Eyes down, face forward, try not to bump into anybody. Try not to be noticed. It was lonely. But it was easier that way. If they didn't notice him they wouldn't want to talk to him. That was how Tamaki had managed to get through middle school so far, and it was probably how he would get through high school and hopefully life in general.

"What are you a cat?" One student taunted, jeering at someone else just out of his narrow field of view.

He clutched the U.A. application papers tighter against his chest. Why did his teacher suggest that? Was it because of his quirk? It wasn't that great, if he didn't eat something useful then he'd just end up being useless like always. He wasn't a hero. There was no way he could talk to someone, and heroes did that a lot.

"Come on you damn Deku! Get outta that tree!"

He looked up to see a blond haired boy kicking a tree in the schoolyard, surrounded by a few other kids. They looked like a group of bullies. He probably shouldn't even be looking at them, even if they were two years younger than him, even if he wanted to do something there was no way that he could -

A girl screamed from up in the tree she was more than halfway up the tree clutching onto one of the large branches. She had a freckled face, her hair was the color of seaweed and nearly blended in with the leaves. "Kacchan stop! I almost fell!"

"Good!" The boy kicked the tree again. "I'm not going to let you make me late Deku!"

The girl screamed again, the branch bouncing up and down with her on it. Falling from that height would probably hurt her. What was she even doing up there? Why was nobody stepping in? Why was he the only watching it?

He really shouldn't. He should just do what everybody else was doing, put his head down and pretend he didn't see anything. That's what the other students were doing, that's what the teacher was doing. That's what everybody was doing.

He looked up at her again, her hand was outstretched as she was reaching towards something. It was brightly colored a notebook. Was she that desperate to get it? Why was it there? Did those boys throw it up there? Couldn't she just knock it down?

"Hey," His own voice said, and he realized that he had been walking towards the tree. What was he doing he wasn't a hero, he didn't stand up to bullies, he didn't want to be noticed. "What are you doing?"

The loud blond boy turned to him, a nasty sneer on his face that made him want to run away and hide. This wasn't just any bully, this was a super bully, probably one that had an awesome quirk to back up his foul temper. Why was he doing this? He shouldn't be doing this!

"Mind your own damn business!" The boy sneered, holding up his hand showing off his quirk. Explosions. Yep. He was that kind of bully.

Another boy nudged the exploding boy. "That guy's a freak Katsuki, let's just leave. I don't want to be late for the interview."

"Right," The other boy said. "We can mess with Deku later."

"Don't tell me what to do." Katsuki clicked his teeth and turned sharply, hands going into his pockets. "Whatever, let's go. This isn't worth my time."

The other boys followed him promptly. Leaving him alone with the girl in the tree.

"Umm," He droned, taking a step forward to try and get a better look at her. The branch she was on was bending, and she was really high up there. Higher than he thought she would be. He should see this through. He already went this far. And she wasn't looking at him. He could do this. It was no big deal.

His hand turned into a squid tentacle, the suction cups gasping at the air. He guided it upwards bouncing on the branches as he made his way towards her notebook. His own arm blocked his view and the branches didn't help either. "Umm, how close am I?"

"Just a bit more to your right." Her reply was just as shaky as his question.

But he bounded his tentacle over and eventually found what he was looking for. He retracted his tentacle returning it to normal. The notebook was blue and was marked for hero analysis for the future, number ten. With a thought, he turned his other arm into another tentacle. "Okay, I got it. I'm going to grab you now. Okay?"

"Okay!" her reply was mumbled in the leaves, caught somewhere between a shout and a whisper. "Just be careful."

He nodded, even if she couldn't see, guiding his tentacle up towards her. She was easier to see than the notebook. He just needed to be sure he didn't drop her. What if someone saw him doing this? They'd tease them both, it'd be like those terrible anime with the tentacles and the school girls! Why did he have to have squid for lunch? He should have just had something else. Like Octopus. No! That'd be worse!

"I'm going to wrap around you now."

She turned away from him, no doubt half as embarrassed over this whole thing as he was. Maybe even more. Why did he do this? Couldn't she just climb down? "Okay," calm her reply.

He gripped her tightly around the waist and pulled her down easily enough. She didn't weight a lot. Easily less than a hundred pounds.

When he finally brought her down something weird happened. He couldn't stop looking at her. His cheeks burned, hotter than he ever felt them burn before. He was embarrassed, mortified, completely and utterly stunned. But he couldn't stop looking at her.

He could see her freckles closer now, the green of her eyes, the All Might styles ribbon that kept her hair in a ponytail, the nervousness of her own smile as her cheeks grew pink. She was cute, adorable, beautiful, petite, and, and, and, so many other things.

"Thanks," She mumbled, pushing a leaf out of her hair as her eyes drifted to the ground. "I like your quirk, the tentacles look useful."

"I had squid for lunch." His mouth said on its own accord because his brain was to busy not working.

Those brilliant green eyes blinked up at him, her mouth slightly open. "What?"

"My quirk." He turned away from her rubbing the back of his head, feeling his cheeks burn even hotter. Why was he talking to her? Especially about his quirk, there was no way that she'd ever be interested in something like that. The other boy with the exploding hands looked more interesting. "It lets me change my body based on what I've eaten."

"That's awesome!" She squeaked, a giant smile on her face as her hands shot down to her side. She took a step towards him, "Does it have to be food? How many can you do at a time? If you drink water can you turn into water? How long does it last?"

So close! "I haven't tried eating not food. I don't really know, I don't think so until I digest the food." He answered without thinking. He looked at the girl again yep, she was still adorable and smiling at him. "Wait, you think my quirk is awesome?"

"Oh!" She took a step back her cheeks flushing red, her hands fumbling in front of her. Cute. "Yea, I do, sorry about that, I just really like to think about quirks and things. " She half laughed shaking her head.

She turned her head to the side, and blinked, then reached down and picked up a piece of paper on the ground. His U.A. Application. Her face lit up again. "Is this yours? You're thinking about going to U.A?"

"I uhh, was, uhh," This was the most he had talked to a girl that was not his mother had talked to him. Actually, this was more than anybody had talked to him all week, even his teacher. "My teacher recommended me, but I'm not really sure. My quirk really isn't that great, and I'd probably mess up a lot."

"Your quirk is amazing though!" She spun in place holding his application like it was something to be proud of. "Not only does it look strong but its also versatile! If you eat shellfish you can grow a shell to protect yourself, beef and you can probably grow bull-like." She gasped, hiding her mouth behind his application, her lips almost touching it as she stared off into the distance. "If you ate quail or some other bird do you think you could fly?"

"I don't really know, I haven't really tried." He mumbled the warmth in his cheeks was spreading through his entire body. Did she really think so highly of him? Was she taunting him? "Why are you so interested in my quirk, I'm sure yours is better."

That spark in her eyes was snuffed like a candle flame. There was something familiar about her look, it was the same one he saw whenever he looked in the mirror. Doubt. Pity. Never being able to be good enough.

"I don't," the application crinkled as she gripped it harder with each passing second, her hands were shaking. He should say something. But what? Nothing anybody said ever worked on him. Why would she be different? The shaking stopped, and she looked defeated. "I don't have a quirk."

"Oh." This was why this was a mistake. He said something wrong and now she was sad. It was his fault, his fault for being bad at conversations. Dammit. What was he supposed to say? It didn't matter he was probably going to say the completely wrong thing anyway. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay," she tried to force a smile, but a tear appeared in her eye. He didn't want to make her cry ever again. She wiped the tear and handed him back the applications. "Even if I don't have a quirk, I'm still going to try and get into U.A. I still want to be a hero."

"Thanks," He took the application back. It was still warm where she had grabbed it. Wait, he was still holding her notebook. "Uhh, here, I should have given this back sooner."

"Oh, thanks." She grabbed it, bowing slightly. "I'm Izuki by the way, it's been nice meeting you."

"Tamaki," He nodded. No other words came to mind so he simply returned her bow.

"Thanks again, for everything." She beamed, smiling ear to ear without a second thought. "Even if you don't think you'd be a good hero, you were kind of my hero!"

She turned, her face red and sprinted towards the exit only pausing for less than a second to grab a gigantic yellow backpack and waved goodbye.

He stood there, for what felt like hours his mind replaying everything that just happened. She thought he was her hero. She thought that he could be a hero. She thought that his quirk was amazing. And she Izuki, the girl with a freckled face, no quirk, and seaweed colored hair was adorable.

Without another thought, he turned around clutching the application paper in his hands and submitted it to his teacher.

He regretted it half way home.

But, he did not regret meeting Izuki.

XXXX

The next day.

He wanted to see her again.

They went to the same school, it should be easy to try and find her. The color of her hair was stuck in his mind, the way she sounded played in his ears, her precense, that small almost unnoticeable thing that followed her around was like a beacon to him.

So why couldn't he find her? He stood in the middle of the hallway; realization set in. What if he scared her away, what if she was only pretending to be nice? What if she was avoiding him? No. that couldn't be it. It just couldn't.

She had to be around here somewhere. Sure she was short so in a crowd, she'd be hard to pick out, but her hair would make her easy to find, especially with her ribbon.

"Tamaki!" He heard her voice from behind him.

He spun, too shocked to force an awkward smile as he saw Izuki. Her hair was still locked into the same overgrown curly mess of a ponytail as it was yesterday, the yellow tips of her All Might themed bow were sticking up right. With one hand on her knees, and the others holding a box she paused for a moment catching her breath.

"I was looking all over for you." She gave a tired smile and stood straight up, those dazzling green eyes making his heart pound against his chest.

"You were?" She was looking for him? She wasn't avoiding him! She wanted to see him too! "Why?"

"I," she paused panting again. "I wanted to give you this." She held up the box, there was no confusing what that small black box could be, it was the perfect size and shape. He had only heard rumors of its existence. A bento box from a girl. "As a thank you for yesterday."

"Thank you," He said simply, taking the box from her. It was heavy. Not just in what inside of it. But what it meant. And it meant so many wonderful things. He cracked open the box, curiosity driving him. The smell alone was enough to make his knees weak. There was so much of it too and in so many different varieties. "There has to be at least four different meats in here."

"Six," She pointed at the box. "I made it myself,"

He shouldn't ever eat this. He needed to save it, lock it away so that he could always cherish this moment.

"I made it with your quirk in mind," Izuki continued without pause. "There's quail in there, not to mention octopus, but there's also some cow in there, oh, and vegetables because those are important even if they don't do a lot for your quirk, but the rice has extra Iron in it so maybe you can use that too? Oh, and there's a scorpion candy in there, I didn't make that."

"You did all this?" He gestured at the box his eyes going wider by the second. "For me?"

"Yep," She reached into her bag pulling out a thermos. "As thanks for yesterday, and I think your quirk can be really useful. Do you want to eat together?"

More than anything in the world. He nodded, trying to fight against the growing blush. "I'd like that."

Her smile was worth twenty bento boxes.

For the remainder of the school year, they ate their lunches together. For the remainder of the school year, he was too much of a coward to tell her how he really felt.

The year came to an abrupt end and he was thrust into life at U.A. Academy.

AN: No, that's not the end. Yes I have a lot of projects going. But I got this idea and I NEEDED IT! Gah I'm so excited for what I have planned! It's going to be so amazing!

Please review!