16

Chapter Text

" Cramps ?! That's the best you could come up with?!" Katsuki hissed through his teeth as Izuku walked out of the dorm the next morning. Uraraka and Iida were walking just ahead of them, talking happily to each other.

"You know I'm not good at making stuff up when I'm tired, Kacchan! I was exhausted." Izuku whispered back as the two other students noticed them and turned around. Iida waved at them, beckoning them over.

"Good morning, Bakugou, Midoriya!" Iida's boisterous greeting interrupted any further arguments between the two as they walked up to the two taller students.

Izuku smiled back and greeted Iida, then turned towards the woman. "Good morning, Uraraka."

"Good morning…" She didn't make eye contact with him, and quickly grew a slight blush. Izuku didn't react outwardly, but couldn't help but shake the feeling that she was acting weirdly. He also couldn't shake the feeling that it was his fault.

'Is she scared of me now that I told her about my quirk? No, she wouldn't be blushing then…'

The four quickly made their way to the main building, the three men discussing their first class with All Might and the results of their training with him. Izuku made a note of Uraraka's distracted silence, but was too involved in his discussion to give it much thought. Once they reached their classroom, their group split, each moving to their own seat.

Izuku sat down and began to brainstorm why Uraraka was acting so strangely around him compared to the previous days of class. Before he could get far into his mental investigation, a shadow was cast on his desk, causing him to look up.

"Oh, good morning, Ashido." He smiled cheerily at her, but his expression faltered when he saw the serious look on her face.

She stared at him for a few moments, eyes both suspicious and concerned. "You're going to tell m-"

"All students should be in their seats when class begins, Ashido." Aizawa threw the door open and reprimanded the pink girl in the same beat. She scurried back to her seat, apologizing softly as she quickly sat down.

Aizawa took his place behind the lectern and slowly moved his tired gaze over the class. "I reviewed all of your performances yesterday. There were no glaring issues that weren't expected." His eyes met Izuku's as he spoke, causing the student to swallow nervously. "So overall, good work."

He walked out from behind the lectern with a stack of papers, handing one to each student. "These are your performance reviews. Read them over after class and speak to me if you have any questions."

Aizawa returned to the front of the class and looked to make sure he still had everyone's attention. "Next… you will make a decision that will change your future." All of the students sat upright with a sharp intake of breath. They all stared at their professor expectantly.

"It's time to pick your class representatives," Aizawa droned emotionlessly.

The collective breath was released.

Students all around the room began to boldly declare their candidacy, standing and shouting at their desks, while Izuku took a moment to assess the situation and the other students. He had, of course, planned for this. The class representative was an important position, especially in a hero course when it was a way to show leadership and get yourself noticed.

Izuku smiled to himself; he already had it in the bag. This wasn't the objective of his game, but it was a convenient benefit that he had already set up the board in his favor. He stood up, raising his arm into the air as the other students argued. "We should hold an election!" The other students stopped to look at him. "A democratic vote will show who already has the trust of their classmates. It is the only way to be fair."

His classmates turned to look at each other, slightly stunned by his sudden proposal. Murmurs of assent ran around the room. Izuku continued his explanation with confidence, "Whoever gets the most votes will be the class representative, and second place will be vice representative. In the case of a tie, we'll have a runoff election between those students. Everyone write their vote on a piece of paper, fold it up and put it on the table in the front of the class. Does that sound good?"

He looked around the room and nobody raised any objections. He smiled wide and sat back down, pulling out his own piece of paper to write a name down. A stack of votes quickly appeared at the front of the room and Izuku asked Aizawa to count them out, for the sake of impartiality. Aizawa glared at him for only allowing him a short nap but obliged.

The results left little room for debate. Most students sat at zero or one vote, presumably themselves, while two students stood out from the crowd. Yaoyorozu had three votes, while Izuku had five.

"Alright, Midoriya is your class rep, and Yaoyorozu is your vice rep. Congratulations to you both." Aizawa half-heartedly gestured towards the two students standing at the front of the room.

Izuku himself turned and looked up at the woman and gave her a wide grin. "I look forward to working with you, Yaoyorozu."

She smiled softly back at him. "Likewise, Midoriya."

He turned and looked at the class, scanning over the students looking up at him... although he carefully avoided looking at Mineta. He had a good idea of who voted for him, and he was glad that his gamble paid off. He felt his quirk flare slightly, causing his eyes to glow almost imperceptibly.

They are all mine.

And for the first time in a long time, Izuku didn't try and resist. He simply smiled wider.

His eyes caught Uraraka's who was looking proudly at him. As her eyes met his, she began to blush again and averted her gaze. Izuku furrowed his brow slightly, finally having the time to think about her.

He moved back to his seat, rubbing his chin as he ran through the events of the previous day. Ever since walking to class, Izuku hadn't been able to shake the feeling like he had been forgetting something. With all the action of the battle trial and the aftermath, the whole day seemed like a blur.

"Hey, hey Midoriya, you really... grabbed that by the horn -!" Kaminari yelped in pain as one of Jirou's jacks caught him mid-pun, causing much of the class to start laughing.

Instead of laughing, Izuku was frozen in his seat. 'Grabbed by the…'

Suddenly, all the memories of the previous day came crashing back. His eyes went wide as he remembered everything : the accident before the battle trial started, the confession about his quirk, what he had told Uraraka when he was delirious...

"Tall women are hot, Uraraka...You are really hot."

Izuku thought his face might catch on fire as he turned green and buried his head in his arms.

Midori had successfully avoided Mina for the rest of morning classes, but she wasn't ready to give up yet... Lunch gave her a great opportunity to talk to him without something interrupting her. She waited in line for her food and sat down across the table from him, waiting for her opportunity.

But before Mina could find it, something else distracted her; Midori and Ochako had been awkward around each other since they both arrived on Saturday, but today was something different. They had been getting better each day, but now they couldn't even look in the other's general direction without blushing.

Mina couldn't help but smile as they awkwardly avoided each other. Even though they weren't trying to be, they were adorable. Midori was so flustered that he didn't even notice Mina staring at him almost the entire time.

Eventually, she grew tired of being coy and decided to take matters into her own hands. Midori wouldn't want to talk in public, so she would just have to ask him to speak in private... She promised herself that this wasn't just an excuse to get some alone time with him.

She noticed how distracted he was, so she reacted over and tapped him on the head with one of her chopsticks. He blinked and looked at her with a slightly worried look on her face, tilting his head slightly.

'He has no right to be that adorable!' She smiled at him, but then remembered what she was doing.

"Can I speak to you in pri-"

Suddenly, an alarm began to blare through the lunch room, followed by a recorded voice. "Warning, level 3 security breach. All students, please evacuate the building in an orderly fashion and return to your dormitories."

The 'orderly' part did not happen, as the lunchroom immediately devolved into chaos. A stampede of students began pushing and shoving out of the cafeteria, creating a human traffic jam. People were shouting in panic and fear, elbows were flying and the crowd was only getting denser at time went on.

Her friends had managed to stay close for the most part, but as the other students pressed in, they had to really get close. Mina found herself and Ochako shoved into Midori, arms forced to their sides as they were crushed together. The pink girl found her head squeezed between the two taller students' chests; firm on one side, soft on the other.

She sighed softly. 'I could get used to this…'

"What's a level three security breach?!" Midori shouted as they were all crushed together.

"It means an intruder broke onto campus grounds!" Iida replied. Mina couldn't help but laugh; of course Iida had read up on all of UA's protocols.

"An intruder?! Who would be stupid enough to break into UA of all places?!"

"It was probably the damn press!" Bakugou was apparently on the other side of Midori, judging from how near his voice sounded.

"The press?!" Ochako replied. "Ow!" Someone jammed their elbow into her side as they shoved past.

"They've been swarming the gates since they found out All Might's teaching here! Hey, fuck off!" Bakugou yelled back as someone crashed into him as well. "Did you not see them this morning?! They were all over the damn place!"

"It is the press!" Iida shouted from a little ways away, sounding like he was pressed up against something. "Look out the window!"

"People need to calm down before someone gets hurt!" Ochako shouted as she got squeezed even closer to Mina and Midori. However, despite Mina's desires, eventually there was such a thing as too close. The pressure from the crowd caused her to get squeezed out from between her friends.

It was at this point that Mina got torn away from the rest of the group. Several students behind her started pushing harder, and took her along for the ride. She saw Ochako reach her hand out, but Mina was already too far away from her. Midori was staring at her with wide eyes, panic setting in.

The surge that Mina was caught in was not a gentle one, and as it crashed into another group of similarly-panicked students, things took a turn for the worse. Somebody tripped someone else and it created a domino effect, students falling on top of each other and people continued to shove from behind.

Mina couldn't stay upright in the human tidal wave and was pushed off of her feet. She tried to claw her way up, but nobody was paying attention to her. She caught an elbow in the back of the head, knocking her down further. Her legs started getting stepped on as she cried out. "I'm being trampled!"

She looked around desperately for something to pull herself up with, but the students were moving too quickly and forcefully for her to gain her balance. She looked back, hoping to see her friends were nearby. She could barely make out Midori, who was staring straight at her. He was clutching his head slightly as his horns slowly stretched longer, while his eyes were wide and burning bright. They looked almost… angry.

She lost sight of him as she was dragged away by the undertow of people, but then a loud crash rang out, causing the students around her to finally stop.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

She flinched and looked up, spotting Midori hanging from the wall, high above everyone else. His right arm was transformed, it's claws dug deep into the stone. His pants were shredded below his thigh as scaled, digitigrade legs burst from them, the right foot dug into the wall as well; she guessed that he had to have jumped at least fifteen feet high. Mina could make out high green scales covering his neck as he shouted.

"You are UA Students , not animals ! Act like it!"

There was something deeply unsettling with his voice, as if it caused the ancient, primal part of her brain to cower in fear. The students around her felt it too, all staring at the man hanging from the stone, staring down at them with intense, glowing eyes and his mouth turned up into a snarl, exposing his elongated teeth. Several of the students around her even took a hesitant step back from the man.

Mina could only stare as he scanned the crowd, eyes moving quickly in a decidedly inhuman fashion. His fierce gaze snapped to her's as he finally found her, still sitting on the ground. Midori's eyes were nearly as disconcerting as his voice; they were the eyes of a hunter and he wasn't moving them off of her.

The other students began to move again, but in a much calmer way. Mina picked herself up, still staring back at the green-haired man. He never took his eyes off of her, staring her down with an intensity that caused that animal part of her brain to scream 'predator!'

Even though Mina was in the middle of what should have been one of the most intimidating experiences of her life, she couldn't help but smile and feel... exhilarated.

It took about ten minutes, but eventually the lunchroom cleared out. Midori hopped down as soon as Mina was able to stand up and walk over to her friends safely. As soon as he landed, the intimidating aura was broken and the man returned to normal.

Ochako quickly moved up to him and crouched down slightly next to him, speaking softly to him. Unfortunately for her, Mina hadn't become the gossip-fiend she was today without carefully cultivating her eavesdropping skills.

"Deku, was that your-"

"Yes, but I was in control this time. It's okay." He smiled shakily at her, and then spotted Mina standing nearby. His eyes went wide as he swiftly moved over to her. "Ashido, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Midori fussed, worry in his voice.

"I'm fine, thanks." She smiled up at him to assuage his concerns.

He let out a huge sigh and then tensed up as he realized the situation he was in. "Oh crap, I clawed a hole in the wall! Nezu is going to kill me!"

"Not true." A small, squeaky voice from behind Midori caused them all to jump.

"P-President Nezu!" Poor Midori looked like he was about to pass out at the sight of the small, white, rodent dog thing or whatever the President of UA was.

"You won't be punished for your actions here, Midoriya," Nezu assured him. "In fact, I would like to thank you for taking charge of the situation and calming your fellow students down before anyone got seriously injured."

"T-thank you, sir," Midori stammered, "but what about the wall? I damaged school property and-"

"Cementoss can smooth over the damage in no time. No permanent damage has been done." Nezu cut him off succinctly, then turned to the rest of the students gathered around him. "Classes for the rest of the day have been cancelled. Please return to your dorms and await further instructions from your homeroom teacher."

"Yes, sir." The others responded immediately.

Midori let out another great sigh, his shoulders slumping in relief. Mina's eyes drifted down his body to his shredded pants. His transformation had mostly destroyed them, leaving everything below his upper thigh exposed to the air.

Mina wanted to think something inappropriate, but her brain wasn't working that well. She only stared and let her mouth hang slightly agape as she stared at his muscular legs.

The man followed her eyes and then realized what she was staring at. He yelped and covered his legs with his backpack. "S-sorry, Ashido!"

Her trance was broken as he covered himself up. She blinked a couple times and closed her mouth, staring slightly dumbly at him.

"I-I know you wanted to talk to me, b-but I need to go get new pants! Sorry!" The man took off down the hallway, earning a reprimand from Iida for running in the halls.

Bakugou and Kiri started walking behind Iida as they all headed back to the dorms, Bakugou laughing the whole time. As they walked off, Mina and Ochako were the only ones left in the hallway.

Ochako sighed. "Oh, Deku…"

Mina found her voice this time. "I know, right? Did you see his legs?"

Ochako jumped, apparently having forgotten Mina was there. She looked down at Mina and began to blush slightly. "Yeah…" She spoke so softly Mina could barely hear her.

Mina smiled at her blush, and grew a small lilac dusting as well. 'Why are you both so damn attractive?'

Their walk back to Heights Alliance was silent, both of them evidently in deep thought. Mina was staring at the ground, thinking through the events of the week so far. 'The way he looked at me… and whatever Ochako and him were talking about afterwards… it has to do with what happened yesterday, right? I have to get to the bottom of this.'

She sighed audibly. 'It would have been so much simpler if I was just in 1-B…'

The rest of the afternoon passed mostly uneventfully. Midori had come back downstairs after changing into casual clothes, including a t-shirt that boldly declared 't-shirt'. Mina rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling at the strange, endearing garment. The man refused to make eye-contact with her for the next few hours, which made her both annoyed and a little flattered.

But Mina could tell that Midori was acting out of character. She had known him for five days, and she had never really seen him relax like this. He was always doing something , be it training with Bakugou, reading the textbook, making food, or writing in that notebook of his. Right now however, he wasn't doing much of anything. He was simply sitting on the couches, hanging out with her, Ochako, Tsu, Kiri and Bakugou. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that he was waiting for something.

Dinner came, and Midori went out of his way to cook for everyone again. Satou didn't let him do it alone this time, and even Tsu helped. Mina didn't know if she had ever had better ramen; she could definitely get used to this, and judging from the noises of satisfaction coming from the other girls she was sitting with, they could too. Mina noted a small, almost nostalgic look that Yaomomo and Midori exchanged when he served her. She made a mental note to question her about it later.

After dinner, when the sun was setting, Mina was sitting on the couch again with Midori. The other four had dispersed to do homework, workout or otherwise head to their rooms. This made Mina even more suspicious as she sat near him, watching him talk to Kaminari who was sitting with them. Bakugou and Kiri had left with Satou to go work out, and Midori had declined to go with them, even after the rather calm day of school.

Mina was glad for the opportunity to get him on his own and finally grill him about what had happened the previous day. She couldn't help but feel concerned for him, especially with how Ochako seemed to fuss over him at lunch. Something was going on, and she felt like it was her duty to find out what. Midori wouldn't want to talk about it publicly, she had figured out that much, so she just needed a way to get rid of Kaminari.

Fortunately for her, as she was formulating a plan, there was a loud knock at the front door of the dorm. Kaminari leapt up from his seat with an emphatic "I'll get it!"

He began to quickly move over to the door and Mina took the opportunity to lean over to Midori to make her move. She noticed that he was watching the door expectantly, but continued anyway. "Midori, I really-"

Kaminari opened the door and promptly screamed, causing everyone in the room to look at him. He turned and ran back towards the group, panic on his face. "Why is the number nine hero at our dorm?!"

'A hero?! Wait, number nine?! That means…'

With this, Midori also leapt from his seat, vaulting over the couch and sprinting towards the door. The other students saw his reaction and, already on edge from Kaminari's reaction, began to freak out as well.

"Keep the hero nerd away from the pro!" Kyouka warned loudly. Several of the other students realized what she was saying: if Midori had freaked out so much over Lunch Rush, what would he do around a top ten hero?

Stepping through the front door was a beautiful woman just a bit shorter than Mina, wearing her elegant, copper hair over her right eye. She wore a long, black cheongsam that exposed her dense, refined musculature of her arms and shoulders. Mina stared with her mouth agape. Her favorite hero in the whole world was standing just a few meters away.

'Ryukyu?! But why?'

Iida had moved to intercept Midori, hoping to stop him before he harassed Ryukyu. The green-haired simply ducked under Iida's extended arms, deftly avoiding him without missing a beat. Midori was on the pro hero in seconds, and rapidly threw his arms around her, crushing the much smaller woman into his chest.

Mina contained the pang of envy she felt in her stomach as she and the rest of the room screamed . "Midoriya! Unhand her at once, that is entirely inappropriate!" Iida chopped the air sternly.

Then everyone stopped. Ryukyu was hugging him back, eagerly returning his crushing strength. Mina took a mental step back. 'Oh, right. Dragon. Midori, Stormclaw, Ryukyu. How did I not realize that yet?' She hit herself on the head. 'I've been really distracted this week.'

The rest of the room seemed to make this connection themselves, and quickly relaxed. Midori let go of the woman and turned back to the classroom. "Everyone, please meet Ryuko Tatsuma, my cousin."

The woman bowed slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Izuku has told me much about you." Her smile was kind and genuine.

Now it was Mina's turn to feel indignant. She ran forward to join the crowd of her classmates that were surrounding the hero. Much to Ryukyu's credit, she didn't seem put-off by the pressure; she was certainly used to crowds as a top ten hero. Mina pointed an accusatory finger at Midori, just as Kaminari had done on Monday. "Why didn't you tell me you were related to Ryukyu! I mean, I should have figured that out, but still!"

Midori looked sort of sheepish and took a step back from Mina's intensity, but it wasn't him that responded to her. "You must be… Ashido, right?" Ryukyu tipped a knowing finger in her direction. This caused Mina to begin turn lilac.

'Midori told her about me?!' She bowed slightly, more to hide her blush than anything. "I'm Mina Ashido, it's truly an honor to meet you!"

"I was surprised to hear about someone with an acid quirk. My time is limited, so please excuse me." She turned to the door, beckoning Izuku to follow her. "Perhaps next time I visit I could give you some pointers?" She waved to the class. "It was nice to meet you all, sorry I can't stay longer." And with that, the door shut and Ryukyu and Midori were gone.

The class around her was talking about the event that had just transpired, but Mina wasn't listening. She was standing stock-still, mind racing. 'Pointers?! Personal advice from one of the greatest and most beautiful heroes in Japan?!' She frantically tried to calm herself down.

Then she realized something else. 'Interrupted again!' Her frustration overpowered her fangirling. For the third time that day, she had been stopped from confronting Midori and she was getting tired of it. She was ready to try something a little more… drastic.

Izuku returned to the dorm nearly an hour later, after saying goodbye to Ryuko. He normally went to his father for advice, but it was always good to get a different perspective on things. After all, none of his family's quirks worked exactly the same. And besides, his father was still out of town for a couple more days.

He always found himself feeling better after spending time with his cousin. She was humble, kind and gregarious; a great friend and a great mentor. The… incidents of the past few days had been weighing heavily on his mind, and while he couldn't say that all of his doubts had been assuaged, he felt a lot better.

He wiped the final tears from his eyes as he walked back inside the dorm, hoping his eyes weren't too red. None of the other students were still in the common room, much to his relief. He made his way quickly up to his room on the second floor, ready to be done with the day.

But sometimes, things don't work out the way you planned.

He put his key in the lock and turned the handle, slowly opening his door. What happened next seemed to be both a blur and in slow-motion. His room came into view and he immediately noticed that there was someone in his room. A mistake.

INTRUDER

His quirk flared with such intensity that he had no hope of controlling it. In an instant, he had dashed forward and tackled the interloper. His forearms shifted as his eyes glowed and his horns grew. The intruder was pinned to the ground as Izuku held their arms down with his clawed hand, and held their legs down with his own.

His teeth grew and he growled in the trespassers face, venom barely contained. His face was contorted into pure rage and indignation as his deadly fangs hung inches from the face of the person on the ground.

"Midori?"