It had been about two months since Midoriya began training under All Might. After being scolded for overworking himself and not sticking to All Might's schedule, he eased up a bit. He still managed to spend time with Asui over the weekends by keeping his schoolwork in check. He could feel his muscle mass building, albeit slowly. He was excited at the prospect of getting stronger like this, which pushed him to go further.

It was the middle of June, and summer was in full swing. Asui went out to go enjoy the nice day… and to pick up groceries for her parents. She left really early to avoid any excess foot traffic, despite it being Saturday. She wandered for a bit before making her way to the coastline, admiring the clear water and the sun's glimmering reflection across the ocean's surface as it rose from the horizon. She smiled and thought of Midoriya.

"It's been some time since I met Izuku. I like spending time with him. Oh, that's right! I need to text him about what we're doing tomorrow. We still haven't decided between seeing that new movie or going shopping at the mall. Oh… we almost sound like, like a couple. That's—" she shook the red off her face.

"I just feel bad for him. Life really hasn't handed him any favors. I thought I had it bad… I have a handful of friends at least. Well, some of them are more like acquaintances, but that's only because we don't have that many classes together… right? …no, I shouldn't lie to myself. I only have a few friends, and we aren't all that close. But still! Izuku doesn't have any friends. Well, now he has one friend." She smiled inwardly. "He's just such a good guy. He deserves better than this." She finally looked up from her thoughts and saw the sign "Dagobah Municipal Beach" to her side, and a stairwell down to the garbage-covered beach.

"Huh, this is the trash beach, right? People are filthy, there's so much! … Is that a person down there? Two people? Holy shit is that All Might?" Asui rushed down the stairs to get a better look at the two figures, and ran at them once she recognized the other. She approached the massive figure that was All Might, who was sitting on a broken down car, that was being pulled by a rope by…

"Izuku?" Asui exclaimed, "What are you doing here, ribbit? With All Might?" She did a double take as she saw the two together. Midoriya saw her and immediately collapsed into the sand, no longer inching the car forward. She ran over to help him up.

"T-Tsu! Why are you here? I-I was j-just uh…" he began mumbling half sentences incoherently, unable to find the right words to say.

"Well I was just on a walk to the store when I saw All Might sitting on a car and came to check it out."

"W-well I'm just uh…" he looked to All Might for guidance. The older man had an uneasy expression on, equally unsure of what to do.

Midoriya smiled at him, "It's ok, All Might. We can trust her. She won't tell anyone. She would've found out later anyway, she knows I'm quirkless." All Might still maintained a discontented face, but sighed.

"I guess it can't be helped," he muttered in his booming voice. "Once you share a secret with one person, it inevitably starts spreading." His body started to smoke until he reverted to his withered appearance, which unnerved Asui a bit. "This, young girl, is the real All Might…" he said remorsefully. She nodded at him. He explained his wound and why he couldn't maintain his massive body for so long, before breaking into the abridged speech about One for All that he dealt to Midoriya. Her eyes lit up a bit once she understood the implications for Midoriya.

"Wow…" she touched her finger to her chin, "so you can transfer your quirk, ribbit? That's unheard of!" She turned to Midoriya excitedly, "That means that you're getting a quirk, Izuku! And not just any quirk, but All Might's quirk!" She smiled brightly.

Midoriya reflected her smile like water, "I know! I can't believe it! That's why I'm out here though, I'm working on getting stronger so I can handle One for All, otherwise my body would explode from the sheer power."

Asui cringed at the thought of her friend blowing up, and instead focused on the idea of Midoriya getting stronger. Both in regards to him making headway on his dream, and how he would look. She shook her head and the blush off her face and smiled at her friend, "That would be pretty bad. Mind if I watch you?"

"Huh? I guess not, I'm almost done anyways, right All Might?" The bony man nodded and reassumed his massive, towering form and sat down on the car again, Midoriya tying the rope around his waist. He then continued his struggle to pull the heavy object across the beach. Eventually, he made it to the other side, broke into a sprint as he returned to where he had started, gathered the car's tires, which had been removed, and ran back holding the four rubber wheels. He then grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off his brow, approaching Asui.

"Ok, I'm all done," Midoriya smiled, "you wanna do something today?" He had loosened up around Asui quite a bit over the two months they had spent together. While he still had his stuttering moments, he was a lot more consistent. She was proud that she had brought him out of his shell this much, though he still struggled with touch. They needed to work on that.

"Oh, sure! I just need to pick up some groceries once we're done."

"Ah, ok. We'll I've gotta go shower before anything. Do you want to pick up your groceries now or…" he paused momentarily before regaining his bearings, "… come over to my place?"

Asui paused for a moment and thought with her blank expression. "I'm already pretty far from home, ribbit, it would be more efficient to go to the store later."

"Alright, then let's get going," he smiled nervously before waving goodbye to All Might. Midoriya and Asui called their parents to update them on what was going on.

The train ride to Midoriya's apartment was rather uneventful. Midoriya was incredibly nervous, unable to remember the last time he invited someone over. Asui was incredibly nervous, unable to remember the last time she was invited over. They eventually arrived at the station and walked towards Midoriya's apartment, talking about whether they would see a movie or go to the mall. They settled on the movie.

They arrived outside the apartment and Midoriya knocked on the door gently before opening it, gesturing Asui in.

Midoriya's mother was sitting in front of the TV when she saw a green-haired girl with two huge eyes walk in. She was floored immediately. When she heard her son say that he was coming home with his friend that he'd been spending a lot of time with, Inko was no doubt absolutely ecstatic to meet this new friend, but she didn't expect a girl to step into her home. Her little boy was growing up.

Midoriya stepped in behind Asui and shut the door, "Hi, mom! I'm back!" He smiled and hugged his mom as she approached him.

"Hello Izuku! When you said you were bringing your friend home, I wasn't expecting you to bring such a lovely young lady," Inko smiled, hiding her conniving smirk inwards. She knew what she was doing.

Midoriya was too much of a stuttering mess to answer, but Asui kept a level head and piped up behind her blush, "T-thank you, Mrs. Midoriya."

"Please, call me Inko," she smiled. "And you are?"

"Tsuyu Asui, call me Tsu," she smiled back. Midoriya finally recovered from his mom's comment.

"I-I'm gonna go shower quickly, I'll be back in a moment," he mumbled quickly and left the room.

Inko offered Asui some tea and they sat down in a pleasant silence. That is, until Asui spoke up of course, "Um, I've been wondering, when is Izuku's birthday?"

"His birthday?" Inko replied, "It's July 15th, next month."

"Really?" Asui lit up, "That's perfect!" She gestured towards Inko and whispered something to her, much to her delight. They continued talking until Midoriya returned from his shower in clean clothes.

"Hey Tsu, are you ready to go?" Midoriya called, sitting down and putting his socks on.

"Mm-hmm," she nodded, smiling gently at Midoriya, which didn't go unnoticed by Inko. She stood up and approached him.

"So where are you two going?" Midoriya's mother spoke up.

"Oh, we're going to see that new hero movie!" Midoriya chirped, unaware of the game his mother was playing. Asui, on the other hand, lit up like a Christmas tree on November 1st, torching the entirety of her face as she shifted in place awkwardly, waiting for Midoriya to finish putting his socks on. He then rose from his seat and strolled towards the door, Asui tailing behind him. "Bye mom! We're heading out now!"

"Bye Izuku, have fun!" she smirked.

"Thank you for having me, ribbit," Asui turned and met Inko's eyes, which winked at her. Asui turned an even deeper shade of red, a feat that she didn't even know was possible.

They took a bus this time (you can only ride the train so many times before it gets boring), and sat next to each other towards the back. Asui gave Midoriya the window seat. They sat quietly for a bit before the bus slowed to a halt at its next stop. Midoriya peered out of the window and saw two heroes squaring off with a villain, who evidently just stole a bunch of money. Probably from a convenience store or something, Midoriya guessed. He turned to tell Asui, who was falling asleep. He grabbed her shoulder and shook her awake.

She awoke to Midoriya just inches from her face, one hand on her shoulder and the other waving at a window. Once she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and the blush off her face, she looked at what Midoriya was pointing at.

"Look, look!" he called, "It's a villain trying to escape! But Kamui Woods and Death Arms stopped him! Those two have been out in the scene a lot in the past few months."

"Yeah, they have," Asui murmured. "Think about it though, someday that'll be us out there stopping villains."

"Wow, you're right!" Midoriya shifted in his seat for a moment before his smile faded. "Well, I have to pass the UA exam first. I don't even know if I can do that…"

Asui patted him on the back as the bus began moving again, "Hey, I saw how hard you were working this morning, ribbit. With that kind of determination, you'll do just fine!" She smiled at him. He smiled back, pink tinting his cheeks.

"Heh heh, thanks! It means a lot to hear that from you…" he mumbled quickly. She smiled at his nervous antics as the bus continued on. Eventually, they made it to their stop and walked to the theater.

They bought their tickets and some popcorn and the other standard movie things and entered the theater. It was moderately full, with the movie being fairly new, but the pair had no trouble finding two empty seats in a nice place.

The movie was really interesting and well done. Midoriya noted immediately that the actors were not the actual heroes they were portraying, despite how convincing they looked. Asui was impressed with how quick he figured that out when he explained it to her.

They exchanged comments back and forth occasionally throughout the movie, and Asui couldn't help but feel warm whenever Midoriya spoke to her.

"What is this?" she couldn't help but go red in the face when she recognized the feeling, "My chest feels warm. Like heartburn? No that's different. Like… like that feeling when you see a cute puppy run up to your or something, or when your parents say 'I'm proud of you'. It's so warm. What's happening? Am I having a stroke? That'd be bad, especially since I'm with—" she turned her head to see Midoriya gently munching on their shared popcorn, glued to the screen and oblivious to her staring. Her pulse rate spiked as she could feel her heart leap out of her chest. "I-I, no, right? It's not him, right? I mean, we're best friends, but… I don't… feel that way… about him… right? Right? …Goddammit, I… I caught feelings for my best friend."

The movie finished eventually, as they tend to, and the two friends left the movie theater feeling satisfied with their experience. They both smiled at each other, said their goodbyes and parted ways; Midoriya took the train home and Asui went to get groceries like she initially set out to do.

She ended up buying more broccoli than usual that day.


This is a short chapter but I like it. I'm uh, I'm getting sick of having like 5 characters to write with (and I'm running out of fucking plot but you didn't hear it from me) so I'm gonna do entrance exams soon, probs like Ch6 so uhh yep. Hope you've enjoyed so far.