Gasp – I live!
After a brief hiatus due to a small writer's block, I'm back! Hopefully for longer than a couple of weeks this time!
Big thanks to 12 Angry Men for the idea behind this fic! He really helped me in getting out of this slump so I'm extremely grateful for the help!
Without further ado, let's go!
Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia
"Midoriya!"
Izuku turned to see the class president of the famous, or infamous, depending on who you asked, 1-A standing next to him, with a hand raised in its usual fashion, with his fingers as straight as they can possibly be.
"O-oh, Iida, w-what's up?" Izuku asked, curious to see what the tenacious speed hero in training needed from him.
"The rest of the class appears to be organising a movie night tonight!" He explained, gesturing with his arms rapidly, showing his excitement to spend time with his classmates. "I've agreed as the class president to allow this to be carried out as long as the movies stop by midnight. Would you like to join us?"
Feeling a slight pang of regret, Izuku shook his head to decline. "Sorry, Iida, I'm gonna be training for the rest of the day."
"How admirable!" Tenya exclaimed, clapping in approval before bringing a hand to rest his chin on as he thought to himself. "But haven't you been training a lot lately? Don't overwork yourself!"
"Thanks. Feel free to have fun for me though!"
"Of course. I'll inform the others of the news as well."
With that, Izuku waved to his friend as he left for the training facility, leaving Iida with an expression of apprehension as he watched his classmate leave.
"I understand that we attend the most prestigious hero school in the country, but why must he work so hard?" He muttered quietly.
"Hm? Iida, what's up?"
Jumping in surprise, he turned to see the inquisitive face of Ochako Uraraka next to him. "O-oh, Uraraka, I asked Midoriya about tonight, he won't be attending."
"Aw, really?" A melancholy expression donned her face at this news. She wouldn't be able to hang out with her best friend again? It wasn't exactly the first time, either. "W-well, that's unfortunate. Guess we'll just have to have his share of fun for him!" She exclaimed, putting on a fake smile so as to not worry her friend.
"Yes… we shall…" Iida remarked quietly, his eyes drifting towards where Izuku had headed towards.
Well past midnight, a solitary figure could be seen approaching the dormitory of class 1-A. It slowly approached, with it's hair sodden with sweat as it advanced slowly towards the stairs leading up to the entrance.
Weakly, it pushed open the door. The sound of heavy panting echoed throughout the room, followed by the racket of a particularly unhealthy sounding cough, which reverberated through the building, despite the wishes of the person who had caused the noise to begin with.
He attempted to head towards the stairs, his feet shuffling across the ground with every step. As he began to climb, he heard the voice of someone behind him, sounding like it'd woken up. Immediately, he realised that some of his classmates had fallen asleep on the sofas in the common area during their movie marathon. He quickly attempted to get up the stairs faster, but in his debilitated state, that proved challenging.
The waking person in question, however, had managed to spot the figure in their sleep induced state as they sat up. Rubbing their eyes, a feminine voice asked tiredly, "Midoriya…?" to no one in particular before they promptly fell back to sleep.
"Y'know, something's been a little weird with Deku lately."
"Huh?" Mina's head twisted to look at the person who'd mentioned this. Of course, the only person aside from Bakugou who called Izuku Midoriya 'Deku' would be Ochako Uraraka, the best friend of the boy in question. Watching as she fiddled with her costume a little, Mina waited for her friend to continue explaining.
"I mean…" She brought her hand up to her chin, trying to think how to best explain what she wanted to say. "Well, he seems to be working a lot harder than usual, doesn't he?" She asked.
"It's only natural." Momo spoke up from where she was getting changed herself, adjusting her costume accordingly. "We are attending the best hero school in the country, after all. Perhaps he wants to live up to the legacy of this school."
"He's already done enough of that in his first year alone." Tsuyu spoke up next, croaking slightly once she was finished.
"No, what I mean is… well, he seems to be… forgetting about us..." Ochako clarified, a hurt expression donning her face.
"Huh? How so?" Mina asked, curious.
"Well, I mean, it seems like he's disregarding all of us to work harder on his hero training."
"That just shows how determined to be a hero he is!" Tooru piped up next, her gloves pumping up and down to show her enthusiasm.
"I suppose so…" Ochako responded, eyes downcast, "I just… worry about him sometimes, y'know?"
Whilst Mina would normally take this opportunity to tease her senseless about her less-than-subtle crush, she could see how worried she was just from her expression. She also thought back to the night of the movie marathon, where she swore she remembered seeing him heading up the stairs extremely late, especially so since he hadn't actually been there to watch all the films with everyone either.
Deciding to change the subject, Mina spoke up, "O-off topic, we should hurry up and get to training, right? Don't want Mr Aizawa to shout at us!" A forced smile made its way onto her face as she tried to not think about how much her friend was suffering due to the worry that she felt for her best friend.
"Y-yeah, you're right…" Ochako sniffled slightly before exiting the changing room, with the others following her.
As they headed towards the training site, Mina watched her friend as she continued to have her eyes downcast as she walked. Clenching her fists slightly, she decided that someone was going to have to speak to the boy in question about this.
And she knew that she was up to the task.
Deciding to wait until classes were over to save the boy some embarrassment from his classmates, Mina decided to wait for Izuku to come out of the changing rooms to confront him about this.
'Okay, just remember. Be stern, hold your ground.' Mina thought to herself, repeating those words in her head like a mantra as she waited. And waited.
And waited.
"Geez, how long does it take to get changed?" Mina muttered to herself, looking at her phone. Classes had ended an hour ago, and yet he was yet to appear. She had half a mind to barge in and confront him right then and there, but that probably wouldn't accomplish anything. He was such a stuttering mess at times that her barging into the boy's changing room would cause untold embarrassment for him.
Chuckling to herself at the image of Izuku freaking out over her presence, she was then pulled out of her daydreams by the sound of footsteps approaching from down the hall. Snapping her head towards the noise, she saw him.
He was swaying as he approached, exhaustion showing on his face with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, swinging slightly with each step. The apparent weight of his costume enhancements could be heard with each step he took, the clunking sound of the metal reinforcements echoing throughout the hall.
"A-Ashido." He managed to stutter out. "W-what… are you… doing here?" He paused for breath frequently, further emphasising his exhaustion.
Mina didn't know what exercises he'd been doing, but given that he was in incredible shape, not that she'd been looking, it must have been ruthless to have left him in this state.
"I was waiting for you." Mina answered, keeping her face as straight as possible to show that she wasn't messing around. She hoped that he would pick up on this, even in his drained state, so he would know that this was going to be a serious conversation.
Attempting to stand up straight, Izuku met her deep black eyes before composing himself, forcing himself to breathe through his nose as he motioned for her to continue.
"I heard from Ochako." Mina began. "You've been working particularly hard lately, haven't you?" He nodded slightly in response, trying to keep his composure despite his exhaustion. "Yet because of this, you're neglecting your friends, aren't you?"
His eyes dropped to the floor, breaking the eye contact that had been established. "…that has nothing to do with you." He muttered, refusing to look at her.
"It has everything to do with me when my friend's sad because of it!" Mina burst, raising her voice slightly. "Do you even know how much you're making her worry? I'm sure the others are also worried too!"
Guilt made its way onto his face, yet he still refused to look at her. She could tell that he knew exactly what she was talking about, but clearly it wasn't something he necessarily liked to think about. Or perhaps he'd purposefully been ignoring it due to some personal reason.
Whatever the reason, Mina was ticked off with him. Sure, she'd bonded with him over teaching him to dance for the festival, but that was water under the bridge at the moment. Right now, she was more worried about the effect that Izuku's inattentiveness was having on his friends and wanted him to fix the issue sooner rather than later.
"Seriously, why are you pushing yourself so hard?" Mina asked accusatorily, her voice raised to show her anger at the situation. "You've got pretty much another year and a half before you go pro, so why push yourself this much?"
"Why push myself this much?" Izuku repeated quietly as he raised his head, eye contact with the pink girl re-established, his eyes focused and determined as he broke into a bit of a scowl. "I do this because it's my responsibility! I push myself so hard because I have to!"
"R-responsibility?" Mina asked, shaken from Izuku's sudden outburst. He wasn't the kind to burst out in anger… well, ever, so clearly the stress and overwork he'd subjected himself to had built up to the bursting point.
"And what of you?!" He yelled, pointing a finger at her, his emerald eyes gleaming in anger, "You ask why I push myself this much despite how much time we have left, yet you barely seem to try yourself!"
"H-hey!" Mina attempted to interject but was cut off.
"You failed your final exams and were forced to remedial lessons last year, that's only because of your lack of effort!" He ranted, "And you dare to ask me why I push myself so hard? Maybe you should take a long look in the mirror before you go and accuse others of having faults!"
He remained there, panting, out of breath, his eyes focused on her. Mina stood looking at something she'd never seen before and, frankly, wasn't sure if she'd ever want to see it again. She felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes because despite his stress-induced rant, she knew he was right. She'd failed because of her own laziness and lack of drive. She knew this herself, but much like the boy opposite her, she'd refused to acknowledge her faults.
Izuku's face relaxed before shifting into one of absolute horror as he realised what he'd just done. He'd yelled uncontrollably at someone who was just trying to help. He'd purposefully shouted at someone as kind and playful as Mina Ashido without restraint.
"Uh… that is…" He stuttered, watching as she began to shake as tears threatened to fall from her eyes.
"You know." Mina spoke up, seeming to ignore the tears that were now on the verge of spilling down her face. "I respected you a lot, how driven you were and how you always chased your goal." Wet streaks donned her cheeks as she continued, sobbing slightly, "B-b-but seeing you like this…" She looked away, turning her body slightly, "It's like you're not yourself…"
She turned to leave, walking at a brisk pace towards the dorms, leaving Izuku standing there, guilt covering every inch of his face as he stared at the ground. He clenched his fist in anger, not directed towards the girl who'd tried to simply help him, but towards himself. Laughing slightly in a twisted fashion, he muttered, "I really am turning into Bakugou…" He set off to try to follow her, but stopped himself, figuring she probably wouldn't want to see him right now.
Having decided that she didn't want the others to see her in this state, Mina made a beeline for her room, locking the door upon entry. She really couldn't deal with others right now, especially after dealing with Izuku in the state that he was in today.
It had shocked her. Sure, she'd seen him in battered and broken before, but that was only his body. His will and drive were never beaten down no matter how many times he himself was, a trait of his which she found admirable. She even had used his non-stop drive as a source of inspiration for herself after she'd failed her final exams in her first year, to stop herself from feeling too down about it. Seeing him as he was today… it had been shocking to see the one person in the class who was so determined to better himself, to become a true hero, looking to broken and defeated.
On top of that, everything he'd said about her in his rant was right. She was too lax with her studies and the like, and it'd cost her. Being forced to take the remedial classes was bad enough, but the blow to her pride had hurt the most. She'd always thought that as long as she was good at the practical, the theoretical stuff didn't matter. But judging by the result that she'd received from her exams, evidently that was not the case.
They both had a long way to go, and Mina hoped that they'd both be able to make it there together.
And done! It's only part one, so don't worry, this story will continue. I'm debating on how long I should make it, but I've got some ideas.
Once again, big thanks to 12 Angry Men for helping me with this.
Don't forget to review!