Chapter 16
"Wait, what?"
Izuku felt his mind trip over itself as his thoughts registered.
"L-love?! Why did I think that?! T-that was an accident, it had to be!"
Izuku turned his gaze towards Tsuyu, trying to hide the rapidly growing panic.
She was still pulling him and Uraraka along, but her grip on his arm had changed. Her grip had slipped down his arm so that she was holding the hem of his sleeve between two fingers.
At the time, she had hesitated, as if she meant to do something else but had decided on the smaller hold she had now.
His eyes caught the fact that her other hand was still holding Uraraka's.
"Maybe she almost grabbed mine on instinct and decided against it?"
For some reason, the thought made him feel… disappointed?
It's not like she hadn't held his hand before. They had been friends for over 10 years, after all. Over the years it happened less and less often, likely attributed to them growing up and finding such an intimate action to be awkward for their teenage minds.
"I-intimate? It's just holding hands. T-there's nothing intimate about that!"
While he had thought that, his eyes drifted towards the green haired woman. As she walked, she swayed back and forth, letting out little happy ribbits as she went.
He felt the smile return as he watched the bow her hair was tied in sway back and forth behind her. Something about it, just being near herm watching her be happy, calmed his frazzled mind.
As his mind settled, the truth became harder to ignore. He found himself unable to deny it.
"I'm in love with her. I love this amazing woman."
A small tug on his arm drew Izuku's attention away.
Turning, he saw Himiko, still holding onto his arm. She had a small smile on her face, one that grew when she realized she caught his gaze.
Her smile was so wide that it bared her fangs for all the world to see, uncaring of who might be watching. Something about the expression spoke to something inside Izuku that he wasn't really sure how to place.
He watched as the blond rubbed her face into the fabric of his school jacket, pushing hard enough to dig the sleeve into the arm beneath.
Izuku felt his chest warm at the obvious display of affection. It was then that another irrefutable fact dawned on him.
"I love Himiko."
He felt a nugget of concern burn its way through his stomach as he turned his gaze forward.
"I love both of them."
One final thought crossed Izuku's mind before it shut down and simply let his body be guided by the two women that held grips on his arms.
"What am I going to do…"
The four students entered their dorm's common room to see most of their class sitting in the lounge area.
As they saw the group of Izuku, Tsuyu, Himiko, and Uraraka walk through the front door, the students jumped out of their seats and rushed the four.
"Oh my gosh Midoriya, are you ok?!" A floating set of clothes asked. While he couldn't see her face, the concern in Hagakure's voice was obvious.
"Dude, that fight was so MANLY!" Kirishima belted out.
"We were so worried when All Might rushed you to the nurse's office." Yaoyorozu held a hand to her chest as her brows scrunched together in distress.
Izuku was overwhelmed momentarily as the rest of the class hurried over, voicing their own concern and praise for his performance.
They crowded around them, practically pinning the four of them to the door they entered through
He jumped when a loud yowl pierced through the cacophony, silencing everyone.
He looked to his side, seeing Himiko baring her teeth, her pupils now thin slits, barely visible in the pools of gold.
He followed her gaze to the mass of people surrounding them, and his eyes widened in realization.
He swiftly gathered the woman in his arms and turned so that his body was between her and the rest of their class. He rested a hand against the back of her head and gently held her face to his chest.
He repressed a wince when she dug her nails into his chest as she grabbed a hold of his shirt, curling in on herself.
"Sorry everyone, ribbit!" He turned back, seeing Tsuyu with her hands raised in apology. "She gets a little upset around crowds and loud noises, ribbit, and gets a bit spooked sometimes."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Izuku continued to hold the blonde woman to him, gently swaying back and forth as he listened to her ragged breathing slow.
He felt her grip on him loosen, the tenseness of her shoulders lessening. He lowered his head so that his lips were close to her ear, and whispered so that only she would hear his words.
"Feeling better?"
He ignored the shuddering of her body, believing it to be the final bits of stress leaving her body.
"Mm." When he felt her nod her head against his chest, he spoke again.
"You good to deal with the rest of the class now, or do you need me to carry you up to your room?"
"Mmno, I'm ok. Don't leave me?"
Izuku sighed again and started rubbing her back.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."
He was slightly startled when she turned her head up, revealing a tooth-bearing grin, not a single trace of anxiety apparent on her expression.
"Good!"
He blinked in confusion as she turned his body back towards the gathered people.
"Did she do that on purpose?"
Seeing the looks of worry on his classmates faces, he shook away his thoughts.
"Sorry about that! She's… not exactly had the best go of things in life. Tsu, I, and our parents have been helping her out, but getting crowded or sudden loud noises sometimes spook her." Izuku grimaced. "We're still trying to help her get over that, but it will take a bit of time, so please try not to surround her if you can."
Everyone was silent as they exchanged worried glances, unsure how to respond.
Ultimately, a floating set of clothes stepped forward, invisible hands wringing themselves. At least, that's what it looked like Hagakure was doing, based on the position of her sleeves.
"We're sorry Himiko! We were just so worried about Midoriya that we didn't think, please forgive us!" The see-through woman bowed at the waist.
A few of the other students bowed as well while voicing their own apologies.
Iida had a hand raised, chopping apologetically. "Indeed. Now that we are aware, we will endeavor to never repeat such an incident, Toga!"
"Call me Himiko!" The blond girl cried out, glaring at the glasses wearing man.
The man's hand froze in a downward chop, his words becoming stuttering nonsense.
Whether that was from the woman glaring at him, or her insistence on everyone calling her by her first name, Izuku wasn't sure. He had to stifle a chuckle as the man affected what he could only call a robot told to ignore its core programing.
"To make up for it, how about you join us in the common room? Everyone's got a game of All Smash 12 going. We'll let you beat up on Kaminari if it will make you feel better." Jiro said as she stepped forward. A grin was easy to see on her face.
"Hey!" Came the cry of the besmirched man. "I've been beating almost everyone here!"
"That's because you're using the most broken character in the game."
"It's not my fault that none of you can break through the I-frames on All Might's taunt!" The blond crossed his arms as he pointed his nose to the sky, a smug expression clear for all to see. "As they used to say, you just need to 'git gud'."
The punk woman just rolled her eyes in response.
"Ugh! That's because you just keep spamming it!" Mina stepped forward with a stomp of her foot. "If you just fought fair, we'd all show you just how "gud" you are at the game!"
"Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The electric man said.
Izuku turned his gaze towards the common room, the large TV showing a victorious All Might, a hand raised, with the words "Victory" flashing across the screen in sparkling blue.
He hummed lightly in thought.
Before he could speak, he felt Himiko turn her head back into his chest, her teeth digging into his pectorals. It felt like she was hiding a smirk.
She quickly controlled her expression before turning back to the crowd.
"I'm not a huge fan of video games. That's more Izu-kins' thing. Maybe he can play with you? I don't know if he's played much of Smash before, since Tsu and I prefer to watch him play than participate."
Izuku's brows scrunched up in confusion.
"It's true, ribbit. I never really have much time for stuff like that, having to take of my siblings and all." Tsuyu said from his other side.
He glanced between his two best friends in confusion, before realization struck him.
"Don't have a lot of practice in All Smash? Don't worry Midoriya, I'll be sure to go easy on you." Kaminari stepped forward, lifting a hand so that they could shake in a show of good sportsmanship. "In fact, how about we make a bet?"
"A bet?" Izuku struggled to keep his expression neutral.
"Yeah. If you can't beat me, you'll help me with my homework for a week! That shouldn't be too hard, based on your score in the entrance exam."
"And if I win?" The wolfman quirked an eyebrow in question.
Kaminari raised his other hand, a finger resting against his chin as he turned his gaze up in thought.
"Hmm… How about, if you somehow manage to beat me, I'll do your dishes for a month!"
"That seems oddly tilted in my favor. Why one week versus a month?" Izuku felt Himiko shaking as she barely managed to not snicker.
"No one's been able to put up much of a challenge, so I wanted to give you incentive to really try." The blonde's spoke magnanimously. "I'll even let it be a two-out-of-three so you can some practice in. That way, if I beat you once, you still have a chance of winning. How does that sound?"
The greenette raised his hand, clasping it in Kaminari's raised on.
"Deal. I'll be sure to give it my all. Wouldn't want to make you feel too bad fighting against a novice." Izuku put on his best attempt at an innocent smile.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do great!" Releasing his hand, Kaminari started back towards the common room, his hands raised up together like some sort of evil master mind, muttering, "Easy homework, here I come…"
He watched the other man walk away. His eyes turned as he caught Kirishima walking up to him, a worried look on his face as he glanced at the devious student jump onto the couch and grab a controller.
"Are you sure about this, Midoribro? No one's been able to beat him."
As the red haired man spoke, he turned back, and shivered as he spotted the look on Izuku's face.
He had a smile that revealed a surprisingly sharp set of teeth. Where most people only had a single canine on each side of their jaws, he had three, all of which were sharp enough to split flesh with ease.
While that alone wouldn't have unnerved the shark-toothed man, it was the bloodthirsty look in the greenette's eyes that set him on edge.
As the wolf man's gaze turned to him, Kirishima was unable to repress another shudder as they stared into each other's eyes.
"Don't worry Kirishima. I think I'll be alright." That said, Izuku moved for the other controller in the common room, rapidly gaining control of his features before Kaminari could look at him.
Himiko finally lost control of her laughter, and had to cover her mouth with her hands to muffle it.
Kirishima looked at the laughing woman with concern.
"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?"
He also caught an oddly smug look on Tsuyu's normally placid face.
"Hehe, that dummy, hehehe, has no idea what he's in for." Himiko struggled to get out between fits of giggling.
"This should be amusing, ribbit." Tsuyu said as the two women headed towards where Izuku sat across from Kaminari.
The rest of the class exchanged worried glances as they gathered around the TV. Sero had to drag the malfunctioning Iida away from the entryway by the half-chopped arm.
Kaminari, with the look of a man who was absolutely certain he couldn't lose, hit "Character Select".
A dumb-founded man stared forward, disbelief clear on his face. The object in his hands dropping as if in slow motion, clattering to the floor.
On the screen before him, glowing in bright yellow as if to mock him, were the words "Perfect Victory".
The room was silent, holding its breath.
When the outcome of the fight finally registered, a cheer rang out from all but one in the room.
The man stared on in growing horror as Ms. Joke stood over a fallen All Might. She had one hand on her hip, the other raised up in a sideways peace sign over a winking eye, and her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth as if in some form of final mockery.
Midoriya hadn't just won, he had played with Denki.
That couldn't be possible.
Ms. Joke was the worst character in the game. He knew that, everyone knew that. Heck, there were a bunch of forums online that discussed the impossibility that was getting a handle on her random bullshit power set.
From hitting opponents with squeaky hammers, to dropping bananas for players to slip on, to even shooting water from a fake flower pinned to her shirt.
None of these attacks did any significant damage. On average, most of her attacks did less than any other character in the game. Add on top of that the fact that none of her attacks flowed in a way that allowed for a proper combo attack, she had no business beating anyone, let alone All Might.
Yet somehow, Midoriya had not only managed to beat him, he had managed to get a Perfect Victory every time. The number of fights went well beyond the initially agreed upon two-out-of-three, on account of Denki refusing to believe the results.
He wasn't able to land a single hit. Not once, in all seven of the fights.
The blond man was pulled from his horror-filled thoughts when Kirishima grabbed Midoriya around the shoulders, shaking him.
"Midoribro, that was so MANLY!" The red head cried out. "How did you do that?!"
Midoriya had the audacity to grin sheepishly at the man.
"W-well, you know how All Might's taunt makes him invulnerable?" He paused when everyone who played groaned it frustration, his grin turning amused as he continued. "He actually has a weakness you can take advantage of when he's in his static pose."
The wolf man point to the top of his head.
"If you hit the top of his signature V haircut with a downward attack while you're in the air, you can break him out of the taunt, and he'll be stunned for a few moments."
"We figured that out, but you did it with a falling anvil of all things!" Mina yelled out from her position draped across Hagakure's lap. "I didn't even know she had an attack like that!"
"…She doesn't."
All eyes turned to Denki at his words.
"I've done research on this game. Looked up every attack there was to set up my strat. Nothing should have been able to break through that taunt!" He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "Nowhere online does it say she has that attack. Not even the official game wiki!"
Midoriya tilted his head, his brows squinting.
"Really? I just kind of accidentally came across it one day, when I pressed down attack when her jet pack move blows her off-screen."
Denki wanted to cry when he saw that Midoriya was genuinely confused.
"Hold on. I've tried that when I messed around with her once. That never dropped an anvil for me." Sero interjected, his brows furrowed.
"It took a bit of practice, but I figured out that while you're off-screen, there is a little bonk noise you can hear, and you need to do it right before then. Here, I'll show you!"
The greenette grabbed his controller again. He quickly selected the characters, then proceeded to do her jet pack attack.
The screen showed Ms. Joke reaching into a little fanny pack, pulling out what looked like two little missiles attached to a harness with a pair handles jutting forward for her to grab onto. She pressed the buttons on the end of these, and was launched into the air. She flew across the screen with absolutely no control, flying from one end to the other, up and down, and all over the place. before ultimately slamming into the ground well away from All Might. Upon impact, the impromptu flying device exploded, throwing her up and out of view of the screen.
Just as Midoriya said, there was a cartoonish "bonk" before his character fell back into view, face planting on the ground, where she pushed herself to her feet with a laugh.
He repeated the attack, but instead of a loud bonk noise, he pressed a button and with a loud clang, a large anvil fell down, slamming into All Might's head.
"Hold on, isn't that just the boundary of the arena?" Denki asked. "Multiple characters can get thrown off screen. Heck, one of All Might's attacks is an uppercut that launches his opponent up, and upon hitting the boundary they slam back into the ground!"
The greenette shrugged in response.
"I don't know what to tell you. I've tried it with all of the other characters, but Ms. Joke seems to be the only one who can do it." He raised a hand up to his chin as he thought. "Not sure why no one else seems to have figured it out, she can do it in every other All Smash game she's in."
"Bullshit! I refuse to believe that after all these years, no one else has figured that out." Denki slammed a hand down on the table separating the couches. "I'm grabbing my copy of All Smash 7: The Smashening to test this out right now!"
Before he could stand up from the couch, the sound of the front doors opening caught everyone's attention.
They watched as their homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa stepped through the doors, followed by a group of robots with "UA" embossed on their fronts.
They stared in confusion as their teacher led the drones into the elevator that connected to the Men's side of the dorms.
Minutes passed as they all shared glances, all of them too worried about what was happening to utter a word.
The elevator opened again, and Aizawa stepped out, dragging a catatonic Katsuki Bakugou by the scruff of his shirt. Behind them, the robots carried a bunch of boxes as they rolled out of the building.
Eraserhead ignored them all as he pulled the stumbling Bakugou out of the dorms, slamming the doors shut after the robots followed them out.
…
"What just happened?" Denki spoke into the silence.
Izuku wasn't sure how to feel.
"Did… did Ka-Bakugou just get kicked out?"
While part of him was happy at the idea of his long time bully being removed from the class, another part of him galled at the idea of removing someone's chance at being a hero.
"But then again, was his behavior ever indicative of being a hero?
Throughout all of their years growing up together, not once had Bakugou mentioned anything about saving people. He always thought that the job of being a hero was defeating the villains.
Just defeating the villains.
He never concerned himself with making sure civilians were safe, that anyone saved in a villain attack was taken care of.
They were just side characters on his way to the top.
Extras.
Worthless.
"I'll show your place you shitty Deku-mu-"
"Izu? Are you ok?"
Izuku was shaken from his thoughts when the source of the voice plopped across his lap. He looked down to see Himiko splayed across his legs, her concerned eyes aimed up at him.
He felt his lips quirk up in a smile, and reached a hand out so he could run it over her hair.
His smile grew when he felt a purr rumbling from her torso and into his lap. Her worry seemed to wash away as her body melted from the petting.
"I'm ok Himiko. Just lost in thought."
As he watched the cat in his lap wiggle in glee, his gaze turned to his other best friend.
Tsuyu's gaze turned up from the blissed out blonde and met his gaze with a smile of her own.
It felt like a bunch of squirrels were making a mess of his stomach, but something about seeing the two women happy blew away any lingering thoughts about the blonde bomber and kept him in the here and now.
Izuku's gaze turned away in thought. He wasn't sure what he would do about these burgeoning feelings, but he had an idea.
He moved the hand petting Himiko's hair so that it was underneath her back, putting his other underneath her legs, and lifted.
Standing up, he deposited her onto Tsuyu's lap and chuckled at the disgruntled yowl she let out at being moved.
He met the frog's eyes with an apologetic grimace.
"Can you keep petting her for me, Tsu? I need to go make a call really quick."
Her attention slid towards the entry to the dorms, and her mouth opened as if she was about to ask a question.
"NO! No… It's not about him." Izuku waved his hands back and forth frantically, as if waving away her question. "I just need to ask someone something, I promise I won't be long."
The smile fell from the woman's face, and something akin to worry replaced it.
"Is something wrong, ribbit?"
"Nothing's wrong, I just didn't want to call them with everyone else here, and I didn't think it was something that would require pulling you two away. It'll just be a few minutes, tops." The greenette tried to put on a reassuring smile, but something about the slight narrowing of the woman's eyes told him that he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
After a few tense moments, her expression relaxed, and she started to pet the cat trapping her to the couch.
"Ok, ribbit. As long as you're sure."
He let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Tsu! I'll be up in my room if you need be." Izuku said, quickly turning and moving to the elevator that Bakugou had recently exited, getting a small hum of agreement in response.
Himiko, unconcerned, grabbed one of Tsuyu's larger hands and placed it upon her head.
The wolf man felt his nerves skyrocket as he stepped into the elevator, and noticed as he was pressing the button to his floor, that his hands were shaking.
"Oh gods, who do I even talk to about this?"
Izuku felt his foot rapidly tapping against the floor as he waited for the car to reach his floor.
He lifted one hand to cover his mouth on the off chance he started muttering his thoughts out loud.
"All Might? He's usually really good at giving advice. And considering his tenure as a hero, surely he's got plenty of experience with this…"
He grimaced at the thought.
"No, there's no way I can go asking the Number 1 hero about that! Beside, I'm sure he's busy right now. I doubt he even has the free time to discuss something like this with me. He's already devoted enough time just to train me."
The door dinged, and he stepped out, his body running on autopilot towards his room as his mind raced.
"Maybe I could call Mom? Surely she would know how to deal with this?"
He shuddered at the mere idea of bringing this up to his own mother. There is no way that conversation would go smoothly.
"Maybe Aunt Mitsuki? I haven't talked to her in a while, and this may be a good excuse to catch up?"
The greenette paused as he opened the door to his room, and glanced back at the elevator.
"No… If what I think just happened is true, there's no way I can bother her right now. She probably has enough going on."
Izuku sighed as he stepped into his room, shutting and locking the door behind him.
He slid the curtains on the window closed as he pulled out his phone, and glanced through his meager list of contacts.
"Maybe I could call Mrs. Asui?"
Where he shuddered thinking about bringing this topic up to his mother, the idea of admitting it to Tsuyu's parents caused all of his blood to run cold.
He stood there, stuck by indecision, unable to choose.
Izuku growled as frustration grew.
"This is stupid. How can I call myself a hero if I can't even make myself do this?"
Izuku dropped into his desk chair, grunting as he landed.
He lifted his phone up and pressed the call button.
As the phone rang, he felt the nerves try to bubble there way back up, but he shoved them down with a snarl.
He let it go when the phone clicked, and a voice spoke.
"Izuku, sweetie?"
"Hey Mom."
"Izuku, is something wrong? Did your first week of school go alright? Are you eating alright? Did something happen? *gasp* Are you hurt?! I swear, if that school got you or Tsuyu or Himiko hurt, I will storm down there right now and give them a piece of my mind!"
Izuku couldn't help but laugh. Leave it to Inko Midoriya to care so much about the three of them that she would willingly go up against the best hero school in the country for their sake's.
"N-No Mom, everything's fine!" He spoke through his laughter.
Her fretting seemed to do wonders at tearing through his worries.
"Actually, I uh… wanted to get some advice."
And there were those nerves again.
"Advice? I've already told you that I would never tell you the secret ingredient to my Katsudon! Just because you've left the nest doesn't change that! …Oh alright if you insist, the secret ingredient is love!" Inko admitted demurely.
"What- I- N-no, that's not what I was going to ask about- wait. You mean you don't put any kind special seasoning or sauce on it?" Izuku couldn't believe that. He'd tried other Katsudon, and nothing could compare to when his mom makes it.
"Well…" Her voice trailed off. "Oh I can't say no to you! I put a dash of cinnamon in with the breading when I make the pork, but the rest of it is love! Love adds a special kick to it that nothing else can!"
Izuku's brain stuttered as her words reminded him as to why he made the call.
"Love, right… U-um, that reminds me. I was actually calling about something else…" He gulped as he tried to bring the conversation back on track.
"Oh! I'm sorry sweety, I didn't mean to distract you. What did you want to ask?" Izuku heard her gasp. "Wait! Reminded you? Don't tell me-!"
Izuku loudly coughed into a fist in the hopes of cutting her off before she could go too far.
"S-sorry, but this is a little tough to ask, and, well- I- um…" Izuku hesitated to speak, finding it difficult to push the words out.
Inko seemed to catch on, as her next words lacked her previous excitement.
"Izuku, you know you can tell me anything, right? No matter what it is, I'll be here for you. Whatever you need. I promise I won't laugh or overreact."
Her words were careful, as if she were trying to prevent a skittish animal from running away.
…An apt description for how Izuku felt right now.
"Well, the thing is…" Izuku felt his throat tighten up.
Growling, he forced himself to just come out and say it. After all, if he couldn't tell his own mother, how could he ever admit it to them?
It's not like she would go screaming it out for the whole world to hear.
She promised.
"I-I l-lo- really like Tsuyu and Himiko, and I don't know what to do about it. I mean, you're not supposed to like more than one person, right?"
Silence was his only response.
"Mo-"
"GRANDBABIES!"
It took several minutes for Izuku's brain to reboot, and several more to calm down his mother enough to stop shouting out about grandbabies.
"Ok, ok. So, you wanted advice on what to do about those feelings?" Her words had a constrained excitement, as if she was a moment away from bouncing around and screaming about grandchildren again.
"Y-yes. It's not normal to like more than one person, right? How can I l-lo- like both Tsu and Himiko? N-not like there anything to dislike about them! It's just…" Izuku's head fell. "How am I supposed to choose who I like more…?"
"If you don't know how to choose, then don't."
Izuku's head rose. "Don't choose?"
"Yes. If you don't know who to choose, then don't choose one of them. Choose both!" Inko's words were confident, as if the answer was obvious.
Izuku's head rocked back like the words were a slap in the face.
"C-choose both? I can't do that; wouldn't that make me kind of scummy? There's no way they'd be ok with that. If I went up to them and just say that I like them both, they'd probably slap me in the face!" He glanced at the door, worried that just mentioning it to his mom would bring them barreling into his room to punish him for even thinking about it.
"Izuku, honey, if you think for a moment that those girls would ever slap you for admitting your feelings, than you don't know them half as well as you think you do." His mother had the audacity to giggle at him. "I'm certain do quite the opposite."
Izuku felt hope rise in him.
"H-how can you be sure? What if Dad had told you he liked you and your best friend?"
"I'd have slapped him silly, then kicked him to the curb."
That hope crumbled.
"S-see! There's no way they'd be okay with it!" Izuku's head fell into the palm of his free hand.
He heard Inko sigh into the phone.
"Sweety, just because I wasn't willing to share, doesn't mean they won't be." She hummed in thought. "How about this. You have a free day during the weekend, right? Why don't the three of you go out somewhere, just as friends is fine."
Izuku held his breath, his mind caught on her every word.
"Watch them. If all three of you enjoy yourselves, and you find yourself happy while spending time with the both of them, find a moment near the end of your trip and admit your feelings. The worst thing that could happen is that they say no, but I doubt they will."
Izuku gulp, pulling his head from his hand.
"H-how can you be so sure? I don't want to ruin our friendship…"
Inko giggled.
"Just call it mother's intuition."
The wolf man breathed in and thought about it. He had to admit, a part of him liked the idea of dating both Tsu and Himiko.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. The idea of choosing one over the other seemed wrong to him now.
Inko chose to say nothing, as if she could tell he was considering her words carefully.
It seemed like a good idea. It's not like he needed to confirm his feelings, he just- he just needed more evidence that they might feel the same way.
A totally platonic date between three friends seemed like a great way to figure that out. It's not like all three of them needed to know it was a date.
You can decide afterwards that it is, right?
"Thanks, mom." Izuku finally spoke up. "I think I know what I'm going to do now."
"No problem, sweety!" The smile on Inko's voice was easy to pick up. "Just, one more piece of advice?"
"Yeah?" Izuku straightened in his chair.
He would need as much help as he would get to make this work.
"Be sure to use protection. You may be adults, but it's still too soon to be having children, especially with your up and coming hero careers."
Izuku's hand lost its grip on the phone as his mind went blank.
He was barely conscious enough to hear his mother's final words before the call was ended.
"I can't wait to tell Beru, she'll be ecstatic! So many Grandbabies!"
Izuku's mind was still reeling as he rode the elevator down.
He did best to try and remove the idea of children from his mind, not because having kids with Tsu and Himiko did certain things to him, but because he needed to plan.
While he agreed with his mom that the not-date was a great idea, doing it this weekend was too soon. He needed to plan.
It needed to be perfect.
As the doors opened, he caught sight of his classmates in the living room still playing Smash. Kirishima and Sero were currently trying to replicate his anvil attack, with little success.
His brow furrowed when he failed to catch sight of his best friends. Oddly, Uraraka was missing too.
His nose twitched when a wonderful aroma caught his attention.
He turned his head up, and let his enhance sense of smell lead him towards the kitchen.
When he entered he caught sight of an image that set both his stomach and chest agrowl.
Tsu and Himiko were working on what looked like several skillets piled with food.
With so many students in a single dormitory, it was necessary for the kitchen to have multiple cooking stations. The two women were using the space to great effect.
Himiko was frying slabs of meat thick enough that he'd barely be able to fit even a bite size piece into his mouth, and if his nose wasn't tricking him, they were bloody.
Himiko claimed she wasn't too great at cooking, but she cooked a mean rare steak. Izuku suspected it might have had something to do with her quirk related diet.
Tsu was cooking fried pork that piled onto what looked like a massive pile of rice, as well as a few smaller dishes of rice.
"Katsudon!"
As he had that thought, his eyes caught a small spice container that seemed all too familiar to him.
"Mom, you sneak!"
Even Uraraka was hard at work cutting vegetables that the other women were cooking at a third station that they often flitted to between steps.
Well, Tsu mostly did that. Himiko stayed focused on the steaks.
It was obvious Uraraka hadn't had much experience with the finer points of cooking if the chunky blocks of vegetable were anything to go by.
Izuku couldn't find it in him to mind it though. Something about the way she leaned toward the cutting board, sticking her tongue out as she focused on cutting them slowly, if not expertly.
He caught sight of the dining room table, absolutely covered in food, and smiled.
While it was about dinner time, it was clearly far too much food for even twenty(now nineteen) people to eat through.
It was obvious that Tsu and Himiko had gone out of their way to make plenty of food for him to eat. It was the nurses orders that he eat plenty of food, now that he recalled.
It was nice that Uraraka had offered to help make up for the effort put towards him to try and make food for everyone else.
He was just about to move to help her when his stomach rumbled.
It was so loud that even the commotion in the common room went silent.
All three women turned to him as a blush spread across his cheeks. A smile wide enough to bear all of her teeth spread across Himiko's face.
She hopped on one leg, the other bent up behind her as she raised a set of tongs above her head, clacking them together.
"Dinner Time!"
Chapter 17
Izuku sat on the ground, staring out the open window of Himiko's bedroom. Through it, his eyes stayed latched onto the cosmic light shining down on them.
He always liked the moon.
Whenever he had nightmares when he was younger, he always found himself sitting outside at night, staring up as the lunar orb shone down on the word.
For some reason, the silver rays comforted him. It was only made better whenever Himiko and Tsu laid against his lupine form as they slept.
Tonight, however, it held his attention without any interruption.
When Himiko poked his cheek, he gave no response. When Tsu sat and leaned into his side, he could barely muster enough focus to grow a small smile.
His gaze never left the orb in the sky.
It looked particularly beautiful to him.
The moon was full that night.
His eyes shifted as he looked between the craters that littered its surface. He knew they were created when debris, asteroids, and other large enough astral objects impacted its surface.
It was incredible that something so small, compared to the planet he sat upon, could survive so much.
It circled the earth, never leaving its orbit. Its physical presence creating the tides that directed the ocean.
It created light at night by reflected the set sun back down upon the planet.
It was amazing the things that what was essentially a giant rock could do, just by being there. By just existing.
Most took such a thing for granted. Treated as simply another force of nature, like the wind and rain. Nothing special. It just was.
Not Izuku though. He always felt a pull to it, but he wasn't sure why.
He felt a warmth in his chest as he stared up at it, barely noticing Tsu rest her cheek against his arm and Himiko drool onto his opposite shoulder as she nodded off.
He didn't even register the change, when suddenly the two women were resting against his furry chest.
He idly wondered when he had regained enough energy the activate the transformation, but let the thought leave his mind as he slowly turned his head, grabbing the blanket from the blonde's bed.
He carefully laid it over the two women, trying to not wake them.
Tsu and Himiko covered and cozy, he closed his eyes. He felt the lips of his muzzle pull up in a facsimile of a smile as his mind slowed.
"This. This is bliss." Izuku thought, as he finally drifted off to sleep.
None of them noticed as streamers of silver light began to shimmer off of his fur in waves.
The only witness being the moon, as it shown down on the trio.
They woke the next morning to Izuku's alarm. Tsu and Himiko groaned as he returned to his human form.
As he closed the open window, he watched as the two women scooted until they could cuddle underneath the blanket.
He smiled as Himiko pulled the blanket up so that it was covering them in their entirety, capturing any lingering warmth beneath it.
He returned to his room to change, intent on getting a good run in that morning.
As he stepped through the doors of the dorm, he caught sight of Iida stretching in the front yard.
He knew the man usually got up earlier than everyone else to go for a run, but Izuku always caught him midway through his exercise.
The blue-haired man caught sight of Izuku and stood up straight.
"Ah, Midoriya! It's a surprised to see you up so early. Are you planning to go for a run this morning?"
"Yeah, actually. My body felt a little stiff last night, and I wanted to work some of the kinks out of my joints a little early before class."
Iida's brow furrowed.
"Are you sure you should be training? Should you not still be recovering?" He raised a hand, as if preparing to chop it at the green haired man.
"No, I'm fine. I managed to recover enough to perform a transformation." Izuku grunted as he bent down to touch his toes. "That finished healing my body before I went to bed."
The chopping motion stalled as the man blinked in confusion.
"You are… healed? Didn't you say you had stiffness you needed to work out? Did your quirk not properly heal you? Do you need to see Recovery Girl to make sure it is working correctly?"
Izuku chuckled.
"I was joking about the stiffness. I just wanted to get my work-out done early." He shifted to a forward lunge to stretch out his thighs.
"Even if your body is healed, the mind does not so easily recover. Does it not bother you that a fellow student attacked you with what was surely lethal force?" Iida's tone was serious, yet Izuku could sense a hint of worry.
He smiled at the man and shrugged.
"Normally, yeah, sure it would. Bakugou, though? Eh, par for the course." Not letting the bluenette respond, Izuku started his morning jog.
Sure that he had ended the conversation, he almost jumped in surprise when he heard the roaring of engines coming from directly beside him.
He turned his head, seeing Iida easily keeping up with him. What baffled him was that the bespectacled man was simultaneously turned towards Izuku, a hand chopping as his moving feet kept his pace.
"I would very much like to know what you mean by "par for the course"! Is it not abnormal for a man to be so willing to injure a fellow student? Also, it is quite rude to leave without properly finishing a conversation!"
Izuku almost laughed as he watched the man somehow maintain his speed while having his torso practically spun 90 degrees.
He turned his gaze forward as he replied.
"Nothing about Bakugou is "normal". He's the physical embodiment of a superiority complex." He huffed.
"The way you speak about him… Did the two of you know each other before coming to UA?"
"… Yeah, we did." Izuku admitted.
In no mood to recount his life as the bomber's punching bag, he let his quirk flow through his body, subtly adding a bit of his transformation into his legs, and turned toward Iida with a wolfish grin.
"Let's pick up the pace. We're only a quarter of the way around the campus, and we'll need to speed up if we want to make it back to the dorms before everyone wakes up." With a burst of quirk-enhanced speed, the wolf man pulled ahead of the speedster. "Last one there is a rusty carburetor!"
"The saying is 'Last one there is a rotten egg!'" Izuku was sure the bespectacled man was chopping his arm, even as Iida sped up to chase after him.
He just laughed as he pumped his legs to stay ahead, as they raced around the campus of UA University.
Himiko tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes, the hand she used covered by the too-long sleeve of the shirt she had liberated from Izu-kin's closet.
She and Tsu had woken up, to her horror, to find that their cozy wolfy stud-muffin had woken up early and left them to sleep alone in the cold.
Not that she didn't like cuddling up to Tsu. The woman always clung on tight when she slept, seeking out any and all warmth, going so far even wrapping her captured prey up in her powerful legs.
"When our plan comes to fruition, I really hope she'll squeeze my head between them muscular thighs. I bet she could fit the both of us between those things."
The ding of the elevator reaching their destination cut off any further daydreams as the door opened up, revealing the common room of the Heights Alliance dorms.
To the delight of the sleepy cat, she felt the smell of delicious cooking smack her right upside the nose with familiar scent of cinnamon and coffee.
Still refusing to open her eyes, lest the dreaded light of day burn its way through her dreams of hunky cinnamon rolls and frog legs, she tried to urge Tsu forward, her hands reaching out to attempt to grab at the wonderful smells of breakfast.
Though that was a bit difficult, on account of Himiko being laid across the green haired woman's back, her legs dangling down like limp noodles, her feet dragging across the ground as her preferred ride stepped out of the elevator.
The only things keeping her upright were her arms wrapped around her friend's shoulders and the long tongue wrapped around their waists, keeping the two stuck together.
She could have sworn she felt the appendage squeeze tighter on occasion, almost possessively.
Tsu's powerful legs kept them both upright as she headed towards what Himiko was certain was the kitchen and Izu's cooking.
The smells were getting so strong that she dared to crack one open, and sure enough, Izu-kins stood in front of a stove wearing an apron with a stylized frog with a bat standing on top of it's head covering its front.
He was humming a tune, shaking his hips a bit to the song as he flipped pancakes and French toast with one hand, while working up a pan of eggs with the other.
Her other eye burst open as she took in the sight.
"Hungry…" She groaned out. She felt Tsu's shoulders shake as a giggle escaped her lips.
"Yeah, ribbit, it's always nice to wake up to Izu's cooking."
"That too." Himiko pressed her grin into her co-crush's hair as she watched her main crush shake his tush to the song she didn't care enough to recognize.
The show was unfortunately ended when the man turned, catching sight of the two women as they entered the eating area.
Fortunately, it was made up for when a beaming smile grew on his face.
"Himiko, Tsu! Good morning! Go ahead and take a seat. I'm almost done making the rest here, but there should be plenty already at the table, so feel free start eating."
"Wha' are you doing, ribbit?" Tsu asked. Her words were a little mushy on account of most of her tongue being used to hold the two women together.
"I'm making breakfast for everyone!" His expression turned sheepish. "Since you three cooked so much last night, I wanted to return the favor by cooking a morning meal!"
"Is tha' why you weren' 'ere when we woke up? I' was very cold, ribbit." Tsu tilted her head the side, a finger propped against her chin.
Himiko watched as a blush spread across his cheeks.
"Uh, yeah… sorry about that. I woke up early to get my morning run in, but didn't want to wake you two. You looked too cu-COZY, too cozy to wake up."
The blonde felt her gut squirm at the obvious slip up.
"I think he almost called us cute!" She squealed internally.
Himiko felt a mollified Tsu step away, probably towards the table laden physical food, but she refused to let her eyes leave the man who turned back to the stove.
She ran her tongue along her teeth as she watched the man go right back into his little song and dance as he finished cooking.
"Here Himiko. You're looking a little thirsty."
Blinking in confusion, Himiko turned her gaze forward, landing on the metal bottle that Tsu had seemingly pulled from the fridge.
"Bwuh?" She asked intelligently.
"You're eyeing Izu like you want to tie him down and rip his neck open, ribbit." Her mighty steed said.
Himiko found her mind drifting as she imagined it.
"That sounds beautiful. So much pretty red, all for me…"
Her imaginings were cut short as she felt herself be whipped around, her gaze now landing on a scarily stone-faced Tsu looking up at her.
Realizing that her feet had been lifted off of the ground, she could do nothing but clutch to the thermos that was shoved at her.
"Drink, ribbit." Himiko would have found the slight lisp in her words, on account of most of her tongue not being in her mouth, funny if she wasn't feeling like a kitten being admonished by a parent.
The blonde gulped nervously, a quick "Yes ma'am!" being spoken as she quickly uncapped the cylinder and took a hasty gulp-
-and melted as the familiar red liquid fell upon her tongue.
She gulped down the blood and let out a sigh as her feet met the ground.
"Better?" Tsu said as she sucked most of her tongue back into her mouth.
"Much." She took another sip of thermos filled with blood. "Sorry…"
A smile blossomed on the other woman's face, and she led the blood-drinker over the table covered in breakfast foods.
She smiled as she felt the frog's tongue lash out and stick to her cheek.
Izuku sat in the classroom, his elbow resting against his desk with his chin resting in an upraised palm. His other hand was idly writing notes in an open notebook.
He barely registered Sero talking to Kaminari about the press mobbing outside of the school gates. Something about them catching wind of All Might being their teacher, but he couldn't find himself able to care enough to pay attention to it.
He idly noticed that drawings of Himiko and Tsu in their hero costumes riddled the pages.
His eyes widened as he let himself take in the art laying on his desk.
He swiftly closed the notebook, gaze dancing around his fellow students, hoping against hope that no one had noticed. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his back when Mina narrowed her eyes at him.
He was thankful that they sat at opposite ends of the classroom, lest she ask… unnecessary questions.
He was doubly thankful when the door to the classroom slammed open, allowing the entry of their homeroom teacher, and drawing the attention of the entire classroom.
Aizawa stepped up to the podium, gaze moving across the assembled students. He stood there for a time, letting the silence in the room make everyone uncomfortable.
Finally, he spoke.
"I'm sure you all have some questions." He quickly lifted a hand, stopping anyone from interrupting him. "Most of you are probably curious why I marched Bakugou out of the dorms last night."
Izuku had been curious about that, as a matter of fact. He doubted it was a normal occurrence for a student to be frog-marched out of the assigned dorms in the first week of class.
"Maybe they moved him to a different dorm?"
It would make sense. It was obvious that the bomber didn't really get along with their class, so maybe the teachers moved him to a different one. One that could tolerate his… abrasive attitude.
"Maybe they decided to give him early lessons on collateral damage, so that he doesn't try to damage more buildings so soon into his training? That would have to be it, it's not like they would-"
"Bakugou has been removed from the Hero Course."
Izuku blinked, unsure whether he had heard the bedraggled teacher's words correctly.
"After thorough review of his behavior during classes, and his actions during the battle trials, UA has determined that he is not a fit for this course. Not as he is now."
"What?!" Kaminari cried out.
"I mean, sure he was kind of mean, but to expel him for going overboard during the first week of classes?" Kirishima hedged.
"Does that mean we could be expelled for messing up with our quirks?!" Said a dismayed Mina.
Izuku could see why she would be worried about the consequences of quirk misuse. The ability to secrete acid from one's own skin required a great amount of control to keep from destroying the environment, doing permanent damage to villains, or worse, killing them by accident.
She was even at risk of hurting herself if the acid was strong enough.
Eraserhead flared his quirk, his eyes burning red and his hair floated up as if caught in an upward draft of air, silencing the panicked students.
"It's too early for this…" He groaned out, releasing his quirk. "First of all, no, you will not be expelled if you do not have a proper handle on your quirk. That's what you all are here for, to learn how to use them in a controlled environment. That said, please, at least try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum…"
Izuku watched as the hero pulled out a small bottle and applied a few drops of it to his dried out eyes.
Aizawa blinked a few times before directing his gaze back to the class.
"And secondly, the details of our investigation into Bakugou and his actions are not for me to disclose, and the exact details of his punishment are not any business of yours. They are his and his alone."
Seeing the curiosity refuse to leave the gaze of any of his students, he grunted.
"But if, for some illogical reason, you still feel like you are entitled to an answer, go bug Bakugou with your questions. Just be aware that he has no obligation to provide you with answers. Now, does anyone have any other questions?"
He watched on as most of the class raised there hands in the air.
"Any questions not pertaining to Bakugou, his involvement in the battle trials, or his punishment?"
All but one hand lowered.
"Iida. You have a question?"
The blue haired man stood as he relayed his question.
"Yes, Mr. Aizawa! It was mentioned at the end of the battle trials that there would be a discussion of our actions, and ways we might be able to improve. Is that review still going to occur in light of these events?"
"Sit down, Iida. You don't need to stand up to ask your question. Yes, that will still happen, but you will have to wait for your Foundational Heroics class this afternoon."
"Thank you, Mr. Aizawa!"
"Any other questions?" Seeing that no one else's hands were raised, Eraserhead's shoulders slumped. "Now that that's out of the way, we can get to the real purpose of today's homeroom class, and probably one of the most important events in your time here at UA."
Izuku sat on the edge of his seat, interest sparking in his gut. He idly noticed that he wasn't the only on to do so.
His mind raced with the possibilities as Aizawa let the silence linger.
"Maybe we're about to discuss improvements to our costumes? No, that was supposed to be part of the review with All Might. Maybe we're picking hero names? Oh! Maybe we're going to start coming up with special moves! I can't wait to-"
"You will be picking your class representatives."
There were a few seconds of shocked silence, before the classroom erupted in a cacophony of people demanding that they be given the role.
Izuku listened as several people called out "pick me".
Iida was listing out a set of supposed credentials, speaking as if it was only natural that he be the class rep.
The wolf man looked back, seeing Yaoyorozu writing something across a piece of paper, occasionally lifting her pen, resting it against her chin as she cocked her head in thought.
"Is she writing an itinerary? The class rep hasn't even been chosen yet!"
He turned his gaze away when he heard Mina cry out.
"If I'm picked, I'll make every Monday Donut Day!" Izuku felt his eye twitch at the absurdity of the obvious bribe.
"QUIET!"
The wild campaigning went silent at the shout, and all eyes turned forward, seeing Aizawa standing there with his quirk active.
Red eyes glared back at everyone before they settled back into their normal black.
"Look, I don't care how you pick the class representative, but whatever method you pick needs to be quieter than this."
Iida stood once the man stopped speaking.
"Mr. Aizawa sir! I suggest we determine who would best fit the roll by performing a democratic election. Whoever gets the top two most votes would decide who will be our Class Representative and Vice Representative!"
"Fine. Just do it quietly." The tired man reached down, pulling what looked like his signature yellow sleeping bag out from behind the podium. "In the meantime, I'm taking a nap. Don't wake me up until you've figured it out."
Their homeroom teacher proceeded to wrap himself in his sleeping bag, and collapsed behind his desk.
Iida swiftly replaced the teacher behind the podium.
"I will be performing as a neutral party, collecting everyone's votes, and will anonymously count out the votes!"
Kaminari raised his hand.
"I know we're supposed to be voting the best candidate and all, but what's to stop everybody from just voting for themselves?"
Iida raised a hand and gripped his chin as he contemplated the blonde's word.
"I see where your concern is coming from… A possible solution would be to give everyone two votes. One they put towards themselves or someone else, and the second to give to whoever they deem besting fitting of the role?"
Izuku spoke up to add his own suggestion.
"If we are going take up that method, should we make a rule where we can't vote for the same person twice? That way we aren't overinflating the spread of votes onto a single person. We could even write our two votes onto a single folded sheet of paper as a way to enforce it."
"Hmm, a solid idea." Iida said. "And with the added stipulation of no two votes being for the same person, we reduce the risk of someone removing the veil of anonymity by voting for themselves twice… Yes I do believe that may the best method for this election. Does anyone else have any suggestions?"
When the students all shook their heads in the negative, Iida raced around the room, handing out sheets of paper for everyone to write on. He even found a small box that he rested on the podium for everyone to cast their ballots into.
The final tallies counted up to:
Midoriya Izuku - 13
Yaoyorozu Momo - 8
Iida Tenya - 3
Ashido Mina - 2
Asui Tsuyu - 2
Uraraka Ochako - 2
Aoyama Yuga - 1
Ojiro Mashirao - 1
Kaminari Denki - 1
Kyoka Jiro - 1
Sero Hanta - 1
Tokoyami Fumikage - 1
Todoroki Shoto - 1
Hagakure Toru - 1
Kirishima Eijiro - 0
Koda Koji - 0
Sato Rikido - 0
Shoji Mezo - 0
Toga Himiko – 0
Izuku stared at the board in shock.
"Nooooo! My donut Mondays!" Mina cried out, tears pouring from her eyes.
"You do realize that being Class Representative comes with a bunch of responsibilities, right, ribbit?" Tsu said placatingly. "Like paperwork, organizing the class when we have festivals or interclass events, managing class budgets, and the like?"
The pink haired woman's tears dried quickly as she processed the froggy lady's words.
"Now that you mention it, that does sound like a lot of work…" The acid girl's tears dried quickly, turning towards Izuku. "Midori! Since you are our Class Rep, and I am a student of that class, I humbly request that you use your power's to make Donut Mondays!"
"Why limit ourselves to donuts? We could get a variety of sweets and call it Tasty Treats Tuesday!" Hagakure called out.
The obnoxious request finally knocked Izuku out of his confused state, unable to stop himself from chuckling.
"I'm not sure the class representatives has the power to do that, Ashido. Even if they did, I'm not going to do that. Doing something like that could seriously mess with our diets if we do it every week."
He directed his attention to the woman, pausing when he caught sight of her pouting at him with tears in her eyes.
He hesitated long enough to feel Himiko poke him in the back.
"Ooooh, Izu-kins. How could you go breaking a poor girls heart like that!" The blonde said with mock horror. "I didn't know you could be so cruel!"
He was about to speak up again, insisting that they should be maintaining a strict diet, to keep up with their training, when he saw Uraraka at the back of the class.
The look of disappointed shame clouding her expression cause his heart to clench in his chest. He watched as she curled in on herself, twiddling her padded fingers.
Izuku sighed in defeat.
"Alright, maybe we can do that as a reward for finishing exams or something like it..."
Several students cheered at his declaration.
Too late, he realized that by accepting the proposal, he was also accepting the role as class representative, and couldn't argue against it.
Though, as he watched part of the class celebrate the possibility of eating sweet treats as a reward, he caught sight of Iida sitting dejectedly in his seat.
The man's shoulders were hunched, his fists were clenched tight, and his head was bowed low in frustration.
It didn't take a huge leap in logic to assume the bluenette had been gunning for the position.
From how stiff he was, to making sure everyone followed the rules, to even organizing the very vote that got Izuku voted in.
He turned back, looking over Himiko to catch his vice-rep's attention, only to realize she had been staring at Iida as well.
She turned to Izuku, and they opened their mouths as if they were about to both speak, but were interrupted by their teacher stumbling his way out from under his desk.
"Alright you hellions, settle down. I see that you've picked out the representatives of your class. Good."
He stood behind the podium for a moment, waiting for the class to settle down before he continued.
"Midoriya, Yaoyorozu." Aizawa pulled a stack of papers from… somewhere and held them out. "Please take these and hand them out to the rest of the class. We will be taking a little field trip at the end of the week, and I expect you to organize your class in preparation for it."
As the bell rung, and the students began to disperse, Izuku caught Yaoyorozu's eye, subtly nodding Iida's direction before nodding towards their homeroom teacher, who was wrapping himself in his sleeping bag.
When she nodded back at him, he turned to Himiko in the seat behind him.
"Hey Himiko."
"Hmm?" She looked up at him with a bored expression.
"Can you please let Tsu know I'll be lagging behind a bit? I need to speak to Mr. Aizawa about something. Class Representative stuff."
She glared up at him.
"You better not be about reject being the rep, saying BS about you "not deserving it.""
He waved his arms in a negative.
"No, no! Nothing like that. Just need to run something by him really quick. It'll only take a few minutes, tops."
She stared at him a few moments, as if contemplating the sincerity of his words.
"…fine. But you better not keep us waiting! My social batteries are low, and only my Izu-kins brand charger can replenish them!"
He snorted, rolling his eyes.
"Thanks, Himiko."
"Hmph!" She pouted as she grabbed her things, rushing over to wrap Tsu's arm in her own, tugging her towards the exit of the classroom. "Come on, Tsu! It looks like Izuku would rather spend his time with other women and scruffy old men than his very bestest female friends."
Izuku groaned in exasperation as the two walked out of the room. He caught an amused grin on the frog's face as she glanced back at him.
He chuckled as the door closed behind them.
"Is everything alright, Midoriya?"
He turned, stifling his amusement as Yaoyorozu stepped up beside him.
"Yeah, just going to catch some flack for that later, but it's no biggy. Let's go, the sooner we get this done, the smaller the blood price will be when recompense comes due." Izuku turned, stepping towards Aizawa, who was already laying behind his desk.
"B-blood price?!"
The wolf man just kept walking.
As they stepped up to the tired man, they found him staring up at them from the ground.
"What."
Izuku hesitated a moment.
"Was he- was he expecting us to come up to him?" Izuku thought in confusion.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Yaoyorozu spoke.
"Yes, we were curious about our roles as Class Representatives." She spoke primly.
"What about them." Aizawa grunted.
Having regained his focus, Izuku responded.
"W-we were curious if our roles are limited to only two people."
When the man's only response was a raised eyebrow, he continued.
"We were wondering if we could bring on one more person. Mainly to help us out with the class management."
A few moments of tense silence had a bead of sweat rolling down his back as Eraserhead stared at him, occasionally glancing at his raven haired classmate and back.
"…fine. Just make sure it doesn't get in the way of you completing your tasks as Class Representative."
The two students sighed in relief. Now that that was out of the way-
"And Midoriya."
Izuku stiffened.
"Y-yes, Mr. Aizawa?"
"I may have given you the go ahead to get someone to help you, but get it in your head that you can't just pass off your duties to Iida. You are the face of this class now."
The tired man, seemingly having decided that he had spoken enough, rolled over and promptly fell asleep.
Izuku exchanged a glance with an equally nervous Yaoyorozu, and they quicky gathered their things and left the classroom.
He tried not to think too hard about the fact that his teacher knew exactly who he had been planning to add on as he jogged out of the classroom.
Izuku was contemplating how he would broach the subject to Iida when he walked up to the lunch table, seeing a bunch of his classmates sharing a table, chatting lively between each other.
Himiko was talking with Mina and Hagakure, the three of them gushing over random fashion and what they considered "cute".
He wasn't surprised to hear her bring up plenty of things in red, though he did blush a bit when he caught her mention how good his blood tasted.
Tsu was talking with Uraraka, Sato, and surprisingly, Mezo, about growing up with her siblings. There were each discussing what it was like having younger brothers or sisters.
He frowned slightly when he heard Uraraka mention that she was an only child. Something about the way she talked about her living situation, or more specifically, how little she talked about it set off little alarm bells in his head.
He decided he would try to talk to her about it later, when his attention drifted to Kaminari, who was throwing chicken legs at Kirishima.
The red haired man tried to catch the food out of the air with his sharp teeth, while Sero laughed his ass of at the silly one-sided game of food fight they were playing.
Iida was nearby, chopping his arm, citing some unspoken rule about "playing with one's food" in a public cafeteria.
Izuku laughed as he sat down, enjoying the chaos.
Weird, now that he thought about it. He'd spent most of his life with only Tsu, and later on Himiko, that he could actually call "friends".
Now here he was sitting with most of his class at the same table during lunch.
He couldn't remember the last time meal with other people had been this… lively.
"Yeah, that's the word. Lively. It's rather nice."
Even when they had group dinners with the Asui's there was never this much energy. Most of the froggy family was more subdued, preferring to enjoy a quiet time while they ate.
Well, except for Satsuki. The little tadpole was still at that age where "calm down" wasn't really a setting for her.
He sat there a while, just enjoying everything.
Eventually, Kirishima convinced him to toss bits of his lunch at the shark-toothed man. Very rarely did the red-head miss a piece of food, but when he did he just laughed it off.
Eventually Izuku joined in, transforming his mouth just enough that he could open it a bit wider, and tried to catch morsels in his own sharp-toothed maw.
Eventually, everyone had run out of food to throw and continued to talk in companionable cacophony.
The greenette sighed as he silently enjoyed it all.
Eventually he turned his gaze to Iida, and finally remembering what he had originally been worried about, he opened his mouth to catch the man's attention.
"Hey Iida, I wanted to ask you about somthi-"
Only to be interrupted by a loud claxon that played over the school's speakers.
Izuku snapped his hands up to cover his ears, just as a message started to play.
"LEVEL 3 SECURITY BREACH. ALL STUDENTS PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING IN AN ORDERLY FASHION."
While he wouldn't consider his senses super human while in his base form by any means, he would need to transform into his wolf form to do that, his senses were still better than a normal human's.
One such example, was his sense of hearing, which made the loud announcement feel like someone was battering his skull with a soap-filled sock.
"Ack. Does it really need to be this loud?! I can only imagine how much Jiro's head must hurt…"
He was snapped out of his thoughts when the cafeteria erupted in a panic. Rather than exit in a peaceful manner, every student stood up, and started running for the doors.
With how many people were in the room, this quickly turned into a hoard of bodies rushing for a small number of double doors.
Izuku quickly found himself being shoved around, finally understanding what Auntie Mitsuki meant whenever she described entering a mosh pit was like when she went to concerts in her youth, and swore off ever trying to enter one willingly.
"Ah, wait, OW!"
He forced himself to focus when he heard the feminine voice scream out in pain. He cast his gaze around, trying to find it's source, only to find an empty uniform curled in on itself as the mob of people stepped around, over, and onto it.
"Hagakure!"
Izuku shoved his way through the crowd, slipping between people and pushing those who refuse to move out of the way he made his towards the prone figure.
When he reached the woman, he swiftly pick her up and held her to his chest as he shoved his way to the edges of that nightmare.
Finally reaching the windows at the edge of the room, he made sure to position himself between the invisible woman the rampaging students.
"Hagakure, are you alright?!" Izuku placed his hands against the window, hoping they would deter anyone from bull-rushing through him and over Hagakure again, while making sure there was enough space between himself and her that he wasn't crushing her.
"I think so… I was able to cover my head before they started stepping on me." It was when she raised a sleeve to wipe what Izuku guessed was her face that he noticed an almost imperceptible tint of pink hovering in the air. It shimmered in an iridescent haze of colors that leaned more towards a familiar red.
"Is she bleeding? How can I see it? Does this mean only her skin is invisible? No, then her hair wouldn't be, and her blood isn't entirely invisible, more like a diluted pink haze filled with the colors of the rainbow. Does that mean her invisibility is more than skin deep? She's completely invisible, as if she wasn't even there, so it's not simple light refraction. Perhaps her body functions like an entire system consisting of multiple parts that create the invisibility as a side effect instead of simple-"
The wolf-man was broken from his quirk-analysis when his eyes glanced over her shoulder, latched onto the sight through the window.
Outside, near the front gate, were Eraserhead, Present Mic, and Vlad King, herding what looked like regular people.
He pushed a little bit of his quirk into his eyes, seeing past them, to where the protective barrier blocking unauthorized civilians from entering the campus usually stood.
In its place was what he assumed were piles of ash.
With his now-enhanced eyes, what he thought were normal people were actually…
"The press? All of this because members of the press decided to break through the gates of UA? People have gotten hurt because of them!"
"M-midoriya? Y-you're scaring me…"
Izuku looked down at the voice, seeing his charge. The woman he was protecting. Only now realizing that she was trembling.
"Huh, that's… weird."
It was almost like he could see something, but he couldn't figure out what…
"Midoriya!"
He turned, meeting the concerned gaze of Uraraka Ochako.
Her face was pale as she stared at him, which finally made him catch onto the fact that he was growling.
…and not the human "rawr" kind. This was coming from deep in his chest. He suddenly realized that he was angry.
No, not angry… he was furious.
He fought to swallow the rumbles emanating from his chest, using years-past breathing exercises to gain control of himself.
"I don't want to scare them more than I already have."
He reached a hand out to the brunette, making sure to move it slowly so as to not spook the woman.
"Uraraka, I need your help." He spoke carefully, making sure his anger wasn't bleeding into his words.
At least, not too much.
"We're not actually in danger. Somehow the media broke through the front gates, but with everyone in a panic like they are, no one is going to listen. I need to get ahead of them, and with how packed in everyone is, the only way past is over them. Will you please help me?"
Izuku gulped as he watched the woman hesitate, before reaching a hand forward, grabbing his.
There was a light glow of pink as their hands made contact, and he felt a lurching sensation as his body seemed to lose any care for how gravity was supposed to work.
The greenette was about to pull the woman in to cover Hagakure when he heard and felt someone impact the wall next to him.
He grinned when he caught sight of who it was.
"Kirishima, I need your help too!" Izuku's only response was a bleary blink.
Clearly The red head had been knocked around a bit in the thrashing of bodies with how he was panting, but he ultimately nodded.
It would have to be enough.
"I need you to cover Hagakure and Uraraka while I get everyone's attention! Hopefully, this should them all to stop running each other over!"
"G-got it!"
Izuku leaped up, letting Kirishima take his place, adding the brunette to the number of people being covered by his body.
The wolf man refocused, letting his quirk flow into his arms, growing claws that he used to latch onto and launch himself from wall to wall.
When he finally landed against the wall above the doors, he took a moment to take in the sight before him.
It was utter chaos.
The flow of people had gotten so bad, that with everyone fighting to get out, every man for himself style, no one was able to get through the doors.
Izuku let the anger at how stupid this whole situation was mix into his rapidly beating heart as he pushed his body to complete its transformation.
Not even the lightshow of his change was enough to stop the panic, so he dug deep into his still-recovering pool of energy, making sure he pulled just enough to get everyone's attention without hurting them.
He breathed in, and howled.
Everything went quiet as it rolled over the crowd of panicked students.
Not waiting to let a renewed sense of panic surge through them, he used the small moment of silence to transform back to his human form and yell out.
"Everyone, CALM DOWN! It is just the press! I repeat, the intruders are just the press! No one is in any danger! If you would please exit the room in an orderly fashion, instead of running over your fellow students like a bunch of panicked rabbits! We are students of U.A. University. ACT LIKE IT!"
Izuku was panting when he finished.
He was honestly shocked that he had yelled at them. He had just meant to get their attention, inform that they had nothing to worry about.
But that anger that he felt when he caught sight of the cause of this whole mess, of seeing Hagakure getting trampled over in their bid to escape, of hearing her and Uraraka's terrified voices, that they were terrified of him, had bled through.
He still wasn't sure if Himiko and Tsu were ok. Were they hurt? Were they stepped on like Hagakure was? Were they scared of him now too?
Izuku shoved the palms of his hands against his eyes as he tried to get control of his breathing. He curled in on himself and let the world drift away as he tried to center himself.
"Can't let them see me like this. I… I need to make sure they're ok, so why- why can't I…"
He felt something wrap around his waist and pull him away from the wall. As his body touched the ground, he felt two pairs of arms wrap around him.
"Shh, it's ok, Izu. We're here. Everyone else has already left, its just your friends here now." A familiar voice spoke into his ear.
"Friends…?"
That's right, he had just been having lunch with people. His… friends? He still wasn't sure if that's what they all were.
His limbs slackened oh so slowly as he let himself enjoy the physical comfort of his two best friends.
When he could breath semi-regularly, he pulled his hands away from his face, seeing the worried faces of most of his class standing before him.
He looked to his left and right, seeing Himiko and Tsu wrapped around him, Tsu's tongue still holding tight to his waist.
He slid his arms between their bodies, grabbing onto the two women as he returned the hugs.
"I-I'm-" Izuku gulped, his mouth suddenly dry. "I'm sorry everyone, I'm- I'm good. I'm fine now."
"Izu, you're still trembling, ribbit." Tsu whispered into his ear.
"Take your time." Himiko breathed into the opposite ear.
He took a few deep breaths to regain that last semblance of control, but couldn't quite get it.
But then he saw Hagakure, leaning heavily on Uraraka, so he forced himself up. He used the two clingers-on to make sure he was steady on his feet.
"Thanks, Tsu, Himiko." He rested one cheek against the top of one's head, before resting it against the other. "But I'm good now."
The greenette blinked when Iida stepped forward.
"Midoriya, I'm not quite sure how to ask this. I'm thankful you were able to come of with a way to calm everyone, but, well… at the end there-"
"Are you ok, Midoriya?"
Izuku turned a surprised look at Uraraka, who had a worried look so unlike that pale one she had earlier.
"Isn't she afraid of me, why is she-?"
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
"I-I'm fine- well, not exactly fine, but I'll get over it. It's not the first time its happened."
The man's eyes widened when he realized that he had said too much.
"I-I-I mean-"
"This has happened before?"
This time Yaoyorozu had stepped forward.
"I-well-It's-" Izuku sighed in defeat. "…Yeah, but it's been a while since the last time. Haven't had one since, well…"
His gaze slid over to Himiko at his side, her eyes were full of tears as she stared up at him.
"Ah crud, she hasn't seen it this bad before."
"I haven't had one that bad in years."
"I apologize if it is too invasive of a question, but what happened, Midoriya?" Iida asked.
Izuku took a minute to think the question over. The more he thought about it, the surer he was that he, well, wasn't sure.
"…I don't know. I just, with everything going on, the crowd, the reporters at the gate, and the way everyone just ran over each other, I just got so…" He trailed off.
"So angry." He mentally finished.
He didn't want to admit it to everyone, but he was. Seeing hero students panic like terrified rodents, seeing the media go so far as to destroy school property just for the stupid answers, seeing his friends get hurt-
He blinked.
"Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten!" He rushed forward, somehow still pulling Himiko and Tsu along with him. "Hagakure, are you ok?!"
He fought back a grimace when the very woman he was worried about flinched at his attention.
"I-I'm fine, see?" She tried to raise an arm, only to flinch, curling in on that side. "Owie… maybe I'm not so ok…"
"Toru!" Mina raced forward; hands raised as if she wanted to reach out to her friend, but scared she might hurt the invisible woman. "Where does it hurt, how many fingers am I holding up, oh please tell me you're gonna be ok girl!"
"It's very likely the poor dear has a few bruised ribs."
Almost everyone jumped when the wizened voice of Recovery Girl spoke up from the entryway.
"R-Recovery Girl, what are you doing here?!" Izuku couldn't help but blurt out.
"Well young man, when student's are given an express order to evacuate they usually follow it, so when it came to the faculty's attention that some hadn't, a teacher was to be sent to figure out exactly why."
Everyone winced at her words.
"And since most of them were dealing with that debacle at the front gate, Nezu himself decided to take a little peek into who those students were and why they hadn't left."
Izuku felt a cold sweat drip down his back.
"Having the dean's attention on us for not evacuating? That can't be good."
"When he saw the, well, state of things, he decided it would be best if I was the one to come find you all."
From behind the woman, a familiar figure stepped into the room, pushing a wheelchair before him.
"And I had All Might's aid step in to help me, since he wasn't busy dealing with those vultures outside."
"Good afternoon, students! I know you've had a rough time of it, so if you could take a seat, Young Hagakure, we can get you down to the nurse's office and check out, post haste!" All Might, currently as Toshinori Yagi, said with a smile.
"Ah crap."
"As for the rest of you, you might as well come with us, that way we can look over all of you at once."
"Double crap."