Waking up normally was not the most exciting thing in the world. Normally, it was the exact opposite. No matter how well you slept, no matter how disciplined you were and no matter at what time you awoke... nobody woke up and felt like jumping out of their bed with a summersault and whatever else boundless energy would make you do.

Izuku Midoriya might be the exception. At least for now. It was going, relatively normal really. The alarm went off, he groggily opened his eyes, trying to resolve himself to rise up early, as he did every day. Normally, this was the part where he would grab his phone, scroll through various sites for a few minutes before getting up... This time however...

He would not even dare unlock his phone, not even turning on the screen. Lying in bed like a statue frozen in place he looked at one thing and one thing only. That little light at the corner of the device that steadily blinked like a heartbeat... He got a message... or maybe worse... he might have gotten a reply!

Anxiously he stared at the blinking light, his hands feeling like they would start shaking any second, if they weren't already and he didn't notice until now. For some reason that was even more nerve wracking than typing the actual message. Like getting an exam back, not knowing how well you did on it...

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. In the end, it was just a text message. Nothing serious... right? So he unlocked the phone... and almost locked it again. Regardless, he could feel the heat rise into his head as he threw himself onto the other side of his bed, pressing his face into the pillow.

He hadn't really been able to read what was written, but he had gotten far enough. There was the reply. The sender was Toga. And here he thought he was prepared. He thought. He was wrong. There was a sound that wanted to press itself out of his throat but he kept it under wraps. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up the whole dorm with his inhuman screeching, because he got a text message back.

So with all the pressure mounting in his chest, he unlocked his phone a second time, opening the text messenger and just read:

"Hi Izu~! ?"

He looked at it. He stared at it. Somehow, he shouldn't be surprised. Somehow he actually was. He had gotten a reply and it was... It was too early in the morning to use his brain. The message had shocked him awake, yes, but that didn't mean in any way that he was functioning right about now.

If anything now he somehow felt lightheaded, incredibly tired even though he had just woken up. There had been a weight on his chest that had been lifted. It was not much but it was definitely there!

Then it dawned on him. Slowly. Surely. Inevitably. That meant he still had to reply. He didn't even really start a conversation. He just sent her a message.

Aaaand there was the weight again. It was one thing to start a conversation when nervous when you were PHYSICALLY next to each other. A totally different thing, however, when you both were only in that nebulous space that was the digital world. What the hell was he supposed to talk about with her? Maybe just how are you? He typed it out for a moment... then deleted it. That sounded... off. Too formal, but not really that...

Maybe...No. Asking how she got her number into his phone? That would... probably sound way too angry for what he was going for. Although... Did he mind? This was, after all, exciting. Even if it was somewhat wrong.

He pushed that thought to the side quickly instead choosing to maybe write up another question. Even if he asked, there was no way of knowing if she was lying to him. She could certainly. He didn't want to give her the chance or the need to. He was curious but he didn't want to know. Instead he wanted to focus on the fuzzy feeling it was giving him instead.

Now he kinda wished he could ask somebody for advice. He had no experience writing with anybody like that. Especially not with all the baggage that was coming with their current situation. Normally, he would not even feel that uncomfortable asking either Tsuyu and Ochaco for help, maybe Mina if he felt like he could handle the teasing, but right now... no this was probably not really an option he had.

With a sigh of frustration, he locked his phone, rolled onto his back and looked at the ceiling. Maybe he would need to sit on this for a while. He was not sure how fast Toga expected an answer so... he was taking his time. Patience was a virtue after all. A virtue that he had to practice not only with other people but himself, on occasion.

So he got up, looked around, made his bed, sorted out the clothes for today and... then looked back at his phone. There was no way for him to ignore the phone really. He was going through the motions, but really it was circling around to that thing. He needed to respond, didn't he? It was rude to leave somebody on read...

So there he was, sitting there with his phone in hand, looking at the greeting words she had written. And now to reply:

How did you get this number? Delete. What are you doing? Delete. This IS Toga, right? Delete. Delete. Delete. What am I even writing? Delete.

The last one brought in some catharsis, having written out what he was feeling, that little bit of frustration that needed to be let out otherwise it was starting to clog up his thin pipes. More than his nervousness already did.

With a little sigh, he looked down. The first choice would be the best in the end. A response was better than no response, right? She would hopefully take it the right way.

"How are you?" Sent.

That was it. Right? That meant he could go about his day now. At least it felt that way in a way. It was at least enough for him to get up and actually start his day off properly. Getting washed, brushing his teeth, getting dressed properly before he got back into his room and a familiar blinking light.

"? I'm doing just fine! Wbu?!"

This was... so much easier now for some reason. It was just a hurdle he had to climb at the beginning it seemed.

"Good. Getting ready for the day."

That felt like it was vague enough to not feel like he was saying too much. After all this... was still all kinds of weird to him. Not the writing itself but who he was writing. That everything was comparatively normal did not help that fact either probably.

He sat down on his bed as he immediately saw the sign on the screen. Toga was already typing back at him, clearly having waited for his response.

"Ooooh~ what's the plan?"

He was not quite sure how to reply at first. There was a strange bit of noise in his head that wanted to make him sound interesting. A little bit of a whisper that lying for that end might not even be bad. A stern reminder that embellishment is better because it was still the truth, before he consciously shut down all of those ideas.

"Going to get breakfast now. You?"

That seemed more truthful as he got up from his bed, sliding the phone into his pocket as he was about to leave the room, when he felt it vibrating against his thigh. While opening the door he looked down towards the text.

"Occupying my Izu~"

That felt... weird. Like a blush without the heat in his face, almost like it was stuck in his stomach for a moment, before the feeling passed, refusing to be introspective or identified.

"... is it working?"

With his phone still in his hand he made his way downstairs, watching the small dots jumping up and down as she was typing, hoping that he would not find a wall in front of his face or a distinct lack of floor underneath his feet when he started taking the steps.

"You tell me ;PPP"

Needless to say, he almost fell down the stairs at this point as his foot was gracing the edge of one particular step. At least it wizened him up to at least wait until he was at the bottom of the staircase before he replied, his heart still thumping up into his head... mostly from almost tripping.

"Works phenomenally."

It did not even take half a second for her to reply to that.

"? ﾟﾥﾰ?"

Walking towards the fridge he started making himself some breakfast, meaning, mostly cereal with milk, eating it slowly while he thought of a reply, a smile plastered on his face, while he sat there, alone. He was, after all, the early bird of the dorm. For the better really. What would happen if they saw him sit there with his phone, grinning like an idiot. Speaking of getting up...

"Why are you waking up early?"

If he would focus, he might be able to hear the slow footsteps of Iida and Kacchan getting up. Not many people were used to being awake this early. Or so he thought. The sun hadn't even properly risen yet.

"I haven't even gone to bed yet ?"

For some reason, and he couldn't help himself, he just felt laughter rise in his throat, something he had to fight down hard, lest he would choke on it or spit all that milk over the table. Neither sounded too much fun. Somehow, he should have expected that response, yet he walked right into that.

"Aren't you tired yet?"

"Nah, I got a bit more juice to keep me going"

"You should probably go to sleep though..."

He tried to put his worried tone into the text the best he could. For a moment, he thought about adding an emoji, which was not usually his style, but he was already far out of his comfort zone with the... underlying emotion of this conversation so might as well try? In the end, he decided against it.

"Awww... don't you wanna talk with me anymore?"

How did she jump to that conclusion? Although she might be just teasing him. He was not quite sure. Either way, he probably should disarm that situation a little bit. His thumb raised over the keyboard as if speed mattered in the response:

"Of course I do... just want you to stay healthy."

If she was still awake, though, that probably was a nice sentiment but also probably a bit late. Now that he thought about it, she did have a bit of bags under her eyes every time he had seen her. Before she could even add a reply he asked:

"Are you staying up this late often?"

"Yeah. Are you up this early this often?"

"Yeah."

"Shouldn't you try and get more sleep?"

Ah, okay now she was turning this around on him. For some reason, he got the feeling of both concern and mischief from her side. On the one hand, she could definitely enjoy having used her own argument against him... on the other, of course there was always a bit of physical discomfort for getting up so early and if that was healthy was also up for debate.

"Touché :P"

"What are you even getting up so early for?"

For a moment, he thought about not really explaining it. What if he was giving intel, what if they learned he was up this early already then... but then it occurred to him, that it was neither really good intel, nor that it really mattered either way. He had already decided to trust her to this degree. She already knew he was awake. He was writing with her.

"Getting breakfast, waking up well before school and having time to work out a little bit."

"Every day?"

It had been... pretty much every day, for the last couple of months... probably up to a year or longer now. Ever since All Might dropped into his life, at least when he did so in person.

"Pretty much yeah." was his only response there. It was that after all. There was not really a way around it in this way.

"This feels like talking to an alien. How?! ?"

The fact that she sounded somewhat excited about this somehow was putting a smile on his face. He knew of course, that him being up so early was a bit weird for a teen, but come on, she was taking it a bit too far! And somehow he couldn't help but love it. Somehow it felt almost like a compliment in that sense.

"Just getting up... get yourself an alarm. You will manage."

"I can't get up at 12 PM with multiple alarms. And people say I am the crazy one."

He was just about finished with his breakfast for now, just smiling as he was texting Toga back. Slowly Iida and Bakugo started to enter the room, sleep hanging over their faces like a cloud as they tiredly greeted him. It was at least a sign for him to get up and start training, bringing his bowl to the kitchen and washing it off before making his way outside.

Here and there he would feel the vibration of his phone, quickly texting Toga back before sliding it back into his pocket, feeling a little bit happy each time. A small smile was like permanently carved onto his face, no matter how hard he was pushing himself.

It was then, when he was about to go to school that Toga finally wrote her final:

"Keep thinking about me, Izuuuu~ ?"

Before she went to bed, leaving Deku to feel strangely... empty. As if to say goodbye to a friend at the end of the day. Like Bakugo used to when they were small... that thought just added a little bit more punch to the feeling... Even if maybe it was a tiny bit different.

For a moment, he pondered on it, trying to understand what was going on inside himself before he just slid the phone into his pocket and made his way back to his room and went about his day from there.

It was probably not the best idea to train now, that his mind was racing still from the interaction he just had, but he couldn't exactly skip today either. By the time he was finished with the training and got ready for school, his workout wasn't the only thing left that kept a healthy red glow on his cheeks.

At least a quick jump into the shower, helped him cool down a little. As shocking as stepping under the cold shower was, it did wonders for his mind. From there it started off as another day at school. Another day of challenges and studying... And a little distraction in his pocket that Izuku couldn't wait for.

And the question most prominent in his mind: Would that start being a daily thing?

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