lmao why do I write this

also: in the anime Iida refers to Ochako as "Uraarararakakakun" because Iida so I'll shorten that to something that makes sense. and Tsu calls everyone "-chan". because Tsu.

I've also noticed Chapter 7 of this fic is absolute and utter garbage, so expect a rewrite of that sometime in the future.

Sunday afternoon. Sunny, cheerful. Cumulus clouds.

"Hey, Deku-kun, what're we waitin' on?"

It wasn't something he'd usually do, but Izuku had actually agreed to take a day off.

The past week, he'd been making small but significant steps towards controlling One For All; he still couldn't harness its power at will, but he'd thrown a couple more washing machines, which he supposed was a start. (All Might, overseeing him, had given a front-page thumbs-up and smile, declaring: "A clean start!" – to which Izuku couldn't help but smile a little, even if it was a terrible pun on multiple levels… perhaps because it was a terrible pun on multiple levels).

Uraraka, wearing blindingly pink short-shorts and a white tank top with sandals, plopped down on the bench next to Izuku, eating a popsicle. "Deku-kun? Anyone home?"

"Oh! So, um, I asked a couple more people to come along with us. I, uh, I really should have asked you. I'm sorry, Uraraka-san."

Oh…

She'd really been looking forward to spending some time together, just the two of them, but she supposed that she couldn't always have that; Izuku did have other friends, after all.

She was a little surprised, however, to see that those "other friends" included not only Iida and Todoroki (who had softened somewhat towards Izuku after the USJ incident), but Yaoyorozu and Tsuyu – at least I won't be the only girl, she thought, but Izuku and Tsuyu weren't particularly close, so why…?

"I uh, I know you and Tsu are good friends, so I thought I'd ask her to come along, too – I didn't know if you'd get uncomfortable being the only girl! I wasn't expecting Yaoyorozu-san, though…"

Even disappointed, she couldn't help but marvel at the fact that he'd thought of her comfort as a girl.

"Midoriya." Todoroki raised one hand in greeting.

"Midoriya-kun! Uraraka-kun!" Iida blurted, nearly smacking Todoroki upside the head with his usual frenetic hand gestures, and Yaoyorozu couldn't help a giggle as Todoroki blinked at the karate chop that almost met the tip of his nose.

"Hey, you two," Tsuyu croaked, and Yaoyorozu bowed next to her, suddenly formal.

"I'm sorry if my presence is unwelcome. Iida-kun asked me if I would like to come, and I - "

"No, no! It's fine!" Izuku rushed to reassure her. "Really! I don't mind at all! Do you, Och – Uraraka-san?"

"Nope!" she chirped around the popsicle, and Yaoyorozu gave a little smile. "You're fine, Momo-san!"

"Nice shirt, Midoriya-chan," Tsuyu snickered.

"Oh, um, thanks." Izuku had to glance down to remind himself that he'd worn out dress shirt that day – that was, a t-shirt that simply said "dress shirt" on it. (Truly, Midoriya Izuku was a paragon of class and style.)

"Where are we going?" Todoroki asked him as Izuku rose from the bench and led the way down the street; behind them, Uraraka had fallen into step with Tsuyu, and Iida and Yaoyorozu walked to their right.

"It's a day off, right? So…we could go anywhere!"

"You didn't have a plan?"

"No," Izuku admitted. "I figured we could just – "

"Midoriya-kun! It is highly irresponsible to venture into uncharted territories with no plan in mind!" Iida erupted, and Izuku stiffened, letting out a tiny "eep".

"Iida-kun, it's not uncharted territory. It's Tokyo," Uraraka pointed out mildly. Tsuyu snickered.

"Is this what they call 'hanging out'?" Todoroki asked from his left, voice quiet, gaze distant. Izuku forced himself to relax.

"Yeah. I haven't done much of it either," he shrugged, lowering his voice to match Todoroki's. "I spent most of my time by myself before coming to Yuuei. Uraraka-san was the first friend I really had."

"Hm. I can't say I've ever done this myself."

"You haven't?" Izuku was surprised – aloof, mysterious Todoroki, with his flashy Quirk and looks, hadn't gone out with friends before…?

"No. I don't see the point in spending time with people."

Aaand I have absolutely no idea what to say to that.

At length, he thought of something. "Wait, so why did you come?" he asked.

Todoroki didn't respond. Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Puppies!" Yaoyorozu burst out, formal demeanor falling away in a heartbeat; sure enough, there was a pet shop across the street, the window full of small dogs in plush, spotless cages. Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku noticed Todoroki had thawed enough to let a small smile slip past, and they crossed the road to go pet them – guess even Todoroki-kun is weak to puppies.

"They're cute, kero. But my parents won't let us have pets. It might be because my brother tried to eat his hamster, kero."

"Tried?"

"Preserve your innocence, Ochako-chan."

"Gently, Iida-kun!" Izuku warned his friend. "It's a puppy, not paperwork."

"Ah! This is gentle, is it not!?"

"No! You don't hold puppies like that! Here, you gotta – "

Meanwhile, on the other side of the crates from Uraraka's horrified stare and Iida's frantic attempts to be gentle, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had been allowed a puppy to themselves.

"Um, Todoroki-san…" Yaoyorozu started, not meeting his eyes.

"Hm?"

"Have you ever had a pet before?"

"No."

When he didn't elaborate, she glanced up, prodding: "May I ask why?"

"My father thought they were a waste of time."

"Oh…my parents thought so, too." Unsure of what else to say, Yaoyorozu diverted her gaze to the puppy, which had taken an incredible interest in sniffing Todoroki's kneecap for no apparent reason.

Silence, for a moment. Then –

"May I ask why?"

When she looked up at him, he was almost smiling.

They stopped at a noodle stand for lunch when it became apparent that none of them had eaten anything, excluding Uraraka's popsicle earlier that day.

"Ooh!" the girl in question gushed, seeing the menu; she took her face in her hands, eyes wide, smile wider, and looked about ready to hop out of her skin with excitement. "They – have – udon!"

When Todoroki received his order, he took it in his right hand and froze the bowl, cooling the noodles to room temperature as Iida frantically puffed on his own; the other four sat politely and watched as Todoroki munched on his soba, oblivious to Iida's antics. By the time Izuku's own food had cooled, and the others had started eating, Todoroki had already finished, while Iida was still struggling through a bite that was evidently a little too hot for him.

Izuku handed Iida his drink, expression carefully solemn.

"Ahh…thank you, Midoriya-kun. My apologies."

"Hey." Yaoyorozu, who'd been quiet until then, grabbed their attention. "Check out the television. I think something's up."

As one, the other five glanced up at one of the televisions on poles that jutted up at intervals around the food court; they couldn't hear what was being said, but it was more than a little obvious that something was wrong.

"Is that Yokosuka…?" Iida murmured.

"That's what the banner says," Todoroki pointed out.

"How…?" Even the usually stoic Tsuyu's eyes had gone round with shock.

The footage from the news helicopter displayed what had clearly been a city at some point, but which had fallen victim to some horrific disaster that had split the city in two with a colossal fissure which forked off in a dozen different directions, shattering streets and breaking apart buildings; there was no way to tell just how deep the fissure ran, because it had filled to the brim with seawater.

"As of yet, there is no concrete casualty count, but rumors estimate between one and two hundred dead, with at least a thousand injured – "

Izuku stood up, scraping his seat back, but what it was he intended to do, none of them knew – not even Izuku himself, who could only stare in hurt disbelief. How could something like this happen…? Where are the heroes!?

"This comes in the wake of a similar incident in Futtsu, which has left pro heroes all across Japan struggling to respond…"

"Futtsu is directly across the channel from Yokosuba," Yaoyorozu mused. "Maybe it was the same fissure…?"

"A fissure that stretches across the entire channel?" Tsuyu responded. "I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that, kero."

"That doesn't mean it's impossible," Todoroki cut in, eyes still trained on the screen, gaze impassive. For a moment, Izuku couldn't believe how calm he seemed – then he spotted Todoroki's hand, under the table next to where Izuku stood. Clenched into a fist.

So it's like that…

"…Hey, Deku-kun?" Uraraka tugged at his shorts leg, and he jumped. "Um, could you sit…?"

"Uh, sure, Uraraka-san." The second he pulled his chair in and lowered himself into it, he felt her warm hand clasp his own, fingers intertwining, and he gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back.

"Y'know, I used to just wanna be a hero to help my parents with money…but seeing this…not being able to help…"

"Yeah…"

"We just gotta work harder so we can help people sooner!" she declared, eyes burning, fingers cutting off the circulation to Izuku's hand. There was no fierce smile on her face – just something between grief and anger, something that hurt him even more than her iron grip.

"Um, well, yes, Uraraka-san," Yaoyorozu responded, awkwardly. "But we can't do anything right now…and this is horrible…"

She wrung her hands, anxious. Iida gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

The news put a definite damper on the mood, and after just an hour, the six of them agreed to head home and meet up again some other time (even Todoroki, who gave a shrug before walking away without so much as a goodbye). As usual, Izuku and Uraraka headed home together, though the atmosphere was subdued, devoid of the brunette's usual chatter; she walked in silence, watching her feet cross the pavement until they turned on the street to her apartment. By then, dusk had settled, and clouds massed overhead, threatening rain once more.

"Guess I couldn't really hide it around you, huh, Deku-kun?"

"…Uraraka-san?"

Her voice was hoarse, tight, like she'd been choking back tears, and she'd stopped walking, finally looking up at him. Eyes glistening, lip quivering.

"Uraraka-san?" he repeated, twisting sideways to look back at her, a couple of paces behind. "What's – "

"My parents are working in Yokosuba right now."

His veins froze faster than Todoroki's soba.

"My parents are working in Yokosuba right now."

Her words echoed in his head, over and over. Somewhere, a bird screamed, a cicada gave its shaky call, but Izuku couldn't hear them, just Uraraka, stuck on a loop like a broken record.

"My parents are working in – "

The first tear slid down her cheek as she tried to smile. Izuku stood paralyzed. His legs wouldn't move. His arms stayed at his sides.

"I'm okay, Deku-kun. Don't worry 'bout me."

Move! Move! he screamed at his body, but it wouldn't – hell, maybe it couldn't.

"Jus'…focus on gettin' stronger with me, 'kay?" She took a step towards him and reached up to wipe something off of his cheek, but the look on her face changed to shock as her thumb came away dark red and Izuku flinched as if stung. "Hey, you're bleeding…"

What!?

"Hmm. So they didn't erase it permanently."

Izuku tried to turn this time, he really did, but he succeeded only in stumbling and falling painfully on his hip – and that was when he realized that his paralysis was more than mental shock from the news Uraraka had just given him.

That voice…

"Your blood is type O. Sorry, but I'll have to test this on the girl, too. I must make sure my Quirk is in working order."

What is he talking about!?

The hedge lining the pavement rustled and four spidery limbs extracted an equally spidery man, his face wrapped entirely in bandages. Sheathes of knives and various blades ranging from traditional katana to curved swords Izuku had never even seen pictures of hung across his hips, were strapped to his legs, clung to his back, and in his hand was a single long, gleaming knife like a dagger, the edge coated almost cleanly in blood – Izuku's blood. It has to be…

"This will only sting for a minute, then I'll leave you be." The man's voice rattled like dead leaves in autumn, and the blood in Izuku's veins thawed then froze again for entirely different reasons than what Uraraka had just told him. "I do not enjoy needless bloodshed."

He couldn't even move as, like lightning, a flicker of silver blossomed into scarlet on his best friend's cheek, and she gave a shriek of – pain? surprise? he didn't know, but it didn't matter; Uraraka was hurt, and he just laid there.

"Uraraka-san!" he half-screamed, half-shouted; she instinctively reached up to clutch at the gash across her cheekbone, recoiling from her own touch, and the sight was enough to –

"Hm. Even for type O, that didn't last long. Did they damage it?" The man, now standing on Uraraka's other side, surveyed him with renewed interest as Izuku fought his way to his feet; his limbs were still stiff, his joints still screamed, his whole body shook with the effort – but green sparks shot up and down his arms, his legs, and against himself, against whatever had him pinned down, Midoriya Izuku stood, just as the man's freakishly long tongue swiped across the knife in his hand and Uraraka Ochako staggered and collapsed to the pavement.

Is that his Quirk? He tastes blood and…paralyzes people? Is that why I couldn't move back there?

"…Ah. I see. I thought I tasted something different in your blood." Yet again, that same blood thawed and refroze, this time because the man had replaced his knife in its sheath and replaced the weapon in his hand with a much, much larger blade, but he grit his teeth, fighting against the paralysis, the fear, and clenched one fist, swallowing hard as he brought it up to eye level. "Tell me. Are you trying to become a hero?"

"Deku-kun, no! He said he'd leave us be!" Uraraka shouted from the ground.

"No, Uraraka-san. We can't just run away from a villain like this!" Izuku lowered his hand enough to look their assailant in the eyes, voice low as he went on: "What happens if we let him go and he goes on to kill someone?

He was cold, in the heat; terrified, in the face of his courage. Maybe it was stupid – maybe it was pointless – maybe he'd die.

No. If I die, I'll just come back stronger, and that'll be enough to win the fight…at least, I hope so. But Uraraka-san…Ochako…she's not trained for combat, and her Quirk doesn't help her here…and I don't want her getting hurt. Still, maybe I can figure out a way to get him to her without putting her in danger, so she can at least touch him once…?

"You know," and the man's tone was casual, conversational, even as he flicked his wrist and a fat steel bullet of a knife whizzed towards Izuku, who managed to dodge it with a quick right lean – "I really hate these so-called heroes."

"Of course you do! You're a villain, aren't you?" Izuku shouted back. Whether it was One For All, or some side effect of Phoenix, or maybe just the man's Quirk wearing off, he could feel the stiffness fading from his limbs now, and he flexed his fingers; clearly, the other was waiting for him to make the first move, so what could he do…?

"Young Midoriya, I believe that what you can safely exert now is roughly five percent of what your body can handle at the moment, but that is barely a fraction of One For All's true power."

"…Wait, so even when I went one hundred percent…?"

"That was not your one hundred percent, no. Even so, this five percent should be enough to help you move faster, hit harder, and truly come into your own as a hero in training for your first year."

So this…this is what I can do for now. More than my throw during the Quirk assessments…is it enough?

"They aren't in it for being heroes. That is not a title they deserve, nor one they should take."

"What are you talking about?"

Cold red eyes met warm green ones. "How many pro heroes do you see who are in it for the people they save? How many do you see who simply want fame or money? Or to show off?"

"I – " and he finished the sentence in his head with can't answer that. Instead, he took a moment to count the heroes he truly felt were in it to be heroes, and not just working a job: All Might, Thirteen, Aizawa (even though he seemed disdainful about his chosen profession, there was no doubt that the man had thrown himself into impossible odds for their sakes; the scars on his face served testament for that much).

"Exactly. It's my job to purge the false heroes from this society. One by one, I will pick them off until none remain – and perhaps then we will live in a truly heroic world."

"That's…that's sick!" he spat, and to his surprise, their attacker sighed.

"It is a necessary evil. Like I said, I do not enjoy needless bloodshed, and only kill when and where it must be done."

Izuku wasn't aware he'd leapt until his feet had left the ground. His fist connected with the side of the man's flattened face in the space of a fraction of a second; he felt bones shift, but the man swayed with the impact, and nothing broke, instead leaving Izuku to shoot past him in a blur of green light; he skidded on the street, sneakers putting off a fine trail of acrid rubber smoke.

"Hm. Predictable, but I'll give you this, you're fast." – and then the man had performed some sort of reverse handspring that put him behind Izuku, and it was only One For All that saved him from being impaled on the business end of a katana, throwing himself forward to roll awkwardly across the pavement, scraping his elbows.

"Stop it!"

He'd never heard Uraraka scream, but the sound stopped him dead in his tracks. Sirens wailed in the distance.

"Izukkun, don't you go joining my parents!"

"Izukkun?" The man in front of him laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Ah. Is that what you're fighting for, then?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I – "

The other pointed to Uraraka, prone on the sidewalk.

"You're fighting to protect her…but not yourself."

"Of course I am! Uraraka-san is my best friend! Why would I let you hurt her and get away with it!?"

The sirens grew closer, and the man glanced up, looked around, then turned back to Izuku.

"Hm. You interest me." With a curt nod, their attacker sheathed the blade he held, then looked Izuku fully in the face. "I will let you live, but do not expect such leniency if we should cross paths again."

"Wait a second – what are you - !?"

"Oh. And one last word of advice."

Izuku stared.

"You would do well not to become like these other so-called 'heroes'."

A couple of blocks away, red-and-blue light flashed across the sides of houses, and with one final nod – perhaps it was even his attempt at a bow? – the man turned and sprang for the side of a house, scrambling up onto the roof before taking off between houses at an inhuman speed; for a moment, Izuku felt as if he were watching a scene straight out of a comic book instead of a real person.

His Quirk was the paralysis effect…so what was that? Is he just that fast!?

"…Deku-kun…"

Uraraka-san.

Straightening, he flat-out ran back over to the girl still lying on the concrete, a smear of her blood staining it where her cheek must have hit the ground. "Hey. Hey! Are you okay? Can you move?"

"…I'm…fine. But I'm still stuck like this. I'm…I'm sorry, Izuku."

"What are you apologizing for, Ura – Ochako?"

"I couldn't help at all…"

"…Ochako, he was too fast for us. We aren't strong enough to deal with someone like him yet. Even if you'd been able to try and help, I don't think either of us would have gotten anywhere, even together."

Pat. Pat. Pat pat pat.

Raindrops, splashing on asphalt.

Teardrops, splashing on concrete.

"When we pulled that trial off against Iida-kun and B-Bakugou," she started, her lip quivering, "I…I really thought I might be able to make it as a hero, y'know? But then…but…there was the mall, and I felt helpless…there was the USJ, where I couldn't do anything but help Aizawa-sensei away from that…that thing you and Todoroki-kun killed. And now – my…my parents. I don't even know if they're alive. And there's nothing I can – there's nothing any of us can do!"

Gently, Izuku took the hem of his shirt and blotted the tears from the corners of her eyes. When she blinked, what remained splashed over, trickling down her face and mixing with the few raindrops that had settled on her skin.

"I'm useless, Izukkun."

If she'd kept crying, if she'd kept despairing, if she'd kept hoping – even if those hopes were dashed to a million pieces a million times, even if no fruit ever came to bear – it would have been one thing, but what broke his resolve, his silence, his shyness, was the way she smiled.

I accept this, it said. I accept my fate.

"No."

"Huh?"

"I said no, damnit!"

"Izu – "

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up and in, trapping Uraraka in a tight hug. "You're not useless! You were never useless! You don't get to just give up like that, Ochako!" he almost screamed into her shoulder, her hair, staring unseeing at the grey stone behind her; on his face, his own tears and the rain became one and the same. "My mother always told me," he went on, voice lower, "that if you can help just one person in this world, you aren't useless, and you were never useless. And you – you helped me. Didn't I tell you I'd never had a real friend before? It's because of you I haven't felt lonely. It's because of you I've gotten to see the world outside on our days off. That alone means you're not useless, no matter how you might feel about it!"

"But – "

"And no matter what's happened to your parents – do you think you were ever useless to them?"

"It's funny."

"What is?"

Her smile poured down into the river, toes dangling in the water. "I always wanted to do somethin' for my parents, but they told me the most I can do for them is follow my own dreams and be happy. Every time I call 'em, my dad…he sounds so happy to hear what I've been up to. Like I'm gettin' to do somethin' both of us have always wanted."

"We're inexperienced now. We don't know anything about the world. Of course we're going to flounder for a while. Ochako, my Quirk would literally have killed me by now if it weren't for Phoenix," he went on; she was so distraught that she didn't even notice that he'd let the true nature of his Quirks slip yet again. "Do you think I know what I'm doing either? Everything I've done has just been luck. I wanna be useful just as much as you do – and that's why I never give up! You shouldn't give up either! Your parents believe in you! I believe in you!"

Stars, raining their cold light down on a silent world.

"My mom and I used to count stars every night. We never did finish counting," Izuku chuckled. "I guess there were just too many of them to count before my bedtime."

"I used to get to look through my parents' telescope on Friday nights if I did good in school," recalled Ochako, a fond smile creeping to her lips. "I think that might've had something to do with why I ended up liking Thirteen so much. The Space Hero, y'know? It fit. My mom used to tell me that the stars were just waiting for me to jump up and catch 'em. It's silly, I know, but I used to jump up and try to grab one when I'd play on the grass. I never caught one, but I did catch a few lightning bugs. I would put them in a jar and pretend they were twinkling in sync with the sky."

"Maybe they were."

No, Izuku thought. It's not the fireflies who are twinkling like the night sky anymore.

"Look at me," he murmured. "Can you look at me?"

"Yeah. I think I can," she sniffed, and there on the ground, they stared at one another, the tips of their noses nearly touching, the rain hammering around them, blood running its sluggish marathon down their faces; everything that had just happened paled in comparison to the fact that for the first time in his life, Midoriya Izuku was opening up to someone.

"I didn't even realize it myself until that man said it," he continued, voice low. "But he was right, you know."

"What…?"

"I keep acting to protect you…and that's not exactly a bad thing, but…if I go on protecting you all the time, I'm never gonna give you any room to grow. I want to protect you. But I know you want to be a hero, too, and that means you have to walk next to me, okay? Not behind me."

"I…"

"Your name," he said, suddenly. "The kanji. You read it as Uraraka, but the ka at the end can also be read as bi…and then your first name starts with cha…"

"What…?"

"Maybe I'm just being stupid, but you've even got a built-in hero name. Cha in English is tea. Your Quirk is called Zero Gravity and pronounced in English, right? So…your name. Ura…bi…tea? Uravity. Uraraka and Gravity, too." He chanced a smile.

Uraraka stared at him so long he started to wonder if he'd said something particularly outlandish, then, having apparently regained the use of her arms, clutched herself so hard to his chest that he thought she might have cracked one of his ribs.

It took him a moment to realize the way she moved was the force of her sobs, and until the police arrived – called by someone in a nearby house, undoubtedly – they laid there upon the rain-slicked sidewalk, Izuku stroking her hair, Uraraka clinging to his chest like her life depended on it.

And just then…maybe it did.

After a moment's silence, Tokoyami spoke. "…It sounds like you came face-to-face with the Hero Killer."

"What!?"

"The hero killer?" Kaminari cut in. "The one who's already killed, like, ten pro heroes?"

"Yes. His villain name is Stain."

"Whoa! That's so cool!"

"It's not cool at all, dumbass!" Jirou snapped. "What if they'd been killed!?"

"Yeah, but they weren't, so it's awesome, right?"

"Idiot…"

Izuku scratched the back of his head in discomfort. He wasn't fond of being the center of attention, but that day, he and Uraraka had been swarmed by their classmates minus Bakugou; even Todoroki had stood at the edge of the group, giving Izuku a look that he couldn't quite interpret. Beside him, Uraraka herself – the cut on her face mysteriously healed, though Izuku suspected it had been his tears again, considering his own cut had needed stitches – fidgeted awkwardly, clearly not keen on addressing the subject.

He thought back to what she'd told him yesterday evening.

She has no idea if her parents are alive…if it had been Mom in Yokosuba, I don't know what I'd do. But she came to school anyway…

"Hmph. I see none of you have learned how to behave rationally yet."

This was Aizawa's way of announcing his arrival, and he no longer needed to tell them to sit down for the class to immediately disperse back to their seats.

"Now. I have one important announcement today before we begin. Until further notice, we will be performing weekly disaster drills, starting today."

"What? Why?" Kirishima blurted out.

"Does this have anything to do with the incidents in Yokosuba and Futtsu?" Yaoyorozu opted for a more sophisticated approach.

"Correct, Yaoyorozu. It is suspected that the fissure in question was the result of a villain with a particularly powerful Quirk."

More villains? Izuku wondered. There seem to be an awful lot of them lately…

"A Quirk did that?" Sero called out.

"The only Quirk I've ever seen affect the earth itself is when All Might changed the weather with just a punch…" Shouji mused.

"This particular Quirk is known as 'Cataclysm', and until further details emerge, the villain using it will be referred to as such. Furthermore, I am obligated to warn you not to wander outside of populated areas at night, for – as Midoriya and Uraraka had the misfortune to experience firsthand – the Hero Killer Stain has been sighted across Tokyo. His current kill count stands at twelve pro heroes. I must advise you not to engage him if spotted. You will not stand a chance. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei," the class replied, as one, and their teacher stared out at them for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh like a gust of wind, shuffling the papers on his desk and pulling one from the middle of the pile.

"Alright. For the first drill…"

"Jeez. Is this gonna be a daily thing?" Kirishima grumbled at lunch later, and Izuku glanced up from his sandwich in time to see Bakugou jab the redhead in the shoulder.

"Maybe if you'd pay attention once in a while, you'd know!"

"Hey, you don't gotta be so mean. That's not too manly of you."

"I'll be as mean as I damn well want!"

"It's strange to see Kacchan getting along with someone as well as he is with Kirishima-kun," Izuku observed, and Iida fixed him with a baffled stare.

"You call that 'getting along with someone'?" the vice-president asked, blinking carefully.

"Ah, um, yeah. Kacchan hasn't hit him with an explosion yet, so that's a good sign."

"If that's what he's like when he's being nice, I'd hate to see him being mean," pouted Ashido, poking at her own lunch with a chopstick before popping some rice into her mouth and turning to Uraraka, chewing. "…Hey, you okay, 'chako-chan? You 'aven't touched your rice."

"Oh! Um, yeah, I'm fine." Uraraka smiled, but the moment the pink-skinned girl looked away, satisfied, her gaze slid out of focus and the smile evaporated.

Izuku knew what was on her mind.

He just wished he knew what to do about it.

The opportunity to do something, however, presented itself rather quickly; after school, they made their way home as usual, and she clearly no longer felt the need to wear her mask around him, for the moment they left the school grounds, Uraraka let out a long sigh and hung her head, trailing after Izuku as he set a brisk pace for the train station.

When it became apparent she didn't plan on catching up, he slowed to a stop, listening to the shuffle of her shoes as she took dragging steps along her own path. "Uraraka-san…you're walking behind me."

"…Oh. Oh! Sorry, Deku-kun, I just – "

As she drew level with him, Izuku reached out and took her hand, not looking at her.

"It's okay to be worried, Uraraka-san," he went on. "But…please don't pretend things are okay if they aren't."

Izuku knew he was blushing, but it didn't matter. He knew the way she twined her fingers with his sent red racing like fire up his face, but he couldn't let that distract him.

"Uraraka-san…I've never really lost anyone close to me like that," he admitted. "So…I can't say I understand how it feels at all. But…there's still a chance they're alive, right? We just have to hope you get a call soon."

"Izukkun, it's been over a day now…how long am I supposed to wait?"

"They could still be getting rescued, or in the hospital with no way to call you," he suggested. "Where were they working? We might be able to find out if they were in any danger if we check on the satellite maps."

"Um…I don't remember, exactly. But I guess we can look at the map if you think it's a good idea." She still didn't sound convinced, but it was better than the choking silence they'd just been walking in, and as they strolled along, still holding hands, a thought popped into Izuku's head.

"Hey, why don't you come over to my house instead? You can stay for dinner if you want. My mom would be thrilled to meet you, too."

"…Do you think that's a good idea? Won't she be annoyed at having to cook for someone else, too?"

"No, Mom's not like that at all. She'll be really happy I have a friend to bring over."

"Nobody's expecting me at my apartment, anyway. I guess I can come in for a little while."

Quiet fell, warmer than before, more comfortable.

"…Hey, Izukkun?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Just…thank you. For being you. I'm glad I caught you on the day of the entrance exam. If you'd have knocked yourself out, we wouldn't be here right now."

In spite of the solemn atmosphere, Izuku felt a little smile break out onto his lips. "Yeah. I'm glad, too."

She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.

"It's gonna be okay, Ochako," he blurted out on a whim, and she gave him a look he couldn't quite interpret.

"…I trust you, Izukkun.

"I always have."

god this chapter is actual trash please don't hurt me im sorry i did this im probably taking another break after this to collect my stupid brain thoughts