Chapter 64: a friend's advice

Moving around was easy. Between all the crazy styled villains, the sterile science guys and the other busy minions, a plain teen with a white lab coat thrown over his shoulders didn't stick out. In addition to that, moving into the offices left him with a lot more freedom than he had had back down in the labs. No one spared him a glance as he walked down the brightly lit but cold hallways he definitely wasn't allowed to be near to. He slid the key card through the reader next to the glass door - how had no one realized it was missing yet? - watched the green light flash up and overcame another obstacle. He slowed his steps, not exactly sure which door his target resided in, still trying not to look too suspicious. He would hack into the security systems and erase the recordings later.

There it was. A frayed end of a pink ribbon peeked from underneath the last door to the left. Yotsune halted in front, listened carefully for a few seconds before sliding his card through this reader.

Red. Door sealed.

He hitched a breath, panic dreading to tear his strained nerves apart. No, he had gotten so far, this couldn't be the end! He rose his sweaty hand again, slid the card through the reader once more…

Green. The door unlocked with a click. He let go of a shaky breath. The doorknob easily turned in his hand, letting him step into the forbidden area.

It was a bedroom, the room of a child. Toys lay untouched on the shelves, only the crayons littering the small desk had been used. The pink ribbon from underneath the door almost looked like it had been purposely placed there, as if someone had wanted people to find it. A silent cry for help.

Bright daylight shone through the gaps between the drawn curtains, the only source of light. There was no electronic equipment, not even an alarm clock, only the baby blue desk lamp. A bed, too big for the small inhabitant, took in most of the room. A small bulge in the covers could be seen from the door, steadily moving up and down.

He closed the door behind his back. It locked with a buzz, followed by a click. The teen cautiously rounded the bed and found a white mop of hair, covering most of the little girl's face. Her features were relaxed, she was out cold. Dragon wasn't going easy on her.

Yotsune moved to the window and peered through the thick glass. They were up on the tenth floor, no luck here. Even if he found a way to break the glass - which he wouldn't without drawing too much attention - the fall would kill them. Up wasn't an option either, there were at least five stories above, and what would they even do on the roof? Where would they go from there?

He was back to plan A. Find a hidden exit, grab the girl, sneak out.

He sighed. What was he even doing? He should just escape on his own. He had a better chance at succeeding. Taking the girl with him had only been a fleeting though to fight boredom, how was he actually trying to get her out?

There was a low click. Preoccupied by his thoughts he had stopped listening to the sounds coming from outside and missed the steps closing in. Or they had been too low for him to hear. He cursed internally, frantically looking for a place to hide-

The door opened. Inside stepped a lone girl a few years younger than him with a plain brown bob and a school uniform.

The Void.

The student approached the bed, made sure Eri was still asleep, then whispered, "It was pretty stupid of you to come here."

Yeah, as if she hadn't seen his shoes. Yotsune stepped out from his hiding spot behind the curtains. The Void eyed him cautiously, her face not betraying any emotion. She was a lot better at that than him, because he already felt a drop of sweat run down his temple.

"You're not going to ring the alarm?" He asked, readying himself for the worst. Instead, the girl countered with a question of her own, "You were down there last week, weren't you? With the crazy blue haired guy?"

She had to mean Tomomo. "I was," he answered, "and so were you."

Again, she didn't say anything for the longest time. He was on the verge if hyperventilating, when the girl finally introduced herself of all things, "The call me The Void, but my name is Zeddama Hiromi. What's your name?"

She couldn't be older than fourteen, and whatever Dragon was offering her to stay here, she hadn't lost her childish naivete. That, or…

"Yotsune Maki," he let her know, "I don't have a fancy villain name because I'm just a quirkless hacker. Tomomo's errand boy, if you want." A glint of surprise flashed in her eyes, urging him to ask the question that had been bugging him since she entered, "You're not here by choice either, are you?"

The Void, or Zeddama Hiromi, averted her eyes. "No."

"Did they take you for your quirk?"

The schoolgirl nodded. Great, so Dragon wasn't only kidnapping and recruiting quirkless people for his experiments. Technically speaking, The Void and Eri were the same, both abducted by Dragon for their quirks, which led him down another train of thoughts.

"Vo- Zeddama," Yotsune addressed her by her actual name, "do you want to go home?"

Her head shot up.

"Do you want to escape?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"What would you be ready to do if I told you that I could get us both and the little one," he pointed to the bed, "out of here?"


Eight days.

The tension between his fingers was bone snapping, quite literally. He squinted, focussing on that one spot. A flame licked at his right, curling around his lower arm and across the back of his hand up to his middle finger.

Three… Two… One…

Something crashed hard into his left.

Aizawa was not happy as he dragged him on shore with his capture weapon. Izuku was soaked to the bone, the freezing water had even him shiver.

"Focus, Midoriya, or I'm pulling you out of class."

"Yes, sensei," he gave in through clapping teeth. He tried to turn up his body heat without bursting into green flames, something he was still learning to control. Why again was it his fault that a certain someone blew up the concrete column Cementoss had set up next to him?

Eight days.

Izuku shook his head. He didn't have the luxury to let himself be distracted by such trivial things. Ever since that weird dream, his fire steadily grew stronger. It was still significantly weaker than Todoroki's, but with enough training, it might get close to his father's…


He felt drowsy. Despite the cold temperatures the common area was comfortably warm, and it didn't help that some of his classmates were streaming a crackling fire including sound on the TV. The text in front of him blurred. Izuku blinked rapidly until the lines became clear again, which didn't mean he absorbed any of the information he read.

"...idoriya. Midoriya?"

Izuku gave a jerk, almost throwing his pencil in the air. Across the table, Iida frowned at him.

"Midoriya, you seem very tired. Would you like to call it a night?"

"Oh, no, no, I'm fine!" He tried to reassure his friend, defensively waving his hands in front. The movement sent a stinging sensation through his already aching forearms. He winced, which didn't go unnoticed by Shouto.

"I agree with Iida." Heterochromatic eyes stared at him intently. "We have been training a lot the past few days and I'm starting to feel the effects as well."

An arm sliced the air between the three. "If Todoroki-kun agrees, I must insist we at least take a break! We still have two more days to prepare our presentation, it seems plenty with how far we got tonight. I will get us some refreshments."

Thanking Iida, Izuku couldn't help forming a small smile. They were good friends. He clenched his fist and absent-mindedly massaged his left arm, hoping the pain would fade soon. Shouto was right, they had been training extensively, but it still didn't feel enough. The event at Onderon was only eight days away. How was he supposed to get strong enough to face his father in such a short span of time? When they had the meeting with the heroes, everything seemed so far away, now it was already February and-

"Does your arm hurt?" Shouto asked, still eyeing him. Izuku stopped his fidgeting.

"Ah, it's nothing, I think I overdid it a bit today, but it's fine, it's just a bit sore-"

"Midoriya." He didn't raise his voice, his expression stayed the same, but Todoroki's stern tone was enough to shut his rambling.

"You must be nervous," his friend assessed, "but you shouldn't overdo it. You need your strength, especially if Dragon comes after you."

Izuku knew that, he understood, but…

"Rest is important. Taking a break doesn't mean you're slacking off."

Was that what he was afraid of? That he wasn't doing enough? That he was wasting precious time sleeping instead of perfecting his moves? Izuku had no idea how to answer. His mind was plagued by doubts, his movements grew slower and sloppier by the minute. Maybe they were right. Maybe he should cancel his late-night cardio workout and go to bed instead.

Out of nowhere, a freezing hand was placed on his left forearm. The cold was soothing, it soaked through his flesh into his burning muscles.

"Does that help? Or do you need something warm?" Shouto offered his other hand a bit hesitantly, aware that Izuku himself already produced a lot of heat. It drew a chuckle out of the freckled teen. "No, thanks Shouto-kun, this feels wonderful! I could just get some cooling packs though, you don't have to misuse your quirk like that…"

"I don't mind. Should I do the other one, too?" The double quirk user raised his right and waited for Izuku's nod before covering the other arm with a thin layer of frost as well. Izuku sighed. Just as he thanked his friend once more Iida arrived with the promised refreshments, three glasses of orange juice.


In the corner of the couch left to the fake, crackling fire, Hikari audibly clapped her book shut, startling Tsuyu in the seat next to her. After staring at the same page for the past four minutes and never getting past the second paragraph because she couldn't keep her eyes from darting towards the boy sitting at a table every other minute, she gave up.

Hikari sighed, she felt drained. As promised, she had helped Izuku train when she wasn't sparing with Shinsou, but she hadn't been able to do as much as Bakugou and Todoroki and ended up standing at the side lines half of the time with All Might. Which was extremely awkward, considering she was still angry at the man and he seemed to be aware of her resentment towards him. The retired symbol of peace always tried to initiate a conversation but failed after a few sentences. She did feel a bit bad for not reacting much, it was probably childish of her, but she wasn't ready to give him another chance yet. Maybe in a few weeks.

Hikari placed the book on the coffee table next to her phone and got to her feet. Tsuyu followed her with her eyes but didn't interrupt the conversation she was having with Ochako. There weren't many people left in the common area. Satou was quietly working on a few recipes close to the kitchen, Kouda sat at his feet playing with his adopted rabbit. Hagakure had been with him when she entered but Hikari couldn't see her clothing floating anywhere anymore. Iida and Shouto had left a few minutes ago, audibly urging Izuku to get to bed as soon as possible, while the green haired teen stayed behind to fill the second last page of his notebook. Hikari, having heard the full conversation, approached him, careful not to startle the boy when she came to a halt and announced her presence, "Hey."

"Hey," Izuku echoed, slowly turning to face her, pencil hovering above the page. Hikari sighed again.

"Get up," she commanded softly but still with a sense of urgency.

"Huh?"

His confused expression didn't shake her the slightest bit. "I'm putting you to bed."

Midoriya's green eyes widened. "What?"

"Either you get up yourself, or I'm carrying you upstairs," she warned him, "because your face was like two centimetres above the table and I don't think that scrawl will be of much use to you tomorrow."

The boy turned to the page in front of him. The last written words had strayed from the lines of the notebook, some Kanji were only half finished and totally out of proportion.

"Oh." Seeing the truth behind her words Izuku grimaced, closed his notebook and slowly got up. He looked a bit wobbly on his feet and Hikari feared he might collapse any second, so she reached for his wrist and dragged him out of the room. Izuku neither struggled nor protested, only loosely curled his fingers around her hand, which worried her even more.

They ran into Kyouka and Shouji on their way up. The first raised her brows but Hikari waved at her in an I'll-tell-you-later-fashion. The second clearly noticed the physical connection between them but still only wished them a good night. Once they arrived in Izuku's room Hikari snatched the notebook and pencil from the boy's hand to put them on his desk. Then she gave him a slight push, sending him stumbling onto his bed. He opened his mouth, but the girl proceeded to press him down onto the mattress, reached for the blanket and tuck him in like she would have done to Eri-chan. Izuku only offered the slightest trace of resistance, eyes already half closed. She wasn't sure if he was even aware that she pressed a light kiss to his forehead before wishing him a good night. She was sure he had fallen fast asleep right then and there until his weak voice made her pause in the doorframe, "I'm scared."

Hikari threw a glance over her shoulder. She couldn't see anything in the dark.

"No, I'm absolutely terrified," Izuku admitted, barely audible.

Picking up the clue she stepped back in and closed the door. The previous Seishin student carefully lowered herself to sit at the edge of the bed. There was rustling and soon a warm back pressed against hers.

"There is so little time… I'm still too weak to face him. What if he attacks again? What if he's trying to repeat what he did last time? What if there'll be another catastrophe? Can you imagine the damage and pain he could cause now that he has Overload and Trade? And what does he want with Eri-chan? What if any of you get hurt-"

"Stop," she begged him, "please stop. I know you're scared, I'm scared, too, but stop. Shouto is right, you're only making things worse by pushing yourself too hard. Even if something happens, even if Dragon comes back - what can you do if you're already too worn out to fight? You don't feel ready, I don't think you ever will, but it can't be helped."

She clutched her own knees. Izuku didn't say anything, he didn't move. Hikari had no idea how long they sat there in silence, but she heard more than one person walking up the stairs or slamming a door shut on this floor. Her own exhaustion set in, and it became hard keeping her eyes open in the darkness surrounding them.

At last, Izuku raised his voice, if only so little, "Could you stay for a bit? Only until I fall asleep…"

As if he needed to ask. "Sure."

The warmth disappeared, leaving her back defenceless against the cold. She waited until her boyfriend had settled in before lying down next to him, glad she was wearing jogging pants and a sweater, otherwise this would have been quite uncomfortable. She allowed herself to slip underneath the covers and scooped closer. It didn't take Izuku long to stretch out his arms. Despite usually being shy and hesitant, he had developed a habit of latching onto her in his sleep, so the action didn't surprise her in his current state. Hikari let him wrap his arms around her middle and pulled his head close to her chest until his bush of hair tickled her chin.

Just until he falls asleep, she reminded herself, ignoring that Izuku's breathing had already grown deep and steady. She would only close her eyes for five minutes…


A knock. A dream? A comfortable darkness surrounded him, the steady up and down of the stomach underneath his hand, in sync with his own, lulled him back to sleep. He nuzzled his face deeper into the warmth, into a sweet, calming smell. He felt movement in front of him and subconsciously intensified his grip. Five more minutes…

"Midoriya?" More knocking followed. "Midoriya-kun, it's time!"

Izuku jolted up. He ripped his sticky eyelids apart, blinked a few times until the silhouette of his friend became clear.

"I-Iida-kun…?" He asked groggily. He didn't understand what made his friend freeze in the doorframe, not until something moved under his hand.

Oh-oh.

Hikari pushed herself up, almost falling out of the bed. She stared at him through half closed lids. Their eyes met and widened. Together, they whirled around to the class president still standing by the door.

There was a girl. In his bed. A girl, who by the looks, had very definitely slept in his bed, he remembered holding her, god knows how they had ended up lying there.

"I-Iida-k-kun!" Izuku screeched, hopefully not waking the whole dorm. He had no explanation for this.

Iida's black outline stood still for another moment, then he seemed to adjust his glasses, because a mysterious reflection was thrown into their direction.

"Kitchen, now," was all he robotically ordered before turning on his heels. Izuku and Hikari stared at each other again, he could see the panic written on her face in the ray of light that fell through the half open door.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry, I wanted to leave but I fell asleep!" The girl whimpered. She jumped to her feet, frantically looking for her slippers. Izuku himself was still in denial. He turned on his reading lamp which allowed him to narrowly avoid the pair of slippers that was thrown into his face. He watched as Hikari tried to brush her hair into place with her fingers, still wearing her sweatpants from last evening and a crumpled sweater that had slipped off her shoulder during the night. He looked at the bare, scarred skin she quickly covered by adjusting her clothing. The bare shoulder he was fairly sure he had nuzzled his face into only a moment ago.

An all but gentle grip appeared around his wrist and he was yanked to his feet. Their eyes met again. At last, reality crushed him. Izuku dove for his slippers and a second later they stumbled out of his bedroom into the hallway.

This couldn't be happening. Izuku, sitting on one of the chairs in the dining area, made himself small. At his side, Hikari basically squirmed in her chair. Iida towered above, arms folded in front of his chest, eyes hidden behind the reflection on his glasses. His voice wasn't above normal talking volume but stern as he scolded them like little kids, reciting the dorm rules, reminding them exactly which ones they broke by simply sleeping in the same damn room together. It wasn't like they did anything, they didn't even kiss, they literally exchanged a few sentences before falling asleep. There wasn't a rule against cuddling, was there?

Izuku, face glowing red, only wanted to go back to bed and hide underneath seven blankets. There was no way at least a few of their classmates weren't up by now. He was usually one of the first, so they must have slept through his alarm, otherwise Iida wouldn't have tried to wake him.

At last, Iida paused. He glared at them, waiting for an explanation.

"It was my fault!" Both confessed in unison, making everything worse. Iida frowned.

"H-Hikari j-just helped me up," Izuku burst before his girlfriend could speak, "you saw how tired I was yesterday, I, uh, I didn't feel well and asked her to stay for a bit and we both fell asleep, it wasn't late but we were tired from training, it was an accident, nothing happened, I swear-"

But Hikari didn't let him take the blame and set out, "It's not his fault. I forced him to go up-"

"And I asked you to stay-!"

"I could have said no-"

"That's enough!" Iida shut them down at last. A sigh followed. "Just be grateful it wasn't Aizawa-sensei who found you."

Wait… Was he letting them off?

"Let this be a warning. I know exactly how exhausted you were, and I do believe you that you would never do anything inappropriate. But it is clearly against the rules for girls and boys to share a room. Accident or not, as soon as this reaches the teachers, you two will be in trouble. And I won't account for letting you both waste your potential because of something like this."

A tense silence ensued. If only Iida knew how many nights Izuku had already spent in Hikari's room. He wasn't ready to give that up, and he had a feeling she wasn't either. But it would become more difficult for them to meet in the future. He peeked to his right where Hikari was already expectantly looking at him. Their eyes locked for a moment, then they turned to Iida again and bowed in their chairs.

"Thank you, Iida-kun."

"Yes, thank you."

Iida only gave a sharp nod for an answer. He stepped out of the way he had blocked before, signalling them that they were free to go. After one last glance Hikari dashed out of the common room. Izuku took some more time to get up, rubbing his knuckles against his temples. Iida's eyes were still on him.

"I will not ask you how often this happened before." So, he did know. "But I must ask… What is your relationship with Shikogane?"

Izuku took a deep breath. They had agreed it was okay for him to tell the others, so he was allowed to do this. Which didn't mean it was easy.

"We, uh… W-we are… We a-are dating." He couldn't look at Iida any longer, his face was burning. For the longest time, his friend didn't speak. Izuku was tempted to say something, anything, just to end that silence, but Iida found his voice faster, "Midoriya-kun… Are you sure you want to pursue that kind of relationship with Shikogane?"

Izuku wasn't sure how to breathe anymore. First All Might, now Iida, Kacchan obviously agreed, it was only a matter of time until Aizawa-sensei wanted to talk sense into him… Just why was everyone questioning his choice? What was wrong with him being with the person he liked?

"In my personal opinion," Iida went on, "I would not pursue any kind of romantic relationship at the moment. I would want to focus on my career, on getting stronger and keeping my grades up. Especially for someone with your aspirations and family matters these things would be hard to persevere with such a distraction holding you back."

A distraction. Of all the words he could have used, Iida had to degrade Hikari like that. Izuku shook his head. "She is not a distraction! She keeps me in check, she simply made sure I got some sleep last night…"

Raising his hands, Iida apologized wholeheartedly, "I'm sorry if I offended either of you, it was not my intention! I simply want to make sure you are certain about this. It's obvious Shikogane deeply cares about you, but the life of a hero is full of sacrifices. We are still in school but once we graduate, you might not have much time to spend with each other anymore. It is a dangerous profession and there is a reason most pro heroes remain single by choice. I don't mean to force my views on you, I wouldn't dare! I just want you to be aware of future developments and disappointments."

Izuku knew that. He didn't want to argue because Iida was right. They didn't know what the future had in store for them, there was no telling how long they would last. Who knew if they even made it to graduation? They both were under a protection program, they had narrowly escaped death for multiple times, and all that within less than a year...

No. He shouldn't be thinking like that. All that mattered right now was what sounded true to his heart. They had gone through enough, they would make this work. They had to.

"Thank you for your concern, Iida-kun, I appreciate it, I really do, but this is my decision, and I think I would be worse off if I chose differently. So, thank you for not going to tell Aizawa-sensei about this, but I won't make any promises I can't keep."

Iida sighed. "I had a feeling you would say so. I will accept your decision, Midoriya-kun, although I must say, I was a bit surprised. If anything, I would have expected to have this conversation with you and Uraraka."

Izuku didn't understand. "Eh?"

"But I guess, after the past few months, it makes sense. Whatever you do, just be careful."


Hikari knew she was being petty. She waited until the last minute before sprinting to class, successfully evading the other students. For the rest of the day, she avoided Iida like the pest, at lunch she even kept her distance to Izuku, and after school she accompanied Shouji and Tokoyami back to the dorms upon hearing that a large part of the class would visit the support department.

She just wasn't ready to face things yet. How many people knew about it? Until this morning, they managed to be rather discreet. Sighing, the girl treated herself to a snack, in peace for once since most of her classmates were still out. At least that was the plan until someone knocked on the doorframe. The gesture was odd enough on itself, everyone went in and out of the kitchen, but even weirder was the company she received.

"Hey, Hikari," Ochako greeted her nonchalantly despite her clearly furrowed brows. "You got a minute?"


A/N: First of all, thank you so much for the reviews/comments and kudos! What could Ochako be up to? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

On another note: If you think there are still some lose ends or if there's something you want to see before this story ends, now is the time to let me know! Otherwise, the final arc will start with chapter 67, after that there are only the battle(s) and the epilogue left. So sad to see this story come to an end after 3,5 long years… I'll miss it (and you people).

PS: How much self-indulgent fluff do you want to endure before the angst comes back full force?

review time:

* Ryu: Thanks for the review! I wasn't sure whether to even keep that sentence in, seems like it was a good choice. Thanks for staying even though it's nothing you would usually read.

* gustavleon2: Thank you so much!

* Nixxon Mysterio: Thank you for reviewing! I wanted to incorporate that All Might scene for a while, so it's a relief to see you liked it. And the self-indulgent fluff xD

* Yamajiji: Thanks! Relationships are hard to write, I'm glad it didn't come off as too awkward.