Kendou tapped her foot against the training room floor in an impatient rhythm. She hated herself for doing that. She had only been waiting for ten minutes, and she had called him out pretty suddenly, so it wasn't right of her to feel so impatient. Maybe she was just still rattled by her talk with Atlas. That made sense, she mused. Learning that you were destined to fight a Quirk-stealing Villain who'd been alive for over a hundred years was the perfect thing to be hard to digest. On that note, she was suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
Before she could determine whether or not the sickness was real or all in her head, the door opened up, and exactly who she hoped would show up showed up.
"Hey, Izuku!" Kendou said with a wave of her hand.
"H-H-Hello, I-I-I-I-Itsuka!" Midoriya said, his face dyed red with embarrassment.
"Come on, I said you don't have to do that. If you aren't comfortable using my first name, you can still keep calling me 'Kendou'."
"B-But you're already calling me 'Izuku' without any difficulty, and if one of us isn't addressing the other person in the same way, it'd feel really weird, don't you think? I-I think so, so I just want to keep trying to get better at it…" Midoriya kept rattling off a number of excuses. As he did, his hands increased to massive size before being used to cover the entirety of his head. He had a habit of doing that whenever he got nervous or embarrassed.
Ever since Kendou and Midoriya started going out, Kendou had seen him do that at least ten times a day.
"Okay, fine, I won't fight you on it, Mr. Tough Guy. How about you at least add a '-san' to my name? Not a bad way to talk to a lady, after all."
"O-Okay," Midoriya said, his hands shrinking down and being removed from his head. "So I-Itsuka-san, you said you wanted to do some sparring, right?"
"That's right. Need time to warm up?"
"No, I'm fine, but is this the best idea? You can't use Super-Power without breaking your bones, and even if you can concentrate it all into your fingers, Recovery Boy will still get mad at you for doing it again when you're not even in class."
Kendou gave him a grin, the corners of her mouth nearly touching her freckles.
"That's actually why we're doing this. During my work study with Atomic Blonde, I finally figured out a way to use my Quirk without destroying my body!"
"You did?! That's amazing, Itsuka-san!" Midoriya pulled her into a hug, only to end it two seconds later with another red face. Kendou could relate to that, so she was far from upset.
"A-Anyway! I haven't been able to get in a lot of good practice for this technique, and since you're a tough guy and you always make me feel super confident and stuff, I thought you'd be the best person to ask," Kendou said at an incredibly fast pace.
"I'll try to meet your expectations," Midoriya said in a clear voice.
"You calmed down pretty quickly."
"I'm too excited to be nervous. After all, Itsuka-san, this is my first chance to see what you're fully capable of."
"In that case, here's hoping I can meet your expectations."
The two of them got themselves into combat stances. Kendou had the room for ten more minutes, and she was going to make sure they used them.
Here I go, Kendou told herself. One for All: Full Cowl!
One percent, two percent, three percent, four. Five percent, six-no, just five. Five percent of One for All was still the most she could handle. It was still the most she could handle having spread across her body, the act coupled with orange lightning circling her body. She still wondered if anyone could actually see that, but she could think more about that, later. Now was the time for action.
""Let's go!"" the two shouted in unison. Kendou charged at Midoriya and immediately threw out a punch. Midoriya enlarged his right hand and set up a guard; it worked, but the impact set him off balance and made him stumble back. Kendou didn't let the opportunity pass her by, so she took advantage of Midoriya's rattled state to launch a kick at his stomach.
The kick landed, but Midoriya managed to stand his ground after impact; he was less rattled that Kendou thought, apparently. He hooked his arms around her leg and put in enough power to lift her off the ground and slam her into the floor. Even with Full Cowl, hard concrete could still hurt, and while Kendou was busy with that revelation, Midoriya had already slammed a giant palm against her body.
Yep, that still hurts, too, Kendou said to herself. But this isn't the Sports Festival! I'm a lot better at fighting back!
Kendou kicked against the floor with enough power to launch herself up and knock Midoriya's hand away. While she was still in the air, he threw two giant hands at her with a dual chop, but Kendou got her arms up to block just in the knick of time. He brought his hands back and jumped into the air after her, hitting her in the stomach with a headbutt. Bad idea. Even though she couldn't avoid the hit, Kendou was able to take a page out of his book and wrapped her legs around his body. He was locked up tight as she fell to ground and repositioned so his back hit the floor, hard. In the brief second Kendou took to be proud of herself, Midoriya punched her left side with a giant fist that sent her flying into a wall.
"Ah! I-Itsuka-san! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard! Are you alright?!" Midoriya said.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorta, kind of," Kendou said. She could already feel Full Cowl deactivating from a lack of continued focus. "I think this is a good time to stop, though."
Kendou got up from the ground in a slowed pace with a crick in every one of her nooks and crannies. She still needed a better handle on Full Cowl, and Midoriya was simply good at packing a punch.
"That could have gone better," Kendou said with a sigh.
"Really? I thought that was amazing!" Midoriya said. "You've made so much progress in just one week; it's like you have a completely different Quirk!"
"Yeah, I guess so." The guy clearly meant well, but Kendou couldn't help but feel even more annoyed. She hated herself for doing that. After spending her entire life being Quirkless and only having a real power for a few months, that kind of praise only sounded like "You're getting the hang of it, sweetie! Just keep doing what you're doing!" or something else equally condescending. Midoriya didn't mean any of that, but she couldn't stop herself from hearing that, and she hated it.
"Look, I know you're frustrated, and I know that just telling you to keep trying is the last thing you want to hear, but please! Don't think about whether or not you need to catch up to everyone, think about how much you've grown! You've gotten so great in so little time, and I just know you'll keep getting better, but you can't try and rush it. If you just take things one step at a time, the payoff will be that much better. I promise you, Itsuka!"
Kendou felt herself being literally taken aback. That was the most Midoriya had said in a single instance without stuttering all over the place, and it was all exactly what she needed to hear.
"You're the best, you know that?"
"I-I think you might have said that, before." While Midoriya was busy laughing to himself, Kendou leaned in and kissed his mouth. She stayed there for a few seconds, and as soon as she moved away, he lost consciousness and fell down on his back.
Her boyfriend might have been the dorkiest guy around, but he always knew the right things to say. She loved him for that.
Here's my first story for Rare Pair Month 2018, adding a new entry to a criminally underrated pairing. It's based off that one image that has a bunch of random characters in different roles, including Kendou in Midoriya's role. Hope I did it justice!
