"Winter break, finally!" Midoriya exclaimed in his head as he dashed off his middle school campus. He was planning on going straight home today instead of scouting for villain occurrences like he would, he wanted to go straight home. But that was before he got a text.

Tsuyu: Hey wanna come over to my house today?

He stared at his phone for a while. "Well of course I want to go. I wonder why today though?"

Izuku: Sure (^^)! What's the occasion?

Tsuyu: Well I've been thinking

Izuku: I've done that before

Tsuyu: Really? I hadn't noticed

Midoriya treasured the interactions they had where they just sent retorts back and forth, and this one was no different. He smiled warmly at his phone.

Izuku: Ouch (;^;)

Tsuyu: Anyway I was thinking about how many times I've been to your place

Tsuyu: But you haven't been to mine

Tsuyu: So I thought maybe you wanted to come over some time

Izuku: Yeah (^∀^)! I'll be there soon what's your address?

Asui texted him her address and slumped onto her bed. She had just gotten home and texted him on a whim, not thinking this through at all. Now she was nervous about the whole situation. She got up and started getting ready for her friend's arrival.

Midoriya, on the other hand, was excited to go to her house. The only other person's house he ever visited was Bakugou's, and… they're something. He checked where her house was and found that it was only 10 minutes from where he was by bus, and was lucky enough that the buses were very active after school got out. One bus ride later and he walked over to the house in question. He knocked on the door and…

"Hm?" Two large eyes bore into Midoriya's skull as he stared down at the young girl. A long silence followed.

"Huh, Tsu never mentioned that she had a younger sister. She's cute, like Tsu. …huh, where'd that come from?"

Midoriya finally opened his mouth, "Uh, h-hi there! W-what's your name?"

Before she could answer, another young male voice spoke up behind her, "Shut the door Satsuki, ribbit…"

"And a brother?! She hasn't told me anything about her home life!"

"But there's someone here!" the young girl replied.

"Whatever…" the voice trailed away.

"So you're name's Satsuki," Midoriya asked, receiving a nod in response. "Ah, well I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I'm looking for your sister."

"Oh!" Satsuki ran off. "Tsu! There's a boy here for you! Uhh… Iz… Izumi Doriya! Yeah!" She ran back. "She'll be here in a moment."

Asui was in the kitchen making a snack for her siblings when Satsuki ran in. After she left, Asui was left confused. "Izumi? That's not even a boy's name, that's… oh, Izuku! Duh, I was the one to invite him over. Wait, he's here? Dammit, I already started cooking, I thought I had more time! Umm… crap, this is bad! Maybe he'll want to cook with me? That sounds dumb. Well, I better not keep him waiting…" she sighed and walked to the door.

"Oh hey Tsu! How are you?" Midoriya greeted.

"Hey Izuku, come in," she fumbled with herself for a moment, "Ribbit, I hope you don't mind, but… I'm cooking something right now. I didn't think you'd be here so early…" she said remorsefully.

"Huh? I don't mind at all!" he flashed his bright smile yet again. "Do you need any help?"

"No, I should be done soon. It's just soup," she replied, relieved that he wasn't bothered by her cooking while he was there. They arrived in the kitchen and she resumed stirring the pot of soup.

"So," Midoriya started, "you never told me you had siblings."

"Huh? I guess it never came up."

"I guess not…" Midoriya watched as a boy walked into the kitchen.

"Sis, are you almost done, ribbit?" he grabbed a glass of water.

"Almost, I'll let you know when it's ready," Asui smiled.

"Cool," he said into his cup as he walked away.

"What's his name?" Midoriya asked. "I met your sister already, but I haven't seen him yet."

"That's Samidare," she answered, "he's getting old. He's already 10."

"Hm, are there any more siblings hiding out?" Midoriya teased.

"Nope, just us three," Asui said, "my parents are off on another work trip."

"Another? So I take it that it's just you three pretty often then?"

"Yeah, but I don't mind. I have every right to be spiteful of my parents, leaving me two children to raise, but… it's not like they're gone all the time, and I can handle these two."

"Wow," Midoriya smiled, "that's very noble of you. I couldn't handle two kids like this on my own, not without some guidance or something."

"It's really not as bad as it sounds," Asui began pouring the soup into a couple of bowls before calling her siblings in to grab them. "Here, let's go to my room while they eat."

They walked into Asui's room, and sat down on the bed, though Midoriya was a bit hesitant to do so.

"So what do you want to do?" Midoriya asked, feeling a little uncomfortable. He had never been in a girl's room before, so he felt just a bit nervous sitting next to his best friend on her bed.

"Oh, there's this old anime I wanted you to see, I think you'll like it," Asui broke out a DVD set and set everything up for them to watch. Midoriya was immediately hooked by the show: buff guys with spiky black hair fighting other spiky black-haired guys to protect the planet, how much more heroic can you get? They both got comfortable on the bed. Asui laid down and Midoriya scooted back so his back rested against the headboard.

They watched for a couple hours before they both grew sleepy. Midoriya passed out first, feeling tired from All Might's training getting more intense over the past week. Fearing that he would fall asleep and fall over, he repositioned himself so that he was laying on his front like Asui, right next to her. He tried really hard to not make it weird, but his mind was racing. Eventually though, his exhaustion took over and he fell asleep.

Asui noticed that he had fallen asleep as her eyelids grew heavy. She scooted closer to him subtly and passed out with him.

Midoriya woke up first, after getting a nice nap. He didn't open his eyes but went to stretch his arms, finding them to be met with a resistance. He gave up pretty quickly and nestled into the warmth beside him, still not totally awake and unwilling to try and figure out what the warmth was.

As Midoriya leaned into the warmth, he slipped back to sleep and began dreaming of himself walking up to UA for the entrance exam. He was holding someone's hand. He traced the arm and saw Asui smiling up at him. He felt his face heat up as they kept walking forward together. Once they reached the gates of the school, they stopped, though Midoriya had no idea why. Suddenly, Asui hugged him very tightly, to which he hugged back. As they were separating, she kissed him on the cheek.

He immediately shot awake. His eyes sprung open and he stared at the sleeping girl who smooched him in his dreams, holding onto him. His face couldn't burn a brighter red. He was about to pry her arms off of him before he watched her rub her face into his chest. Now his face couldn't get any brighter. He decided to ignore the embarrassment and try to enjoy the moment, wrapping his arms around her and closing his eyes, thinking about his short dream.

"Umm w-what just happened? Why did that happen? I-I d-don't know what came over me, I-I j-just uh… w-why… it was… nice. W-what does this mean?! What's happening? …Is it wrong that I liked it? …What kinda question is that?! Of course it's wrong, I'm perverting my best friend! I shouldn't think of things like that… But… only couples kiss like that, right? Does that mean—" His thoughts were stopped when he felt stirring next to him.

He opened his eyes to see the half-lidded eyes of his best friend returning to the waking world. She removed her arms from his body to wipe the sleep out of her eyes and stretch, and the moment she was committed to coherent thought, she realized what was going on. She immediately slid away from him in embarrassment, her blush firing off just as intensely as Midoriya's was just a moment ago. He also pushed was, almost falling off the bed, before sitting up.

Silence enveloped the room just as they had enveloped each other just moments before. Asui checked her clock and saw that it was 6:30.

"Ribbit?! I need to start dinner!" Asui exclaimed. The moment Midoriya heard the word "dinner", he had an idea.

"Hey, do you have pork and rice? And bread crumbs?" he asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I think so, why?" she inquired.

"Then you don't have to worry about dinner, I'll make katsudon!" he smiled triumphantly.

"Isn't katsudon a lunch food?"

"I mean, what does it matter? Do you not like it?" Midoriya suddenly got worried. He just assumed that everyone liked katsudon.

"No, it's just a little weird," she knew that he liked katsudon a whole lot, but she figured that maybe she underestimated his love for the food.

"Well would you mind if I made dinner then?" he asked earnestly.

"That'd be nice Izuku, thanks," they left her room and back to the kitchen. She helped him get all of the materials out (he offered to make dinner without realizing that he didn't know where anything was), and he got to cooking.

Asui was impressed with how talented Midoriya was in the kitchen. Then she found out that he only knows how to make katsudon. That would be less impressive, but then she found out that he had been honing his craft for about 8 years now.

She smiled as he dipped the pork into the broth. "That was sweet of him to offer to make dinner. And he seems to really know what he's doing. He's too pure for this world…" she grinned, daydreaming and completely unaware that Midoriya noticed her staring at him again. Once he finally finished the preparation, he let the food cook and sat down with Asui.

"So, it'll be about half an hour until it's ready," he said to her.

"Alright," she smiled at him. Suddenly, Satsuki walked in.

"Sis, is dinner almost ready?"

"It's another thirty minutes," Asui murmured.

"Aww…" Satsuki flopped to the floor. She picked herself back up and started staring at Midoriya. "Sis, is he gonna show up here a lot? Like Habuko?"

Asui frowned, "I don't know, only if he wants to."

Midoriya noticed her frown but smiled and hoped that it stuck with her as well, "If you'll have me, I'd love to come by more often."

"Yay!" Satsuki cheered, "the green boy's gonna stay!" She paused for a moment. "Will Habuko ever come back? I miss her…"

Midoriya watched as Asui began visibly struggling, "I miss her too, but H-Habuko's not coming back…"

"Aww… where'd she go? Did she go to—" Satsuki stopped when she saw her sister's face, and left the kitchen. Asui dropped her head onto the table they were sitting at and began sobbing. Midoriya put his hand on her back shakily and rubbed circles to try and calm her down.

"I-I don't want to force you to talk about anything you don't want to, b-but…" Midoriya paused, "w-who's Habuko?"

Asui looked up and tried to muster a smile, putting her hand on Midoriya's shoulder, "She was… my best friend. I didn't have any friends before her, I never had time taking care of my siblings. I've only been able to go to your place because my parents have been home more frequently recently… but Habuko made an effort to talk to me. Well, ribbit, she stalked me," she giggled a bit through her tears. "But she knew that I didn't have any friends. She didn't have any friends either, she was… socially awkward…" she smiled remorsefully.

"Heh heh, you seem to have a knack for picking up socially awkward people," Midoriya joked, and they both laughed together, lightening the mood.

"We spent a lot of time together, she visited often because I had to be here with my brother and sister. But she still struggled with her self-esteem—everyone was afraid of her… then one day, about a year and a half ago, I met with her before school… she wasn't feeling well, and she had a certain… eerie look in her eyes…" she choked out, the tears flowing more freely. "I c-could see the pain in her eyes, the pain of being ostracized by everyone else at school. Sh-she asked to go to the health office during the day and went home early… and, and when I called her to ask if she was ok…" she buckled suddenly, bawling loudly. Midoriya scooted his chair over to her and pulled her toward him, grabbing her shoulder and rubbing it gently. "She… she had hanged herself! She was gone! …I-I lost my only fr-friend…!" she started bawling into Midoriya's shoulder and he returned to rubbing her back.

"I-I couldn't… couldn't believe what was happening…" she said between gasps and sobs. "I-it felt fake, l-like the world… was playing a trick on me… i-it couldn't be real… I-I'm most upset with m-myself… I saw h-how bad she was doing! And I didn't do anything to save her! I could've saved her!" she fell into another choked up sob. "… I miss her… I would give up almost anything to see her again… just once… then I could tell her th-that I'm sorry…!" Midoriya held her a little tighter as she began sobbing again, rocking back and forth to try and ease her pain.

"I… I will never be Habuko," he started, and squeezed his necklace medallion tightly, "but I'm here. I'm here for you. I can't replace her, but I want to be there for you. You… you've been there for me so many times. I want to be there for you." He squeezed tighter on his necklace. "You're such a great person!" he started shouting, "You shouldn't have to suffer like this! …I want to help you so you don't have to feel like this… I want to save you, to be your hero…"

Asui sniffled, wiped her eyes, and hugged Midoriya, "Izuku, th-thank you. You're already my hero. And more importantly, you're my friend," she smiled at him. "Wow, I sound like a bad anime protagonist… but I mean it. Like Habuko was, you're important to me Izuku, ribbit." Midoriya began tearing up after hearing that. They separated after a while and calmed down.

After the thirty minutes passed, Midoriya dished out four bowls of katsudon and they all sat down and ate together. Satsuki asked Midoriya a lot of questions about himself, and Samidare kept winking at his older sister. She was afraid that she knew exactly why he was winking.

They finished eating and Midoriya said that he had to go, and got up to leave. Asui followed him to the door and opened it for him. She, on his way out, was struck with the sudden urge to kiss him on the cheek, but resisted the temptation as she waved goodbye to her best friends.

Acceptance.