Notes: This request was not supposed to get this long, but I had such a fun time writing it. Really, it was a blast! After all the angst, drama, and action, it felt really good to write something lighthearted and cute. Plus, Kaminari as a Pun Lord is now my new favorite thing and writing Deku in all his "how do I teenage boy?" glory is so nice after the villain stuff.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even this idea. :(
"I...I don't think this is a good idea…" Izuku mumbled from where he was dressing.
"C'mon, I bet you look kickass!" came Kaminari's upbeat response in the changing area on his left.
"We aren't supposed to look 'kickass'," Todoroki intonted on his right. "We're supposed to look villainous."
Izuku didn't know if he could manage to look like a villain. Apparently, he had something of a baby face. With his big, innocent green eyes, the freckles that he hadn't yet outgrown didn't help, and his green hair that looked like a chia pet gone out of control, Izuku might have been the opposite of dangerous and deadly. Even when he activated One for All, a lot of villains didn't take him seriously. Sure, they did after the fact, but even during a fight when he let off a punch that sent a villain flying, they seemed mind-boggled.
That wasn't a bad thing, of course. Being underestimated tended to put villains off their guard with him. The thing was though, he needed to look the part right now. Going undercover in an illegal fighting ring where kidnapped innocent civilians were thrown into a cage with a villain and told to fight for their lives was a huge deal. None of them could be one of the civilians, so they'd managed to get the intel on how to get in as villains. It was easier than expected, but then again, Kacchan was apparently very persuasive.
The fact that Kacchan had been the one to get the information meant that he couldn't go undercover, which he was pretty mad about. He was off scowling about and randomly exploding things, doing his best impersonation of a villain perhaps in hopes that they'd let him go anyways. All of them knew that, despite his temper and turbulent attitude, Kacchan was a hero in his heart, but he could for sure play the part better than Izuku. Even though they were on better terms these days, Kacchan had almost lost his shit when it had been announced that Izuku was going on this mission.
He had blown up when Todoroki had also been assigned. "That half and half bastard is recognizable a mile away!" he'd screamed. Which was true, hence why Todoroki was supposed to be wearing a terrifying mask that covered up his face and hair. He'd been less than thrilled by it, but he hadn't complained.
However, the three boys chosen had quirks that could blend in relatively well if need be. Izuku's quirk was listed officially as super strength, which plenty of people had in various ways. Kaminari had an electricity quirk; it was stronger than most, but they'd still come across people with similar quirks. Todoroki had decided to go the fire route; it was loud and flashy, but the ice half of his quirk was too undeniably him and he hadn't wanted to use his mother's quirk to pretend to be a villain.
When he was finally done, Izuku sighed as he looked at his reflection. "I look…"
"Scary?" Kaminari offered. "Terrifying? Strong as hell?"
"Weird," Izuku settled on.
Kaminari snorted. "Sucks to be you. I look-"
"Don't you dare say it!" Jirou shouted from outside their rooms.
"- Electrifying ," Kaminari finished smugly.
"Oh my god."
This wouldn't have been so bad if there weren't three other people waiting for them to get finished changing. While Uraraka and Jirou were there for "moral support" (aka they were nosy), Momo had helped them come up with costumes on the fly. Kaminari had explained his fake villain costume enthusiastically while Izuku had been something at a loss and Todoroki had said that he trusted her vision for his. It wasn't that the costume was bad - Momo had done an excellent job, considering all his waffling - but that it didn't fit him as a person.
Maybe that was the point. He wasn't supposed to be Izuku Midoriya. He wasn't supposed to be Deku. Oh man, they hadn't even come up with names yet. He didn't even know how to go about that. He'd never thought about what he'd do as a villain. It had never once occured to him that he had or wanted to be anything but a hero.
"C'mon, Deku, it can't be that bad," came the bright, reassuring voice of Uraraka.
Izuku swallowed nervously. He was older now, stronger, more confident - and he still sometimes fumbled when he was around Uraraka. It made no sense. They were best friends. They had done and accomplished so much together since meeting one another. They'd lived together in the U.A. dorms. Well, not together - but like, well, you know, near each other. They had brought down villains together and used their quirks in a fight and in hero classes.
When they were working, in or out of class, he didn't have time to consider how close she was or how easy and right it felt when she touched him to activate her quirk on him. Not until after class did he think of it and then he'd turn into a mess while he thought of that. He'd admitted to her that he was anxious about this particular mission, although it was necessary. He knew that once he was in the moment things would be better. He still got nervous over things, but he was so much better than he'd been before. Determination had a way of helping him focus.
It did not help him right now, not when all he could do was focus on the fact that Uraraka was out there and she was going to judge him on what he looked like in this villain costume.
Taking a deep breath, Izuku closed his eyes and stepped out of the room.
"Oh." That was Uraraka.
" Oh ?" His voice was far too high-pitched, making him sound as if he hadn't gone through puberty, but there was nothing he could do now to fix it. "What does that mean? Is it that bad?"
"N-no! It's not bad at all!" Uraraka hastily exclaimed.
Izuku peeked out of one eye and immediately locked on Uraraka standing in front of him. Her normally pink cheeks were flushed more than normal, her mouth was parted a little, and her big brown eyes were wide with surprise. It made him feel insecure at first, but then it didn't seem to be a bad surprise. What did make his stomach twist though was the way she was looking him from top to bottom, like she was either trying to pick him apart or memorize him. "Uraraka?"
"Hm?" Uraraka's eyes snapped up to his face. "O-oh. Ha, sorry, I was just- You look so-" She took a few confident steps towards him. It took about three-quarters of his strength to not jump out of his skin. How could he still be so nervous around her? " Different ."
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Different?"
"She means muscular as hell," Jirou drawled, a huge smirk on her face that left Izuku's head spinning in confusion. What was that look for? "Damn, Midoriya, we knew you had muscles because of last summer, but we didn't know you were hiding so much under your clothes now!"
A very awkward giggle practically burst out of Uraraka. She'd reached out to him, almost like she was going to touch his chest, but then jerked her hands back quickly. "Well, of course! You're always working out!" She rubbed the back of her neck, which had also turned red.
"Um, yeah?" Izuku replied lamely, not sure what he was supposed to say or do.
Momo held a hand in front of her mouth, but there was a smile in her eyes. "I might have made the costumes too small or tight. I'm sorry. I… I don't make clothes for boys very often."
"It's fine," Izuku reassured her, even though he was desperately trying not to pull at the material near his more, ah, sensitive areas. He was becoming more acutely aware of them, but wasn't about to do it around the girls. The outfit wasn't so tight that it was uncomfortable, but it really did cling to him. He hadn't realized his hero costume was a little baggy as to hide him. Maybe it was a habit he'd not outgrown from when he was scrawny.
Behind him, the door to his now right was kicked open and Kaminari stepped out with his hands on his hips, radiating confidence, a far better sense of humor, and literal electricity. "Do I look sick or what?"
Jirou reacted as if he'd given her a shock. "Yeah, uh, you look pretty...sick."
Kaminari's grin was bright enough to blind someone. "This is awesome. I bet I could scare villains with this look!" He did what looked like his best infuriated Bakugou expression and jumped into a stance that made it look like he was going to attack one of them. "What do you think, Jirou? Scared?"
The look on Jirou's face was anything but scared. She was outright gawking at Kaminari like she had never seen him before in her life, mouth fully open and eyebrows raised high. "Uh, yeah, super...scared…"
She didn't even sound scared either, but Kaminari didn't seem to notice, too caught up in the moment and his excitement. When he finally glanced at her, she wiped the expression off her face, but her cheeks were pink now and pressed her lips into a weird smile and gave him a thumbs up. That appeased him though. He did look kind of terrifying, if Izuku was being honest. Kaminari's new costume gave the vibe that he was a villain just barely in control of his quirk and would shoot off electricity if his mood changed in the slightest.
He did look electric.
Izuku caught Jirou shooting Momo a glare and hissing under her breath, "What the hell? Stop it! Don't give me that look!" but Momo was starting to giggle from behind her hand.
What was wrong with the girls? They weren't the ones wearing these tight villain costumes. Now he knew how Uraraka felt every time she put on her hero costume. He'd known it was tight (boy did he ever - wait, no, now he sounded like Mineta), but now he had a better understanding of what she went through. It shouldn't have taken him going through this to appreciate what she went through.
Todoroki came out much calmer than either one of them, simply opening the door and striding out. He still came out carrying that cool sort of confidence that none of them could master on his shoulders like it was nothing. This had to be done so that was that. The black leather pants were tight enough that even Izuku wasn't about to go there and black shirt as well, but black and red jacket hung down to his thighs and fit him perfectly. He wore red fingerless gloves so that he could pretend that fire only came from his fingertips and a helmet with a tinted visor that looked like it could also pass for a motorcycle helmet.
Everyone was staring at him as he pulled the helmet off his head and tucked it under his arm. Somehow, it made him look even more effortlessly cool as his red and white hair fell down to normal.
Momo swallowed. "I, uh…"
"You did an excellent job on this outfit," Todoroki said as he shrugged out of his jacket to examine it better. "The fact that you were able to make it flame retardant is amazing."
There was a faint impressed expression on his face, which meant a lot considering that he hid how he was feeling even from his closest friends. He was totally unaware of the fact that Momo didn't seem capable of responding to him out loud; she just bit her lip and nodded her head, looking as if her dreams had come true. She had done an incredible job. They would really need to thank her for this somehow. When they'd been given this mission, their villain costumes had been half the problem, but she'd come up with a quick solution.
"The helmet is perfect," Todoroki continued. "It hides my face well, but I can still see just fine."
Jirou nudged Momo and Izuku could've sworn he'd heard her mutter, "That's not the only thing that's fine. Those pants don't hide anything."
Momo turned as red as Todoroki's flames and gave Jirou a deeply embarrassed and angry look. That was crazy though. He had to have heard Jirou wrong. Still, Uraraka pressed her hands to her mouth, but her muffled giggle-snorts could still be heard, and Kaminari snorted as if he'd heard it as well. Only Todoroki appeared not to have heard her, so absorbed in admiring Momo's work.
"Badass, Todoroki," Kaminari confirmed, shooting some finger guns in the other boy's direction. "You're on fire."
"Stop it," Jirou groaned.
Uraraka kept on giggling. "That outfit is...hot. Right, Momo?" Her face was turning red again, but it looked more like it was from effort to not burst out into laughter. Jirou shook her head while Kaminari laughed and high-fived Uraraka, clearly thrilled that someone else was having just as much fun as he was.
When Kaminari hopped over and threw an arm around Jirou's shoulders, she immediately stiffened, but she didn't push him away either. He pulled her against him and said, "Admit it. We make looking bad cool ."
"Don't push it, Sparky," Jirou told him stiffly as she folded her arms across her chest. Her eyes shifted over to him though and her face wasn't nearly as angry or displeased as the rest of her body language suggested.
"Still, it's not fair that Midoriya is over there looking jacked as hell," Kaminari complained before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "You look like you could bench press all the girls."
Izuku's face flooded with embarrassment. After three years at U.A., all of them had built up plenty of muscle. Back in the day, Kaminari had perhaps been less muscular than Izuku, who'd had to train exceedingly hard so that his body would be able to take One for All. He had some muscle on him now for sure, probably because Bakugou pushed all his friends into working out, but he wasn't at either Izuku's or even Todoroki's level.
Kaminari eyed Izuku carefully. "Bet you could lift Uraraka up with one arm. You should try it."
"W-what?" Izuku sputtered.
"Of course he can!" Uraraka almost shouted. "I can make myself weightless, duh!"
"You should try it," Kaminari suggested, but then laughed when Jirou elbowed him in the side. He pulled his arm off her shoulders and held up his hands in surrender. "Kidding, kidding."
Todoroki slid his jacket back on. "We should get going." How did Todoroki manage to look so completely at ease in this new villain costume when Izuku felt like he couldn't even recognize himself despite not wearing the hood and mask yet? He took one of Momo's hands in both of his and inclined his head towards her. "Thank you again. This really saved us a lot of trouble. They look great."
"Any time!" Momo replied brightly.
"So straightforward," Kaminari harrumphed.
Izuku started forward to follow the two other boys, but then connected eyes with Uraraka again. He scratched the back of his head and gave a nervous smile. "Wish us luck!"
"They don't need luck when they've got you," Uraraka told him, a soft smile on her face. Well, great, now he felt like he could melt into a puddle. Sometimes she said the craziest things without realizing it. She fiddled with her fingers in front of her stomach. "You really do look good, Deku."
"Better than my hero outfit?" Izuku asked.
Uraraka laughed. "No, no, that one is still my favorite."
"All your outfits are my favorite," Izuku replied without thinking, as if the words had just tumbled out of his mouth on their own. Both of them turned red in the face when he realized what he'd said and then he was waving goodbye and yelling, "Gotta go!" as he ran to catch up with Todoroki and Kaminari.
What in the world had he just said? Why had he said that? It was true, but still! Some days it really did feel easier to be a hero than it did to be a teenage boy.