"Uggghhh!"
Mina Ashido practically collapsed into the couch of the U.A. dorm room's common area, still sweating profusely from the latest day of training for their Provisional Hero License Examination. The other girls of Class 1-A of the U.A. Hero Course looked over to her with some slight concern.
"Everything okay there, Mina?" Toru Hagakure asked. In her case, her concern had to be inferred from her voice alone.
"Bwagggh! They're working us to the bone every day!" she groaned, her limbs still in pain from her overusing her Acid Quirk.
"Well, that's why they call it 'accelerated training,'" Hagakure responded, her logic only seeming to further irritate the pink girl.
"And we only have one more week," Momo Yaoyorozu added, her tone somewhat stern, as if to remind the other girls not to slack off.
"Oh, yeah! How are your ultimate moves coming along, Momo Yao?" Toru asked.
"Well, I have ideas, but my body isn't quite there yet. I need to focus on improving my Quirk's efficiency first," she replied, the slight pang of her stomach reminded her all too clearly of her Quirk's limitations.
"How about you, Tsuyu?"
"I've mostly been working on improving my more Frog-like abilities," Tsuyu Asui replied in her typical frog-like accent. "They'll be sure to surprise even you."
The other girls couldn't tell, but Toru was cocking her head in curiosity, with a hint of excitement. "Even me, huh? Is she saying she can go invisible now?! That's so cool!"
"And you, Ochaco?"
After she failed to respond for several seconds, Tsuyu repeated her question, poking her arm and causing Ochaco Uraraka to spit out her drink in surprise with a shriek.
"Uh, you okay, Ochaco? You seem wiped out," Toru remarked.
"Huh?! Uh, no, no, I'm fine! Raring to go!" She replied, perhaps too enthusiastically to a few of her classmates. After a moment, however, she let out a sigh. "At least, I think so, anyway. Seems like my mind's been all over the place lately."
To the other girls in the room, all they could think to do was offer to hear her out, assuming she was ready to talk about whatever was bothering her. However, Mina, in a moment of pure excitement, blurted out what she believed was the only possible answer to Ochaco's dilemma.
"It's love," she said, with an expression of muted excitement all over her face.
And watched as Ochaco practically shut down right before her eyes.
Her cheeks became flushed to the point where her entire face seemed to have shifted to a light red pigmentation, her entire body began sweating even harder than Mina had been moments before, and her expression shifted into one of pure anxiety and terror as she leapt into a panicked frenzy.
"What?! Dove?! I've never seen one! Not me!" she cried out, vainly attempting to pretend she misheard her as she frantically waved her arms around. Meanwhile, Mina, too caught up in the moment, began to relentlessly question her flustered friend.
"Is it Midoriya?! Iida?! You're always hanging around those two!"
"No no no no no no no no noooo!" she muttered as she activated her Zero Gravity Quirk on herself, floating up towards the window and out of her classmates' reach. However, this did nothing to alleviate Mina's tirade, assisted now by an almost as enthusiastic Toru.
"Come on, tell us!"
"The truth will set you free!"
"Seriously, that isn't...oh, I don't know..." Ochaco muttered softly, now floating upside down directly in front of the window.
"Yo, guys, chill," Kyoka Jirou interjected, placing a hand on Mina's shoulder and attempting to sit her back down into the couch.
"There's no sense in pressuring her if she isn't ready," Tsuyu remarked in her usual blunt fashion.
"Agreed!" Momo added. "We've got a long day tomorrow, so the best course of action is to turn in immediately!" Kyoka and Tsuyu nodded in agreement. Mina, however, pouted and waved her arms around angrily.
"What?! No way! I still gotta know! Try changing the subject, and I'll just flip it back to romance!" she shot back indignantly.
"Yeah!" Toru added.
"Come on, guys, do you really want to try and get through another day of training on six hours' sleep?" Kyoka asked.
"I won't be able to sleep at all until I know the truth!" Mina replied defiantly. No sooner had she said this, however, than she noticed something in the corner of her peripheral vision: Ochaco's cheeks growing considerably more red as she glanced out the window. She mentally filed the observation for later use as she prepared to continue the argument.
Kyoka considered arguing her point for a bit longer, but ultimately shrugged her shoulders in acceptance.
"Alright, it's your funeral. Come on, guys, let's go hit the hay."
Tsuyu and Kyoka began to make their way towards their rooms. Momo, easily being the tallest among the girls, reached up to grab Ochaco by the waist, gently pulling her along towards their rooms until she at last regained the presence of mind to stop floating. After Momo helped her back down onto the floor, she staggered slightly as a wave of nausea hit her, a side effect of her Quirk. However, she nevertheless followed the Class Vice-President to their dorm rooms, grateful that the conversation was over, until only Mina and Toru remained.
Toru sighed as she flopped onto the couch. "Awww. It isn't as fun to speculate with just two people."
"Yeah," Mina admitted, turning over what she knew in her head. Without realizing it, her eyes began to droop slightly. Toru noticed this, and raised an invisible eyebrow.
"You sure you meant what you said about not falling asleep until you knew the truth? Cuz, uh..." the right shoulder of her top creased slightly, the only indication at all that she was even moving her arm. Mina guessed that she was pointing towards her eyes.
Mina at first prepared a retort, but what came out was an incredibly yawny comeback. Mina paused for a few seconds before admitting, "...Okay so maybe they were onto something."
Toru chuckled.
"But I still want to know!"
"Yeah, yeah, same here," Toru replied earnestly. "So, where do we start?"
Mina put her finger to her chin in contemplation. "Well, she always hangs out with Iida and Midoriya..."
"And Todoroki," Toru interjected. "I've seen them talk a bit, ever since his fight with Midoriya at the Sports Festival."
"Hm...he is pretty cute..." Mina mused. "Of course, it might be somebody we haven't even seen her hang out with that much."
"Like who?"
"I dunno. Who else seems like her type?"
"Hm..." Toru considered the question. "Sero's pretty nice, and funny to boot."
"Yeah...kinda plain looking, though."
"What about Kirishima?"
Mina thought it over. "Think they've talked occasionally, and she does seem like she'd be really into manly men. Although, then again, he's also a bit...intense."
"Well, yeah, but so's Midoriya sometimes-the Sports Festival was evidence enough of that-and they hang out all the time!"
"True..."
Toru thought some more before speaking again. "Koda?"
"Oooh!" Mina replied, somewhat excited by the prospect. "They could be really cute!"
"Although, they don't talk much, but to be fair, Koda doesn't really talk to anyone. Except for animals."
"Ah, right?" Mina replied, chuckling. "One time I saw him talking to some guy's puppy outside of the school gate-it was adorable!"
"Plus, for some reason, ever since finals, he's been really nice to bugs," Toru added.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Dunno why-maybe it had something to do with the Final Exam?"
"Maybe," Mina mused. "...Come to think of it, I wonder if he has a thing for Jirou?"
"You know, I don't honestly know! He's still so quiet and reserved..." Toru replied.
"Yeah..." Mina considered the question for another minute before shaking her head. "Hang on, we're getting sidetracked!"
"Ah, right! Sorry," Toru said somewhat sheepishly.
"Nah, nah, it's my fault, really."
"So, Ochaco?"
"Right! Ochaco! Yes! Who...does...Ochaco...like?" Mina said, taking a few steps around the common area as she focused on the task at hand. However, no sooner had she done this than her gaze was drawn to the window, as a slight blur of light green came across her vision. Walking up to the window and looking down revealed what she had initially assumed was there: Izuku Midoriya, sweating from exertion yet nevertheless happy that he'd finally managed to successfully get the hang of one of the moves Iida had taught him for his new Shoot Style.
"Uh, Earth to Mina?" Toru called out. "Who else could it be?" "Could she have a secret crush too?" a part of her thought idly as she awaited a response.
Thinking back to what she had observed during their earlier exchange, Mina's lips curled up into a satisfied smirk.
"Who else could it be, indeed?" she said to herself, already beginning to come up with a plan.
Annnd done! Not too long-barely under 1500 words-but then again, this is just setting the scene.
Truth be told, I was apprehensive about posting this one, even though it's been bouncing around for a while, for two reasons. First is the series: My Hero Academia, within which my last fic on the subject about Class B's finals was...less than well received. Could've just been the particular subject matter, or maybe the subject matter didn't match well with the genre, maybe I should've tagged different characters-whatever the reason, the response spoke for itself. So, I was worried that any subsequent ideas I put to keyboard in this fandom(of which I have had no shortage) may be equally lambasted. Second reason is the genre: although I have tried to slowly build up one or two ships in some of my other works, I haven't attempted anything in the Romance genre since my SU fanfic Salt and Spice, my first fanfic...and the first one to die an ignominious death. So, as you can imagine, my outlook on this wasn't too great.
But nevertheless, it's done, and it's out, and hopefully it isn't too bad for a starting chapter. Subsequent chapters may see a slight deviation from canon as the story is told, but all in all, the general outline should remain the same. Idk if I'm really gonna have much of a set schedule for this one, though. I'll play it by ear.
Until then, as always, let me know what you think through reviews, and where you believe that I could improve. Thank you all for reading, have a fantastic night, and take care.
