Izuku blinked.

He looked at the photo on the phone that had been placed in his hands.

He looked back at Mineta.

And then back at the photo.

He blinked again.

"Well?"

Apprehension and nervousness weren't exactly emotions that Izuku associated with Mineta. Granted, he always seemed to lose his nerve when there was actual danger afoot, but then again, who wouldn't? Danger came with the territory of Heroism, but no one could be fully prepared for it until it fell right on top of them. Izuku would be a liar if he claimed not to feel fear whenever a Villain showed up. He didn't hold it against the shorter teenage.

Mineta certainly wasn't what anyone in 1A would call a poster child. Far, far from it. His lecherous tendencies were practically the stuff of infamy throughout the entirety of Yuuei at this point. He was unapologetically perverse, and he almost seemed to be proud of it. Present an opportunity to touch, grope, spy, or peep on virtually any of the girls in the school, and he would jump off a cliff for it. He'd made numerous attempts ever since the first day that they got into Yuuei, and he hadn't slowed down at all.

Until recently.

There had almost been a shift in the way that he acted that hadn't been noticeable all that much until one stopped to actually take a solid look at it. His attempts to peep at the other girls became less and less frequent. Even when presented with the perfect opportunity, he didn't bite.

No one had really noticed at first. His infamous reputation meant that not everyone paid him all that much attention even at the best of times. People seemed to just assume that he was doing the things he normally did, but he was just quieter about it. Some people even began to feel more suspicious of it because of it.

What had finally made people start noticing that he had eventually stopped doing it altogether was a recent incident with Kaminari and a beachside.

Both Hero classes had been taken abroad with their school, to a Nation somewhere in Europe. The reasoning behind it was easy enough to understand - As the world became more and more interconnected thanks to technology, the need for international connects became paramount. Europe had a vast internationally co-operative network of Heroes, so the choice was made to take the students to a Mediterranean coastline. Sunny weather, tropical climate - All the ingredients one needed if they were looking for a vacation.

Several students had even decided that in a way, it was. Outside their duties and classes as foreign students, they did have free reign to windy the land as they pleased. A privilege which was absolutely taken advantage of.

Mina, Tokage, and Uraraka had suggested a beachside trip, and the whole class was there within half an hour.

Public decency laws meant that none of them could just go in their swimwear, contrary to what many of them had initially believed. Instead, they had to go to said beach, set up some sort of towel ring around themselves so none of the boys could peep on them, and then get changed behind that.

Issue there was, they had opted to do so underneath a cliff. If someone wanted to, they could run up, lean over, and they'd have a clear view of absolutely everything, in all its bare skinned glory.

Kaminari was the first to notice, and jumped at the chance, going around every single guy that he could find and filling them in on this observation. The first two that the Electrification Quirk user had gone to was Izuku and Mineta - Figuring that Izuku would leap at the chance to glimpse his girlfriend Mina, and Mineta because, it was Mineta.

Of course, Izuku refused - Even though, there was, as much as he hated to admit it, the slimmest part of him that was tempted. Future Hero or not, he still had the hormones of a teenage boy.

Mineta refused. Outright, to the shock of absolutely everyone there.

That was the point everyone seemed to realize the change that had occurred in him, for who knew what reason.

Izuku was holding the reason in his hand right now.

"S... So, where... Did you meet her?" He asked, uncertain if he was even fully buying this.

"You know those mixers we went to?" Mineta asked.

"The ones with Shiketsu?"

"Yeah. She's the sister of one of the guys I met there."

"... You're telling me someone from another school is trying to set you up with their sister?"

"Not exactly." The Pop-Off Quirk user seemed to be biting his index fingers nail as he spoke. "They just mentioned that they had a sister who had a part time job in one of the library's near here, so I just sort of went to see, and..." He allowed his sentence to trail off.

The girl who was in the picture was beautiful - There couldn't be any denying that. And there also could be no denial that she certainly had a great number of mutations, diametrically opposed to other mutations.

White hair that ran down to her waist, accompanied with a set of white wings that looked perfect for flying. Those were opposed by bright red eyes, and a set of pointed, darker crimson horns that came out of the forehead. It wasn't entirely clear, but on top of that, Izuku thought he saw signs of red-tipped claws at the ends of her fingers. Red and white clashed with each other, and it was as mesmerizing as it was beautiful.

Not as pretty as Mina, but Izuku wasn't even going to remotely struggle to see how anyone thought this girl was attractive.

"So... This is why you've been acting so... Weirdly lately?"

All Mineta did was nod, and Izuku just blinked again. It happened to lots of people around the world, sure, but he'd never expected it to happen to Mineta. Yet here it was, a frank admission of it.

Mineta had a crush on someone.

Not a desire to peep in on someone. Not a lecherous longing to grope hold of a woman. Not just a hormone driven lust, although there was bound to be that in traces.

But it seemed to be an actual crush.

A crush he gave a damn about enough to not even want to peep on the others, which had to say a lot about him.

And this wasn't something that just seemed to be exclusive to appearance either. With the photo he was looking at, both the girl in question, whatever her name was, and Mineta were both present in it, side by side. Like a selfie that Mina would take with Izuku, or pretty much anyone. Such a small detail seemed to add feeling to the photo. It made what Mineta was saying feel more real. Like he wasn't messing around.

Frankly though, Izuku wasn't sure what to say. "I... Think she's very attractive?"

"I already know that dude. Look at her! You think of all people, I'm blind to that?"

"Uh, r-right, sorry."

"So?"

"S... So what?" Izuku blinked twice, and then decided to drop all pretence, sighed, and spoke frankly. "I don't know what you want from me, Mineta."

"I... Need advice..."

"Advice?" Izuku repeated, checking to make sure that he had heard that right.

"You heard me. I need advice. You managed to somehow pull someone like Ashido. I... Wanna know how you managed that. So I can try the same thing on Hikkata."

The green haired teenager blinked yet again – He'd been doing a lot of that in this conversation, he realized, but that was entirely due to the fact that he found this entire scenario bizarre beyond all measure. This hadn't been the conversation he'd been expecting to have when he asked Mineta if something was bothering him. Blinking felt like the only response that he could give.

There was a small part of him that was almost flattered in a way. While he did consider Mineta to be a friend, in spite of his many, many moral objections to his inappropriately perverted actions in the past, the two weren't exactly the closest people out there. A lot of their friendship was the result of their joint experiences in the USJ. The fact that Mineta had come to him for help was honestly kind of flattering.

Hell, the fact that he was apparently serious enough about this to actually seek advice was a testament to how much this seemed to be affecting him.

It made a part of him feel bad about the answer that he had to give.

"I... I can't give you any advice."

The short teenager's eyes seemed to widen up. "Huh!?" There seemed to be a mixture of emotions going around inside him thanks to that answer; Confusion, surprise, and probably a bit of irritation thrown into the mix as well. Of everyone in Yuuei, surely Izuku would be the one to understand the position he was in, shouldn't he? But after hearing all that, he wasn't going to -

"I can't give you any advice, because I didn't do anything special."

Irritation seemed to replace itself with curiosity. Internally, Izuku let out a sigh of relief.

"Th... There wasn't any secret to me and Mina ending up together." The Quirk inheritor confessed. "I didn't do anything special. I was... Just myself around her. We spoke, and we ended up becoming friends, and things just kind of... Took off from there." He paused. "To be completely honest, I didn't even ask Mina out first. She asked me."

"So, what, I should just be myself?"

"...No." There it was. That was the question, and the moment, that Izuku hadn't been looking forward to. "Not... Exactly."

To put it as bluntly as possible, he couldn't think of a huge number of women who would be interested in the kind of person Mineta normally was, at least in regards to how he was with women. Even assuming that he was the perfect gentlemen at all other times, the way he leered and looked at women would turn anyone away from him.

"But you just said that you were yourself with Ashido!"

"...Mineta, I didn't... Look... At Mina like that. When I wasn't thinking about... Anything like that. There aren't a lot of people out there who appreciate being peeped on like that. If... If you actually want a chance with this girl, you..."

There was a part of Izuku that was hesitant to tell him how he could and couldn't act. Mineta had come to him for advice, not a reworking of his entire life. And it went against what he's seen - An honest improvement by Mineta in that regard to not peep on the other girls in the class. He didn't want to quite drill him for something that he'd been evidently trying to improve on - Or just lost interest - for whatever reason.

Maybe because he had just one person on his mind, instead of the entire opposite sex.

At the same time though, he did actually want to help, for the same reason. Mineta was trying, and he wanted his efforts here to succeed.

Everyone deserved a fair chance.

"...There are ways to be yourself, without imposing on others." It was the best he could offer. It was the only way of phrasing what he was trying to say without accusing him of anything, and telling him what he needed to hear. "You just... Need to figure them out."

Mineta sat there for a moment, processing what he had been told. His expression was unreadable, but he was evidently lost in thought as he considered the best way to deal with this. Usually, Izuku was good at reading people, so finding himself unable to read one of his classmates, especially this one, made him uneasy.

Had anything he had said helped?

Or had he just made the situation a thousand times worse?

Did anything he say have any meaning?

Or was his friend going to take it with a mountain of salt?

"H… How are you with her, normally?" He asked, wanting to see if there was anything else that he could offer.

"Huh?"

"I mean… She took this photo of the two of you, so she must at least think of you in a friendly way, right? So… Just keep doing things the way you have been to get to that point. And… Maybe something'll happen?"

It was the closest thing to advice that he could give. And he was more than aware of how absolutely worthless that it sounded. But it was the truth. And it was probably the best way to go about this kind of thing.

After all, this person considered Mineta a friend, for whatever reasons those may be. However he was acting was working for him, and it was something that the girl didn't seem upset by.

Why not just keep going like that? And seeing what happened?

"…Thanks."

Mineta's voice didn't give much away, but he did seem to nod in agreement with what Izuku was saying. Honestly, Izuku struggled to tell exactly what was going on in his mind, but he did look… More relaxed? That was the best way of putting it, even if it wasn't entirely accurate. There weren't any signs that he was thinking too much about this anymore, and that he had… Gotten something out of the conversation. What that was, Izuku didn't know.

"I… I think I have an idea of what I'm doing now." The Pop-Off Quirk user said as he stood up. He seemed calmer, and less internally frustrated. He reached out for his phone, which Izuku returned.

"You do?"

"I think so." Mineta nodded. "Thanks, Midoriya. Really."

"I… A-Anytime." He didn't dare ask his friend to explain exactly what his plan was. Honestly, he was just glad that he seemed to have a clearer head.

"I'll catch you later, Midoriya. I think I'm gonna go see her. Maybe ask if she wants to hang out." Mineta turned, and opened the door from Izuku's room, with intention to head to his own before heading out. Considering that the two of them Were direct neighbors with one another, neither of them expected anything to crop up before Mineta reached his room. As he opened Izuku's door though, the pair of them were greeted with Mina, halfway through reaching out to knock on her boyfriend's door. Both she and Mineta paused for a moment, and just looked at each other. "Oh, hey, Ashido." Was all Mineta said, before side-stepping past her, and heading straight towards his room to collect his jacket.

Before turning off though, he turned his head towards Izuku, and then shot his iris towards Mina with a smirk, before stepping out of sight. His implication was clear enough for Izuku.

Mina blinked. She wasn't sure what surprised her more – The fact Mineta had just left Izuku's room, the fact he'd made absolutely no effort to take full advantage of how close he was to her, or the fact he and't vocally encouraged Izuku to do the same. "That… Was Mineta, right?"

Izuku sighed. "Its… Somehow I don't know if you'll believe me." He then covered his face with his hand, to hide his blush. Clearly, she hadn't noticed Mineta's gesture to him.

Some things weren't going to change overnight. Mineta's perverted tendencies hadn't gone anywhere – His eye-glance was clearly meant to encourage Izuku to… Do something with Mina.

So he wasn't an entirely new person.

But he was on the right track.

This… Was honestly something that I've discussed with 12AngryMen and Dominomags and the IzuMina server. The idea of him actually ending up in a situation where he ends up with a genuine crush that he cares about more than he does about peeping was something that I thought could be interesting – And to be perfectly frank, I feel like the jokes about hating Mineta have gotten borderline psychotic. I'd rather have Mineta peep than let even a tenth of Tumblr have their way with this guy, cause they're... exceedingly vicious lately. Not to say Mineta is a particularly great character. He's got a lot of flaws.

So, I made this to try and explore the idea. It's not particularly long, and it's probably not one of my best pieces – I wrote this while on holiday, half at a Croatian Beach, and the other half on a road-trip between Dubrovnik and Bosnia-Herzegovina, so it's not a fully thought out piece, but I thought it would be a good idea to get it out of my system while I had some free time. Given that Mineta isn't someone I usually write, this was… A challenge, to say the least.

Regardless, I do hope that ya'll managed to enjoy this, or at the least find it interesting – It's something, I guess. It's an idea out of my head. And it's helped me get used to writing again – Been struggling with it lately. In any case, I'll hopefully see you next time in whatever it is I decide to make next – See ya!