Chapter 1: So, Midoriya - Give us the Tea
"So, Midoriya - give us the tea."
Midoriya, ever the small, mousy teen that she was, found it impossible to resist Yaoyorozu's plea for gossip. The two of them were sitting adjacent to one another in a rather small booth at a modest cafe down the street from U.A. Across from them, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Kendo had crammed into the booth so as to hear Midoriya's story. Tetsutetsu was between Kendo, who was sandwiched into the inner corner of the booth, and Kirishima, who could only manage to fit halfway into the seat. In front of each student was a small cup of tea.
"Well, as you might know, Kacchan and I got into a bit of a fight about a week ago, the day of the license exams," Midoriya began, running her pointer finger around the rim of her cup. They had just sat down, and her green tea was still too hot to drink.
"Yeah, we heard about that," Tetsutetsu verified. He threw back a scalding shot of his Earl Grey. "Why did it happen?"
Midoriya smiled a little nervously. "It's a long story," she remarked, running a hand through her shoulder-length, broccoli-green hair.
"Midoriya, it is 10 am on a Sunday morning," Kendo said. Even though she was wedged into the booth uncomfortably, she had retained her posture surprisingly well up until this point. However, as the boys beside her settled, she leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table. With one hand, she picked up the steaming cup of Jasmine tea in front of her, and she supported her jaw with the other. "We have time."
Yaoyorozu nodded in agreement. "Besides, Kirishima says that fighting wasn't the only thing that happened that night." Her usually proper exterior gave way to mischievous intrigue. The white tea she cupped in her hands seemed a bit pretentious, but her curious grin was a dead giveaway to her intentions.
A blush rose in Kirishima's cheeks. "I swear - I didn't tell them anything! But Bakugou tells me a lot of stuff, you know, and he said something about… well, um, stuff that might have happened." He looked down in shame at his hot cup of Puer tea, which Midoriya thought was a surprisingly nuanced choice for the straightforward boy. "It's not really manly of me to spread rumors, I know."
"Shut up! It's manly as hell!" Tetsutetsu said with a bang of his fist on the table. "Talking about all the shit that goes on at this school is the only way to understand it all."
"Stop it, you're going to break the table again," Kirishima replied, punching Tetsutetsu with enough force to shove Kendo even further into the corner of the booth. She was balancing her tea with seemingly infinite dexterity, and the roughhousing didn't even seem to bother her as she kept her gaze firmly on Midoriya.
"I'm not surprised Kacchan told you, Kirishima. And I personally don't mind that you told anyone. Honestly, I'm not even sure Kacchan cares if we keep it a secret." Midoriya smiled a little as Tetsutetsu and Kirishima immediately returned their attention to her. Yaoyorozu and Kendo were already intently listening, and the booth fell into a kind of expectant silence as customers and coffeemakers whirred in the background.
Midoriya sighed. She wouldn't tell them everything, of course. She couldn't tell them about One for All and the reasons for All Might's decline - and she absolutely couldn't tell them the other thing.
But still, she had come with them to their little session of "tea and tea," as Tetsutetsu had called it. There was plenty to this story that she could tell them. "I guess I should start at the beginning, right?"