Chapter Two: Marked (Childhood Friends)
Mina was good at remembering people. Despite her less-than-stellar grades in class, she was considered to be a pretty smart person with a good memory. It was rare for her to forget something that she deemed important.
Which was why she was absolutely vexed whenever she saw Izuku Midoriya, one of her new classmates. He was adorably shy and nerdy with an extremely…well, plain appearance. Not to be mean or anything, but his average looks and meek personality were just easily forgettable.
So why did she feel like she ought to know who he was?
She kept quiet about it for a long time- months, in fact. There was no need to spook the timid boy with questions that he might not understand. It could have been a feeling Mina had because Izuku was so average looking that she mistook him for someone else. Perhaps that was it.
But the feeling that Mina knew Izuku from somewhere before U.A still continued to eat away at the back of her mind. It wasn't until they were preparing for the exams that would conclude their first year at U.A that she actually approached him about it…sort of.
Actually, her way of "approaching" Izuku consisted of Mina accidentally firing a jet of weak acid at him during combat practice and getting the poor boy's back absolutely soaked in the stuff. She had freaked out and rushed over to him to neutralize the acid, only to discover that his costume had taken the brunt of the damage. Izuku was fine with the exception of a few small burns from bits of acid that had splattered on his neck, but it looked no worse than a mild sunburn.
Still, Aizawa told her to take Izuku to Recovery Girl just to be safe and get his costume to the Support branch for repairs. Mina would've taken him there, anyways.
She'd been kind-of-sort-of crushing on Izuku for the better part of three months now…and had been thinking about possibly making a move soon. What better way to tell your crush you like them than to douse them in burning acid? Smooth, girl.
"You're sure it doesn't hurt?" She asked anxiously for the umpteenth time. Mina felt really bad about how she'd burned him. Their practice battle had been a disaster; a one-on-one fight that ended because Izuku tripped and Mina got too zealous with her acid output. She had witnessed Aizawa face-palming not a second after the event.
"I-I'm fine!" He promised, feeling extremely nervous given that Mina was so close to him. The normally carefree girl had a habit of losing her sense of personal space when she was concerned for someone. "It d-doesn't hurt at all!"
"I'll be the judge of that," Recovery Girl muttered as she hobbled over, a gel packet in her hand. "Rub that over your burns. It should soothe any irritation and prevent infections. Let it sit until it dries and then take your costume in for repairs."
"I will," Izuku agreed, knowing better than to risk the Nurse's wrath.
Recovery Girl turned to Mina. "Aizawa already told me you're to stay with him and see that his costume gets to the Support branch. Don't slack off."
"Yes, ma'am," Mina promised.
The old healer retreated to the back of her office then to organize supplies while Izuku made to tear open the gel packet. He paused when Mina took the packet from him and opened it herself. "Let me do it. I messed you up, I should be the one to fix you. Here, take off your top. Some of the acid might've burnt all the way through your costume."
Izuku's face turned red as he nodded silently, lifting his arms and slipping out of his semi-destroyed top. It was a good thing his costume consisted of multiple pieces now instead of the single jumpsuit. That could've been really awkward if he had to take that off.
Mina whistled with a cheshire cat smile on her face as Izuku's torso was revealed to her eyes. "Damn boy, you lift."
Izuku's face reddened further until he resembled a tomato and he stuttered helplessly, trying and failing to contain his embarrassment while Mina cackled at the sight. She meant him no harm, but there was something truly special about playfully teasing the shy, awkward teen.
"I'm teasing you, Izuku," she told him gently as she started to apply the gel over his burns. "But really, you look great. You should be proud of yourself."
She meant that, too. Izuku might've been plain-looking at first glance, but holy crap he was toned beneath that shirt. Mina didn't spend nearly any of her time fawning over men, (she had better things to do) but she didn't mind taking a few moments to appreciate this little, visual treat Izuku had given her.
Being physically attractive was just a minor detail, especially with Izuku's sweet personality. It didn't mean Mina was crushing on him a little more just because Izuku had awesome abs. So her kind-of-sort-of crush was actually pretty hot on top of being super cute and smart. No need to blow that out of proportion. Nope, not at all.
Mina was applying the gel to his shoulders when she noticed something peculiar about Izuku's bottom lip. There was a small scar near the right corner, barely discernible from the soft, pink skin around it. She tilted her head curiously at the sight. "Hey, what's this from?"
She poked at the scar with a gel-free finger, causing Izuku's spine to stiffen until it was ramrod-straight. "I-it's nothing! J-just, uh, I bit myself!"
"You sure? Doesn't look like a bite," Mina said disbelievingly. It was a little too rough to be a bite scar. The mark also looked kind of…familiar.
Mina glanced from the scar on his lip to the recent burns he'd gained courtesy of her acid and blinked as she realized that the marks were actually…really similar. Of course, the burns were fresh, but they looked almost identical.
…wait.
Mina's eyes widened and she looked up into Izuku's eyes, which were staring back like a frightened deer in headlights. "Where'd you get this scar?"
"Um…at a park?"
The park.
Oh. Oh.
Mina felt the gears clicking into place as she stepped back and looked at Izuku, really looked at him. He seemed as nervous as ever, but there was something about how he stared back at her that made it feel like he was waiting anxiously for her to say something.
As though he were expecting her to figure something out.
"Oh my gosh," Mina's mouth fell open as she realized exactly who she was looking at.
Izuku swallowed nervously. "D-do you remember?"
"I-yes!" Now it was Mina's turn to blush, her cheeks taking on a lilac tint as the blood rushed to her face. "…you were my hero friend, right?"
"Yeah."
"…Alien Princess and Mini-Might?"
"…yeah."
"And..you got that scar at the end when we…" She trailed off and buried her face into her hands in embarrassment.
Oh, how could she have forgotten about this?
Mina's family had taken a week-long trip to this area after her younger brother was born because they were thinking about moving. They had come to check the town out before making a decision on whether to move or not. During that time, the then five-year old Mina frequented a park around the corner from the hotel they'd stayed at.
She'd made a friend there on the spot. A little boy who loved heroes. She'd seen him playing with some All Might toys and asked to join in, which he was more than happy to oblige to. He was eager to jump into games with Mina.
They'd played for hours that first day. Mina came back the day after and he was there again- apparently, it was a favorite of his.
They joined up and played there every day after that for the entire week, changing their games constantly, yet always involving heroics into them somehow. It didn't take long for them to come up with their own hero names and start pretending to fight villains and stuff.
The last day, they'd been playing a rescue game where Mina was the hero and Izuku was a person who needed help (Izuku had already rescued Mina and she wanted to try it out, too). When Mina "rescued" Izuku from the inside of a tube slide where he'd been "held captive" she decided, in her five-year old wisdom, that the hero deserved a kiss for her heroic action.
Izuku, though shy about the act, was okay with it because this sort of thing was common in the comic books and hero cartoons he watched. Mina was surprised that he'd agreed so easily and when the little boy leaned forward, she got a little nervous. Their lips had barely brushed when Izuku felt something burning his skin.
Mina remembered how badly she and Izuku had startled when her Quirk activated by accident from her nerves and burned his bottom lip. It wasn't a bad burn and the acid was weak, but it scared them both into crying and Izuku's mother had rushed over to the slide to bring them both out. She hadn't been upset with Mina and told the little girl it was alright while dabbing at the stinging burn on Izuku's lower lip.
Izuku didn't stay upset for very long once the stinging stopped, but Mina had to leave after that because her family was packing up for the trip back home. She told Izuku she might move here and that they could play some more. Izuku had happily agreed.
It wasn't to be. Her parents decided to move elsewhere because they hadn't found any housing they particularly liked in that area, despite Mina's many protests. Years passed and the little boy whom she shared their first kisses with slipped from her mind.
Until now.
"Ohhh my god," Mina was positive she had never blushed this hard in her entire life. For goodness sake, this had happened over ten years ago and she was still so embarrassed. But maybe it was even more embarrassing because this was a boy whom she was admittedly quite smitten with and she'd found a way to get acid on him multiple times.
Of course she wouldn't remember burning him with her acid until she burned him again.
Izuku rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, looking anywhere but at her. His face was as red as hers was, making his freckles practically glow.
Well, wasn't this just the ultimate definition of an awkward silence.
Mina finally managed to pull her hands off her eyes, but they stayed cupped around her mouth as she looked at him hesitantly. "Izuku, I…I don't know what to say."
"That's a first," his lips twitched up a bit, but he still didn't look at her, nervous as he was. "You're still a chatterbox like you were when we were kids."
"I feel so bad, I never realized…" She looked down at her feet. "Wait, why didn't you tell me when we came to U.A?"
"…I thought you might want to forget about it," Izuku said quietly. "I mean, it was forever ago and well…You're so popular and funny and outgoing and cool and I…I'm not any of those things. I didn't want to embarrass you."
Dammit, she was blushing again. A lot. Her face was completely lilac now. Mina was kind of happy he hadn't looked at her yet because she'd never felt so embarrassed in her entire life. She didn't know what to do here. He was still Izuku, the cute (and hot) nerd she had a pretty heavy crush on, but he was also her super hero friend whom she exchanged their first kisses with.
They were the same person.
And…the idea of that made her stomach flutter pleasantly.
She smiled a little at the ground. Mina wasn't sure what made her feel so uncharacteristically shy, but she felt really happy for some reason at the same time. "I missed you."
Izuku glanced at her slowly and froze in place at the sight of Mina, staring at her feet and smiling softly with a lilac blush dusting her cheeks. The expression upon her face sent an explosion of butterflies all over his insides.
He gulped down a stutter and looked away, unable to fight the twitching of his lips as they curled up into a matching smile. "I missed you, too."
A/N: Yay, day two done! Tomorrow is the Fantasy AU for day three!
