Word Count: 3,252

Kyouka, being the second daughter to the not-heir of her family's property, had done her fair share of grunt work on the farm growing up. She could at least pass for a boy when it came to strength, and up until that moment, she had assumed Momo was the same. But after seeing her friend fail so miserably that even the captain had to intervene, she started to question her impression of Momo.

Up until then, she had assumed Momo was like her, a farm girl who had pulled her weight around the house. She figured her friend could weed rice paddies with an arm tied around her back, feed the chickens and gather their eggs in one fell swoop, and still stitch seams evenly by the faint, glowing light of a candle.

But perhaps she should have known, caught on to the slim, delicate fingers and stiff, almost doll-like posture.

Kyouka should have known that her friend Momo was one of those jade girls, raised indoors as the eldest heir to be matched up and married off to some golden boy the year she turned sixteen.

Not that there was anything particularly wrong with being a jade girl. Kyouka simply figured that with a nice life like that laid out for her, Momo wouldn't have any need to join the army. She'd have enough honor just by existing as the delicate, little flower she was. To run off and fight in a war was ridiculous! Flowers were weak against even the smallest of breezes, their petals flying off into the unknown at even the lightest tug.

What was a flower doing amongst the tree saplings?

"Hey, Karma, I think it's your turn," Denki noted as they watched Yaoyorozu walk away, head down and rubbing her wrists.

"Thanks, fuzzbrain, I couldn't tell," Jirou snapped, then paused. She stole a glance upwards, but if Denki was bothered by her attitude, he didn't show it. Cracking her knuckles, she approached the captain without even the thought of apologizing to Denki in her mind.

The captain tied the weights to her wrists, catching Jirou off guard with how much heavier they were than what she had been anticipating.

She went through the motions of cracking her knuckles once more (though no sound came out this time). Well, looks like it's time to show this pretty boy what you're made of, Kyo, she thought, and she made a leap for it.

Futaba Yaoyorozu sighed and stared out the window, her head propped up by her elbow and her embroidery left forgotten on her lap. Even though it had hardly been long since her daughter had left to join the army, it felt like forever to the older woman.

In town, they managed to excuse Momo's sudden absence by saying she was busy with her lessons. After all, someone who managed to fail so spectacularly at a matchmaking appointment was most certainly doing something wrong if everything she was taught in life led up to that meeting. Some found it strange that Momo couldn't even leave the house anymore, and okay so maybe that was a work in progress, but they'd eventually convince everyone that their daughter simply wasn't allowed out.

Rap-rap-rap.

Futaba started, then laid aside her stitching and hurried to the door.

"Hello, Mrs. Yaoyorozu," a bright girl with equally bright orange hair said with a smile. "One of my aunties told me to come visit today, see if I may join Momo in her lessons today. She said she was tired of teaching me, but that I can't let the next few months go to waste, so she decided to send me here."

It was Itsuka Kendou, another one of the local girls whose appointment with the matchmaker hadn't ended with a husband. However, her reason for failure was simply an incompatibility of zodiacs with the most hopeful prospect, not any fault of her own actions. She would simply have to wait a while until the stars nudged themselves into place, then everything would go as planned for her.

Futaba shifted her weight uneasily. "I'm sorry, Miss Kendou, but I simply cannot allow that. Having a friend over during her lessons would simply be a distraction for Momo, even if you both were learning at the same time. Please tell your auntie to find you another girl to study with."

Itsuka's smile faltered for the briefest of moments, but she nodded understandingly. She presented Futaba with a basket and a bow. "I shall do that, Mrs. Yaoyorozu, and please, take this gift of fish my father caught this morning to compensate for your troubles."

A twinge of guilt plagued at Futaba's heart as she took the basket of fish from Itsuka and watched her skip away.

If this kept going, it would be hard to maintain her poised and graceful image in the absence of her daughter.

Uraraka found it hard to stay in the tent all day.

Okay, so maybe it had only been a few hours and it wasn't even close to lunchtime yet, but it was still hard to just. Sit in a mostly barren tent and think about how she could get Momo to keep her alive. Maybe Uraraka wouldn't put it so selfishly, but she had to admit, she was kind of reliant on Momo's success in the war to make sure that the ancestors didn't imprison her in iron to be an ornament for the rest of time.

But seriously, there was only so much enjoyment a dragon could derive from lying in the indirect sunlight all day.

"We could sneak out to the stables and chat with Iida," Deku the cricket suggested. "I'm sure he's just as concerned about Momo as we are."

Uraraka thought on it for a second, then shook her head. "No, someone's bound to catch us scampering around camp. I mean—" she gestured frantically to herself— "a tiny dragon is going to attract attention regardless of the fact that I blend in with the dirt."

"Good point," Deku admitted, hopping over to join Uraraka on Momo's neatly folded bedroll. However, no sooner than he had done so did they hear footsteps tramping around outside, stopping right in front of their tent. The two animals swiftly dove under Momo's pillow as two strangers entered.

"For such a shoddily made tent, it sure is tidy in here," one of them commented.

The other stranger grunted. "In the registry, who does it say lives here?"

There was a rapid succession of scroll shifting before Uraraka supposed to proper one was located and unfurled. "The Yaoyorozu son, it seems. Haku, he said he was called. Seemed like a bit of a nervous wreck and klutz when I met him yesterday, that much I can remember because he'd been the center of some crazy fight when he arrived. Kind of weird, too—"

"That's enough. I get the picture," the second voice interrupted. "In what year was he born?"

"I don't know. The conscription notice was for his father, so I currently hold no records on the boy."

"Hmm."

"I know the Yaoyorozu daughter is a snake, so if I had to hazard a guess, I would say that Haku is a tiger. He did mention being a late bloomer."

"Before you said that, I would have pegged him for a snake himself. Perhaps it was the girlish face, but I suppose it doesn't matter. Even if he were a snake, he'd be old enough to be here, if just barely. Let's keep going."

Just as promised, the two strangers left the tent, but it didn't put Uraraka at any more ease. Her heart rate, already naturally fast due to her small size, had practically doubled from the unannounced visit (she would also call it unauthorized, but the way they talked made it seem to Uraraka that they did indeed have the power to enter tents at random), and then some when the second voice commented on how feminine Momo looked.

Deku patted her with a foreleg, but it was still far, far too long until her heart stopped thudding so prominently against her chest.

Uraraka let out a long breath, not even realizing she'd been holding it in, then flopped down backwards onto Momo's pillow. "Oh, Deku, what are we going to do?"

"About what?"

"They've already singled Momo out as unusual! How are we going to keep her safe from not only the Huns in battle, but also the supervisors here at camp?"

Deku hopped onto the pillow and sat down next to Uraraka's head. "Well," he chirped, "They seem to be fooled for now. We'll just have to tell her to lay low and not to draw attention to herself until someone else catches their focus. Of course, to do that, we'd have to…"

If Momo were to be honest, she would have expected Aizawa to be supervising the repetitive muscle training, since he had been the one to request all trainees finished with the pole test. But, she supposed that Bakugou overseeing it made sense too, since he was technically the assistant captain and all. (Not that she felt compelled to ever call him Assistant Captain Bakugou, at least aside from straight to his face, but it was hard to forget that Bakugou was in a position of power in the camp.)

She still wondered where the older man was.

"You!" Bakugou barked, making a beeline for Momo. "Don't just stand there; join the ranks of maggots, fucker!"

Momo's mind drew a blank as she stumbled backwards. "U-understood!"

"Sir!" Bakugou yelled.

"Sir?" she repeated, her brain still reeling.

"Good enough! Now go run laps with all the other sissies!"

Momo was still more than a tad confused, but the way Bakugou was yelling at her scared her more than that. Without even looking up, she sprinted off to join the mass of soldiers running as quickly as her legs could carry her.

"Heeey, it's you again!"

Momo yelped as she nearly crashed into a man in front of her. Regaining her sense of self with just a little bit of difficulty, she found herself running alongside the same unmistakable redhead she had met the day before. He grinned at her as if running for what must've been at least an hour for him was nothing.

"I was wondering if we'd ever see each other again," said Kirishima. "Hope the toilets went okay last night?"

In all honesty, the toilets seemed like forever ago, being the least memorable part of yesterday, but Momo nodded pleasantly. "Yeah, this guy named Karma was stuck cleaning them too, and we really hit it off."

Kirishima grinned. "Oh yeah, I was chatting with someone named Denki this morning. He mentioned Jirou at some point. I think he likes to go by his last name, too, though I can't fathom why. 'Jirou' isn't a surname I recognize, and I heard about a lot of people growing up." He snapped. "Hey, that reminds me! I didn't get the chance to ask you yesterday, but you come from a military family, right? I was thinking about it, and I recognized the Yaoyorozu name."

Momo's throat went dry, and not just from all the running. "Yeah," was all she could manage.

"You've got a lot to live up to, huh, Haku?" Kirishima's expression was suddenly filled with concern. "Hey, you're lagging!"

Momo grit her teeth and willed her legs to move faster. They felt like lead pillars beneath her hips; she didn't usually run this fast this long. Her lungs burned, and she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep a conversation going.

"Honestly, I would have thought that you'd be way more fit than this, Haku," Kirishima commented.

"I was a sickly child," Momo said, trying not to let it come out all breathy.

"So I heard. Still, you must be years passed it if your dad let you come here. I guess it must've impacted you more than I thought."

She pushed herself harder, focused her vision on just the ground in front of her feet. Even her thoughts were blank, save for the constant stream of right, left, right, left that ate up her concentration.

"Hey, uhh, Haku?"

Kirishima sounded strangely distant, and, come to think of it, the ground was starting to look far away.

"Haku. Listen to me."

Failed step one.

She wasn't even sure if she could even see anything but her feet; how could she possibly take the energy to process what he was saying? Her legs felt like they were going to fall apart. With only the sheer force of her willpower keeping them moving, how much longer would she last in this endurance training?

"It's okay, I got him. I'll bring him back to his tent."

Thank you, Kyouka, was the final thing that crossed her mind before all the world went black.

In Momo's quarters, Kyouka sighed with frustration. Halfway to her tent, Momo had begun stirring again, tried to walk on her own, and ended up fainting again. And, yeah, it had been hard for Kyouka to drag the dead weight of someone a head and a half taller than herself from the riverbank to the soldiers' area, but Kyouka was nothing if not stubborn.

"Honestly, Yaoyorozu, the point of boot camp is to make you stronger. You can't be doing that if you're passed out half the time we're supposed to be training," she dryly said when Momo once again began to stir. Kyouka put away her stitching so that she could give a better disapproving stare. "And honestly, I should be out there running, too. Fortunately, that Bakugou guy isn't actually a sadist and actually kind of knows what he's doing when it comes to keeping and training troops and let me hang out here with you to make sure you don't die in your sleep or whatever."

Momo sat up and rubbed her forehead. "What happened?"

Apparently, she hadn't been listening to a word her friend had said, so said friend flicked her in the temple. "You passed out, silly. Here, staying hydrated is important," Kyouka said as she handed Momo a jug of water.

Momo took it without a word and took a swig. Then another, and another. Kyouka watched patiently until Momo started staring into the distance.

"You were an indoor girl, huh," said Kyouka, not ungently. Momo swivelled her head to look at her friend with wide eyes, and it was all Kyouka could do not to laugh.

"How did you know?" Momo asked helplessly, and at that, Kyouka really did laugh.

"A lady never tells," the blue-haired girl replied between giggles. "Though considering the fact that you're built about as well as a peony, it wasn't hard to figure out. I'm not going to lie, I thought you were a farm girl through and through. I guess shame on me for not realizing that a girl with the last name Yaoyorozu wouldn't have a brother to carry on the family name if she had to join the army."

Momo looked away. "My last name is that well known, huh," she said softly, with just a hint of what could have been wistfulness mixed in.

Kyouka nodded even though her friend wasn't looking at her.

"You know, up until just now, I thought you were raised to be a housewife, too," Momo admitted.

"Nah, but I have a couple cousins who were raised like you. We called 'em jade girls because they were delicate, valuable, and often kept indoors. Having one was a sign of high status and honor because you could afford to have one of your kids not help around the house."

"Kind of sucks being fragile, though. I mean, I'm here, in my tent during training because I fainted. You brought me here yourself, did you not? That's pretty impressive."

Kyouka wasn't sure what to say, but fortunately, Momo spoke up again.

"Hey, I have another secret to share with you," she said.

"Oh?" Kyouka said, and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as Momo reached under her pillow and pulled something alive out from under it. How Kyouka managed to miss something like that in the tent was beyond her, but what actually surprised her was what the creature was. "I didn't realize dragons came in such small sizes."

"I'm fun sized," the tiny dragon replied as it wriggled out of Momo's grip and settled on her shoulder.

"Kyouka, this is Uraraka. She helped me get this far," Momo said, gesturing to the dragon as she did so. "Uraraka, this is Kyouka. She's another girl here at camp, so I promise you can trust her."

Kyouka had no idea how to feel about the smile that came across Uraraka's face because those teeth were scary.

Fortunately, she didn't have to worry about it for long. Both girls and dragon froze when they heard the soft plodding of footsteps approaching. Uraraka managed to dive into Momo's hood just in time, for the captain poked his head inside.

"Haku," he said, his face and voice unreadable as ever. "I was told you fainted."

"C-captain," Yaoyorozu stuttered as he entered, crouching down next to the girls. "D-don't you have the arrow test to be s-s-supervising?"

"That's finished by now," Captain Todoroki answered, then, as if aware that he wouldn't be getting the direct truth from her, turned to Kyouka. "You brought him back here, correct?"

Kyouka blinked in surprise, feeling quite like a cornered animal under his gaze. "I did, sir," she replied. "I brought him here from the riverbanks myself."

The captain nodded in acknowledgement. "Karma, was it?" A nod, albeit a slightly delayed one. "Thank you for doing that, Karma. Now, seeing that you're both doing okay—"

"Wait," Yaoyorozu said, stopping Captain Todoroki as he began to leave. She faltered for a second as he stared at her, but she continued bravely on anyway. "Why would you concern yourself with my well being? I'm just another soldier."

"Don't take it personally. Checking on one's subordinates when they are injured is merely good practice. I'd do it to anyone else, had they also fainted on their first day," he said matter-of-factly.

The girls were silent for a minute after he was gone.

Then came the sigh of relief.

"I thought he was going to kick me out of the military," Momo confessed.

"It's just the first day," Kyouka said. "You'll be fine, just as long as you don't give him a reason to kick you out."

Suddenly, both Kyouka and Momo were very aware of their genders.

"Yeah," Momo breathed as Uraraka crawled out from her hoodie. "We'll be fine."

Kyouka cracked a smile and stood up, offering her hand to her friend. "That's the spirit. Now, let's see if you can walk."

Author's Note v. it's been a bad day. but i'm here now. the jade girl/golden boy thing was heavily inspired by some nicknames thrown around in a novel by lisa see called peony in love, where the protagonist, an only child, is engaged to her father's best friend's son, also an only child. They both came from wealthy, prestigious families and were sometimes referred to as the jade girl and golden boy, respectively. I just kind of took those and turned them into umbrella terms for the fic. Believe me, I have a lot of meta lying around for these terms and their impact and stuff for the fic.

yeah and that's all. follow/fave if you're new. review if that's what you're into. have a great day~