When Nana eventually came back to their room, she found Izuku desperately trying to avoid looking at her. When she reached into his mind, she saw an image of her in a dress, a tight, form-fitting red one that somehow both showed off her muscular form and made her drop-dead gorgeous. Honestly, the fantasy gave Nana some ideas.
Nana smirked as she asked, "My, thinking naughty thoughts, are we?"
"Nana, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Izuku stammered as he scrambled to his feet.
Once again, Nana wondered why Izuku was still so timid. She was literally all over him, all the time, and still he thought that desiring her would make her upset? Nana didn't blame him at all for it, but she did intend to help him.
Nana marched up to Izuku, who stood rigid as she looked up at him. "Izuku," Nana said firmly, "why are you apologizing?"
Izuku blinked in surprise, blushing at Nana's bluntness. Slowly, he replied, "I, um...I know you don't like dresses, and I didn't want to…"
"Didn't want to what?" Nana pressed as Izuku trailed off, "make me uncomfortable? There's no way you could do that, Izuku, especially not by finding me attractive. We have had sex, Izuku, lots of it! I know you find me attractive, and I like it!"
Izuku flushed even more deeply, and finally admitted, "I just...I'm trying to treat you with respect, you know?"
Gently, understanding and loving just how kind the man she loved was, Nana replied, "You already are, Izuku. I know we didn't start this relationship off in the most...normal way, but you have been good and gentle and kind. I love you, not because we literally share a brain, but because you are the best man I've ever met."
Izuku was bright red now, but he couldn't back up. He insisted, "I'm really not that special!"
Nana stared at Izuku for a long moment. She could see he really believed it, thought that he wasn't amazing or impressive or worthy. If she didn't know his past as well as she did, she would have been dumbfounded.
Nana held her boyfriend's gaze, refusing to let him look away. She slipped closer to him, until her hands were against his chest, one sliding up to cup his cheek. Izuku flushed red, his green eyes locked on her as Nana radiated warmth and love...and fury.
At last, she snapped, "Come on, Izuku."
She grabbed him by the arm, marching over to the window. As Izuku followed in stunned silence, Nana yanked the window open, pushed him out, then joined him on the balcony. There, she grabbed him and lifted off into the air.
"Where are we going?" Izuku screamed in terror as he dangled from Nana's grip, twisting and turning like a leaf in the wind.
"Right here," Nana replied coolly as she turned towards the clearing where Izuku had first learned to fly.
Nana was not about to have her boyfriend doubting himself. Period.
"W-why are we here?" Izuku asked as he returned to the ground on shaky legs a few minutes later, Nana touching down just behind him.
"Because, I'm going to show you a thing or two about yourself," Nana told him, pacing around until she was staring him in the face, "now, I want you to fly."
Izuku hesitated for a moment. He wondered, "Are you sure?"
"As sure as I am that I love you," Nana replied quietly.
Izuku stared at her as if she'd said it for the first time, and not like she told it to him every day. But at last, he nodded and said, "Okay."
Nana smiled, and Izuku's heart lifted. She held out a hand, palm up, her fingers beckoning him closer. Her feet lifted off the ground, just a few inches. She bobbed lightly in the wind, as if she was truly weightless; it reminded Izuku of just how impossible this was, a flying girl who'd come back from the dead, a girl who had once only existed in his mind, but now held her hand out for him to take. A girl who loved him.
Izuku took her hand, because he trusted her. As he did, he wrapped himself in weightlessness and let the sky take him. He lifted up, and so did Nana, on a slow, lazy ascent towards nowhere in particular.
When they were above even the tallest of the trees that surrounded them, Nana tugged Izuku to a stop. He exhaled and hovered there, holding Nana's hand like it was his lifeline. She drifted another foot away, until their arms were fully extended, palms flat against each other. Izuku saw that Nana was smiling brilliantly, and it took away the fear in his heart.
He asked, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Nothing too big," Nana admitted, "I'm just curious about something."
"What?" Izuku wondered as Nana's thumbs stroked over his wrists, fingers exploring his broken and scarred flesh, the places where his hand was disfigured.
Nana's black eyes pierced through everything Izuku had ever tried to hide when she asked, "What are you scared of?"
Izuku's breath caught in his throat. Weakly, he replied, "I'm not scared."
"Then why do you hide your thoughts?" Nana wondered. Her right hand slipped from Izuku's grasp, and she began to pull him into a circle, spinning lazily as Izuku turned to follow her. From above or below, it would have appeared like a planet orbiting a star; Izuku at the center, Nana eternally circling.
"W-what are you doing?" Izuku asked.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just...dancing," Nana assured him.
"Dancing?" Izuku repeated as they spun, now tightening the orbit and shifting so that they weren't one body orbiting another, but two bodies in an eternal dance around a shared point, their joined arms providing a center for their spin, "I didn't know you danced."
"I don't, not on the ground," Nana replied, her smile warm and tender still, "but in the sky...in the sky, every move is a dance. There are no steps, and you set your own rhythm, but still...it's there. You can feel it, can't you?"
Izuku took a deep breath, his eyes closed tight. When he opened them again, a layer of defensiveness had crumbled, and his eyes shone a little brighter. "I can," he said excitedly.
And so he could; there was something in the air around them, a flowing stream of whistling wind that created unearthly music he'd never heard before. The tune changed forever, never the same, but grounded by the twin beats of his and Nana's hearts. It was the sky song, and Izuku could feel it in his bones.
"Good!" Nana cheered, speeding up the spin until they were blurs passing by each other again and again, their hands locked firmly together against the forces that pulled them apart, "now...stop changing the subject."
Izuku gulped as he remembered the steel under Nana's smile, the way that she would never be denied the truth. He sighed, "I hide my thoughts because...because I'm scared of what you'll think of them."
Nana's expression never changed; she still radiated love as they slowly stopped spinning. When Izuku came to a stop, Nana stretched, pulling as far away as she could, her hand slipping free of Izuku's until only their fingertips touched. When it seemed she would break from him, though, she suddenly reversed direction and spun fantastically, whirling as she passed along Izuku's arm, across his chest, and along his other arm in a beautiful move, her hand finding his as she completed her travel with ease, linking back up with Izuku as if they had never been apart. It was impossible to tell if he'd caught her, or if she'd caught him.
"Izuku, I love you. I've seen all of you, and I love you. That's not going to change any time soon, and it will never change because you think I'm hot in a dress," she told him. As they stopped, Nana began to float up, further from Izuku. Her eyes stayed locked on his as her fingers unlinked and she moved to float free, planning her next move.
Before she could, though, Izuku's hand reached out, clinging to her and everything she meant to him. Nana looked down to see fear in his eyes.
"But why?" he whispered, "why would you love me? I'm-"
"Say something about "not being worthy", and I'll drop you," Nana warned him fiercely. Her eyes blazed in fury, and Izuku gulped. He stopped talking for a second, but Nana could see all the words written on his heart. She saw a lifetime of fears and reminders that he was worse, lesser, incomplete. She saw scars that could never really go away. Nana couldn't just wave her hand and heal him-just like he couldn't do the same for her.
She resolved to try, anyway. Maybe Nana couldn't take away the past Izuku had, but she didn't need to. He'd moved past it by himself-she just had to show him that.
Izuku protested, "See, Nana? I don't think I can even fly without your help! I can't do this without you. If you let go of me, I'll fall."
Nana countered, "Bullshit, Izuku, you can fly just fine. You just need to learn, that's all. Soon, you'll be as free in the air as I am."
Izuku didn't, couldn't believe it. He'd seen how Nana flew, free and in total control, as though she was a goddess not bound by gravity, as though the sky was her home and she was just a visitor on solid ground. When he flew, Izuku felt like a brainless weight in comparison, unable to control himself, helpless on his own.
As though she could sense his lingering fears, Nana promised, "It doesn't matter, anyway. I'll always be here to hold you up, Izuku."
"Always?" he asked, hopeful and awed. Nana just smiled.
"Always," she confirmed. Something in her tone, in the steady presence she had at the back of his mind, made him believe her. A rope that had been tightly wound around his heart suddenly loosened.
At last, Izuku's grip slackened, and Nana kept moving. She never stopped touching Izuku, never took her hand from his skin; her feather-light fingertips trailed up his arm, over his shirt, leaving goosebumps wherever they went. Nana's hand tracked over Izuku's shoulder as she swung herself around, gripping both of his shoulders as she laid her head on his collarbone. Her chest pressed into his back, and he seemed to be giving her a piggyback ride, forty feet above the ground. Izuku could feel her breath on his neck.
"Nana, what are you doing now?" Izuku asked.
In a soft voice that sent shivers running across Izuku's skin, Nana murmured, "Don't worry."
Izuku shuddered as Nana's smile grew. Slowly, she drifted down and to her left, under Izuku's outstretched arm. Slowly, she reoriented herself, flipping and twisting as she began to swing under Izuku's arm.
Izuku watched in confusion and growing awe as Nana began to weave in a delicate spiral around him. She spun and wove around him, ducking underneath his arm and back across his torso, flitting over and under and through his body, around and around, clambering on him like a child on a jungle gym.
Izuku watched in awe as Nana toyed with the very idea of orientation, pointing in any direction she wanted as she used his body as a focal point, always touching him, with her hands or arms or head or legs. She could invert herself perfectly around Izuku's finger, or rise diagonally and backwards through the gap between his arm and body. It was a level of aerial mastery that Izuku could barely even conceive of, and yet Nana seemed to dance around him like a ballerina trailing a ribbon with barely a second thought. All Izuku had to do was hold still and watch the beauty of Nana's nonchalant movement, flipping and twisting on a dime.
As she twirled, Nana said casually, "So, Izuku, tell me more about why you're scared to be honest with me."
Izuku's skin tingled with electric charge as Nana's hand trailed across his chest and her newly-shortened black hair tickled his neck. He answered, "I...I don't know. I guess...I guess I'm just scared of what you'll think of me."
"And why is that?" Nana asked. She flipped totally upside down, floating upwards until her face was level with Izuku's. Izuku felt his stomach flipping with vertigo as he stared into Nana's upside-down face, trying to make sense of the way she smiled at him.
Izuku replied uncertainly, "The thoughts I have about you...they scare me, sometimes. I don't want to drive you away because I can't control myself."
Internally, Nana grinned. Finally, some progress! She'd always been able to sense that Izuku had something he was holding back, some chunk of his mind that he held under lock and key. It came out occasionally, but Nana wanted to see what it held for herself.
She asked, "What thoughts are we talking here?"
From the way Izuku gulped and turned red, Nana could make a pretty good guess about some of them. After a moment, Izuku responded quietly, "Nana, I love you so much, it scares me. We haven't known each other for very long, really, and I already know that I couldn't do anything without you. Sometimes, I wonder if I ever could do anything when you weren't there for me."
As touched as Nana was, she knew Izuku was wrong. "Izuku, you did plenty of stuff yourself, before I was even alive to help," she pointed out.
Izuku looked doubtful. "Did I?" he countered.
"Yes, you did," Nana insisted, coming to a gradual stop holding Izuku from behind, her hands over top of Izuku's, her arms lined up next to his. The move highlighted the difference between their arms and hands as well as the similarities; where Nana's flesh was smooth and unmarked after her resurrection, Izuku's was rough and scarred. His hand was twisted and his fingers were crooked, permanent reminders of just how far he was willing to go to save people.
Seeing that Izuku was still hesitating, Nana decided to change directions. She asked, "Izuku, do you think you're a good hero?"
Izuku froze, confused by the question. "I-I'm sorry, I don't get what you're asking," he stammered as Nana abandoned her twirling to hug him from behind, her hands roaming over his arms and chest, her face buried into his neck as if drinking in everything about him. A sigh escaped his lips as Nana's lips and hands roamed over him, working out tension wherever they went.
"You heard what I said. Are you a good hero?" Nana repeated, her voice allowing no argument.
Izuku fell quiet as he searched for an answer. At last, he replied, "I...I don't know."
"Why?" Nana prompted, her voice gentle as they floated in the air. They had begun to rise again, unnoticed by either of them; by now, they were over a hundred feet into the sky.
Izuku took another deep breath. Eventually, he said, "I try to help people like a hero should. I try not to give up. I fight villains and save people from disasters...but it always feels like I should be doing so much more. I've failed so many times, let people down. How can I be a good hero when I can't help people who are right in front of me?"
Nana saw images pass through Izuku's memories; of a white-haired, one-horned girl looking back with desperation as she was led away, of a man in a white suit and an oxygen mask closing his eyes for the last time on a hospital bed, of Bakugo being dragged through a purple void.
When Izuku fell silent, it was Nana's turn to speak. Her voice rang with strength as she asked, "So what?"
"Huh?" Izuku asked, unsure what Nana meant.
Suddenly, Nana grabbed Izuku by the shoulders and spun him around, making him yelp. When Izuku reopened his eyes, he was face-to-face with Nana, who was glaring at him with determination blazing in her heart. His hands shifted down to her waist almost without thinking, while Nana threw her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
"So what if you've failed?" Nana repeated, her voice steely but unflinchingly kind, "do you think that no hero ever fails? You're a man, Izuku, not a god. The thing that makes a good hero isn't never failing, it's doing the right thing for the right reasons. In all the time I've known you, I've never seen you do something for the wrong reasons...which means even more than always doing the right thing."
Izuku's heart skipped a beat as he absorbed the truth of Nana's words. Trying not to give away just how much the answer meant to him, he asked, "So...do you think I'm a good hero?"
"I think you're a great hero," Nana corrected, "and a great man, too."
Izuku stared helplessly into her eyes as she smiled at him. How could her smile just transfix him like this? Why did every word out of her mouth feel like the truth?
"Why?" he whispered; it was the old insecurities that spoke, one last gasp of his belief that he wasn't worth as much as he really was.
Nana's response was to slip free of his grasp again, sinking with a twirl and a smirk on her face. Izuku stared down at his empty hands as Nana floated up behind him again, her hands coming under his arms and onto his chest in a seductive pose.
Izuku felt Nana's lips over his ear as she whispered, "Now that you've told me what you think you are, I'm going to tell you what I see when I look at you. I want you to know what you really are."
Izuku shuddered as Nana's embrace and sultry tone sent a wave of anticipation through him. Something about floating in midair under his own power while the woman he loved whispered into his ear supercharged the situation; every touch was amplified into a trail of fire dripping across his skin, every word was a caress.
Her voice ringing with love and gentle but seductive energy, Nana told him, "You, Izuku Midoriya, are the greatest hero of all. You beat Shigaraki, the greatest threat to Japan in all of history, with one punch."
"But I don't know how I did that!" Izuku responded stubbornly.
As though she hadn't heard him, Nana simply continued, "You are good, and righteous, and maddeningly humble. And if you still think you somehow aren't heroic...remember, Toshinori could have given One For All to anyone; he had no shortage of incredible candidates, strong, committed, true heroes to pass his quirk on to. He chose you, because you're the greatest of them all."
Izuku was a brilliant shade of red as he protested, "B-but that was chance! I happened to run into him one day, that's all!"
"So?" Nana countered, "think of all the people All Might saved, all the people he met. Out of all of them, only you inspired him. Only you impressed him enough for him to entrust One For All to you."
Izuku was still blushing as Nana's arms encircled his chest, her voice low and powerful in his ear. How could he not believe her? Every word she said was in his own mind, too; she was only echoing a voice in his head, one he'd neglected for years.
Nana continued, "But that isn't why you're the greatest man I've ever met. No, Izuku, that's because of how kind you are. That first day, when you found me in your bed...not a lot of people would have done what you did for me."
"What do you mean? I just...helped you!" Izuku responded, getting embarrassed again.
"You did," Nana agreed, "you accepted me, answered my questions, gave me clothes, covered for me when we didn't know what was happening. You gave me a chance to be normal, and you helped me adapt to returning to a world I barely recognize."
"You seem like you've handled that pretty well, though. I don't know how much I had to do with that," Izuku protested.
Pressing her body up against Izuku's until there was no space at all between them, Nana insisted "You had everything to do with it, Izuku. I know it can seem like I'm invincible...but I'm not. I'm still getting used to everything."
Izuku accepted her words and didn't try to push for more, no matter how the thought of Nana still feeling pain or fear instantly made him want to rush to fix everything.
Nana smiled against his neck as she recognized the impulse.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about, Izuku," Nana told him in an amused tone, "your first instinct when someone is hurting is to help them. That's not my first instinct, it isn't the first instinct of almost anyone else. You're only the second person I know who thinks like that."
Izuku smiled gratefully, feeling Nana's words lift his heart. He did have one last question, though.
"Who's the first?" he wondered, feeling Nana slowly slip around to the side of his body, letting his arm encircle her waist and bring her close to him.
Nana's lips were hovering close to his cheek when she replied, "Toshi. I always thought he was the most naturally heroic person in the world...until I met you. Trust me, Izuku, you are amazing, in every way, and I love you. You don't need to hide anything from me."
Izuku smiled, and leaned down to kiss her. Nana happily met his lips with her own, and they shared a kiss two hundred feet above the ground.
Nana pushed forwards, using her quirk to surge even closer to Izuku than she usually could; she made the kiss deeper, more intense, more demanding. Izuku's hands snaked around her back, and Nana made an approving noise as she dug her hands into his hair.
When Nana's tongue began pushing into his mouth, Izuku pulled away, and Nana pouted.
Seeing her face and the disappointment she radiated, Izuku laughed, "I'm not saying no, Nana. It's just…how about we get back to our room for this?"
Instantly, Nana perked back up. "Now you're speaking my language, babe," she drawled.
Cheekily, Izuku asked, "What language is that? Sassy Nana, Horny Nana, and Praising Nana are awfully different-sounding."
"I'm multilingual," Nana replied instantly, earning another chuckle from Izuku.
They began to descend, still wrapped in each other's arms. After they'd sunk more than seventy feet, Nana said impatiently, "Come on, I wanna get back to the room so you can fuck my brains out!"
Izuku grinned, but Nana could feel his sudden concern as he wondered, "What, was all that inspirational speaking just to get into my pants?"
Nana smiled at him, a smile full of love as much as humor. She answered, "It was because I love you, Izuku, and you needed to hear the truth. Everything I said, I meant. Besides...it's not like I need to do anything to get into your pants."
Izuku's smile returned full force, his worries dissipating like morning mist. "You're not wrong there," he snorted.
"Of course I'm not," Nana told him, "although...even if there won't be any dress-ripping, I wouldn't mind you getting into my pants, and not the other way around."
Izuku raised an eyebrow as he observed, "Ah, so there's your motive. You want me to be more assertive in bed, huh?"
"Hell yeah, I do. You got me," Nana confirmed shamelessly.
They sank further, to about fifty feet off the ground, until Izuku mused, "I have to admit, I didn't think you were the type to willingly give up control in bed."
Nana's toothy grin wouldn't have looked out of place on a shark as she replied, "Who said anything about willingly?"
Izuku's eyes went wide in understanding. He didn't need to say a single word; the images running through Nana's mind, and consequently his, said it all. Rapidly, his blood drained from his head, and started going other places.
"That's right," Nana whispered with a wink, her mouth against Izuku's jaw, her words traveling through vibrations along his skin more than through the air, "if you wanna take control, you'll have to take it. Otherwise, you're mine. Come on, show me what the hero who beat Shigaraki can do!"
Nana was expecting a lot of things, but she wasn't expecting for Izuku to surge forwards and grab her by the waist, kissing her so aggressively that Nana's knees trembled underneath her.
Oh, she was loving this side of Izuku already.
Pulling away just long enough for Nana to get a look at the fire burning in his eyes, Izuku murmured teasingly, "Let's see if you can take it, then."
Nana felt a shiver down her spine, and her heart skipped more than one beat. The look in Izuku's eyes was the most intense stare she'd ever seen, fixing her in place, devouring her, promising a thousand things that she couldn't wait to experience.
But then Izuku released her without doing a thing, and Nana whimpered. As though he could see exactly what he was doing to her (oh, wait...he could,) Izuku just smirked and told her, "Our room, remember?"
With difficulty, Nana calmed herself down, taking deep, needy breaths as they floated twenty feet off the ground.
At last, she grumbled, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, our room. You better get there now, loverboy."
Izuku just smiled as Nana took his hand and shot off, racing through the air as quickly as possible for their room, impatient to make good on Izuku's promise.
Oh, she was gonna enjoy this.