Uraraka was full of nervous and excited energy as she knocked on Kirishima's door. It was their first day in the day in the dorms and seeing all of her classmates rooms had inspired her. Well, seeing one room in particular. Kirishima opened the door and peeked out. It was close to bedtime, but Uraraka was stills surprised to see him outside of his normal look. His hair was down and his shirt was off, there was a towel around his shoulders and a small weight in his hands. She help but blush at the sight.

"Oh, Uraraka. What's up?" He smiled at her. Kirishima was always friendly, but in this moment his smile was doing thing to her that she wanted to ignore.

"Um, can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.

"Sure." He opened the door wider, gesturing for her to come in as he went to sit on his bed. He pointed to the desk chair. "Have a seat."

She breathed an internal sigh of relief as he pulled a shirt over his head. She turned the chair to face him as she sat down. He looked at her with a friendly, expectant expression. She decided not to beat around the bush. "Will you train with me?"

Surprise lit up his entire face. He leaned back on his hands as she gave her a confused smile. "What?"

"I realized a while ago that I need to get stronger," She told him. "That doesn't mean just training my quirk, though. Seeing your room kinda inspired me. You work really hard to be as strong as you possibly can be, so I thought... maybe you'd be willing to help me?" She rubbed the back of her head, a bit embarrassed to have laid out her entire plight that way. She didn't know who else she could ask though. Deku wouldn't take her seriously and Iida was way too strict. Kirishima was her only hope.

Kirishima's grin returned full force. "That's so manly of you, Uraraka!"

She laughed awkwardly. "I wouldn't say that."

"I'd be happy to help you!" He told you. "It'll give me a reason to kick my own training into high gear, too."

"Really?" She perked up.

"Yeah. Of course."

Without thinking, she threw herself forehead and hugged him. "Thank you so much, Kirishima! You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Don't thank me yet," He told her. "This training will be tough stuff. You might hate me by the end of it."

"I'm tougher than I look," She told him as she pulled back. "Don't count me out yet."

Uraraka groaned loudly as laid her head on the desk. The long drawn out sound attracted the attention of her friends and soon Deku and Iida were on either side of her.

"Are you okay, Uraraka?" Deku asked. His expression was full of concern as he peered down at her. "You look really tired."

"It's important to get a full night's sleep so that you can fully focus during the day," Iida lectured.

Uraraka groaned again. She knew her studious friend meant well, but she really wasn't in the mood to be lectured. She closed her eyes as she responded to Deku. "Kirishima made me wake up really early to go running. My body feels like jelly."

"Huh? Kirishima?" Deku questioned.

"Oh!" She opened her eyes, realizing that she'd never mentioned her training to her friends. "I guess I didn't tell you, huh. I asked Kirishima to train me."

"Really?"

"I was unaware that the two of you were so close," Iida said.

"We're not," She told them. "Not really. I just thought that he would be a good person to ask."

"Wow, Uraraka, you're working really working hard!" Deku exclaimed. There was a clear awe in his voice and the admiration made her smile. He was the hardest working person she'd ever met and he was here admiring her. Deku never ceased to amaze her.

"It will do you no good if you end up running yourself into the ground," Iida scolded. She sighed. That was exactly the type of response she expected from the class president.

"I know. I know." She said. "But I won't get better if I don't push myself."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out an energy bar. "Please take care of yourself," He told her as he offered it to her.

Uraraka smiled brightly as she reached out to take his offering. "Thanks."

"Do your best, Uraraka!" Deku told her.

She nodded. "I will."

Uraraka was stumbling over her earlier words as Kirishima made her run more laps once classes were over. Pushing herself so hard these last few days was really catching up to her, especially on top of the training she got in class. "I think I'm gonna die!" She exclaimed.

Kirishima had been mostly keeping pace with her, if a little ahead. He slowed down to match her pace and gave her a wicked smile. "We really need to work on your stamina."

"I've run, like, a ton of laps today!" She objected. She slowed to a stop, putting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.

"Yeah, but it's no good if you're all worn out." He said. "We need to get you to the point where you can do five laps easy."

"You're insane!"

"And you're stalling," He replied. Kirishima walked behind her and placed his hands on her shoulder. He gently drew her up to her full height and pushed her forward until they were at a full jog. "Finish up this lap and let you rest."

"You have too much energy," She told him. She couldn't the smile that was on her face though. Kirishima was really making her push herself and even though she was exhausted and complaining, she really was appreciative of it.

"You should work up to my level, then!" He told her. "The Energetic Hero: Red Riot and his sidekick, Tired Girl."

"Don't tease me!" They were both laughing as they continued to run and the final lap turned out not to be all that hard. Kirishima kept his hands on her shoulder the entire time, but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Ugh! I don't know how I'm gonna get up tomorrow," Uraraka said. She let herself sink down onto the couch. "I feel like I could sleep for a week."

Kirishima was sitting on the couch across from her. He put his hand under his chin, humming softly, as his expression turned thoughtful. She found herself staring at him as she waited for him to voice his thoughts. "How about this," He said. "Let's exchange numbers. I'll send you a text to wake up. We can run every other day until you get used to it."

"Really?" She asked. "You'd do that?"

"Sure. I wake up early anyway."

"You're the best, Kirishima!" She let herself stretch out on the couch now that her mind was at ease.

"Don't worry," He told her with a grin. "I have something in mind for the in between days."

She matched his expression with a grin of her own. "I look forward to it."

Kirishima took his phone from his pocket. "Let's exchange numbers before we forget, then you get to bed before you pass out."

She giggled. "Good idea."

A few days later found Uraraka in Kirishima's room. They'd fallen into a comfortable routine that had her waking up early to run laps in the morning and after class, and had her in his room on the off days. She would pummel his punching bag and he would do sit ups or lift weights.

"You have pretty good form," Kirishima told her.

Uraraka stopped her assault on his punching bag to look over her shoulder and smile at him. "Thanks."

He was sitting on the bed and curling weights as he supervised her progress. There was a towel around his neck, but unlike the first time she'd seen him during a workout, his shirt was still on. She supposed that he did that for her sake, but she could admit that a part of her missed the sight.

"How are your hands doing?" He asked her.

She smiled as she shook out her fingers. "They're starting to sting a little, but I can keep going."

"No need to hurt your hands," He told her. "If you're starting to get sore, give your hands a break. You can start working on your legs for a while and one both your limbs are tired, you can do sit ups!"

Uraraka smiled at him, giving him admiring look. "You're really working me to the bone, Kirishima."

"You gotta give a 100% if you wanna improve." He told her.

Her eyes sparkled with renewed vigor. "Okay, I'm gonna give it my all!" She yelled. "Don't you slack off either."

"Heh. Wouldn't dream of it," He said.

"Here." Kirishima greeted her by handing her a thermos of hot chocolate.

It was so early that the light had barely started to brightened the sky. Uraraka took the thermos gratefully, taking a long sip before she answered. "You're amazing, Kirishima." She sighed in contentment.

He grinned. "It's no big deal. I can't have you putting in all this work without fuel."

"You've been doing so much for me, I really need to pay you back somehow."

He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm not helping you because I have to. I want to! You don't need to pay me back."

She sighed. "Maybe, but I'd like to do something nice for you."

"What'll be nice is you sparring with me once you feel like you've made progress," He told her.

"Alright. You're on!" She agreed.

Uraraka rushed into the classroom and over to Deku's desk. She slammed her hands down, causing him to jump at her sudden arrival. She had a look of determination on her face that caused Deku to slowly sink into his seat as he shrank away from her intensity. "Deku, I need your help!"

"Wh-What do you need help with?" He asked nervously.

"I need to learn how to cook," She said.

"Huh?" The confusion seemed to stop him in his tracks and he stopped shrinking away from her as he tilted his head in confusion.

"I wanna make a thank you meal for Kirishima," She told him. "But I'm really bad at this stuff, so can you please help me?" She asked. Uncertainly broke onto her expression and Deku sat back up as he responded to her.

"I'd be happy to help Uraraka, but I'm not the best cook either." He admitted.

"But you do know how, right?" She questioned.

"Yeah..."

"Perfect!" She smiled. "Tonight after everyone else goes to bed, okay?"

"A-alright," He agreed.

"You're the best, Deku."

Uraraka spent the rest of the day contemplating what she would attempt to make. As soon as classes were over she made a quick trip to the market for ingredients that she thought she might need. She was filled with excited energy at the thought and used that energy to fuel her run with Kirishima, after apologizing for getting a late start. By the time she'd eaten and cleaned herself up, Deku was waiting for her in the kitchen.

He smiled at her. "Do you know what you wanna cook?"

"I have an idea," She said.

"So what were you thinking?"

Uraraka wasn't trying to do anything complicated. She knew that Kirishima like meat and things that seemed 'manly' so she decided to keep it simple and attempt meat and potatoes.

It was an absolute disaster. She cut her fingers trying to peel the potatoes, burning her hand on the frying pan, and managed to burn part of the steak. By the end of it she had bandages on her fingers, a sore palm, and a meal of burnt steak and runny mashed potatoes.

She and Deku both sighed at the sorry state of her meal. "I'm really sorry, Uraraka." Deku looked at her sadly.

She returned his look with a sad smile of her own. "It's not your fault. I guess I was too enthusiastic."

"Do you wanna try again tomorrow?" He asked.

"I don't know." She looked at her failure of a meal. "Thank you for trying though."

"Do you want me to help you clean up?"

"No, you just go ahead and get some sleep," She told him. "I've alread asked a lot of you."

"I wouldn't mind," He told her.

She smiled at him. "I know. I'd just like some time to myself, if you don't mind."

He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Okay. Please get some rest afterwards."

She watched him as he walked away and sighed to herself. Uraraka looked at the mess she had created with despair. "It's not going to clean itself," She grumbled.

She was wrist deep in subs when Kirishima walked into the kitchen. "Whoa! I didn't know that you could cook, Uraraka!"

"K-Kirishima!" She exclaimed.

"You made this right?" He asked, pointing at the plate of food she'd set aside. Despite how badly it turned out, she hadn't had the heart to toss it yet. "This is so manly!"

"No! I mean, yes. I mean, I can't really cook but I was..." She was stumbling over her words as much as Deku and they were tumbling out seemingly faster than she could think them. She sighed and pulled herself together as she admitted, "It's a disaster."

"Did you even taste it?" He asked.

"Well no, but it looks terrible." She told him.

"You won't know if it's bad until you taste it," He said. "Mind if I try it?"

She blushed and shook her head.

Kirishima picked up the fork and shoveled some of the mashed potatoes into his mouth. He hummed in appreciation. He stabbed his fork into the steak, lifting the whole thing to his mouth and taking a bite. She waited anxiously as he chewed and swallowed.

"This is pretty good," He told her.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah! You may have left it on a little long, but I like my steak well done." He told her with a grin.

She shook off her hands and blinked away a few tears of gratitude that gathered in the corners of her eyes. "I'm so glad you like it, Kirishima."

"What made you decide to cook something like this?" He asked.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," She said softly. "For you."

Kirishima blushed. "Really? This is for me?"

She nodded.

He smiled at her widely. "I better not let all your hard work go to waste."

Uraraka smiled as she watched him continue to devour her food. Her face was flush and her heart was beating fast in her chest. "H-hey, Kirishima?"

He looked up from his plate, swallowing his food and smiling before answering. "Yeah?"

"Would you maybe..." She played with her hands, intertwining her finger and pulling them apart a few times before she could continue. "Would yo maybe like to go out sometime?"

Somehow, Kirishima's smile got even bigger and brighter. "I would love to go out with you."

She breathed a sigh of relief before adding, "You better not go easy on me during training though."

"I wouldn't dream of it," He told her.