- The shortest chapter so far, but it's just the calm before the storm. So make sure you're ready for what's coming next!

- Also, if you've read the manga that inspired this before, you'll probably instantly realize what it is as soon as you read this chapter. Please don't spoil it for other readers if that's the case!


When Izuku came to, he was already in the hospital, his mother crying a river of tears as she hugged him. She looked like she really needed the hug, so he refrained from pointing out that her tight grip was kind of crushing his recently punctured lungs.

According to what the adults told him, they were both very lucky to be alive. If Izuku hadn't been supporting the weight of the debris, they would have been crushed to death long before the heroes arrived to rescue them. The officer who told him that gruesome detail nearly got stabbed by his mother with the knife she was using to peel apples. Thankfully, no aggravated assault occurred, and the poor officer managed to escape the hospital room with his life.

His parents had an extremely long talk with UA about their safety protocols, and Izuku honestly thought his father would get his company to file a case against them from all the way overseas. Just like with a lot of major decisions though, his mother still asked his opinion.

"Izuku, honey, is this really what you want?"

UA had already revealed that he and Kyoka were both a shoo-in for the hero course. It was made very clear to them though that they weren't accepted into the school out of pity, and that they had more than enough combined villain and rescue points - the latter of which he wasn't even aware existed - to place in the top ten scorers on the exam. Their official acceptance letter wouldn't arrive until a week later, but hearing about their results brought a rush of elation.

"Yeah, Mom. I still want to be a hero."

"Even if you end up in a hospital again because of it?" The unspoken 'or worse' was implied, her pleading tone and teary eyes doing an effective job at breaking down his emotional defenses.

"I still want to be a hero," Izuku confirmed, nodding his head resolutely. His serious face quickly shifted into a more aloof one as he leaned forward, taking one of the apple slices his mother offered him. "Plus, you only live once, right? Might as well live it to the fullest," he grinned cheekily.

Inko glared at him something fierce for that little joke, and he hurriedly swallowed the apple he was chewing to amend his mistake.

Izuku held his bandaged hands up in mock surrender, "My bad, Mom. I promise not to make jokes about it again."

"That's what you said last time," Inko huffed, but she eventually lost her steam and offered him the rest of the apple slices in a neat little bowl.

After their talk, his and Kyoka's parents both ended up agreeing to settle the matter with UA out of court. He wasn't exactly sure what they got out of the deal, but with the way his mother came back into the room later in the day with a faraway look in her eye, he assumed it was an astronomical amount.

He spent a few more days recovering in the hospital, before finally being released nearly a week after. As soon as he got home, his mother told him about the Jiros' invitation for him to come visit them as thanks for taking care of Kyoka. He may be oblivious to a lot of things, but Izuku knew it was just a thinly veiled excuse for Kyoka's parents to size him up and check out the boy their only daughter was spending all her time with. To say he was nervous about the meeting would be a severe understatement.

And that was how he ended up standing outside the Jiro household a week after the disaster that was the UA entrance exams, decked out in the only formal attire he still had tucked away in his closet.

Their house was in one of the better parts of Musutafu, located in an actual residential area. The building was very cubic, it's rectangular shape and gray color making it look like a polished cement block.

"Come on, Izuku. You can do this. It's not like you've never visited a friend's house before," Izuku whispered in an attempt to hype himself up enough to ring the doorbell. "Just rip it off quickly like a bandage."

Izuku's index finger met the button, eliciting an electronic ding. After a few seconds of nervous waiting, the front door swung open, revealing a certain purple-haired girl he hadn't seen in over a week. It was probably bad that his first reaction to seeing her again was to blush a brighter shade of red than a hot chili pepper.

"Greenie!" Kyoka greeted as she headed towards the gate. Izuku waved back in response, trying and failing to hide the color of his cheeks.

Kyoka was the opposite of dressed up, yet the look she sported fit her aesthetic completely. She was wearing another deep dope tank top over a black undershirt, partnered with denim shorts that were a tad bit revealing. Although Izuku was pretty innocent, so anything that didn't cover up the thighs was classified as revealing for him.

"Staring at me again? This feels like deja vu," Kyoka chuckled, albeit with her cheeks tinged pink as well. Izuku spluttered to try and defend himself, but it was a losing case. She seemingly decided to return the favor, pointedly scanning him from top to bottom. As soon as she was done, her hand clapped over her mouth in a futile attempt to hold back her laughter at his outfit.

"Oh, come on," Izuku groaned, looking down at the blue polo shirt and khaki shorts he had on. "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Pfft- Y-your polo shirt has the kanji for polo shirt written on the breast pocket!" Kyoka laughed, doubling over and clutching her chest. Seeing that, Izuku slumped in defeat. He would probably have to add clothes to his wardrobe that weren't just terrible joke shirts. [14]

"Can we just go inside?" Izuku groaned, stepping inside the premises and closing the gate behind him.

"Excited, are we?" Kyoka winked at him, before bursting into another round of laughter as she led the way into their house.

As Izuku stepped into the foyer and changed into the guest slippers, he quickly realized that the Jiro household was a melomaniac family. The interior of the house was plastered with various musical paraphernalia that stoked the kindred spirit of a fellow collector inside his heart. Posters depicting everything from bands to concerts and tours were plastered all over the place, adding a dash of exotic colors to the otherwise plain walls. Rows of shelves filled with LP albums and CDs took up the space above the couches in their living room, the remaining free spots filled in by speakers and music players.

"Wow. I guess now I know where you got your love of music from, Kyo," Izuku whistled in appreciation as he eyed a guitar hidden behind a glass display case.

"Heh, yeah," Kyoka grinned as she rubbed the back of her neck. "My parents won't be back for a while since they're still busy at work, so we can stay in my room for a bit if you'd like."

Stay with her? In her room? HUHHH?

As per usual, Izuku responded to her offer with an eloquent, "Eh?"

Kyoka rolled her eyes, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him along as they climbed up to the second floor and into her room. Whatever Izuku was expecting to see from his brief tour downstairs, it was way more than he thought. Kyoka's room was overflowing with instruments, band posters, various assorted records, headphones, and so much more.

"This is enough to rival the merch in my room," Izuku said, mouth agape as he stared in wonder around him. His child-like curiosity had made him completely forget that he was currently in a girl's room, and also had the bonus incentive of him not noticing the surprised look on Kyoka's face when she realized he wasn't put off by the design of her room.

Kyoka quickly recovered from her shock, leaning in with an impish grin as she spoke, "The merch in your room? Oh, do tell me about those, Greenie."

Izuku yelped and deflected the topic, the two of them settling into their comfortable rhythm of bantering back and forth. Eventually though, they ended up in silence, both of them sitting next to each other on Kyoka's bed.

"Hey, Izuku. Thank you… for keeping me safe when everything went bad." Kyoka's ear jacks tapped against each other as her face turned away from him, her hands twiddling nervously. Izuku was about to make a counterpoint, but she continued, "I know that I said there's no need for thanks because that's what a hero would do… but I get to break my own rules."

Izuku raised a hand as if he was about to argue with that very unfair ideology, but decided to take a different approach instead. "Fine, I'll let this slide-" Izuku waved a finger at her in a mock scolding tone, causing Kyoka's nerves to dissipate a bit as she giggled, "-but I want something in return."

Kyoka's face turned scarlet as she stammered in surprise, hands and jacks waving in front of her as she scooted back. "N-n-no! I c-can't- Y-you can't ask for t-tha-"

"Woah! Calm down, Kyo! I just wanted to ask you a question," Izuku said in the most placating voice he could muster, stepping back with his palms raised up like some sort of animal tamer. A description that would get his ass kicked if Kyoka ever heard him say that out loud. "What did you think I was asking for?"

Hearing the last few words that came out of his mouth, Kyoka's sudden outburst skidded to a halt. "I- uh, huh?"

Izuku had to admit, seeing Kyoka all flustered and confused was pretty fun. He could understand why she loved teasing him all the time. Although he didn't understand why she had suddenly freaked out over his innocent reque-

Oh. I get it now.

"I-I-I didn't mean that!" Izuku screeched, backing up even farther as his face burned up. This was probably extremely bad for his health, since surely someone who just got out of the hospital shouldn't be exposed to things that heated their face up to higher than normal temperatures. Like stoves, irons left plugged in, and Kyoka as well apparently.


Once they had both calmed down - with Izuku shutting up instantly when he tried teasing Kyoka for being a pervert when one of her jacks nearly put another hole through his chest - they sat back down at the edge of Kyoka's bed. Izuku inhaled as deep a breath as he could, hoping he wasn't making a mistake this time. He wasn't sure he could handle another disappearing act from her.

"Back then, right as we were rescued from the rubble, I saw the device on your chest." Izuku pointed in the general direction of where he remembered it was, hoping he had actually seen it and that it wasn't just a hallucination his delirious mind had come up with while on the brink of collapse. He made a circular motion with his index finger, tracing the shape of the device in the air. "That's what your finger used to trace back then, right?"

Kyoka's mouth formed a surprised 'o'. Obviously, she wasn't expecting that to be the question he would ask. Her hand rose up to the exact spot Izuku was pointing at, right over her heart.

"Yes. You're right." Kyoka looked up at him with a sad smile, and Izuku started to wonder if he made the right choice digging into this topic that was obviously something personal for her. He was already too deep in to just back out now though, so he had no choice but to continue deeper. Instead of changing the topic, he remained silent, waiting until Kyoka was ready to tell her story.

And tell her story she did.

"Tell me, Greenie. Do you know what koku haku disease is?" [15]

"I've heard about it, yeah." Izuku took out one of his notebooks from thin air - how he was able to do so was a trade secret - flipping it open to a page he had written late last year. "There was a hero in America that died from it recently, so research towards finding cures or aids for it has gained a lot of traction lately."

"That's the one. Officially, a weak heart muscle makes the heartbeat irregular, making the disease lie in the same category as cardiomyopathy. It's a pretty unique disease that only happens to about one in a million people." Kyoka said the last part with a hint of venom, obviously not liking that her unique trait was a heart disease. [16]

She tapped against her chest with one of her ear jacks, the sound of metal thudding against plastic echoing around the room. "The heart of someone with koku haku disease degrades at a faster rate than a normal person's, and every beat just accelerates the entropy further. This device plastered onto my chest monitors my vitals to make sure I'm not overexerting myself, and acts as a pacemaker to support it as well. According to the doctors, if I live a simple life without getting my heart racing, I could probably live for another six to seven years," the way she announced her impending doom like an unavoidable decree ordained by the heavens above stirred something within Izuku, but he chose to calm himself first and let her finish.

"Technically, there's absolutely nothing wrong with my health. I just have a higher price of living than anyone else. My lifespan shortens the faster my heart beats, so that's why I didn't think I could become a hero. After all, being a hero is all about heart-pounding situations that get the blood pumping, right?" Kyoka reached out to hold his hand in her own, and Izuku could feel her pulse through her hand. "But then I met you. You, who wants to become a hero despite the odds being stacked against you. You, who wholeheartedly believed in my capabilities to become a hero even though you barely knew anything about me."

Her hand squeezed his, and Izuku squeezed back.

"Izuku, you're the reason I was able to escape my fear and look towards the future with no regrets. I'm going to become a hero, just like I always dreamed of. And for that, I thank you."

The greenette sat in shocked silence for a few seconds, before suddenly jumping to his feet. He forgot that his hand was still intertwined with Kyoka's, resulting in him accidentally pulling her up to her feet as well. He closed the distance between them, causing her to elicit a cute yelp as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"G-Greenie? What are you doing?"

"Why stop there, Kyo?"

The aforementioned teen cocked her head to the side, not understanding what Izuku was getting at. "You're gonna have to say a bit more than that for me to get the gist of what you're saying."

Their eyes met once more, an intangible spark of electricity passing between them. "You said that your lifespan grows shorter every time your heart beats, so that probably means you've never experienced a lot of exciting things that most other people have, right? It explains why you said you'd never been to a beach before," Izuku said, referencing the request she had asked of him two weeks ago. "So why stop at that? Don't just aim to become a hero, live your life to the fullest too."

Izuku gestured with his head to the assorted instruments scattered around her room. "I bet there's a ton of things you've never done but are dying to do, pun not intended." Izuku placed his right hand right over his own heart as he yelled out, "I'm going to help you! I'll help you enjoy life to the fullest, and make your heart beat like crazy!"

Kyoka stared at him in shock, her eyes seemingly glazed over after his sudden declaration. Unbeknownst to Izuku, Kyoka's heart had just skipped a beat.

The moment between them was unceremoniously broken by a head of purple hair popping out from behind the small gap of the door they had left ajar, a teasing look on the face of who he assumed to be Kyoka's mother as she snapped a picture of them.

"What a wonderful confession, Izuku-kun! Welcome to the family!" Kyoka's mother cheered as the flash on her phone went off.

The two teens' faces turned cherry red as they jumped apart like the other was an infectious zombie. Needless to say, the rest of the night was very awkward, and extremely embarrassing.


[14] - I tried searching around to see if there actually is kanji for 'polo shirt', but all I got were polo shirts with kanji of… something written on them. I really need to start learning Japanese soon, but my tendency to procrastinate keeps getting in the way.

[15] - No, this disease does not exist in real life. If it did, there'd probably be over a dozen sappy romance movies about this out on Netflix already.

[16] - Cardiomyopathy is a heart disease that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body.

And now you guys finally know the secret that Kyoka has been hiding from Izuku all this time! You probably saw that one coming from a mile away because it was literally included in the summary.

This also marks the end of the pre-prepared chapters I've taken from the cut-up remains of the one-shot google document I was writing on, so you guys will have to wait for a while for the next update. I promise that this fic will be finished before February ends though, to keep the Valentine's spirit around or something like that.


This fic was created for a Valentine's Event in the BNHA Fanfic Community Discord server! Wanna chat with me or any of the other amazing authors that submitted works for this event? Join through this invite today! : S9j78DHg5K