Fun fact: this story was greatly inspired by my rewatching season one of Cardcaptor Sakura and obsessing over Touya and Sakura's relationship. As I'm now watching season two and getting inspired again, please enjoy a new chapter!

Chapter Thirty-Two: Deku

Four feet scuffed quietly along the pavement, two teenagers stuck in their own heads walking beside each other in the setting sun.

Koharu had not won her bet against Kirishima, and Midoriya had not won his match against Todoroki. Bakugou had succeeded in taking home first place, but he had not truly won against Todoroki. Cities away, a hero did not win against the villains.

She had always heard about win-win situations; Koharu hadn't expected to stumble into one where everyone lost. She thought of her brother, and how she had managed to fall short of both his and her own expectations. She thought of Iida's brother, lying somewhere in a hospital bed, and she thought of a pair of golden goggles, lying in a pool of bright red blood.

Despite being the one to ask to walk her home, Midoriya had yet to say a word since their feet had hit the pavement. When Koharu began to wonder if she had finally lost her hearing, Midoriya was the first to break the unspoken treaty of silence.

"There's something I've been wondering," he began, and then politely waited for Koharu's non-committal hum before continuing. "Why do you want to be a hero?"

"I've got to get a ticket for your train of thought," Koharu responded with a chuckle. "Why're you asking me that all of a sudden?"

"Because you've never really told me," said Midoriya. "And I want to know."

Koharu looked up at him curiously. "Why?"

He looked at her more seriously than she would have expected. "I want to understand you."

Koharu had to look away to hide the reddening of her cheeks, and forced herself to laugh and play it off. "C'mon, don't say stuff like that. Be still my heart!" Resisting the urge to shuffle her hair into her face, Koharu looked up towards the sky instead, the evening warm with oranges and pinks. "There's nothing to understand. I've always wanted to be a hero. It was my dream before I even knew what dreams were."

"Your brother is a lot older than you," Midoriya tossed out, and Koharu quickly caught onto his meaning. "And your hero costume looks a lot like his."

"You caught me," she said with a chuckle. "I don't hide the fact that I admire Eraserhead, but I'm not just some little kid chasing after their big brother. Maybe it started out that way but…"

She paused, the real story on her tongue not one she was ready to tell just yet.

"There was a time in my life where I thought I was hopeless. But then Eraserhead saved me, and he showed me that I had the power to never feel that way again. I guess that I want to do the same thing— I want to be the hero that shows people that they can do it, too."

Koharu looked over to find Midoriya smiling at her, and she smiled in response.

"That does sound like you," he said. "That's how you make me feel." This time, he was the one to look away, his gaze snapping to where the sun was disappearing on the horizon as his cheeks tinted the same hues as the sky. "I-I— I mean… you're always so encouraging! Even when you didn't know anything about me, you told me that I could do it. That felt really great."

"Well, of course you can do it," she dismissed with a wave. "You've got a total presence about you."

"A pr—pre-presence?!"

Koharu giggled, covering her laughter with a bandaged hand. "Yeah, course, Deku. You can do it!"

Midoriya pushed his fingers together, fidgeting with the attention. "Uh," he began to stammer. Suddenly his hands were moving back and forth in a nervous twitch as he explained, "My real name is Izuku, but D-Deku is what Kacchan calls me to make fun of me…"

"It's an insult?" Iida asked, regarding Midoriya seriously.

"Oh, is that so?" Uraraka said, looking guilty. "I'm sorry!"

Koharu hiked up her backpack a bit, starting to regret carrying it over one-shoulder no matter how cool she thought she looked. "Y'know, 'Deku' sounds a lot like the word for 'you can do it'," she added in, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Beside her, Uraraka began to nod along vigorously, making Koharu smile. "It's actually kind of cool!"

Midoriya turned a bright red and shouted, "I'm Deku!"

Midoriya was smiling now, too. "That's what I mean. Before I met you, I hated that name… now, it feels like something special. Kinda like a gift from you."

"Stop that." Koharu patted her blushing cheeks with the bandaged tips of her fingers. "You're actually killing me here, dude. I don't know how to deal with how nice you are."

"You're nice too—"

"—ha, fuck off!"

"Koharu!" he laughed. "Okay, maybe you're not… family-friendly. But I still think that you're nice."

"Whatever," came Koharu's scoffed reply, though her smile didn't diminish. "You can think whatever you want."

"I think you're amazing," he said, and her heart rocketed to Jupiter.

"I-I'm—" fuck, could her cheeks get any redder. "—what? Shut up. I couldn't even make it past the first round of the tournament today, what are you talking about 'amazing' for… I'm just a pathetic kid, honestly. We've already passed my street twice now, you know."

Midoriya looked up at the buildings around them, and nodded his head. "Yeah, I know— uh! That we've been walking in circles, I mean, not that you're pathetic! I wouldn't ever call you pathetic, I'm sorry—"

With a smile, Koharu bumped Midoriya's arm with her own. "Relax. You're fine. If you knew, why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought that there must be a reason," he responded with a small shrug of his shoulders. "And… I wasn't sure how to ask why you don't want to go home."

"I think that Shouta and I are mad at each other right now," Koharu admitted. She looked down, unable to meet Midoriya's earnest eyes. "You can't tell anyone, but he actually told me to throw the tournament."

"What?" gasped Midoriya. "Why would he do that?"

Koharu raised a hand to consider her fingers. She still couldn't feel anything with them, and she had no idea what sort of scars might lie beneath her bandages. "I guess he thinks that I'm dangerous," she confessed. "And it's true, I guess. He knows me better than anyone— myself included, apparently."

Midoriya reached out, the bandages around his hand mirroring her own. Carefully, he wrapped his fingers around hers. "I don't think you're dangerous, Koharu."

They stopped walking beneath a lamppost, the streetlight beaming down on them like a spotlight as Midoriya held Koharu's hand tightly in his own. Koharu felt her fingertips tingle beneath her bandages.

"To tell you the truth, I think a lot about when you called me an idiot for how I fight," said Midoriya as he considered their hands. "Today, when you were fighting against Shinsou, I think I understood a bit how you felt when you told me that."

Koharu raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling me an idiot?"

Midoriya looked up from their hands, startled. "No! Of course not. I would never call you an idiot!"

"Nah, it's fine. I am pretty stupid," Koharu said with a small shrug of her shoulders. "Today proved that, if nothing else."

"That's not it," Midoriya disagreed again with a rapid shake of his head. "You were amazing! To think that you were capable of utilizing Kacchan's Quirk from such a distance, and to such an extent— with the right people beside you, I don't think there's a building you wouldn't be able to stop from falling! Not only that, but if you could utilize a Healing Quirk, you would be able to negate any damage you might take— although, they're so rare and of course, you have to consider the stamina cost..."

"Midoriya," she cut off with a hopeless smile. "You're starting to mumble."

"Sorry!" he squeaked. This time, he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Like I said, you were amazing, but... it was scary seeing you get hurt like that. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Koharu raised an eyebrow. "You're going to tell me not to use your Quirk, right?" Midoriya's eyes widened a fraction, and Koharu laughed. "That Bakubrat beat you to it. And… to tell you the truth, I think I did as well."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Do you remember at U.S.J., when—" she paused and smiled with self-deprecation. "Well, of course you remember, but… that last second, when I thought that you might get hit by Shigaraki's Quirk, I tried to Switch yours and his."

Midoriya gaped at her, and stammered, "I—I didn't know, I didn't feel anything."

"But I did," replied Koharu. "I think that I took your Quirk instead of Switching anything, and it almost broke my legs. But I couldn't take your Quirk from you— my body couldn't handle it, just like yours can't either."

Koharu still remembered the phantom pain, the sound of a gunshot piercing the air and her certainty that she had been hit. It had kept her up that night, not with the pain but with the memory of something wrong about Midoriya's Quirk and her own.

She nearly missed the look of panic on Midoriya's face, until her accusatory eyes turned towards his own. She plowed on regardless. "You're like me, aren't you? Your Quirk destroys your body because it isn't your own."

"W—what? I— no, I—"

"Don't bullshit me." Koharu tightened her grip around Midoriya's hand until she could feel her palm tingle again. "I've been studying you just as much as you study everyone else. I was never certain because I've never felt the effects myself, but after using Bakugou's Quirk, I just have this feeling... your Quirk was stolen, wasn't it?"

Midoriya's face was pale, and he tugged his hand from Koharu's to wave his hands frantically in front of him. "No! It's not anything like that, I-I didn't steal anything!"

"Midoriya," she said, and took both his hands into her own to stop his movements. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like I'm accusing you of something unsavoury. I just— I want to understand you too, y'know? I'm your friend. You can trust me with anything."

Their eyes met, Midoriya's imploring and Koharu's calm. She smiled, and squeezed his hands gently with her own until his cheeks turned a familiar shade of pink. Silence stretched between them, but Koharu saw his thoughts racing behind his eyes. She kept up her smile, patient, wondering, until finally—

"Okay," he said, and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll tell you. But you can't tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you— I'm really serious, Koharu, you have to promise not to say anything, not even to Aizawa-sensei."

"I won't," she promised. "You can trust me. I promise."

Neither of them could have known how that moment beneath the lamppost would irrevocably change their relationship, and their lives, for good. All they knew was that the setting sky matched the colour of their cheeks as they leaned their heads together, nothing between them but whispered secrets, racing hearts, and tingling hands.

xox

Shouta was not having a great day.

Between fighting with his sister, watching her nearly blow herself up, and having her ignore all of his calls, his heart could truly take no more.

He would firmly blame all of the day's events for his unhurried reaction to coming home and finding a strange silhouetted figure sitting on his couch.

"Fuck!" he shouted, tripping through the entryway and stubbing his toe against the raised step. "Would you just fuck off?!"

"My, my," the silhouette drawled in a distinctly feminine voice. "What a relaxed hero you are. What if I was here to kill you?"

Shouta flicked on the lights, revealing the curvacious woman making herself at home in his living room. Sango sat with her arms and legs crossed, her signature leather jacket nowhere to be found and her hair pulled up into a high ponytail that made her face look even sharper than usual. Despite her easy tone, the unmistakable edges of a scowl were pulling at her brows.

"What are you doing here, Sango?"

"I'm here to talk to you about your sister," she claimed, picking at her nails with a feigned indifference. "You know, the last I heard from you, she was Quirkless."

Shouta sighed and slumped against the door-frame. "Things changed. She was just a late bloomer."

"Was she?" Sango replied, looking up at him with sharp eyes. "Or were you too busy grieving to notice any differently?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he responded, glad that his wrapped face hid his own scowl. "Why don't you just say what you mean rather than beating around the bush?"

"Your father's Quirk," Sango said, and Shouta held his breath. "It's Koharu's now, isn't it?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Don't be ignorant!"

Shouta stood up straight. "Just what are you trying to say, Sango?"

"You know exactly what I'm trying to say," responded Sango, standing from the sofa. She scowled and kept her arms crossed tightly across her chest, as though holding herself back from hitting him. "We both saw what she did today, and we both know what your father's Quirk looked like. So why don't you tell me how Koharu ended up Weightless?"

"This isn't any of your business—"

"Fuck that!" Sango burst, her voice echoing off the walls. "I let you push me away when she was a kid, but you've fucked it up on your own. Koharu told me what you did today—"

Shouta stepped forward, fury in his eyes. "When did you talk to Koharu?"

"When do you think?" she retorted. "She left campus after she lost her match. I followed her, talked her down, and brought her back. You're welcome, by the way," she added with a sneer. "She's confused, and she's scared, and after today, she doesn't feel like she can turn to you for help. And she's right! What the hell were you thinking, Shouta?"

"Like I said," he coldly replied, "This isn't any of your business. I appreciate you sending Koharu back to school, but I don't need you to—"

"Enough, Shouta." Sango interrupted firmly. "I don't care what you think you need. I care about what Koharu needs, because someone clearly has to. I'm taking over her training."

"I'm her teacher," he reminded her, biting out the words. "Not only that, but I'm her guardian. You can't just take over her training like it's nothing—"

"Sorry, but the choice isn't yours to make," said Sango, not sounding sorry at all. "It's Koharu's. Double-Punch will be putting in an offer to train Koharu, and Koharu is going to take it. I'm not here to ask for your permission— or your forgiveness, for that matter."

"Then what are you here for?"

Sango shook her head slowly, and the look of disappointment on her face brought back memories from a decade prior, the two of them standing in the same place and tears in both of their eyes—

There were no tears in her eyes this time. The distance between them felt cavernous as Sango replied, "You really let her down, Shouta. Keep this up, and you'll lose her too. It's about time for you to grow up." Sango sniffed, her nose held high in the air. "I'll see myself out."

And then she was gone, leaving Shouta alone in an all-too-quiet apartment with his all-too-loud thoughts. With a heavy sigh, he took her place upon the couch. The cushions were still warm from her body, and he wondered just how long she had been waiting in the dark for him.

He sighed again, dropped his head back, and resolved himself to do the same.

chapter end

Emocean: wb! Don't worry, Koharu will have time for her revenge :) I'm glad you are enjoying, and thanks for the review! xo

M: wb! I'm so happy you're enjoying Koharu's friendships. Koharu and Shouta's confrontation will be next chapter for sure, so look forward to it! Thank you! xo

habiben: Thank you for your review, it inspired me a lot to get back into writing. I hope you'll continue to enjoy Act II! xo