For a moment, Uraraka looked at Izuku, eyebrows raised. He tried not to look too hopeless as she eyed him.

Finally, Izuku's oldest friend said, "Damn, Deku, you're really going for the hard questions, aren't you? What brought this on?"

Izuku took a deep breath, trying to settle the confused feelings that swirled through him.

He asked, "Can I come in?"

"Of course," Uraraka replied, stepping back to let him enter. Izuku walked in, settling himself into one of the blocky wooden chairs that Uraraka had gotten in a garage sale in the summer between their first and second years. Tsu and Uraraka sat down opposite him, looking curious about why he had come to them.

Once they were settled, Izuku began, "I've been dealing with something lately. I thought I had a...crush on somebody, something I could handle while I dealt with school and heroics."

Uraraka nodded sympathetically. "Let me guess," she interrupted, "you realized you couldn't handle it?"

Izuku didn't speak, but his eyes told his friends exactly what he was thinking.

Tsu asked, "Were you planning to ignore your feelings? Or were you thinking of confessing?"

Izuku shrugged. "I was hoping to find a way to tell them how I felt, but...well, I don't know how I feel," he admitted, his face slightly red.

"That figures, kero," Tsu replied bluntly, "you know less about your emotions than a shark knows about veganism."

Uraraka snorted, while Izuku spluttered, "Oi!"

Uraraka added, "She's right, Deku. You're not exactly the most in-tune with yourself."

"Okay, maybe that's true," Izuku sighed, "but can we get back on topic, please?"

"Alright, fine. So, you have someone you like, but your feelings were stronger than you expected?" Uraraka replied, recapping Izuku's explanation.

"Yeah," Izuku said, "and...I'm not sure if it's love or not. I don't see how it could be, considering I've only really been talking to...the person...for a week or two now."

Tsu stroked her chin thoughtfully. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, Midoriya. That's not really how love works," she told him.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked, making a confused face.

Tsu explained, "There isn't a timer on love, or some sort of universal threshold that you have to hit before you fall in love with someone. It happens differently for everyone, and for everyone you love."

Uraraka nodded as she agreed, "Yeah, she's right, Deku. You can't say whether you love someone or not just from how long you've known them."

Izuku wasn't sure about that, but he appreciated the advice, anyway.

Then, Uraraka asked, "Why did you come to us?"

Izuku looked at the two women, who were still wrapped tightly around each other, leaning into reassuring, familiar touches that looked so automatic that they didn't even realize what they were doing.

Izuku replied, "You two are the most in-love couple I've ever met, and you're both my friends. I figured that I could trust you guys to give me good advice."

And oh, did he need advice right now. Even just talking about love made Jirou's face appear in Izuku's mind, smiling and laughing, the thought of her dancing eyes making his heart beat faster.

Tsu wondered, "What do you want to know? I'm assuming that you don't want us to set you up with the person, especially if you haven't even told us their name."

"I was hoping you guys could just tell me...what it was like for you," Izuku replied, "I want to know if what I'm feeling is real, I suppose. If it is...I'll figure out what I'm going to do."

"And if it isn't?" Uraraka prompted, concern written clearly on her face.

"I don't see how it possibly couldn't be," Izuku thought, "if what I feel isn't real, love isn't, either."

He hesitated for a second, and his friends seemed to smile knowingly at him.

Then, Uraraka began, "Well, I suppose we can try to help."

"Please," Izuku said weakly, "I don't know what else to do."

"You could always ask the person out, kero. You don't have to be in love with someone to date them and see if what you feel turns into love," Tsu pointed out.

Izuku replied, "I know, but...I'm scared. It's just that I want to be sure before I do something."

"You can't be sure," Uraraka told him quietly, "you just can't. Love is a risk, Deku, it always is, and nothing you can do can ever get rid of that last tiny chance that it could end badly."

"Then why does anyone ever love someone else?" Izuku asked bitterly, imagining how his heart would be torn to pieces if he discovered Kyoka didn't feel the same way.

Tsu answered, "Sometimes, you don't have a choice, kero. Love isn't rational, you can't control what it does, who it will latch onto."

Uraraka nodded sagely as Izuku hung his head. She added, "And because, Deku, it's worth the risk. Are you saying that the happiness you might get with the person isn't worth the risk that they don't return your feelings?"

Izuku froze. He knew it would be, that he'd forget all about his fears if Kyoka told him she loved him, too.

Seeing the look on his face, Uraraka said smugly, "That's what I thought."

Izuku sighed as the three lapsed into a brief moment of silence, before Tsu began, "Midoriya, I don't know what it's like for you...but I realized that I loved Ochako when she smiled at me, and it was all I could think about for days. She worked her way into my heart, and made me feel happier than I ever have. She still does."

Uraraka smiled lovingly at her girlfriend, holding her tighter as Izuku absorbed what Tsu had said.

Izuku realized that he was experiencing something similar to what the frog girl was describing. Kyoka's smile was still filling his mind even now, making him feel so light that he thought he might float away. Izuku couldn't explain the way his heart pounded around Kyoka, but it always created the most powerful happiness Izuku had ever felt.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku turned to his best friend and asked, "What about you, Uraraka?"

The brown haired girl thought for a second. Eventually, she replied, "Tsu snuck up on me, honestly. I was so focused on other things, on reaching my dreams, that it took me a long time to recognize that the warmth I felt around her wasn't Todoroki's quirk. Even when I did realize that I felt something more than friendship for her, I was scared to tell her. I didn't have any experience with loving a woman; I didn't know if Tsu would react badly or not, if she could even return my feelings. But as soon as I took the leap, it turned out that Tsu wasn't a distraction from my goals at all. In fact, she made me stronger, a better hero."

Izuku nodded absentmindedly; his brain was whirling, stuck on his best friend's words. Uraraka could have been describing how Izuku felt about Kyoka, down to how just being around her made Izuku feel more like the hero the entire country believed he was. When Kyoka smiled at him, Izuku no longer felt like he was still that quirkless boy, only pretending to be a hero.

He realized that Uraraka and Tsu were watching him with faint smiles. "What's with the looks?" Izuku asked.

"Nothing," Uraraka replied smoothly, "we were just wondering if you would tell us how you feel about this person. Does it line up?"

Izuku sighed. On one hand, he couldn't help but feel like this was going to come back to bite him, but on the other, he couldn't deny that part of him was yearning to have someone to talk to about his feelings. Finally, he came to a decision.

"Okay, fine," Izuku said.

He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts, while his friends watched quietly, their eyes encouraging and gentle.

Izuku began, "I first realized how I felt when I saw them smile, I think. It felt like someone had sent a bullet through my heart, because I swear it stopped beating for a moment. Just...everything about them is perfect. Most people don't think that when they see them, but I do, and I can't explain why. Everything they do, every little gesture, makes me want them more. When we're in the same room, it's like they're a star and I'm nothing more than a planet in their orbit. They've filled in something in my heart, and I couldn't get them out if I tried."

As Izuku trailed off, his words echoing in the small space, he looked back up at Uraraka and Tsu, who exchanged looks he couldn't read. For a long moment, the two women looked at him, and Izuku felt like a supplicant begging for advice. He supposed that that wasn't too far off.

At last, Uraraka smiled softly at him, her eyes twinkling. She announced teasingly, "Deku, you are officially the most in-love man I've ever met."

Before Izuku could even reply, Tsu added, "Whoever this person is, they're lucky to have someone who loves them as much as you do, kero."

When Izuku found his voice again, he choked out, "Y-you're sure? I'm not just imagining things or making this too big of a deal?"

Uraraka shook her head gently. "Yes, I'm sure," she told him confidently, "that's love, Deku. Everything you said, everything you just told us, is exactly how I feel about Tsu. If you aren't in love, nobody is."

Tsu nodded, but Izuku had already retreated back into his thoughts. All at once, they stopped spinning, and produced a single moment of clarity, as though every dial in his consciousness had stopped simultaneously on the same reading.

In the quiet, tender atmosphere of a room with his friends, Izuku realized, "I'm in love with Kyoka Jirou."

His second thought came a second later: "Well, I'm fucked."

Despite his existential dread of getting stabbed with pointy jacks, Izuku couldn't help but feel oddly light now that he'd accepted how he felt. The thorny tangle of emotions wrapped around his heart has suddenly melted away, replaced with a bright, shining hope. At last, Izuku could see the future he wanted clearly; Kyoka by his side, and him by hers, the greatest hero couple Japan had ever seen.

Now, Izuku just had to figure out how to create that future.

Quietly, he asked, "So...what do I do now?"

Tsu raised her eyebrow and replied, "You tell this person how you feel, obviously."

Izuku froze, a sudden pang of fear shooting through him. He gasped, "I...I can't."

"Of course you can," Uraraka said matter-of-factly.

Izuku shook his head desperately as he insisted, "No, I can't! What if they don't feel the same way?"

"Then they don't," Tsu replied bluntly, "and you deal with that. But I don't think that's going to happen."

"Why not?" Izuku asked, confused.

Tsu told him, "Because you're you, Midoriya. Anyone would jump at the chance to date you."

Izuku shifted uncomfortably. He replied, "What, are you saying that because I'm famous, they'd date me?"

Izuku didn't want that to happen; it was one of his biggest fears about him and Kyoka. He had to know that Kyoka loved him and not his hero identity.

Tsu's tongue slapped him across the face, jolting Izuku out of his thoughts before he could begin to spiral into dark places.

"Ow!" Izuku complained, rubbing his cheek, "what was that for?"

"Because you're an idiot," Tsu responded calmly, taking a second to withdraw her tongue before continuing, "Midoriya, I'm not talking about your fame. I'm talking about you. You are kind, gentle, and the best damn man I've ever met, plus you're hot as hell. If I wasn't a lesbian, I would fuck you."

Izuku side-eyed Tsu for a long moment before Uraraka took over and said, "What she's saying, Deku, is that even though there's always a possibility they won't feel the same way, I think that you've got a pretty good chance of that not happening. It comes down to this: you won't know until you ask. Your feelings won't go away, Izuku, and you can either confess, or regret not confessing for the rest of your life. Take it from someone who almost let the love of her life slip away out of fear: you have to try."

Izuku nodded mutely, accepting his friend's advice even as the doubts still swirled inside him.

"Thank you, guys," Izuku said softly, "for everything. I need to go think for a while."

Uraraka answered, "Wait, before you go, I was wondering...do we get to know who this person is?"

Izuku paused as he rose out of his seat. He thought for a second, and realized that he didn't want to tell them. The world had seemingly known all his inner feelings, or tried to, ever since he'd announced himself in the victory over Shigaraki. For once, he wanted to keep something secret, to hold onto something that was his that nobody else could lay claim was his business, and nobody else's.

Izuku turned back to Uraraka and Tsu, his eyes shining apologetically. He said, "I'm sorry, but I'd rather not. I want to figure out what I want, and how to do this, before people find out and start trying to hurt them."

Uraraka and Tsu nodded in understanding, and Uraraka replied, "Of course, Deku. That's admirable of you, protecting them like that. Just don't keep us in the dark for too long, alright? I'd like to meet the person who stole your heart, some day."

"You will," Izuku promised, meaning every word; it was the least he could do. Then, he was gone, slipping out the door and into a hallway just as quiet as it had been when he had left it. He barely noticed the spring in his step as he walked down the hall, or the tiny smile that appeared, unbidden, on his features.

Back in the room Izuku had just left, Uraraka and Tsu watched the closed door in comfortable silence, smiling fondly at the kindest man they knew finally finding someone who brought out the best in him.

Then, Tsu turned to her girlfriend and asked, "Jirou?"

Uraraka nodded and agreed, "Jirou."

Tsu tapped her chin thoughtfully and mused, "Those two are an awkward, adorable mess waiting to happen. I can't wait to see what happens."

"Me neither," Uraraka replied, "although we should stay out of it, Deku's got good reasons for wanting to stay quiet."

Tsu nodded in agreement. Then, the frog girl realized that her girlfriend was eyeing her with a very familiar hunger, and she shuddered in anticipation; she knew what was coming.

A moment later, Uraraka's eyes were much closer to Tsu, because the brown haired girl had grabbed Tsu and rolled on top of the cold-blooded girl, visibly licking her lips as she pinned Tsu's hands with her own. It was everything Tsu could do to not fall apart instantly as her lover pressed her down into the mattress.

In a low, husky voice packed full of desire, the anti-gravity hero whispered, "Now then, let's get back to what we were doing."

Tsu would have replied, but by then, her girlfriend was putting her mouth to a better use than talking.

It was a good thing that the third-year dorms were soundproof.

The next day, Kyoka stepped off a train, the suitcase with her hero costume in hand as she made a familiar journey.

As she negotiated the streets of a small Musutafu suburb, Kyoka's thoughts fell back onto the same topic that had plagued her for days now: Izuku Midoriya.

Kyoka no longer even tried to fight it when her mind turned to the sweet, kind boy who made her smile like an idiot whenever she thought of him.

But even as Kyoka enjoyed thinking of his kind eyes and the way he always lifted her spirits (and how much she wanted him to slip his hands down her body and make her whimper... dammit brain, not the time!), she couldn't help but remember something she'd told Izuku, and how true it was ringing at that moment.

Kyoka knew full well that even though she'd made it into the greatest hero school in Japan, she wasn't ever going to be one of the greats. She was skilled, and capable, and strong, sure, but as she'd told Izuku, she simply didn't have the raw power to compete with those at the very top. She didn't want that sort of power, not really; she'd rather it stay with those like Izuku, who would put it to the best use possible. Kyoka didn't have anything like the courage Izuku had, or the drive-except when he was by her side. Then, Kyoka felt like she could take on the world with a smile.

That fact, her lack of any god-level ability to flatten cities or reshape the world, was why Kyoka was doing her third-year work-study here, at a smaller hero agency in Musutafu, with a hero who was solid and dependable, if unspectacular. Well, that lack of power, and the fact that Kyoka considered that hero a damn good mentor. She wanted to be like him some day, not a huge name, but known all the same, respected for his commitment to a community.

As she reached her destination, Kyoka turned once again to Izuku. She wondered, "Why do I keep feeling this way?"

Kyoka's feelings had gone past the minor crush she'd once suspected she had on Izuku. Now, they were too strong, too all-consuming, to be an infatuation.

No mere crush would leave Kyoka's heart feeling empty whenever she wasn't around Izuku, or leave her lying awake at night once he'd left her room after one of their talks, yearning for his soft lips and hands to explore her slim curves, for him to play her body like an instrument...for the opportunity to make him look at her like he had during that training exercise, like she held his heart in her hands.

Kyoka shook her head to get rid of the enticing fantasies that clouded her thoughts as she entered the agency. "Focus," she thought, "think of literally anything other than fucking Izuku. You're never going to get to fuck Izuku. Don't waste your time."

Luckily, the hero she had been working with for nearly three years at this point was there to help, the same way he always did.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" a deep, rough-hewn voice drawled as Kyoka stepped into the lobby, "you still using that stupid punk costume?"

Kyoka turned her head to the small reception area, where a familiar face was slung over an office chair, grinning evilly at her.

Without missing a beat, Kyoka retorted, "I am a punk, old man. And at least I didn't raid a construction site for my costume!"

The pro hero Death Arms, Kyoka's mentor for UA's work-study program, snorted loudly. Without moving from his chair, he called back, "Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don't have the refinement to appreciate the symbolism of my costume."

Grinning widely, Kyoka scoffed, "Refinement? Symbolism? You look like you're cosplaying a backhoe!"

"Awww, fuck you," Death Arms said, the matching grin on his face belying his words and revealing the lightness of their ritual banter.

From the first time they'd ever worked together, Kyoka had taken naturally to the back-and-forth with the hero who'd accepted her as an intern, and then as a work-study candidate. It helped that under the hard surface, Death Arms was a gruff but friendly man who knew how to laugh at himself and at his fellow heroes in equal measure. Maybe Kyoka wasn't the best fit for his battle-focused agency, but then, she'd learned more tricks and ways that she could support others in a fight here than she could have ever learned at UA alone.

Letting herself slip even further into the easy camaraderie she'd built up with the muscular hero, Kyoka teased, "Oi, watch the language! Do you kiss your momma with that mouth?"

"I sure do!" Death Arms replied as he hopped out of his chair, "after all, I learned all my swearing from her!"

Kyoka blinked for a second, before managing to recover by replying, "Well, does your momma kiss you with her mouth?"

"No," Death Arms said, straight-faced, "she kisses me with her knees."

Kyoka refused to snicker, instead opting to nod sagely and say, "Ah, of course, my bad. I assume that she only does it when you say something stupid."

"Why would you assume that?" Death Arms asked quizzically.

"Why else would your face look like that, if she didn't kick you every time you opened your mouth?" Kyoka joked.

Putting a hand to his face as if checking that it hadn't changed shape since he'd last seen it, Death Arms retorted, "Hey, watch your mouth! My momma says that my face is very handsome!"

"Did she say that before or after she kicked you?" Kyoka asked, a glittering light in her eyes.

At last, Death Arms gave up, roaring in laughter and holding out his fist for Kyoka to bump with her own. As she did, he laughed, "That's a good one, kid! It's great to see you."

"It's good to see you, too," Kyoka replied honestly, a grin stretched impossibly wide over her face. She always enjoyed bantering with Death Arms; his mix of straight-faced wit and thick skin meant that she and him could throw all sorts of jokes at each other with no hard feelings. It was just one of the reasons she enjoyed working with him.

When he finally stopped laughing, Death Arms said, "Alright, Ears. Get yourself into that getup you call a costume and get back here, you and I are going on patrol in ten minutes."

Ignoring the endearing nickname, Kyoka nodded and raced off to dress, looking forward to the day already. She quickly threw on her costume, reveling in how she stood just that tiny bit taller when she wore the costume that people already knew by sight, even if not as many did as the millions who could pick Izuku's iconic green, black, and white out a mile away.

(Kyoka sometimes wondered if going for something more skintight would actually change anything in terms of her popularity; she figured it probably wouldn't, and she would have felt too exposed in a jumpsuit anyway. She didn't think less of her friends for being comfortable in their own skins, but neither did she feel comfortable enough in her own to do what they did. Besides, they had something to show off; Kyoka really didn't.)

Having finished by strapping her amplifiers to the backs of her hands, Kyoka returned to the lobby to find Death Arms waiting for her. They walked out the front doors together, already casually insulting each other on everything from their appearance to their taste in music and food to their preferred methods of taking down villains.

The comfortable back-and-forth lasted for nearly half the patrol, until Kyoka made an offhand comment about their last patrol where a purse snatcher had managed to surprise her mentor with a well-placed cinderblock, teasing, "You know, you're lucky that you're so hard-headed that you managed to tank kissing the concrete that hard with no damage."

Instead of protesting being called "hard-headed," Death Arms retorted, "On the topic of kissing, you kissed any cute boys lately?"

This was one of her mentor's favorite questions to ask, because he knew Kyoka hated it. Kyoka was so used to responding with a dry insult that she was shocked to find her automatic reply come out as a wordless choke. As soon as Death Arms had spoken, Izuku's face had appeared unbidden in Kyoka's mind, and how he had leaned in close when they'd been in that park, his lips inches from hers, her whole body afire as she silently pleaded for him to lean in just that last little inch and kiss her.

Her face went bright red, and Death Arms sensed blood. His eyes glittering, he said, "Oh, what's this? Has some handsome lad gotten through to you, Ears?"

Kyoka stammered, "What...I...It's not like that!"

"Oh?" Death Arms asked, "then what is it like?"

Kyoka couldn't get that almost-kiss, if that was what it had been, out of her head. Her whole body felt warm at the memory, blocking out all the rest of her thoughts.

Weakly, she replied, "N-nothing!"

Death Arms just shook his head at Kyoka's embarrassment. He said, "Jeez, Ears, you sound like a lovestruck teenager."

"I'm not a lovestruck teenager!" Kyoka squeaked.

Death Arms raised an eyebrow. Smoothly, he answered, "Forgive me, a lovestruck twenty-year-old."

"I'm not lovestruck!" Kyoka insisted. Was she?

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, Ears, but you've got it bad for whatever boy's taking up all your brainpower at the moment," her mentor informed her.

Kyoka's mind was racing. She couldn't be in love with Izuku, right? She hadn't even been talking to him for two weeks at this point! There was no way she'd progressed from a crush this quickly, right? Right?

"W-what makes you say that?" Kyoka asked.

Death Arms smiled gently and told her, "Your eyes."

"M-my eyes?" Kyoka repeated, blinking in surprise.

Death Arms nodded. "Your eyes are distant right now, even when you're on patrol. Your mind's somewhere else, ain't it? Probably with this boy you like," he explained.

"I…how do you know it's a boy?" Kyoka demanded.

"You just told me," her mentor replied with a grin that made Kyoka blush even harder.

Kyoka realized that they'd stopped walking, but she was still freaking out over her mentor's words.

Again, she insisted, "I'm not in love with him! I've only been friends with him for two weeks!"

"So? Love happens when it happens," Death Arms replied, "and it sounds like you ain't listening to your heart, because you're definitely in love."

"How do you know?" Kyoka snapped at him.

Death Arms told her, "You're acting just like Kamui did before he got his shit together and asked Yuu out."

Kyoka blinked at the mention of Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods, not expecting it from her mentor. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

As they started to walk again, the muscular hero explained, "Kamui was a mess for a while after Yuu started working in the city. He kept getting distracted, even during fights. Eventually, I asked him what was wrong, and he just sighed about how he kept thinking of her. He couldn't get the woman out of his head, and he refused to even think about talking to her, so he just kept slipping. It took Yuu almost dying at Kamino Ward to get him to pull his head out of his ass and actually confess. Now, they're a damn good team, and the most in-love couple I've ever seen. It makes me want to vomit whenever I see 'em."

Kyoka was quiet for a long moment. Death Arms was right, she really was somewhere else right now. In her mind, she was with Izuku, cuddled in his arms, feeling them encircling her protectively, or maybe possessively, stretching up to kiss him on his achingly soft lips, feeling the happy, joyous warmth build in her chest until it hurt.

Kyoka realized that she would give anything, do anything, to make that dream real. She wanted all of him, not just the hero Deku, but Izuku, too, with his gentle smiles and awkward charm and earnest belief that everyone could be better than they were. Kyoka was drawn to him, not just for the charisma he showed the world, but the vulnerability he showed her, and nobody else, on those quiet, soul-baring nights. Kyoka...Kyoka needed him; her life could never be the same now that Izuku had taken up residence in her heart and mind.

At last, Kyoka accepted the truth, the whole truth: "I'm in love with Izuku Midoriya, and I'm fucking doomed."

Death Arms was watching her with an expression that was half fondness, half mirth as Kyoka's thoughts went in a thousand directions like a supernova, her moment of clarity shattering like glass. At last, the hero rapped a knuckle sharply against Kyoka's forehead, asking, "Hello? Anyone home?"

Kyoka jolted back to the real world with a start, then looked sheepishly up at her mentor.

"Sorry, I got distracted again," she admitted.

Death Arms chuckled, "I noticed. You gonna try and say that you aren't head-over-heels for this mystery boy again?"

"Umm…no," Kyoka said slowly, still trying to calm her wildly beating heart, the sound of which was filling her awareness almost as much as blind panic over her fresh realization that she was in love with the hottest, most desirable man in Japan.

At that moment, Kyoka's inner thoughts could best be summarized as an endless stream of incoherent screaming, occasionally interspersed with more creative cursing than Death Arms could ever learn from his mother.

Eventually, she managed to stammer out, "W-what do I do now?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Death Arms replied with a shrug, "I'm not you. Here's my advice, though: don't sit on it. It'll just drive you mad, and cause you pain. Toughen up and tell him. You'll get an answer, for better or worse. Take it from a man who's seen two friends almost lose their chance to be happy because they waited too long; in this line of work, you never know when someone will be taken from you, so grab onto the people you care about and hold them as tight as you can."

Kyoka managed to get control of her thoughts long enough to say, "Thank you, Death Arms. I...I have a lot to think about."

"I'd imagine," the hero replied with a reassuring grin, "it's not every day you get romantic advice from a master such as myself."

Kyoka's eyebrows shot up faster than Iida did when he heard that Kaminari was attempting to overclock the toaster with fifty megawatts of electricity again. She said disbelievingly, "You, a master of romance? Have you ever dated anyone?"

Mysteriously, Death Arms replied, "That's for me to know, and you to find out."

"God, why the fuck do I even bother…" Kyoka muttered to herself.

At that moment, there was a crash and a rumble from further down the block. Instantly, both heroes were sprinting towards the sound, banter over, as yells of anger and fear could be heard from the site, where a small group of villains were attempting to rob a jewelry store.

As they charged towards the small-time thugs, Death Arms told Kyoka, "You know, I always find a good fight helps me think! Let's knock some heads!"

Kyoka nodded eagerly, a smile tugging at her lips and a spring in her step that hadn't been there before.

That smile stayed on her face for the entire fight, and the cleanup afterwards. Nobody noticed the way it grew, as Kyoka's mind kept throwing up memories of Izuku's smile and kind eyes.

Kyoka still had no idea what she was going to do about these feelings, but at least she was no longer denying the truth to herself.