die.

It was like she read his mind.

“It’s fine!” Nejire waved off his concerns without a care in the world. “You’re not gonna slow me down! Besides, I need someone to tell me how I look in them before I buy anything!”

Izuku was fairly sure that she could, in fact, tell what he was thinking at that moment because it looked like she was hiding a smirk.

“A-a-are you s-sure?” He stammered, almost comically, “W-wouldn’t you r-rather get an o-opinion from someone e-else? A f-female friend? An e-employee? L-literally a-anyone?”

Nejire put a finger to her lips as she looked up, clearly pretending to humor his idea, but shook her head immediately after. “Nope!” She exclaimed, “But don’t worry, it’ll be fun!”

She reached out towards him again, likely to drag him inside by force if she had to, but hesitated at the last moment.

“Actually,” she began, slower, “What time is it?”

Izuku blinked, quickly searching for the nearest clock. “U-um, three f-forty-one?”

She looked pensive for a minute, frozen in place, before ultimately sighing as she dropped her hand back to her side. “Dang it,” she sighed, “I think we spent too much time fixing your wardrobe. Swimsuit shopping will have to wait until next time!”

“N-next time?” He repeated, slightly worried.

Nejire nodded. “Well, yeah! I still need new bathing suits! I keep outgrowing my old ones - you lucked out today!”

Izuku wasn’t sure whether to agree or disagree with her on that statement. On one hand, he’d get to see Nejire in a swimsuit. On the other hand, she’d probably call him a pervert, slap him, and launch him through the mall with her super powerful Quirk. 

And then he’d be friendless again.

That thought made Izuku sadder than he thought it would.

“S-so, um,” he eventually stuttered out, “Is t-that it for today then?”

She shook her head. “Of course not!” Nejire said loudly, before realizing she may have gone a bit overboard. “Unless you want to leave, of course! But I had something else planned, too!”

“G-got it,” Izuku replied, “But, uh, I-I’m okay to stay. What e-else did you want to do?”

Nejire gave him a bright smile in response to his words - practically blinding him. “Great!” She looked ready to hug him again. “Let’s go to the movies!”

What?

Izuku had a few questions immediately flash through his mind as she spoke - not the least of which was how Nejire expected a movie to take up less time than buying bathing suits, but he wasn’t going to push his luck. Instead, he went with the safe option.

“T-there’s a movie theater in here?” He asked, more than a little surprised.

Nejire giggled at the awe in his voice. “I told you this place has everything, didn’t I?”

She led the way proudly, with Izuku falling in step behind her. “Let’s go,” Nejire beckoned, “It’s not too far from here!”

“We are going already…” he mumbled under his breath, before blushing as he realized she heard him. Lucky for Izuku, she just laughed.

Did he mention she had a really nice laugh?

–

The movie theater really was close. They probably walked for less than two minutes before they stumbled upon the red and purple carpets laid out at the entrance.

“So what do you wanna see?” Nejire asked, bouncing up and down as they waited in the ticket line, “Have you seen anything in commercials that looks interesting? What genres of movies do you like? What’s your favorite movie of all time ?”

“Um, I don’t know,” he admitted, “I haven’t seen anything stand out to m-me recently. I did s-see that they were making another All M-Might documentary, b-but apparently it’s being released in tandem with the fortieth anniversary of his debut, which is in a few months, so…”

Izuku trailed off, frowning softly at the mention of All Might. His eyes briefly turned towards his feet, but he was quick to remind himself that he was in the middle of a conversation.

Too bad Nejire already noticed.

“U-uh, I l-like comedies though!” He rushed to say, “A-and d-documentaries. S-science fiction is g-good, too. My f-favorite movie is an old pre-Quirk movie, s-so I doubt you’d know what it is. I d-don’t like horror that much, but w-we can watch whatever you want to! I-I’m sure there’s something else you’re interested in…”

His companion hummed. “Try me! I watch a lot of movies! And…”

She looked back towards the front of the ticket line, where a list of movies being shown was hung. “Hmm… that one isn’t until five, that one has a bad audience review, I’ve already seen that one…”

Nejire went through the list of available showings, slowly picking off options until–

“Aha!” Nejire proclaimed, “We’ll watch–”

She was interrupted by her phone going off - and not merely buzzing or making a small alert sound. No, it sounded like her phone literally exploded in her unicorn-plush-purse. It took him (and just about everybody else in the line) by surprise, although Nejire seemed more irritated than anything.

“Aw, really?!” She whined loudly, quickly pulling it out and stopping the alarm, “Damn it!”

Izuku blinked. He’d never heard her swear before - heck, he was half-certain she didn’t even know any curse words before now.

“E-everything o-okay?” Izuku asked, still taken aback by the alarm.

Nejire just sighed, a big frown now present on her usually smiling face. It didn’t look like it belonged there at all. 

“Yeah, but I’m gonna have to take a raincheck on that movie,” she mumbled sadly, “That was Ryukyu, or at least her agency. Today was supposed to be my day off, but I got called in for an emergency. I’m sorry!”

“Y-you don’t have to a-apologize!” Izuku said quickly, putting his hands up to stop her. “I-it’s fine, um, being a Hero is o-obviously more important than hanging out with m-me so–”

Nejire placed a finger on his lips, shutting him up immediately . “Don’t say that,” she chastised calmly, making him turn maroon (he was running out of colors to describe his blushes), “I enjoy hanging out with you a lot! It’s not fair to you for me to have to leave in the first place.”

He was well aware that they were now making a scene in the middle of this theater. “M-maybe we s-should get out of l-line first?”

It was kind of hard to say that with her finger still on his face, but she got the message after a minute, allowing the two of them to ‘gracefully’ bow out of the line and have their little discussion off to the side.

To be fair, though, they probably shouldn’t even be talking right now, considering what Nejire said.

“U-um, n-not to rush you or a-anything,” he squeaked out, “B-but, ah, d-didn’t you say it was an e-emergency?”

Nejire rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but that can mean anything. One time that stupid alarm went off in the middle of the night because Ryukyu started snoring and smoke came out of her mouth.”

Izuku nodded slowly. “S-still, though…”

She frowned, and he thought he finally pushed her a little too far, but she nodded in agreement after a moment. “Yeah,” Nejire agreed, “You’re right… not that I like it. Sorry again, Izuku.”

Briefly, he wondered if there was literally anything else in the world she didn’t like - aside from his shirts - before he shook his head. Not the time.

“I-it’s okay, r-really!” He reassured, “I, uh, know I don’t exactly know what it’s like to be a H-Hero or anything like that… but I-I’m sure responding to emergencies is in the job description!”

Izuku took a breath as Nejire watched him muster the courage to say something that would probably embarrass him. “A-and, um, y-you said next time, r-right? T-that just means I’ll have to hold you to it!”

God please kill him now. It wasn’t that the idea of a ‘next time’ with Nejire sounded bad, quite the opposite really, but the fact that he made himself sound so damned eager really made him want to crawl underneath the nearest rock and hide.

Izuku really expected her to laugh at him for that one, but to his befuddlement, she just looked really happy.

“Next time,” Nejire repeated slowly, her big, blue eyes as bright as ever, “Got you. I won’t let you forget.”

Izuku could barely hold her gaze, she was too cute ! He forced himself to look away after what felt like an eternity (but was probably half a second, tops), coughing into his fist awkwardly. “R-right,” he stuttered out, “U-um, s-stay safe, Nejire… n-not that I think you aren’t capable of that a-already or anything! I m-mean, uh–”

For the second time that day, Nejire pulled him into a tight hug that made him shut up faster than if he were being threatened by Bakugou.

“I know what you mean, silly,” she whispered, giggling all the while as he continued to stammer out meaningless words, “One more hug for good luck, okay?”

Izuku wasn’t even sure he was conscious anymore, but he was pretty sure he mumbled something out similar to ‘okay’ at some point.

She released him after a few long, torturous (wonderful) seconds, and couldn’t keep herself from giggling again at his gobsmacked look. “I’ll text you when I’m finished with whatever’s going on over there, okay?”

He nodded dumbly. He probably resembled a neanderthal at this point. “Uh-huh.”

Nejire gave him one last smile before she started rushing to the exit. “Get home safe!”

“Y-you too!” He called back, wincing immediately after saying it. That was bad. That was like having a waiter tell you to enjoy your meal and you responding ‘thanks, same to you’.

Izuku was such a mess.

…

Oh well. At least she didn’t shove his head into her boobs again… wait, was that even a bad thing?

He was so confused.

Chapter Text

Mirio was beginning to think something funny was going on.

And not the kind of funny that made him laugh.

“Bye guys!” Nejire said quickly, packing her things up as soon as the final bell rang for the day, “See you tomorrow!”

Case in point.

“Wait up!” Mirio called, slightly perplexed by the way Nejire was rushing to leave, “What’s the hurry? Weren’t you the one getting on our case about missing walking out together last week?”

Nejire shrugged. “Yeah,” she agreed, “But I realized it wasn’t really fair of me to get upset when you guys had your reasons to be busy. We all live our own lives… plus, I kind of have somewhere to be!”

Tamaki looked up from his desk, where he had previously been planning a diet for the next week to sustain his Quirk. “Where?” He asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

“Now, now,” she chastised them gently, “Where would the fun in telling you be? It’s a surprise! You’ll see soon enough, but for now…”

With that, Nejire dashed out of the room, leaving nothing but a dust cloud behind. 

Mirio blinked. All three of them had their quirks, but Nejire was definitely being weirder than usual.

He turned towards Tamaki. “Any idea what’s going on with her?”

The sullen boy shrugged sadly. “Maybe she finally got tired of us.”

“Oh, come on,” Mirio groaned, “Don’t say that! You’re letting your head get the better of you.”

Tamaki sighed. “Maybe now that she’s stronger than us she doesn’t want to hang out.”

He hesitated - that… may have something to do with it, although he certainly didn’t think it was anything as drastic as what Tamaki feared. Last Monday was a prime example of what he was talking about…

–

“Guys!” Nejire shouted, practically teleporting over to where they were practicing at Ground Beta, “Mirio! Tamaki! Let’s fight!”

Mirio waved at the final member of their trio, excited to see how amped up she was for training today. “Hey, Nejire,” he greeted warmly, with Tamaki extending his own hello to the periwinkle-haired girl, “Me and Tamaki were just warming up. How do you wanna do this, free for all? Tag? Race?”

He was a little partial to tag, if he was being honest. It was the one method of training they had where Permeation had a distinct advantage over Wave Motion and Manifest - even in regular combat his friends both had tools at their disposal to help negate Permeation’s near-invincible protection.

Of course, things were a bit different now that One For All had finally been added to Mirio’s repertoire. Super strength was hard to explain away as a Quirk mutation, but the ability to become semipermeable at will and control individual limbs was a pretty good powerup, if he did say so himself.

Sir Nighteye was certainly thrilled, at any rate. In fact, he was almost happier about it than Mirio himself.

Back in reality, Mirio nearly fell over in shock when Nejire shook her head. “Nuh-uh!” She laughed maniacally, “Today, we’re doing two versus one! You and Tamaki against me!”

Tamaki looked apprehensive. “Huh?”

“...I’m with Tamaki,” Mirio said after a moment, trying his best to shake off the surprise, “None of us ever win two versus one unless Tamaki had a really good lunch, and we never even wind up sparring for that long!”

That wasn’t entirely true - he’d scored a few victories in their bouts as of late due in no small part to One For All, but the point still stood that Nejire almost never wanted to fight both of them at the same time.

Nejire didn’t care for their protests, waving them off with a smile. “C’mon guys!” She encouraged, “I haven’t gotten to spar against both of you in forever!”

“Because you never want to,” Tamaki replied drily, “You always say you hate two versus one.”

She rubbed the back of her neck guiltily, having enough decency to realize that she’d been called out. “Okay, maybe that’s true,” Nejire relented, “But that doesn’t change the fact that I want to do it now!”

Geez. When was the last time Nejire was this motivated to train? Mirio usually had to do the heavy lifting convincing both of his friends to join them in the gym or for a spar.

“Alright, alright, we’ll do it your way,” Mirio agreed, putting his hands up in surrender before a smirk fell upon his face, “But don’t get too mad when me and Tamaki clobber you. Right, Tamaki?”

Tamaki just sighed. “Whatever.”

Mirio cracked his knuckles as Nejire hopped up into the sky. Tamaki merely stood up, eyes narrowing as he prepared for what was likely to be a quick battle–

“Go!” 

If Nejire was taken aback by Mirio’s sudden shout, she didn’t show it - instead, she merely floated lazily in the air above the false city’s skyline, waiting for the two of them to make their first move.

Tamaki’s arms quickly turned into octopus tentacles, with which he began climbing the nearest building with startling speed. “See you at the top,” he mumbled, “She won’t be able to take out both of us if we attack at different angles.”

Mirio nodded. Nejire’s Quirk was strong, but she had a hard time aiming her spirals when she had to use more than one - especially when Permeation meant he could just avoid them and Tamaki could manifest clam shell shields.

Scampering up a fire escape with assistance from One For All and using said boost to leap across the rooftops of Ground Beta, it took him no time at all to be face to face with Nejire - well, not quite. Nejire was hovering a few dozen feet above them, spinning around as she lazily waited for Tamaki to arrive - without him, there was just about zero chance Mirio could bring her down to the ground.

He threw some experimental punches her way, using One For All’s strength to launch small air-blasts that Nejire easily dodged. 

“Come on, Mirio!” She laughed, “You gotta do better than that if you wanna catch me!”

He smirked. “We’ll see about that when Tamaki gets up here!”

“I’ve been here,” Tamaki mumbled, standing on the building directly to the left of Mirio and catching him by surprise, “You just didn’t notice.”

“Sorry!” Mirio said quickly, “You’re just too quiet sometimes!”

He sighed. “Whatever. Let’s just do this, I guess.”

Nejire looked strangely confident. He didn’t know why, but he had a funny feeling she knew something the two of them didn’t.

“On three!” Mirio shouted, powering up his legs for a leap, “One… two… thr–”

In an instant, twin spirals of energy launched from Nejire’s hands. Mirio couldn’t even blink, much less begin to phase away, before he was slammed by the full force of Wave Motion’s power. 

It had never been that quick before.

Judging by the yelp of pain he heard coming from his side, it seemed that Tamaki fell victim to her attack as well.

Nejire’s echoing laugh was all that could be heard by the two as they were launched all the way down, through several-dozen stories of pseudo-apartment buildings.

–

All of their training sessions since had yielded similar results, with Nejire consistently using whatever new strategy she had discovered with Wave Motion to consistently dominate the other two members of the Big Three. Even with One For All, Mirio just couldn’t match the sheer unpredictability of what Nejire could do. Tamaki was hanging onto his ‘strongest student in the school’ moniker by a thread at this point, if at all.

“I don’t know,” Mirio said with a smile to ease his anxious comrade, “Nejire wouldn’t think she was better than us just because of a few spars! Maybe she just, I don’t know, has a new training regimen?”

Tamaki stared morosely at his feet. “She would tell us if that was the case… maybe she doesn’t trust us anymore.”

Man. Mirio loved Tamaki like a brother, but he was a real downer sometimes. 

“Don’t say that!” Mirio threw his arm around Tamaki’s shoulder for good measure. “Maybe she’s keeping it a surprise for the Sports Festival! She said she really wanted to win this one, remember?”

Tamaki sighed. “Maybe. But she’s been acting funny for a while.”

Now that was something Mirio could agree with. He still remembered how melancholy she had been a few weeks ago, only for her mood to do a complete 180 seemingly overnight. He trusted his friend with his life, but for the life of him he just could not decipher what was going on with Nejire these days.

“You know…” Mirio began slowly, the gears in his head turning, “She never said we couldn’t just, you know, walk with her? Maybe she just wants us to ask and find out what’s up?”

Tamaki looked at him strangely. “She kind of did. Nejire said she had somewhere to be.”

He waved the Manifest user off. “And it’s our duty as her friends to make sure she’s okay!” Mirio paused for a moment. “If that means we have to snoop around for a bit, then so be it!”

The shy teen sighed. “Nejire isn’t gonna like this…”

“You mean she isn’t going to like it if we get caught!” He corrected, “Now come on! If we hurry we might be able to find her!”

–

As it turned out, they didn’t have to try very hard to catch up to her. At all.

Currently, the two of them were sticking it out in one of the many large pieces of shrubbery that were lined up just within the confines of U.A.’s main gate, with Tamaki merely sitting within the bush as Mirio peered out towards the entrance. Technically Tamaki was supposed to be acting as the lookout for teachers (or, God forbid, Yuyu), but Mirio was lucky the introvert was even going along with this in the first place. He wasn’t going to push his luck.

Nejire was there, a few dozen feet away from them, pacing back and forth in front of the gate anxiously… actually, that wasn’t the right word. She didn’t look anxious in the slightest.

Excited seemed far more apt.

Every so often she would quickly dart around the sidewalk corner, disappearing from Mirio’s sight, only to return to the gate immediately after like nothing had happened.

It was weird. And it looked like she had no plans on stopping anytime soon.

At least, not until a short, scrawny, green-haired kid strolled into view.

“Izuku!” Nejire shouted, loud enough for Mirio, Tamaki, and the kid to hear. 

The boy - Izuku, Mirio guessed - admittedly didn’t look like much. As previously mentioned he was way shorter than even Tamaki, the smallest of their friend group, with a thin, wiry frame (if you could even call it that) that seemed to be cloaked by his school uniform. Said uniform was for some no-name high school that he’d never heard of, and was host to a smattering of small stains across the coat. His bright red shoes stood out like a sore thumb, and he looked like he just ran a marathon if the way he was hunched forward, leaning on his knees and breathing heavily meant anything.

And Nejire looked ecstatic to see him.

The boy blinked as his name was called, the blank look on his face quickly transforming into a bashful smile as she hurried over to greet him - only for Nejire to misjudge her speed, slam into him, and nearly knock him onto the sidewalk if it wasn’t for the fact that she was able to reach out and grab ahold of him mid-fall.

It was an odd series of events, all things considered.

Nejire looked only mildly embarrassed as she placed the boy back down onto his own two feet, and the resigned look on his face gave Mirio the feeling that this was not the first time this incident had occurred. She quickly capitalized on their closeness to start talking, speaking in her usual long-form rambles that he knew from firsthand experience most people found off-putting.

But not Izuku - assuming that was his name, of course. He seemed completely invested in whatever Nejire was speaking about, nodding his head slowly at times and shaking it at others - even giving his own brief input once or twice. He didn’t seem uncomfortable, overwhelmed, or even mildly annoyed, and that was when Mirio realized what was going on.

Nejire had made a new friend!

“What are they saying?” Tamaki asked, having now joined Mirio in their little eavesdropping party.

He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he whispered, “They’re too far away and talking too fast for me to hear. Have you eaten any rabbit today? Maybe grow some ears and relay for us.”

Tamaki shook his head quickly. “I-I’m a little uncomfortable about eating something that a lot of our classmates have as pets.”

Mirio shrugged, before turning his eyes back onto Nejire and her little acquaintance. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about, anyways,” he said, “It looks like Nejire just found another person who could keep up with her!”

At his words, Tamaki shrunk back into the foliage. “I guess that means she’s done hanging out with us for good then…”

As the two out-of-earshot teens shared a brief laugh - one that was noticeably louder and held longer by Nejire - Mirio ducked into the bush to comfort his friend. “Come on, Tamaki,” he tried, “This is a good thing! You know how hard it is for Nejire to find people she can talk to! Half our class thinks she’s too pretty to approach, and the other half are afraid she’ll talk their ears off - literally! She won’t stop being friends with us just because she made another one!”

“What if he’s cooler than us?” Tamaki mumbled, wrapping his arms around his knees and curling up in a ball, “Or smarter, or stronger, or goes to a better school–”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, dude,” Mirio interrupted, trying not to give away their position by laughing, “But he looks like a stiff breeze could knock him over. And what school out there is better than U.A.? Besides, don’t you remember what I always say when you worry about other people’s status?”

“‘Nobody’s cooler than you, Tamaki’,” he quietly repeated.

Mirio snapped his fingers. “Exactly! We’re gonna be fine , bro!”

The purple-haired teen was silent for a moment, so Mirio went back to spying on his friend and the scrawny kid.

Call him crazy, but… something was telling him there was something special about that kid. 

Maybe it was the same ‘something’ that was making him wake up with chest pains and horrible nightmares filled with screaming specters. 

“I don’t know,” Tamaki finally muttered, once again joining Mirio in their espionage mission, “I don’t trust him. What if he tries to corrupt Nejire? Remember Aizawa’s lesson on abusers and how they gain control of people?”

Mirio blinked. He focused his gaze on Izuku again, watching as he turned as red as a strawberry from Nejire running her hands through his curly hair. “...I don’t think we have to worry about that either, Tamaki.”

He groaned silently. “Am I a bad friend for not trusting Nejire now?”

He pat Tamaki on the shoulder reassuringly. “No, you were just looking out for her, like she would for us.” Mirio fell silent for a second. “But I might be more than a little guilty of snooping when I shouldn’t…”

Out in front of the gate, their conversation seemed to come to an end. Nejire pulled the boy in for a brief, tight hug before quickly rushing away down the street, leaving ‘Izuku’ standing in place, dumbfounded.

“We’re gonna follow him home, though,” Tamaki said, gobsmacked, “Right?”

Mirio nodded. “Absolutely.”

–

Call him paranoid, but Izuku was starting to think he was being followed. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been stalked on the way home (even in middle school Bakugou and his lackeys had pulled this trick on him), but it was the first time he thought he might fall victim to a kidnapping.

Running into Nejire was a nice surprise, even if they had been talking over text messages for most of the day prior. She told him exactly what happened for her agency to send out the order for her to report, a fire started by someone leaving a fork in their microwave that ended up engulfing an entire apartment complex. No one was hurt, thankfully, but she seemed especially keen to share how the newly discovered aspects of her Quirk had helped her fight the flames (and rescue a family cat). 

The amount of praise she heaped onto him during the conversation made him more than a little embarrassed, but in a good way.

After that, though, things started getting weird. She left with a wave and a hug for some reason, but all he was left with (after the blushing stopped, of course) was the odd feeling that even though she departed he wasn’t alone yet.

He was quick to make himself scarce at that realization. Unfortunately, making himself scarce wasn’t good enough.

Memories of last year, of being grabbed by a filthy green tendril, of his lungs burning and his world going dark as filthy bile wiggled its way down his–

Izuku took a breath. He was okay. He wasn’t there anymore. That wasn’t going to happen again.

Every so often, he’d see what looked like a spark of electricity out of the corner of his eye, or hear what sounded like suction cups from the building behind him. Izuku had absolutely zero clue what anyone would want with him - maybe they didn’t know he was Quirkless - but it was certainly the first time since that diagnosis that he feared being abducted.

Even on the train he didn’t quite feel safe. He may have been hallucinating, but he was pretty sure he saw someone watching him as he boarded his ride.

And now, as he walked home, he couldn’t help but worry that his pursuers may start getting… antsy.

A flash of movement directly to his left had him running for the hills.

“I-I know you’re following me!” Izuku shouted, not daring to look back as he sprinted, “I’ll call the police! I swear!”

His apartment building wasn’t too far away by now. If he was lucky he’d–

All of a sudden, there was someone in front of him. Izuku was running too fast to stop or move to the side, and so he found himself running straight into them.

Bad idea. They were built like a brickhouse, and he wound up with his ass on the sidewalk faster than he could think.

He prepared to scream, bite, kick - do anything to not wind up in the clutches of his would-be abductor–

“Woah, you okay there?” The figure asked, reaching down and offering a hand, “Sorry, didn’t mean to knock you over!”

Izuku froze. Did kidnappers usually try to offer their victims assistance?

The sun kind of blocked out the person’s face, but as his eyes slowly traced the figure’s frame he realized that they were, in fact, as muscular as he thought they were…

And that they were also in nothing but their underwear.

That was what made Izuku start screaming.

“Hey, hey!” They tried, putting their hands up placatingly (to no effect), “Calm down, will you?”

Izuku scrambled backwards on his hands and feet, completely and utterly mortified as he fled.

He didn’t get very far.

The man must have realized that this wasn’t how an abduction was supposed to go, because he groaned as he looked down and remembered that he was in nothing but his boxers. “Agh, damnit!”

“P-pervert!” Izuku cried out, hoping to grab literally anyone’s attention, “Flasher! Predat–”

“I’m not any of those things!” The man shot back quickly, “Look, I know this looks, uh, bad , but I can explain! Please!”

Izuku didn’t really trust him. What if he was just waiting for his partner to make a move? He could see what looked like a purple-haired accomplice trying to hide behind a lamppost up ahead, was he just waiting for a signal?

Wait… was that guy wearing a U.A. uniform?

The one in front of him (who had blonde hair, sharp eyebrows, and small, blue eyes) patted the sides of his underpants, as though he were trying to check his pockets before realizing the state of his current attire.

“Damn it!” He swore, “I knew phasing here was a bad idea!”

He turned to his accomplice, who was still pretending to hide being a far-too-thin pole. “Tamaki! I need your Hero license real quick!”

As he called for the other boy, he shook his head fervently “No!” He called back, “I-I can’t approach him! I can’t imagine his head as a potato! It’s not working!”

Izuku froze. Tamaki… phasing… wasn’t that…?

“A-a-are you two…” he began cautiously, now (marginally) more confused than scared, “...N-Nejire’s friends?”

Both men (although he was more inclined to believe that they were teenagers instead of adults now that he had a good look at them) froze at the accusation, with the purple-haired one, presumably Tamaki, looking ready to bolt.

The blonde - Mirio - smiled awkwardly. “Nejire talks about us?”

Izuku nodded, albeit very slowly. “U-uh… yes? M-Mirio and T-t-tamaki?”

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “That’s us,” Mirio confirmed, a sheepish smile on his face, “Sorry, this probably isn’t the best first impression we could’ve had, huh?”

Izuku, still leaning backwards on the sidewalk, shook his head. “W-why were you f-following me?!”

“What are your intentions with our friend?!” Tamaki shot back loudly, still partially hidden by the lamppost - only to duck back as Mirio and Izuku both turned to look at him in disbelief.

“I-intentions?!” Izuku squeaked, “W-what are you t-talking about?!”

Mirio sighed again. “Sorry about him, um…”

The blonde looked at him expectantly, and Izuku gulped. Was he really going to give these strangers his name? A month ago, the answer would have been a resounding ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT!’...

But Nejire trusted them, didn’t they?

“...Midoriya Izuku,” he finally said, eyeing Mirio with distrust.

The taller boy nodded. “Midoriya, got it.” He placed a hand against his chest. “I’m Togata Mirio, and that’s Amajiki Tamaki. Please excuse him, he doesn’t get out very often.”

“D-don’t tell him that!”

Izuku stared at Togata in disbelief. “Why did you follow me home?” He repeated, louder this time.

Togata winced. “Yeah, I guess we should probably explain that, huh?” He tried to laugh, but Izuku was clearly not in the mood. “Well, to make a long story short we’ve noticed some, uh, changes around Nejire - good changes! - over the past few weeks, and we were just trying to figure out what they were! We, ah, stumbled across you guys talking in front of U.A., and we just sort of, you know, wanted to see what you were like!”

The nearly-nude teen offered Izuku a wobbly grin as he took turns looking between him and Amajiki. The purple-haired boy quivered beneath his stare, cracking like an egg as he cried out.

“It was Mirio’s plan!” Amajiki wailed, pointing an accusatory finger at his friend, “I knew this was a bad idea!”

Togata rolled his eyes. “You were the one who wanted to follow him home!” He reminded, before quickly turning back towards Izuku. “So, how did you meet Nejire?”

He gave the teen a blank look. “P-please do not follow me home again. Ever.”

“Got it!” Togata answered quickly, “We’re sorry about freaking you out, Midoriya. This is all just one big misunderstanding, you know? We were just worried about our friend!”

Could it really be called a misunderstanding when he didn’t do anything to warrant this response? Izuku frowned slightly. Maybe they just didn’t trust him, or maybe they flat out just did not like him.

That wouldn’t shock him.

“...Okay.” He mumbled.

“W-what is your relationship with Nejire?” Amajiki called again, “A-are you replacing us as her friends?!”

Izuku gave him a strange look. “R-replacing you?” He repeated, “I d-don’t even go to the same school as you guys. I met h-her a few weeks ago when we, um… ran into each other in front of U.A. S-she’s my… f-f-friend, I guess. I don’t have any i-intentions with her, w-whatever that means.”

Togata stared at him for a moment, briefly making him fidget in place before he remembered that he was staring down somebody in their boxers in the middle of the street. Either way, he smiled after a moment.

“All right!” He announced, “I believe you!”

“B-believe me ?” Izuku repeated, more than a little offended, “W-why would I lie about that? W-why are you even interrogating me about this? Why are you in your underwear ?!”

Togata blinked, looking down and remembering once again that he was very close to being in his birthday suit. “...Touche,” he replied, “But, ah, just hear me out for a minute please, Midoriya. Nejire’s been different recently - again, in a good way - and we just wanted to make sure she was doing alright. You didn’t hear it from us, but making friends isn’t exactly Nejire’s strong suit - not that it’s her fault or anything! So when out of nowhere our best friend is suddenly smiling even more than usual, glued to her phone in class, and kicking ass in training, can you blame us for being more than a little invested in figuring out what, or who, in this case, has been making her that much happier?”

A warm flush spread across his face at Togata’s words, slowly creeping up from his neck. “I-I’m sure that isn’t all because of m-me ,” Izuku protested weakly, eyes darting to his feet, “W-we’re just friends…”

“I dunno,” Togata hummed, “You might be selling yourself short, dude. She looked pretty happy to see you earlier, and you seem like a good guy!”

Izuku finally pulled himself to his feet. “T-thanks? W-wait, how long were you watching us–”

Togata gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t mention it!” He grinned at Izuku. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to–”

“Hey!”

A shout from across the street cut him off mid-sentence. An older woman stared down Togata, a disgusted look in her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing in public wearing that ?!”

Togata gulped. “Sorry ma’am,” he called back, “I was just–”

“I don’t care what your excuse is! What are you doing to that poor boy?!” She screamed back, “I’m calling the police!”

“Crap!” Togata groaned, “Not again!”

Izuku blinked. Again? This had happened before?

He spared Izuku a panicked glance. “It was nice meeting you, Midoriya,” he said quickly, running back towards the train station in a hurry, “But I think I might’ve overstayed my welcome! I’ll see you around!”

Amajiki gasped as Togata made a break for it. “W-wait, Mirio!” He shouted, already chasing after his friend, “Don’t leave me behind!”

Izuku could only stare at their retreating forms, a million thoughts running through his head as he watched Togata and Amajiki disappear.

One stood out above the others, though…

And it was that Nejire had some weird friends.

Chapter Text

“Next!”

The line shuffled forward slightly at the call, with people both in front of and behind Izuku inching forward at a snail’s pace. Grumbles arose from various people as their entrance to the Sports Festival was delayed, but Izuku was a little more understanding than them.

For one, he kind of expected it to take a while. Nejire had told him that there was a break-in recently, and that the principal had gone out of his way to make sure that nothing similar occurred anytime soon.

He didn’t expect it to be so… bureaucratic, though.

“Next!”

As one, everybody took another small step forward.

He had gotten here relatively early, heeding her warning and expecting a wait to enter, but so had the rest of Japan by the looks of things. Izuku had been here for well over an hour, and was still nowhere near the entrance.

“Next!”

Damn. At this rate he wasn’t even going to make it to the closing ceremony. This wasn’t even the only line they had - he could see at least two more stretching out beyond his field of view.

At least he wasn’t here to see the first year students compete. Their festival was two days ago, with U.A. spreading out each year over the course of the long weekend. 

Thank God for that. If Izuku had to come here and run the risk of bumping into Bakugou, Nejire would have had a much tougher time convincing him to show up - if he didn’t outright refuse immediately. It would have been painful (and he was positive he would have felt like a colossal prick), but his fear of ever seeing Bakugou again far outweighed his sole tentative friendship.

Besides, this was all going to come crashing down on Izuku sooner or later. It was a miracle she hadn’t asked about his Quirk yet - aside from a fleeting question if it was the reason his hair was green when they met - but when she eventually did, he had a sinking feeling she wasn’t exactly going to be happy with the answer.

“Next!”

Speak of the devil. His phone started buzzing the moment Nejire popped into his head.

Izuku was quick to pull it out of his pocket, hiding a smile at the profile picture Nejire’s contact now bore even though no one was looking at him. He had finally replaced the blank bubble with the picture Nejire had made him take of her back during their second meeting, and even though it wasn’t a very good picture (which he was in no small part to blame for) it suited her very well.

Nejire

Izuku!! are you here yet? we start in like 30 minutes!

i think

they havent made an announcement yet but im pretty sure its soon!

Izuku

I’m in the line to get in right now

Nejire

what?! dont tell me u just got here!!!! >:(

Izuku

No, I’ve been outside the stadium for about two hours now in line to get in. There is a big wait

Nejire

oh no! i didnt realize that there was going to be that many people, im sorry! i woulda told you to come earlier!

it wasn’t like this last year at all!

are you at least close?

Izuku looked up at the absolutely gigantic stadium, now fully hidden in its massive shadow. They were nearing midday, so it was shrinking slightly as the sun rose higher and higher, but he was still pretty far along. There was still a large swath of people ahead of him though, so who knew when he’d actually arrive.

Izuku

I think. I don’t know how far into the stadium the line goes, so maybe? I’m close to the stadium itself, though. And I think the third year Festival is usually the most popular, right? Because it’s the last one people will see before you become a full-on pro, and they usually have the best fights apparently

Nejire

yeah that sounds smart

Ryukyu was telling me something about that the other day but its in one ear and out the other with her sometimes. shes great but she can talk a LOT!

dont get her started on the rankings system

Izuku

I’ll take your word for it

“Ticket, please.”

Izuku looked up in surprise at the gravelly voice, only to freeze as he realized he was staring down a pro Hero.

Ectoplasm, to be specific.

It seemed like he had just found another way U.A. had ramped up security; pro Heroes had quite a knack for keeping areas nice and peaceful, and who wasn’t going to have second thoughts about committing crime when Ectoplasm’s smiling visage was the first thing to greet them at the Sports Festival? Especially considering his reputation as one of the top Heroes around, even with prosthetic–”

“Well?” Ectoplasm raised an eyebrow. “I need to see your ticket, not listen to you spout off about my legs.”

Izuku tensed as he realized that he had started muttering. Again. “S-s-sorry, s-sir.”

He was quick to fish around in his pockets for the ticket Nejire had given him, trying really hard to ignore the way his face was proudly displaying the shame he felt. The instant he had the ticket in his hands he was offering it to Ectoplasm, not even bothering to try and meet the Hero’s eyes.

Obviously, since his eyes were firmly trained on his feet, he couldn’t see the way Ectoplasm’s eyes widened at his ticket. Quickly shaking his head, he handed it off to yet another clone, whose sole purpose was to verify tickets for all entries. 

It only took a moment for him to scan it with a small reader, placing it into a shredder and returning to the original clone with a fresh lanyard. Ectoplasm offered it to Izuku, who quickly took it with a mumbled ‘thanks’ as he was ushered inside.

The stadium was a lot bigger on the inside. After walking through a small tunnel, it widened into a massive hallway full of little shops. Some were filled with generic Hero merchandise, the same you could find at any basic outlet, while others seemed to be more U.A. branded. There were also several brand-name stores prominently displayed, likely paying the school a small fortune to be allowed to set up shop here, and a handful of food stands.

And that was just what Izuku could see. There were probably six times as many stores littered throughout the other parts of the miniature colosseum, each with a horde of people looking to spend as much money as they could in the little time they had here.

“Izuku!” A voice called. Izuku didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

Nejire pushed through the crowd with the authority of someone who knew they were better than everybody around them. She didn’t blink as she moved people much larger than her out of the way, eyes firmly trained on the green fluff known as Izuku’s hair. 

“There you are!” She said happily, “I’ve been waiting for you!”

“H-hi,” he replied, “Um, sorry. I didn’t think it would t-take so long.”

She giggled. “You don’t have to apologize!” Nejire took a moment to give him a once-over, nodding appreciatively at his attire. “You look good!”

Izuku blushed so hard it looked like his face was allergic to compliments. When was the last time someone said something so… flattering about him? It was probably something else Nejire had said to him, all things considered.

He was wearing a plain emerald t-shirt from their time at the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall, as well as a simple pair of jeans. It wasn’t exactly what he’d call fashionable, but what did he know?

“T-t-thanks,” he mumbled, “You look n-nice too.”

And that was the truth. To be fair, Nejire was just wearing what Izuku assumed was the generic U.A. gym uniform - a dark blue tracksuit with the school’s name blazoned across the front of the jacket in big white letters, but she always looked nice.

Nejire gave him a bright smile. “You think so?” She asked, “Thanks! I’m not a big fan of the fact that we have to wear them instead of our Hero costumes, but it’s nice to know somebody likes them!”

Izuku just nodded, not bothering to tell her that it wasn’t because of the outfit - even if it, ahem , hugged her figure nicely. But he was smart enough to not say something that would result in her slapping him.

“Come with me!” Nejire said suddenly, reaching out and taking his hand and sending him through the usual motions of blushing like an idiot, “I want to introduce you to my friends!”

In all honesty, it was probably for the best that she was holding onto him this time. With the way she was moving through the hordes of people, it was more likely than not that he’d either wind up losing her or be swept away by the crowd. Nejire seemed to have a knack for getting people out of the way.

Izuku silently mourned the loss of his chances at getting something from the katsudon stand.

She dragged him through what felt like the entirety of the stadium, taking so many twists and turns that he was beginning to think that she was just trying to get him lost. If that was the case, then Nejire was doing a wonderful job at it, but there seemed to be a method to her madness.

At least, a method that didn’t wind up with him in the Cask of Amontillado.

She stopped in front of what seemed to be a green room, banging on the door loudly and bringing all chatter inside to a halt. “Mirio! Tamaki! Get your butts out here!”

Nejire immediately walked over to the door on the other side of the wall, repeating her actions. “Yuyu!” She cried out, a lot nicer than she was for her first attempt, “Come out here! I want to show you something!”

“Something?” Izuku repeated to himself quietly, lost. Was he an object to Nejire? She was way too similar to a cat.

The door on their right swung open. “Alright, Nejire,” a masculine voice that Izuku knew all too well groaned, “We’ve only got like fifteen minutes before we’re set to go, so what is it this ti–”

Togata froze like a deer in headlights as his eyes locked on Izuku, and Amajiki wasn’t very far behind (in both the literal and figurative sense). “Uh…”

They were saved from having to formulate a response by the fact that the door Izuku and Nejire were standing in front of opened less than a second afterwards. A girl with short, spiky, peach-colored hair peeked out, an admonishment on her lips–

And then her eyes fell on the short, green-haired boy at Nejire’s side, and she promptly closed her mouth. 

And then opened it again.

“Nejire,” she began slowly, eyes not daring to leave Izuku, “Did you… kidnap this boy?”

Nejire snorted. “Of course not!” She laughed, “This is my friend, Izuku! Say hi!”

Izuku offered Yuyu and the boys a shy wave. At least he didn’t have to pretend to be nervous now that there was someone he actually didn’t know in front of him. “H-hello, I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

Yuyu narrowed her eyes at Nejire. “You kidnapped him.”

She huffed in protest at Yuyu’s accusation, crossing her arms and sticking her tongue out at her female friend. “Not true! Tell them, Izuku!”

“She didn’t k-kidnap me,” he confirmed, “Um, she invited me here. I’ve, ah, heard good things about all of you…”

Yuyu looked as though she still didn’t believe Nejire, but she seemingly gave up with a sigh. “Nice to meet you, Midoriya-san. I’m Haya Yuyu.”

“L-likewise.”

Nejire gave Togata and Amajiki, who had both been strangely silent (well, maybe not Amajiki, but definitely Mirio) a weird look. “C’mon guys!” She urged, “Be nice!”

She elbowed Togata in the side for good measure, but it looked like he didn’t even feel it. He coughed awkwardly into his fist. “R-right! Nice ta meetcha, Midoriya-kun! I’m Togata Mirio!”

He offered Izuku a thumbs up, and he dimly realized he could probably ruin Togata and Amajiki’s day if he called them out for spying. 

Maybe a little more than that, actually.

But he wasn’t a cruel person. Also Nejire probably valued those two as friends way more than himself, so he was just fine playing along.

“Nice to meet you too.”

Amajiki was too busy muttering something about potatoes to greet him, but at least he looked guilty about the whole stalking incident. 

“I met Izuku a few weeks ago,” Nejire explained, “And he’s really smart! And fun! He doesn’t go to U.A., so I made sure to invite him to our Sports Festival to watch me win in style!”

Haya nodded slowly, an understanding look on her face. “Is that why you were unable to go to that fashion show in Saitama with me two Sundays ago?”

Nejire bobbed her head. “Yep! We already had plans in Kiyashi. Sorry!”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Haya snorted, “It’s good to see you making new friends. As for you, Midoriya…”

Her gaze fell onto Izuku, and a dark look briefly took over her visage. “If you even think about hurting our Nejire, I will make sure you wish you’d never been born.”

Oh, the irony. There already were days he wished he’d never been born… but he hadn’t had many since he met Nejire.

Still, he understood that Haya clearly wasn’t one for empty threats. “G-got it.”

He offered her a nervous, jerky nod.

Nejire pouted. “Be nice, Yuyu!” She admonished her friend, who looked completely unbothered, “Izuku isn’t like that! And if he was, he wouldn’t have given me all those cool new ideas on how to use my Quirk!”

Togata froze. “You mean…”

She nodded happily. “Yup!” Nejire pulled Izuku into her arms, giving him a hug from behind that turned his cheeks so red you could cook an egg on them. “Izuku’s my secret weapon today!”

“U-uh…” He stuttered like an idiot. It was one thing to be so friendly in private (it still made him blush like a fool), but to hug him in such a public space, in front of her friends?

He was right. Nejire was going to kill him. Slowly and painfully, with tons of embarrassment sprinkled in.

Togata’s eyes widened slightly. “Woah,” he breathed out, “You must be crazy smart, then!”

Amajiki looked even more out of his depth now, inching closer to Togata to be out of Izuku’s line of sight. “C-crap, so he’s the reason Nejire’s gone crazy in training!”

Izuku blinked, blush rising even higher on his face. “U-um, I-I’m sure i-it’s not that impressive, a-and if it is it’s because N-Nejire–”

“Nope!” Nejire interrupted, squeezing him even tighter and shaking him like a big teddy bear, “It was all Izuku! He’s, like, a genius! He came up with some ideas that I couldn’t even dream of for Wave Motion!”

She suddenly gave Togata, Amajiki, and Haya a dark smirk, betraying the gentle way she hugged Izuku. “You’ll see exactly what I mean soon, ‘kay?”

The trio sweatdropped as she immediately went back to playing with Izuku’s hair (with him having no clue what sort of look Nejire had shot them), almost like nothing had ever happened. 

Sometimes they forgot how scary Nejire could be when she was determined. And she was really determined to win this year.

“A-anyways,” Togata tried, “We’re about to start. You might want to bring Midoriya-kun here to his seat before we walk out.”

Nejire gasped. “Oh crap, I completely lost track of time!” She looked down at him, a frantic look on her face. “We gotta go! I’ll be right back!”

Before Izuku could blink (let alone say goodbye) he was on the move, with Nejire once again pulling him through the twisting corridors of the stadium. In a fraction of the time that it had taken them to reach the locker rooms - or at least that’s what Izuku assumed they were - Nejire had deposited him right at one of the tunnels that led out to the stands. 

“Ok thanks for coming but I gotta go get ready really quickly because wow I can’t really keep track of time and I kind of got lost in the stadium I hope your seat is closeby but I really need to go now I’ll see you after the second round okay BYE!”

She zipped off before he even had a chance to process what she said.

–

A few minutes later, after somehow finding his seat, the students marched out in two-by-two formation, determination clear on their faces.

“And would you look at that folks!” Present Mic shouted. He seemed to be the color commentator for each Sports Festival. “Class 3-A and 3-B of the Hero Course are walking out with pride! Give them a round of applause, everyone! I’m sure they’re here to make an impression on the many Heroes in the audience!”

“Quite right!” Nedzu added, also in the box. “With this being their final Festival, I expect many standout performances today!”

Izuku tried to ignore their voices to the best of his ability. While there wasn’t anything wrong with listening to the announcers per se, he didn’t really care about any of the other classes.

Scratch that, he didn’t really care about any of this at all aside from Nejire. She was the only reason he attended, and the only reason he’d even think about showing up in the first place. He had thought it would sting to be here, watching an event he’d dreamed of competing in since he was a kid from the stands… and it kind of did, but it was drowned out by the numbness of apathy.

Realistic , he’d call it. After all, it wasn’t like he had any real shot of ever making it to U.A. in the first place.

It was easy enough to pick Nejire out of the lines of students that marched out onto the field - her hair and height were more than enough to help her stick out among the crowd, and the fact that she was waving at everyone watching didn’t make that any more difficult.

He was pretty sure he was imagining the way he thought her wave grew a little stronger as her eyes trailed over his row of seats.

“And now, for our student representative speech!” Present Mic announced, “Led by, once again, Togata Mirio!”

Izuku blinked. Togata was the leader of the entire student body? 

He trotted up to the podium set up confidently, like he knew he deserved to be there. A broad smile sat on his lips, and his gym uniform looked like the perfect outfit for him.

But despite that…

The small twitch of Togata’s fingers, something he could only see because of his seat, told Izuku that he was nervous.

The stadium fell silent as he stepped up to the small microphone. His hands gripped the sides of the lectern coolly.

Izuku thought it looked like the wooden structure would collapse if he put any more strain on it.

“My name is Togata Mirio!” He said, practically shouting into the microphone. “This time, with pants!”

The crowd roared with laughter at what was surely a reference that went over Izuku’s head. Togata offered them a bright smile, more than happy to wait for them to quiet down.

“I’m here to show everybody - Heroes, villains, and civilians alike - that I am here!” He roared, “The new generation of Heroes is here, and we’re ready to show you what we got! And what we got is…”

He paused for a moment, the entire stadium on the edge of their seats. 

“POWER!”

The crowd exploded . Izuku didn’t think he’d ever heard anything so loud.

“What an incredible introduction to our Festival this year by Togata Mirio!” Present Mic lauded, clapping alongside the crowd as Togata returned to his class, “It seems like he, and everybody else here, is ready to make a statement to the world! What do you think, Snipe?!”

Snipe, who was not only 3-A’s homeroom teacher according to Nejire but also the referee for the Festival today, offered the booth a simple nod.

Clearly, he approved.

“And now, for our first event… A favorite of American high schools…”

The stadium grew silent. And eager.

“The Obstacle Course!”

As one, the crowd seemed to groan in disappointment. Whatever the thousands of people present were hoping for, this wasn’t it.

Present Mic just laughed. “Now, now, you haven’t even let us explain the event! Principal Nedzu, if you’d do the honors?”

Nedzu hummed into the microphone. “Of course!” A small sound, almost like a child clapping, echoed through the stadium. “As some of you may know, this year our first years competed in a simple, if not difficult, segmented foot race around the stadium. In homage to their juniors’ epic clash, the third years will be doing something a little similar.”

The ground beneath the stadium began to shake, causing many in the stands to gasp - but the students looked completely unfazed. A large portion of the dusty field sunk into the earth, but it seemed to be by design.

“In no small part thanks to the wonderful efforts of our very own Cementoss and Power Loader, with a very special thank you to Pixie Bob of the Wild Wild Pussycats,” Nedzu continued, narrating over the sound of the shifting field, “We have come up with what we believe to be the greatest opportunity for each and every one of our gathered students to show off their skills.”

Where the ground previously sank, a new field arose. It was as if concrete was vulnerable to radiation mutating it - and a miniature Chernobyl had gone off below the dirt. Imagine a jungle gym with absolutely zero wasted space, completely interconnected with itself in one incredible test of endurance and dexterity.

And went on for three miles. Based on the live footage they were showing of the area around the stadium, that was exactly what was going on.

Also, it looked alive. Machinery whirred and hummed across every aspect of the course, creating something that looked far scarier than any villain Izuku had ever heard of.

He hoped Power Loader got a good bonus for this.

“A true test!” Nedzu chuckled, “We want our students to have some fun today, don’t we? This five-kilometer course has everything an athlete needs - rope climbs, log rolling, blind leaps of faith - and even more! Of course, a clever few among you may find the need to skip such difficult events and simply head for the finish, but where’s the fun in that? As such, there are colored flags at the end of each segment - twenty in total - and you need to collect at least fifteen to have your time count at the end of the course. The first fifty students to garner a valid time will advance to the next round! Wonderful, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how you make it through - over, under, through … It’s all fair game!”

Hmm. Izuku had a funny feeling about what was going to come next.

Nedzu’s speech seemed to bring life back to the crowd - maybe a little too well, actually. The cheers were now even louder than previously, and Izuku was struggling not to cover his ears as they were assaulted. When a hundred massive TV’s rose up from the nosebleeds of the stadium, offering constant coverage of each aspect of the course, he did cover them.

“Woohoo!” Present Mic cheered, only exacerbating the problem, “Any students our beloved fans should keep a close eye on for this one, Principal?”

He hummed. “Well, the Big Three are as lively as ever, and Togata-kun’s Quirk makes him quite suited for dodging some of the more… unfavorable parts of the course, but Sana-kun from 3-D has quite a useful Quirk to deal with concrete, and we can’t forget about all the little tricks our Support Classes are sure to have in store…”

If he could see the principal, he was sure he would have been shrugging at that moment. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see!”

Izuku smirked, a real rarity these days. He could probably count on one finger the number of time’s he’d done so since he was four; maybe less. 

They probably wouldn’t be waiting very long.

“On my mark!” Snipe barked, immediately silencing the crowd as he raised a pistol to the skies, “Three!”

The entire third year tensed. Some got into running positions, some seemed to be firing up their Quirks, and some did both at once.

“Two!”

Nejire did neither. Instead, she simply locked eyes with Izuku, smiled, and nodded.

He smiled back. He didn’t need to wish her good luck; he already knew she’d easily win.

“One!”

And he knew exactly what technique they had crafted that she would use.

Izuku did kind of hope she didn’t get in trouble, though. The principal had said through, after all…

A single gunshot rang out from the otherwise silent stadium. 

A pulse.

The entire swarm of students surged forward as one, scrambling and fighting to be the first one into the course–

“NEJIRE-COMET!”

But they would all be disappointed.

Flying was fun, and it was one of Nejire’s plethora of strong suits. Not too many Quirks were as versatile as hers, and even less offered the power to reach the skies with the relative ease Wave Motion did. 

Or the speed. Of course, speed was a moot point if and when you didn’t have the reaction time to keep yourself from crashing into the first tree you passed, and even more so if you didn’t have the ability to turn on a dime mid-flight.

Nejire, on her own, was pretty mobile in the air. With the breakthrough Izuku had found of corkscrew spirals eliminating time and cutting waste, she could be pretty damn fast too. 

But what if she used her Quirk on herself? Better yet - what if she coated herself in Wave Motion as she did so?

The answer was heighted, well, everything. Heightened reflexes, speeds, and a layer of the classic spiral Nejire was known for around her body to shield her from the worst effects of putting your body through the sound barrier several times over. And with the twin streams of corkscrews shooting out of her legs, there wasn’t much that would stand in her way.

Especially not a measly little obstacle course.

A blazing streak of gold blasted through the ranks of students, leaving behind rustled clothes and ruffled hair - as well as a broken sound barrier as Nejire hit Mach 2. She likely could have been quicker if she needed to, but there was no point in doing that when she’d be decelerating and making ninety-degree turns so much through the course.

Of course, there were points where that would be untenable, and certain structural damages would be accrued as Nejire went through the obstacle course’s foundations, but that wasn’t her problem.

It was everyone else’s, for all the people who had to make it through the course after her.

“What is this ?!” Present Mic screamed as the glass around the stadium began to crack and shatter. “Principal, were you expecting anything –”

Izuku tuned him out. There was no use for the color commentary at the moment - he had no chance to keep up.

Nejire’s little stunt had briefly frozen some of her fellow competitors, but by the time they had all started moving again (some, like Togata, hadn’t stopped in the first place) it was far too late.

Fifteen seconds later, Nejire was back at the start, slightly behind the lagging tail of the third years.

Ten colored flags sat in each of her hands as a buzzer went off signifying her victory.

The crowd went ballistic .

But Nejire only had eyes for Izuku.

–

It was an awkward forty minutes as Nejire waited patiently for the rest of her classmates to finish the obstacle course.

Or rather, for any of her classmates to finish.

At least, Izuku hoped she thought it was awkward. By the five-minute mark, she was all over HeroTube. By the fifteen-minute mark, which was how long it took for Togata to show up, panting in exhaustion with green-lighting flashing in little sparks off his body (which was drenched in sweat), the crowd had finally lost their ability to scream. Not Present Mic, though. He couldn’t keep quiet if he tried, it seemed.

Nedzu was not in the same boat. He hadn’t spoken since Nejire blasted off, oddly enough.

The worst part for everybody present (not named Hadou Nejire or Midoriya Izuku) was probably that Nejire didn’t even look winded. Of course, she was certainly drained by such a move, but Izuku imagined that she’d prepared a lot of pent-up energy for the Festival. She probably couldn’t maintain it for much more than five minutes, considering she wasn’t literally bursting at the seams before they started. 

But that just meant fifteen seconds was a drop in the bucket to her. The really scary part was what happened after she got well-acclimated to the ultimate move after some time honing it and upping her stamina.

They had only gotten a working prototype five days ago, after all.

Amajiki showed up around eight minutes after Togata, and that was when the race for fourth-place began. Unfortunately, it seemed like Nejire-Comet had turned a good portion of the course into a literal disaster, complete with collapsing concrete structures and unstable earth, so maybe their tardiness could be forgiven.

At least Nejire was having fun. She hadn’t stopped smiling since she finished, and every time Izuku blinked her grin just got bigger.

“And with Naoe Yamato rounding out the top fifty, that’s it for the first round!” Present Mic announced, “Let’s give everybody a big round of applause for their efforts!”

Present Mic’s shouting dragged Izuku out of his thoughts, his eyes darting over to the fiftieth-placed third year who just barely edged out one of his comrades. He collapsed into the winner’s circle, but nobody there really felt like a winner.

Aside from you-know-who, but that was a given.

His call revitalized the flagging crowd, who gave out a final massive cheer for the competitors who had made it to the second round before finally giving into their exhaustion. A quick peek around the stadium showed that some particularly dedicated fans had already thrown together some signs declaring their support for Nejire… among other things.

If she ever wanted a boyfriend, she certainly wasn’t starved for options. It seemed like every other guy in the crowd wanted her number.

To be fair, he couldn’t say he didn’t see the appeal. Nejire was the most amazing person he knew for a reason - even Bakugou didn’t compare.

So he could neither condone nor condemn; Izuku merely understood. 

…It was still pretty creepy, though.

“Anyways!” Mic shouted into the microphone, creating a painful feedback loop that silenced the stadium. “Snipe! Tell us what we’ve got in store for our Hero-hopefuls in round two!”

The cowboy-clad Hero nodded at his coworker’s words, adjusting the mic that sat on his collar. “Cops and robbers. If you’ll all take a look towards the big screen with me…”

His hand pointed the audience in the direction of the biggest television in the stadium - the one standing on top of Present Mic and Nedzu’s broadcasting booth. It displayed what looked like… a city?

“Our fifty remaining competitors will be taking a quick trip over to training ground Gamma,” Snipe began, “Where the battlefield will consist of the entire city. Two teams will be made - cops and robbers. To advance, the rules are simple - eliminate at least one member of the opposing team using any means necessary. You can work together with your teammates if you want… but in the real world, it’s a dog eat dog world, and only one person can claim a bounty. If you want to leave your pals swimming with the fishes, that’s up to you - but remember that your actions will be judged by the viewing world.”

The screen suddenly shifted to show a list of every remaining student, with their name placed right next to a picture of their head. “Of course, back in the Wild West the most notorious criminals had bounties placed on their heads by the law in an effort to entice people to take them down - a good plan, by the way - but that was a double-edged sword. For each Billy the Kid taken out, there was a Pat Garret who was the bane of the scum of the earth, and there were underground rings that demanded his head too.”

Beneath each student’s name, seven zeroes appeared, slowly ticking up. “Each one of you will have a bounty that determines seeding for the final round,” Snipe elaborated, “But they’ll also have another purpose - you need at least ten-thousand dollars worth of bounties collected to be allowed to finish your time in the city. No room for slackers, you have to earn your keep. Once you’ve collected enough bounties, which will be marked by a special armband worn by all competitors, you’re free to make a break for it back to the stadium to claim your spot in the final sixteen. Your own bounty doesn’t count towards your total, however - what kind of criminal just turns themselves in?”

Most of the numbers - bounties, Izuku corrected - had finished ticking up by the time Snipe had finished his speech. At the lowest was Naoe Yamato from earlier, a measly 2,500 dollars listed below his name - as well as a golden police badge to symbolize his team. In forty-ninth, the contestant had a slightly higher bounty of 2,750 dollars, forty-eighth had 3,000, and so on.

Except for Nejire. 

Her bounty was 100,000,000 dollars. Robber.

Plus Ultra, Izuku thought dumbly as every single eye in the stadium landed on her.

At least she looked excited.

–

It was a very fair fight.

For one simple reason.

Once you got your 10,000 dollars worth of bounties, you had to leave. No running up the score and preventing others from getting a chance to move on. Also, eliminating the entire enemy team by yourself would have ruined the game.

(This rule was announced just before the second round started. Izuku had a funny feeling they didn’t think it would be necessary until recent developments made it clear a 25-0 sweep was in the cards.)

The moment Snipe’s gun went off, Nejire was on the hunt for her friends. Luckily for Amajiki and Haya, they had placed third and ninth respectively, meaning they were on her team.

Togata was not so lucky.

She shot off like a rocket in pursuit of whatever place the boy had taken shelter in, nearly taking his head off alongside his armband in the blink of an eye. He ducked and disappeared into the floor, and what resulted was a five-minute long game of cat-and-mouse across the entire city. Nobody wanted to get between them - at least, not when Nejire was taking buildings down like they were made of cardboard.

Eventually, however, Togata gave her the slip in the middle of the wreckage. Izuku had a funny feeling that Nejire would pay him back with interest in the third round for his dedication to self-preservation.

Regardless, it didn’t take long for Nejire to accrue 10,000 points. She just zipped through the dense city streets, taking down anyone and everyone not wearing a dark beanie atop their heads like the criminals of old. She took out three people, checked her numbers, and flew away disappointed. 

He figured she would have had more fun if she got to fight all twenty-five of her opponents. Or at least if someone tried to take her armband. Nobody even considered approaching her.

She was the first one back to the stadium as a result, once again greeted by thunderous applause and ecstatic cheers. Nejire was forced yet again to wait for the competition to go on without her, but considering the fact that she had completely and utterly decimated everyone in her year twice in a row by this point Izuku figured she didn’t mind.

Since most of the other teens didn’t have flight or super-speed, they had to wait for the round to end to escape in their ‘getaway cars’ and ride back to the stadium.

To say they were surprised to see Nejire already waiting would have been a lie.

But that had happened already. They were on break now, intermission having started five minutes ago to allow the eliminated competitors a chance to show off for the crowd while the remaining sixteen fighters warmed up for the one-on-one bouts.

Izuku thought about just waiting in his seat, but the rumbling in his stomach forced him up. He’d probably just get something light before returning to the stands, since he couldn’t imagine Nejire wanting to do anything other than hang out with her friends–

“Izuku! Hey, Izuku! Over here!”

Nejire proved him wrong once again as she pushed through the crowd of people around her. This time, instead of simply being in the way of everyone, they seemed to be in the way of Nejire specifically. People were flashing cameras, offering her pens and shirts for autographs, and crying out for her to give them her phone number, with the horde moving around her like a plague.

She seemed more than happy to ignore them the moment she locked eyes with Izuku though.

“Come with me!” She shouted, her tone leaving no room for argument as she flew over her adoring fans to snatch him up, “Let’s go get some food!”

Even if he didn’t want to, he wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse. Nejire literally had him in her claws - of course that was just a figure of speech, and her hands were actually really soft and gentle and not like claws in any way, shape or form–”

“You’re funny, Izuku!” Nejire giggled, no longer flying and instead dragging him towards… somewhere, “Your little mutters are so cute!”

“C-c-cute?!” He shrieked, voice high and beyond embarrassed (and too focused on her words to think about what dumb stuff he had apparently just said to her). The crimson in his cheeks rivaled the color of pomegranate seeds. “I-I-I t-think y-you have the w-wrong p-person!”

Nejire bobbed her head as she walked. “Nope! I definitely have the right person. You are the one who helped me with my Quirk, right? You don’t have any secret siblings?”

Steam was blowing out of his ears with every word. Izuku’s hypothesis remained correct; she was definitely going to wind up killing him today.

“Nejire, over here!”

At the sound of her name being called, Nejire quickly changed her direction. Her eyes lit up as they landed on her trio of friends, and Izuku soon found himself standing alongside his four seniors once again (who had all made it to the final round, by the way).

Haya looked partly confused, partly afraid, and partly disinterested as she stared at him. “...What happened to your face?”

Oh right. He was currently doing his best strawberry impression. Izuku’s eyes darted to the floor. “N-nothing, H-Haya-san.”

Togata let out an awkward laugh. “So, Nejire…” he began slowly, “That a new ultimate move of yours?”

Nejire laughed. “Yep! You guys should have seen the looks on your faces when I blasted off, it was hilarious!” She turned to Izuku. “You wouldn’t happen to have been filming it by any chance, right?”

He shook his head quickly. “Um, n-no, but p-plenty of other p-people were…”

He offered Nejire his phone, HeroTube already on full display for her. Her eyes widened as she looked at the top five trending videos, slowly realizing that each and every one of them was on her .

Amajiki peered over Nejire’s shoulder to see what she was looking at, only to freeze. “T-t-ten million views?!” He gasped, “I-it’s only been, like, an hour…”

Nejire shrugged easily. “I guess word travels fast! Look out world,” she said loudly, “Nejire-chan is here!”

She seemed to be taking her newfound fame well. “Anyways, Yuyu,” Nejire began, turning towards her pink-haired friend, “Are you ready to perform?”

Haya rolled her eyes in frustration, even as Togata and Amajiki tilted their heads in confusion. “I told you,” she groaned, “That isn’t something we’re doing!”

“But the first years did!” Nejire pointed out, pouting slightly.

“They were tricked!” Haya cried, grabbing at her hair. “We went over this!”

Togata placed a hand in between them. “What are you guys even talking about?” He asked, “Us guys are kind of lost here.”

Nejire beamed as a result of him giving her the opportunity to explain. “You see,” she hurried to say, edging out Haya for speaking time, “The first years had a cheerleading routine they did in between events, and I wanted to do that too! I got my outfit and everything!”

Izuku most certainly did not look as she pulled out a thin, revealing two-piece cheerleading outfit donning the U.A. logo and a pair of pom-poms. If he did, he likely would have gotten a nosebleed as his imagination went wild. Instead, he merely blushed like a maiden and looked away, completely lost for words.

“And I keep telling her that they were tricked!” Haya shouted, “It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t approved, it just happened out of nowhere! Some pervert probably just blackmailed them or something! And even if it was approved, there is no way in hell I’m wearing that , or letting you wear that in front of millions of people!”

Nejire deflated like a burst balloon. “But I did get approval from Kayama-sensei!” She whined, waving her cheerleading uniform haphazardly in the air, “What am I supposed to do with this now? I’m not going out on my own…”

Nope. Izuku wasn’t even going to think about so much as entertaining a response to that question. No way, no how. Out of sight, out of mind.

Togata offered his friend a pat on the back. “We’ll figure it out later,” he said, trying to comfort Nejire, “But we should get some food now, right? Isn’t that why we’re at the cafeteria?”

She brightened up immediately. “Oh, yeah!” Nejire facepalmed. “I completely forgot about that!”

The periwinkle-haired girl hurried into the lunchroom, Togata and Haya hot on her heels…

Leaving Amajiki alone with Izuku.

Great.

The older (and somehow shyer) teen tapped his fingers together awkwardly, and Izuku found himself reading the exit sign instead of trying to make small-talk.

It was pretty bad for a few minutes.

Until Tamaki remembered that he was a Hero, that Midoriya was Nejire’s friend, and that he should at least try to make him feel welcome… right?

He nearly lost his nerve remembering what the kid had apparently done to make Wave Motion into such a monstrously powerful Quirk.

“U-um…” he started, getting the verdette to slowly turn towards him, “I-I g-guess we should go inside, too… I-if you're hungry, you can eat with us, if you want. Lunch Rush makes pretty good food, and it’s probably better than what everybody else has to g-get…”

Izuku nodded slowly. “O-okay…” he mumbled, “U-um, if y-you all d-don’t mind me i-intruding…”

Amajiki shook his head, even slower than Izuku had nodded. “Uh, I’m s-sure it’s fine. You’re Nejire’s friend, after all…”

He trailed off awkwardly. 

Izuku had never felt like he could relate to someone so well.

–

Lunch was a rowdy affair.

And messy.

The four Hero-students ate with no care for decency, scarfing down as much (and in Amajiki’s case, as diverse) food as they could to build up energy for the next round. Izuku was content to just poke around at the katsudon Lunch Rush had prepared for him - he was very embarrassed to order it, by the way - until crumbs started flying into it.

He lost his appetite pretty quickly afterwards.

“So!” Togata clapped his hands together. “You gotta tell us, Nejire, how’d you two meet? And how’d he, uh–”

“Make your Quirk super scary.” Haya finished.

Nejire scarfed down the rest of her udon as quickly as she could, slamming the bowl against the table so strongly that it shook Izuku to his core. “I threw Izuku into a lamppost!”

Silence.

“Uh, you’re joking right?” Haya asked.

She shook her head. “Nope! I was in a hurry one day, used Wave Motion to try and get home quicker, and ran into Izuku - literally! Recovery Girl was really mad at me for that,” she explained happily, “I walked him home, gave him my phone number, and the rest is history!”

Togata shot a brief glance towards him. He looked even more guilty about following him home now. “Oh, uh, interesting.”

Nejire nodded. “I know, right? Anyways,” she continued, “One day I took Izuku out to that ice cream place I like in Musutafu, you know the one Yuyu, and I showed him my Quirk to explain why the ice cream was so good there, right? And he asked me some questions about it, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so smart! I’ve never thought about that aspect!’, and I tried out some of Izuku’s suggestions, and I swear it was like he completely flipped Wave Motion on its head!”

“I’ll say,” Haya muttered, “I would have never imagined that you’d be able to do… whatever that was in the first round. You called it what, ‘Nejire-Comet’?”

“Yep! We’ve been working on it for a few days, it’s pretty awesome, right?”

Izuku raised his head slightly. “W-well,” he began, chiming in for the first time and nearly losing his nerve as four pairs of eyes flickered to him, “I-it’s mostly y-you working on it, N-N-Nejire. I only r-really offer ideas…”

He fell silent. The weight of their combined gazes was way too much pressure for Izuku to bear. Maybe one of the students here had a Quirk that could bury him alive–

The girl reached over to play with his hair again. “You think too much!” Nejire chastised, “Take my compliments, okay?”

He wilted like a decaying flower beneath her touch. “O-okay…”

Togata, Amajiki, and Haya shared a look while the two of them were in their own world, coming to a quick agreement as they nodded their heads.

They…

Had no clue what was up with Nejire and Izuku.

But it seemed like they were a good influence on each other.

So they approved!

“Anyways,” Togata began, interrupting the assault on Izuku’s hair, “How did you come up with those ideas for Wave Motion, Midoriya-kun? Do you have any–”

“Attention all competitors, please return to the field for the final round. Have a nice day, and good luck.”

Togata was interrupted by the droning sound of the PA box, frowning slightly. “Already?” He complained, “I feel like we just sat down!”

Haya sighed. “I know, right?” She groaned, “I still can’t feel my fingers.”

She shuddered, and Izuku was reminded of the fact that she had faced someone with a numbing Quirk earlier - rendering her completely immobile for a good portion of the second round. If it wasn’t for Amajiki’s intrusion on her behalf, she likely would have been eliminated.

Nejire’s cheeks puffed up as she did her best impression of a chipmunk. “Yeah!” She agreed, stuffing another takoyaki in her mouth, “No fair!”

Haya silenced her with a glare. “You don’t get to complain. You literally stole the show.”

All she received in return was a childish glare and Nejire sticking her tongue out at her.

Izuku really felt like an outsider among the friends. He was really jealous.

He wished he had friends like that. But that would never happen, would it?

Noting the way his face fell and the crestfallen look upon it, Nejire discreetly waved off her friends. 

And by discreetly, he meant she ordered them away.

“Alright guys,” she said loudly, “Go on ahead! I gotta get something else from Lunch Rush before I go - I need some more sugar before I start kicking ass!”

Amajiki, Haya, and Togata all nodded, waving Nejire and himself goodbye as they hurried to not be late. Izuku got up as well, intending to leave her to her own devices and return to his seat, but a hand shot out and held him back.

“Come with me,” Nejire said cryptically, making him raise an eyebrow in confusion as he dutifully trailed behind the taller girl.

His behavior reminded himself of a puppy. He didn’t know how bad that was.

Izuku blinked as she led him towards an empty hallway, completely void of people and noise. “Um…” he started slowly, “S-shouldn’t you, uh, be getting ready for the third round?”

She hummed. “In a minute,” Nejire replied calmly, “I’ve got plenty of time to make it over there. You saw how quick I was!”

He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. “R-right…”

“Besides,” she added, “They can’t start without their best contestant!”

Izuku nodded. She was the most popular student left - and who could stop her? “G-good luck!” He said, forcing himself to meet her eyes, “I believe in you, N-Nejire.”

Nejire’s smile hurt to look at. It was blinding. “Thanks, Izuku,” she giggled, “I’m glad you’re out there cheering for me! And for, y’know, figuring out how my Quirk works over the course of an afternoon better than I could in thirteen years.”

Izuku’s face flushed, his cheeks betraying the turmoil of his inner thoughts. “I-it was nothing,” he said quickly, “I-I’m sure y-you’d be doing great even without m-my h-help.”

She shrugged. “Maybe! But who knows! I do know that you’ve been a great help though, Izuku.”

Nejire watched in amusement as he started to mumble incoherently, before mercifully putting a stop to it. “I think I need a little more luck for the next round, though…”

He cocked his head to the side. “W-what did you have in mind?

A bolt of white-hot fear shot through his spine as she stretched her arms out, a sly smile on her face hidden by the fact that Izuku was completely incapable of looking at her at that moment. “A good luck hug!”

Izuku froze. “A-a-a w-what?”

Nejire smiled unwaveringly at Izuku. “You heard me, silly!”

A beat passed. 

So his ears weren’t lying to him.

Nejire hugged him… well, not all the time, but frequent enough that he sort of expected her to do it once or twice whenever they met up. He wasn’t used to it by any means, but he sort of accepted its occurrence - not that he was complaining.

But now she wanted him to do it?

“Well?” Nejire asked, eyes alight with mischief as she waited patiently for Izuku’s brain to reboot, “We don’t have all day! Get to it!”

No. He must have died. No way, no how. She killed him, and he was in hell.

Or heaven.

Almost robotically, Izuku walked forward, closing the gap between the two of them. He very slowly brought his arms up from his sides, awkwardly holding them in the air before he wrapped them around Nejire’s torso.

He was so out of his depth. He couldn’t even fathom doing this with, well, Nejire, but also literally anyone in the world who wasn’t his mom. 

And good lord was that sad. It was literally just a hug.

Nejire cooed as she wrapped her arms around him in return, clearly more adept at this than him.

It was nice, Izuku decided as she played with his hair.

He liked Nejire’s hugs.

It ended far too soon for his liking - not that he’d ever admit that out loud.

“That was good,” Nejire decided, “But I might need one after I win, you know? Keep the good luck flowing!”

Izuku choked on whatever words he had been meaning to say. “U-uh… o-okay?”

She giggled as she turned away, hurting to make it back to the field as a second warning rang out through the otherwise silent halls. “I’ll see you later, Izuku! I hope you enjoy the show!”

He could do nothing but wave like a dumbass at her retreating form.

–

Nejire’s first fight was over before Present Mic even got a word in. She was up against someone from her class, and the poor guy was literally shaking in his boots as Snipe signalled the start of the match. No introduction to the round was needed; just about every Sports Festival had a one-on-one tournament to determine the winner.

Anyways, Nejire got in close and threw him out of the ring before Snipe could say ‘go’.

Izuku would have said it was anticlimactic, but he wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

He had some time between matches as he waited for Nejire’s next bout in the top eight - he could have watched the match between Amajiki and Haya that came just after, but to be honest he really needed to use the bathroom.

So he drank a little more than his fair share of water. Sue him.

As he… relieved himself at the urinal, his ears couldn’t help but be drawn to the conversation that seemed to be taking place directly outside. Izuku would never consider himself an eavesdropper, but when there was nothing else for him to focus on as he stood there, he found himself drawn into whatever muffled sounds he could hear.

“Sir,” a faint voice urged, “I’m sorry… be better…”

At least, that was what he could make out. There were plenty of other words shared in between whatever they were saying, but they were either too quiet or too quick for Izuku to piece together.

An older, gruffer, even weaker voice responded. “It’s okay…” they said softly (making Izuku really strain to hear them over the sound of the sink as he washed his hands), “There’s time… patience…”

Okay, whatever they were talking about was none of his business. He really needed to stop. It was rude of him to listen in on what was clearly meant to be a private talk.

It seemed to end before he stepped outside, so it wasn’t like he knew who was talking anyways. As he pushed open the door, there was nobody left in the long, airy hallway except for a tall, thin man with blonde hair in the unmistakable shape of a V–

No.

No.

Izuku immediately stopped himself and prepared to run the other way, completely uncaring of the fact that his seat was past where the man was standing, but it seemed like fate had other plans for him. He stumbled as he tried to flee, letting out a hiss of pain as he hit the ground. 

All Might turned around in concern, his deflated form doing nothing to conceal his true identity to Izuku. “Are you alright Young Man–”

He cut himself off as he locked eyes with Izuku. “...”

“...”

Silence.

Fine by him. 

Izuku pulled himself to his feet before All Might could offer him a helping hand. “Sorry for disturbing you,” he said quickly, praying to whatever gods were out there that he didn’t recognize him and making to leave as soon as he could–

“Young… Midoriya?” All Might asked. 

No.

It seemed like he didn’t forget after all.

“H-h-hello,” he said quietly, making sure not to accidentally reveal the Hero’s identity to any possible listeners.

All Might looked surprised, if nothing else. He coughed into his fist, clearly just as uncomfortable as Izuku was…

Okay, that was impossible. He hated every second of this.

“You look… well,” All Might said after an eternity of silence, “I, ah, didn’t expect to see you here of all places…”

Yeah, right. He probably expected to find Izuku in the Sunday paper’s obituary list. 

“May I ask what brings you here?” He said.

“Can I be a Hero without a Quirk?”

No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO–

Izuku felt like he couldn’t breathe. His eyes shrunk down to pinpricks, his body started to shake, and he felt hot and cold and wrong all over and hated it and–

All Might stepped forward, concern etched in his face as he looked at Izuku. “Are you unwell?”

“A hero without power… I think not.”

He shook his head so quickly he was worried it might go flying off his body. “I-I-I’m f-fine!” Izuku practically shouted, “I’m a-actually j-j-just l-leaving!”

Without sparing him a second glance, Izuku turned on his heel and started to sprint away. He ignored All Might’s frantic calls asking him to wait, or maybe he didn’t even hear them. He couldn’t tell anything anymore, aside from the fact that he needed to get away.

And if there was one thing that Izuku was good at, it was running away.

Like a coward.

–

The door to Nedzu’s office slid open smoothly - Nejire didn’t even have the chance to knock before it swung wide, her fist frozen in front of the space formerly occupied by the dark oak planks.

“Ah, Hadou-san!” A squeaky voice beckoned, “Come in! Come in!”

Shrugging, Nejire walked into the large office Principal Nedzu called his own, eyes roaming over the countless little artifacts sitting peacefully atop the shelves and the smattering of papers strewn across his desk.

“Hi, Principal Nedzu,” she greeted, “Snipe-sensei said you wanted to see me after the closing ceremony?”

Nedzu nodded, waving his free hand in a request for her to take a seat.

He didn’t need to tell her twice. Nedzu was, from what Nejire could tell based on all of their previous interactions, a very pragmatic and practical person.

“Tea?” The headmaster offered, pouring himself a single cup.

She shook her head. “Sorry, but no,” she declined respectfully (or as respectfully as she could), “But Wave Motion doesn’t really like when I drink depressors.”

Nedzu hummed. “Of course, silly me!” He took a sip of his own tea, eyes closing in delight as he continued to tap away at his keyboard. Whatever he was doing on his computer was anybody’s guess. “I suppose congratulations are in order, Hadou-san! Well done today indeed.”

Nejire lit up like the 4th of July. “Thanks!” She smiled at her teacher. “It was awesome!”

Her final three fights weren’t even that difficult. Tamaki fell relatively easily after an exhausting battle against Yuyu in the top sixteen, and beating Mirio in the final match was really satisfying - even if it was a bit easy due to the fact that he couldn’t even get close to her.

Served him right for running away during the second round. She didn’t even get a chance to show off!

After the first round, of course.

“Indeed,” Nedzu agreed quietly, “I’m quite surprised by the leaps you’ve made in training this year, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Nejire shook her head happily. “No problem! I am too! I never knew what kinds of things I could do with Wave Motion until a few weeks ago!”

Her smile fell slightly at the thought of Izuku. For some reason, she just couldn’t find him after her match against Watanabe, and he never returned to his seat either. She had asked Mirio, Yuyu, and Tamaki, and each of them were in a similar boat.

She had even tried texting him, but she was left on delivered each time.

Izuku had never left her on delivered before. Nejire had a feeling something was wrong.

Nedzu’s beady eyes caught the change in mood immediately. “Everything alright, Hadou-san?”

The girl was quick to place a smile back on her face, shaking her head bashfully. “Yep! I’m super happy to have finally won!”

He could accept that. She had been fighting to win the Sports Festival since her first year, after all - even if they were both nabbed by Amajiki Tamaki in the end. “I see…”

Nedzu let silence pervade the air for a moment, before dispelling it with a smile. “Well then!” He clapped his hands together. “I don’t want to waste too much of your time, Hadou-san, as I’m sure you want to go celebrate with your family, so I’ll keep this little meeting brief. I was just curious as to how your Quirk evolved so rapidly - after all, I was under the impression that you could only use it in large, sweeping waves, no?”

Of course, he figured there may be more to her Quirk than meets the eye - he was the principal, after all - but what was the point in giving your pupils all of the answers when they have the opportunity to figure it out themselves?

Hadou puffed out her chest proudly. As she should, considering her decisive victory. “That’s what I thought, too!” She admitted, “But I made a friend who likes Quirks and he figured out all these crazy ways I could utilize Wave Motion. We’re still figuring out new stuff, even though we’ve been at it for weeks!”

She suddenly blushed, slightly embarrassed by how much information she had just given up. Perhaps said friend was a lover, or someone similarly unscrupulous.

Humans were odd.

Nevertheless, the answer was not what Nedzu expected. “Oh?” He replied, nodding his head in understanding. “How interesting! Do they attend U.A. as well?”

Hadou shook her head, even more embarrassed than before. Perhaps she found his gaze unnerving. “Um…” she began slowly, “Remember about a month ago when I, er, hit somebody out front and destroyed our mailbox?”

Nedzu nodded. “I am aware, yes.” 

It was a lot of paperwork to deal with that little catastrophe, but Nedzu was very savvy. A few nice words here, an empty threat there, and the fact that Hadou was able to prevent the boy from pressing charges meant that there was nothing anyone could do but sigh and ask U.A. to cover the costs. And that was a drop in the bucket compared to the funds that he had accrued for the school over the year.

Hadou still got detention. He could have overlooked the incident if she was a little more discreet, but that was neither here nor there.

“Well…” she trailed off slowly, “Um, I became friends with the guy I hit, and he’s the one who came up with most of my new moves.”

He blinked. That was something.

“Err… are you okay, sir?” Hadou asked.

Nedzu was quick to nod, already pulling up the incident report he had filed and security camera logs. “That boy’s name… Midoriya Izuku, correct?”

Hadou didn’t need to nod to confirm his suspicions - he knew he was right. From what little information Nedzu had on hand the boy lived in Musutafu and had applied to U.A.’s Hero course last spring before abruptly cancelling his application.

And he was also Quirkless. Hmm.

Interesting…

Nedzu’s eyes flickered back to Hadou, who was more confused than anything else. “I see,” he said slowly, “Thank you for the talk, Hadou-san. It was very enlightening! Congratulations again on your victory.”

The girl stood, recognizing a dismissal when she saw one. “Thanks, sir!” She made for the door, but it didn’t open right away.

“One last thing,” Nedzu hummed, his paws clattering away against his keyboard, “This Midoriya… he didn’t apply to U.A.? I’m sure with his ability to analyze Quirks he would have been a shoe-in for our general education course, at worst.”

Hadou shrugged, but she looked unconvinced. Maybe she asked herself the same question. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “I asked him about that once… and he said something about it being unrealistic.”

Unrealistic. What an odd choice of words.

The door opened as she spoke. “Very well,” Nedzu spoke, eyes glued to his computer as he pulled up the boy’s middle school record, “Have a good weekend, Hadou-san.”

“You too, sir!”

His door closed behind her. He had some work to do.

Midoriya Izuku… what an interesting individual. A mystery wrapped in an enigma, by the looks of things.

Nedzu loved dissecting mysteries.

And if it bore fruit, well…

There was a reason U.A. offered mid-semester transfers.

Chapter Text

Nejire had been worried after Izuku had disappeared from the Sports Festival without a trace, with her green-haired friend not even bothering to reply to her frantic wall of texts.

That was three days ago.

She was more than worried now. The celebration party her parents and friends had thrown her after her victory kept her mind off Izuku for a while, but now there was nothing else she could focus on.

Just like how she had been when she was waiting for Izuku to text her first (she really should have noticed that he would never make the first move, even with something as minor as texting), every time her phone went off in her bag she snatched it up like a hawk - only for the crushing sting of disappointment to greet her unwaveringly.

She was still being left on delivered. It was like Izuku shut his phone off and then chucked it into a river.

…Could that be the explanation?

Nejire shook her head. That was wishful thinking, she knew that much at least, but wasn’t that the whole idea behind Occam’s Razor? The most simple explanation was usually the correct one, right?

No. Izuku would have found some way to contact her - he wasn’t one to just let things happen like that, she had learned. If he really did break or lose his phone somehow, Nejire was sure he would have moved mountains to contact her… even if all it really took was texting her from someone else’s phone.

The first thing he’d do was apologize, and then spout off a million different reasons that he was sorry, and then try and make it up to her…

A small grin wormed its way onto Nejire’s face. Izuku was adorable sometimes… okay, all the time, but that was just how he was.

And if something was wrong, or bothering him, or anything, then it was her job to make sure he was okay! And hug him - Nejire decided after the way he melted into her arms at the Sports Festival that they were now hug buddies.

And may God help those who messed with her hug buddy. Nobody could escape Nejire-chan!

–

Tamaki and Mirio had accepted her excuse of hanging out with Izuku to leave U.A. as soon as class ended at face value, not that it hadn’t been the truth.

Nejire knew that if she really needed to find Izuku, there was one place she would be able to locate him without failure.

Musutafu General High. His high school. 

Of course, she had known this three days ago as well, but she didn’t want to be pushy or anything. Nejire couldn’t force Izuku to talk to her, but it was abundantly clear that something was wrong, so she wasn’t going to sit around forever and wait for him to come to her. 

Especially considering the fact that Izuku wasn’t one to ask for help - it just wasn’t his style. That was one of the first things she’d learned about him, all the way back when she’d thrown him into that lamppost.

She still felt a little guilty about that, but only a little. After all, they probably wouldn’t have ever interacted if it didn’t, so she was willing to accept that little accident as part of the greater good.

Anyways , sometimes people needed a little bit of a push to accept that they needed help, and Nejire would provide that in whatever way she could. 

Plus… she didn’t like his school. Call her crazy, but something about it seemed off about the whole place. She had only come here once, and the time she did so Izuku walked out looking like he’d been mugged by the Yakuza. The entire vibe of the area felt off, and it was exacerbated by the fact that Izuku definitely didn’t feel like he belonged here. 

The road was cracked, the grey asphalt a far cry from the freshly-paved roads that sat in front of U.A. The surrounding buildings looked dilapidated and worn down by the elements, and many sat abandoned, with boarded-up doors and broken windows that homeless people hung around like moths to a flame.

Across the street, she watched as teenage hoodlums smoked, loitering on the grimy sidewalks and shooting the breeze with each other as the school’s population slowly let out. The students weren’t necessarily bad, per se, but they were far less disciplined than U.A.’s own batch. Shoving, cursing, shouting, and even fighting rose up from within the crowds, with students parting like the Red Sea to witness each unfurling brawl. 

The whole place reeked of neglect. It was like a boulevard of broken dreams and rotten minds, and as much as Nejire would have liked to intervene it just wasn’t her place… and she’d be hard pressed to stop all the infractions going on in front of her.

That didn’t mean Ryuko’s agency wouldn’t have some random patrols through this area. She hadn’t seen another Hero in miles, and that was decidedly wrong .

Besides, she was here for one reason and one reason only. And that reason had yet to show his fluffy little head.

Even as the herd of students slowly thinned out until there was nothing but stragglers and loiterers left, Izuku never appeared - let alone walked past her. A few students shot her looks, whether they be dirty, jealous looks at her pristine U.A. uniform, awed looks recognizing her from her performance in the Sports Festival, or the less wholesome ones she received from the ones her age, she didn’t care.

The guy that made a pass at her boobs might have lost a few teeth with the slap she gave him, though. Nejire hoped it was worth not even touching them.

Nejire sighed quietly. Maybe Izuku had one of those ‘extracurriculars’ he had told her about? Whenever she pressed him about those he clammed up like Tamaki around, well, anyone outside of U.A., which was worrying. Especially because the questions she asked were pretty harmless… she had just been trying to find out some of his hobbies! Like if he was in the chess club, or maybe a tutor, but he just turned as pale as a ghost and stuttered something unintelligible before trying to shift the topic away.

The more Nejire hung out with Izuku, the more often she came to the conclusion that he wasn’t always the most forthcoming about some things. Specifically, things that pertained to his social life.

And it looked like Nejire had just figured out why.

Izuku burst out of the doors of Musutafu General High like a bat out of hell, a terrified look in his eyes - and before Nejire could even blink, a hand reached out from inside and nabbed him by the back of his collar.

He made a pained choking sound as the hand jerked backwards as hard as it could, trying to pull him back inside the school, but he gripped onto the doorway to keep from being dragged inside. Instead of him being pulled in, it resulted in a gang of at least two dozen kids bursting out of the doors behind Izuku, sending him flying down the stairs in a mess of sprawling limbs and notebooks. Before he could even hit the ground one of them had snatched him up in a doughy hand - and socked him in the nose hard enough to make Izuku start bleeding as his nose bent to the side with a sickening crack .

Nejire saw red.

–

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life… 

“Get the FUCK away from him!”

…But he never thought he’d see the day Nejire Hadou got mad.

Actually, that wasn’t true. Nejire wasn’t mad.

She was furious .

Tsubasa couldn’t so much as blink before Nejire was atop him, a downright murderous look in her eyes as she grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him into two of his henchmen.

She hadn’t even needed to use her Quirk.

“What the–”

One of the guys made the mistake of opening his mouth, but that just made him Nejire’s next target (victim). She kicked him square in the sternum, and he sailed backwards as he was blasted across the street onto the other sidewalk. 

Okay, that time she might have used her Wave Motion. The streak of gold trailing behind his classmate was proof enough of that. 

Something warm rolled down his lips, and he recoiled at the slick, metallic taste of his blood. That was the least of his concerns, however, and he was unexpectedly dumped on the ground by a very afraid and suddenly very small-looking classmate.

“I’m sorry!” He cried, shrinking back in fright as Nejire moved through his schoolmates like a woman possessed. Every time Izuku blinked, another one of his tormentors had been knocked out. “Let me go, please!”

She didn’t acknowledge the second-year boy’s cries, instead pummeling everyone within arms reach (and blasting away those that were not). A lot of the guys, once they got over their initial shock, simply turned and ran for their lives, but she wasn’t willing to let a single one get away.

Izuku said nothing as he took the time to scramble away from his classmates, but once he was safe he let out a sigh of relief… that was immediately followed by an immense wave of panic.

Why was Nejire here? Why was she beating up his classmates? Was she mad at him , too?

Oh God, she was here to kill him for ignoring her. 

Or worse, she thought they were his friends and was beating them up because of that– wait, no, that was too unrealistic for even Izuku to think. She had probably watched Tsubasa break his nose (and it was almost certainly broken, because holy fuck it hurt), and Nejire was in no way stupid.

Did that mean… she was beating them up because they had hurt him?

His heart fluttered at the realization, only to sink at the thought of that being the truth. It wouldn’t do anything but make them even more pissed, and the next time he got cornered Izuku might not be walking away in one piece.

And Nejire was likely going to want some answers this time around… ones that she would demand the truth to, and would probably ruin her opinion of him in an instant.

Despite those fears and the constant, crippling social anxiety he was trying to cope with… Izuku couldn’t help but think about how weirdly hot she looked as she beat his classmates up.

Scratch that. There was nothing weird about it, Nejire just looked really hot right now.

His face was as red as the blood leaking from it.

It only took a few more seconds for Nejire to pile up the unconscious bodies she had accrued in front of his school’s entrance, with the only people left standing being herself, Izuku, Tsubasa, and the second-year that had originally grabbed him from inside the school.

She grabbed both of his bullies by the throat and lifted them into the air in front of her, their eyes alight with nothing but fear of the periwinkle-haired demoness who had just obliterated the better half of the school’s delinquents.

“I’m only to ask my questions once,” she snarled, completely uncaring of the way they squirmed beneath her glare, “And you better give me the truth, got it?! I can do a lot worse to you than I did to your friends!”

The second-year nodded, a decent amount of self-preservation still coursing through his body, but it seemed like a decade of exposure to Bakugou and his explosions had given Tsubasa some form of brain damage.

“Who the fuck are you?!” He cried out, gurgling a bit as Nejire’s grip tightened, “Why the hell are you defending Deku ?”

Nejire’s eyes darkened as her head lowered, and the second-year student looked at Tsubasa in disbelief. Was he asking for an early death?

Her arms trembled for a moment, and she turned to look down the street.

A second later, Tsubasa achieved flight for the first time since he was twelve years old and his wings lost their ability to support his weight.

Nejire threw him… straight through the mailbox in front of the school. The metal shuddered as he broke through, but Nejire hadn’t intended on just throwing him through the mailbox. No, she held back a bit, to make sure Tsubasa got pinned between the walls of the metal postal box.

And now he was stuck.

Inside a mailbox.

Ironic, wasn’t it?

Her gaze fell on the second-year in her grip, and the guy looked ready to piss himself. “I don’t know who any of you are,” she hissed, “And I don’t care. But if you ever, and I mean ever , so much as look at Izuku the wrong way again, let alone hurt a single hair on his head, I will make you wish you had never been born. Got it?”

He nodded. “O-o-okay!” He shrieked, fat, blubbery tears rolling down his cheeks, “I-I-I won’t mess with D-Deku ever again!”

She pulled him closer to her, unamused. “You better not. And make sure every single person in your shitty little school gets the message, okay? Otherwise, I’ll be a lot less gentle the second time, and I’ll make sure to find you first. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes!” He actually did piss himself. “C-crystal!”

Nejire looked at him in disgust, before unceremoniously dumping him on his ass. “You better not forget it. Don’t leave until all of your friends here get the memo.”

The boy nodded as he sobbed. For all his bravado earlier as he and the rest of the guys had cornered him, Izuku thought this look suited his personality much more.

Nejire started to turn back towards Izuku, but before she could a cry rose up from the mailbox.

“Who the hell are you?!” Tsubasa shouted as he struggled to free himself, “Don’t you know that Deku’s Quir–”

Izuku’s blood ran cold as he spoke. 

But as it turned out, he had nothing to worry about.

Because Nejire decided to blast him away with her Quirk.

The mailbox was now nothing but a smoking pile of ashes.

As Tsubasa launched into the stratosphere, screaming like a little girl, there was no way for Izuku to know that it would be the last time he saw his old friend-turned-tormentor.

Nejire let out a quiet ‘hmph’ as she watched him fly away, before finally returning her focus back to him. The anger in her eyes melted away as she took in his bloody, bruised form, but it didn’t stop Izuku from worrying that–

“Are you okay, Izuku?”

Faster than should have been possible, Nejire was kneeling at his side, one arm wrapped around his torso and another digging through the backpack she had slung down. Her big, blue eyes were wide with worry, her lips turned into a soft frown as she observed the way he winced and averted his gaze.

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life. A lot of it had been due to his Quirklessness, some of it not.

But this was the first time that someone had put themselves in harm’s way to protect him.

“I-I’m f-f-f-fine,” he whispered, throat tight as shame filled his body, “Y-you d-didn’t have t-to–”

She placed a finger against his lips. “Don’t lie to me,” she said quietly, “Please.”

He swallowed thickly. “S-S-S-S–”

“You don’t have to apologize, either.”

Izuku let out a shaky breath as his body shuddered. “...I-I think my n-nose is broken.”

She squinted her eyes at his face. “Yeah, that’s what it looks like.”

Was he supposed to have an answer to that? If he was, he didn’t know what it could be.

Izuku fell silent as she pulled out her first aid kit again. He was getting a strange sense of deja vu as she pulled out another piece of cotton to wipe at the blood dripping down his chin.

Oh, wait. That meant that–

He sighed miserably as he looked down at his uniform.

His jacket and shirt were both caked with dried blood.

“Shit…” he mumbled, more to himself than anything.

Nejire blinked at the curse he let out, slightly surprised. “Izuku…”

The next words out of her mouth shouldn’t have been surprising. 

“You didn’t really fall down the stairs that time, did you?”

It wasn’t really a question.

Izuku sighed. 

He was so tired.

This was probably the last conversation he’d have with her. There was no point in lying anymore.

Even if he did… there was no way she’d believe him.

He shook his head slowly, nothing but shame and self-hate filling his veins. “N-no,” Izuku said quietly, making sure Nejire could hear him, “I got beat up. This isn’t anything n-new…”

She gasped in shock. How could she be surprised? She had watched it happen in real time already. Maybe she knew, but the truth was too ugly to accept.

“Does this happen a lot?” Nejire pressed, hating the way Izuku nodded without a second thought.

“Y-yeah. Some days I get left alone, some I c-can outrun them, but…” He shrugged lamely, shoulders flopping. “N-not often.”

The look in her eyes made him feel so much worse than he already did.

“Why?”

And that question was the finishing blow.

It was so simple, so direct. Nejire could have phrased it a thousand different ways, but she went with the one that cut right to the meat of the problem. He tried to gather the courage to meet her eyes, but he was a coward. 

He couldn’t even manage that much.

Deep down, Izuku had a feeling she knew something was wrong with him. After all, kids didn’t need a reason to be mean; sometimes they were just cruel for the sake of being cruel...

But this went deeper than that, didn’t it? The way he flinched at any loud noise, or was so hesitant to accept praise, or how eagerly he pushed away attention and tried to slip into the background, or how every time someone looked his way it seemed like he was preparing to be admonished or hit or how he had such a deep-seated distrust and fear of other people or how after All Might left him on that roof he took a hard look at the ground and wondered if he should just take the fast way down to the pavement–

“I’m Quirkless.”

Nejire actually, physically, flinched . The cotton ball that had been dabbing at his nose froze in place, and her breath hitched in shock.

Okay. At least it wasn’t a surprise anymore.

It was nice while it lasted.

Izuku was so tired.

The arm she had placed behind him slackened. Nejire probably realized how disgusting it was that she was even breathing the same air as Izuku, let alone touching him. He shifted slightly, nudging it out of the way as he started to stand up and walk away–

Her grip was like iron. One second he had been halfway to his feet, and the next his knees slammed into the pavement hard enough to make him want to cry out in pain.

Oh. So she was going to beat him–

Nejire pulled Izuku into a hug so tight he was pretty sure that she broke his ribs.

“I don’t care about that.”

I don’t care.

In just about any other setting, the person hearing that would likely be off-put or offended, or maybe even hurt.

But this wasn’t any other setting. 

Just like that, something snapped inside Izuku. He sniffled, choked, and started to cry.

Nejire hugged him even tighter. “It’s okay,” she whispered, clearly holding back tears of her own, “I’m here for you.”

I’m here for you.

Izuku had never heard those words before.

Nejire could only wonder how long he had waited for someone to say that to him.

Her other hand reached around the back of his head, burying his face in the crook of her neck as he sobbed his heart out. 

Izuku was so pathetic.

Nejire knew Izuku was the bravest person she had ever met.

Izuku was a coward.

Nejire didn’t know anyone as brave as Izuku.

Izuku was a loser. A failure.

Nejire was so grateful for everything he’d done. For what he’d done for her . 

Izuku hated himself.

Nejire didn’t care about anyone the way she cared about Izuku.

She rubbed circles on the back of his jacket. “I’m really happy I met you.”

Izuku was really happy he met Nejire.

Nejire was really happy she met Izuku.

–

Once the waterworks started, it took a long time for them to stop. Izuku was always a big crier - it was kind of miraculous he hadn’t ever done so in front of Nejire before.

But even he ran out of tears eventually…

Key word being eventually .

“Feeling better?” Nejire asked, mustering up the biggest smile she could for him. It wasn’t pretty, but it still meant the world to Izuku.

That didn’t stop him from feeling stupid answering. “...A little,” he mumbled, “T-thanks… and I-I’m s-s-sorry–”

She booped him on the forehead with her finger. “No more apologies, ‘kay?”

A crimson tide swept over him, betraying the storm of emotions inside. “Y-y-you d-don’t even know w-what I was g-going to s-say…”

Nejire shrugged as she continued to hug him. “Knowing you, it isn’t something you should be apologizing for.”

Izuku struggled to, but eventually he found the courage to look her in the eyes. He owed her that much, as well as an explanation. “I-I w-was going to say I’m s-s-sorry for r-running a-away at the Sports F-Festival,” he said, tripping over his words as he stammered, “A-a-and for ignoring y-your messages.”

He tensed as a flash of recognition of his actions passed behind her eyes, and his courage was lost.

“I forgive you,” she decided immediately.

What?

“W-what?” Izuku was slack-jawed. “B-but I–”

“I’m sure you had your reasons,” Nejire asserted, “That’s enough for me.”

He looked down at his lap. Why was she being so undeservedly nice ? This wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. 

“Y-you d-deserve an explanation, at least!” Izuku blurted out, hating how whiny and stupid he sounded, “I-I mean, um, m-my r-reasons were s-s-stupid and I had n-no right to–”

“Hey.” Nejire cupped his cheek, forcing him to meet her eyes as she tilted his head up. “If something happened that caused you to want to leave, it isn’t a stupid reason. Your problems are just as important as everyone else's.”

Oh, man. Izuku was going to start crying again, at this rate. “I-I know…”

Logically, sure. His problems were just as important as someone else’s on paper. But no one cared about his problems. They were his burdens. They were his cross to bear, and no one else’s.

Other people had their friends, their families to support them. 

Izuku had himself. And that was fine . He didn’t need to worry his poor mother, who had enough on her plate trying to raise a worthless son, and he definitely didn’t need to worry the only other person on the planet who gave a damn about him. 

Nejire disagreed with him. “If you want to talk about it,” she encouraged, “You can. But if you don’t, that’s okay too – and again, whatever it is, it’s not stupid.”

He shook his head shakily. “U-um…” he trailed off slowly. “I-It’s k-kind of, uh, a l-long story…”

She hummed, dropping her hand from his cheek (internally, Izuku was already tearing up at the loss of warmth). “We’ve got time,” she decided, standing up and pulling Izuku to his feet with her, “You can tell me while we walk.”

Izuku blinked. “W-where are we going?”

“To get you medical help,” she said simply. He didn’t trust himself to respond to that, so he just nodded and stared at the sidewalk as Nejire picked up their bags in one hand and took his own in her other.

He didn’t fight it. 

For a while, they walked in peaceful silence.

“...When I was younger, I wanted to be a Hero.”

Nejire looked at Izuku in surprise, but said nothing. She squeezed his hand, and that gave him the motivation to continue. 

“I saw All Might’s debut video,” Izuku elaborated slowly, “And I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to save people with a smile on my face, I wanted people to feel safe with my presence alone, just like him. But then, you know…”

He trailed off bitterly. “Everyone else’s Quirks came in, and mine didn’t. That didn’t change anything, I told myself. I still wanted to be a Hero either way, but I guess I was just delusional. Everyone else knew better, and I probably should have listened to them. But I was stupid, and I held on to my dream. If I gave up without even trying, then what was the point in the first place, right? I wrote notes about Heroes, about Quirks, and did anything I could that I thought could help me out in the future. It didn’t earn me a lot of admirers, but I didn’t care. I could be the weird, creepy, Quirkless freak if it meant I had a chance at being a Hero, right?”

Next was the hard part.

“I got attacked by a villain a little over a year ago,” Izuku began, heart hammering in his chest. Not even his mom knew about this part. “They had a Quirk that turned them into sludge, and wanted to use my body to hide. I was powerless to stop them. I thought I was going to die, and as I passed out from suffocation I really thought that was the end. But a Hero saved me. It was…”

He couldn’t do it. Even now, bitter and resentful and in pain and just hurting so much , he couldn’t say who it was. “It was someone I really admired. They were my idol . My hero. I never thought I’d get the chance to meet them, so I asked them the only question I could think of - the only question in the world that mattered.”

Izuku didn’t need to repeat it. Nejire was smart enough to figure out what that question was.

But he did anyway.

“Could someone like me, someone Quirkless and without power, be a Hero like them?” His voice was reduced to a whisper by this point, cracking and peaking like crazy. Tears were slowly pooling up in his eyes again, but he was determined to not start crying again. “He said no. I knew he was right… but it still hurt, because of course it did. I was too blind to see the reality of the situation, I guess. But I had to face the facts… and I gave up.”

Izuku took a shaky breath. “I– that Hero,” he finished, “I saw them at the Sports Festival. I don’t know what happened, or why they were there, but I guess I just panicked. I c-couldn’t face them again, so I r-ran away. It’s the s-same reason I didn’t apply to General Education at U.A. S-someone in my middle school threatened me and everyone else in the class to not apply, to not ruin his b-backstory, so I f-figured it would have been easier to give up and just… go somewhere else. It didn’t matter to me anymore.”

Izuku had been through a lot in his short, miserable life. A lot of it had been due to his Quirklessness, some of it not. Most of that ‘some’ came from his delusional belief that he could still be a hero, but that ship had sailed. 

Nejire stopped, mid-step, and pulled him in for another hug. “I think you’d be a really great Hero, Izuku.”

He had been told by everyone to give up. He had been beaten down, mocked, bullied and worse, but took it all on the chin and kept his dream in sight…

And Nejire was the first person to believe in him.

But there was nothing behind his eyes at her words. No spark, no light, nothing.

“Thanks,” he muttered, almost robotically, “B-but… I’ve learned that s-sometimes… sometimes, dreams are just that. Dreams. It’s important to be realistic.”

Nejire didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just hugged him a little tighter. “Let’s get you to Recovery Girl, Izuku.”

He nodded slowly. It’d be bad if he went home to his mother looking like this. If he had to go to U.A. again, or pay a fee at a hospital, or run away instead, he’d do it. 

Anything to keep hiding from reality.

Izuku didn’t have heroes anymore.

Nejire decided that she would be Izuku’s hero.

Chapter Text

Izuku didn’t know what to expect walking into Musutafu General High the next day. Nejire had really beaten the snot out of most of his classmates, but she wasn’t here anymore. And while he was sure her threats were ringing in just about every students’ ears, she couldn’t help him today if something bad happened.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to.

Almost every pair of eyes in the school was on him as he walked through the crowded halls, eyes trained firmly on the tiled floor in front of him, but no one so much as breathed in his direction throughout the course of the day. He ate lunch alone in his classroom, which was depressing, but Izuku would have been doing that anyway. In gym class, the one place where he fully expected to get clobbered due to the fact that they were currently on their wrestling unit, he sat in the bleachers the entire time and just watched quietly.

As an aside, Tsubasa wasn’t in school today. That wasn’t the most surprising thing - he’d been known to skip days on occasion, and Izuku was sure he was nursing a wounded pride among other things - but something was off about the way his teachers seemed to be completely unbothered by his absence.

As for his other periods, all he was subject to were not-so-discreet glances and incessant whispers floating around him. He never got called on by the teachers and his grades weren’t announced publicly for derision, which was how he knew Nejire’s threats had reached the school’s staff as well. That was more than fine by Izuku, though - he’d rather go back to just being isolated and alone instead of isolated and alone and targeted.

He didn’t need people to talk to. He didn’t need friends.

…Okay, maybe he needed one friend.

But he didn’t need any more than that. Nejire was amazing . Who could even compare to her?

Certainly not himself; Izuku was still scratching his head as to how such an incredible girl wound up as his friend. It just didn’t make sense.

He shook his head. Shouldn’t he just accept it? Better not to look a gift-horse in the mouth, after all.

Izuku wondered what they looked like to outside observers - a beautiful, tall heroine with a mind bursting with curiosity and a bright future ahead of her… and the scrawny Quirkless loser, two years her junior, with no path forward in life that she decided to befriend.

It was almost too good to be true - actually, it was too good to be true. It was the stuff of fiction, and yet… here they were.

The one thing that gave away that he wasn’t dreaming was the way his locker had been vandalized, he duly noted, passing by his little storage unit as the school let out for the day. No one would go after him , but that same courtesy clearly didn’t extend to his things. Probably because whoever did it wouldn’t have the crime traced back to them - it was clever, if extremely cowardly.

The joke was on them, though. Izuku never used his locker for this exact reason, preferring to just keep his things in his backpack throughout the day instead.

Whatever. Eventually everyone would probably get too antsy to remember Nejire’s warning, or delude themselves into thinking enough of them could fight her, and then he’d be right back to getting his teeth kicked in.

His mind was an absolute treasure trove of pleasantries, wasn’t it?

Oh well. It wasn’t like that part of his life was prone to changing anytime soon. Even if Nejire crashing into his world (literally) made things better, there was still the underlying fact that he had no real change in his outlook on life. In fact, it would probably be easier for both of them if–

“Izuku! Over here!”

He blinked in surprise as the herd of students parted to make way for the Heroine in training, looking up slowly at the smiling form of his friend as she approached him, her form practically oozing confidence.

“Hi?” Izuku squeaked, blushing slightly at the way she marched up without a care for the hundreds of eyes on them. “U-um, what are you doing here N-Nejire?”

“I’m here to see you, silly!” She giggled, pulling him in for a quick hug that left the onlookers with jaws on the sidewalk, “I had to make sure you had a good day today! None of your classmates gave you any trouble, did they?”

While Izuku was still trapped in her hug (where she unintentionally shoved his face into her chest), Nejire glared viciously out into the shocked crowd around them. Her friendly demeanor was gone in an instant, with the only person she cared about in the area currently trapped in her embrace and unable to see the way her attitude shifted.

Just as quickly as it had appeared her glare was gone, replaced by a bubbly smile the moment she released Izuku from his confines in her arms (though she didn’t fully let go of him). His face lit up with a scarlet hue, betraying his embarrassment as he stuttered out a response. “U-um, things have been g-good today…”

Nejire briefly blinded him as she grinned, the gigawatt smile he was subjected to burning his retinas with how bright it was. “Great!” She cheered, turning around and pulling Izuku along by the hand, “I’m glad all of you know what’s good for you! Remember, I don’t make empty threats!~”

She was clearly speaking to the crowd. A collective shudder wracked Musutafu General’s populace as they all unconsciously took a few steps back. No one dared to get in Nejire’s way as she led him down the street that he normally took home.

It was only then, once they had placed some distance between themselves and the crowd, that he spotted the green band wrapped around her arm. Squinting as he read it, he realized it was marked with the kanji for ‘Izuku Protection Squad’... with his face consequently erupting in red.

What on Earth was that supposed to mean?

Nejire caught his dumbfounded stare, an unreadable (but clearly amused) glint in her eyes. “You noticed!”

Well, she certainly seemed pleased with herself. “Y-yeah,” Izuku responded, more than a little confused, “Um, should I ask, or…?”

“I got one of my friends in the support department to make it!” She said proudly, a smug look in her eyes, “What do you think?”

She released his hand briefly to take the band off, offering it to him without a second thought. After a moment he took it, toying with the small piece of cloth in his hands, completely dumbfounded. 

“Uh, it looks good,” he replied, unsure of the proper way to respond, “B-but, u-um, why…?”

Nejire looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping a finger to her lips as she looked up at the sky…

Before shrugging, her shoulders as light as clouds beneath the easygoing expression she wore on her face. “I wanted to!”

He handed her the band back without a word. Nejire was one of a kind, that was for sure.

“I thought it would be cool!” She continued, slipping it back onto her forearm, “Like, I’m making sure those losers know exactly what I was there for! And that’s you!”

A lot of thoughts ran through Izuku’s head at her admission. Namely, that he was embarrassed - but when he was around Nejire, when was he not embarrassed? And also that he was a little disappointed that she didn’t take his hand again, but that was just fueled by the fact that he was now starting to seriously crush on Nejire. 

But the chances of anything coming from that were about as good as his dream of becoming a Hero - actually, they were probably less, all things considered. 

He would have apologized for making her go through all of this stuff just for him, but…

“No more apologies, ‘kay?”

“T-thanks,” Izuku finally mumbled, “U-um, for doing all this. Y-you don’t have to go through all t-this…”

Nejire gave him a friendly nudge with her shoulder. “Yes I do,” she countered, “You’re my friend. And I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let people mess with my friend! It’s what anyone would do!”

Damn. And here he was thinking he’d finally stop blushing today.

It was almost laughable how he’d once considered Bakugou his friend. Compared to Nejire, he may as well have been the devil. Had Bakugou ever, in his entire life, stood up for anyone - much less Izuku? 

Nope. And here was Nejire, acting like she was ready to hand the world to Izuku on a silver platter. His heart ached at the knowledge that even though she knew he was a loser, and Quirkless, and had just about nothing to offer the world, she still cared about him - and cared more than anyone he’d ever met (excluding his mother, of course).

How could he not have started falling for her?

“...Izuku?” Nejire poked him in the cheek, making him jump in surprise. “Oh, there you are! You were kind of spacing out for a minute.”

He scratched his cheek, quickly looking away in embarrassment. “S-sorry,” Izuku apologized reflexively, “U-um, I was just thinking about… stuff.”

Nejire tilted her head to the side. “Stuff? Like what?”

Izuku blushed harder. “N-n-nothing!” He said quickly, immediately racking his mind for a way to redirect the conversation, “U-u-uh, I-I was, e-er, just thinking about y-your fight with T-Togata-san at the S-Sports Festival. I finally got a-around to watching it yesterday, y-you did amazing!”

She beamed at him. “Thanks! I’m glad you got to at least see the recording, even if it wasn’t a very long fight! I actually wanted to talk to you about Nejire-Barrier, I had some ideas for it that I thought might be worth exploring…”

As the only person in the world who would declare herself Izuku’s friend began to prattle off ideas for Wave Motion for him to bounce right back, he felt his heart swell up in his chest again.

Even if they were just friends, that was more than enough for Izuku.

He didn’t even realize Nejire had grabbed his hand again.

–

“...N-Nejire?”

“...Hmm?”

“W-what are you d-doing?”

Nejire lifted her head off his shoulder slowly. “What do you mean?”

For starters, that . She had rested her head down on him the moment the train started moving, turning him into a veritable statue with how tense he suddenly became. Izuku wasn’t even sure he was breathing for most of the ride.

But that wasn’t the most important thing weighing on his mind.

“W-why are you t-taking my t-t-train?” He asked, stammering heavily as she returned to leaning on him. Plenty of people in the train car were having a good laugh at the pair, but Nejire clearly didn’t care. He was pretty sure at least one person recognized them (well, recognized Nejire) and was taking photos. “D-d-don’t you live, like, the c-complete opposite direction from me?”

Nejire shrugged, rubbing shoulders with him in the process. “Didn’t have any plans, so I figured I’d take the whole journey with you!” She tapped the green band on her forearm again. “I don’t shirk from my jobs, y’know! I take them seriously!”

That didn’t explain why it looked like she was falling asleep less than two minutes ago, but whatever. “Your shoulder is a really good pillow! Did you know that? Is it because your uniform is so soft– oh, it kind of is! You must use a lot of fabric softener, huh? Or maybe it’s the same reason that your hair is so fluffy, Izuku! Have you ever thought about that?”

“U-um, no?” he replied quickly, “I-I’ve never really been able to fall asleep on the t-train, or tried… m-much less while in m-my uniform. And I don’t know why it w-would be especially soft, it’s not like I do anything s-special to my laundry.”

Nejire hummed, reaching over him to continue her favorite activity with Izuku - playing with his hair. “Weird,” she mumbled, “You know, I tried that conditioner you said you used, but I can’t really notice a difference in my hair. Can you?”

Izuku, who was already as pink as a peach, had no ability to respond coherently as Nejire turned her back towards him and showed off her hair. “Um…” he sounded like a broken alarm. “...H-how w-would I k-know? I-I’ve never t-touched your h-h-hair…”

Nejire blinked in surprise, as though she was realizing this for the first time. “Oh, right!” She snapped her fingers. “Well, tell me what you think of it now, and then in a few weeks I’ll ask you again and you can compare! Does that work?”

He didn’t know what ancient demon possessed him the moment he tried to respond, but Izuku knew that one must have in order for him to react the way he did. “U-uh, okay?” He agreed, before realizing exactly what he said.

“Great!” Nejire let out a tiny cheer, meant to disturb their fellow passengers as little as possible, but Izuku was pretty sure they were all watching them anyway. “Go on, I won’t bite!”

Yeah, like that was what Izuku was worried about. He was pretty sure his face was about to burst into flames. Maybe he had a latent Quirk that allowed his blushes to go beyond what people should be physically capable of.

He brushed his hands against her long, light blue hair, not willing to wait for Nejire to tell him to get to it a second time. She hummed as he ran his fingers through it slowly, trying very hard to not lose himself in the feeling.

And then Nejire shuddered as he accidentally touched the back of her neck. Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope .

“U-u-um…” Izuku stammered, pulling his hands back quickly like he’d burned himself on a hot pan, “Y-your hair is s-s-soft, too…?”

Nejire made a face. “If you say so,” she relented, immediately going back on the assault against his own mop, “But I don’t really think I can compete with what you’ve got up here!”

Izuku sank down in his seat, feeling his life force fade away beneath Nejire’s hands. This was the most embarrassing thing he could imagine doing with someone in public, and he really wished all the older passengers would stop laughing at his predicament, but there wasn’t one bit of him that wished she’d stop.

It felt nice.

And he’d deny it to anyone who accused him of thinking that until the day he died.

–

“Do you remember that girl from that mini golf place at the mall?” Nejire asked, lazily floating circles around Izuku as he walked, “Kodai? Does she ring a bell?”

Izuku nodded. “Y-yeah, why?”

His friend grinned as she slowly rotated upside down, creating a very odd image for any pedestrian unfortunate enough to walk past them. “She did pretty good in the first-year festival! I think Ryukyu sent her an offer, especially because I told her to look out for her! Ryukyu doesn’t usually take freshmen as interns - even I wasn’t an exception to that rule, despite how totally awesome I am - but she seemed pretty determined! I think that explosive guy won, but they had to chain him up to get him to accept his medal and he probably won’t get a lot of offers thanks to his attitude, but she made it to the top eight! Tied for best in her class! She’ll probably get a lot of offers thanks to her fight with that– hey, are you okay?”

Izuku hadn’t moved since she mentioned Bakugou, leaving Nejire to float ahead unknowingly. “I–” He stopped himself. What was he supposed to say? “I-I-I’m f-fine.”

No he wasn’t. Was he seriously going to shut down just because he heard Nejire talk about Bakuogu? She hadn’t even said his name, for God’s sake - just offhandedly mentioned him as the ‘explosive guy’.

Apparently that didn’t matter. The answer was still yes. His nails had dug into his palms, creating eight curved indents in his skin that looked like they were just about ready to draw blood.

Nejire landed softly on her feet, quickly making her way back towards Izuku with a frown on her face. “Did I say something?”

Izuku shook his head rapidly. “N-n-no!” He said quickly - too quickly, “I-I j-just, uh, r-remembered s-s-something important.”

Her frown deepened, but instead of saying anything else she pulled him in for a soft hug. 

This was like the third one today. Was she hugging him more than usual?

He wasn’t going to complain. Even if it made him red in the face and more flustered than the average person should be able to cope with, something about Nejire just made him melt into her arms. 

It was very embarrassing, frankly. 

“I’m sorry if I said something,” she murmured, “You know you can talk to me about it if you want, right?”

He nodded slowly as a bashful glow enveloped his face, soft and endearing (though Izuku didn’t know that). “D-don’t a-apologize!” He said quickly, “Y-you didn’t d-do anything, really!”

Nejire hummed, resting her head on top of his own as her breath tickled his emerald curls. “If you say so…” She squeezed him a little tighter for a second, releasing him soon after, “But I’m here for you, Izuku.”

His heart was doing backflips. She smiled at him, and it took all his willpower to not pass out from sheer embarrassment. 

He settled on a shaky, lopsided smile. “I-I know,” Izuku mumbled, “Thanks, Nejire.”

She ruffled his hair. With every passing day, he was more and more certain that she had an unhealthy interest in it. Was that why she became friends with him? “Don’t mention it!”

Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly, averting his eyes before he actually passed out from all the blood rushing to his head. “A-anyways,” he continued, “Heroes give out internships for the Sports Festival?”

Nejire nodded, accepting Izuku’s attempt to shift the conversation without a second thought. “Yep! It’s the Sports Festival that gives most Hero students their first chance to expose themselves - both to civilians and Heroes! Any Hero is free to offer any and as many internships as they want, but students can only accept one that they’ll actually go on. Of course, if you have a really bad showing you might not get any offers, but U.A. still has a list of generic offers from their partner-agencies, which are usually run by their graduates, for people who don’t have much luck.”

He nodded slowly, absorbing all the information Nejire had to offer. “Does that mean that you got a lot of offers this year?”

Nejire giggled. “...Maybe?” She replied in a sing-song tone, playfully putting her hands behind her back in an attempt to feign innocence. “Does every Hero agency in Japan count as a lot?”

Izuku’s eyes went as wide as saucers and his jaw dropped to the ground. “E-e-every agency in Japan?!”

“Well, probably not all of them,” she admitted, “But definitely most of them. I got well over ten-thousand offers, and I’m pretty sure the only Hero to not send me an offer in the top one-hundred was Endeavor - and that’s just because he already knows what my answer would be!”

Well then. That was a lot. “H-how do you decide, then?” He asked, “I mean, there’s no way you could p-possibly go through that many applications in a single week!”

She shrugged. “I don’t have to!” Nejire announced proudly, “I work with Ryukyu, and that means I’m going to intern with her. I don’t have to, technically speaking, but once most of us reached our second year we knew what agency we’d be joining once we graduate. It’s way more important for the first-years than it is for us. Even if I did want to go through all those offers, I’d probably just dump most of them in the garbage anyways. What is Mount Lady or Slugger or Death Arms or Rock Lock or anyone else like that going to teach me? You’d probably be a better mentor than, like, eighty-five percent of the people who sent me an offer! You’re the whole reason I even got that many offers in the first place, don’t forget!”

Izuku sighed. He would have denied and downplayed his contributions to Nejire’s success, but he’d been there and done that - for the better part of a month, by this point. If he said anything other than ‘thanks’, she’d just heap more and more praise on him until his poor soul couldn’t take it anymore. 

“T-thanks,” he replied earnestly, a wobbly smile on his face, “I’m really happy it’s all b-been working out f-for you!”

And he meant that, from the bottom of his heart. It was a little painful to watch Nejire succeed with flying colors where he had once wished to be, sure, but he’d made his peace with that stupid idea. The fact that he could do something, anything to help his friend meant way more to him now that being a Hero ever would.

Nejire’s smile was more than enough motivation for him to support her.

Plus, what kind of friend would he be if he didn’t?

Izuku couldn’t tell, what with his sudden fascination with the sidewalk (so that Nejire didn’t see his blush, of course), but Nejire was slightly taken aback by the passion that filled his voice during his last little declaration. 

She decided that she liked it. Izuku’s confidence, what with it beat to hell and practically nonexistent, sometimes reared its cute little head in ways that made her want to hold him like a giant teddy bear.

But since she was pretty sure he was about to explode considering the blush on his face, she settled on a side-hug. 

Izuku was inventing new shades of red with how hard his blushes were becoming.

But that didn’t mean he made any effort to stop her.

“W-we’re h-h-here,” Izuku mumbled after a few more minutes of walking.

Nejire blinked, turning towards Izuku’s apartment building. “Oh, yeah!” She exclaimed, “I forgot you lived in an apartment. Do you live alone? I know some people at U.A. who do that to try and become more independent before they graduate.”

Izuku rubbed his arm. “Um, n-no,” he clarified, “I l-live with my m-mom…”

It shouldn’t have been something to get embarrassed about, considering he was only in his first year of high school, but something about admitting it to Nejire made him feel like he was especially immature.

The taller girl nodded. “Gotcha!” She turned her attention back towards the apartment building. “I still live with my parents, too, up in Akita. It’s great, but the distance from U.A. makes it kind of a pain some days, y’know? There aren’t a lot of trains that go up there!”

Izuku frowned, a sinking feeling in his gut forming at her words. “W-what time is y-your train today?”

“Uh…” Nejire deadpanned as she checked her phone. “About… ten minutes ago?”

The two of them froze. One out of surprise, the other out of guilt (and also surprise).

“Y-y-you c-could have said s-s-something w-when we were at t-the s-s-station!” He cried, “I-I c-can’t believe y-you missed your t-train because of m-m-me –”

Nejire ruffled his hair. “It’s not your fault!” She chastised, “I’m the one who forgot! Besides, it’s not a big deal. I just have to make the next one!”

“A-a-and w-when is that?” Izuku asked, beyond exasperated.

His friend shrugged. “A little less than two hours.”

…

“T-TWO HOURS?!” Izuku practically screamed, horror filling his tone.

She just shrugged. “I’ll find something to do!”

Now, Izuku had two choices. He could accept her words as they were, and leave her be (after apologizing profusely, of course), with Nejire going on to figure out how to kill two hours in the middle of Musutafu while she waited for her ride home. The him from two months ago would have gone with this option without a second thought.

Or…

Izuku mustered up every last ounce of courage he could find in his measly body. “W-w-well,” he stammered, already regretting opening his mouth, “I-if you w-want, u-um, s-s-since it’s kind of m-my f-fault you missed your t-train and you’ve done s-so much for m-me recently… youcouldcomeovermyapartmentandstayforawhileifyouwant!”

Nejire cocked her head to the side as Izuku slowly deflated, like a balloon that had been popped. “Huh?”

“A-aw, man,” Izuku whispered to himself, “D-d-don’t make me say it again!”

He whispered something else unintelligible to himself, before straightening up and clearing his throat awkwardly. “U-um, y-you could come over to my apartment and, ah, s-stay f-f-for a while, if you w-want…”

If wanting to curl up into a ball and die was a sport, Izuku would be the world’s greatest player, bar none. It was like the feeling was an integral part of his personality now.

“Sure!” Nejire said easily, “Thanks, Izuku!” 

Huh?

She nudged his frozen body forward slightly. “Lead the way!”

Oh. She had accepted his offer. 

Izuku had no idea if that was good or not.

–

His apartment wasn’t very special. If anything, the most interesting thing about it was how bland everything was. 

It only had a few rooms. The main entrance was dotted with pictures of himself and his mother at varying points in their lives, the kitchen was about as standard as it could be, with only a few hanging plants differentiating it from what would be seen in an apartment that was on the market, and Izuku didn’t bother showing Nejire any other rooms. His mother’s was off limits for obvious reasons, his own was painfully boring (and he couldn’t bear the idea of a girl being in his room), and there was no point in showing her their laundry room.

“It’s nice!” Nejire said, plopping down on the small loveseat in the living room once his tour was finished, “Really cozy!”

“T-thanks,” Izuku mumbled, taking a spot on the chair off to Nejire’s side, “Um, d-do you want anything to d-drink? I know you s-said you don’t really drink depressors like t-tea, but we have water and lemonade.”

She hummed. “Lemonade?” Nejire repeated, interested, “What kind?”

“The s-sugary kind.”

The periwinkle-haired girl’s eyes lit up. “Yes, please!” She cheered, “That sounds great!”

Izuku nodded, quickly making his way to the fridge to pour a glass. He handed it off to Nejire as soon as he could, awkwardly returning to his seat as she sipped the beverage.

Was he being a good host? Should he have offered her refreshments sooner? Was he supposed to have food for her, like a charcuterie board?

“Ahh,” Nejire breathed out, “That hits the spot. Thanks!”

He shook his head so quickly it was in danger of flying off. “N-no problem!” Izuku rushed to say. “It’s the l-least I could do since you missed y-your train because of me!”

Nejire waved him off. “I told you already,” she reminded him, “It wasn’t because of you! Really!”

Izuku thought it was fair if he had a hard time believing that. “B-but the only reason–”

The door to his apartment opened. “Izuku, I’m home–”

Inko Midoriya’s eyes landed on her son, who sat frozen in the living room like he’d seen a ghost. 

And then they found the girl sitting on the couch opposite him.

“Izuku…” his mom whispered, low enough that he could barely make it out, “You brought a girl home?”

That was the last thing out of her mouth before she passed out, fainting in the doorway in front of her son and the mysterious girl he brought home.

“Mom!”

–

After that little disaster, Izuku’s mom was thankfully able to regain consciousness in no time at all.

That didn’t do anything to take away how mortified he had become at the fact that his mother fainted merely because Izuku committed the grave sin of bringing someone home. And not even in a less than wholesome way - just inviting a friend over while she waited for her train.

At least Nejire didn’t laugh at him - or get weirded out and leave - even as his mom burst into tears when she woke up. 

“My baby is all grown up now!” His mother had cried, her tears flooding the living room, “He brought a girl home!”

Yeah. That really did not help things. Trying to clear things up with his mother while she was in that state was not very fun.

But now… things were even worse.

Because his mother invited Nejire to stay for dinner.

And she said yes.

And now she was showing his only friend (and sort of crush) his baby pictures as he set the table.

Please kill him already.

“And this one is from when Izuku was in his ‘stubborn’ period!” Inko pointed at a photo of him from when he was three, glaring cutely at the camera while in his All Might onesie, cheeks puffed out in irritation. She flipped to the next page in the photo album, and Nejire burst out laughing at whatever horrors his mother had placed within.

“Please, God,” he whispered from his spot in the kitchen, “If you’re real, smite me.”

His prayers went unanswered.

It was nice to see that his mom and Nejire got along well, Izuku figured, but did it really have to be at his expense? Couldn’t they both like knitting or something? Why did she have to bring out his baby pictures?

“I still can’t believe my Izuku is finally bringing friends home,” his mother gushed, wiping at her eyes with a handkerchief she had pulled out from who knows where, “It’s been years since he’s had someone over, much less someone as pretty as you, Nejire!”

Izuku winced. He was half-sure she was trying to embarrass him at this point.

“D-dinner’s done,” he mumbled, loud enough for both women to hear before lowering his voice even lower, “I hope I choke on it.”

As they joined him in the kitchen (and Izuku once again wished he could turn invisible as his mom ordered him to pull Nejire’s chair out for her), the conversation thankfully shifted away from his shame.

“Wow Ms. Midoriya!” Nejire gasped as she took her first bite of tempura, “This is great! I didn’t know fish could taste so good!”

His mom laughed, and Izuku felt his blood run cold.

“Oh, Nejire, you’re too kind!” She crooned, “Please, call me Inko.”

She bobbed her head in between bites. “Okay!”

Dinner was full of little compliments by Nejire, as well as a plentiful amount of them from his mom as well, mostly about how beautiful she was (which was accurate) or how kind she was (which was also accurate). Izuku, for his part, merely tried not to die of embarrassment, which was quickly becoming his most-frequented word.

The real killer was that it was like his mother was getting along with Nejire better than he was. 

If only he had social skills. Or confidence. Or the lack of a stutter. Or–

“Oh, crap!” Nejire suddenly shouted, nearly spitting out her glass of lemonade (it was her fifth one, but who was counting?), “I’m really really sorry about this, but I gotta go!”

Izuku glanced at the clock. “Oh!” He exclaimed, “Is it time for your train?”

Nejire hastily wiped at her face with her napkin. “Yeah, in like five minutes!”

Oh crap indeed. Izuku’s apartment wasn’t exactly close to the station.

“Oh, dear!” Inko gasped, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you so long!”

Nejire shook her head as she rushed to grab her bag from the entrance. “No, no, I’m just really, really, really bad at time management!” She let out an awkward laugh. “Thank you so much for dinner Inko, and thanks for inviting me over Izuku! I’d really like to stay longer but I think my parents would kill me! I’m sorry!”

His mother was the only one who wasn’t currently freaking out over the chance that she missed her train. “Don’t apologize dear, it was a pleasure! We’d be happy to have you over some other time! Do you need Izuku to escort you to the station?”

Nejire practically jumped into her shoes. “No time!” She flung the door open, Wave Motion flaring to life around her legs, and offered Izuku one last smile before she left. “Thanks again, Izuku! I’ll text you later! See you soon!”

Izuku made it to the door just in time to watch Nejire fly off in the general direction of the station. 

He hoped she didn’t miss her train because of him again .

His mom stepped outside behind him, her eyes trailing behind the beam of golden light that was Nejire. “She’s a very nice girl!”

He nodded slowly.

Inko smirked at his lack of verbal reaction, with Izuku silently staring after his friend with a small blush on his face. “Well,” she continued, “You found yourself a very nice girl! I hope that once you two start dating you make sure to visit every so often!”

“Mom!” Izuku shouted, betrayal marring his face, “I-it’s not like t-that!”

She started to giggle. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” his mother laughed, before quickly clapping her hands together. “Now, when can I expect grandchildren?”

“MOM!”

Chapter Text

Izuku was starting to get used to not being beat up.

It was a decidedly nice change of pace, even if he was still constantly on the lookout for potential assailants. A few people looked like they would love nothing more than to pick him up by the neck and throw him into a locker, but every day after school Nejire would be there to remind the entire school populace exactly why that would be a bad idea. 

Also, Tsubasa was still gone. Two days after Nejire had brought him and the rest of his classmates to tears (for very different reasons, of course), his homeroom teacher had announced that the boy had dropped out of Musutafu General High - and all of a sudden, it was like Tsubasa had never even existed. His ‘friends’ found a new leader, didn’t question his sudden departure or inability to contact them, and soon enough his only legacy was that he had brought the name ‘Deku’ to high school for Izuku.

There weren’t many fond memories to be had. But it was jarring nonetheless.

As the final bell rang out for the day and the hallways were flooded with people trying to make it home, Izuku was one of the last people out the door. He didn’t care to be swallowed up by the swathes of students vying for the front doors, doubly so when most of those same kids hated his guts.

Izuku frowned slightly as he looked out from the top of the steps in front of the school, shifting on his feet as he realized he couldn’t pick out Nejire’s attention-grabbing periwinkle hair from the crowd. 

Odd. Usually, she’d text him in advance about something like that. But surely one day of absence wasn’t enough to–

A hand clamped down on Izuku’s shoulder, causing him to tense up on reflex. “Well, well, well.” One of his classmates (and one of Tsubasa’s old cronies) sneered down at him. “It looks like your little girlfriend isn’t here to protect you anymore, Deku .”

His eyes hardened. Not because he was upset at the fact that he was called Deku - that was, like, his fourth largest concern at the moment. “S-she’s not my g-girlfriend.”

The image was ruined slightly by the fact that he was doing his best impression of a strawberry, but that was neither here nor there.

The boy’s laugh was just as pleasant as one would expect - i.e., not at all. Combined with his greasy black hair and crooked teeth, one would think he was trying out as a gangster in some crappy B-list movie. “Oh, don’t worry,” he chuckled, grip on Izuku’s shoulder tightening, “I know no girl would ever be caught dead dating your freakazoid ass. But why is a babe like that wasting her time defending you ? You bribe her or something? Hire a bodyguard and then lie about being Quirkless to her?”

He raised his head in defiance, ignoring the way his body was trembling as well as the punk’s question. “I-if you b-beat me up again,” Izuku warned, “She’ll get m-mad. Remember what happened last t-time, Kanta?”

Kanta grimaced. He had been one of the people Nejire had mopped the floor with that day, after all. “You know what they say,” he spat viciously, an evil smile on his face as Izuku prepared to make a break for it, “Dead men tell no tales! Now, be a–”

A hand clamped down on Kanta’s own shoulder, making him stiffen in surprise at the interruption.

“Now, now,” a familiar voice said warningly, “I’d appreciate it if you removed your hand from my friend here. Otherwise, I might have to do something you’d regret! And then I’d haul you down to the station for assault, and none of us want that!”

Kanta snarled, not bothering to turn his head around and greet the new face (though Izuku could already tell who it was). “Who the fuck are you?!”

Togata grinned from his position behind the two boys, standing a step below them both but still towering over their shorter forms. “I’m–”

Kanta spun on his heel as he let go of Izuku’s shoulder, attempting to sucker punch Togata as he spoke, but his fist was caught as easily as Togata breathed.

“You shouldn’t try that again!” Togata said cheerily, squeezing the fist that sat snugly in his palm, “It isn’t very nice to attack others unprovoked!”

Izuku’s would-be attacker grimaced, but tried to keep up a proud facade in the face of unrelenting power. “Oh, yeah?” He hissed, “Maybe you should go and–”

Togata squeezed his hand tighter around the fist, not once losing his smile. “Maybe you should get lost before you get hurt doing something you shouldn’t be,” he advised friendlily, “Otherwise, who knows what could happen?”

He released Kanta’s fist. The boy groaned as he stumbled backwards, shooting both of them a dirty look as he staggered away. “W-whatever!” Kanta shouted, “T-this isn’t over!”

They all knew it was.

Izuku let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as he turned towards his saviour. “U-um… thanks?”

That could have been bad. Izuku was by no means slow, but he would have been hard-pressed to get away from Kanta once the boy had already gotten a hold of him - especially when he likely had people in the crowd to make sure Izuku couldn’t escape. He owed it to Nejire’s friend that he wasn’t currently getting his face rearranged. It was really sad that was enough to firmly cement Togata in the running for ‘the nicest people Izuku had ever met’ competition. 

It was only good enough for third place currently, but that was still pretty bad.

Togata gave him a bright smile - one that seemed far more genuine than the semi-sadistic one he had shown to Kanta. “No problem, Midoriya-kun!” He said, “How are you? Haven’t seen you in a bit!”

“I-I’m, uh, alright,” he replied slowly, “W-what are you doing here, T-Togata-san? How did you, um, find where I go to school?”

The second question had a pretty obvious answer. But Izuku wanted to be sure that his assumption was correct, and that the blonde was not stalking him again. Call him paranoid, but it was definitely still a possibility.

Togata’s grin was unwavering as he replied. “Nejire told me!” 

Ah. That checked out, but Izuku still had plenty of questions.

Fortunately, the older boy seemed to know what he’d be asking before he even had to open his mouth. “She told me that she had been, uh, ‘picking you up from school’, for lack of a better word,” he began, using air quotes to emphasize his point, “But she had some extenuating circumstances today and asked me to cover for her!”

He patted his forearm, where Izuku suddenly realized Nejire’s green ‘Izuku Protection Squad’ armband sat snugly. “And she asked me to wear this. I didn’t really get why, but now…” Togata’s face hardened. “I kinda get it. You sure you’re okay, Midoriya-kun? I can’t stand bullies.”

Izuku nodded slowly. “Y-yeah,” he mumbled, “I’m f-fine. This isn’t anything new…”

He trailed off awkwardly, unsure of how to continue. “I-I, uh, appreciate you coming, but it’s okay. You d-didn’t have to do this…”

Togata frowned. “By the looks of things, it’s a pretty good thing I did. That guy sure didn’t seem very friendly, especially not when he tried to punch me.”

“T-this is normal,” Izuku stressed, “P-people are just, ah, upset that, um, that–”

“That Nejire isn’t letting them beat you up?” Togata finished for him.

Izuku’s eyes widened in horror. “S-she told you t-that?!”

He shrunk back in shock, recoiling at the implications, but before he could spiral into despair it was Togata’s turn to look shocked.

“Of course not!” He said quickly, putting his hands up placatingly in an attempt to calm Izuku down, “It just wasn’t very hard to figure out, you know! Nejire didn’t tell me anything else, other than to come here and make sure you didn’t need any help. Promise.”

As easy as it would have been for Izuku to give into his fears and accuse Togata of lying, losing any and all trust he held for his friend in the process, he knew Nejire wouldn’t do that. His breathing calmed as his heart rate returned to normal levels, reason flooding his senses.

Izuku sighed. “O-okay,” he muttered, feeling about as humiliated as humanly possible, “Thanks. I’m f-fine now, though, so you can leave, I guess.”

He wasn’t trying to be, but Izuku thought his words felt rather cold, which was unfair to Togata. The third-year had gone out of his way to help him, and he responded by acting like a petulant child. Real nice. Maybe Izuku was just an antisocial asshole all along, and he deserved the dirty looks and poor treatment he’d received over the years.

Togata put an end to those thoughts as soon as they had appeared by slinging an arm around Izuku’s shoulders. “You have any plans today, Midoriya-kun?”

Why was he touching him? What was in the water at U.A. that made people cling to him like glue?

He went still at the contact, though that was mostly because he was now uncomfortable instead of embarrassed (which was the case whenever Nejire got up close and personal with him). “U-uh, n-n-no?” Izuku squeaked out, trying his best to wriggle out of Togata’s hold.

“Great!” Togata grinned down at him, “Wanna hang out with me and Tamaki?”

Izuku blinked. Where had that come from?

“What?” He breathed out, briefly pausing in his attempts to get Togata’s arm off his back, “Why would you want m-me to hang out with you guys?”

The boy only offered him an easy shrug. “Why not?” He shot back coolly, “Nejire’s our friend, you’re Nejire’s friend, the next logical step is for us to become friends! Besides…”

Togata trailed off as his eyes landed on the scant few students that remained hanging around the school’s entrance. Most of them were shooting Izuku dirty looks, but a few of the girls were staring dreamily at Togata. “It looks like you could use a few more friends, yeah?”

Damn. He went for the killing blow right away, huh?

Izuku stared down at the ground. How was he supposed to say no to that? It was like Togata knew just what to say to get Izuku to agree with him. 

“...Okay,” Izuku relented, “Um, w-what did you have in m-mind?”

Plus, if he became friends with them he’d have more opportunities to hang out with Nejire without feeling like a fifth wheel like he had during the Sports Festival. He definitely didn’t want to be invited places just because Nejire felt bad for him.

Togata whooped. “Great!” He cheered, finally releasing Izuku from his grasp as he pumped his fists in the air, “Come on, Midoriya-kun, we don’t want to keep Tamaki waiting!”

He marched off headstrong down the street, moving so quickly Izuku could barely keep up. “W-wait!” He cried, “Y-you haven’t even t-told me where we’re g-going yet!”

The older boy didn’t bother slowing down, instead continuing on his path like a man on a mission. “You’ll know when we get there!” He laughed, voice booming down the street, “Now c’mon!”

“T-that doesn’t make any s-sense!”

Still, Izuku chased after him.

As pathetic as it was… the allure of making more friends was too strong for him to resist.

–

It was probably for the best that Togata didn’t tell him where their destination was.

Izuku probably wouldn’t have agreed to come with him if he did.

“W-why did you take m-me to the gym ?” Izuku asked, completely dumbfounded as Togata slid a thin keycard into the door, “I-I mean… w-what?”

The muscular boy shrugged as he opened the door. “This is where me and Tamaki were going to be today, so if you want to hang out with us today, then this is where we’ll be!”

He sputtered in indignation. “ Y-you were the one who offered!”

Togata blinked. “I guess I did!”

Izuku groaned, sinking his head into his hands. “You don’t make any sense,” he complained, “I m-mean, I don’t even have a membership to this place!”

“They let us bring one friend along whenever we want!” Togata pointed out, “It’s one of the perks of being a member.”

“T-that doesn’t matter!” Izuku shouted, “I d-don’t know how to use any of the m-machines here, either!”

“There are instructions on each of them,” he replied, much calmer than Izuku, “And if you don’t understand then me and Tamaki can help you out.”

Izuku was grasping at straws at this point, exasperation taking its town on his tiny frame. “I don’t even work out!”

He gestured to himself incredulously. There wasn’t a lot to work with, clearly.

“So?” Togata shrugged. “No time like the present! Besides, you followed me in here!”

His face flushed as Togata called him out, but that didn’t change the fact that Izuku felt like a fish out of water. “T-this is embarrassing,” he muttered shamefully, “I-I’m still in my uniform, for crying out loud…”

His companion clapped him on the shoulder once he’d placed his backpack down. “Relax, Midoriya-kun!” He encouraged, “No one cares about what you wear to the gym! Besides, the only person here aside from us is Tamaki.”

Izuku blinked as he finally peeled his eyes away from the hero student, realizing that he was right - the gym was completely deserted.

Aside from a lone purple-haired individual currently squatting more weight than Izuku could even conceive of carrying. He had clearly ditched the U.A. uniform, instead opting to sport a plain white t-shirt and loose black shorts. Now that he was out of his uniform, Izuku could tell that despite the fact that he wasn’t as muscular as Togata, he was still plenty strong.

Amajiki caught his glance awkwardly, freezing up mid-squat (though he didn’t seem bothered by the weight bearing down on his knees and back). “H-hi.”

He waved back slowly. “H-hi.”

Izuku felt a strange sense of kinship with the boy, for reasons he couldn’t quite pin down.

“This place is a special one,” Togata explained, “It’s reserved for Hero students and actual pros, but most of the time it’s pretty empty. Doesn’t make the business a lot of money, but it’s subsidized by the government, so I guess that makes up for it. Anyways, I’m going to change! Be right back!”

Before he disappeared, he gave Izuku a once-over. “You might want to lose the jacket,” he advised, “And since you’re in jeans it’s probably better that you don’t do any leg workouts today. Might rip them if you tried!”

“How… how did I end up here,” Izuku whispered to himself, “What is my life…”

The gym was practically silent. Aside from the steady hum of the lights far above them and the clinking of the metal plates on Amajiki’s bar, nothing was there to keep Izuku’s mind from wandering. He kept sending nervous looks Izuku’s way, quickly glancing back to his feet whenever the boy caught his awkward stares.

Izuku couldn’t tell which of them was more uncomfortable with this.

This was all too much for him. Maybe if Nejire was here he’d be able to stomach the awkwardness of being at a gym, but there was equal chance she’d just tease him about how much of a toothpick he was - in a friendly way of course, but Izuku would still probably crack under the pressure.

He eyed the exit. Would Togata and Amajiki make a fuss if he just ran for it? They weren’t that far from the station, he could hitch a ride and make it home in no time flat if he–

Togata strode out of the changing room confidently, his uniform abandoned in favor of a tight grey tank top and sweatpants. “All right!” He shouted to the nearly-empty building, “Who’s ready to get some power!”

“Me,” Amajiki said stoically.

“All right!” Togata clapped at the response, before turning back to Izuku. “What about you, Midoriya-kun? Are you ready to get powerful?!” 

Izuku sweatdropped at the boy’s attitude. “I t-think I’ll just watch…”

“Suit yourself!”

Togata was quick to make himself busy setting up a weight bench and barbell, stacking on plate after plate as he hummed a happy tune. At first it seemed normal, since he was only adding a single plate at a time, but eventually it got to the point where Izuku had to assume he was playing a prank on him, thinking the younger boy to be too gullible to understand how strong the human body could be.

Once Togata got to the sixth twenty-kilogram plate, Izuku realized he must just be insane.

Especially because he then added the same amount of weight on the other side of the bar.

Even as it sat racked on the railing above the bench, the bar looked like it was starting to bend due to the sheer amount of weight forced on it. He looked towards Amajiki, to see if he had anything to say about what Togata was about to do, but he looked completely nonplussed by the situation. Regardless, Izuku was sure that if Togata tried to lift it, his arms would snap off and the barbell would crush his chest.

The boy clearly had other plans. He lifted it off with absolutely zero resistance, pressing it down to his chest and back into the air like he was using kiddie-weights.

Izuku had to find his jaw; he was pretty sure it had fallen to the floor somewhere several minutes ago.

This continued for several minutes. Amajiki still seemed completely unfazed by the spectacle - when he had finished his squats, he simply passed Togata without saying a word and began curling a pair of massive kettlebells. The two were in their own separate worlds.

“Forty-eight,” Togata counted, barely even breaking a sweat, “Forty-nine, fifty!”

With one last push he hefted the bar into the air, reracking it with no trouble at all. “Whew!” He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “That was one heck of a warmup!”

“W-w-warmup?!” Izuku didn’t mean to speak up, but sometimes his mouth was quicker than his brain. “T-that was nearly two hundred and fifty kilograms!”

“That’s nothing,” Amajiki mumbled, “Mirio is super strong now.”

Togata laughed, waving off Amajiki’s little compliment. “I don’t know about that ,” he chuckled, “But I do like to think I’ve gotten pretty tough! My Quirk kinda demands it, so I’ve got to keep pushing my limits! It doesn’t hurt that working out is, like, super fun!”

“I thought your Quirk was P-Permeation,” Izuku whispered, slightly horrified at the implications of Togata’s words. If five-hundred kilos was a warmup, what was a regular workout for him?

Nearly imperceptibly, Togata tensed up. It was only for a split second, but Izuku’s keen eyes were just barely able to catch it. “Well,” he began, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully, “Y-you see…”

Amajiki sighed. “It would be easier if you just showed him, I think,” the lean boy mumbled, “It’s freaky. And weird… And kind of cool.”

The last part came out as a whisper, and Togata nodded at his friend’s suggestion. “Yeah, that’s smart. C’mere, Midoriya-kun!”

Robotically, Izuku stepped onto the gym floor, away from the shelves where people stored their personal belongings. He stayed a respectful distance away from the guys, and watched in fascination and slight fear as Togata stacked five more plates onto each side of the bar. It creaked ominously beneath the weight, but neither of them made any move to pull the weight off. If anything, Togata looked eager .

“I’m no e-expert,” Izuku warned, “But I-I don’t think it should be making those n-noises.”

His concerns were waved off. “It’s completely safe. This isn’t even my max!”

Izuku blinked slowly, almost owlishly. “Um…”

Amajiki shook his head slowly at him, almost like he was warning him to not say anything.

Togata placed himself beneath the bar, cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders as he prepared to bench the nearly thousand-kilo barbell.

And then something weird happened.

Little sparks flickered off of Togata’s body - or more specifically, off his arms - as he reached up and clasped his hands around the bar. Those sparks turned into arcs of lightning as his muscles bulged, and Izuku dimly realized that if he wasn’t wearing a tank top whatever poor shirt he had on would’ve likely lost its sleeves. Togata’s eyes were laser-focused on the bar as Izuku gaped like a fish, slowly going through the motions of a bench press once more.

At some point Amajiki abandoned his kettlebell curls to watch the show taking place in front of him, staring with barely-concealed awe in his eyes as the blonde benched what was probably the weight of eight Izukus.

Okay, that somehow made it seem like less weight than it actually was. The point was it was a lot of weight and there was lightning shooting out of his body like he was a faulty generator.

Whatever that lightning signified, it was certainly making the boy stronger. Green energy coated Togata’s upper half, and even as he became positively drenched in sweat he didn’t lose the smile on his face as he pushed the weight around. Even though he only did ten repetitions this time around as opposed to fifty, Izuku was no less gobsmacked by the time the blonde finished. 

“So!” Togata clapped his hands together. “What do you think?”

“...” Izuku was at a loss for words. “...I didn’t know Permeation included… t-that.”

His voice was very small in that moment. Togata probably could have turned Izuku’s head into paste with that arm he had swung around his shoulders earlier - not that he would.

Then again, Nejire probably could too. But even though they were friends and shared relatively similar personalities, he felt decidedly safer with the girl.

Maybe it was all the hugs she had given him finally altering his brain chemistry. 

Togata awkwardly laughed. “Yeah, about that…” he started, “Um, my Quirk kind of evolved, for the lack of a better term, a few months ago, and now I have super strength.”

Izuku’s brow furrowed. That would explain some things, but…