"So you're alright?" Itsuka's voice sounded so close over the phone almost like she was whispering into his ear. Talking over the phone was something else entirely, and then there was the tone of her voice.
"Yea, I'm fine," He flexed his hand staring at the bandages that covered his hand. "I might have a new scar though."
"Sheesh," he heard Itsuka sigh, probably rolling her eyes with a smile on her face, her voice overflowing with a lethal dose of sarcasm. "It's only been four months and you're already getting scars left and right. I might have to get a few just to keep up. Still, I'm glad you all made it out all right."
"Yea, it was pretty scary going up against the Hero Killer like that." He paused looking out the window of the hospital common room. He didn't want to lie to Itsuka, but he didn't have any choice. He couldn't tell anybody, not even his mother that they had beaten the hero killer Stain and not Endeavor. "We just kind of got lucky."
"I'm sure you would have been fine." She said that so casually, he almost did a double take to stare at his phone. "Especially if you of all people only got off with one scar."
"Thanks, but I don't think you're supposed to encourage my reckless actions." He got enough of that from basically everybody else, and it worried his mom to no end.
"Oh, if you went after the Hero Killer then you'd be a gigantic moron, and I'd have to break your legs." He heard her knuckles pop through the phone. "I just believe that when you find yourself in danger you'll make it out alive. Don't get me wrong, I still worry about you, but I don't know, I just, I just want you to succeed is all."
"I," He paused, what on earth was he supposed to say to that? It felt like his cheeks were burning, and his heart was skipping every other beat. "Thank you, Itsuka. That means a lot."
"Yea, well, I uh, that's uh, that's good! Right!" She laughed from the other side of the phone, her voice sounding distant. "Anyways, enough mushy stuff, how was your internship going with All Might's teacher? Learn anything useful?"
"Yea! I figured out how to use one-" He paused, coughing into his hand and shaking his head. "I figured out how to use my quirk more without hurting myself. It was a mix of your dad's training and Gran Torino's advice helped me."
"Oh, so what can you do now? Please tell me you can shoot a laser or something to shut my dad up?" she made a pew noise, and shifted the phone on her end. "Huh? What? No! It's not like that! What? I mean! Guh!" The phone shifted again. "Momo says hello."
"You're in the same internship with her? How's that going?"
Itsuka sighed. "Well, we're starring in a commercial later today. Apparently, both me and momo were only picked by her because we're pretty." He could hear her fake smile. "Momo's in denial that this will actually help with becoming a hero and I'm just waiting for all this to be over. Why'd I let you talk me into this again?"
"Hey, you could have picked any one of the other choices, she just happened to be in the top ten." He turned, it was impossible not to smile right now. Itsuka really had that effect on him. When they weren't being incredibly awkward. "But a commercial sounds cool! What's wrong with being in a commercial? Public appearances are important for a hero too."
She snorted. "Yea, if you're already a famous hero. But this is a hair commercial Izuku. For a shampoo. Shampoo! I've been sitting in this dressing room for over an hour unable to move around too much so I don't mess it up! I think I've had more people touch my hair today than I have in my entire life!"
He smiled looking out the window again, "Can I see it?"
Cheeks hot, eyes wide, heart racing. What the fuck did he just say?
He heard a gasp from the phone. "You want to see my hair?" Her voice was barely louder than his own beating heart.
"Yea." He squeaked barely able to hold his hand steady.
"Why?"
"Well, I uh." His throat went dry. What was he supposed to say? He knew that he wanted to see her hair, but the why, the why he wasn't sure of. Was it because he hadn't seen her all week? Was it because she might be looking even prettier than normal? Was it to see if she would let him? Maybe all three? "Well, I-"
"What?" He heard her all but shout over the phone some noise ruffling. "Okay, I'm coming. I'll talk to you-" More noise, followed by a shriek. "What? No! It's not like that he's not my boyfriend!" The phone shifted some more. "I'll talk to you later Izuku!"
The phone went silent and he had to brace himself against the wall. That was close! He breathed, smiling to himself for no real reason and just enjoying the rush of talking to Itsuka over the phone.
His phone vibrated. A text message - one of a dozen - was awaiting him in his inbox. The most recent one was from Momo. the preview showed, 'This is what-' and the attachment symbol. Curiosity more than anything drove him to click on it. It was his first text with Momo aside from the first test text they both sent.
The text message was simple. 'This is what she looks like when she's talking to you.'
A moment later the image appeared. It was of Itsuka. A side view of her sitting in front of large wall-sized Mirror. She was dressed in her hero uniform, he hadn't seen her actually wear it before, but it looked great on her, the blue really matched her everything. Her hair was far shinier than he'd ever seen it before, combed to the side and free flowing from her usual ponytail, and curled to the extreme.
But the most amazing part of the picture was her smile. It made his heart skip a beat and a lump grow in his throat. Her lip was half bitten, and her eyes focused on the phone, completely unaware that Momo had taken the photo. Did she always look that happy when they talked?
He saved the image without a thought, would it be creepy if he set that as his wallpaper?
His phone buzzed again, another message this one from Itsuka. It was just an attachment.
It was a photo of her, her curled hair on the left side of her face contrasting the faded shave on her right side. She wasn't smiling in this one, instead, she had her tongue out and eyes closed tight.
He smiled and began texting. 'I'm making that my wallpaper!'
Her response was quick. 'Noooooooooo!' followed immediately by. 'You creep ;p'
Now to respond to all the other messages. After his heart stopped going crazy.
XXXX
"Why haven't you confessed yet?" Yui asked. Loudly. Loud enough to draw all of the other girls in her class's attention, as they changed back into their school clothes. For a quite girl Yui had a big mouth when something bothered her!
"What are you talking about?" She bit her lip trying not to make eye contact with anybody. This was the last thing she needed, more people knowing about her giant soul-crushing crush on Izuku. She had hoped that maybe if she didn't act on it and just spent more time with Izuku it would go away.
Nope.
It got worse.
Setsuna, the dark green haired girl that was one of the strongest in their class slammed into the locker next to her, already fully dressed, arms crossed over her chest. She poked Itsuka on her still bare shoulder. "We're talking about your gigantic crush on that 1-A boy, Izuku."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're blushing," Setsuna half sang poking her in the cheek now. "Really, just confess to him, we're all rooting for you."
"Ehh?" She looked around and saw all of her classmates nodding at her. Even Ibara. Now her face felt really hot. "How," She paused turning to look at her jacket once more. "How, did you find out?"
"Oh please, it's painfully obvious, basically the whole schools knows, at least on the girl's side of things." Setsuna shrugged off of the locker and pulled one of her fingers off her hand leaving it floating in the air. "That pink girl from 1-A knows, Mina," She pulled another finger off it floated next to her other finger. "Momo knows, and if she knows literally everybody knows," another finger joined the bunch. "Then there's-"
"Okay, I get it. The whole school knows that I have a giant crush on Izuku, so what?" She swatted the fingers away and put her shirt on, buttoning it aggressively. "Am I supposed to give in to peer pressure and ask him out or something?"
"If that's what it takes." Setsuna snatched her fingers out of the air, wiggling them as they attached to her hand again. "But honestly it's cute watching how you two get so flustered around each other."
"We're just wondering why you of all people haven't said anything." Reiko said from behind her.
"He's my best friend." She slammed her locker door shut, accidentally denting it. Crap. "I can't just tell him that I like him like that! What will happen to our relationship if I do? What if he doesn't like me the same way? What if he does?"
"Oh, believe me, he does." Setsuna snickered just out of arms reach. "It's written all over your faces you two look at each other differently than you look at anybody else. It's so sweet. Never would have pegged our leather jacket wearing badass of a class president as the pure and innocent type when it comes to crushes."
She sighed, leaning against her locker and thumbing around for a hair tie. "I'll confess eventually, but I can't do that right now. Finals are coming up, so we need to get ready for that and a relationship would just get in the way."
"You're just afraid." Yui, her ever so traitorous friend threw her under the bus. Again.
The other girls nodded.
"Ha! I can't believe that the girl that shouted 'Bring it scruffy!' to a rampaging Jurota and then forced him to submit is afraid of confessing to a boy." Setsuna held back her laugh by snorting, hand barely covering her sharp-toothed smile.
"That's different, fighting and being a hero isn't holding a boys hand." She mumbled, pulling her hair into her usual ponytail.
The girls squealed, well all but one, Yui facepalmed.
"You're so pure, I think I have a cavity." Kinoko twirled, slipping her shoes on, a soft smile on the mushroom girl's face.
"It's like the Romeo and the Juliet." Pony clapped hopping up and down. She stopped, placing a finger at her mouth. "Only without the sad."
Great, now her usual nice relaxing train ride with Izuku was going to have her even more flustered than normal. And didn't they have training today? How on earth was she going to put up with him if they sparred?
"Seriously, Itsuka," Setsuna leaned in close, hand on the locker like the whole scene was out of some crappy romance drama. "Just confess to him, he's not going to say no,"
"As I said, we're busy, we have to study for finals." She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling more annoyed now than embarrassed. Except for the whole part where she was freaking out that the entire school knew about her crush on Izuku, and apparently the entire school also knew that he felt the same way.
"So do it during the summer." Setsuna's eyes fluttered as she spun, grabbing onto Kinoko and spinning the small girl around like they were dancing. "Especially during the training camp? Can you just imagine it?" The girl's head popped off and floated in the air while she continued to dance. "The cool summer air, the stars at night, you're there, he's there, your hearts beating as one, then slowly, ever so slowly."
Her face was burning now, the idea of her and Izuku being alone in the woods was to much for her brain to handle. The idea of him pulling her tight and then kiss-
"You hold hands!"
What? That's where she was going with that? She felt both instantly relieved and incredibly disappointed.
"Ha! You should see the look on your face!" Setsuna grabbed her head and reattached it to her body. "But really, summer, during the training camp, We can easily make sure that you and Izuku end up alone in the woods. Then, you'd have no reason not to confess right?"
"Well. I mean." She buried her head into her hands. "Why do you guys keep saying it's that easy?"
"Because we are live the love life through you." Pony spoke up, "Our love lives are stuck in mud. Yours is burning fire! Very bright!"
She peeked out from between her hands and looked at each of the girls as none of them spoke up.
"So," they all looked away from her. "You're telling me, that that the only reason why you're interested in my love life is because you don't have one of your own?"
"Yep,"
"Indeed."
"Certainly."
"Pretty much."
"Kinda."
Yui slammed her locker shut and looked her in the eyes. "I just like watching you suffer."
She sighed, hands falling to her sides. She really needed new friends. Still, they kind of had a point, she should tell Izuku how she felt soon. Before he gets hurt again. But, if he were to confess to her, that would make things so much easier on her heart.
XXXX
It was just a study session. That's all it was. It was just like the last time Itsuka had invited him over, just him and her. In her room, studying and going over stuff for the finals. Alone. Again. On their day off. For hours and hours.
He walked around the outside of the dojo before it never felt like a part of their home, but it was. And now he was heading for the direct root for Itsuka's home. Where they would study. Alone. Her father away doing something.
With a beating heart, he slowly grabbed onto the side door Itsuka had told him to use his other hand checking the text, her claiming that it was open and to just come on in. Should he knock? Should he listen and just go in? What if she was in the shower? What if she was changing? Was he supposed to just walk in take his shoes off and then plop down in her room?
What if-
The door was thrown open and standing there was the silver-haired, muscle-bound, ultimate defense of class 1-B. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, aka the steel hero Real Steel. "Izuku Midoriya! Fight-"
A giant chop to the back of his head silenced him as he fell to the ground. And Itsuka stood where he once did, that usual smile she gave wherever she had to apologize for her class on her face. "Sorry about that Izuku, he's been wanting to fight you since he found out that we trained together."
"He's tough too!" Tetsutetsu mumbled from his place on the ground. "Come on Itsuka! One match in the Dojo then I'll study hard I promise!"
"No way rocks for brains, you're the one that asked me to help you study so that's what we're going to do!" She grabbed him by the back of his neck like he was a cat and pulled him back inside. "Come on in Izuku."
He nodded taking his shoes off. "Are there others here?"
"Yea," With her free hand she rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about that, I probably should have mentioned that I'd be having a few classmates over too, but they really needed the help, should have asked if you had anyone from 1-A that you wanted to bring over."
"Like hell, I'd study with those jerks!" Tetsutetsu shot up from the ground, his jaw tight as he flexed in an intimidating pose. "Just thinking about them makes me so mad there'd be no way I could study!"
"You know Izuku is in class 1-A right? And so's your friend Enjiro." Itsuka sighed, leading them towards the living room.
"Right! But they're cool, Eijiro because he's tough like me and Izuku because he's your friend!"
"Right," Itsuka groaned placing a hand over her face. "Just promise me you'll focus?"
"Yes, ma'am!" He marched towards the living room where several low tables - covered in food, books, and papers - had been set up on some Tatami mats.
Around the table sat a few of class 1-B's students. All looking at him with a wry smile on their face. Thankfully Neito wasn't there.
"Again, sorry for not telling you, but most of them begged me to tutor them," She bowed at him, hands clasped in front of her knees. "But, I'm their class president and I ranked first in the class so I had no choice."
"It's fine Itsuka, really." His heart wasn't pounding as much as it was on the way here. At least he knew they weren't going to be so alone. "Momo ended up doing the same thing, but ranking first is awesome, I only ranked fourth."
"Right," She clapped her hands smiling, "Let's get to work then! I don't want any failures!"
The students from Class 1-B were hard workers, even when it came to studying, and somehow, he found it easy to get along with them even, probably because Itsuka was there to quell their class rivalry enough for him to enjoy their presence.
It was all set to be an average and otherwise unordinary study session until Yui stood about two hours into it, the T.V. remote in her hand.
"One moment." The plain girl said in her usual monotone voice, turning on the T.V.
"Yui?" Itsuka asked an eyebrow raised. "What are you doing?"
Yui changed the channel, to a commercial that was just ending before she sat down like she hadn't done anything weird. She then held up the peace sign at Itsuka. "Embarrassing you."
"Huh?"
"UNERI Hairspray," The soft sensual voice from the T.V. said.
Itsuka's face fell into a look of utter dread, eyes glued on the T.V. "But she said it wouldn't air for another month!"
All eyes, even his, were glued onto the T.V. just in time for Itsuka's scene to appear where she flicked her long curly hair in some imaginary wind a beautiful and cheerful smile on her face that made his heart skip a beat. She looked really good in her hero costume.
"UNERI Hairspray." the soft voice said again. "For when you want to keep the curls, even when fighting crime."
Itsuka's head met the desk. "Kill me now."
He reached over patting her on the back. "If it helps, I think you looked awesome in your hero costume."
"Still!" She shot up, a red mark on her forehead. "My second public appearance was on a hair commercial! All I did was flick my hair."
"Oh," Yui held up her phone. "You're trending on social media."
And Itsuka slammed her head back down onto the table. "I'm never starring in another commercial ever again."
XXXX
The next day, her father walked into her room, holding a letter.
"Why do you have mail from Uwabami's model agency?" He asked, blinking at it then her, his eyes all but hidden in his squint.
Itsuka buried her head into her pillow and groaned. "She probably wants me to come to her agency again for another commercial or something."
That was the last thing she needed, another chance to embarrass herself on national T.V.. Seriously how was she supposed to be taken seriously if she was just known as the girl with pretty orange hair from the commercials? It'd be better if it was anything besides hair, like say a charity, or something for quirks or heroes.
Not a shampoo.
"Oh? So you don't want it then? Can I open it?" Before she could answer her father had already torn into the letter and tossed the envelope onto the ground near her waste basket. "Oh, would you look at that a check."
A check? Money? Her feet were on the ground before she could really think about what was happening. She swiped the check from her father's hand and stared at it. It was from the company that had made the comercial, addressed to her for. "Holy crap! That's half as much as I need for a bike!"
Maybe a commercial or two wouldn't be so bad, to get her name out there and have a public face. Yea that was it.
And the bike.
AN: Another mostly fluffy chapter. I have to admit, I absolutely loved having the girls grill Itsuka about her not confessing to Izuku, anyways, next chapter I might end up skipping the Final Exams, and just go right for some fluff on the training camp! Thank you for your support, I hope you continue to enjoy this story and whatever I end up posting later. If you feel like supporting me, check out my Ko fi! or not, up to you. Until next time!