Hello there, and welcome to my first attempt at writing for the world of My Hero Academia. This story is sort of a test for me. I hope everyone enjoys the story I'm writing for our favorite cinnamon rolls.

It had been so easy, at first, Ochaco reflects, shutting her feelings away. When Aoyama had made her realize that maybe, just maybe, she had feelings for Deku. Becoming a successful Hero and making money so that her parents could have easy lives had been the most important thing, and any possible distractions from that couldn't be permitted.

So, she'd shut those feelings away. It had been easy. All of her classmates had seemed similarly focused on their goals after all, and weren't wasting their time on such frivolous things, right? Well, whether that had even been true at the time or not, it certainly wasn't now. Granted, Kaminari still wasn't the best student, but he'd consistently been putting the effort in to improve, and that certainly hadn't stopped after he'd begun dating Jiro. If anything, his efforts to improve as both a student and a Hero had only increased. So… If her friends could strive towards being Heroes, and still be honest with themselves, and their emotions, couldn't she?

Confessing wasn't something she intended to do without thinking it through, so even though it had been on her mind since shortly after the School Festival, she kept her thoughts to herself for a time. It was only after Ashido had teased her about jumping in to save Deku, causing the green-haired boy to turn as red as Ochaco herself had, that Ochaco had realized she needed to get some advice, or at least talk to someone so she could break through her nerves.

Ordinarily, Deku would probably be her first choice if she needed advice, or help sorting out plans, but she can't exactly talk to him about this. She can just see it now: "Deku, I have feelings for you. Could you help me figure out how to confess to you without makin' a fool of myself?" Yeah, no. Not a chance. She isn't going to talk to him about all this until she has a better idea of how. Her best friend deserves no less.

Ashido is also clearly out. The pink girl is friendly, but she's also the biggest gossip in Class 1-A, quite possibly the biggest in all of the first-year classes. Even if Ashido is willing to try and keep Ochaco's crush on Deku quiet, Ochaco is relatively certain her friend will still unintentionally blurt it to all of Class 1-A by the end of the day in a fit of excited squees. And if that happens… No, no Ochaco is not interested in dying from blushing too much. That would be a far too embarrassing way to go out.

Aoyama is briefly considered, but the idea of asking him for advice is just as quickly dismissed. While the sparkling young man has become a good friend of Deku's the past few months, and noticed Ochaco's crush before even she had, his attempts to befriend Deku showed that his social skills were… lacking, to say the least. Any advice he gave ran the risk of making things more confusing and awkward, not less. Ochaco isn't interested in force-feeding Deku cheese, or convincing her crush she's suddenly taken up stalking, thank you very much.

Ida is a good friend, both to Ochaco herself and Deku. Unfortunately, she doubts that Class 1-A's representative will be much assistance with her current problem. Knowing Ida, he would probably give her some ridiculous multi-step Confession Plan that's been in his family for generations. Even worse, if Deku accidentally stumbles across their conversation Ida would not have it in him to lie to his friend. And while Ochaco's end goal is confessing to Deku, she doesn't want him to accidentally hear it from one of their friends instead!

Jiro would seem like the best idea at first blush. She's one of the only classmates Ochaco knows for certain is in a relationship, after all. However, Kaminari and Deku are so different that anything that helped Jiro and Kaminari get together would probably just stress out Deku, and quite possibly Ochaco herself. So, despite Jiro, or even Kaminari, seeming like a valid option, Ochaco figures she's probably better off getting advice from someone else.

But who else is there? Ochaco thinks to herself. I mean-

"Ochaco," a familiar voice says from behind her, "are you alright? Ribbit."

"Tsu," Ochaco says, surprised she didn't notice her friend coming into the kitchen. "Sorry, I didn't hear you there."

"It's fine," Tsu assures her. "It's just, you looked like Midori when he's mumbling about Quirks. Everything okay?"

How do I answer that? Ochaco thinks to herself. She could lie of course, but Tsu knows her better than almost anyone in Class 1-A. Even if her froggy friend chooses not to comment on it, she will almost certainly know Ochaco is lying. And, Ochaco reflects, Tsu is probably the best one to talk to about this. Ochaco is sure she can trust her to keep quiet. Tsu is honest enough that Ochaco can be sure she'll get Tsu's real opinion, not a lie to reassure her about her chances or something equally useless.

So instead of giving Tsuyu one of the myriad half-baked excuses she has stored up just in case Mina or Aoyama or anyone else for that matter decides to give her a hard time, Ochaco takes a deep breath, looks around to make sure no one else is there, and explains everything.

After taking a minute to consider her words, Tsu just says, "Took you long enough. Ribbit."

Ochaco's expression must be pretty priceless because Tsuyu laughs. "Your crush on Midori is the worst kept secret in class, Ochaco," her friend informs her, not unkindly. "The only one who doesn't know is Midori, and that's because he's too busy pining for you to notice the obvious."

"Wh-What?" Ochaco stammers out, blown away by Tsuyu's revelation. "Everyone knows?"

"Well…" Tsuyu muses, a finger to her chin. "I suppose its possible that Koda doesn't now. I don't think anyone's ever asked him, and he's quiet enough that he's never brought it up if he does know. But besides him and Midori, I'm pretty sure everyone else does. Even Bakugo, although he probably doesn't care either way."

"And…" Ochaco begins nervously. "No one's told Deku, have they? I really only want him hearing about all of this from me."

Tsu placed a reassuring hand on Ochaco's shoulder. "No one's told him anything," she assured her. "Apparently one of the boys has tried to get him to confess to you, but that hasn't really gone anywhere."

"Aoyama," Ochaco guesses, receiving a nod of confirmation from Tsuyu. "Not that surprising," Ochaco notes quietly.

"But if you're looking for advice on how to confess… I don't really have anything to say beyond that you need to be upfront with him," Tsu admits. "Midori probably won't understand unless you tell him bluntly. You know he has a tendency to overthink things. Ribbit."

Ochaco nods, options already running through her head. "I could…" she mumbles. "Or maybe instead I could…"

Tsu chuckles at the sight of Ochaco unknowingly mimicking Izuku. It didn't happen all that often, but it was always endearing to see when it did. But in the interest of helping her friend, she says, "Ochaco, you shouldn't start overthinking this either."

Ochaco blushes from her head to her feet. "Oh, right," the gravity girl says sheepishly. "I suppose that would be counterproductive."

"Just ask him to do something off campus on Sunday," Tsu suggests. "When he bites, and he will, talk to him about it then. No unwanted ears, no one to make it more awkward than it needs to be. Ribbit."

Ochaco surprises Tsuyu with the sudden hug though the frog girl returns it all the same. "Thanks, Tsu," Ochaco says sincerely. "I've been thinking about this for months, and I've got a decent plan now thanks to you."

"You're welcome," Tsu replies, hugging her friend back. "But in return…"

"In return… what?" Ochaco asks curiously as she pulls away.

"In return, I get to be the first to hear how well your date goes afterwards, okay?" Tsu requests, a slightly teasing lilt to her voice.

"TSU!" Ochaco shrieks indignantly, much to her friend's amusement. "It's not going to be a date; we're not even dating."

"You're not dating yet," Tsu corrects impishly. "But you will be afterwards!"

"Y'know, Tsu," Ochaco complains without heat, "I had thought you were the perfect person to talk to about this, but I'm starting to rethink that now."

Tsu laughs. "I can handle that, you still have to tell me everything, though."

Ochaco can't help but laugh with her. Honestly, she feels better about the whole thing now than she has in a while. And so, as the stress that she'd barely realized was there leaves her shoulders, she just laughs along with her friend.