AN:

Hello all. it's good to be back. If by some chance you are a returning reader, apologies for taking so long. If not, welcome. If you've looked at my profile you will notice I haven't uploaded anything in four months. Explanation: school started back; school stopped again; COVID-19; I lack motivation and ideas; I'm obsessed with word count and need any chapter/one-shot at least 3,000 words; I was distracted with my video games and I hate my own writing.

Due to all these issues, I've issued myself a challenge. Seven fics, seven days. Even if I hate it, I keep going. If I run out of ideas, look up prompts on the internet. If it doesn't crack 2k words, if it doesn't even crack 1k, whatever. No matter what, I'll finish it.

At least, that's my plan. As always, in reality it is much easier to say and plan then to act. However, at least I have a plan and motivation, which is something I've been missing for a while. That's a start.

Any, without further ado, here is 'Seven Day Challenge' Day 1: Confessions.

EDIT: 09/08/2020

This was apart of my 'Seven Day Challenge' collection. Now that the challenge is finished, I decided to move this one-shot here.

Izuku Midoriya. UA student, hero enthusiast, diehard All Might fan. The 9th wielder of One for All... The future Symbol of Peace.

Izuku Midoriya was only a young man, but in that time he had achieved more than most would in their entire lifetime. He had simultaneously saved a childhood friend and inspired his biggest inspiration to go beyond his limits. He had then received arguably one of the strongest quirks in existence and the huge responsibility that came with it.

He had gotten into his dream school, gone on to save his friends multiple times, defeated a violent murderous villain to save a young boy, then defeated yet another supercriminal to save a young girl. He was, in every sense of the word, heroic.

However, despite all these accomplishments, he was still a teenager. He was a boy with flaws. As he stood in front of his mirror, fists clenched and teeth gritted, he knew this would be one of the most difficult challenges of his life – possibly the most difficult so far.

Noticing his hands were shaking, he forced himself to breathe and calm. He knew from experience that losing himself to emotion would severely jeopardize the mission, and he could NOT fail this mission. The outcome of this would change his life.

He turned to his bed and eyed his costume. It was time. There was no going back, no pulling out, no do-overs. He had to do this.

After making sure the door was locked, he turned back to the mirror and began undressing out of his casual clothes. As he shrugged off his shirt and shimmied out of his jeans, a myriad of scars revealed themselves. There were so many now, especially on his arms; so many that he couldn't even remember every specific event that led to each gash, each cut, each mark.

He paused for a moment, intensely scrutinizing his entire body. Could… could he… could he actually do this?

Like a punch to the gut, uncertainty crashed into Izuku and the boy collapsed to his knees. His breath came in short, shallow gasps for air, his entire body shaking with anxiety. For one so young, his body had suffered so much. Surely, after all the pain and torture he had put himself through, surely his body couldn't take much more.

He knew in his heart that he would always be willing to put his life on the line to rescue those in need. It wasn't losing his nerve that he was worried about, it was whether or not he could physically handle the strain of this mission. One slip up, a single mistake and that would be it. He could handle his own pain; it was the thought of failing another that he couldn't bear.

Gritting his teeth and pushing through all the nerves and anxiety, he got back up, forcing his shaky legs to stand straight. This was happening no matter what. No point in focusing on all that could go wrong.

Turning to the bed and snatching his outfit, he hurried to put it on. The longer he spent in his room with only his thoughts for company, the harder it would be to push himself to go through with this mission. The sooner he finished this, for better or worse, it would be over.

Taking one last look in the mirror for any creases or marks on his suit, he left his room. He marched straight to the elevator and never looked back.

Confession

Izuku paced back and forth in the Alliance Heights lounge room, red-faced and doing his best not to scowl at all his classmates. Said classmates were not so subtly staring at him as they gossiped.

Going off information from one of his informants, his target would be in her dorm room until 7pm; then she would leave to go for a run. The boys weren't allowed onto the girl's floors, so if he wanted to confront his target he would have to wait until she came down to the communal floor.

In his rush to leave his room to distract himself from his thoughts, he failed to notice he was an hour early. If that wasn't bad enough, he forgot that tonight was the monthly movie night; the one night the majority of his classmates would be on the communal floor all together rather than in their separate rooms.

The staring was becoming a little ridiculous, to the point where Izuku would rather them to confront him or just tease him. Izuku wasn't sure why everyone seemed to be content enough to just stare at him. It wasn't like his classmates were all mature, respectful young adults; there usually was at least one or two students who made it their job to sniff out or create drama wherever possible.

At last, someone broke the silence. If there was anything you could count on Katsuki Bakugo to do, it was making a fuss – especially where Izuku was concerned. The blonde bomber was returning from his shower only to find everyone staring at Izuku standing by the elevator doors wearing…

"Oi! Deku! What's with the fucking suit!"

Izuku's outfit was a brown suit Inko had given him with a white dress shirt underneath and a brown tie. When he had revealed his mission to his mother, she had burst into tears and hurried around the house gathering everything she could that would help him and gave him her best advice.

She had assured him that this tuxedo was a must-have for this mission; it was the same tux his dad had worn when he was Izuku's age.

The boy loved his mother, but in this instance, a suit was probably pretty overkill.

"Leave him alone Bakugo! It's ok Midori, you look great! Tsu will love it!"

All gossip and hushed conversation died as Mina - his informant - made his mission completely obvious to everyone in the class.

"What do you mean Tsuyu will, oh… Good luck, Vice Prez!" Kaminari gave him a thumbs up.

"Good luck Midoriya. May your heartfelt emotions be received and bear fruit." Momo spoke softly with a small smile on her face.

"Midoriya! This is entirely unacceptable! We are aspiring heroes, and as such we must pay respects to our forebearers by putting all our focus and effort into our studies-" Tenya ranted, marching over to him.

"What! You're the first person to get a chick out of all of us?! But you're such a prude, goody goody! Hey, if she sends you any pics, you better share them with the boys- ACCHH!" Both Mina and Kyoka were quick to shut down 1-A's resident pervert.

At the centre of all the attention, Izuku stood shaking. "Hey guys- seriously, stop it I mean- hey just be- SHUTUP!"

Once again, the class fell quiet. Not usually one for making a large commotion, Izuku went as red as a tomato, realizing what he'd just done. Despite his embarrassment, he refused to let it get the best of him. Regaining his composure, he pressed on.

"This isn't just a small, meaningless fling for me. Me and Tsu, we've been friends for years now and- and, with everything that we've all been through in the last year, I've learned that we can't take anything – especially our time together – for granted!"

Looking at all his friends and classmates stood around him, he poured all his emotions and will into his words. So focused he was on getting his message across to everyone, he failed to hear the elevator open behind him and the light patter of feet as someone stepped out.

"I've spent too long doubting myself; doubting my strength, my ability, my worth… I have spent too long hiding the way I really feel for fear of rejection! Not just from her, from everyone! I have spent most of my life believing that I would never amount to anything!"

He quickly looked down at the floor as tears welling in his eyes. Fists clenched and teeth bared in frustration, he pushed himself to keep going.

"No more. In these past two years, here with you all, I've learned just what I am capable of. I've learned what I'm worth. I've learned that I am allowed to fall and fail and… and want, same as everyone else. I know what I want. And what I want is to be with Tsuyu, no matter the cost!"

Standing straight and holding his head high, he smiled at his classmates gathered in front of him, unafraid of showing them the tears streaming from his eyes.

"I'm sorry if that upsets any of you. I'm sorry if that disappoints any of you. But I refuse to feel ashamed. I deserve to be as happy as anyone else. And Tsuyu… she makes me happy. So yeah. I am going to confess to her, right here, wearing this silly suit and tie, as soon as she comes downstairs. If any of you object, take it up with me another time. This is happening."

A heavy blanket of silence fell over the class. For once, the troublemakers didn't dare make a noise. Even Katsuki seemed to begrudgingly acknowledge his feelings, silently walking past him towards the elevator.

As the elevator doors closed in front of the blonde, most of the class finally turned away from Izuku and went back to what they were doing, heading to the kitchen to cook some popcorn or approaching the TV and quietly bickering over which movie they would all watch. Only Mina, Momo, and Ochaco remained in front of Izuku, large grins on their faces and… looking past him?

He froze, his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach as he heard soft giggling right behind him. He slowly turned around, mortified. This wasn't how he wanted to do this! This wasn't how he wanted to confess, how he…

All the fear quickly left him as his eyes rested upon Tsuyu. Her head was bowed, wiping her eyes with her shirt sleeve, quietly hiccupping. Before he could begin worrying, she looked back up at him.

The boy had never felt so ugly until now, awestruck by the impossibly beautiful creature in front of him. She was smiling at him, her eyes radiating pure joy. Instead of being in its usual bow, her hair was down; it was so long it reached the floor and trailed behind her like a deep green bridal gown.

"Dork. You always overthink everything!"

Entranced, Izuku could hardly breathe. He was powerless to do anything more than watch as she stepped closer, and closer, until she was so close that he could feel her breath on his face.

Suddenly, she grabbed him by his tie and pulled him even closer. His eyes fluttered shut as his lips brushed hers. He was so lost in her that he didn't even hear her breathe out a quiet "about time."

If anyone is interested in what got me to finally come back, here it is. I was watching a YT video of quotes from a Roman philosopher (quarantine is boring and YT recommended section is weird), and one of the quotes really struck me. At first, the quote stuck out just because it was so different from the rest of the quotes (the quotes were about Stoicism). At that point I wasn't really paying attention anymore, so when it came by and quickly went, I grabbed the phone and rewound it 10 seconds. Paying attention this time, I started laughing at how coincidental it was that this quote popped up around the same time I was struggling to write more than I have before.

Epictetus - "If you wish to be a writer, write."

Anyway, thank you all for reading. Make sure to check back tomorrow for Day 2's fic.