Three days after the start of winter break, it snowed in Musutafu.

It was no small flurry, either. The flakes began to fall at 9 PM, and continued throughout the night, until a whole dumping of the stuff, eight centimeters deep, had settled in the morning as the sun came up.

Class A's earliest risers, Momo, Shoji, and Aoyama, noticed it first. Blankets of white out over UA's formerly green campus. They alerted the others, and suddenly people like Mina and Kaminari were up far earlier than they would normally be on a day during break.

"Hey, Deku!" Uraraka called to him, bouncing up to where he was standing by the kitchen counter. "I think everybody's gonna put on their winter clothes and go out to play in the snow. You coming with?"

"Err, maybe later." Izuku stared out the window into the white. "Not that I don't like the snow, but I need some time to myself to think this morning. Sorry, Uraraka."

She seemed hurt for a moment, but then said, "That's fine, Deku. If it's anything I can help with…just let me know, okay?"

And then she bounced away, as fast as she'd appeared. After over a year of friendship, she still sometimes surprised him with how quickly she could sneak up.

And yet…the way I feel about her is not the same way I feel about…

He couldn't get Yui Kodai out of his mind. He was comparing the two because both were girls, and they even sort of looked similar. And they activate their Quirks the same way. Hmm. If he told Todoroki about this, the boy might go off the deep end again and make another conspiracy board.

But still, why couldn't he stop thinking about her? Is my brain just running on hyperdrive again? He'd had a desire to improve her notebook entry but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Often, if Izuku's brain thought about doing a task, it would focus on nothing else until he actually took care of it. But this time felt different from the other times that had happened.

She's officially the person in Class B I've said the most words to now, I think. Isn't that ironic? Considering how quiet and withdrawn she was.

That was it…Yui was withdrawn. Withdrawn and mysterious. He wanted to know more about her. That curiosity…it had simply never been there with Uraraka or Iida, since they were so talkative. You got a grip on their personality and experiences really quickly. He'd felt a similar draw to Tsuyu back in the early days, but she'd quickly (and bluntly) divulged a lot about herself as well.

Those were three of his four closest friends. The last was Todoroki, who was sort of a special case, since they'd become friends and learned about each other through fighting. He had to dismiss it.

So, I want to be her friend. But it is going to be one hundred times more difficult than making friends with the others. Not just because she's in a different class, but because I'm the one who will have to take all the initiative.

That was the reason his brain was hyperfixating on her. Definitely. It couldn't possibly be anything else.

Izuku blushed, and went back upstairs.

He decided that he still wanted to enjoy the weather, even if he was going to work on his notebook away from everyone else. But he couldn't go back to ground level. He could hear them out there, pelting snowballs at each other and such. They would ask him to join in, and there would be an awkward moment. No, better to find someplace else…

He opened the notebook, and stared at Kodai's page again.

The roof! The roof it is.

He went up to the trapdoor, now dressed in a hat and coat and gloves. He knew it would still be broken and easily pushed open, since he still had the shrunken padlock on him. He kept forgetting to ask Yaoyorozu to make a new one…mainly because his mind had been elsewhere. Still, this was lucky.

Poking up out of the trapdoor, he was immediately greeted with a rush of cold, biting wind. Overhead, the sky was completely grey, combining with the white snow below which covered everything to create some kind of ethereal dreamscape. His boot pressed against the concrete, carving through the soft layer of snow. It was several centimeters deep. A lot must have fallen. At least it's stopped now. Though the wind was still blowing, at least he wouldn't be out here in a blizzard, wet snowflakes landing on his notebook pages.

He closed the trapdoor behind him to keep the cold air out of the building and walked over to the edge of the roof. His boots left prints in the snow. He hoped those wouldn't be visible from the school building, which was higher up the hill from the dorms.

At the edge of the roof, he hung his legs over and opened his notebook to work on it. Somewhere off to his right, he could hear Ashido's trademark cackling, and then a scream that might have been Kaminari or Sero. He hoped they didn't come around to the back of the building and spot him. Then again, it's a snowball fight, so there's gonna be a lot of movement. A bit nervously, he pulled his legs back, scooting away from the edge to make himself less visible. Just in case.

He added a few sentences to Yui's profile. Most notably, he added, Can choose to talk a bit more if she wants to.

That was another thing. She'd chosen to say quite a lot to him that night on the roof. And then, again…she'd actually asked him about Bakugo. She'd asked him a personal question. Had anyone else ever had Yui Kodai ask them a personal question? What could the meaning of that be?

She wanted to talk to me.

Still, a few measly sentences just wasn't enough. He simply didn't know enough about her to make her profile as elaborate as those in Class A, or even Kendo's. And her drawing still didn't do her justice.

Frustrated, he tilted his head up to the sky…but didn't make it all the way. His head stopped at normal level, because something caught his eye.

On this side of the Class A dorm, a small span of woods thrust up in between the buildings from the main forest, like an outstretched finger. Across those woods was the Class B dorm.

And sitting on the roof of that dorm, several hundred yards away, was Yui Kodai herself.

And she was staring at him.

Izuku got to his feet, his heart racing. He put the notebook in his large coat pocket, debating on what to do. Should I go back inside? No, I can't just leave, that would be awkward…but her staring at me like that is awkward too!

As it always did when he freaked out like this, the most "confident" idea briefly came to him. But he couldn't do that. He just didn't have it in him…

It was reckless, against the rules, and it might freak her out…

But it's the only way forward!

Izuku sighed, crouched, and let One For All course through his body.

…

Yui's eyes widened. Wait. What is he doing?!

She could see the green lightning sparking out from him even from here, proof that his Quirk was activated. Wait, Midoriya wouldn't possibly do that, he's not confident like that and…

But then, he did.

Her shimmering eyes tilted up, her jaw dropped, as she watched Midoriya leap high into the sky with his Quirk, crossing the open span of woods that lay between their dorm buildings.

He plummeted back down toward the Class B roof, and landed with a POW right next to her. His lightning spread out in a release of power, and he kicked up a wave of snow as he landed, bending his knees in an expert landing. Yui felt a shiver pass over her, like goosebumps all over her body.

The snow and lightning cleared out of her vision to reveal him, standing back up straight with a confident grin. "Hello, Kodai," he said. "Funny meeting you here."

She blushed deeply. That was the hottest thing ever. Is he aware of what he's doing to me?

"Hello," she said in a soft voice, barely a whisper that got carried away on the cold wind.

His smile remained, but she thought she saw some color in his cheeks. Just the weather? Or was he having trouble maintaining the facade?

"Sorry, it's just…I s-saw you were looking at me and so I was wondering…if you n-needed to tell me something?" Ah, there was the stutter.

No, I was just staring at you. But she couldn't say that out loud. She'd panicked when he'd noticed her; she hadn't expected him to look up from that notebook he was so engrossed in. Secretly she'd been hoping for a chance for them to…not talk, but just be in each other's presence…but she'd expected him to turn and bolt when he'd noticed her.

But now, he was actually here. So she had to say something.

"Roof buddies stick together, right?" she half-whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. Then, she gently patted the spot on the roof next to where she was sitting.

Midoriya's smile widened, and he let out a genuine laugh that warmed her chest. He sat down where she'd patted. "Roof buddies! I…I like that. I don't know if we should make a habit of this, though…"

After a small pause, Yui said, "Maybe just on snow days."

"Haha, yeah. My whole class is playing out on the other side of the building, but I needed some time to think, but I still wanted to enjoy the day, so I…yeah."

Needed some time to think? "About that?" she asked, pointing at the pocket where she'd seen him put his notebook.

For some reason, he turned red. "Ah…yeah! Just…had some stuff I n-needed to add…"

"Hm." Briefly, Yui wondered in fear if he was some kind of secret pervert, like a more covert version of the short kid from his class. No, I've heard his notebooks are all for hero stuff. I wonder what they look like.

But she'd barely been brave enough to ask him about Bakugo. Considering how flustered he was, the notebook just seemed generally personal, not necessarily in an embarrassing way though. She wouldn't breach his privacy like that.

Still, he looked really cute when he got all into it like that…part of the reason she'd been staring in the first place.

For a long minute, they sat in silence, both staring ahead, listening to the distant sounds of their schoolmates at play. Then, one of the trees below could no longer take the weight of the snow, and one of its branches cracked, falling to the forest floor and kicking up white dust everywhere.

"Ah!" Yui started in surprise, unintentionally letting out a cute little squeak. She looked down at the woods.

Midoriya laughed again. "The t-trees look really nice with all the snow on them, h-huh?"

"Yes," she agreed quietly, staring down at them. Like a winter wonderland.

…

While Kodai stared down at the trees, he could only look at her. Inwardly, he told himself it was for his drawing.

Her blue eyes were wide, inquisitive, searching. Her high, round cheeks were just a tad pink, as was the tip of her slightly angular nose. Her full lips rested together, closed. She was wearing a heavy blue coat that matched her eyes. Covering part of her black bob cut was a cream-colored knitted winter hat, and she had a scarf around her neck that matched. The whole color scheme was just aesthetically pleasing.

…Kodai herself was aesthetically pleasing.

He swallowed a lump in his throat, trying to dismiss the weird thoughts swimming in his brain, and noticed that her hat and scarf looked crocheted. A strange question came to him. "D-did you make those yourself, Kodai?"

She looked back at him in surprise. He was pointing at her scarf and hat. For a moment, they stared into each other's eyes.

Izuku trembled a little under her penetrating stare. His heart was racing a mile a minute for some reason.

Then, her lips turned up a little, and she nodded. "I…I like to…"

"Crochet?" he suggested. She nodded again.

He smiled. "That's really neat, Kodai. I don't know much about it, but they're very good."

She looked away from him, her head down. She seemed to fidget for a moment; it was adorable. "Thank you."

His phone went off. "Ah!" He pulled it out. "Oh man, Iida's looking for me…" He pocketed it, and stood up. "I'm sorry, Kodai. I've got to go. But uhh…I'll…m-maybe I'll see you around."

She smiled enigmatically at him, and nodded. "See you around, roof buddy."

"Haha…yeah…"

And as quickly as he had come, he jumped away, his heart still racing. Why do I feel like this? he wondered. It can't possibly be…that.

…

Yep, thought Yui as she watched him jump away, still just as hot as when he'd done it the first time. It's definitely that.

Being quiet and in her own thoughts meant that Yui Kodai was very in touch with herself. She never spent very long being in denial with herself once she figured something out. And that something, this time, was that she was attracted to Izuku Midoriya.

He's cute, nice, mysterious, and has a weird hot confident side. Plus, he is easier to talk to for some reason. And we have more in common than he realizes.

One small problem, though. Just because he was easier to talk to than some others did not mean he was easy to talk to. Yui Kodai barely found anyone easy to talk to.

She couldn't just come out and say, hey, we have a lot in common actually, we share similar trauma about friendships during grade school and also I know you're hiding your pain behind a mask. That would make him hate her so fast.

Besides, why else would he wear a mask and hide that sort of thing, if not to avoid being pitied or worried over? Boys hated being pitied and worried over. Especially if they were training to be heroes. She couldn't end up with another…with another Saya situation.

He noticed my hat and scarf, she thought distantly, blushing. He complimented them.

It wouldn't be hard to just avoid him and let the feelings drift away on their own. They weren't even in the same class, after all. But…Yui didn't want to avoid him. She wanted to learn more about him. She had only been half-joking with the "roof buddy" thing. She felt like she could just spend time with him up here on these roofs every day and never get tired of it.

I simply don't have enough information to make a decision right now. She would have to find out more about him. Maybe the mysterious factor was most of what he had going for him, and once she knew him better, the feelings would fade away. That might be best for everyone.

The problem was…finding out more about him would require her to be extroverted. She would have to actively seek him out. And how on Earth was she going to do that without Setsuna or Itsuka catching wind of it and harassing her?

Speaking of Setsuna and Itsuka, she ran into them as she returned to the Class B common room.

"There you are, Yui!" said Setsuna. "Oh, and you're already in your winter gear!"

"Hmm?" Yui hummed questioningly. A bunch of their classmates were gathered up in the room, all dressed to go outside.

"Class A is playing out in the snow. We're about to go ambush them with snowballs!" said Monoma. "Join us, Kodai-san!"

"Don't put it like that," Itsuka snapped at him. "It's just a bit of fun, not one of your evil schemes." She turned back to Yui with expectant eyes. "You don't have to come if you don't want to…"

Yui said nothing. She just stepped forward, and blinked.

A wide toothy grin spread across Setsuna's face. "Perfect! Alright, troops! Let's move out!"

This will be good. Even if Midoriya is not there. If the others get used to seeing me in the group setting…it will seem less strange if I try to seek him out in the future.

So Yui joined her classmates, heading out into the snow, towards battle with Class A.

…

I love the idea of Izuku being in denial while Yui immediately knows what she's feeling.

Don't have a schedule on this fic but next time will be lots of fun and fluff in the snow.