Chapter 17

Midoriya Izuku woke up with the usual sore feeling in his body. Ever since he had gotten All Might's quirk, One For All, and started to train his body, he had slowly started to get used to the sore feeling, even though it had been a long time since he last had felt this sore. It was almost a welcoming feeling, reminding him of what he had to do and what he had acquired in order to be able to fulfil his future dream of becoming the best hero there ever was. Yesterday's training had been really tough, making Midoriya feel it more than usual. All Might was usually this soft person when it came to his students, however, when it came to his training sessions, that's where you could clearly feel the experience of the number one hero. Yesterday All Might had yet again drilled Midoriya right to the brink of what his body was capable of before he let him rest. It had really led to no time for thinking of anything but to survive the training. Even when he finally got home, able to rest, he was close to falling asleep while showering. In the end, his eyes closed before his head hit the pillow.

So when he dragged his feet out from the bed and onto the floor the next morning, he almost winced. He needed to stretch his body and get it moving to get the soreness out.

Midoriya ate a light breakfast before he brushed his teeth and got dressed to take a light jog. It didn't take long before he had left his apartment and by the first ten minutes, he could already feel his body loosen up again.

Slowly as Midoriya was jogging around his neighbourhood, he started to remember something the exhaustion had completely let him forget for a moment. Uraraka. He had completely forgotten about cancelling on her for their second date. Midoriya stopped in his tracks, as he started to remember. How he hadn't even hesitated to take up on All Might's offer to train, and how he had called her right before they were supposed to meet up. The guilt started to pool up in the pit of his stomach.

I'm the worst. He thought to himself, mentally facepalming.

Even though Uraraka said it was okay and she understood, Midoriya knew she was too nice of a person to actually say anything else than that. He had been serious when he had finally pulled himself together to ask her out on a date, so being the one to cancel their second date was not ideal in any way.

He knew he had to apologise, sooner rather than later. Midoriya set off again, planning to finish his run and then call her. Although right as when Midoriya reached the playground near his apartment building, he stopped as he noticed Uraraka sitting on top of the half dome climber, a new centrepiece the city had added to the playground not too long ago, and he found himself walking towards her before he had even noticed doing so. His body was always moving on its own.

It really seems to be sooner.

"Ah, Deku!" Uraraka called with her usual cheerfulness as soon as she saw him get nearer to where she was sitting.

"Uraraka, what are you doing here, sitting by yourself?" Midoriya asked when he got closer to the dome.

"Just catching the sunrise, it makes a pretty nice view here, and then I just got lost in my own thoughts," she was smiling while she looked out to the horizon.

"Ah, come up here and sit," she offered, already making space for him on top of the dome.

Midoriya climbed up with ease and sat down next to Uraraka as they both gazed over the playground.

"I actually wanted to talk with you about something," Midoriya started to fidget in his spot. He found it difficult to look Uraraka in the eyes. This was the moment he had to apologise for cancelling their date. This was when he could get back on track again and get this knot of guilt out of his stomach.

"Yeah?" Uraraka turned slightly towards him. He could see her big eyes locked on him from the corner of his eyes and it made his face feel flushed. Her stare felt so intense as if it was watching his every move.

"About yesterday," he trailed off rather quickly, as he tried to gain some confidence before he could continue, clenching his eyes together.

A warmth wrapped around his hand in comfort and Midoriya's eyes sprung open to see Uraraka holding her hand on his reassuringly, comforting him. Because that was just the kind of person, she was, always happy to be there for those she cared for, always comforting them when they needed it. That might have been one of the initial reasons as to why he had felt compelled to be with her, because of her warmth.

"I'm sorry about the cancellation yesterday, especially when it came right before we were supposed to meet up with each other," he finally blurted out and for a while, Uraraka didn't say anything. She just sat next to him there, holding his hand in hers, letting the birds sing in the near distance.

"Yeah, that kind of sucked," Uraraka finally said, her voice thin. "I mean, nobody likes to be stood up, but I kind of get it. Being a hero is important for both of us, I know that. And you have so much sitting on your shoulders, to live up to All Might as his student. I get that."

Midoriya could feel something in him twitch. Uraraka had this sad clarity over her, and he hadn't been able to put a finger on it when he came over, but it was starting to, slowly, as she talked.

"You know, I've always thought I've had a crush on you since the beginning," she chuckled as she looked away, a slight pink was painted on her cheeks. "I couldn't stop admiring you, your hard work, how you never give up and always help those in need. I wanted to be like that. I still want to be like that, not giving up when it counts against villains and cruelty. I think I mistook that admiration for liking you, especially because we get along so well."

Midoriya could feel there was a small ball of discomfort that was slowly evaporating from his chest as he listened to Uraraka's soft words. He already knew what she was about to say, he would be lying if he hadn't noticed it before today. Maybe he just didn't want to admit it and realise what was happening earlier, maybe he just wanted to hold on to believing they could be something they weren't. But listening to her talking, he didn't feel sad or disappointed, at least not as much as he could have feared.

"I think we're more suited to be friends, Deku. I've been trying to figure it out this last week, and it's slowly making sense to me that what we have is not feelings of romance."

Midoriya could feel her hand was starting to twitch a bit on top of his. She probably wanted to fidget around but fought against it. He couldn't help but smile softly at her, not answering for a while as he searched his feelings for a reaction. To his surprise, he seemed more relieved than anything. Relieved that he wouldn't lose someone important to him, relieved that they would still be able to be in each other's lives.

"Yeah," Midoriya finally said, "we're better together as friends."

As confirmation, Uraraka leaned against Midoriya's frame, letting her head rest on his firm shoulder.

They sat there in silence for a while, just enjoying the closeness of each other along with the fresh air around them, the cloud-free sky and the chirping of birds flying around the area.

Midoriya noticed how the stress he could feel emanating from Uraraka's body was slowly evaporating. Even the tips of her fingers were starting to warm up slowly. He hadn't even noticed they had been chilly, to begin with.

"My parents woke up yesterday. The hospital called me," Uraraka suddenly said.

"Really? That's amazing," Midoriya shifted slightly so he was able to see more of Uraraka's expression. She was clearly relaxed and she seemed so peaceful. A small smile was resting on her lips.

She must have been stressing so much about it, worried sick, with her parents at the hospital. Midoriya thought.

"Yeah, I was training with Bakugou and then the hospital suddenly called, so we went there and I got to see my parents again."

Midoriya's ears piqued and his eyebrow raised slowly as he digested what Uraraka said. Had he been hearing things or…

"Did you say you were with Bakugou yesterday? And that he … Went with you to the hospital?" He could feel himself tense up slightly, although he tried his best to hide it from Uraraka.

"Yeah, he came by after you texted me," she nudged him softly with her elbow, "and we had this agreement that he would help me train with some sparring sometimes. It's been really amazing! He's so versatile in his fighting style, and he really knows what he's doing. He's really a surprisingly good sparring partner. I would have been afraid that he would be too rough or not considering others other than himself, but …" Uraraka's cheeks started to burn ever so slightly on her cheeks, with the blush starting to spread down her neck and over her ears, "he's not like people think he is when they first meet him."

It almost looked like she was being reminded of something, and Midoriya could already tell, in the pit of his stomach, that she had not had the look on her face when she had been thinking of him. And even though he wanted what was best for her, he couldn't lie to himself about the fact that it stung a little thinking that.

"Ah, but I was the one who asked Bakugou to go with me to the hospital. I guess I just didn't want to go alone. I felt anxious by the thought, and he must have felt compelled to go along because of that."

Bakugou sure is a good person deep inside Uraraka, but he's really not that good of a person that he would go along to a hospital just to be nice. He did it because he liked you … Much more than I initially thought and … Midoriya looked at Uraraka's flushed face, she was smiling and she had that look on her face as she kept talking about Bakugou. It seems like you like him too. You might not even have fully realised it yet. Midoriya sighed to himself, a small, maybe a little sad smile blooming on his lips.

I really lost to you this time, Bakugou.

It had taken some time before Uraraka realised she had been talking about Bakugou the whole time. She stopped instantly while her face started to grow redder, and she almost activated her quirk before she crawled back down from the dome and ran home, mumbling how she needed to get ready for the upcoming week.

Midoriya could not help but chuckle at the sight of Uraraka almost tripping over her own feet.

"Well, I better get home as well," Midoriya said to himself as he jumped down from the dome, almost tripping himself when he heard an explosion go off behind him.