It was blisteringly hot outside that day, so Midoriya felt he could speak for everyone when he says that the water felt absolutely amazing.
As previously promised by one Aizawa-sensei, spontaneous class trips were slowly but surely becoming more common as the class's cumulative grade became higher and higher. He didn't seem to be all that happy with the idea of rewarding them like dogs learning new tricks, as the same luxury would not be granted in the real world once they graduated, but a promise is a promise and the more they learned, the more prepared they'd be in the future, and that was worth it.
This trip, in particular, had not been for a test, but a job well done after a sudden mass villain attack in the middle of Musutafu last month. They'd all just gotten into their hero gear for heroics classes when a bomb went off in the city, and all of them had unanimously voted to do something about it rather than wait in the school grounds when they could be saving more lives. With all of them having their provisional licenses at this point, Principal Nezu didn't see the point in stopping them.
And so, class 1-A was dispatched, with 1-B getting themselves together in order to follow close behind. There were way more villains involved than previously suspected, dozens at the very least, so the more helping hands, the better.
Midoriya couldn't be more thankful that things decided to end in their favor this time around. The city-wide battle ended in the heroes' indisputable victory, with no casualties on either side and no severe or permanent injuries. It was absolutely incredible and Midoriya couldn't help but smile knowing that he had contributed, taking down two of the top-ranked villains on his own and assisting with four other takedowns.
Besides that, several others in his class were met with major success. Kacchan alone managed to take down ten by himself before his friend group showed up. The five of them together were literally unstoppable, and collectively took out the most villains even compared to the pros. Midoriya couldn't help his giddiness as he thought about what the future had in store for them, should they stick together.
Meanwhile, Iida and Yaoyorozu assisted in five takedowns and Todoroki wiped out an entire sea of them with waves of ice. Shoji, Tokoyami, and Jirou also made major contributions while the rest of the class either fought directly beside the heroes or assisted in rescue efforts. All in all, it was all around a positive outcome and another event to make the heroes look good.
That wasn't to say that there weren't any near misses. Two particularly scary moments immediately popped up in Midoriya's mind, the first of them still fresh in his mind even now. He had come across rescue efforts and had scaled a destroyed building alongside Uraraka in search of missing civilians when they'd found a small child near a broken window about ten stories up. She couldn't have been any older than ten, clutching a Gunhead plushie about half her own size as her whimpers were drowned out by the groaning of the building.
"It's okay." Uraraka had called out calmly. "We're heroes. We're here to save you."
The little girl's eyes seemed to spark back to life, looking at the two of them in a new light as more tears streamed down her face, now in relief.
Which was short-lived when the floor suddenly gave way.
It had been so sudden that Midoriya barely registered what was even happening before the child's screams filled the air as she plummeted towards her death.
There was no hesitation from his companion, and despite the spike of soul-wrenching terror that shot through his system, Midoriya couldn't be more proud of Uraraka looking back at that moment, the zero gravity heroine fearlessly leaping off the building after the girl. Thanks to her natural difference in size, Uraraka caught up to the girl in no time, wrapping her arms around her protectively and her fingers around the kid's back and her own arm.
Zero gravity does not mean loss of momentum. With no way of stopping their descent, the two crashed into the ground, bouncing off violently and spinning out of control before Asui's tongue wrapped around Uraraka's waist and pulled them back to earth. Though both were shaken and Uraraka was a bit winded and dizzy from the vertigo of such a sudden change in direction, both of them were fine. A miracle, all things considered. Midoriya would consider scolding her for being so reckless, but that would just be the pot calling the kettle black.
He wasn't present for the other major scare near the end of the fighting. The instigator of the whole situation and a number of his lackeys were making their escape when a group of heroes and Kacchan's squad intervened. Midoriya wishes that he could have witnessed such an intense high-speed chase, Kirishima and Kaminari on standby with the other slow-moving heroes and armed with one of Kacchan's bracers and a few grenades while Kacchan, Ashido, and Sero sped ahead into the fray.
It had been going fine, with the villains on the ropes, and everyone was so distracted with what was happening around them that none of them noticed when the other bracer started leaking.
And the straw that broke the camel's back was when one of the villains, the second-in-command if he remembered correctly, knocked Ashido off of her feet and was about to kill her while she was down. According to the now arrested villain's own words, Kacchan's sudden appearance in defense of his fallen comrade had been as if someone had literally just summoned a demon from the ninth circle of hell.
According to Ashido, it was a slow-motion clip seconds before disaster, the resulting explosion igniting the leaking fluid and causing the bracer itself to explode.
If the bracer had been at max capacity at the time of the explosion, Kacchan, Ashido, the villain, and anyone occupying the vehicle they were fighting on would have died instantly. Luckily, however, due to the leak and constant use greatly reducing the amount of nitroglycerin involved, it wasn't even remotely as bad as it could have been.
All three of them were violently thrown off of the vehicle from the impact. Thinking fast, Sero abandoned his own battle and leaped off to catch Kacchan while Ashido tried to softened her landing by skidding across the ground with her acid, though it didn't help as much as she'd hoped. Kirishima and Kaminari rendezvoused with them a moment later.
From what they were told later, the worst that Ashido had were light burns on her face and arms and multiple nasty scrapes. Sero had also managed to fracture his ankle in his impromptu landing, but it honestly could have been worse since it was after leaping off of a moving vehicle. Meanwhile, Kacchan's entire right arm suffered from terrible burns, which would have been worse if he didn't have more heat-resistant skin around his hands, and more mild ones running up his neck and over the side of his face. More unnerving for Midoriya personally is that every finger except for his thumb was broken and his wrist was fractured. A grim sign of just how close he'd come to blowing up his own arm. After having the threat of losing his own limbs over his head for so long, Midoriya could relate.
And so, the heroics classes of U.A. spent the next month or so in recovery after the battle, being praised as heroes and bright up and coming stars lighting up the way for the next generation of pro heroes. Most of them had suffered some form of injury, mostly consisting of cuts, bruises, and inhalation of smoke. Midoriya himself had somehow managed to break his leg again, because of course he did, but at least it was fairly minor compared to past injuries.
And at least nobody died. Everyone was safe.
Now, a month later, when the sun was out and the air was hot and humid, class 1-A was hoping for a reprieve from their heroic antics and Aizawa decided to give them a break for once and treat them to another reward trip. Again, he wasn't all that into it, but Present Mic and All Might had insisted, so he was ultimately outvoted, and for the first time that Midoriya could think of, they were even given the choice of where they wanted to go.
Several of them had been clamoring about going to the beach in particular for a while now, so what better way to kick back and relax after their monthly near death experience than a long-awaited beach trip?
Midoriya yelped as a bikini-clad Uraraka threw both of them into the ocean water with a resounding splash, her cheerful laughter ringing out and causing his heart to flutter. From the shoreline, Iida was yelling something with his usual enthusiasm while Todoroki stood close by, staring blankly at his companion's sporadic movements. Further up the beach, Yaoyorozu had created four towels and a huge beach umbrella, her and Jirou lying back and enjoying the shade while Koda sat on the third, talking to the sand crabs and seagulls. Behind him, Tokoyami was meditating, several of the seagulls resting on his head and arms. Just to their left, back out in the sun, Satou was contently sculpting a fancy birthday cake out of sand.
Not too far away, there was a volleyball game taking place, Ojiro and Hagakure versus Aoyama and Mineta, with Shoji acting as referee. From the looks of it, Aoyama was surprisingly good, even with him constantly looking off in some random direction as if he was posing for someone every time he dove for the ball. Ojiro was barely able to set it in response, Hagakure spiking it with unexpected strength and nailing Mineta right in the face. Midoriya couldn't help but cringe. That must have hurt.
Spitting out a mouth full of saltwater, Midoriya shook the water out of his hair as Uraraka continued to laugh gleefully. "I'm sorry, Deku, but you were a sitting duck and I couldn't resist!"
"It's okay." Midoriya chuckled. "I was spacing out anyway."
"Yeah, you were." A voice spoke from below, causing both heroes-in-training to let out surprised yelps and leap out of the water. Asui simply stuck her tongue at them, her face glowing with contentment.
Uraraka laughed nervously. "Uh, hey Asui. What'cha doing down there?"
"Oh, you know. Frog things." she stated with her lips quirked upward. "What'cha doing up there?"
Midoriya blinked, looking down and realizing quite abruptly that Uraraka had somehow ended up in his arms bridal style. Both of them let out shrill screams, Midoriya unceremoniously dropping Uraraka like a hot potato. Incoherent strings of apologies were already spilling out of his mouth faster than he could register even before she resurfaced, Asui choosing this moment to disappear back under the waves with a smile that practically made her glow.
Before Uraraka could respond, her face as beet red as his own, screaming could be heard off to the side alongside flashes of red and pink, and the two teens were startled by two more of their classmates suddenly belly flopping into the water. Kirishima shot back up out of the water with a victory screech while Ashido resurfaced and immediately splashed him, causing his battle cry to be cut short as he was left sputtering from the saltwater.
"Ahaha... So, uh, yeah." Uraraka muttered. "Iida said something about drinks? We brought a few and Todoroki's gonna cool 'em. Uh, I'm, uh... I'm gonna go get one. Do you want any?"
"U-Uh, oh. Um..." Midoriya stuttered. "Uh, sure. I mean, yeah. Yeah, I'd like one."
Uraraka's face was still red as she nodded her head, muttering to herself as she made her way back to shore where Iida and Todoroki were waiting. Midoriya groaned, hunching his shoulders and rubbing his warm face. All this time and he still couldn't talk to girls. Boy, was he awkward.
"Dude, you trying to kill us?" Sero's voice rang out as Kaminari dove into the ocean water himself. "Or yourself? You could short-circuit and drown."
"I'm not that much of a hazard!" Kaminari immediately defended as Sero waded in after him. "I've gone swimming plenty of times and I've never killed anyone!"
"Notice how he says 'killed' and not 'harmed'."
"Shut up."
Ashido's laughter joined Sero's as the four began a splash war for half a minute before they start chicken fighting, Ashido on Kirishima's shoulders against Kaminari on Sero's. With Kirishima as a foundation, it was no contest, as Sero's lanky form disappeared under the waves with Kaminari following immediately behind, flailing wildly.
Midoriya felt a smile slowly forming, his heart becoming lighter with the idea of perhaps playing the same game with his own friend group. Looking over now, Uraraka was still talking to Iida while Todoroki continued to just stare at them with apparently no purpose in life. Meanwhile, he had no idea where Asui disappeared to. There was no fidgeting, so he assumed that she was perfectly fine, wherever she was.
As his eyes scanned the beach shore for any sign of his froggy friend, he locked on to a completely different figure.
Off to the side, vigilantly watching the other four in the water in silence was one Kacchan, his expression almost serene and hands safely in the pockets of his swim trunks. He lightly kicked at the seawater lapping at his feet and blew his bangs out of his face, and Midoriya couldn't help but wonder exactly why he might be loitering around the shoreline like so and not out there with his friends (he can say otherwise all he wants but those are definitely friends). It wasn't like he couldn't swim or is afraid of water.
"Come on, Katsuki!" The memory resurfaced with little prompting. "Swim with us! The water feels great!"
A four-year-old Midoriya giggled as he splashed around in the pool and waved happily to his mother watching idly at the side, conversing with the other kids' parents while they all played in the cool water.
Kacchan pouted, clutching at his hands protectively. "You dummy! The water will wash off all my sweat!"
It was a good memory, just after Kacchan's quirk manifested, before that day, before the mishap at the river, the end of their friendship, the bullying. Baby Izuku waded through the water towards his then best friend, a crease of worry marring his face.
"What's wrong with that?" he'd asked innocently, not quite putting two and two together.
Kacchan stomped his foot. "What do you mean, idiot!? If I don't sweat, then I can't use my quirk! And what if something happens, huh? If I can't sweat, then I can't be a hero and blow up the bad guys!"
To Midoriya's toddler brain, it had made perfect sense. Kacchan was a hero, after all! He had to be able to sweat to use his quirk and protect everyone, and the cold water would make it really hard to do so! Midoriya frowned at this, as despite the problem, he still wanted to play in the pool with Kacchan, and from the looks of it, the other boys did, too. However, they didn't want to risk weakening something so important to their safety, either.
Glancing around, Midoriya's eyes fell onto a stash of water guns not too far away, and his eyes suddenly lit up. "I know what we can do, Kacchan!" he exclaimed, dashing over to the toys.
His mother called out, warning him not to run around the pool, and Midoriya slowed down to a brisk walk as he loaded his arms with an excess amount of water guns before making his way back.
"We can play with these!" he said proudly. "And we can play in the super shallow end, where it only goes to our knees! That way, you can play and still beat up bad guys if anything happens!"
The other boys all exchanged glances at each other, whispering things that Midoriya couldn't quite hear with nods and shrugs. Meanwhile, Kacchan scrutinized the toys in Midoriya's arms before looking over the part of the pool that he was referring to. The pool deepened gradually, leaving a large area where children could play safely before it dipped down into the deeper end.
With a hum, Kacchan turned back to Midoriya. "That's actually not a bad idea." he said. "You're not as dumb as you look."
It was as if he'd just been told by All Might himself that he was the best sidekick that anyone could ask for. Little Midoriya had lit up like stars, his grin taking up half of his face as his tiny heart nearly exploded with happiness. As the other boys took their guns and moved to the shallower end, Midoriya never lost that smile, even giggling with delight on the way home and telling his mom all about his wonderful day.
Even now, he remembered that day, and even that public pool, very fondly.
But it still didn't exactly solve his current mystery as he watched Kacchan huff in annoyance and roll his eyes as Kirishima turned and waved wildly in his direction. At this point, Kacchan's explosions were extremely powerful. It didn't take long for him to refuel and come back stronger than ever, so that couldn't be the issue. He'd even been practicing combating water as a hazard to his quirk at the summer camp-
Oh.
Oh.
So it was a subconscious thing.
Now that the threat of the bad guys coming after them was so real, now that the threat to their safety, to his safety, was so real...
After everything he's seen and been through, Midoriya couldn't possibly blame him for being so cautious.
"Hey, Blasty!" Kirishima shouted over the waves. "What are you standing around for!? Come swim with us!"
"Yeah, Bakubro!" Kaminari chimed in. "The water feels great!"
Bakugou scowled at them, absentmindedly rubbing at his hands. "Why the hell would I want to do that!?"
"'Cause you love us!" Sero responded without missing a beat, not at all affected by the snarl sent his way.
"Come on, Dynamite!" Ashido yelled from on top of Kirishima, who was suddenly very confused as to how she got there without him noticing. "We ain't the Bakusquad without a Baku!"
Kacchan's scowl deepened as he crossed his arms, and if Midoriya didn't know any better, he'd argue that he was debating with himself. However, with another huff, he stuffed his hands back into his pockets and briskly turned on his heel, slowly walking back up the beach with his back hunching further down the farther he got. The other four all let out collective whines and groans of disappointment, Ashido and Kaminari in particular still trying and failing to convince him to get into the water, and none of them realizing the real dilemma that was probably going on in his head. Eventually, they seemed to accept it.
And then, without so much as a warning, he spun back around and came charging at them.
With loud shrieks of mock terror, they scattered, all diving in different directions out of the way of the incoming human projectile that slammed into the water with an impressive splash, and their screams quickly morphed into unbridled laughter. Of course, the first thing that Kacchan did after reappearing from under the water was lunge at Sero and drag them both back under, probably for his earlier comment.
As Ashido and Kaminari cheered in excitement and Kirishima struggled to pry Kacchan off of Sero, Midoriya simply watched in silent awe.
It wasn't that crazy of a gesture. In fact, his friends were probably not even thinking about it, just excited that their friend decided to mess around with them after all. However, Midoriya felt pressure building behind his eyes and his vision started to go blurry.
He couldn't help but think about the kind of trust that he must have in them, whether he realizes it or not. The kind of trust it takes to allow himself a moment of physical weakness. The kind of trust it takes to allow other people to protect him if things go south. The kind of trust it takes to allow these people he's come to care for to protect themselves.
The kind of trust it takes to let his guard down.
"Deku!" Uraraka's voice entered his mind, causing him to jump. "Todoroki used his quirk to make popsicles! Iida and Asui are already over by the umbrella and-, Deku, are you crying?"
Midoriya suddenly realized that tears were, in fact, streaming down his face. He once again went red. "I, uh, sorry. I got saltwater in my eyes is all."
"Oh, I'm sorry! Maybe we can clean them out."
As the brunette waded back out of the water, Midoriya stole one last glance to the side, smiling at the sight of Kacchan already up on Kirishima's shoulders as the two of them practically threw Kaminari and Sero back into the water while Ashido watched in amusement.
"Hey, Uraraka? Once we're done with popsicles, before we all leave, could the five of us maybe go back out and do chicken fights?"
Much later, once the sun was beginning to sink into the sky, and everyone was packing up and loading the bus, Midoriya would have a moment of courage, leaning over the back of his seat to face the person behind him.
"You seem really happy with them."
"Why the fuck are you talking to me?"
Midoriya was surprisingly unfazed, which only made him smile to himself. "Sorry, I just couldn't help but notice that you were really enjoying yourself today."
Kacchan only grunted. "So you were watching me? Creepy ass stalker."
There was a pregnant pause between them before Midoriya worked up the nerve to keep talking. "You remember that public pool that our parents used to take us to when we were kids?"
Kacchan raised an eyebrow. "The big one? Yeah, why?"
"I just looked it up and found out that they made an entire water park around it. We should go there again."
"The hell? Why? I'm sure that place is still fucking lame. It's for kids and shit."
"I know, but I just... I have such nice memories from that place." Midoriya glanced out the window with a serene smile on his face. "It would be nice to revisit. You know, after all this time. Reminisce on the good times."
"There were good times?"
Midoriya laughed despite himself, Kacchan giving him a weird look in response before growling at him and looking pointedly away. Undeterred, Midoriya watched fondly as Kirishima casually took the seat next to the grumpy blonde, sending a friendly wave and a toothy smile Midoriya's way before elbowing his neighbor and excitedly saying something in a hushed voice.
Midoriya felt a weight on the seat next to him as Todoroki made himself comfortable, Uraraka and Asui in front of them and Iida on the other side. Todoroki turned to Midoriya with a blank stare. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, I did. This was great! I think I really needed it."
"Me too." he said simply before Iida called for his attention.
It would be as the bus was backing out and starting the trek back towards U.A. that Midoriya would feel a kick on the back of his seat and he would turn to find Kacchan's intense glare.
"We'll talk more about it later."
He would remember that day very fondly.