A year and a half? What are you talking about? I just updated this... in...
Wow. Yeah. A year and a half.
No excuses. I'll try to do better in the future. This was way too long.
Izuku had watched a lot of television over the years. While it mostly had to do with heroes (he'd seen every single All Might cartoon ever made, even though he didn't voice himself in them), occasionally he'd watch something a bit more mundane. Those sorts of shows had taught that, on your first night sleeping in a new place, it was normal to forget where you were and wake up disoriented and confused, often with a comical mishap if there was another person sleeping nearby.
Reality, fortunately, did not play out that way. From the moment he woke, he knew exactly where he was and why he was there. There was no confused ruckus, no waking up directly next to his roommate, and blessedly, no wardrobe malfunctions (or at least none that he noticed when he opened his eyes, but he wasn't looking terribly hard). He considered what might have been as he lay in Mina's room and gave thanks to whatever gods may be watching for their mercy – he didn't know how he would have survived a more active morning.
That wasn't to say that there were no obstacles before him. His training leading up to the UA entrance exam, as well as the good habits he had continued engaging in following his admission, had led him to be an early riser. It was a rare day when Izuku wasn't up shortly after the sun. Mina, on the other hand, was perhaps unsurprisingly less disciplined in her schedule. Her snores, deceptively soft, somehow still filled the room in a way that was impossible to ignore.
For the first little while – a half hour? Maybe more? – Izuku didn't move from his bedding. He wondered about the proper etiquette for this situation. Leaving for any significant amount of time was unacceptable, as it could lead to his VIP's casual kidnapping. However, waking her didn't feel right either. After all, it was incredibly early by most people's weekend standards and he'd feel rude. So, having considered his options, he waited for her to wake up, entertaining some vain hope that she'd come to sooner rather than later. That she didn't, despite her body's twisted and clearly uncomfortable position, was a testament to her love of sleep.
Finally, he decided that he needed to do something. Normally he'd go for a run in the morning, but given his situation, he settled for using his grip trainer. He'd considered his weights, but if he dropped one, it'd surely scare her into consciousness. Plus, there was the damage to the floor to consider; he didn't want to trouble his hosts by putting holes in their house. Izuku hadn't dropped one of them by mistake since before the entrance exam, but this fact was wholly irrelevant.
Izuku did his best to look anywhere other than at Mina while he rhythmically squeezed the grip trainer. It seemed like a weird thing to do, watching her while she slept. He also didn't care for the way it made him feel when his eyes did find her. It was wrong, dirty – something Mineta would do. Unfortunately, looking around and studying her room didn't feel much better, but he couldn't think of anything else he could do. Maybe just shut his eyes?
That actually seemed like a fine idea. Izuku closed his eyes to the brightly-colored room and quietly exercised in the 'dark.'
The nice thing about exercise was that he could let his mind wander without compromising the quality of the activity. It gave him the freedom to look forward to the things he was anxious about and try to sort them, or to just let his mind blank and give him a reprieve from what bothered him. Today, he focused on the various facets of the VIP exercise.
He'd gone over his concerns about a lot of their classmates with Mina last night, so those were fairly well ordered. It wasn't enough, though, and it didn't set him at ease on the matter at all. What Izuku really wanted was a reliable way to do some reconnaissance and determine who was placed with whom, whether they were kidnapper or VIP teams, and therefore whether they should be avoided or not. Unfortunately, that didn't seem possible. To actually gather that information, he'd need to leave Mina alone for extended periods of time, which just wasn't an option. To be safe, he had to assume that they were being watched by someone at basically all times; after all, the kidnappers knew who their targets were, and it wouldn't take significant effort to determine where he and Mina had wound up staying. In fact, this would be one of the first places Izuku would have checked, himself.
He cracked an eye open and aimed it at the window, almost expecting someone to be there. There wasn't. After a moment of suspicious observation, he shut the eye again and switched his grip trainer to the other hand.
No, information gathering wasn't on the table. In a more real iteration of this scenario, he'd have an agency backing him that could theoretically help with that, but for now, it was just him and Mina. They'd be wary and defensive if their classmates approached them and that would have to be good enough until they started getting attacked. At that point, he could safely start to sort them and, by process of elimination, determine who was safe to be around.
Perhaps it would be best to avoid others entirely, though, as it invited more cooperative attacks from kidnappers. Their teacher had forbidden them from joining up to assault a single VIP team, but if there were multiple teams already working together, they became fair game. That opened the door to more potentially dangerous Quirk combinations both ways, but the more he had to keep track of in a fight, the harder it would be to properly defend Mina.
Izuku took a deep breath. There wasn't anything productive down that train of thought, only what-ifs and maybes. He took a moment to refocus and then resumed with his exercise, forcing himself to think about something else.
With the exception of the incident at dinner the previous night, which he still did not fully understand, Izuku was finding that being around his classmate's family wasn't going to be nearly the trial he had expected. He had, for some reason, expected her parents to be difficult. If someone had asked, he wasn't sure he could say why he thought that would be, but the regal kindness of Mrs. Ashido and the raucous welcome of her husband were not what he anticipated. It was strange and uncomfortable, but he felt accepted here in a way that 'our daughter's classmate' shouldn't evoke in parents. Or at least, he didn't think it should. Regardless, that wasn't to say even this aspect of the assignment would be easy; Saru seemed like a handful on the best of days, Katsuru was still largely an unknown, and somehow he expected that Tomoe was going to continue to aggravate things in one way or another.
Izuku set his grip trainer aside and debated getting his weights out, as Mina was still fast asleep, by the sound of it. Unable to quite bring himself to that yet, he stood and began going through a series of stretches.
Really, the most concerning thing about staying in the Ashido household was his constant proximity to Mina herself. It wasn't because he didn't like her, of course, but because he was sharing a room with a girl. Something about it was deeply unsettling to him. His entire body screamed at what felt like an unnatural thing. A more self-aware part of him wondered if that feeling might have its roots in the lack of confidence fostered by his formerly Quirkless nature. A few choice interactions he had at school came to mind, but Izuku shoved them away and silenced that little voice in his head. As he did, it gleefully shrieked to him that Mina would reject him just as surely as everyone else had should she ever find that he was born a freak. With some steady breathing, however, he was able to bring himself back to a more centered state.
At least, that was the case until another part of his mind registered the word 'reject' and immediately stepped out of line.
It didn't help that Mina was quite pretty.
His face became molten as these treasonous thoughts flitted in from every corner of his mind. With his ability to calmly exercise broken, Izuku opened his eyes and strode towards the window, hoping to see something outside that would distract him from this hell of his brain's own making.
He searched fruitlessly for such a thing for several minutes before he heard the doorknob turn. He immediately registered both a threat and anything other than what was currently occupying his thoughts and spun, but before he could even adopt a defensive stance, he recognized the tips of the horns – and then the rest of the horns – that peeked in along with Mrs. Ashido's head.
Her eyes went from him, to his bedding, to Mina, still sprawled and snoring. She sighed. "I hope you haven't been waiting for her to wake up." There wasn't even the barest hint of stealth in her voice.
Izuku couldn't help but try to be quiet, speaking in something akin to a stage whisper. "Uh... yeah, I was..."
"Well, you're going to be here all day, if that's the case." The door opened the rest of the way and she strode into the room to her daughter. "MINA!" she hollered. "Get up! Izuku doesn't need to spend the whole morning cramped up in your room!"
He watched in awe as Mina failed to show any reaction whatsoever to the shouting directly next to her. At that moment, he decided that he absolutely needed to be staying in the same room as her – if she were by herself, one of the kidnappers could smash in the window and she wouldn't so much as stir.
Mrs. Ashido crouched down and seized Mina by the ear. "I do not need to be waking you up like this, young lady! You are in high school!"
There was a surprised yelp, and the pink girl threw her arm up to smack at her mother's wrist. Combined with her pulling her head away, she wrested herself from the older woman's grip, and her face fell back to her pillow with a miserable groan.
"I don't care if you go back to sleep, but you aren't go to trap Izuku in here with you. If you're going to laze about, then you can do it on a couch downstairs and let him do something besides look out the window."
There were no words in the response, nor any sign of movement. Another muffled, pitiful noise escaped her mouth.
"You can either walk downstairs or I can have Saru drag you down by your ankles. You have two minutes to decide." Mrs. Ashido turned to look kindly at Izuku, all the steel in her voice gone. "We'll be having breakfast soon, dear. The upstairs bathroom is free if you want to shower. We can watch our daughter for you for a few minutes, so don't worry about that."
He hesitated before answering. While a shower did sound appealing, he had a few reservations about the timing... "Thanks, but, uh... I would rather wait until Mina's more awake, just in case. I'll probably take one after breakfast."
"She probably isn't going to wake up until she starts to smell food," Mrs. Ashido sighed. "Two minutes, Mina. I'm serious." She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door open.
There was no movement from his floorbound friend. Izuku cast an anxious look at the threshold. He wasn't sure if the threat was serious or not, but he didn't care to find out. "Hey, come on, Mina," he said, crouching down next to her. "You just have to go downstairs and she won't, er, have you dragged, right?"
Another groan came in response, but to his surprise, words followed. "'nwanna go nngnstrrs..."
With considerable trepidation, he reached out and shook her shoulder, feeling his cheeks heat up as he did so. "It's not far, and she said you can lay back down when you're at a couch."
Her head shifted and one burnished onyx eye peered out at him. "Carry me?" she blearily asked.
All the work he had managed since his face last caught fire was for naught as he saw himself, in his mind's eye, carrying Mina down the stairs to the outrage of her entire family. "N- Uhh, no, you can do it. Come on, it's not far."
Her eye shut and she let out an extended whine, but she got to her hands and knees. Gathering her pillow and a blanket, Mina rose to her feet. "'chyu," she mumbled incoherently. Completely nonplussed by the lack of understanding on his face, she began a half-conscious march out of her room.
Izuku sighed in relief and followed, making sure she didn't tumble down the stairs. She navigated them with surprising stability considering how much she had wobbled on the way to them. Upon reaching the ground floor, she violently threw her pillow at the nearest couch and faceplanted into it, dragging the blanket up like a cape as she went over. It came off as an act of defiance, and somehow, he suspected that she intended for it to do so.
Katsuru was the only Ashido missing from the living room/kitchen area of the house. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ashido were in the kitchen, while Saru was on the floor playing something on a tablet. Her hair had been changed from Izuku's green to a startlingly bright array of neon colors that was almost difficult to look at. She looked up at him and practically yelled, "Hi Izuku!" with a huge, beaming smile. He was struck by how similar she looked to Mina when she did – all of her features were a different color, but the smile was a dead ringer.
"Good morning, Saru," he replied.
"Good morning, Izuku!" Mr. Ashido bellowed after glancing over his shoulder. "How are you this fine day?" Mina groaned once more and pulled the pillow out from under her to hold it down over her head.
"I'm, uh, fine?" He didn't mean for that to come out as a question, but he was distracted by her behavior.
That must have been clear, because Mr. Ashido continued, "Don't mind her, she's just an absolute grouch in the mornings! She'll start whining about any noise you make, no matter how you tiptoe around her."
Thinking about Mina's complete lack of response to her mother yelling from directly next to her, Izuku doubted that. As a compromise, he walked over to the edge of the kitchen (so as to stay out of the way) while keeping a lower volume. "She is one of the last people I tend to see coming down in the dorms, but I always thought it was just her taking longer to get ready."
"Not my daughter," Mrs. Ashido sighed. "She'd sleep all day, every day if she could. The only things that get her out of bed are one of us or sometimes one of the eighteen alarms she has set each morning."
"Come on, Taiga, you were the same way when we first met. Heh, I don't think you started getting out of bed before noon until Tomoe was born!"
"Someone had to take care of the baby," she said with a flat voice. Izuku became immediately uncomfortable, but almost as though she could sense it, Mina's mother turned and gave him the slightest smirk, complete with a humorous twinkle in her eye. "Besides, darling, I don't seem to recall you being particularly active in the mornings. What was it you used to say? 'If I'm up before-'"
A shrill ringing came from deeper in the house, causing Mrs. Ashido to growl in irritation. "I need to take that." She quickly washed her hands and dashed past Izuku towards where he presumed their room was.
"That's her work phone," Ayato supplied helpfully. "They don't usually call on Sundays."
"Oh... I hope it doesn't mean she has miss going to the gym. Uh, Mina had mentioned you all go together."
He laughed, though the belly slap was conspicuously absent, likely due to his hands being occupied chopping vegetables. "No, unless there's something absolutely critical going on, she'll make them wait at least until after we're done with our workout. Taiga gives them a lot, but she's stubborn about our family trips to the gym. If I had to guess, someone's gone and done something they shouldn't have while waiting for their court date and she needs to be made aware. That said, even if it's just an informational call, she's probably going to be a bit and I have about reached the limit of what I can do to this fish. I can only make the reaction go so slow, y'know. Can you come in and give me a hand getting breakfast ready? A sous chef will make things go a lot smoother."
"Uhh. I... do not know how helpful I'll be. I don't really know that much about cooking..."
"You'll do fine! I'll be right here; don't worry about a thing. Come on! Get in here and wash your hands."
With some trepidation, Izuku completely crossed the threshold into the kitchen and went to the sink.
"So what you're going to do is take that oil," Mr. Ashido pointed with his knife, "And pour a bit into that pan on the stove. Not much, now, you just want a drizzle, not enough to let the fish start swimming again." He laughed loudly and could not resist letting go of the last of the daikon he was chopping to slap his stomach.
Izuku did as ordered, gingerly tipping the bottle over into the pan. "Like this...?"
"Just a toooouch more... That'll be good."
The young man nearly dropped the bottle in his hastiness to cap it again and place it back where he had found it.
"Now you're going to want to set the front right burner – that's the rightmost dial – to a medium-high heat. I usually do about six." While speaking, Mr. Ashido began putting the daikon in a bowl and retrieving several other ingredients, but Izuku wasn't quite paying attention. "Now, normally, you would probably want to use an oven for this, but I like to pan fry things if I can. I get a good awareness of where things are at with my Quirk, but it's a lot easier to judge if I can see it with my eyes, too. Let that sit for just a moment, get the oil heated, and then we'll have you add the salmon."
"...Are you sure about having me do this? I've never –"
"None of that talk in my kitchen," Mr. Ashido said kindly. "You'll do fine, and you even have me here as an added safety net. I promise, you won't be burning or under cooking anything while I'm on watch."
Izuku swallowed, but didn't raise further protest.
"All right, go ahead and put two of the filets in. Use the spatula there, that way you won't contaminate your hands."
He followed orders, placing the salmon into the pan and receiving a bubbling hiss in return.
"We'll leave that for about three or four minutes. I could speed it up a bit, but I've got a few hours of pickling to do in the next ten minutes and that'll require most of my attention. I know the problem is solved by prepping earlier, but this takes less overall time and I think they come out with a fresher taste anyways. So, you don't cook much? Your mom and dad mostly take care of it?"
"Mom," Izuku said quietly. "Uh... My dad... works abroad."
There was a brief silence from the large man, which almost surprised him more than the response he ultimately gave. "That's got to be hard on your family. I'm sorry you have to deal with that."
"It's... fine. It's been like that since I was a kid, so..." Any feeling on the subject that wasn't 'fine' was quickly repressed.
Mr. Ashido hummed slightly in response. "Well, you'll be learning something to take home! Every day's a school day, that's what I always say. If you want to pick up more, you're welcome in the kitchen anytime, I'm always happy for another set of hands."
"Oh, um... thanks, I guess. I-I mean I appreciate it, I just don't know that I... I mean, I hadn't really ever thought about it, so..."
"Don't fuss over it," the man laughed. "You didn't come over here to take cooking classes, I'm not going to expect you to slave over the oven every day. I appreciate your help right now, Izuku, but you don't work for me."
Izuku didn't respond, mostly because he wasn't sure how. He retreated from the conversation to try and keep his discomfort from growing further, following instructions to flip and later remove the fish and replace it with uncooked filets.
As the second round of fish was placed on a waiting dish, a tired voice came from the living room. "'ssat salmon?" Mina yawned. "Love salmon... Izuku? You're cooking?"
"Or something like it," he confirmed. "Uh, mostly I'm just doing whatever your dad tells me to do."
"And what a fine job you're doing!"
Mina rolled her eyes. "How much longer 'till breakfast?" she asked, punctuating the sentence with another yawn.
"Just one more batch and we'll only be waiting on the rice, so not too much longer."
"Good, I'm starving..."
"Mina's always starving in the morning. Has been since she could talk. Every morning, 'I'm starving, daddy! When's breakfast, daddy?'" He laughed heartily, leaning against the counter and giving his stomach a solid smack. Izuku wondered if he ever bruised.
"Dad!" She protested, her cheeks tinged purple. "What the hell? C'mon, you can't talk like that in front of my friends!"
"Sweetie, if I'm not embarrassing you, your life is too easy," he said with a mischievous grin. It was easy to see where Tomoe got it from; the two shared the exact same expression when intentionally causing trouble. "Besides, you need the help! Can't let a social butterfly fly too high. A little mortification is good for the ego!"
Mina's head thudded solidly against the top of the half wall. "Oh my god, dad..."
Izuku decided to focus in on the fish. It provided less embarrassment by osmosis than the conversation going on around him. Besides, tuning them out wouldn't be that much of a problem. He'd already made four filets today, and they were sitting right next to him. He could just make sure they looked like the ones he'd already done and that way they'd come out fine and he didn't have to listen to Mr. Ashido rib at Mina and make it uncomfortable for everyone else in the room. Well, maybe Saru wouldn't be embarrassed. She was probably used to it, if she even cared. Did five year olds care about that sort of thing? Maybe she'd care because of how fond she was of Mina, or –
"What's that, Izuku? I can't quite hear you."
He jumped nearly a foot in the air. Mr. Ashido had come closer and leaned in like he was listening, which meant that –
"Izuku mumbles when he gets thinking," Mina said. He could hear the relief in her voice as the topic changed to anything other than what it had been. "He's done it as long as he's been in our class, at least, but probably longer. Kirishima and Kaminari think it's 'cause he's got so much inside his head that he can't keep it all in, like..." she trailed off suddenly. "Anyways, it just means he's thinking pretty hard about something. Usually hero stuff. Or maybe not? I guess it could just be hero stuff when we're at school and maybe he mumbles about other things when he's at home." He dared to glance over at her, his own cheeks flushed, and saw her with a thoughtful look on her face. "Probably not, though. If I know anything about Izuku, it's that he's always thinking about hero stuff."
"Well, what's on your mind, then, my boy? Something caught your interest?"
The color quickly drained from his face. Izuku was not expecting to be interrogated about what he had been thinking about. He could just tell the truth and say he was trying to avoid secondhand embarrassment, but that could also make things worse for Mina, so... "Fish," he said, settling for a half-truth. "Just, um, seeing if I can recognize when it's done, since I've done a couple now..." He flipped the salmon, revealing a well-cooked underside.
Mr. Ashido gave a triumphant laugh. The slap was oddly not on his own belly this time, but on Izuku's back. He didn't so much as rock – even unprepared for a strike, the young hero had long since taken to adopting a solid stance when at ease. "Nicely done, Izuku! We'll make a cook out of you yet! I might have given it just a bit longer, but then again, most people can't feel chemical reactions in their food. That's a solid eye for a beginner!"
"Uh, thanks... I just kinda looked at the other ones and thought about how long I'd waited before flipping them over, so..."
"And that's a fair bit better than any of my children ever did their first time cooking something. Why, you should–"
"Dad!"
"What? I was going to mention the first time Tomoe tried to sauté an onion. But if you really want me to talk about something else–"
"No," she said flatly.
"–we can always talk about–"
"No..." This time was more pleading.
Saru rose up from behind the half-wall, suspended by her hair, to interrupt their father. "No! You're not allowed be mean to Mina when Izuku is here! She said no, and if she says no, you have to listen to her!"
In a surprising show of mercy, Mr. Ashido just grinned. "That's right, Saru. I'm sorry, Mina."
"You should be," the pink girl said, her face in her hands.
"Mina," he said with a warning tone.
She sighed and responded, in an exaggerated tone, "I accept your apology." Mina dropped a hand and locked gazes with Izuku, who had stolen a look over. She rolled her exposed eye in Saru's direction and shrugged.
Once he considered it for a moment, it made sense. He wouldn't have thought about it if Mina hadn't indicated her sister, but by not continuing the joke and agreeing with Saru, Mr. Ashido reinforced a positive behavior. She certainly was at the age where those sorts of lessons were important, since younger minds were supposed to be more malleable, and teaching her now will lead to her being a better person and a more productive member of society than if she hadn't. The –
"Fish."
"What?" Izuku asked, blinking a few times as he was torn back to reality.
"The fish is done. I've slowed it down so it doesn't burn, but I won't always be around to help! You might want to take it out of the pan!"
He flushed slightly as he hurried to remove the fish and put them on the serving plate. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"Don't worry about it! I'd say it happens to the best of us, but I have a supernatural ability to ensure it doesn't happen to me, so I'd be lying if I did!" Mr. Ashido laughed and slapped his stomach as he moved towards the stove. "I've got it from here, Izuku. Just going to wash these dishes up while we wait for the rice cooker to finish."
The young hero moved out of the way, his face thoughtful. "Couldn't you just make the rice cooker finish faster?"
"Of course I could! But the point of the rice cooker is that I don't need to. It lets me focus on other things, like pickling vegetables in a matter of minutes or cleaning the kitchen up a bit. Saru, Mina, would you please set the table?"
"But I set the table last night!" Saru whined. Mina made no complaint as she went to the cabinets to retrieve the necessary dishes.
"And you'll do it again now." Mr. Ashido's voice was cheerful but firm.
"Katsuru hasn't been setting the table," Saru grumbled.
"That's because Katsuru thinks holing up in his room will get him out of chores. He's going to be cleaning up after breakfast by himself, though. Now come on, hop to."
"Listen to your father, Saru," Mrs. Ashido added as she returned to the kitchen. She sounded weary after her phone call.
The youngest Ashido complied and began accepting dishes handed to her by Mina, though she pouted the whole time.
"Nothing dire, I hope?" her husband asked.
"Nothing that I can do anything about today," she sighed. "We'll see about dire on his court date."
Izuku knew that, as a lawyer, discussing the actual details of the call would be... well, he wasn't actually sure if it was illegal or not, but it would definitely be a breach of trust and confidentiality. Part of him wanted to know what was going on, but it was easily disregarded. Mr. Ashido did seem to understand more, based on the look on his face. Maybe that was some sort of coded response saying that something bad had happened? He didn't seem to be taking it as good news, but it wasn't even a moment before the look was replaced with his usual jolly smile.
"Well, food is almost ready! Izuku helped me cook up the fish while Mina drooled all over the couch."
"Da-aad!"
Breakfast passed mostly without incident once Katsuru was hauled from his room by Mr. Ashido. Izuku did have to endure the compliments of the family, save the aforementioned brother, as they sampled the fish he'd cooked, but he made it through the meal. As far as he was concerned, that was a victory.
"Isn't it fun to help daddy in the kitchen?" Saru said enthusiastically, using the cabinets to hold herself up above Izuku's head. "His Quirk is so cool! He never lets me help, though, he says I get too much hair on the food, but that's not my fault! I'm not big enough to see the counters so I have to use my hair to stand up."
He gave her a sympathetic smile. "Well... If you want to help in the kitchen more, why don't you ask for a stool or something to stand on?"
"I did," she lamented, "but daddy says I still get hair everywhere."
"Well, maybe if you let us brush, or God forbid, cut your hair once in a while, you wouldn't shed so much." Mina moved past Izuku to set her dishes by the sink as she spoke.
"But my hair's so pretty! I don't want it to be cut!" Saru pouted. It was strange to see that expression on a child from a lower angle – usually, he was looking down at them for it. "And brushing hurts!"
"It'd hurt less if you brushed more," the elder sister retorted. "The longer you go without brushing, the more tangled up your hair gets, and the more it's going to hurt when someone brushes it."
"It's not like you brush your hair!" An accusatory finger was pointed at the disheveled, cow-licked mess that resulted from a lack of attention after a night of sleep.
"I brush my hair every day!" Mina protested. "And it requires a whole lot more than brushing to get it looking as cute as it does! I have to work to keep my hair from being a shaggy mess!" She gestured at it herself, as though to prove her point. Izuku watched something occur to her as she smirked and looked over at him. "I bet Izuku does his hair."
"Does not!" Saru said, turning to him as well. He got the sinking feeling that this was going to end poorly for him.
"No, look at it, it looks great! Come on, you were doing your hair while waiting for me to wake up, right?"
The look of supreme confidence on her face almost made him lie. He knew when he told the truth, it was going to fall right off and she was going to be upset at him for costing her the argument. The worst part is, she needed to win it, because Saru needed to take care of her hair – it was already nearly twice in length as she was tall, and while it certainly wasn't as much of a disaster as it could be, you didn't have to look long to notice knots and tangles hiding beneath the surface.
Izuku couldn't bring himself to lie about it, though. "I blowdry it sometimes," he said with an apologetic smile.
There was a moment where Mina clearly didn't believe him. She blinked twice as her expression changed into one of confusion. Ignoring the triumphant laugh from Saru, the pink girl stared deeply at him. "You're kidding," she finally said.
"Sorry..."
"No, you do not roll out of bed looking like that."
"It's flat in the back, if that, um, makes you feel better? From sleeping? I don't move around much in the night, so... It mostly keeps its shape from the previous day."
The confusion turned to anger. "That's so unfair! I close my eyes for two seconds and fwoom!" She touched her palms to the edges of her hair and then threw her arms out. "Complete chaos! And you're telling me the most you have to deal with is your hair being a little flat in one spot?" Mina's hands came back in to clutch at her skull. "Ugh! What, does your Quirk make your hair super strong too?"
Saru gasped. "Does it?! Do you have hair powers too?"
"I – No! No, er... At least, I don't think I do? I've never tried focusing all of my strength into my hair..."
"Do it, do it, do it!" the five-year-old cheered, clapping excitedly.
"I don't think that's a good idea," he gently declined.
Mina huffed. "Well. I'm going to go shower and get this mess under control. You enjoy your super-hair." She gave him a dirty look as she stormed off.
Izuku had been prepared for her to be unhappy about his grooming habits. Unfortunately, that didn't particularly help him feel better about it. He didn't think it'd have been better if he'd lied... With a sigh, he wondered if he had made the right choice. To try and make up for it, Izuku turned to Saru and squatted down in front of her. "Your sister is right, though. You should brush your hair. It's better for it if you do, it helps your hair, um..." It occurred to Izuku that, despite the obvious benefits of removing tangles and helping shape the hair, he wasn't sure what exactly brushing it did. Did it do anything else? "...Helps keep your hair healthy."
"But my hair's really strong!"
"Well... Strong is, uh, different than healthy."
"But that's why everybody goes to the gym on Sundays," she said. "To get strong. And being strong is healthy!"
"No, it's... Sometimes being strong is healthy, but being healthy is..." How to explain this to a five year old? The last one he'd dealt with had much more complicated problems, but they were problems in Izuku's wheelhouse. This was so much more mundane, and that somehow made it more difficult. "...It's like... Not being sick. The opposite of being sick, actually. Your body is better at everything it needs to do because it's so not sick. And, uh, your hair... when it's healthy, it's..." It was rapidly becoming apparent how little Izuku knew about hair. "...It looks prettier, and I bet your hair would be even stronger when it's healthy."
"He's right, and you should listen to him, Saru," Mr. Ashido said, emerging from the hallway behind the kitchen. "At least it'd have you listening to somebody in this house, ha!" He looked around as he grinned. "Where's Katsuru? He's supposed to be doing the dishes."
"Oh, I think I saw him going upstairs," the green-haired boy replied.
The older man's face dropped into a rare frown. "Katsuru has a bad habit of trying to avoid responsibility by being out of sight. He'd better not be hiding in his room playing video games." He began to head out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.
Before he got there, however, there was indistinct shouting from the second floor. Something hit a wall before clattering down the stairs, and Katsuru followed it down running. He turned the corner with eyes wide, and the moment he saw his father, he practically hollered, "Mina attacked me!"
Mr. Ashido sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Start cleaning the kitchen. I'll deal with this."
More footsteps came down and Mina's head and shoulders came into view. Izuku had to look away, as it was abundantly clear that she was clad in not much more than a towel. "Yeah, I threw a hairbrush at him, the little twerp barged into the bathroom while I was getting ready to shower!"
"Katsuru, if the door is closed, you need to knock." Mr. Ashido's voice was strained. It was clear that this was a topic that had been addressed before. "And Mina, I'm sure you remember that there are other ways to ask someone to leave that don't involve assault?"
"You sound like mom," she said. Steps back up the stairs indicated that she had retreated back to the bathroom.
"What, so she's just going to get away with it?" Katsuru asked indignantly.
"Oh, I'll be speaking to her, but that's none of your business. And you, young man, had to have heard the shower running. What were you thinking?"
"...I wasn't paying attention, I was messaging Shinji. Besides, nobody's ever in the bathroom after breakfast!"
"Mina's always in the shower after breakfast!" Saru chirped. "And she lives at home again!"
"Just wash the dishes," Mr. Ashido said, silencing the little girl with a mildly upset glance. He turned to Izuku and smiled apologetically. "Sorry about all that. Seems like in the short time Mina's been gone, everyone's forgotten how to live together."
Izuku, who had been trying to will the redness from his cheeks, wasn't prepared for someone to address him again. "Huh? Oh, um, it's fine... There's always someone arguing or yelling at the dorms, so I'm used to it."
The older man had an obvious light in his eyes, and it seemed like he had something to say – or maybe something to laugh about? – but he made no comment on the matter, whatever it was. In a clearly intentional change of subject, he said, "Downstairs shower is open, if you're ready for it. It's off the master bedroom, that hall, first door on the right."
Izuku swallowed. "Oh. Uh, sure. Thanks. I'll just get my clothes from..." Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to say 'Mina's room.' It seemed incredibly improper to say to her father, of all people, even if he knew and condoned the sleeping arrangements. Rather than face the awkwardness of the situation, he looked down and left the kitchen to get his garb for the day. A soft, stifled chuckle followed him out.
Stepping into Mr. and Mrs. Ashido's room was deeply uncomfortable. It felt like a violation of their privacy. He'd been in his mother's room plenty, so it wasn't just that they were adults, but it also wasn't just because it was a bedroom that wasn't his. The room tour Class 1-A had done after moving into the dorms had been strange to him, but it wasn't unpleasant in the same way that this was.
Despite that, the analytical side of his brain couldn't help but take in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was the bed, a likely contributor to the sense of wrongness. Like every other bed he'd seen in his life, this one bordered the wall, but it was set up backwards. The frame was clearly set up with the foot against the wall and the larger headboard, missing several pieces of the wood paneling on one side, pointed towards the center of the room. It wasn't hard to guess the purpose of this; Mrs. Ashido's horns would prevent more traditional orientation, and the headboard needed to be altered to provide room for them to stick through.
Hanging over the foot of the bed was a large painting depicting a busy street, but the people were silhouettes filled with stars and nebulae. It wasn't the only piece of art on the walls, but it was by far the most striking. Something about the way these celestial beings were clearly in the midst of banal, everyday tasks was even a bit uncanny, and one of the ones in the foreground even gave the illusion of looking out of the frame and into the room. Or maybe it was his imagination?
A large standing mirror loomed in the corner of the room, impressive in its stature as it nearly reached the elevated ceiling. Its height wasn't its only imposing feature, however, as it was also quite wide and clearly able to reflect even Mr. Ashido's frame with room to spare. If it had been at all distorted, it wouldn't have been out of place in a hall of mirrors at a carnival.
A slightly ajar door led into a walk-in closet, and various bedside tables, chests of drawers, and a single desk decorated the rest of the room. Izuku, not wanting to betray the Ashido's hospitality even more than he had in ogling their bedroom, ducked into a second door leading to the bathroom.
It was easy to recognize the elements of the bathroom that had been made with Mrs. Ashido in mind. A bath was separate from the shower and had a large amount of empty space past one end, clearly designed for the comfort of someone with large, jutting horns. The shower had a rather unique curtain design he hadn't seen before – rather than having a loose curtain hanging from a rod, a thick, rigid one was folded up against the wall. It seemed to stand under its own power and would unfold like an accordion when pulled. The room was much more spacious than Izuku would normally expect, but as he examined the layout more, he began to feel like the intent was to give Mrs. Ashido room to bend over without banging her horns on anything.
When he had first been shown the house, he hadn't considered its provenance or how intentional its proportions were. The more Izuku saw of it, however, the more he began to suspect that the whole building had been constructed with Mrs. Ashido's unusual anatomy in mind.
The shower was, blessedly, very simply to figure out. While he stood under the water, he pondered his... Could what he'd had with Mina be called a fight? Izuku had always been told it takes two to fight, and he'd certainly not been doing anything of the sort. She'd been quite upset, though, and he wanted to make her feel better about it. The unfortunate thing was that the subject was one he wasn't certain how to engage with. If she'd been upset about something he'd done, making up for it was as simple as apologizing and not repeating the behavior. But how was he supposed to address her being upset or jealous or whatever about his hair? It'd be absurd to apologize for something he couldn't control.
His shower was ultimately marred by a persistent anxiety that, somehow, he had damaged his relationship – which was just a friendship, of course, nothing more! – with Mina by not lying about his hair. He couldn't figure out a good way to resolve the injury he'd inflicted, but he resolved to talk to her about it and see what could be done. It wasn't anything worthy of being called a plan, which made him uneasy, but something had to be done. It's not like it could be any more dangerous than fighting villains, right?
So why did it seem so much scarier?
When Izuku emerged from Mr. and Mrs. Ashido's room, he was still formulating his approach and how he'd initiate the conversation with Mina. This left him completely unprepared when he found her already waiting for him in the hallway. She was looking at the floor with a downcast expression, but he saw her eyes flick up at him for just a moment as he crossed the threshold.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," she said without looking up. "I don't know why I did. It's not like it's your fault." Before he could respond, she continued, "No, that's a lie. I know why I did it. I'm jealous of your super hair. But that's not a good reason, y'know?" She risked a glance up at him. In a moment of stunning revelation, Izuku realized that she almost looked shy, which was not something he'd ever associated with the normally raucous girl.
"It's fine. Uh, really. I was actually just about to find you and ask if there was something I could do to... I don't know, avoid upsetting you in the future? About my hair?" He sounded ridiculous. There was no way she wasn't about to laugh at him.
Contrary to expectations, Mina winced. "No, Izuku, you didn't do anything wrong. I wasn't being... I don't know, reasonable. And I know I have no right to ask after I was so mean to you about it, but I'd like your help."
The shift in topic was disarming, but if she wanted to move away from the argument, he wasn't going to object. "I... Yeah, that's what I'm here for, right? To, uh, help and protect you? What do you need?"
"So... We've been trying to get Saru to groom herself, or at least let us groom her, since she got her Quirk." Mina smiled ruefully. "You've seen how little she listens to us about that. But I think she really likes you, and now she's seen that you don't do anything with your hair either." She took a deep breath. "So, and please don't think this is weird, but I want to brush your hair tonight. Like, in the living room, where she'll definitely see it."
Izuku felt his face tingle and knew it was turning red.
Mina frowned. "You think it's weird."
"I... No, it's just..." He buckled under her skeptical gaze. "...Yeah. It, uh, feels pretty weird."
"Are you worried about my parents commenting? Or Katsuru? He'll definitely be a twerp about it if I don't talk to him. And maybe if I do. I'll still talk to him. Them. Would that help?"
It wouldn't, but he didn't want to tell her that. In truth, he didn't fully understand why it bothered him, which seemed to be happening more and more this week. There was definitely the base level of discomfort from something he didn't normally do, but whenever he tried to wonder, 'why would having a girl brush my hair bother me,' his brain stalled out at the word 'girl.'
After a moment of silence, Izuku decided that this was what he could do to make it up to Mina, and so he swallowed his discomfort. "...Yeah, that'd help."
The way her face lit up almost made him believe it. "Yes! Thank you, Izuku!" Her entire demeanor changed in an instant, and he could once more recognize the boundless excitement and enthusiasm he had come to associate with Mina. "I promise I'm not going to give you a complete makeover, just brush out your hair." She cocked her head and peered at him. "Or maybe... No. No, just brushing. Promise."
Izuku wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he settled on an uncertain smile. Well, he didn't intend for it to be uncertain, but that's how it came out.
If Mina had feelings about him not saying anything, she didn't voice them. Instead, she forged onward into a new conversation. "So, we've got a few hours until everyone heads to the gym. We should go and get started on the mandatory eight hours or whatever we have to spend in public!" She threw her hands up enthusiastically, but then a concerned look spread across her face. "It was eight, right?"
"Uh, yeah. Eight. But what about our gym clothes? Are we just going to carry them around?"
"Nah, we can just have my parents bring them! Just, I don't know, give what you need to my dad and he can throw it in his gym bag or something. Come on! The sooner we get those eight hours out of the way, the sooner we can come back here and get some relaxing done!"
Izuku's smile was less uncertain this time. Mina was determined to find some downtime in the midst of this assignment. He wasn't at all surprised, of course. She was the first to try and gather the class for leisure activities the very second the final bell rang. Or maybe second, depending on how Kaminari was feeling on a given day. "Sure." He was somehow unable to keep a bit of a laugh from bubbling into the word. "Where should we go, then?"
The pink girl opened her mouth, but stopped before any words came out. After a halting moment, she managed, "We could..."
His smile faded a bit at Mina's uncharacteristic hesitance. "What?"
She looked away, a lilac shadow spreading across her face from the changing angles of light. "...I don't know. I guess I hadn't really thought about it."
"I mean... we could just start walking? It looks like a nice day out, and I'm sure we'll encounter something worth doing. And if not..." He shrugged. "Well, we're getting the eight hours out of the way, right?"
Mina looked up, but not back towards him. This time, it was her smile that seemed uncertain. "Yeah, that sounds good."
For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what could have been giving her pause.
"So it looks like our options are... Keep walking, batting cages, restaurants... We already ate, though... A movie theater, or–"
"Ooh! A movie could be fun!" Mina cooed. With a conspiratorial look and a lowered voice, she added, "Plus, since it's all dark and they won't know what movie we're in, we'll be hidden from any kidnappers!" She crossed her arms, a supremely satisfied expression settling on her. Izuku could actually see her mentally congratulating herself for her cleverness.
"Okay, well... What movie do we want to see?"
"Good question! Come on, it's this way, I'll race you there!" Mina bounced on the balls of her feet a few times as she spoke, then broke into a sprint the instant she finished.
Izuku blinked. He hadn't been ready for that, and it took his brain a moment to catch up to the fact that his VIP had just taken off by herself in the middle of a crowded street. After that brief delay, however, his heart skipped a beat as the panic set in. "Hey, wait!" he called after her. Her laugh rang out even over the din of the crowd. Izuku had to excuse himself time and again as he tried to quickly navigate to his charge, slipping through uncomfortably tight gaps or, in some unpleasant cases, actually running into people. As he broke through the pockets of pedestrians, he'd catch sight of Mina. It was honestly amazing to watch her move. She had a fluid grace about her, never once running into another person. If he hadn't been able to clearly see the ground she'd walked, he'd have sworn she was skating on some of her acid from how smooth her maneuvers were. It was almost more like a dance. Maybe he could have beaten her in a straightaway, or maybe with the use of One for All, but a busy street was far from his element. Unless he got clever about it, he was sure to lose this impromptu footrace.
Of course, being clever was something Izuku was quite good at. He had already considered several options, though they were unlikely to bear fruit. Attempting to utilize street lights, signs, and the like would be impractical at best. The lights were regularly spaced enough, but difficult to find purchase on. He risked slipping and falling, which was unlikely to harm anything but his pride, but still wasn't a good option. Bowling through the crowd would be a great way to injure bystanders, simultaneously making him feel (or be?) terrible and getting his provisional license revoked. Izuku was fairly certain he'd be setting a new record if he did that. Just using One for All to hop down the street would bring similar difficulties.
His eyes flicked up to the rooftops for just a moment as he slid by a group of older women. He considered it for a moment. They offered a much clearer path, a lack of people he could injure, and a better sightline to keep an eye on Mina. It seemed, for the briefest instant, to be absolutely perfect. He could win the race and ensure nobody tried to snatch his VIP at the same time. Unfortunately, it was that same visibility that made it impossibly unsafe. Taking to the roofs would make him stand out and declare his position to any diligent kidnappers in the area. To win the race was, very likely, to risk failing the assignment.
Izuku could have staked his own grade on that. It'd have been his decision.
He couldn't make that decision for Mina.
"Woo! I win! Gonna have to pick your feet up a little faster to beat me, Mr. Bodyguard!" His charge was rather animatedly dancing in front of the theater when Izuku reached her.
Despite the gloating, Izuku couldn't help but smile. Her enthusiasm reinforced that he had made the right decision. Part of him wanted to chastise her for running off, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. "Well... Maybe next time, we'll do it where you don't have such an advantage. I bet I'd win if I didn't have to dodge so many people."
"Uh, duh. It's called 'choosing your battles,' Izuku. Ever heard of it?" She gave him a wry grin. "I doubt it, considering I've never seen you run away from anything."
Izuku blinked. He wasn't sure how to respond to that.
Mina's expression immediately became worried. "Sorry, was that too far? I know I can get too into the trash talk sometimes..."
"Huh? N-no, it's fine! I just wasn't expecting that, was all... I mean, you're probably right, you know?" He laughed nervously.
She didn't seem convinced, but let the subject drop as she turned to see what was playing. After scanning the posters, she said, "Well, the All Might movie is out. That'll undo all of the mystery of which movie we're in – that's the first one anybody would check."
It was hard not to let his disappointment show. Somehow, with everything that had been going on in the past few weeks, he hadn't noticed that All Might – A Hero's Duty had come out. Izuku had wanted to go on opening day. More than just another All Might movie, this one was based on one of his favorite runs of the All Might comic book series, so he'd been very excited about it. "Yeah," he sighed, his head dropping slightly. "You're right."
"Aww," Mina cooed, putting a conciliatory arm around his neck. "It's all right, it's not a limited showing or anything. I mean, it's an All Might movie, it'll probably be in theaters until after Christmas. You've got time!"
He nodded meekly. He still had a whole week of the VIP assignment ahead of him, so he was going to have to do his best to be patient. It wouldn't do to fail just because he was moping about a movie. "So, which do we see, then?"
"Rise of the Duskwalkers will probably be good! It's a prequel to a horror movie from, geez, maybe twenty something years ago? It was more cheesy than scary, the actors really hammed it up, but I liked it!"
Izuku swallowed. "I don't know about that... I don't do well with horror..."
Mina laughed, but when she saw his face, the mirth fell off of hers. "You're joking. Really?"
"What? I..." He swallowed, not having expected to be put on the spot about this. "I get nightmares..."
Mina stared at him for a quiet moment. "I dunno. It's just hard to imagine you being scared, I guess. Every time I..." She looked away and bit her lip before sighing. "No, you copped to the nightmares... Every time things get scary with 1-A, from villains or whatever, we all look at you. Well, and Todoroki and Iida... Less so Bakugou, but I think that's got more to do with his utter lack of people skills... What was I saying? Oh, right. You guys are always so brave, so... It makes it easier for the rest of us who aren't as sure about everything."
If her face was any indication, it was as embarrassing for him to hear as it was for her to say. As much as he wanted to just move along, it felt rude to ignore it. "Um... Thanks?" When she didn't immediately respond, Izuku seized his chance to change the topic. "Oh, uh... I think I heard that Smile, You're On Camera is supposed to be good. It's about a team of heroes forced to work together by their agency even though they don't like each other. It's actually based on a true story, but I read online that they play up a love triangle that didn't really exist. Besides that, though, the dynamic between Doppler, Heatwave, and–"
"I'm not sure I want to watch a hero movie," Mina gently interrupted. "Everything we do these days is Hero stuff... Sometimes I just want a teensy break, you know?"
"Uh... Sure." He started looking over the listings for something else to catch his attention. "We could–"
"Oh! What about The Exchange? I heard Toru talking about it the other day, it's some sort of comedy about an American who comes to study in Japan, but a mix-up in the foreign exchange program gets him put in UA and he has to fake having a Quirk that's good for being a hero." Mina leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "She said they actually got Principal Nezu to come and play himself. The school kept it super quiet and he's not credited, but it's totally him."
Izuku supposed, in fairness, that this sounded like it wasn't going to follow the normal Hero movie formula, so he couldn't hold the suggestion against her, even after she'd protested his pick. Besides, it did sound like an interesting enough movie, and the possibility that Principal Nezu might be in it was intriguing. "Yeah, sure, that sounds good."
Mina pumped her fist in the air. "All right! You go get the tickets, I'll get drinks and snacks!" She dashed inside, leaving him to follow at a more normal pace.
It was definitely Principal Nezu playing himself, but his part amounted to a two minute cameo after the climax of the movie. After the protagonist had proven himself a capable hero, even with his weak quirk, Nezu promised that that if he wished to stay, he'd be formally accepted as a UA Hero student and the mix-up that sent him there would be forgotten.
"I honestly didn't think he'd be able to hide it that long!" Mina said. "He made it half the year with everyone convinced he was just holding back with Bubblegum for a Quirk! Bubblegum!"
"I think the writers did a really good job in the second act of showing how even a Quirk most people think is weak can be strong if used creatively. And... It was really nice to see an underdog get his chance to be a hero."
"No kidding! He spent all that time panicking that he'd be found out, and then he's all, bam, boom, pow! Pop!" Mina shadowboxed as they made their way back into the lobby. "Super cool!"
It was a bit more than that to him, of course. While the main character was neither Quirkless or new to his Quirk, a lot of his struggled mirrored and paralleled Izuku's own. While he'd already passed what the movie had referred to as his 'Bubblegum Threshold,' it was still gratifying to see someone whose trials were some similar overcome them like he had.
"Earth to Midoriya, calling Captain Midoriya!" Her voice was a low hiss.
His head snapped up. "Huh?"
"Problem!" She subtly pointed to a pair leaving the room assigned to A Hero's Duty. Uraraka and Kirishima were speaking animatedly as they made their way to the exit.
Izuku took a deep breath. They could go back and hide out in the theater they'd been in a little longer, but they'd be swimming upstream. A lot of people were still leaving. They could go forward but that increased the risk of being noticed. Staying put was probably the best way to not draw attention.
He was about to say as much when Kirishima turned his head just enough that he happened to notice them. He raised his hand and waived excitedly. "Yo! Midoriya, Ashido! Over here!"
"Do you want to run?" Izuku asked.
"We'd have to run by them," she grimaced. "We need to get to the door first..."
Well, that was that. As they continued forward, their fellow students held position and waited for them. Unlike Kirishima, Uraraka seemed apprehensive, almost hiding behind him.
"Hey, how cool to see you guys here! What were you watching?"
"They might be here after us, Kirishima, why'd you call out to them?" Uraraka sounded uncharacteristically meek. Izuku wasn't about to let his guard down, but the way she was looking at him, he'd guess she was afraid he was here to kidnap her.
"The Exchange," Mina answered. Her voice was guarded. "It was good. Principal Nezu is in it."
"Oh, that's awesome! We'll have to check it out. Hey, listen, Uraraka's worried you guys are kidnappers and here for us, but that'd be ridiculous, right? I mean, if Izuku was a kidnapper, you guys would have snatched someone yesterday and already passed, right?"
On the one hand, it would be best not to share unnecessary information with a potential kidnapper team. On the other, if they were kidnappers, they already knew that Izuku and Mina weren't. "No, we're VIPs," he said. "If you're being honest, then we're here for the same reason as you."
"If you aren't kidnappers, why were you watching the All Might movie, huh?" Mina accused. "I bet you thought that'd be the most likely place to find us in here!"
"What? No, dude, Crimson Riot is one of the main characters of the comic arc this movie is based on! You know I had to see it!"
Mina looked at him for confirmation. "It's true," he said. "All Might helps rescue one of Crimson Riot's sidekicks that's been abducted by The Isolationist."
"Man, they did that fight so well! It's really cool how they show that All Might and Crimson Riot can't see each other, but we can see everything that happens! When All Might–"
"Hey, don't spoil it! I haven't seen it yet!" He'd read the comic, of course, but it was always possible that some details were changed in the adaptation.
"So what now?" Uraraka asked warily. "We both say we're VIP teams, but we have no way of knowing if you're telling the truth."
"Or if you are!" Mina protested.
Uraraka smiled slightly. "I mean, I know I'm telling the truth."
"It's best if we go our separate ways," Izuku said. "Even if we're all VIPs, staying together just means kidnappers can join forces to get us."
"What? No, come on!" Kririshima practically yelled. "The four of us together, we'd be unstoppable! With me and Midoriya bruising and you girls launching people into the air or scaring them off with acid, none of the other teams would even stand a chance!"
"I'm just not sure that's a good idea..." Uraraka said.
"...I actually think he makes a good point," Mina spoke up. "I mean, Izuku, I know we talked about how the other teams could cause a problem for us last night, but we are already a really strong matchup."
"Izuku? Since when are the two of you on a first name basis?" Kirishima waggled his eyebrows.
"Ugh, Kirishima, we're just staying–" she stopped, realizing what she'd almost said. "Look, nevermind, it's none of your business. The point is, we're already super strong, and with Ochako and Kiri with us, I think all the kidnappers together would have second thoughts."
"I don't know," said Izuku. "I still think it'd be better to stay separate."
"Well, what if it was just for, like, an hour?" Kirishima asked. "That way, kidnappers don't have time to really organize."
Something nagged at the back of Izuku's mind. "Why are you so insistent about this?" he asked.
"Because I can tell this week is going to get boring, dude. Sure, there'll be fights when the kidnappers come after us, but besides that, we've got to stay busy for eight hours a day. Uraraka and I are gonna run out of stuff to do eventually, so hanging with you guys will help push that back. Hell, if we hang out a bit every day, it might help keep the boredom from really setting in."
"I don't know, Kirishima..." Uraraka looked skeptical. She still watched the two of them like she wasn't quite sure if they were safe to be around. Izuku shared the sentiment.
"Yeah, me neither," he said.
"No, he's right! C'mon, Izuku, it won't be much different from going to the gym with my family, it's a fun way to kill some time!"
Izuku understood why she was so fond of the idea. Besides this kind of out-of-school hang out being exactly the kind of thing she loved to organize (not that he'd really ever joined one) she was particularly close to both Kirishima and Uraraka. It fell to Izuku to bee the paranoid one. However, he didn't see an immediate resolution to this that didn't involve his capitulation. He almost laughed as he realized it was time to choose his battles – or, if nothing else, his battleground. "...Maybe," he said. "let's talk about it later, when we can be a little less guarded. You guys should do the same." Uraraka nodded in agreement. "We can text later tonight or tomorrow and figure out how we all feel and go from there."
Mina pumped her fist and cheered, drawing irritated glances from a few people still filtering out of their films and some theater staff.
"Seems pretty reasonable," Kirishima nodded. "We can always count on Midoriya for that, at least." The redhead gave Izuku a confident smile that he found himself returning, despite his concerns.
"We should go, though," Izuku continued. "We've got somewhere to be."
"Hey cool, we'll catch you later, man," Kirishima said, extending his hand.
The paranoid part of his mind made him hesitate, but his rational side reminded him that Uraraka would be the one to avoid shaking hands with right now. As he accepted the gesture, they all completed their goodbyes and began to make their exit from the cinema.
"It'll be awesome, hanging out with Kiri and Ochako!" Mina chattered excitedly. "I know you're close with her, have you ever hung out with him? He's a blast, we're gonna have so much fun! And any kidnappers who come after us are going to get an even worse butt-kicking than normal!"
Izuku let her go on. Now wasn't the time to re-engage that debate, it had only just ended. It wouldn't go well if he tried to convince her about it while she was excited, anyways. Once she got to the point of speculating on what they'd all do together, however, he did quietly interject. "Isn't it almost time to be at the gym?"
Mina checked her phone. "Oh, wow, sure is! Come on, it's this way!" She took off once more, though not at the speeds she exhibited in their earlier race; perhaps the victory still sated her.
They didn't run the whole way. The initial excitement of the sprint wore off shortly, and Mina returned to a more sedate pace. They arrived at their destination only a few minutes before noon, the appointed time for the meeting.
"They're already inside," Mina said, looking at her phone. "Dad has your stuff set aside for you." She looked over at him. "Oh, and if anyone asks, you're my cousin."
Izuku blinked. "What?"
"We have a family plan here. Tomoe got his own membership for super cheap through his school, so we have a fourth spot, and it hasn't occurred to Katsuru yet that he's going to need to work to get into UA. So, this way you don't have to pay!"
"But... Won't your mom have a problem with that?"
"Pfft, why, because she's a lawyer? Where do you think I get my free-spirited take on rules from?"
"I... Kind of assumed your dad."
Her eyes twinkled. "Yeah, but by the time mom finds out, it'll be too late for her to do anything about it." She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the building.
The cool air washed over him as he passed through the doors into the air-conditioned environment within. The foyer was minimally decorated, with only a few plants and a wooden desk standing out from the soft blue carpet and the white walls. Behind the desk were three doors. Two were solid wood and marked with signage that identified them as locker rooms, while the last was transparent and set into a glass wall. A "Staff Only" sign was all that occluded an otherwise well-curated view of the gym floor, in particular framing a line of treadmills and several types of exercise machines.
A bored woman sat at the desk. She almost blankly scrolled on her mouse as she stared at the computer beside her.
"Hey, we're on the Ashido family pass," Mina said.
Izuku swallowed as she told the lie. Would they ask to see his ID? Being a 'cousin,' his last name not matching wouldn't necessarily be suspicious, but what happened if she saw through them? Would Mina be banned from the gym? Would her family, as well, for her actions taken without their knowledge?"
The woman – Haru, by her nametag – glanced at them without turning her head. "Cool."
Be blinked. Was that it?
"Thanks," Mina chirped. She went around the left side of the desk, towards the women's locker room. "See you on the floor, Izuku!"
"Uh... Sure..." The ease with which they bypassed security still had him baffled. Sure, it was just one person who didn't seem to be too diligent about her job, but...
"Are you gonna go, or do you need something?"
The irritation in Haru's voice kicked him into gear. Hoping his startled jump hadn't been overly noticeable, he scurried to the Men's locker room and went through the door.
It didn't take him long to locate Mr. Ashido. Following the sounds of laughter and belly slapping, Izuku found both him and Tomoe next to a duffle bag and an open locker. He couldn't help but think about how small he was next to the two (admittedly abnormally) massive men.
"Izuku!" Mr. Ashido nearly bellowed in welcome, drawing attention from the sole other occupant of the locker room. "Ready to start sweating?"
It was a bit of an odd greeting, but he couldn't fault the enthusiasm. "Yeah," he said, grabbing his clothes from the duffle. "I've never actually worked out with other people, so... This should be fun."
"Really?" Tomoe asked. "They don't have you exercise in groups at UA?"
"Well, I mean, we do practice our heroism together sometimes," he replied, taking off his shirt. "But with everyone's Quirk and physical capabilities being so different, we usually end up doing separate things to build muscle in a way that compliments us, not to mention that training our Quirks themselves is completely different from person to person..."
"Hm. Makes sense, I guess. Do you know how to spot, at least?"
Izuku pulled his gym shirt on and nodded. "I've had someone spot for me before, I'm familiar with how that works." At Tomoe's quirked eyebrow, he elaborated, "I had a, uh, personal trainer for a while."
With his workout clothes on, Mr. Ashido said, "Well, let's get out there! I'm going to hit the treadmill first to warm up, just holler if either of you need a spotter."
"I was thinking that Izuku and I could visit the bench first," Tomoe said as they started towards the door. He was speaking in the same tone as when Izuku had first heard him call Mina 'Littlehorn,' which set him on edge.
He wasn't the only one who picked up on that, either. "Tomoe, behave yourself," Mr. Ashido said, his voice rife with suspicion.
"What? I just want to see what he can lift with that Quirk of his."
Somehow, Izukud didn't believe him, and a part of him wanted to retreat away form whatever the large man was planning. Despite being significantly older than him, Tomoe struck Izuku in many ways as similar to some of his peers, more focused on mischief and amusement than anything else. It was for this reason that he considered the possibility that playing along might be better for him; going into a situation he knew was suspicious was likely preferable to avoiding it now but being blindsided later.
"Well, I'm not supposed to use my Quirk off campus except when necessary for provisional hero work... Well, and this assignment, so I don't think I should use it here. Besides, it would defeat the purpose of working out. The bench press sounds good, though."
Tomoe's smile wouldn't have seemed unsettling if Izuku hadn't been suspicious of what he might be up to.
The older man began loading weight onto the barbell after indicating he wanted to go first. With a respectable load put on, Izuku took up his position as spotter. As Tomoe began his reps, the young hero furrowed his brow. "How does gaining muscle mass work for you, since you have the exoskeleton?"
"It's complicated," he grunted in return. "My body produces two kinds of acid when I exercise. Lactic, like normal, and osteophagic." He sounded like he was about to continue, but grunted as he shifted his grip on the weight.
"Bone-eating acid?" Izuku asked uncomfortably.
"Mm," Tomoe confirmed. "It breaks down my exoskeleton to make room for my muscles to expand. Always seems to pack back on later, not sure about the science behind that... But it's why I don't pop like some terrifying meat balloon any time I start bulking."
Izuku frowned and tried very hard to dispel the mental image that created. Once he'd managed, he asked, "So your Quirk makes room for you to grow... What happens if you lose muscle mass?"
"I don't know," Tomoe answered grimly. "Don't particularly care to find out, either."
He didn't feel good about that. It was possible that it was just a look of concentration from working out, but the subject of muscle loss seemed genuinely upsetting to the other man. Izuku wondered if he should apologize, but the chance that he was misunderstanding the expression was reasonable, and it'd be awkward if he apologized for something that hadn't happened...
"Your turn," Tomoe said a short while after. He returned the barbell to its rack and stretched as Izuku added a weight to each side. "Oh, I see how it is. You've gotta show me up by lifting more than me." He said it with a smile, so Izuku was pretty sure Tomoe was kidding, but he felt the need to defend his actions regardless.
"No, it's just... This is what I normally lift."
"So you've never worked out with anyone, you only had a personal trainer 'for a while,' but you have a 'normal amount' you lift? Are you telling me you bench without a spotter?"
Izuku shrugged. "I have super strength, so... If something were to happen, I could just use that?"
Tomoe gave him an appraising look for a moment before saying, "That's not safe," and standing up so Izuku could get on the bench.
The first several reps passed in silence, but near the end of his first set, Tomoe ambushed him with a question that made him falter. "So, let's be real for a moment here, Izuku. What exactly is your relationship with my sister?"
His focus and good workout habits helped him not drop the barbell, which would have been catastrophically bad. Still, he did choke a bit at the unexpected question. "W-what?"
"You're a teenage boy sleeping in the same room as a, let's be honest and just accept it for what it is, a very attractive teenage girl. I don't know how my parents decided that this was a good idea – they, of all people, should know how easily this situation could devolve."
They of all people? What did –
"So, what's your relationship with my sister?"
Izuku sighed and went to rack the weight, but Tomoe grabbed it and held it down. The mischievous twinkle ever-present in his eye was conspicuously absent; it had probably traveled to create the white in his knuckles.
The thing was, as uncomfortable as the line of thought made him, he would have been more than happy to answer the question if he'd just asked normally. This attempted display of dominance in a situation where it was entirely inappropriate and unsafe just made Izuku angry.
There were several ways he could have resolved it, but something about the way Tomoe was trying to intimidate him made the young hero make a questionable decision for the sole purpose of leveling the field. Green lightning danced up his arms as he pulled on five percent of One for All; much more than he needed, but Izuku wanted to make a point. Tomoe, unprepared to resist the amount of force now pushing the barbell up, was nearly lifted off the ground as Izuku forcibly returned it to its rack. He sat up and turned to face the horned man. "She's my friend. That's it. She even told you that yesterday."
"Sure, she did. But Mina only knows about her relationship with you. Yours with her might be different than even she suspects."
"Well, she's correct," Izuku said with a frown. He felt the tips of his ears burning, but his frustration kept the embarrassment he'd normally be overwhelmed by at bay. "I mean, I'm barely comfortable with it, but the kidnapper teams could try to grab her in the middle of the night, and from what I saw this morning, me being there is the only thing that'll keep us from failing if they do."
Tomoe was looking at him skeptically, as though trying to determine the truthfulness of what he was saying. Part of Izuku understood the suspicion. If he'd had any siblings, maybe he'd feel this protective of them. Maybe having a little sister would elicit this same behavior. However, more of him was upset about the suspicion, and the logical response was drowned out. "I'm going to do my next set now. Please don't hold the barbell down again. I didn't like that." As he settled back onto the bench, he saw that Tomoe's expression had changed to a slight smirk. It could have meant so many different things, but Izuku didn't care to speculate on them or their likelihood. Working out was a very peaceful thing for him, and Tomoe was tainting it with conflict and stress. The best way to return to a more ideal mood was just not to engage any further.
The remaining sets passed in silence. It wasn't at all comfortable. Izuku bore it stoically. It was peaceful, though not as relaxing as he'd like his workouts to be. It didn't take long for his frustration to fade and the guilt and anxiety to set in, however. A strong desire to apologize to Tomoe rose within him, but he resisted it. It wasn't out of malice or stubbornness; rather, he wanted to protect the workout from further conflict. He resolved to talk to Tomoe at a later time about it. This did nothing for the anxiety, of course.
When he finished on the bench press, Izuku said, "I'm going to do legs next."
"Hn. I'm headed to the treadmills."
The student nodded. "See you."
"You, too."
The whole interaction was painfully awkward. He nearly broke down and apologized, but he managed to compose himself and stay strong. Thankfully, the equipment he was headed to didn't require a second person. Izuku took a seat in an open leg extension machine and put it to work.
It took a moment for him to settle, but once he did, the rhythm of his exercise brought him the peace and satisfaction he was accustomed to. Without realizing it, he took a breath of relief and let his mind wander as his body worked.
It would be unreasonable to let that one experience taint shared workouts for him. Really, it wasn't even a problem with working out with Tomoe, aside from the disconcerting willingness to abuse his position as a spotter. This would have happened eventually regardless of where he found himself with the eldest sibling. Any number of situations could have been engineered to give him the upper hand in an intimidation attempt, and as far as they went, this was probably one of the better times it could have happened. Raw strength wasn't a great tool against someone of Izuku's capabilities, so he was able to undermine the attempt fairly easily. He wasn't sure what the next battleground would be, however, and he was certain there would be one. Hopefully, he'd be able to navigate it as well when the time came, but there was no point in worrying about it now.
To take his mind off it, Izuku looked around the gym. It wasn't particularly crowded. A young man and woman were doing lunges with dumbbells in one corner. A three-armed man was doing an interesting set of modified pull ups; Izuku watched him for a while, examining how he'd changed the exercise to account for his Quirk. Mr. Ashido had just disembarked his treadmill and seemed to be having a conversation with Tomoe, who had started on his. Two older women were taking it slow on the ellipticals. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, based on the laughter coming from that part of the room. The only other occupants of the gym were Mina and Mrs. Ashido. The former was spotting the latter while she did deadlifts. Izuku was impressed at how she still managed to make the exercise look regal, even as sweat began to drip down her brow and arms.
He decided that he liked it here. It seemed like a very healthy, positive place, and seeing everyone else work out made him feel like maybe they experienced the same tranquility he did when he exercised. The idea made him oddly happy.
Mr. Ashido came over and sat in the leg extension next to him. "He was giving you the business about Mina, wasn't he?" There was very little of his usual mirth in the words. In fact, Izuku would call his tone serious, perhaps even somber.
"Yeah."
The older man sighed and started working the machine. "I figured. He was being tight lipped about it, but... Well, it makes sense. I'll tell him to back off, you have enough to worry about with your assignment. You don't need Tomoe projecting Taiga and I onto you and Mina."
Izuku bit his lip. He wanted to know, but was it okay to ask? He decided to risk it. "He said that you, of all people, should know better... What happened?"
It was immediately very clear that it was not, in fact, okay to ask that. He was almost surprised he noticed, with how quickly the expression came and left, but Mr. Ashido was clearly bothered by the subject. Defying expectations, however, he answered anyways. "Taiga and I had Tomoe very young. Younger than anyone should have a kid. He remembers a lot of the struggles we had, and maybe some of the ones we avoided. I think he's..." Several reps passed in a sudden, unexpected silence. "...Sensitive to it, is the best way to phrase it. He worries more about his siblings than he needs to, but especially Mina." He sighed. "I think part of it is that she's in UA. She's living his dream, and he wants her to succeed for his sake as much as hers. The idea that she might repeat the mistakes her mother and I made terrifies him." He looked at Izuku and gave him a sad smile. "Enjoy being young while you can. Being a parent is hard."
"Uh... S-sure." How was he supposed to respond to that, especially after being given all that information? "I, uh, I don't... I mean, with..." He swallowed. "Mina and I, we–"
Mr. Ashido's usual demeanor came back with a vengeance as a raucous laugh erupted from him, and it looked very much like he was struggling to keep from slapping his belly while he was working out. Several other patrons turned to look at him with varying reactions. "It's fine, Izuku, I don't think you're up to anything! I'll admit to having had some reservations when Mina originally suggested the idea to me, but she rather vehemently defended your character when we raised the concern. I've rarely heard her speak so highly of anyone but herself."
Izuku blinked. Mina had said some kind things to him, between today and yesterday, but Mr. Ashido suggested she held a much higher opinion of him than he'd expected.
"Oh, yeah," her father said, responding to his unasked question. "In fact, I'd go so far as to say she looks up to you. Understandable, if half of what she's said is true."
A pang struck his chest, similar to what he'd felt at dinner the previous night, but not nearly as sharp. In a moment of panic, he gritted his teeth and stamped the feeling down before he could have a breakdown in public. That was the last thing he needed.
"Anyway, I don't mean to talk your ear off or get you involved in the family drama... Well, any more than you already are. Sorry that you're getting pulled in by Tomoe's paranoia."
"...It isn't your fault." He couldn't think of anything else to say.
Mr. Ashido laughed, but it wasn't deep and joyous like it normally was. "I think you'll find it is, when you go back to the beginning."
Izuku finished his last set and swung his legs to the side, stretching for a moment before he stood. He debated where to go for a moment; part of him wanted to get on a treadmill and walk off a bit of the burn he felt, but Tomoe was still using one and he was not ready to invite more conversation with him. Mrs. Ashido and Mina had switched positions, and while his classmate didn't have as much weight on her barbell, she was lifting an impressive amount – more than he'd expected, at any rate.
He settled on the lateral pulldown, mostly because he didn't need a spotter for that, either. He got up, prompting Mr. Ashido to say, "Happy lifting," as an odd form of farewell.
"Uh, yeah, you too." His departure from Mr. Ashido was less awkward than it had been with Tomoe, but he was still left with the sense that there was something more he should have said, or perhaps something more Mr. Ashido needed to say? It felt odd to even think that. Izuku didn't even know what it would be.
Mina must have finished her last set while he wasn't looking, because at the same time he started adjusting the weight on his machine, Mrs. Ashido arrived to do the same. "I hope you've been enjoying your time here," she said pleasantly. "Despite Tomoe, I mean. I saw him holding your weight down, I'm going to have to speak with him about that."
The question of why both of the elder Ashidos felt the need to bring that up was immediately answered. They felt responsible for Tomoe's behavior and wanted to ensure Izuku wasn't overly put off by it. The problem was, if it was just left alone, the discomfort would go away and he would feel much better about the whole experience. "Yeah. I'm, uh, just... trying to put that behind me."
"That's a wise and mature way to approach it." Mrs. Ashido took a seat only a moment after Izuku and they began the newest leg of their workout. "How has the assignment been treating you? Have you been harried by your classmates much?"
"No, we, uh... We did run into some of them, but they weren't... Well, they didn't try to kidnap Mina. I'm still a little nervous that they might be kidnappers trying to trick us into thinking they aren't so that we let our guard down. They suggested hanging out tomorrow, since together we could handle pretty much any threat that came our way, but... I don't know about that."
She made a thoughtful noise. "Would it be inappropriate for me to offer some advice?"
"...I don't think so?"
"You have, of course, heard the old adage to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If you allow them to believe you are comfortable with their presence, you gain agency in determining how things progress if they are, in fact, secretly kidnappers." She craned her neck forward before turning it to face him. Izuku was briefly confused by this, until he saw the bar come down scant inches from her horn; if she hadn't, it would have gone between them, which Mrs. Ashido likely wanted to avoid for a number of reasons. "In fact, you may even be able to choose the location they attempt to strike at, if you're clever. By accepting their invitation, you either gain safety in numbers or the element of surprise. There was a later Roman writer who once said that 'an ambuscade, if discovered and promptly surrounded, will repay the intended mischief with interest.' I think this applies to your circumstance rather neatly, don't you?"
She raised very good points. In many ways, what she was suggesting was just a reapplication of how he'd engaged with Tomoe earlier. If he could guide their time together to only show exploitable vulnerabilities in locations he chose, he could ensure that fights happened on his terms, and that put him a good portion of the way towards victory by itself. It'd be difficult to pull off, no doubt, even if he advised Mina of his intentions. Plus, if he was wrong and they were being genuine, then they still had pretty good odds against a combined group of kidnappers as long as they stuck together. "Yeah, that's... A good way of looking at it. I was going to try and convince Mina that we shouldn't, but maybe it's best that we do see them tomorrow."
Mrs. Ashido smiled and returned to her previous position. "That's a fringe benefit of this course of action. Dissuading Mina from doing anything she wants to do is difficult, to say the least."
Izuku chuckled. He wouldn't have disagreed with that even before the assignment had begun, but everything he'd seen since had reinforced it. In fact, he'd previously even considered her to be a bit lazy (at least academically), but it really did seem more like she was determined to do what she wanted, and what she wanted was to have fun.
"I wanted to ask you, Izuku. Would you be comfortable if we gave you and Mina some money to spend over the course of the week?"
The question caught him off guard, and his immediate gut reaction was that yes, it very much would. However, Izuku held himself steady. It would be rude to refuse the offer out of hand; best to at least give the impression that he consider it. He didn't want to seem ungrateful. "I... don't understand. Why?"
"Well, if you're curious as to why I'm asking you and not my daughter, it's because I already know she'd say yes, and she would likely be enthusiastic enough about it that she didn't think to ask you how you felt. I mildly suspect that's how you came to be staying with us, if I'm honest. If you're wondering why we would do that, it's because existing in a city can be very expensive. I know Mina has some spending money, so you wouldn't be completely without, but Ayato and I discussed this after you two left this morning. Having some extra yen in your pocket opens up options for what you can do within the city, which will help you stay out of sight at best, and help you avoid boredom at worst."
He swallowed. It was becoming quickly apparent that Mrs. Ashido and strong logic had a very close relationship. Maybe it was part of being a lawyer. Still, regardless of her points, the fact of the matter is that the idea did make him uncomfortable. He'd just have to hope Mina wouldn't be too angry at him if she ever found out. "Sure, that... should be fine."
His mind was a curse. He'd been about to decline the offer. It was fine until he'd thought his classmate might become upset with him. Izuku mentally screamed into the void, bemoaning his inability to disappoint people.
Mrs. Ashido paused her workout to turn and look at him. He continued working out for a moment, trying not to look at her, but her gaze became unbearable. Izuku turned his head slightly and gave an uncertain smile. She wore a studious expression. Its silence and duration made him wonder if she knew he was lying. Was it really a lie if it was unintentional? He'd meant to say no and was just too deep in to back out. It was such an absurd thing to maybe-lie about, as well. Really, this was for the best. She'd examine him, and whatever lawyer-related powers she might have would indicate that he wasn't telling the truth. Then, she'd know that it did make him uncomfortable, but he wouldn't look ungrateful. This projected chain of events settled him significantly, knowing everything was going to work out.
This may have been why Mrs. Ashido smiled, nodded, and said, "All right, then. We obviously don't have it on us – it'd be odd to bring it to the gym, even if the lockers are safe enough. We'll talk more about this when you both get back tonight, settle on an amount, and make sure you have what you need."
Izuku's stomach promptly dropped. That was it, then. Either he'd sabotaged himself or her reading of him hadn't gone nearly as well as he'd thought it would. He sighed as he started on his last set on the lateral pulldown.
At least Mina would be happy about it.
The remainder of the workout was pleasant and uneventful, much like the shower he'd taken afterwards. Izuku felt an odd sense of guilt as he quickly toweled his head dry and shook it to make his hair fall into a more normal shape, remembering the discussion he'd had with Mina earlier that day.
He'd left his gym clothes with Mr. Ashido and Tomoe, who were still cleaning up from their own exercise, and had been waiting for Mina to exit her changing room so they could move onto whatever their next destination was.
He'd explained that in slightly less words to Haru when she'd noticed he was loitering in the lobby. She did not appear to care.
His classmate finally arrived, her mother in tow. "It's going to be a disaster. I'm going to come home looking like I'm wearing a pink dandelion." Mina was running her hand through her hair, which only seemed partially dried. When she saw Izuku, she moaned, "Our hair dryer broke!"
"I've had it for years," Mrs. Ashido said gently. "We got it for me to use when we first started coming her with Tomoe. It's lasted over a decade, I think it's served admirably and earned its rest."
"Yeah, but you aren't the one who has to be out in public for another four hours," her daughter grumbled.
"We could get you a hat," Izuku offered. "It doesn't really solve the problem, but it'd hide everything pretty well."
She crossed her arms and humphed. "I guess. At least it'll keep people from staring at me. Come on, let's go before it has a chance to explode."
He nodded in assent and waved at Mrs. Ashido. "Uh, guess we'll see you back at your house... Say bye to M–" He stopped partway through 'Mr.' and glanced at Haru, realizing he almost gave away the lie Mina had told earlier. "Um, the others for us."
She furrowed her brow, looking between Izuku and Haru. He felt like he was sweating bullets. She'd failed to connect the dots on his earlier falsehood, perhaps he'd get lucky and it would happen again. Her eyes narrowed and locked onto Mina. "What did you do?"
The pink girl's face lit up, her gloomy mood dispelled, and was split by a wide, toothy grin. "Nothing. We'll see you at home. Love you! C'mon, Izuku, let's go!" She grabbed at his arm and began bodily hauling him out of the gym. Normally, he wouldn't terribly mind beyond the social anxiety it spawned in him,but he had just finished a reasonably intense workout and this time, it hurt. Not a lot, but still.
Mina and Izuku sat in a diner booth, nursing cold drinks and awaiting the arrival of their food. They had located a horn-compatible hat before her hair had, in her words, 'detonated.' She'd settled on a purple Mt. Lady branded baseball cap.
"I feel like it's only delaying the disaster," she sulked as she fidgeted with a few locks of hair that couldn't be effectively hidden in the hat. "It's all just getting smushed together, I'm going to take this off and turn into a French Poodle."
"Well... You can take it off in your bathroom, and then nobody else has to see until you have a chance to fix it."
"Yeah, I know, but this hat is not cute, and cute is like, eighty percent of my look."
"I think..." Izuku trailed off. He'd been about to assure her that she was wrong, but luckily managed to stop before he embarrassed himself. It's not that she wasn't cute – he felt his face ignite just by thinking that – but how could he, a boy, just casually say that to a girl? It would be immediately and horribly misconstrued. Mina would think that he was expressing some kind of an interest in her, which he absolutely did not have, but that actually made it worse. With growing horror, he realized that was likely the best case scenario. In a worse world, she might even look at him like all the girls in class looked at Mineta. Izuku wouldn't be able to take that. He had precious few friends outside of Class 1-A, if they were to turn on him for being like –
"Whatever it is, Mina said glumly, "It doesn't look very encouraging."
He blinked as he came back to reality. "What? No! No, I just, I got sidetracked, it's not that I think, uh..."
"Uh huh." She looked at him, utterly unconvinced. "Don't lie on my account. I know it's a bad hat."
"It's fine," he insisted. "Maybe not what you normally wear, but it's not as bad as you think."
She looked primed to continue her protest, but their orders of gyudon – the diner's advertised specialty – arrived at that moment. Her plight temporarily forgotten, Mina cooed in delight as the bowl was set in front of her.
Things became quiet for a while as they went about their meals. Izuku immediately understood why they advertised their gyudon so heavily; whatever it was they used to season the meat was phenomenal.
After he was about halfway through his dish, he decided that now was a good time to discuss their plans with their classmates. "I think we should accept Kirishima's invitation for tomorrow."
Mina looked up at him, surprise clearly written across her face. "Really? You sounded so against it earlier, I was sure that it'd take most of the day to convince you."
"I wasn't keen on it before," he agreed, "but I think it's a good opportunity. If they're being honest, then I do think we gain by being around them. The added numbers, even considering enemies teaming up, will help in the event of an ambush, since they can't just double team one of us and leave the other by themselves. Their Quirks also complement ours pretty well."
She nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that's what I was saying! We'd be unbeatable! Or, well, almost unbeatable."
"That's not why I think we should take him up on it, though. If they are kidnappers, they'll be looking for a good time to ambush us. We can choose a place to pretend to be vulnerable, engage them on our terms. Realizing we were ready for them may even throw them off."
"Ah, so you're thinking of a little 'friends close, enemies closer' action, huh?"
"Yeah, something like that. What do you think?"
"I mean, I wanted to do it anyway," she shrugged, "but you have a good plan. Plus, you're super smart and it sounds like you've been thinking about it a lot, so it's probably a good thing to do."
Izuku frowned. "You know we don't have to do this just because it was my idea, right?"
Mina snorted. "Look Izuku, one of us passed our finals, and it wasn't me. You're good at plans, I'm just going to follow your lead." A mischievous smile spread across her face, and she continued in a high-pitched, overly dramatic voice, "And besides, how could I, a poor, helpless damsel stand against the wishes of my valiant, dashing bodyguard?" She seemed ready to go on, but descended into poorly-stifled laughter as he turned red. "You're too easy!"
Izuku cleared his throat. "Sure, we'll... Go ahead and let them know we're willing to see them tomorrow." He pulled out his phone, then paused. "We should suggest a place to hang out. That way, we have... something of an edge. Choosing the, well, potential battleground, I guess."
The pink girl chewed thoughtfully. "Oh!" she exclaimed after swallowing. "There's an arcade in Kiyashi Ward I really like. It'll be busy, too, harder to attack us without risking failing."
"That could work," he nodded. "I'll make a group text with us."
Mina and I talked about it. We're fine with hanging out for a short time tomorrow, around an hour, like we discussed. She suggested an arcade in Kiyashi Ward. How do the two of you feel about that?
He showed it to Mina for approval before sending it. After looking it over, her only comment was, "Tell them it's called Kiyashi Starcade."
With that addition made, the text was sent. Izuku set to finishing his meal while they waited for a response, but he was done before one came. When his companion had emptied her own bowl, he got up and stretched. "Well, we've still got a few hours in front of us. Where to next?"
It was a relief to finally be back at the Ashidos' house. Obviously, being here didn't remove the risk of being assaulted by kidnappers, but there were far fewer angles of attack to consider than on the streets of Tokyo. This was a great comfort to him, because he hadn't anticipated how exhausting being on his toes for eight hours a day was going to be. Relaxation, even in small amounts, was going to become something very precious over the next week for VIP teams, while the kidnapper teams would be able to engage them with all the rest they needed once they identified where in the city a potential target was. Izuku wondered if this was an intentional facet of the test. Knowing the staff at UA, it probably was.
Mina had immediately retreated upstairs to correct the grave injustice done upon her hair by the weather and the treasonous hairdryer. Katsuru was shut up in his room, which Izuku could only assume would just be the norm for the duration of his stay, and Mr. Ashido was at the restaurant he worked at, likely fending off the dinner rush. That left Izuku, Saru, and Mrs. Ashido in the living room of the house.
"Um... I don't know that we need that much."
"You're going to be out and at the mercy of the city for a full workday every day this week," Mrs. Ashido said. "I think ten thousand yen is reasonable."
"It's just a lot of money... I mean, the whole sixty thousand for the week."
"No, you have to use the green crayon!" Saru protested. He'd been unable to refuse her demands to draw and color with her, and so found himself in the unenviable situation of drawing UA for her while having this conversation. She didn't seem terribly thrilled about him drawing the mulch beds some of the greenery grew in. Rather than protest, he just put the brown crayon down and acceded to her demands.
Mrs. Ashido leaned forward in her chair and spoke softly. "It's not going to hurt us, if that's what you're concerned about, but if you're not comfortable with it, we can do less. Would seven thousand be better?"
On the one hand, he wished he could have deflected this conversation to Mina so that he didn't have to worry about it, but on the other, he knew that she had been right when she said that her daughter would just take the money with no consideration of anything else. "I..." Izuku really wanted this conversation to end. He had already agreed to accept money. Was it worth the discomfort of arguing her down more? If he tried to go too low, she might protest that the amount wouldn't actually accomplish anything. "...think that would be fine."
"Excellent. I'll have Ayato pick the money up on the way home." She pulled her phone out, presumably to send a message, and Izuku was left to drawing and coloring with Saru.
Mina came down the stairs, brushing her freshly washed hair. She walked with purpose directly past the him and her sister to where her mother sat. He didn't need to hear what was being said to know what they were talking about; he'd been oddly dreading it all day. It wasn't that he thought it'd be spectacularly unpleasant, or that his classmate would go out of her way to upset him with it, but the idea of her brushing his hair set him on edge. He did his best to even out his breathing; perhaps doing so would help.
"Mina, look! Izuku's drawing your school for me!"
"Oh, he is! Look at how pretty he's doing the building!"
"It needs more flowers," Saru said seriously.
"Well, there aren't more flowers there," she replied.
"But it needs more! Izuku, will you do more flowers?"
"Sure, I can do that." He didn't see a lot of point in arguing. It wasn't a huge deal to him, but he figured she would become very insistent if he refused.
Mina continued working on her hair while Izuku finished Saru's drawing. It didn't take him very long; he'd been decently far along when she'd come down.
"Look, look!" Saru said, taking the completed piece of art to her mother. "Izuku is really good at coloring!"
"He is," Mrs. Ashido agreed. "To be honest, I've never seen such a neat drawing done entirely in crayon."
Izuku wasn't sure how to handle the praise, so he shrugged and chuckled uncomfortably. "I usually use a pencil, but..."
As Saru chattered on about the drawing, Mina locked eyes with him. Knowing the time was upon them, he swallowed and nodded.
Her eyes twinkled in delight. "Hey, Izuku~"
Did she have to stretch his name out like that? Something about her tone made him even more uneasy than he already was. "Uh, what?"
"Your hair's looking kinda wild. Can I brush it?" It was fortunate that Saru was literally five, as Mina was displaying no guile in this obviously staged conversation.
"S-sure," he said anxiously. "Um, where... How should I...?"
"Come sit in front of the couch!" she said, adjusting herself to make a spot in front of her. He noticed the same light in Mrs. Ashido's eyes as he got in position. "Move closer, I can hardly reach you from there."
"Here?" he asked, scooting back slightly.
"No, like, put your back against the couch."
"But... Your legs are there?"
"Oh my God," Mina said, (hopefully) feigning irritation. Suddenly, she had hooked her arms under his armpits and hauled him the rest of the way. His back hit the couch, and her legs were on either side of his arms. He made a rather pathetic noise and began reddening immediately. Mrs. Ashido politely covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, and Saru finally tore her attention away from the drawing to notice that something was happening. "Okay, let's see what we're working with..."
It was at this point that Izuku realized the true extent of his folly. She began running her hands through his hair, which did not help the condition of his face. Mina was very gentle while exploring the forest green mess, sliding her fingers through his locks and retreating whenever she found a tangle. It felt horribly intimate, and he wanted to do nothing but bolt up and run to the safety of the nearest closeable door.
"When was the last time you brushed your hair?" she asked with disbelief.
"Um... I... don't know that I ever really have?"
Mina sighed. "Well, you've got tangles, but they're nowhere near as bad as Saru's." Under her breath, she grumbled, "Nowhere near as bad as they should be for never brushing your hair, either..."
"Okay, so... What does that mean?"
"Just a bit of vigorous brushing, is all. Shouldn't hurt too bad." She pulled her hands back, but the respite was brief. Hardly a moment later, she stuck one hand in his hair to part it out and began viciously attacking it with the brush – or at least, that's what it felt like. Surprisingly, it actually wasn't terribly painful when she hit a tangle. Izuku didn't particularly disbelieve her when she said that, but he felt at least a bit justified in expecting it to hurt.
She kept the pace she had set for several minutes, and he progressively settled more into being okay with the activity. Some spots were merely glossed over, but wherever she found a knot, she lingered until the brush no longer snagged on his hair. Mrs. Ashido was reading through another book, though it was clear she was paying attention from the large smile on her face. Saru had started working on a drawing, but he saw her occasionally look over to watch them.
"There we go," Mina said triumphantly. "I think I got the last one." She started brushing through his hair at a much more leisurely pace. The bristles scraped lightly against his scalp and pulled at his hair in a way that was oddly soothing. Even the sound of them sliding through was relaxing. She would move and tilt his head as she worked the brush around, which was the only thing that consistently made him uneasy, but it seemed like such a little thing next to the rest of the experience that it strangely almost failed to register at times.
He wasn't sure how long the hair brushing was meant to last, but part of him didn't want to ask. Izuku just kept quiet and let her continue, all thoughts of the VIP exercise washed from his mind. Saru said something, but he was too unfocused to properly listen to her. He vaguely considered that he should have said something, but...
Suddenly, there was a loud snort and a cacophonous sound, and he nearly jumped. After a panicked moment where he wasn't sure what was happening, he realized Mina was laughing uproariously. He turned his head to see her holding her stomach (and dismissed the question of whether she slapped it first). "W-what's so funny?"
"You – You...!" She gasped. Mina tried to take a deep breath, but was unable to do so in her fits of hilarity. "Fell as–Ha ha haaaa–leeeep!" Tears leaked from her eyes as she struggled to contain herself so that she didn't pass out.
Izuku didn't find it nearly so funny. His ears burned and he turned back around to try and make himself small. Fallen asleep? It had been nice, but he wasn't sure it was soothing enough to make him... Well, he had missed what Saru had said, which wasn't normal for him. And his mind had been actually relatively quiet, something that he struggled to attain on the best of days, even if he was tired. Maybe he had actually fallen asleep, but he wasn't sure what about having his hair brushed brought him to that point.
"Mina, why don't you take a step away for a moment?" Mrs. Ashido suggested.
"No, I'm..." She took staggered, ragged breaths in between her fits of laughter. "I'm good, I – haa – I can stop, I'm good..." She wiped her eyes and continued giggling. "I'm good..."
"Mina," she repeated, more sternly this time.
"F-fine..." His classmate was clearly trying to sound irritated, but failed miserably due to her inability to repress her laughter. She maneuvered herself so that her legs weren't on either side of Izuku anymore and unsteadily got up, stumbling towards the kitchen and the hallway beyond.
Her mother tracked her movement until she'd departed the room and her voice only echoed into the room, rather than from it. Once Mina had made it out, Mrs. Ashido turned to Izuku. "I'm sorry to butt in, but you seemed upset."
"It's... Fine." He had initially intended to leave off there, but surprised himself by continuing, "I was, so..."
She made a displeased noise, but didn't comment further, merely glancing back in the direction her daughter had gone.
"Your hair is really pretty," Saru said. He looked at her to see that she'd changed her hair to be the same green as his once more. More shyly, she continued, "I thought it was pretty before, but it's prettier now..."
With Mina gone, advancement of her plan fell to him. "Well, I don't know how to brush hair like Mina does, but... I bet she could make your hair, uh, prettier."
"But it hurts! I hate getting my hair brushed." She sat up from her picture. "It hurt, right?"
"Not really. It pulled on the tangles sometimes, but it wasn't that bad." He saw Mrs. Ashido make a face and shake her head. She was to Saru's back, so the young girl didn't see it.
She looked at him with suspicion. "You're lying, aren't you? You shouldn't lie. It's bad to do that."
"No, I'm not. Why would I lie about that?"
"I dunno." Her eyes lit up. "Oh! Maybe it doesn't hurt 'cause you're a hero. You have to be really strong to be a hero, but I'm not really strong yet 'cause I'm little 'cause I'm only five and a quarter. So having your hair brushed hurts until you're not little no more!"
"Any more," Mrs. Ashido corrected.
"Any more," Saru repeated proudly.
Izuku considered his next angle of attack. "Well, maybe if you let Mina or your mom brush your hair, you'd get stronger faster."
"Having my hair brushed won't make me stop being little," Saru said in a tone that was impressively condescending for a five year old. "I gotta get older to stop being little!"
He wasn't particularly surprised at how much resistance she was putting up, considering what he'd been told thus far about her lack of cooperation with grooming in general. Still, he felt that a dent had been made, and if he could figure out how to exploit it, there might even be some progress attached. "Well, I don't think it hurts just because you aren't as strong as me. There's probably a different reason."
"No," she said matter-of-factly. "I don't think so." She returned to her coloring.
While Izuku debated whether to try and recapture her attention and press what little advantage he had left, his phone began buzzing in his pocket.
Hey Bro! Didnt c ur Text wen it came in! Sry! Ashido n Me go to Starcade all the time sounds HYPE! Wen shud we B thre?!
He looked up and into the half-wall separating the kitchen and the living room. Setting a time without consulting Mina would be rude, but he wasn't sure where exactly down the hall past there that she was. He wasn't particularly keen on searching, either, for risk of creating an awkward situation.
Of course, there was a very easy answer in the palm of his hand. When do you want to meet with Uraraka and Kirishima?
He heard fresh laughter from down the hall, and Mina walked out of the kitchen shortly after. "Dude, you could have just yelled for me, you don't need to text me from a room over."
"Well... I didn't know what you were doing..."
"It's fine," she chuckled, "just not how we do things here."
"No, the yelling is mandatory," Mrs. Ashido said in a deadpan. She clearly had some feelings on the matter.
"Anyways, the arcade would be pretty abandoned in the morning, since pretty much everyone else will be in school. We could go then and basically play whatever games we wanted!"
"Truancy officers hang around the arcades in the morning," her mother said, taking a sip of tea and turning the page of her book.
"Yeah, sure, but the police know about what we're doing," Mina countered. "We have a get-out-of-jail-free card!"
"Maybe later in the afternoon is a good idea, though," Izuku cautioned. "More people means it's not immediately dangerous if they're trying to trick us." He paused. "Also, didn't you specifically bring up it being busy as one of the benefits when you suggested it earlier?"
She blinked. "Right, I forgot about that." With a sheepish grin, she added, "I got excited about playing the games." An amused noise came from Mrs. Ashido, evoking a half-hearted glare from Mina.
It brought an odd smile to Izuku's face. He wasn't entirely sure why. "I'll tell them three. That way we'll have a few minutes before people getting out of school arrive."
"Sure, three works."
Three works for us. Is that all right for you?
He received two answers at the same time.
YEAH BRO! Well see U Three!
We can do three, yeah.
"All right! We got that figured out, now we just have to sort out the rest of our day!"
Izuku was not as enthusiastic, but it wasn't because of apprehension. "We need to figure out where to give them their chance, though. If they are kidnappers."
"Figure it out tomorrow! It's relaxing time." She flopped down on the couch, but something occurred to her very quickly and she began looking around. After a moment, Mina found what she was looking for and reached futilely for the remote, just out of arms reach on the table.
Izuku handed it to her. "I mean... Other than the gym, we've been relaxing pretty much all day."
"Yeah, but that was relaxing for school, it doesn't count. It only counts if I'm doing it for me." She flicked the TV on and navigated deftly to a streaming service. "And I'm behind on my favorite anime, anyways." Her eyes lit up. "Oh, but – no, we need to start at the beginning, Izuku, you have to watch this. This girl has a Quirk that lets her grow crystals, right, and her best friend..."
