It felt like forever since she had been to the lab.

There were many things that Melissa thought would be happening at the lab. There wasn't any running or smoke, so there hadn't been any fires, and the lack of officers told her there hadn't been any murders recently. Which was good. And covered the worst of her fears. Well, almost.

But more, realistically she wondered what the three quarrelsome lab mates of hers were up to. Seriously, how did she end up in charge of three of the smartest dumbest underclassmen in the entire world? Saiko was just naturally smart and worked hard to keep that up; even without her quirk, the girl was among the top scorers. Izuku had a stubborn streak that allowed him to tackle a problem and bash his head into it until it was solved or he gave up, to date, Izuku still hasn't had to do that. Then there was Hitoshi, he was a lazy, constantly tired asshole that somehow managed to get results.

"Why was I looking forward to coming back again?" Melissa felt her eye twitch and she pulled at her blond hair for a moment. Crap. She just had her hair styled too, and she was already trying to pull it out. But how could she not? She was in charge of three giant headaches! "Izuku and Saiko are probably arguing over something stupid - yet brilliant - and Hitoshi is going to be egging them on while smugly drinking his coffee!"

She stopped, looked around, and made sure that no one was looking at her. They were. Great. They were going to think she was insane. Which was probably par for the course. Right, well, time to find out what was happening in her lab.

She stomped up to the door and swung it open.

Sitting on the couch, smugly drinking his coffee and looking like he was up to no good was the purple haired Hitoshi, his legs were crossed and his laptop was sitting on the table forgotten. He gave her a small nod and nudged her gaze further into the lab. Oh great. Izuku and Saiko had to be arguing about something again. Those two were like-

They were holding hands. Izuku and Saiko were holding hands. Both of their faces were blushing so much that they each looked ready to pass out. While their hands were connected, the two of them were looking away from one another, attempting to work on some project or another with a stubborn look on their faces.

Melissa blinked. For a moment, she thought that Hitoshi had somehow glued the pairs' hands together, but that would just result in the two of them arguing over what the best solution for the situation would be while glaring at Hitoshi. No, this seemed voluntary. Which. which was, quite frankly, terrifying.

"Switch," Izuku muttered, just loud enough to be heard.

Melissa watched as the two separated for just a moment, then switched hands and resumed their usual tasks. Completely voluntarily. Did Hitoshi have a gun?

"Amazing, right?" Hitoshi muttered coffee less than an inch from his lips. "They've been at it for an hour."

Melissa blinked and looked at her watch. Was she in some alternate universe? No. Her watch was still perfectly in sync with the clock on the wall. Were Saiko and Izuku from another world? That was just about the only thing she could think of. Sure, she had known that Izuku and Saiko were, uhh, she didn't want to say that they were childhood friends, but they had a complicated history together, complicated in that they had the purest form of hate Melissa had ever seen but for some reason stubbornly stuck by each other.

She didn't want to say it. She really, really didn't want to say it. But there might be a small, ever so very small chance that they didn't actually hate each other?

No that couldn't be.

"So uhh, Hitoshi, what the fuck happened?" Melissa finally asked after gathering more than enough observable evidence to determine that her hypothesis of 'Shit is fucked' was valid and ready to be submitted to a committee.

Hitoshi made a noise that was part laugh, part groan, and leaned back, smiling like a proud father. "A few days ago, Saiko came in and accused Izuku of being in love with her. You can probably guess what happened next. Izuku refuted that, they started arguing, now they're gathering data to prove that they aren't in love."

Melissa wanted to open her mouth to protest everything Hitoshi said, but she couldn't as her mouth had already dropped upon hearing everything Hitoshi said. If she thought about it, then yes, there was a good chance that Izuku and Saiko were in love. They were just giant, stubborn jackasses about the whole thing and frankly refused to acknowledge their own feelings. Being in love would also fill in the missing piece of the puzzle about why the hell those two would even put up with being on the same continent as one another.

Really, the two of them could have gone anywhere in the world, but they both chose I-Island and they both chose the same lab. Her lab. Not only did both of them do all that but they almost always chose the same projects precisely so that they could fucking argue about it. The committee was in; Izuku and Saiko were in love with each other.

Which really just left her with one question.

"Fucking what?"

XXXX

This was proving difficult.

No matter how much she touted mind over matter, there was only so much control Saiko could exert over her own body. While her emotions appeared to have a great deal more impact. It was quite troubling. It didn't help that, try as she might, she couldn't quite get Izuku's pulse through his palm; not only was the pulse difficult to find there due to a lack of large arteries, but his skin was likewise thicker and rougher there.

That wasn't to say the sensation wasn't enjoyable. It was.

Just holding Izuku's rough hand was making it difficult to focus on her task. Additionally, she had bitten her lip several times since they started, and not on accident nor out of frustration - as much as it pained her to admit it - no, rather the act was because of just how much she was enjoying herself. The sensation was pleasant. She enjoyed feeling Izuku's rough, large, and sturdy hands enveloping her hands.

Whatever doubts or denial she had over her feelings over Izuku had been tossed to the side like invalid data.

She should suggest cuddling. She should very much suggest that. Just the simple idea of having Izuku hold her, even in a fixed position while he stubbornly denied having any and all feelings towards her despite all the obvious signs. Such as how long their experiment had gone on for. Already, they were minutes overdue and they hadn't stopped yet. Oh, it was just so cute! She wanted to watch him squirm while he attempted to ignore his obvious affection for her!

Just the simple idea was-

"That's a perverted face if I've ever seen it." Whatever thought Saiko had herself wrapped up in was shattered when the blond haired blue eyed woman that was their supervisor in the lab made herself known. Melissa Shield was leaning on Saiko's desk; the coy, knowing smile on her senior's face sent a chill down Saiko's spine.

And completely ruined the romantic mood!

Melissa was a constant thorn in Saiko's side, or at least that's what she originally thought of the woman. But after careful evaluation of her own feelings, Saiko confirmed that the reason why she didn't like the woman was because the woman talked to Izuku. Basically, she was jealous. But knowing didn't change her feelings.

It also didn't help that Melissa teased her like she was some kind of little sister!

"Oh," Saiko attempted to straighten her face and then relaxed her hand just enough to slip from Izuku's grasp. He squeezed tighter for just a moment. Well that was a good sign. Once her hand was free, Saiko crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Melissa. "You're back."

"Yep! I knew my adorable little lab sister must have missed me dearly."

"Hardly, I-"

Melissa grabbed Saiko's hand and pulled the girl out of her seat like it was nothing. Freak'n gorilla! "Come with me for a moment."

"Huh? What? But I-" Saiko stumbled as Melissa guided her into one of the adjacent rooms where they could have a bit more privacy. She wanted to protest that she wasn't done holding Izuku's hand, but that would be exposing her desire to continue doing so! Dammit! Why couldn't Izuku just confess to her already! Better yet, why wasn't Izuku protesting too! He was just looking confused. At his hand. Why was he staring at his hand!

He should be staring at her! She had her hair done up extra nice and her skirt was 1cm shorter than usual!

Saiko was pushed through the door with far more ease than she cared to admit. And was promptly locked in the storage room with Melissa Shield.

"So," Melissa moved over to her, a natural sway in her hips making the girl's blond locks bounce with the few steps she took. Her elbow slammed into the wall above Saiko despite both of them being about the same height, it was mildly terrifying. "Tell me everything."

"About what?"

Melissa flicked her in the forehead. "Your failing romance with Izuku."

Damn! Wait. "Failing?"

Melissa just sighed. "Honestly, it's almost cute how stubborn you are."

XXXX

Well shit.

Izuku stared at his hand and took a slow, steady breath. His heart was still pounding in his chest despite his best efforts. He glanced up towards the clock. Had they really held hands for that long? He hadn't gotten any work done. But that wasn't inherently a bad thing. Okay, it was a terrible thing. Instead, all he had managed to do was run a counter of all the times he wanted to do more than just hold hands with Saiko.

The list had started as a counter of the number of times he wanted to stop holding hands with her.

But that was quickly filled with nothing.

And now Melissa had shown up and taken Saiko into the storage room, ending the experiment, leaving him with indisputable evidence that he was at least probably mildly in love with Saiko. So his list included 127 accounts of wanting to kiss her, 58 counts of kissing her, 87 counts of holding her tightly, 10 counts of sex. The latter was likely skewed do to his own efforts to avoid that thought.

Arousal wouldn't help him in this situation.

No doubt that she knew that he was in love with her. And there was no doubt that Saiko was in love with him. Which left him with two choices. Get frustrated trying to avoid confessing to her while trying to get her to confess, or he could-

The storage room door opened with Melissa leading around a very flustered looking Saiko. It was kind of adorable. Okay, it was a lot of adorable. And satisfying. He wanted to hold her at that moment. 88 counts of holding her tightly. "Hitoshi! You're in charge of Izuku, get him in some clothes that make him look good."

"Ehh?" The lanky purple haired man stood and gestured towards his sweatpants. "Ehh?"

"I've seen you in a suit, and if I leave it to Izuku he'll be wearing a tanktop, lab coat shorts and flip flops!" Melissa pointed a finger towards him. She wasn't wrong, he currently was wearing just that. He was extra casual today so that Saiko wouldn't get the wrong idea. Besides, it was comfy. "Now man up and make sure Izuku looks decent by tomorrow."

"Why?" Hitoshi asked.

"These two are going on a date or they're going to be kicked out of the lab." Melissa shouted and pulled Saiko out of the lab and shut the door.

Izuku blinked.

A date with Saiko, huh?

Well, he could either get frustrated over it, or he could enjoy the ride and watch her squirm until she confessed.

Yeah, that sounded a lot better.

AN: I could have made this a longer series with a lot of filler, but I decided that something of the short and sweet variety would be best.