"Will you go to the dance with me?" Todoroki bluntly asked Midoriya.
Nooooooooooo. Uraraka inwardly wailed. Just how many people were in love with Deku!?
The rest of the room sat in stunned silence at Todoroki's question. Many had wide-eyes and open mouths. Then you had Ashido who had passed out. Uraraka was fairly sure Ashido's soul had left her body.
It seemed no one had expected this development.
Apparently, neither did Midoriya who simply stared at Todoroki with a confused expression.
"Why are you asking me now?"
Todoroki replied with his own confused expression. "I- I was told that I would be more successful if I were to ask first."
Yaoyorozu squaked.
"Oh, I see! You want to ask me out so you don't have to break anyone's heart. That's awfully nice of you!"
"What are you talking about Midoriya?"
"Well, if we go as friends, then you don't have to worry about anyone asking you out on a date and rejecting them. That's really kind, Todoroki. You're a good person."
Wait, what? Is Deku serious?
"Midoriya, that's not what I meant. I like you."
"I like you too Todoroki."
Uraraka's spirit died.
"It's hard to come by friends as good and reliable as you. I'm really happy to have met you Todoroki."
Uraraka's spirit was resurrected. And immediately facepalmed.
"That's not what I meant Midoriya."
"It's not?"
"It is not. I want to take you to the dance as my romantic partner."
"W-what?"
Ah, there's the reaction Uraraka was waiting for.
"That's not fair Todoroki!" Hagakure stood up and pointed her t-sleeve accusingly at him. "I wanted to ask Midoriya on a date too!"
"D-date? M-me? Y-you?"
"That's right Midoriya! Let's go to the ball together! It'll be super fun!"
"Now hold on Hagakure!" It was now Yaoyorozu who stood up. "You can't ignore Jiro's and my own feelings! We also want to take Midoriya to the dance!"
"W-w-what? I-I-I don't-" Midoriya was beginning to sway. His eyes spun around so fast they formed spirals.
"And let's not forget Uraraka's feelings as well" Iida, ever the friend even when Uraraka didn't want him to be, stood up to defend her honor.
"Ura-Ura…"
Thankfully she was spared further embarrassment as all debate was stopped at the sound of Midoriya fainting and falling to the floor.
There was a small moment of silence, a calm before the storm before the whole room erupted in a cacophony of accusations, arguments, and just general yelling.
"ENOUGH!" Iida stood up and brought the room to silence. "Our fellow classmate has lost consciousness! We will all settle this later. In a manner that it becoming of UA students! Is everyone clear?"
"Yes, class representative" everyone chorused back.
"Good. Now as one of the few people NOT seeking to take Midoriya to the dance, I will bring him to his room so he can rest. Please return to your rooms. Our last day of classes is tomorrow so we should get to bed."
With that, the group slowly dispersed back into the halls. Iida, true to his word, carried Midorya bridal style (much to the chagrin of the surrounding audience) back to his room. Uraraka stayed in the common room for a while as she tried to process what just happened.
Thankfully, it seemed like almost everyone forgot about her and if she was lucky, forgot about her liking Deku completely. It seemed like it got lost under all of the confusion and the only person to really notice it was Iida.
She definitely needed to talk to him about it tomorrow. And Deku for that matter. She might be able to convince them both that it was just a misunderstanding. After all, she didn't actually confess to anything, did she?
Uraraka's heart contracted at the thought.
Although it pained her to admit it, this was now the absolute worst time to admit her feelings to Deku. He now had to deal four potential suitors and the last thing he needed was one of his closest friends to be added to that list as well. Also, the last thing Uraraka wanted was to get thrown into the middle what was probably the most dramatic event of the entire year.
Uraraka paused.
Dramatic gossip-wise of course. It'd be pretty shallow of her to think this was a bigger deal than the USJ incident, or Shigaraki at the mall, or Bakugo getting kidnapped, or the whole Eight Precepts-
...
Wow, what even was their first year?
Still, no good fretting about it now. She had a game plan and staying up all night worrying wouldn't do her much good.
Uraraka was sure everything would be fine come morning.
/-/
Everything was not fine come morning.
First of all, Midoriya had still not come back down. When she asked Iida about it, he simply shrugged and said he might still be overwhelmed and that they should give him some space.
Second of all, was her conversation with Iida. She was able to catch him in the way to breakfast. Thankfully, through mainly forced laughs, flailing arms and her traitorous cheeks blushing out of control, she was able to get out that she didn't have feelings for Deku and that she wasn't going to ask him out to the dance.
Iida told her he believed her.
Iida's knowing smirk as he said so suggested otherwise.
Which was embarrassing, but fine since it meant she probably wouldn't get dragged I to what was being dubbed as "The Dekubowl" by Sero. And gosh, was that an incident. Which led to the final thing that made the morning a steaming pile of "not fine:" the participants of said "Dekubowl."
Word had gotten around about last night's events and appropriately, the UA rumor mill was running at full blast.
Well, until breakfast happened at least.
If she thought the conversation last night was tense, the morning breakfast set the record. Mainly because not a word was spoken.
At all.
It was nothing but silence threaded through angry glares and murderous intent knitting a terrible sweater of awkward.
Once the "competitors" all gathered around the perimeter of the food hall, trying to bore holes through each other's heads with their stares, Sero had the bright idea to announce the start of the greatest sports festival to happen their year: Dekubowl. He then tried to take bets on who the victor would be until every single participant bore all of their anger at him with the scariest group death glare Uraraka had ever seen.
She was fairly sure Sero lost a few years of his life from that incident.
After that, it was back to the silence. The terrifying silence that everyone knew was backed by the threat of violence breaking out.
Everyone except Iida who just didn't notice the tension. He just calmly ate more focused on ensuring the day was going to be a productive one.
Lucky him.
It didn't help that she sat with him in the middle of the room, and got quite a lot of the glares directed at her. Stupid UA rumor mill, it spread every rumor like fire except the ones you actually WANTED to be spread. Like how she didnt want any part in this!
Thankfully she was saved by the bell warning them that class was supposed to start soon. Iida, bless his soul but damn his obliviousness, suggested they wait for Midoriya to make sure he was ok.
She agreed because she was worried herself but quickly regretted it as she felt five pairs of eyes burn lasers through the back of her head.
Yep, she needed out of this ASAP.
They waited for about five minutes and they were started to get worried until they heard footsteps quickly rush down the stairs.
Deku quickly sprinted out the door and slid to a stop in front of them, his eyes panicked and panting for breath. Uraraka noticed his clothes were very ruffled and his tie wasn't even tied. He seemed to calm down at the sight of them and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Uraraka wished she could do the same but her heart was hammering too hard.
Did he still think she liked him? How was he going to react? Should she make the first move and try to play it off as a misunderstanding? Oh gosh, what if he returned her feelings!
Uraraka tried to squash the spike of happiness that nearly overwhelmed her.
No! He wasn't going to do that. Even if for some small chance liked her back, he now had four other people pining for her interests. How was she supposed to compete with Yaoyorozu who was basically a princess? How was she going compete with Todoroki!?
Even she had to admit, that boy was beautiful.
Still, she had to say something, anything. She had to find a way to smooth out this situation!
"Bwah?"
It wasn't her finest moment.
"I'm so sorry I'm late! For some reason, I forgot to set my alarm last night and I ended up oversleeping."
"It's quite alright Midoriya. We should get moving though if we want to get to class on time" Iida had already started jogging ahead, Uraraka and Midoriya followed quickly behind.
Uraraka kept trying to steal glances at Deku as they rushed to class but he seemed very focused on staring at the floor.
Too focused.
"Is everything ok, Deku?"
Midoriya looked up at her and blushed and quickly looked back to the floor.
Oh no! He remembers! Oh gosh, what does he think? What should she do? Is it too late to transfer to Suiketsu?
"I'm sorry, I just had a really strange dream last night."
Wait, what?
"A dream?"
"Did it have anything to do with USJ? The League of Villains? Should we take you to Recovery Girl to help treat for symptoms of PTSD?" Iida called back at him as he continued to jog to class. That was something Uraraka always liked about Iida. He took everything seriously which could be a little much sometimes, but you could always rely on him to be there when you needed him to be. Fully prepared and ready to go.
"What? No, no, no! Nothing as serious as that." Deku frantically waved away Iida's concerns. "It was… well, it's actually embarrassing to admit."
No, it couldn't be…
"Deku, you can tell us! You know we're not going to make fun of you or anything!"
"Uraraka is right. And if it is bothering you in any way, we would like to know."
"You guys..." Deku looked genuinely moved by their words. It almost looked like he might shed a tear.
So cute!
"Well, I don't want to sound too arrogant but I had a dream where Todoroki asked me out to the dance! And then Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Jiro and uh, and they all got really mad because they wanted to ask me to the dance! Which is just silly. What an embarrassing dream!" he adorably scratched the back of his head the entire time, a big, cute blush spread throughout his face as his recounted his "dream"
Uraraka got excited as she found her escape route. Deku thought it was a dream! This was perfect!
"Midoriya." Iida started,
It was not perfect! Iida was about to ruin everything!
"I don't think that was a dre-"
"Iida, look out!" Uraraka called, suspiciously too late to warn Iida of her loss of balance on flat ground. Uraraka, completely unintentionally and totally an accident, slapped Iida's back to try and stop herself from falling. Iida's forward momentum combined with Uraraka's quirk caused him to suddenly launch skyward.
And straight into a metal pole.
"Whoops." Uraraka stared wide at their friend who was currently achieving first base with a light post. A small part of her told her that was the most action anyone in her class has gotten so far in the Dekubowl. She told that part of her to shut up.
"Iida!" Deku called out and rushed forward to help Iida. Uraraka released her quirk and Deku caught Iida as he fell, bridal-style. One part of Uraraka burned in jealousy. The other part squeed in delight at the sight of two dashing, young men in such a pose.
She refused to acknowledge that part's existence. Especially now that Todoroki was in the picture.
Deku let Iida back down on to the ground, disappointing her hormones, but giving her a chance to walk over and make sure Iida was ok. She meant to get him to stop talking, not break his face.
"Iida, are you ok?" she asked.
"Uraraka! You must be very careful with your quirk! Someone could have been very hurt!"
"I know! I know! I'm sorry! I panicked! I didn't mean for you to get hurt! Do you need to go to Recovery Girl?"
"No, thankfully I wasn't running fully when you fell. This is why people shouldn't run in the halls! Because of my safe thinking, all I got was a small bump to my head!"
Uraraka smiled in relief. Iida was giving them a safety talk which meant he was ok.
"Is everything ok, Uraraka? You normally wouldn't panic at something like that."
Uraraka smile dropped and her eyes widened in panic. Sweat quickly began to fall off of her face. Of course, Deku would notice that of all things! He can't notice half of the class falling in love with him but he can notice her forgetting to use her quirk properly! Now Iida was giving g her a concerned look too!
"W-well. You told us about your dream and I thought maybe it would make us late to class? So, I got worried and tripped." Uraraka winced. Good job brain. That was a fantastic excuse. A+ Best job.
"Why would it make us late to class?" Deku asked.
An idea immediately sprang to her mind. A good idea. Uraraka forgave her brain for its previous relapse.
"Well, I was worried that the content would be too much for you and you would pass out from the excitement." She gave Iida a pointed look and his eyes widened in realization.
Deku gave her a confused look.
"Really? I don't think I would-"
"Uraraka is right Midoriya!"
"She is?!"
"Yes! Now, let's hurry to class before we are late!" Iida sped off, not too quickly of course. Deku and Uraraka chased after him.
Phew, another bullet dodged. If she was lucky maybe the rest of the day wouldn't be so bad?
/-/
It was bad. It was very bad.
As soon as Uraraka walked into class with Iida and, more importantly, Deku, every person in the room turned to look at them. The events of the night before were the hot gossip this morning. Ashido, Mineta and Kaminari looked at Deku with pure envy on their eyes while Kirishima and Sero gave Deku the proudest smile they could muster. Bakugo gave Deku a cold, calculating glare which, Uraraka prayed to whatever god was listening meant, that Bakugo wasn't going to throw his hat into the ring as well. She didn't know if he had a crush on Deku but things were complicated enough without the childhood friend trope rearing its ugly head.
The stares that worried Uraraka the most were the four pairs of eyes that saw her walk into the room with Deku and narrowed dangerously. No doubt thinking to themselves that she was getting the upper hand. She needed to find a way to convince them that she didn't want to ask Deku out anymore!
Uraraka ignored the knots curling in her stomach.
Thankfully, Aizawa was already up in front of the class preventing any of her "competition" from confronting her about it. Which was nice because it gave her time to think of a way out of all of this.
"Are you going to take your seat, Uraraka?" Aizawa said with an annoyed stare.
"Huh?"
"You've been staring at me for the past two minutes. You have five seconds to get in your chair before we have a problem."
It took her only two to rush over to her seat.
Uraraka ignored the scattered chuckles from the class. She didn't even need to look to know who they were coming from four specific individuals. Still, laughing at her was better than them plotting her murder so Uraraka was going to take that win.
Aizawa took in the entire class and began to speak. "Anyway, as you all know, we are going to have no classes or assignments during the next week."
A few people cheered.
Aizawa glared at them.
They stopped cheering.
Aizawa continued, "Breaks like this are few and far between in the life of a hero. Even less so now with the recent increase in villain activity. If things continue like this, you may not have this opportunity again next year or even when you are all professionals."
The class hung on his every word. His face was cut from stone and his tone was even more serious than usual.
"Essentially, this free time is a unique opportunity. Do not waste it. I definitely won't."
Uraraka's mind began to whirl. Of course, how could she be so caught up in all of this drama? The event's of the previous night was soon forgotten as she began to think of new plans for her break. He was right; how could they relax with the League of Villains still out there! They should be training! When the League of Villains eventually strikes again, they need to be ready for whatever dastardly plans they pull.
Why were they even holding a dance in the first place?!
Deku raised his hand. "Sensei, what will you be doing during the break? What would you suggest us to do?"
Aizawa closed his eyes as the class waited with bated breath. What kind of grueling training was he going to put himself through?
Aizawa opened his eyes and spoke.
"After class, I plan on walking back to my apartment, crawling into bed, closing my eyes and not opening them again until I have to come back next week to teach"
…
What?
"I'd advise for you to do something along those lines."
What?!
"But sensei, shouldn't we train or try to improve our quirks at all?"
"No."
"But-"
"Midoriya, do you think rest isn't productive?"
Deku paused.
"All of you, perhaps more than most, need to realize this. The human body needs rest. If you push it too far you're liable to tear a muscle and put your entire career at risk. But the more important thing and the reason UA gives you a full week is to rest your spirit.
"Mental fatigue, stress, dissociation, depression, paranoia. All common among pro heroes. Pros have to deal with the worst the world throws at them - villain attacks, natural disasters, accidents - and are expected to come out on top and save the day. Every day, pros deal with these situations. If they aren't careful, then no matter who they are, it can break them.
"To stop this, heroes need time to relax, rest, recuperate and sometimes remind themselves why they became a hero in the first place. Everyone needs to rest. Even All Might had to take breaks."
Uraraka sat back as she digested his words. What Aizawa said made complete sense. How could you save someone if you needed to be saved yourself?
It was comforting to know that she was encouraged to take some time for herself and relax. She smiled as she thought about how fun it will be to see her family and sleep in for a change. It really was going to be a nice break.
"What about the dance?" Hagakure asked.
Except that. That was not going to be nice. That was going to be very not nice.
"The Principal decided that a dance would be a good way for students to relax and strengthen their bonds."
Uraraka had a feeling the "Dekubowl" wasn't what the Principal had in mind.
"Which brings me to our last subject for today. The dance will be held Christmas Eve in the courtyard in front of the main school entrance. All of you will help with preparations for the dance. You will be assigned to one of two teams: one to help with decorating the tree and another to help with decorations of the courtyard. Any questions?"
"Will you be at the dance sensei?" Tsuyu asked.
"I will be sleeping," Aizawa replied flatly. "If there are no more questions, Iida and Yaoyorozu will be assigning the teams."
Iida and Yaoyorozu walked up to the front of the class as Aizawa stepped aside. Iida took the podium holding a piece of paper.
"We have already divided you into two teams and provided tasks for each you based on your abilities. For team one-"
Todoroki interrupted by raising his hand. "Iida, I have a question."
"Of course, Todoroki!"
"Did you or Yaoyorozu come up with the team assignments?"
"Yaoyorozu divided up the class and I assigned each of your tasks based on your quirks."
"And is Yaoyorozu on the same team as Midoriya?"
Oh, no.
Deku looked at Todoroki in confusion.
Oh, double no.
Iida looked at the paper. "Yes, she is-"
"And are Jiro, Hagakure, Uraraka and me on the other team?"
Hagakure gasped and Jiro's jaw dropped.
Oh triple no.
The class started to murmur. Sero said something to Ashido that made her break out laughing. Kirishima shook his head in shame while Bakugo had an amused smirk printed on his face. Tsuyu looked disappointed, a look shared by the rest of the class. The rest of the class except Mineta and Kaminari who continued to glare daggers at Deku. And Aoyama as well. He continued to twinkle.
Although, they did seem to be less twinkly than usual.
It was Deku that scared her the most, however. His eyes started to widen as his eyes slowly moved from Todoroki to Hagakure and then to Jiro, his face rapidly reddening as he realized what he thought was a dream, maybe wasn't a dream. His eyes finally landed on hers, his eyes wide as saucers and his face so pink it was nearly fluorescent. It seemed like he was expecting her to laugh off his suspicions, telling him that it was just a coincidence and that he shouldn't worry about it and he was silly for thinking such a thing.
Uraraka could have done that.
But she didn't.
She instead hid her profusely blushing face in her arms leaving a small gap to peek at Deku and see his reaction.
He was sweating profusely and shaking in his chair.
All of the no.
Jiro stood up and slammed her hands on the desk. "Momo, what the hell?"
Iida turned to Yaoyorozu who withered behind him. "Yaoyorozu, how could you use your power for such corruption?"
"I-I didn't think-"
"Iida, what did Yaoyorozu do?" Aizawa asked suddenly with a face cut from stone.
All noise in the room died as everyone realized that their teacher was still in the room. A teacher who had just overheard the Vice Class Rep being accused of corruption by the Class Rep. Uraraka wasn't worried, however. Iida would clear the situation up and make it so Yaoyorozu wouldn't get in trouble for such a small thing.
Iida pushed his glasses up into his face. "Yaoyorozu ruined the sanctity of this institution by using her power to devise a situation where she would succeed over her fellow classmates."
Or he would be Iida and take it to the logical extreme.
Yaoyorozu whimpered.
"That is a serious offense, unbecoming of a hero. How was she going to pull that off?"
"By allowing her to spend more time with Midoriya so that she may convince him to go to the dance with her."
…
There was a small moment of silence where, at least Uraraka thought, Aizawa was considering strangling someone. She had no idea who but potentially everyone within a fifty-yard radius was a good guess.
"What are you talking about Iida?"
Iida looked at her with a conflicted expression. Uraraka shook her head frantically back. Iida looked at Deku. Deku stared at Iida with an intensity he normally reserved for All Might. Iida looked back at her and flashed her a grin before turning to Aizawa.
Uraraka sighed in relief. Ok good, he got the message.
"Sir, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Hagakure, Todoroki and Uraraka are all competing for Midoriya's affections and wish to take him to the dance."
IIDA WHY?!
Uraraka frantically looked back at Deku who's soul had departed his body; off on a journey to find safer and saner lands. She looked back Iida accusingly.
Iida gave her a thumbs up cluing Uraraka immediately to his intentions: Midoriya was already in class so even if he passed out he'd be fine. Just her luck he'd accidentally use her own good idea against her.
It was at that moment Uraraka noticed something strange: why was no one was commenting on Iida's remarks? Also, did it just get colder in here or was it just her?
Oh.
Uraraka discovered why no one was saying anything and why there was an ominous chill crawling it's way up her spine.
Some might have described it as a black hole. Uraraka was quite knowledgeable about black holes. With her quirk being gravity, she's always had an interest in the field of astrophysics. Her interest was why Thirteen was one of her favorite heroes. The hero even gave her something of a demonstration when Aoyama and she faced off against Thirteen for their end-of-term exam. A black hole was essentially a void that would suck in all matter, even time itself!
What she discovered wasn't a black hole.
It was an abyss.
An abyss that they all stared into and, to their immense fear, stared back at them. It left them all with nothing but an overwhelming sense of dread and ominous foreboding. Although it didn't suck the light out of the room, it felt like it did and somehow that made it all the worse. It was by far the most terrifying thing Uraraka had seen in her life.
An abyss created by Aizawa's haunting expression.
"I don't get paid enough to deal with this."
Somehow, Kaminari was able to escape the abyss' influence and raised his hand. Uraraka chalked it up to his brain short-circuiting again.
"I thought UA teachers had one of the highest paying jobs in Japan?"
Aizawa's head snapped at Kaminari, focusing all of the power abyss onto him.
"All the money in the world is not enough."
"A-ah. I see. W-when you put it that way…"
Aizawa sighed a deep sigh that spoke of someone frustrated with life, the afterlife and all of creation.
"Midoriya!"
Deku snapped back to attention. "Yes, Sensei!"
"Who are you taking to the dance?"
Deku was taken back. "I-I don't know. I d-didn't even know anyone liked me in that way before and I thought last night was just all a dream. But if I were to take someone to the dance then I might hurt the other's feelings so then I would need to find a way to let everyone else down gently and then what about after the dance that's something I need to consider as well…" Deku continued to mumble as he desperately tried to fumble a solution.
So cute!
Uraraka had to suppress an inner "squee" and instead settled for appreciating her crush's adorableness.
It was then she noticed a small but discouraging detail:
Half of the class was doing the same.
Their ogling was interrupted by the sound of Aizawa's tired facepalm.
"Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Hagakure, Jiro, and Uraraka are on a different team than Midoriya. Iida, you're not involved in this right?"
"Yes, sir! Although I too have feelings for Midoriya, I have chosen to forgo them in order to not risk damaging our friendship."
Deku gasped and stared at Iida. Then went back to mumbling with increased intensity.
Aizawa gave Iida a long, flat look.
"Fine. You will assign the teams and the tasks." He then looked to the Dekubowl participants. "This dispute will not affect your work in class after the break. If you think it will, don't bother coming back."
With that Aizawa walked out of the class and shut the door, leaving behind a whirlwind of chaos, hormones, and stunned silence.
"Now, let's get to the team assignments!" Iida stated enthusiastically.
Oh, joy.
And that's chapter 2!
Deku is now in on the action and doesn't know how to deal. Uraraka also does not know how to deal. Aoyama knows though. When all else fails: sparkle.
Special thanks to my beta/ girlfriend/ best thing that ever happened to me for helping me grow as a writer. You have her to thank for the longer chapter. I was originally going to end it before they got to class, but she thought it would do better for the chapter arc for it to end with the class scene. She's pretty awesome.
Please review with any thoughts or criticisms and as always, thank you for your support!
-DorkyDesperado