A/N: Hi hi everyone! Damn, I miss writing these A/N's. It's the only real chance I get to talk to my audience. Just here to say that these next couple of chapters will be focusing on Izuku and Mina's relationship. The much-requested fluff will make its appearances here, and other such things, but nothing shall be spoiled.
I've been looking forwards to having time to write more about the fluff stuff than school stuff in this story, but with the timeline so heavily influenced by studying, it's been hard to fit it in. However, with the 'Shie Hassaikai Arc' coming up next, I want to try and take things down my own path, without straying too far from official events.
Lots to say and so little time to say it, but I'm all done now. So, with that all out the way, enjoy Chapter 44 of 'My Hero'!
Izuku woke slowly the next morning. The feeling of the sun against his face and soft bed covers against his skin welcomed him gently to the morning. Groaning as he rolled over, Izuku brought his arm down onto something warm, or rather, someone.
His eyelids felt like lead, as did the rest of him, but he managed to pry them open, allowing his gaze to witness Mina, sleeping peacefully beside him, her hair even messier than when he'd first got to her room, and her pyjamas twisted awkwardly on her body from where she'd been fidgeting so much.
He felt his insides flutter at the sight of her sleeping next to him. Even after the months that had passed, something about this felt so surreal. Probably because he'd never imagined ever having a relationship like this one. But, as he watched Mina, he felt his fluttering heart drop like a brick in a pond, and he sat bolt upright, his eyelids suddenly not feeling as heavy.
Turning to the bedside table, Izuku stared Mina's alarm clock dead in the face. It stared back, the time of '9:36 AM' burning itself into his eyes. They were late... So unimaginably late.
"Crap!" He exclaimed suddenly, startling Mina awake as he leapt out of her bed like a doe in a meadow.
"Yaaaah! W-What!" Mina exclaimed, her wide eyes full of fear as she clutched the bed covers up to her chest.
"W-We're late for class... Really late." The Greenette stuttered in a blind panic, trying to lean on the desk as he slipped on his slippers, but missing and almost falling into it.
"What? Izuku, we don't have class today." Mina said, her face falling and her eyebrows narrowing to a frown. Izuku stopped dead, his right slipped dangling from his left foot as he looked up at her.
"W-We... Don't?" He asked, his racing heartbeat throbbing in his ears.
"No? Aizawa told us yesterday that, now the exam is over with, we don't have classes anymore..." She said. He didn't feel much comfort from her words, however, thanks to her very unimpressed expression. Not that he blamed her, he'd be somewhat cranky too being woken up as she'd just been.
"No!" She said with a small laugh that he wasn't sure was genuine. "Literally as we got off the bus and in here, he told everyone classes were over so we, like, have three days off completely." She stated. He felt even more disheartened. Only three days left of the summer break for them to well and truly unwind.
It wasn't like he wasn't grateful for the extra classes and training through summer, some truly incredible things had happened, after all. It was more the fact that it felt like it'd gone so fast, and that Term two of their first year was thundering upon them without sympathy.
"Were ya not there for that?" She asked, relaxing back into the corner of the bedhead, and the wall. Izuku took a deep breath and let it out as an inaudible sigh. No, he wasn't there for that. That must've been when he ran into Toga, and took her to see All Might and Nezu.
"What's going on with you? You're a total mess." She said, softening her tone and her expression a little, patting the space in the bed beside her, inviting him to rejoin her, which he did, slowly wandering over with a disgruntled expression.
"Is it that All Might thing ya mentioned earlier?" She asked, watching as he sat heavily at her side, swinging his legs up onto the bed and laying his head back down, staring up at the ceiling. Izuku nodded. He didn't feel like talking really. He'd only just woke up yet already he felt exhausted.
Ever since he and All Might first spoke about it, about how he'd been working himself so hard, he'd made no progress, that fear had been constantly haunting his mind. He felt nowhere near as exhausted or drained as he did then, but still, that fear was undying.
"I'm worried about you, Izuku..." Mina perked up after about a minute of silence. It was strange, and quite unsettling, hearing Mina say his first name for once. Her tone was quite serious too, which was another thing Izuku had yet to get used to.
"Why?" He asked, rolling his head to the side to look at her as she laid down beside him.
"Because you're a mess. Not as much as before, but you still are. You've got too much on your mind and you need to relax." She said, as more of an order than a suggestion.
Unsure of what to say next, Izuku carried on looking at her, letting himself get lost in her black sclera eyes. It would never get old, looking into her burning amber irises. They always made him feel so warm and secure. An escape from the cold embrace that real-life sometimes had.
"I can't believe how fast the summer holidays have passed. So much has happened..." Izuku said up at the ceiling, listening to the gentle morning rain that was beginning to fall, pattering against Mina's bedroom window.
"Right? I'm kinda happy we spend it trainin' tho." The Acid Quirk user replied. Izuku raised an eyebrow and smirked over at her.
"Really? That doesn't sound very like you." He chuckled.
"Well, If you'd told me that before we ever became a thing, it might've bothered me, but being with you'sh definitely opened my eyesh a bit more..." She responded, yawning through the last half of her sentence.
Izuku chuckled again and brought his hand up to her head, running his fingers through her soft pink hair.
"We should go somewhere today. Just us." She muttered, lifting her head and moving her leg over the greenette, cuddling right into his side and resting her head on his chest. His insides fluttered when she did. He loved being this close to her.
"Yeah... That would be nice. I can't remember the last time we went on a real date." He paused, giving himself a moment to recall the few dates they'd been on.
"I think it was... When you confessed to me?" He thought out loud.
"Really!?" Mina exclaimed, lifting her head a little to look at him, before pushing herself up fully. "Christ... That was months ago..." She muttered to herself, looking slightly unsettled.
Izuku sat silent for a moment, taking his eyes from his girlfriend, and to the grey swirling clouds outside. Then, an idea came to him. Something they'd both always wanted to do, but still hadn't had the chance to.
"I've got an idea." He said to the ceiling. "Why don't we stay at each other's houses. We've got two days, so I could stay at yours one day, and you could stay at mine the next."
Mina's face changed very quickly after he'd said this, and a beaming smile plastered itself across her face.
"Yes!" She exclaimed, so loudly she was bound to have woken up whoever might've been living next door. "You should definitely come to mine first thought, since comin' to a house as chaotic as mine the day before we gotta come back here won't do us much good." She added quickly, quickly getting up out of bed.
Izuku smiled after her, before quickly averting his gaze as she pulled off her pyjamas to change into something else, almost exposing her nude self to him. He felt his entire body catch fire, even though he was wearing quite thin pyjamas himself, and he brought his hand up to his eyes to ensure his teenage urges didn't get the best of him.
"I-I... Yeah, right... That makes sense..." He stuttered, before anxiously laughing like a maniac. "I-I best go get changed then... I should probably let Mr. Aizawa know we'll be going home for the weekend." He said, getting up out of the bed and walking past her while glueing his eyes to the opposite wall.
He fumbled to get his slippers on, but once he had, he lowered his hand and opened the door to leave.
"Okay!" Mina sang, her voice full of glee.
In recent days, the idea of ever visiting each other's parents had completely slipped from Izuku's mind, just as it seemed to have slipped Mina's. They had, in fairness, had an awful lot going on, so it was to be expected.
Letting out a shaky sigh, Izuku slipped out of Mina's room and closed the door behind him, before briskly making his way towards the lift to return to his own. He was nervous about what Aizawa would say when Izuku told him that he and Mina were planning to leave U.A, but then again, it was still the summer holidays regardless of whether they'd studied through it or not, so he couldn't really say no.
As the elevator journeyed down and arrived at the ground floor, someone beside Mina came to his mind. The same blonde-haired girl he hadn't really been able to stop thinking about since first running into her yesterday.
He still couldn't quite wrap his head around it, and part of him believed that he'd get to the Teachers Dorm, and it would all have been just some crazy dream... Then again, usually, dreams are easy to forget, but he could remember the details of this event so vividly.
Again he found himself questioning whether this whole "second chance" deal All Might and Principle Nezu had made with Toga was such a great idea. By now the other teachers were almost definitely going to know about it
It was so chaotic! Izuku wasn't sure how to handle the situation at all. Even if, after all, was said and done; with All For One, and the League. After Toga is let into the Hero Course, there could still be a chance she could stab them in the back. That thought alone was terrifying.
Some others may have forgotten, at least to Izuku's knowledge, but the League have something they don't.
The Nomu.
Izuku didn't need reminding that one of those creatures, the one that appeared at U.S.J, was able to tank one-hundred percent of All Might's power. If one of those attacked U.A directly because Toga turned her back on them... Who knows how many casualties and fatalities there could be.
Maybe this decision wasn't thought through as much as it should've been, by anyone. Then again, if anyone was going to have to U.S.J event carved into their minds, it was both All Might and Nezu, the very two who decided to Give Toga a chance.
He couldn't bear thinking about it. The entire scenario was ruining his mood. So, as Izuku arrived at his own room, he wasted no time in ejecting the thoughts from his conscious mind, changing out of his pyjamas and into more casual clothing.
Autumn was well and truly on the way now, so Izuku wanted to make the most of his summery clothing before Jack Frost began nipping at their noses again.
It was terrifying, to think their second term was right on their heels now. Time had both flown and dragged by, and the greenette was unsure as to whether what he was feeling, was excitement, or horror.
No, he couldn't keep thinking of things that were going to bring down this day. These were the last few days of Summer, after all, and he didn't want to use them thinking about school, and other quite serious matters like he had the past weeks. These days were for Mina and himself to strengthen their already strong bond, and spend some quality time with each other, and their families.
He retrieved a stormy-blue, long-sleeve T-shirt with grey sleeves, and a pair of black jeans from his draws, and hurriedly pulled them on, before clumsily pulling on his socks and shoving his feet into his usual red high-top trainers. The more prepared he got, the more the excitement within him grew. After these months, he was baffled that he'd still not met Mina's parents yet.
It was terrifying... What were they going to be like? What would they think of him? What if her father thought he wasn't fit for his daughter!
Snap out of it, will you! You've got to talk to Aizawa still, and that's the scariest part of today so far. He told himself, as he grabbed two other sets of clothes from his draws and wardrobe, and headed for the door, shoving both his phone and his wallet into his jeans pockets as he went.
He felt like he had to rush, not for any reason particularly. It was probably seeing Mina's excitement and haste when she'd heard his idea that'd kicked his brain into overdrive. Whenever Mina was excited about something she gave off an "I'm in a rush!" vibe, and this was absolutely no exception.
Another boring trip in the elevator and Izuku was out the door and jogging towards the teacher's dorm, the smile on his face growing ever larger. It wasn't only seeing Mina's family he was excited about, but also seeing his own.
It felt like forever since he'd last seen his mum, and he couldn't wait to see her again. He was also greatly anticipating her opinion on Mina. There was no way she didn't like her, but Mina was very energetic, and Izuku and his mother had never known anyone like that until this point.
It wasn't far now till the Teacher's Dorm, but the sight of Aizawa walking down the same path, presumably towards Class 1-A's dorm, cut his journey short.
"Oh, Midoriya," The long-haired teacher started, looking up from the floor when he realised the greenette was there. "I was just coming to get you." He added, his surprised expression quickly changing back to the usual relaxed and careless one he usually had.
"You were?" Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. Toga insisted she ate breakfast with you, so, to get her to shut up, I said I'd come and ask you." He explained. So the rest of the teachers did know about Toga now.
"Well, I don't mind... b-but I did want to ask you something." The One For All Quirk user replied. Aizawa said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
"Mina and I were planning to go home this weekend. We still haven't met each other's families so..." Izuku started. Aizawa looked at the teen with a sideways expression.
"Why are you asking me if you can have time off during your holiday? You don't need to tell me for my permission, you only need to tell me so I know where you'll both be." Aizawa responded, not looking at Izuku as he spoke. Izuku nodded to himself, before pushing his hands into his pockets and following Aizawa back towards the Teachers dorm.
"Did much happen after I left yesterday?" Izuku asked.
"Not really." His Homeroom teacher responded, looking up at the surrounding trees, distracted by a small squirrel that had jumped across the path. He couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by this response but didn't bother saying anything else.
"She's staying on the same floor as All Might, myself and Cementos; in a spare room. She ate dinner with us and went to bed after that. She didn't have a phone, a purse, or any form of I.D, and she didn't give us any trouble at all when we locked her in her room." He explained. Izuku nodded thoughtfully.
"I think Principle Nezu mentioned getting a tracking collar built by the Development Studio, is that finished?" He continued questioning.
"Power Loader was working on through the night. Principle Nezu and All Might were talking to the local Police when I left, so I assume so." Aizawa said as the Teachers Dorm finally came into view through the trees.
Waiting patiently, Izuku watched as Aizawa spend up a little, and pushed open the door, leading the Greenette inside.
"She should be with Principle Nezu and All Might now, in his office." He said, before turning away from Izuku and starting towards the kitchen without looking back. Izuku nodded after the teacher, before turning towards the door he'd pointed to.
In the living area was a staircase up the back wall, that led to a door with the writing "Principle's Office", which Izuku found rather amusing considering this was the Teachers Dorms, and they probably didn't use formalities when it was just them.
He made his way across the silent building, and up the staircase where he could hear the voices of Nezu and All Might inside, and after knocking on the door in the stereotypical tune, he interrupted them
"Hello? It's Izuku Midoriya." He spoke up, somewhat unsure of what it was he should say since he never really paid many visits to the Principle Nezu himself.
"Oh, do come in." Nezu responded in a jolly voice. So, the greenette did as he was told, twisting the cold door handle and making his way into the room. It looked very similar to Nezu's school office, excluding a few more homely additions like a kettle, and a sofa in the back right corner.
Sure enough, Toga was sitting on the opposite side of the desk, next to All Might, and she had the Tracking Collar fastened around her neck.
"Izuku! You came to see me!" She beamed, giggling in a somewhat creepy fashion, flashing her sharp fangs at him. He swallowed saliva nervously.
"Y-Yeah... I was going to head home for the next two days, so thought I'd come to say hi before I left." He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck as All Might now turned and smiled over his shoulder. Izuku returned the smile, continuing over to the desk and standing between All Might and Toga.
"Is the collar working?" He asked curiously. He was only eager to know this so it would ease some of the paranoia about Toga turning around and stabbing them all in the back. With a tracking collar, it'd be near impossible for her to leave school grounds without someone knowing about it.
"It does," Nezu smiled broadly. "and I just got off the phone with the Chief of Police. It's hooked up to their Data Base and they are able to track it now, as well as All Might and I." The Principle explained. Izuku watched Toga the entire time Nezu spoke, but her expression was unchanging. None of this really seemed to bother her at all, which he wasn't sure was a good or bad thing.
"She isn't able to take it off herself either. There's only one way to remove the collar, but obviously, that I can't tell you." All Might spoke up, and Izuku agreed with this.
He understood why this wasn't being disclosed to him. No matter how close he was to the Pro-Hero, it didn't change the fact that he was still a student, and the severity of this situation was beyond his jurisdiction.
"How are you finding it here so far, Toga?" Izuku asked, now turning his attention to the Blonde-haired girl, smiling as he spoke. He noticed her cheeks becoming flushed when he spoke to her, and she became fidgety and giddy.
"It's nice but better than where I stayed at the League's HQ." She responded, leaning over the back of the sofa to look at the Greenette, bouncing her legs to some incomprehensible tune that was playing in her head.
"What was it like there?" He asked, letting his genuine curiosity take over. It didn't matter if Toga was, at least as of right now, a League member. She would never fully be able to settle in if she was treated like some sort of alien. He wanted to start talking to her like a friend because that's what felt right.
"Shit." She responded bluntly, rolling her eyes and sitting back up straight.
"Tomura was always in a foul mood, my room was just some empty part of the building, since, unlike the others, I had nowhere else to go, and the only time I had to really eat or relax was if I woke up before everyone else." She explained.
Izuku let out a troubled sigh and looked down at the floor.
"Have you eaten today?" He asked. Toga nodded enthusiastically.
"That chef guy made me an omelette." She beamed. "I haven't had one since I was a little girl."
Izuku let out a chuckle and smiled, before the room fell into a bit of awkward silence.
"So, Young Midoriya, you said you were going home for the weekend? I assume Young Ashido is going with you?" All Might asked, turning and looking back at the greenette, resting his arm over the back of the chair. The teen nodded happily.
"Yeah, we've been planning it for months, to meet each other's families, but this is the only chance we've had in ages to do it." He explained, firing a glance at Toga, who looked a bit annoyed by the conversation.
"You haven't met each other's parents yet? That is surprising." He chuckled, before leaning forwards and patting Izuku's back with his large hand.
"Well, we shan't keep you any longer." He smiled. "Young Ashido doesn't seem the patient type either, so you'd better get going." He added.
Izuku smiled back at his mentor, and nodded, before turning to Nezu and Toga.
"I'll see you two days." He said, smiling first to Nezu, then to Toga, grinned back, so wide her eyes squinted.
He waited briefly to make sure no one else had anything to say, and when he was met by silence, he turned and began making his way out of the building and back towards Class 1-A's dorm.
It was actually quite nice, speaking to Toga again, but the conversation only made him more curious about her, and who she was. It gave him all the more reason to try and be good friends with her. He wanted to not only make sure she had someone she could rely on if she got into U.A, but he also wanted to understand her motivations.
Why did she become a villain in the first place? There had to be more to it than misreading a letter from the Principle. That, on its own, didn't seem even close to enough reason to join the League. She definitely had more motivations, he knew that was the case, there was no way it wasn't.
But, as someone who had always wanted to be a hero, those motivations wouldn't be ones he could easily understand, so talking to her and allowing her to open up to him would be the best way to discover what pushed her to do what she had. How interesting, these last few days had been.
Mina shuffled around impatiently, rocking back and forth on the metal bench as she and Izuku waited for the train to arrive. It felt like ages since the two of them were last sat here together. Again, the last time she could remember was the time she confessed her feelings to him, and even now it brought her cheeks to a rosy glow.
She could only stare at him right now. The amount he'd changed in the past few months was quite unsettling. Not only in terms of how he was acting and handling things, but also how he'd changed physically. He'd filled out, he'd gotten taller, he looked more mature. Comparing him in May, to him now, in late August, it was like looking at two different people, but in a good way.
She was happy that the little things about, the things she loved most, hadn't changed much at all. He was still a nerdy, easily flustered, heavily motivated person, and as long as that never changed, she would only love him more as time passed.
"You okay?" He asked suddenly, startling her from her thoughts.
"What?" She asked, not listening as she quickly diverted her eyes from him to the advertisement poster at her side.
"Are you okay?" He repeated with a cute chuckle, turning and walking over to her. "You must've been in a daydream, but it felt like you were staring through me." He added, sitting close at her side and resting his right hand on her knee, tracing it with his thumb.
"Oh, was I? Sorry." She responded with a smile. He chuckled again, shaking his head and looking up the train track for any sight of the locomotive that would deliver them to the area Mina lived in.
"You do it a lot." He responded openly.
Oh... Mina mouthed, laughing at herself, a little embarrassed.
"I assume that... your parents know about me..." He perked up after about a minute of silence.
"Yeah, they know. I told 'em when I asked you out. They're pretty up to date with us." She explained cooly. Izuku felt his cheeks beginning to heat up.
"Oh... R-Really?" He muttered.
"Mmhm. Mum and dad are always askin' about how you are, and it's not like I'm not gonna tell them." She smiled over at him, pushing her hand under his.
"What about you? You told your mum much about me?" She asked curiously, a small twinge of unexplainable anxiety in her stomach.
"Well, whenever I have the chance to speak to her, I do. It's hard to find time to call her, which is frustrating. That's why I'm glad I get to see her tomorrow." He explained, shrugging and looking at the floor.
"You've messaged her to tell her we're coming over tomorrow, right?" Mina asked. Izuku nodded, before looking back up the tracks as the faint sound of squeaking breaks met their ears.
Grabbing his bag from the floor and swinging it up onto his shoulder, Izuku got up from the bench, loosening his grip on Mina's hand just a little bit, before she quickly got up and brought it back into her firm grasp.
It was only now, seeing the train approaching, that the excitement inside the pink-skinned girl was really beginning to make itself known. She couldn't wait to get Izuku back to hers to meet her family. Not only that, but for the first time, she'd be able to fall asleep with Izuku at her side.
Within this excitement was also some anxiety. She wanted to try moving herself and Izuku forwards in the steps of intimacy. The last real experience they'd had was months ago when it was suggested to her by her friends to let the greenette see her in more exposing clothing.
She wanted to do that again. Part of her enjoyed having Izuku's eyes on her, but she also wanted to just have some intimacy with him because, after how hard they'd both worked, they hadn't had much time to focus on each other, and the little things that meant a lot.
Sure, kissing him, hugging him and spending time with him was some of the best things in the universe, for her. However, part of her wanted a little more than that, even if this was the only time for a few more months.
She shook herself back to reality when the train came to a stop, and the doors slid open with a startling hiss. Even if nothing more really happened between them before, Mina would be happy.
She was always happy when it came to Izuku. There were rarely times where she wasn't, but those times had good reason because they were very demanding for both of them. Besides, she'd find it more particularly if it was just smooth sailing between the two of them because that would feel unnatural.
She smiled to herself as she got onto the train, and headed towards the nearest window seat, Izuku leading her through the carriage as she thought absently to herself. She wanted to express in more intimate ways, just how much she loved him.