Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

5. The Kendou Household

"Alright, let's see ..." The teacher droned on at his podium in front of the class, staring at his book in one hand and airily waving his piece of chalk in the other, "... with the sudden appearance of quirks, the Building Standards was revised, and the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation ..."

God, he was so tired.

Usually, Izuku paid strict attention during class, not wanting to miss any little detail that may ruin his grades, but right now he had a very hard time concentrating. His eyes were currently half-open, unable to keep his mouth closed as he half paid attention to the teacher, swaying a bit in his seat as he fought to stay awake. He wanted to pay attention to the teacher, but his voice was droning on and on without any emotion, and to a half-asleep Izuku, it was hard to concentrate.

Instead, Izuku tried to shake himself out of his sleepy funk, and found his eyes drawn to his notebook on the desk, where he had written down the title 'Proposed Independent Training Menu'. He could tell that his classmates were whispering and pointing at him, giggling amongst themselves, but he didn't pay them any heed.

Like he said, he wanted to pay attention to class, but he couldn't help but let his mind drift. For some reason, he thought of how hard it would be if he and Itsuka didn't finish cleaning the dump and training his quirk until a week before the exam, so that meant that they currently only had two hundred and eight-eight days before they reached the deadline All Might had given them. Picking up his pen and beginning to scribble down his thoughts, taking into consideration how they would both need a sufficient recovery period after completing All Might's training plan, he thought about how if he rested for about two days in between each exercise down at the beach, that would give him … about ninety-eight days of quirk training. He knew he had to split his training between cleaning the beach to improve his body, and training his quirk so that he could use it, so …

"... I can get in about five hours of additional training morning and night, so that would be … four hundred and ninety hours." He muttered to himself, unaware that he was even speaking his thoughts out loud. "Also, the beach cleanup doesn't work out any specific parts of the body. If I don't work out my whole body equally, then there's no way I'll be able to make it in time. Bodybuilding to be able to adapt to any situation … literally intensive training to become a hero. All Might can't stay and watch me practice my quirk the whole time, he needs to supervise Kendou more than me in addition to occasionally leaving the beach to do hero work. If I don't do as much efficient independent training as I can, there's no way I can catch up the way I am now. In any case, I'll have to -"

"Oi, Midoriya!"

WHACK

Izuku let out a surprised yelp as a hard came down hard on the top of his head, smacking him down onto the top of his desk, and it was then that he realized he had been muttering his thoughts out loud. Gasping, Izuku raised both his bandaid-covered hands to cover his mouth, wide-eyed and going red as he looked around and saw his teacher giving him an exasperated look, while the rest of the class didn't bother to cover up their laughter.

"Did your little run in with that villain make you go nuts?" The teacher smirked as his extended-hand returned to reattach to his wrist, shaking his head in exasperation. "No idea what you're muttering about over there, but don't be too presumptuous to think that you can get into UA while slacking off."

Groaning a bit, Izuku returned his eyes to his desk, trying not to listen at the sound of the class giggling at him, or Katsuki giving him the stink-eye from his own seat ahead of him, although he didn't join in the laughter or say anything like he usually would as he returned his gaze to the window, not listening to the whispers of Izuku already suffering a nervous breakdown.

Two weeks … it had been two weeks since he had begun his ten months of hell, and Izuku felt more exhausted than improved. Every day before school, waking up at 3:30 and getting ready for an hour-long trip to the junkyard, he would jog to Dagobah Beach, meeting up with All Might and Itsuka, and train until about an hour before school, in which All Might would drive them both to their schools, where Izuku would take a quick shower in the boy's changing rooms to disguise the smell of garbage from his classmates (no need to give them more teasing material), and then, after school, he would run back to Dagobah to continue their training, until he would head home to eat, do any homework he needed to, and go to sleep. And then repeat until the weekend, in which they would spend the entire day at the junkyard cleaning and having Izuku practice his quirk.

And honestly … Izuku had never felt more tired. He had a hard time getting back to his house after their first real day of training, with All Might starting them off by having them do a long jog around the hills of garbage with heavy tires hanging by their shoulders. Izuku felt lucky that he hadn't split open his chin when he had tripped and fallen on his face. And after that was clearing away a few lockers, which were super heavy and hard to drag. And then … the dreaded quirk practice, in which Izuku had tried to fire off a shot of lightning and … nothing came out, because he was too nervous and scared to.

Luckily, All Might hadn't been judgemental, explaining that he knew Izuku probably wouldn't be able to fire off a blast immediately (no Nighteyes around to scare him into doing it), and instead focused him on trying to fire off blasts while helping Itsuka clean up garbage.

Speaking of the orange-haired girl, Izuku frowned, she was handling the new schedule a lot better than he was. She jogged ahead of him at all times, not struggling nearly as hard as he did. Despite not using her quirk at all as per All Might's instructions, she was able to lift heavier objects than he could, jog around and not trip while he would, and seemed to handle herself better during breaks, taking long drinks of water instead of him flopping down on the sand desperately trying to catch his breath. He knew it had to do with her being a lot more fit than he was, and able to handle the new training regiment better - but still, it made him insecure to see her obviously handle the plan better, and anytime they needed to work together to move something, he knew he was holding her back.

At least the meal plan was going slightly better than the actual exercise, Izuku supposed. Taking All Might's advice into consideration, Izuku introduced the meal plan to his mother with the excuse that he wanted to try eating healthier, and both she and Miwa were surprised but delighted to try making new dishes, and had a blast trying out new recipes. He knew that Ochako had been taken aback by how he was taking second and third helpings of every meal (that was Taiyo's job, and the Uraraka patriarch had been disappointed that he had to give his second helpings to him), but if she had questions about what was going on, she kept them to herself.

But … that was now leading to a new problem.

Questions.

No one had asked him anything yet, but he knew that his mom and the Urarakas were wondering what was going on with him lately. He left every day at four in the morning, there was no way that they didn't notice. He saw the looks that Inko and Miwa gave him when he arrived at home just as dinner started, hours after Ochako came home, and he knew that Taiyo seemed to be gearing up to have a talk with him - the last time that had happened, the older man had taken Izuku to talk privately, sitting down in some park and having a serious talk with him. The parental figures in his life knew that Izuku was coming home more exhausted every day, and it would only be a matter of time before they sat him down and asked what was up.

And he would … not be sure what to tell them.

And that wasn't even including Ochako, Izuku thought with a wince as the teacher continued to drone on and on at the front of the class. Much to his sadness and guilt, they hadn't been spending as much time together as they usually would. Since he had dedicated so much time to his new training regiment, that meant that they mostly hung out at lunch - he left early enough that she had to walk to school by herself, and they usually went their separate ways after school since he had to jog down to the beach. He usually told her that he needed to hang around to do a bit more work, and that she shouldn't have to wait up for him, but he knew that Ochako was starting to see through his excuses.

It would only be a matter of time before she had enough of the games and outright asked him what the hell was going on, or began to poke her nose into what exactly he was doing - and he knew that the two of them were too close for him to be able to keep this secret forever.

But … honestly, Izuku had no idea how to even explain to her what he was doing - it wasn't like he could just tell her that he was training with All Might and his successor, he needed to keep their secret. So whenever she quietly inquired what he was doing whenever they weren't together, or why he couldn't come home with her when they sat down to eat dinner, he just kind of … deflected the questions. Laughing awkwardly and glancing away while muttering something, or trying to change the topic.

But Ochako was smart, that was a fact he knew. She was figuring out that something was going on. And if his mom and her parents didn't sit him down and ask what was going on, she would.

Before he could think anything more about it, however, he was jolted out of his thoughts at the sound of the school bell ringing above them, and straightened up a bit as the class let out sighs of relief - it was the end of the day, which mean that he needed to get down to the beach. All Might had mentioned to them this morning, when he had dropped Izuku off, that they would be working on those lockers they had started moving last week off the beach and into the parking lot. And All Might made it clear that he understood that they couldn't make it exactly on time due to various circumstances, but Izuku didn't want to be late, needing to get changed into his gym clothes in the beach's bathroom.

He might feel like he hasn't improved at all since this started, but that didn't mean that he could slack off. That meant that he needed to -

BAM

At the sound of the backdoor of the classroom slamming open with shocking violence, Izuku jumped and looked around to see, much to his surprise, Ochako standing there, her backpack over her shoulder and her gaze locked on him. She had an unusually large grin on her face as she blocked the way out of the classroom, prompting nearly the entire class to stare at her like she was a lunatic, while Katsuki moved out the door at the front behind the teacher, not bothering to look back at all.

Izuku only had a little time to wonder how on earth she got to his class so quickly, seeing as the bell only rang twenty seconds ago and her class was at the other end of the hall, before Ochako moved into the classroom right towards him.

"Hey, Deku!" She cheerfully greeted him, but Izuku felt like there was something off now as she stopped right at his desk, where he had been still sitting at and staring up at her. "Thought I'd run over and see what was up."

"H-huh?" Izuku blankly stared up at her, before glancing around to see his classmates giving Ochako dirty looks and sniggering quietly as they moved out of the classroom. "Uh - er - n-nothing really - uh - not much is up, Occhan."

"Oh, that's good," Ochako nodded, shifting her weight to one leg as she gave him a hopeful look, "in that case, do you wanna walk home together today? I was actually wondering if you could help me out with some math homework, there were a few equations I didn't really get."

Izuku froze at his desk, staring up at her and realizing what she was asking - to walk home with her instead of going to training (although there was no way she could possibly know that) - and quietly gulped as he stood up from his desk, letting out a small sigh.

"I'd, uh … I'd love to walk home with you, Occhan," He quietly apologized, wincing when he saw her big grin falter, as though she already knew what he was about to say, "but there was something I actually needed to do, uh … by myself. Again. Today. I'm really sorry, but - but I'll be back in time for dinner, so I can help you out with homework afterwards, I - I got my own stuff to do!"

Trying to smile weakly at her while ignoring the guilt slamming in his heart, Izuku moved around her, trying to get to the door without giving anything away - but then he felt a hand grab his sleeve, preventing him from moving forward.

Izuku blinked a moment, taken aback by what was holding him from completely leaving, and looked around. For a moment Ochako faced forward, not looking back at him at all - and then she turned, and Izuku felt his breath hitch at the sight of the large, obvious fake smile sliding off her face, and instead showing the sadness, confusion and insecurity that she felt.

It was enough to almost break Izuku, but he managed to stay strong. He knew he had to keep All Might and Itsuka's secret.

"Deku," Ochako said quietly, glancing around to make sure that they were completely alone in the classroom before looking back at her best friend, "is everything okay?"

"H-huh?" Izuku gulped, trying not to give anything away, "W-what do you mean, Occhan? I'm -"

"Deku, you look exhausted," She cut to the chase, making him stiffen up even more, "like - the rings under your eyes have rings. You leave early every morning before I even wake up, and we never walk home together anymore. I only ever see you during lunch and dinner, and - and you're always so tired and out of it, and -" She hesitated, and then moved to bring his hand up, careful not to float him as she stared at the bandaids wrapped around his fingers, "- and you're obviously doing something, but you're not telling me what's going on."

"I - uh -"

"Deku, did I do something?" She teared up a bit, the sight of which hitting him hard in the chest, "Do you not - did I -"

"N-no!" He immediately squeaked out - he had no idea what to even tell her, but he couldn't let her think that she did anything wrong. Still though, he saw her wince a bit at his voice raising, and he gave her a quick, apologetic look. "S-sorry, Occhan, I - no, you - you didn't do anything. I mean it! It's just -"

At this, he faltered again, not even sure what he could say here to reassure her as she stared up at him, silently letting go of his hand so that it would go back down to his side. After a moment of silence, he let out a small sigh.

"- it's just … there are things I have to do, on my own," He quietly told her, praying that she didn't catch on to his usual tells that he was lying, "and - and I'm not exactly sure what to -"

"What is it?" She inquired, making him falter again as she gave him a concerned look, "Deku, what's going on?"

"I ..." Izuku hesitated again, and then glanced down at the floor, "... I don't ..."

For a moment, both of them were quiet, Izuku staring at the floor as he desperately tried to figure out a good reason for his absence and tiredness that didn't come across as a complete lie, and Ochako quietly stared at him - and then she let out a small sigh, which brought his attention back to her and making him wince at the sight of her obviously dejected look, which hurt her more than any other face she made today.

"Okay, Deku," She quietly muttered, "I get it. You don't want to tell me, and - yeah. I understand. I'm sorry for bugging you about it."

"I - Occhan -?"

"You probably have to go," She sighed again, moving around him to the door while he stared after her, realizing that he made a big mistake, "I'll - I'll start heading home. And yeah, we can - we can do homework later tonight. I'll - I'll see you later."

"Occhan, wait -" Izuku tried to stop her, raising his hand out to her, but before he could reach her, she was out the door and sliding it shut behind her. For a moment, Izuku hear the sound of her feet retreating away from the room, feeling small tears prickle at his eyes over the realization he hurt his best friend, and let out a small sigh as he bent over to grab his yellow backpack from beside his desk, slinging it over his shoulders as guilt ran through him.

He had … he had no idea what to do in order to fix this, Izuku thought miserably as he exited the classroom, beginning to head towards the entrance to the school. He knew that this had to hurt Ochako, his unexplained absences and obvious hesitation to tell her what was going on, after years of him telling her everything (and what he didn't tell her, she would be able to easily guess). She knew that he was holding back on something, and wouldn't believe him if he tried to tell her a lie.

There was a part of him, Izuku thought as he made his way down the stairs, that was tempted to just say screw it and tell her what was going on - but he couldn't do that to All Might and Itsuka. As easy as it would be to tell her that he was training with the Symbol of Peace, that would be a violation of the trust the pro hero had put in him. But he couldn't just … continue to deflect with her. It was inevitable that she was going to eventually get impatient with him and try to figure out what was going on, and eventually she might figure out where he was going and what he was doing.

Not only would that be a potential disaster for All Might and Itsuka, Izuku thought dejectedly as he moved out the doors of the school and into the warm spring air, it might -"

"Young Midoriya!"

Izuku blinked at the sound of a familiar deep voice calling his name, and quickly looked up, eyes widening. Sure enough, parked in front of the school was a familiar white truck, one that he had seen every day for the last two weeks either dropping him off or putting trash into, and leaning against it was All Might, in his weakened form of course. The skinny man in the baggy t-shirt and track pants gave him a grin and nod, raising his hand in greeting.

"All M -?" Izuku began to say, and then faltered when he realized where he was, looking around. Thankfully most of his classmates were either leaving, going to their clubs or hanging around, but none of them really paid much attention to the stranger at the front of the school. "- uh - uh, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I was actually doing things in the neighborhood - shopping, and all that -" All Might gestured with his head to a few grocery bags in the back of the truck, "and I thought that since I was here already, I could just pick you up for once and drive you to the beach."

"R-really? But - what about my jog?"

"Well, we can figure that out in a bit," All Might laughed, taking off his sunglasses to show the young boy his eyes, "how about it? We can get to the beach a bit earlier and go over a few quirk exercises I'll be having you do eventually."

Izuku felt himself be taken aback, staring up at the pro hero offering him a ride - and then he smiled, trying to push down his previous negative thoughts as he nodded enthusiastically. Heading to the beach might be able to take his mind off it for now, and later, when he was doing homework with Ochako, he could figure something out to tell her.

Quickly, Izuku moved to the other side of the truck, slipping off his backpack and putting it in the back as he climbed into the passenger's seat. All Might also climbed in, grunting a bit as he had to duck his head so as not to hit it against the truck's roof, and started up his truck, putting on his seat belt as they began to head off to the beach.

Of course, neither of them were aware of a pair of brown eyes watching them from her spot near the entrance of the school as they drove away.

---

"We've got a big problem."

Twenty minutes after school had let out, both Izuku and All Might looked up from where they had been chatting on the beach. They could see Itsuka walking down the steps from the parking lot, dressed in her gym clothes but with a noticeably sour look on her face as she moved towards them. Izuku felt his brow wrinkle at her expression - even two weeks later, he didn't really know Itsuka all that well, but he knew that she usually had a pretty happy expression on her face, so this look of awkwardness and frustration took him aback.

"Young Kendou?" All Might stood up straight, a concerned smile on his face while Izuku also stood up from where he had been retrieving his water bottle from his backpack, "What do you mean? What's wrong?"

"Well," Itsuka scratched the back of her head, glancing away and grimacing slightly, "once lunch rolled around, I got a text from my mom asking to call home right away. I did, and my grandpa was on the other end of the line, and … well …"

Izuku and All Might shared a small glance between each other as the orange-haired girl trailed off, looking momentarily exhausted, as though the events of the last two weeks had finally caught up to her - and then she sighed.

"... he found the training plan on my desk."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... ah," All Might grimaced, slowly nodding in understanding. "I see."

"Yeah. Well … to pretty much sum it up, he doesn't approve. At all." She admitted, slumping her shoulders as she put down her own backpack. "He made it pretty clear that if I wanted to train to be a hero, I had to do it in the dojo where he can train me. I had to get back to class before I could properly defend it, but even if I did … well, anyway, so basically … uh …"

"He wants you to stop training with me," All Might guessed the rest of her explanation, crossing his arms and continuing to nod to himself, "and instead spend time training at your family's dojo."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Izuku felt himself wince in sympathy, standing off to the side while Itsuka glanced at the ground in defeat. Still, though …

"Is - it it possible to change his mind?" Izuku asked, drawing the orange-haired girl's attention, "Or - or maybe convince him to let you stay here to train?"

"Me, convince him? Not a chance," She shook her head, shifting her weight to one leg while putting her hands on her hips, "he's really old fashioned, and he's also the - well, basically, he's the patriarch of our family. What he says in our house goes. I could try to talk to him, and if this was anything smaller, he'd probably hear me out - but for this? One hundred percent he says no."

"What - what about your parents?"

"They can definitely try, but more likely than not he gets the last word in the house. It's a bit unfair, but honestly that's how it usually goes." She bit her lip. "Not to mention, if they had a look at the training plan … they'd probably side with him. I don't think I can change his mind about this."

All Might finally finished nodding, understanding the situation as he let out a sigh and went back down to his weakened form - he knew that this was a possibility, although he knew that it wouldn't be easy getting out of this situation. Still though, the earlier this had to happen the better - it would be much more preferable than six months in, and interrupting them in the midst of training. Better right at the start than halfway through.

"Just to be sure I understand, Young Kendou," He coughed a bit as he powered down, still frowning at the situation but knowing that this was something they needed to resolve at once, "you're saying that you won't be able to change your grandfather's mind about making you train at his dojo."

"Pretty much."

"Hm. I guess in that case," All Might sighed, straightening up and wiping some blood from the side of his mouth, "I will have to give it a try."

There was a small silence in the junkyard at the pro hero's proclamation, Izuku and Itsuka staying quiet as they absorbed that - and then the orange-haired girl blinked.

"Wait. Wait, what?" She quickly looked up at him, eyes widening, "You - wait a minute, you want to try convincing my grandpa to let me train here?"

"Well, we don't have much choice, Young Kendou," All Might shrugged, moving to lean against an abandoned car in the junkyard, "it's important to have you train here, as it will be the best way for you to train for the - er - the entrance exam. And we can't exactly do this under your grandfather's nose - from how you described him to me before, I imagine he's smart enough to know if you sneak out to do this anyway. And we can't exactly let anyone know what we're doing here, it'll draw unnecessary attention."

Izuku winced quietly at that, while Itsuka noticed out of the corner of her eye and glanced at him in confusion.

"So I suppose I have no choice but to try and convince him," All Might continued, unaware of Izuku's sudden shrinking, "and hope for the best."

"That's … definitely easier said than done," Itsuka said weakly, already conceding defeat, "I love him, but my grandpa's a stubborn bastard."

"As am I," All Might chuckled, shaking his head, "but I guess the hope that we can do this in secret's not exactly possible anymore. You've told me about the relationships in your family before, Young Kendou - you're all close. They'll notice if you're trying to sneak away and do something you were forbidden from doing, and that'll just be a recipe for disaster. No, at this point, the correct course of action will be to be as upfront with them as possible, and try to reach a compromise."

"Huh," Itsuka wrinkled her brow, glancing up unsurely at the pro hero, "and … is that going to be you doing the convincing? Or - you know -" She made a small gesture to him "- All Might?"

"No, no, it'll be in this form," He chuckled, "even if this wasn't going to happen, we would still need to keep my actual involvement as much a secret as possible. This," He gestured to his currently weakened form, "is how I will present myself. Don't worry, Young Kendou, I do have a story in mind."

"Really?"

"Indeed. I'll present myself as Toshinori Yagi," He explained, shrugging a bit, "a - well, we'll call me an employee at All Might's hero agency. It's a persona I've had for a few years now - it lets me sneak around and do things that All Might would usually have problems doing. I'll have a story cooked up as well."

Izuku slowly nodded at All Might's explanation, watching as he and Itsuka formed a plan - and then he blinked as well.

Wait. He was having his own problems keeping this secret - he literally angsted about it for an entire afternoon today. Shouldn't he -?

"... uh, All Might?" He nervously raised his hand, prompting the other two to look around at him, "Sorry to - you know, shove my way in here, but - but Kendou bringing that up made me realize - uh - that I might be facing a similar problem soon."

"Hm?" All Might wrinkled his brow in concern. "Are you saying that your mother -?"

"N-no she hasn't - she hasn't said anything yet." He assured the pro hero, although his own shoulders sagged now. "But I think she's suspecting something's going on. She and Miwa - er, her best friend, by the way, her and her family come to my apartment every day - but they're noticing that I'm leaving earlier, and changing up my usual diet. They haven't said anything, but -"

"But eventually, she'll start to investigate," All Might finished for him, nodding. "I understand, Young Midoriya. You said it's just your mother, correct? What about your father?"

"He's working overseas right now," Izuku explained, "I'm not too sure when he'll come home, but he mentioned in the last phone call that it may be in the next year or so, he's got a pretty important position over in the American branch of the company he works for."

The Symbol of Peace nodded, and turned to look at the ground. For about a minute, he kept quiet, staring at the ground while he raised a hand to his chin and pondered. Izuku and Itsuka watched him nervously as he obviously tried to think up a solution to both of their similar problems - and then he snapped his fingers, looking up with a determined expression.

"I've got it." He announced to the two of them. "Instead of handling this at two separate times, we'll handle it all at once. And since tomorrow is Friday, that'll be the opportune time to get them together. Young Kendou, I'd like you to call your parents, and ask if it's possible for us to meet tomorrow night for dinner, so that I can apologize for the lack of communication between us, and I can personally go over the training plan and any problems they have with it. Young Midoriya, I'd also like you to go home tonight and speak to your mother in private. Explain the situation, and ask if it's possible for the two of you to join us. You can also give her my phone number so that she can call me."

"Wait - so you want a family dinner?" Itsuka asked, wrinkling her brow. "That's the plan? To just sit down and discuss it with my family? And - and Midoriya's mom?"

"Indeed," All Might nodded, "this way, not only will we avoid a potential repeat of this situation with Mrs. Midoriya, we can convince them both at the same time and not run into this problem again. I'll sit down with your parents and grandfather, and try to work something out."

Nodding to himself, All Might got off the car he had been leaning on for the last few minutes, bringing out his phone to check on something while the two teenagers behind him stared after him in confusion. After a moment, Izuku and Itsuka shared a small glance, both of them unable to push down a feeling of skepticism pulsing through them.

"So, uh ..." Itsuka glanced back at the pro hero, and then Izuku, "... scale of one to ten - how likely is it that All Might manages to convince your mom to let him continue training you?"

"Uh ..." Izuku faltered, glancing away for a moment in thought, and then sighed in defeat, "... two. Or three. Scale of one to ten, probably a three. H-how about you? Scale of one to ten, how likely is it All Might convinces your grandpa?"

"Zero," Itsuka shook her head, already looking pretty defeated, "we are so screwed."

---

"..."

"..."

"... Mom, are you sure that you're okay with this?"

"I - well, I'd be lying if I said that I was a hundred percent alright with what you've been doing," Inko admitted as they walked down the street together, sighing as she raised a hand to rub her eyes, "but I'll at least hear him out."

Izuku also let out a small sigh as he gave her a nod, looking back down to his phone to check the instructions. It was a day after Itsuka informed them of the problem with her grandpa, and right now the Midoriyas had just gotten off the train that traveled to the Chiba prefecture, about an hour after school but with enough time to make it to the Kendous for dinner. Izuku had followed the instructions that Itsuka had texted him earlier to get to her house (which still shook Izuku to the core, seeing as he somehow acquired a phone number from a girl that was not Ochako) and hoped that they would get there in time.

Once he had been picked up by his mom, they went home very quickly to get changed, Inko wearing a nice skirt and shirt while he wore a button-up shirt and jeans. Itsuka had mentioned in the text to keep their attire light - her mother planned to cook up a nice, relaxing dinner, and wanted things to be casual for both her and her family.

At the very least, it was a good sign that her grandfather had agreed to hear All Might out, or at the very least he wanted to swear at All Might personally, but either way, the pro hero had made sure that his pupils knew that he wouldn't be leaving the Kendou household until he had approval to train her. And he also promised Izuku that he would convince Inko as well, or at least try to dodge if she hit him with her purse (which Izuku admitted was also a possibility).

As All Might had instructed, Izuku had returned home that night, waiting for dinner to be finished and the Urarakas to head home (he was concerned when Ochako instead chose to go home right after dinner instead of staying over to do homework, but he had pushed that to the back of his mind) before he came to his mother with the training plan and showed it to her. As expected, she was shocked beyond words, seeing the insane schedule All Might planned for her son, and agreed to meet with his 'trainer' the following night, explaining to Taiyo and Miwa that she and Izuku were going to be unavailable for dinner this morning during breakfast.

"Mom, I really am sorry I didn't show you the full training plan," He apologized again, twirling his thumbs together as they walked down the street, "it's just ..."

"Honey," Inko sighed again, shaking her head, "you shouldn't have hidden the rest of that plan from me."

"... I know, it's just ..."

"If I had seen that plan sooner, I would've wanted to meet this trainer of yours at once." Inko told him in a small yet stern voice, in full on mother mode while he cringed and nodded weakly beside her, "You've been … training non-stop for two weeks now, and don't think Miwa and I didn't notice how tired you've been. We were about to have Taiyo take you for a walk and ask you if everything was okay! And now," She folded her hands together, eyes brimming with tears, "now I'm just - I'm sorry, Izuku, but I'm concerned."

"I know, Mom."

"If I had known what you were actually doing this whole time, I would've made sure you weren't doing anything that could get yourself hurt. And working at a … a junkyard, clearing away potentially dangerous things ... at risk of getting crushed or catching some disease if you scratched yourself on anything … and I know that you're pushing yourself too hard, sweetie. I need to make sure you're going to be okay."

Izuku nodded again, also feeling his eyes start to shimmer with tears as she patted his shoulder - damn Midoriya tear ducts, if one of them started crying, it wouldn't take long for the other one to cry too. Still, Inko let out another breath, and tried her best to smile, continuing to rub his shoulder as they walked down the street.

"But - but I know how important this is, and - and I'm so … I'm happy that you want to chase your dreams," She said as they moved across the street, checking both ways for traffic before moving, "so I'll sit down with your trainer, and the parents of this girl that you've been training with, and - and let him explain himself."

"Okay," Izuku nodded, sighing as he glanced away from his mom and saw the house that Itsuka had described to him, realizing that they were here and feeling suddenly nervous, "I'll … yeah. And - and I really am -"

"Honey, you've apologized to me ten times already."

"S-sorry."

"Eleven times."

"S-"

"Ah! Young Midoriya!"

Izuku and Inko jumped a bit, the boy hearing the familiar deep voice of All Might, and both Midoriyas looked up to the front of the house -

- and Izuku immediately winced.

Oh god, what was All Might wearing?

"I see that you've gotten here on time as well!" All Might waved to him as he stood outside the Kendou household in his weak form, smiling brightly at the pair of them. However, Izuku's gaze fell to the suit that he was wearing, shrinking a bit at the sight of the ugly yellow pinstripe jacket and pants with a blue tie, looking several times too big for him - obviously a suit that he wore in his true form, and appropriated for this evening. In one hand he held a chocolate cake, obviously something to offer Itsuka's mother as thanks for hosting.

"It's good to see you, young man. I just arrived here about five minutes ago, and … I'll be truthful, I'm not too sure where I'm supposed to go. This appears to be the door to the dojo."

"Uh … yeah," Izuku nodded quickly, glancing around as well and seeing All Might's problem. Itsuka's house was absolutely huge, a two story building with the dojo obviously on the bottom floor, due to the thin paper doors, stone path at the front of the household and the red pillars lining against the home. It didn't look too out of place on this busy street, but Izuku could understand All Might's predicament - he didn't really know where to knock or how to get inside, or if Itsuka was supposed to find them and let them in. Or how she was supposed to know they were there.

He supposed all else fails, he could text her that they were here - actually, wait no, he couldn't, he blushed, that would require willpower he wasn't capable of.

"Oh," Inko let out a small gasp behind him, staring up at the pro hero with her eyes widening, as though she had just recognized him, "you're the man who brought Izuku's backpack to him, a few weeks ago."

"Yes, I am," All Might bowed in greeting to her, before standing up straight and smiling down at her, "my apologies, ma'am, I didn't get much time to properly introduce myself a few weeks ago. My name is Toshinori Yagi - it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Inko Midoriya," She also bowed out of politeness, "and thank for taking on my son as an - er -"

"I'm not too sure what the correct term is either," All Might chuckled, "but Young Izuku is an excellent student, in any case."

"Yes," Inko smiled, although they could see a slight frost there and in her tone, "I suppose my son would be, if he was following your … training plan thoroughly."

All Might winced a bit at that, while Izuku cringed beside her, but thankfully, before either of them could do anything to appease Inko, they heard the sudden sound of a door opening on the other side of the building, and the sound of bare feet on the wooden porch. All three of them turned to see Itsuka poking her head out from the other side of the house, smiling at them as she folded her hands together.

"I saw you guys arrive through the window," She explained with a small giggle, stepping from around the corner in a skirt and black t-shirt, "we actually have an entrance upstairs to our home around the dojo. If you guys want to come upstairs with me, I can let you in."

Izuku and All Might quickly nodded, wanting to get out of the previous conversation with Inko as soon as possible, and moved to walk down the wooden porch to Itsuka. Inko, meanwhile, blinked at Itsuka's sudden appearance, and Izuku wrinkled his brow a bit at the look his mother was sending him - it was a strange mixture of intrigue and conflict, and it just made him confused. Itsuka, meanwhile, felt the light drain from her eyes at the sight of All Might's very bright suit, and let out a small sigh as she realized how utterly screwed the three of them were, quietly accepting the death of whatever optimism she had for this dinner.

Together, the four of them moved down the side of the house, showing a side-yard with an old swing and two wooden shinais propped against it, and Itsuka opened the side entrance to let them in, letting All Might and Inko move in first. As they entered the house, taking off their shoes at the front and walking past two doors, one of which Izuku presumed led to the dojo, they began moving up the stairs at the end of the hall, All Might and Inko going first and the two teenagers moving following them.

"God," Itsuka groaned in a low voice, only loud enough for Izuku to hear, "that is the ugliest suit I've ever seen. I thought he was going to dress casually."

Izuku could only chuckle weakly at that, shaking his head somewhat at All Might's attire. "M-maybe that is casual wear for him."

Itsuka let out a small snort at that, but before they could say anything else, they made it to the top of the stairs, and she hurried forward so that she could open the door and lead them inside. Before she did, however, she let out a small wince, and looked back to their guests, smiling weakly.

"Uh … just to forewarn you guys," She giggled, "this is about to get very loud."

With that, she opened the door, Izuku wrinkling his brow in confusion as she moved inside. However, it didn't take very long to realize what she was talking about.

"BARK BARK BARK BARK!"

"Gūdo!" Itsuka reprimanded as a large Bernese mountain dog hopped up onto Izuku, the green-haired boy yelping in surprise as the dog began barking right in his face. "Down, boy! Down! I should've put you in my room, down!"

Thankfully, it didn't take long for her dog to calm down, Itsuka dragging him off Izuku by the collar and putting him down from where he had put his front paws on Izuku's shoulders, but instead of continuing to bark loudly, instead he began to loudly sniff the guests, as though unsure of their motives. Izuku let out a small, relieved breath as he looked down at the dog sniffing his socks, and then moving around the other guests. Inko let out a small laugh as she bent forward to pet the dog's head, while All Might chuckled as the dog sniffed him in suspicion.

"I'm sorry about Gūdo," Itsuka apologized weakly, shaking her head at her dog's actions, "I'm so used to him being around my friends whenever they visit, I forgot how loud he can be around guests."

"He seems to be a good boy," All Might chuckled, bending forward to pat the large dog's head, "how old is he?"

"About two years old," Itsuka giggled as she scratched her dog behind the ears as well, smirking when she felt his tail hitting her repeatedly against the leg as he wagged it, "I got him for my twelfth birthday as a puppy, and he's been my silly boy ever since. Anyway, please come in!"

All of them nodding a bit, watching as Gūdo followed Itsuka further inside, Izuku, Inko and All Might stepped through the door and into her home. As the door shut behind him, Izuku looked around, blinking a bit at the sight. He knew that this home felt cozy and warm, not unlike Ochako's apartment when he visited, but this was so different from their apartment that it kind of took him aback. They walked down the small hall into a kitchen, seeing a small table in the centre, and the counters, rather than being neat and tidy like he was used to in his own home, was cluttered with bread boxes, cleaning utensils, knives, and a windowsill covered in those little sun toys, bouncing around in the setting sunlight. And on the counter was a large pizza box, which, from the smell of it, was freshly made and just arrived.

He could also make out a living room and dining room connected to the kitchen, although the dining room's doors were slid shut, and as All Might and Inko stepped into the kitchen to look around, he found his gaze moving towards the hall leading to the door that led downstairs, and blinked at the sight of a few pictures.

It was clear that, just like him and Ochako, Itsuka was an only child - she was the only young child he could see on the wall, seeing pictures of her holding a large karate trophy the size of her as she smiled dorkily at the camera. There were other pictures of her holding Gūdo, a recent family portrait of her with a man, a woman and an older man, and another picture of her with her arms wrapped around two other girls their age, one with green eyes a sharp grin (literally, due to her teeth) and the other with a stoic face, staring blankly into the camera.

However, before Izuku could look at more of the family pictures, he heard Itsuka calling out from her spot in the kitchen.

"Mom? Dad? Grandpa? Our guests are here, if you didn't hear Gūdo barking."

"Oh, I heard, sweetie." The dining room door slid open, and Izuku blinked at the sight of a youthful looking woman coming into view, smiling at their guests as she held a large pot in her mitten-covered hands. It was clear to him, despite how young she looked, that this was Itsuka's mother - she had a great resemblance to her daughter, with the same face, half-lidded eyes and smile. Her hair, however, was completely black instead of orange, done up in the same ponytail as Itsuka's but on the other side of her head. She wore a bright sundress as she walked into the kitchen, holding the pot carefully in her hands and making sure she knew where the dog was so as not to disturb her - the dog was big enough to easily trip her, and she would rather not hit their guests with a super hot pot.

"I'm sorry for my rudeness," She apologized to All Might and Inko as she set the pot down on the oven top, "I was just getting some of our dinner to the table, I completely lost track of the time while I was cooking."

"O-oh, it's no trouble!" Inko quickly said, smiling and bowing to the younger woman, "I - my name is Inko Midoriya, and this is my son, Izuku. Thank you for welcoming us into your home."

"Hello," Itsuka's mother smiled, taking off the oven mitts and bowing to the smaller woman as well, "my name is Tenohira Kendou. Welcome to our home, and please, make yourselves comfortable. Oh, and this is my husband now - Hakushu, these are our guests."

"Hey there!" From the living room, a man came from around the corner, and made Izuku gulp a bit. It seemed that, just like his dad and Taiyo, the husband of the Kendou family towered over everyone else - he was tall, with broad shoulders and muscular arms. He had a thick orange beard and messy hair, but there were at least crinkles around his eyes that indicated to Izuku that he smiled a lot, and he gave his guests a friendly grin as he raised a hand in greeting.

"The name's Hakushu," He introduced himself to Inko, wincing a bit as he scratched his cheek and saw some black marks on his fingers, "my apologies for being a little dirty, but I just got back from work about ten minutes ago and didn't have much time to clean up."

"O-oh, it's no problem!" Inko continued to be polite, with Izuku smiling weakly at Hakushu's wave to him and All Might standing back a bit, "Thank you so much for hosting."

Hakushu and Tenohira smiled at that, moving to stand beside each other, but before anyone could say anything else, another voice from the living room spoke up - and this one, unlike the other two before them, didn't have a trace of humour or kindness in it.

"So our guests have finally arrived."

Izuku looked around, and felt himself stand up straight out of instinct at the sight of the older man coming into the kitchen to join them. Unlike everyone else in the room, he wore traditional Japanese clothing, a black hakama with a blue haori over his shoulders. Izuku suddenly understood what Itsuka said before about her grandfather being old fashioned - he would probably be the picture in the dictionary next to the definition of 'traditional'.

He was shorter than Hakushu and Tenohira, at least Itsuka and Izuku's height, but Izuku still felt very intimidated by the man before them - he practically oozed sternness and coldness, looking from the Midoriyas to All Might, who had backed up so that the families could introduce themselves to each other, but soon shook himself out of being in the background to step forward.

"Hello, sir," He bowed to the older man, obviously knowing who this was, "you must be Teko Kendou."

"Mm," Teko nodded, his face remaining stern, "and you are?"

"My name is Toshinori Yagi," He introduced himself, rising so that he could bow to Itsuka's parents as well as Izuku and Itsuka backed up, the orange-haired girl keeping her hand on her dog's head, "I'm … well, it's hard to define what work I do with All Might's agency as a lot of it is confidential, but I suppose we could call me a talent scout. As your granddaughter mentioned last night, I am the one who has been training her and Young Izuku here."

"Without my permission," Teko noted, and the entire kitchen went a bit cold as an uncomfortable silence fell. All Might froze briefly, realizing that Itsuka was pretty much right when she said that this would be a hard battle, but luckily Tenohira managed to relieve some of the tension by clearing her throat.

"W-well, in any case, dinner is ready," She smiled weakly around at their guests, before glancing at her daughter, "Er - Itsuka, since us parents don't have much space in the dining room, we - we ordered pizza for you and - uh - Izuku here to share," She smiled politely to the young man while he tried not to shrink up, Teko having turned his gaze to him and making Izuku shake a bit, "and - and you can let the grown ups talk. We left the pizza right there for you two, you can take Gūdo and make sure he doesn't get too excited, you know how he can be around new people."

Itsuka slowly nodded at that, understanding what she was really saying: 'Let us handle your grandfather, no need to make things more awkward, please take the dog so he doesn't accidentally make things worse.'

"R-right, Mom," She agreed, turning to Izuku while clapping her hands, "in that case, let's go to myyyyyyy ..."

… room?

Go to her room.

Bring a - a boy she hasn't even known for a month now to her room.

Bring a boy to her - her dirty, hasn't been cleaned in a week because of how tired she's been after training, motorcycle magazine covered, video games she borrowed from Setsuna and hadn't returned yet thrown everywhere, room.

Bring him to -!

"... my garage," She managed to squeak out, hoping her face didn't look as hot as it felt, "we can go to the garage."

Izuku wrinkled his brow in confusion at that, but he still quickly nodded.

As the adults moved into the dining room, with All Might gulping a bit under Teko's cold glare, Itsuka picked up the large box of pizza, flashing an awkward smile at Izuku, and after calling for her dog to follow them, began heading out the door and back down the stairs, Gūdo leading them towards the garage for them to - hang out in? Izuku supposed that was what they were going to do - although that presented a bit of a problem for him, he realized with a shudder.

He was going to … hang out with Itsuka. Just - what were they supposed to do? Was it already too late to just sit in the corner by himself in the dining room? What on earth were they supposed to do?! Just - talk? Talk about what? Training? School? Anything his mind settled on? He was used to talking with Ochako, since they had similar hobbies and interests, but Itsuka was a complete mystery to him, even two weeks into their training. They didn't really speak to each other, other than small talk about the weather and stuff. Maybe he could starve the awkwardness away by petting the dog the whole time? But wait, he didn't know if Gūdo would like that, he might bite him or -

"Er ... Midoriya?"

Izuku felt his storming thoughts grind to a halt when Itsuka looked around at him, standing near one of the doors downstairs and giving him another awkward smile. It was then that Izuku realized that he had been muttering out loud, squeaking and raising one hand to cover his mouth while his face went bright red - but at least Itsuka giggled at that.

"Y'know ... if it makes you feel any better," She admitted, holding the box of pizza carefully as she awkwardly opened the door with her other hand, "I'm a bit nervous too."

"Uh -"

"And Gūdo won't bite you. At least not a bad bite, more like a friendly nibble. He's dumb, but he's friendly."

While he let out a small groan of humiliation, Itsuka opened the door of the garage, letting Gūdo go in first, and then stood back with it open. While he gulped and blushed even redder, Izuku still walked stiffly into the room, wincing a bit at the cool concrete beneath his socked feet, and let Itsuka step in after him while closing the heavy door behind them, flicking on a light to illuminate the cramped garage.

For the second time that evening, Izuku blinked at his surroundings. The entire garage was filled with tools and machinery, a workbench in the corner with various wrenches, pliers, hammers and hammers covering it. The reason it was cramped, of course, was due to the half-built car parked in the centre of the garage, its hood popped up and displaying the half-built engine, and beside it was an equally half-finished motorcycle, not having any tires and a battery on the ground with wires poking out laying beside it.

Besides that, meanwhile, Izuku glanced around, seeing a freezer in one corner, a small couch beside it and a mini-fridge parked helpfully in the corner. There was also a dog house right beside the workbench, which Gūdo laid down in and poked his head out, chewing on a squeaky bone toy left beside his little home. It was a bit colder in here than in the house, but Izuku didn't feel too discomforted,

"There are a few sodas in the minifridge," Itsuka gestured with her head towards the aforementioned fridge as she set the box of pizza down on the workbench, being careful to mind her dad's tools, "if you're thirsty, of course."

"Er - right," Izuku nodded stiffly as Itsuka bent over to scratch her dog behind the ear, and moved forward to open it up. Glancing inside at the contents, Izuku moved aside one of the beers (probably for Itsuka's dad when he worked in the garage) and grabbed two cans of soda for the both of them. Standing up straight and walking over to her, he gave one of the cans to Itsuka, who smiled at him and turned to flip open the box of pizza, glancing at the contents and letting out a content sigh.

"Looks like Mom went above and beyond and ordered the extra-large," She chuckled, "I guess we really are gonna be here for a while."

"Uh - uh-huh," Izuku gulped a bit, glancing down at the pizza as steam rose into the air and hearing his stomach growl a bit - due to general nerves he'd skipped lunch today, and honestly this pizza looked really good."

"So, Midoriya - guests first?" Itsuka chuckled weakly, moving away towards one of the shelves, "I'll grab us some paper plates and turn on the radio, you just, uh … you take your pick."

It was pretty clear that both of them were feeling awkward, not exactly sure what to do now, but it was also clear that they wanted some food first before anything else. After accepting a paper plate from Itsuka, Izuku grabbed two pieces of pizza, chuckling a bit when Gūdo gave him a hopeful look and whine ("You've got food, you big baby," Itsuka shook her head, still taking a piece of pepperoni off her slice to give to her silly boy), and he sat down on the couch when it was offered to him by the orange-haired girl, sinking into the cushions.

As Itsuka brought over a stool for her to sit on, both of them flashed each other awkward smiles again as they dug into their dinner. Izuku blinked a bit when he took a bite of his slice of pizza, chewing and feeling his eyes blow wide open.

"W-whoa," He muttered out loud, "this is really good."

"Isn't it?" Itsuka giggled, drawing his attention to her and making him realize that he had said that out loud, "it's our favourite pizza place - we usually get a box to share every month, when my mom doesn't feel like cooking and my dad's too tired from work."

"H-huh …"

"W-what about you?" Itsuka tried to keep the conversation going, not wanting to lapse into awkward silence, "Does your family have a favourite pizza place too?"

"Uh … my mom tends to prefer cooking to ordering out," Izuku shrugged, "but sometimes we do go out for ramen with - with our neighbours. But mostly, she likes to do a lot of the cooking at home."

"T-that right …"

"Y-yeah," Izuku nodded stiffly, seeing her glance away awkwardly, and he turned his gaze to the ceiling, where their families and All Might would probably be chatting over dinner right now. "Do you, uh … do you think it's going to go well? Your grandpa and All Might, I mean."

"I don't know," Itsuka also glanced up at the ceiling of the garage, grimacing slightly, "Grandpa's a stubborn guy, so All Might's gotta fight pretty hard right now."

"Y-yeah."

"Yeah."

"Heh."

"Heeeeh ..."

"..."

"...:

... oh no, it's actually awkward now.

Both Izuku and Itsuka glanced away from each other, feeling uncomfortable as they tried desperately to find a way back to something even slightly resembling conversation, but finding none. Gūdo cocked his head from where he was sitting as he watched the two teenagers glance away from each other, with Itsuka desperately attempting to find a random topic to discuss that didn't result in an hour of silence. As she went through the various topics in her mind, Izuku's eyes moved around her garage, trying to look everywhere but directly at her, staring at the workbench, the car, and then moving to the motorcycle before moving away.

And then moving back.

Honestly, he'd never really seen a motorcycle up close before, but now that he was looking at this one … he wrinkled his brow as he sat forward and stared at it. It looked … kind of old, honestly. Not a knock against this one, of course, but some of the bikes he saw on hero advertisements and commercials on TV looked sleek and brand new, hidden by black plastic and the such, but this one was a mess of wires, metal bars and leather. It wasn't even shaped like a modern bike, no back ports or anything.

It kinda looked like …

"You like my baby?"

"H-huh?" Izuku jumped a bit, knocked out of his thoughts and looked back at Itsuka for the first time in about a minute. The orange-haired girl was glancing between him and the motorcycle, but for some reason Izuku jumped to the first thing he thought of, glancing at Gūdo on the floor, and coughed.

"Uh - y-yeah. He's a nice boy."

"Oh, no," Itsuka giggled, shaking her head and pointing at her dog, "that's my boy. That," She then pointed at the half-constructed bike on the floor, "that's my baby."

"O-oh," Izuku gulped, blushing a bit at his mistake, but at least Itsuka seemed to find it more humorous than stupid, "s-so that's your bike?"

"Mm-hmm. If I'm not training or doing homework, I'm in here getting her all fixed up," She giggled a bit, looking around at the motorcycle as she smiled fondly at it, "I've been working on her since I was - I don't know, five? Six? She's my little passion project."

"H-huh ..." Izuku slowly nodded, glancing back at the bike and sitting forward a bit. "It ... it doesn't seem like it's new - er, at least, not anything modern."

"Ha! No, it definitely would not," She shook her head, "my dad and I are really interested in vintage vehicles - you know, back from before quirks were a thing. We do all our shopping for parts for our projects on websites that specialize in finding vintage car and motorcycle parts - he works on his muscle car," She gestured with her head towards the vehicle taking up a lot of space, "and I work on my bike."

"But - but doesn't that get expensive?" Izuku looked at the bike again in concern, "Ordering parts that were made over a hundred or so years ago …"

"You'd think so," Itsuka shrugged, "and sometimes there's some parts we need to save up on, but most of the time they range between … I don't know, a hundred thousand, maybe two hundred thousand yen? There are definitely some parts that are expensive, but you'd be amazed at how many people just wanna get rid of old and broken parts, especially on vehicles that haven't been used in a hundred years, or they just don't know what the part's actually worth. And hey, if it's broken, I haven't come across anything I haven't been able to eventually fix, so I'll take what I get no matter how pricey it can get."

"Huh …" Izuku slowly nodded, raising his slice of pizza to his lips to take another bite while Gūdo yawned in his corner.

"Alright," Itsuka suddenly clapped her hands, spinning back around on her stool and giving him an expectant smile, "so let's hear your honest thoughts."

"Wha -?" Izuku blinked, looking back up at her in confusion and taken aback by her little bounce in her seat.

"What do you think about my baby! Isn't she beautiful?"

"Uh -"

"Oh, and just to warn you," She smiled a bit mischievously, pointing a finger at him, "anything you say that isn't complete and utter praise gets you thrown out of the house. Literally."

"What?!" Izuku gasped, looking shocked and a bit scared as she began to use her quirk to ominously grow her hand. "R-really?!"

There was a good few seconds of tense silence as Itsuka gave him an unamused look, and he looked suddenly terrified - and then she giggled and shrunk her hand back down to normal size.

"No, I'm just kidding," She chortled, shaking her head when he obviously sagged his shoulders in relief, "but I really am curious - what do you think about the bike?"

Now that he was reassured that she wasn't going to throw him across the Chiba prefecture for insulting her bike, Izuku glanced down at the half-built and still under construction vehicle - and said, in a small voice, "Y-yeah. It's - it's nice."

"Oh, c'mon," Itsuka snorted, "that's the most generic compliment in the book. 'Yeah, it's nice'. Come on, what do you like about it?"

"I - uh -" Izuku stuttered, glancing unsurely between her and the bike, and then once at the dog as Gūdo sat up and looked at him - and then, hearing his voice crack, said, "- it's ... very unfinished?"

For her part, at least, Itsuka stared at him blankly for a moment, while Izuku outwardly cringed at his stupid comment, ready for her to snark at him or tell him he was stupid like the other kids his age, besides Ochako, would - but then, instead, she began to laugh. Izuku blinked and looked up as she doubled over in a fit of giggles, careful not to let her paper plate slide off her lap as she laughed. Izuku let out a few nervous chuckles himself, although he could strangely begin to feel his stiff shoulders begin to relax as she giggled and snorted.

Her laugh was … it was really nice.

"Yeah, I guess you could say it's pretty unfinished," She finally managed to get control of her laughter, Gūdo wagging his tail in the corner as though he were as pleased to hear his owner's laughter as Izuku was, "I'm definitely not going to be riding on it any time soon. I'm thinking that it'll maybe take another year or so, and then my baby will be good for the road. Of course, I'll have to get my motorcycle license too, and that'll be a pain in the ass, but I'm a patient girl - I can wait a bit longer."

"H-heh," Izuku managed a weak chuckle.

"So anyway, that's my hobby," She leaned forward a bit again, feeling the awkwardness from earlier evaporate now that she felt a bit more relaxed, "how about you?"

"Huh?"

"Got any hobbies?" She asked, "I don't think training with me and All Might is the only thing you look forward to doing."

"Uh -" Izuku stopped a bit, blushing slightly, and glanced to the side, biting the inside of his lip, "- just - it's kinda dumb."

"You don't have to tell me," Itsuka shrugged, "but I'm just curious."

"Oh, no, I - uh - it's -" He stuttered to a stop, and then sighed and reached behind him. Itsuka wrinkled her brow a bit - and then raised it when he pulled a notebook completely out of nowhere, holding it out hesitantly for her to take. Blinking, Itsuka reached over and took the notebook from him, turning it so that she could read the name of the notebook.

"'Hero Analysis for the Future'?" She read out loud, glancing down and blinking again, "'Number 13'?"

"Y-yeah," Izuku shuffled a bit, clearly embarrassed as she flipped the notebook open, looking surprised at the pictures of heroes and notes, "I, uh … my hobby is to write notes about heroes. It's kinda weird, I know, but I -"

"Whoa, you're really good at drawing," Itsuka remarked out loud, flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures he drew while Izuku squeaked and went even redder at the comment, wrapping his arms around his head, "I don't recognize half the heroes here … whoa, except this one," She giggled a bit, staring at the picture of a man in a black bodysuit highlighted with electric imagery, two lightning-bolt shaped radio antenna over his ears, and a long red cape. "This is … isn't this Elecplant? He's an old hero - wasn't he around before All Might's time?"

"Y-yeah," Izuku nodded, lowering his arms slightly, "I was doing a bit of a study into electric type heroes - y'know, because of my own quirk - and I decided to try and study some heroes that have been in the business for a few decades now."

"So you went really far, huh? And an American hero to boot," She chuckled, leaning back to give him back the notebook, "I only know him because I did an assignment last year on old heroes still in the hero business."

"Y-yeah," Izuku chuckled weakly, taking the notebook back and putting his plate of pizza beside him on the couch as Gūdo got up from his doghouse, walking over to the couch and resting beside it, in between Izuku and Itsuka, "I thought that maybe if I studied heroes like him, I could maybe learn some techniques to using my own. I know that my quirk isn't exactly like normal electrical types - right now I can only output it through my hands, and without much control, so - uh," He suddenly straightened up, realizing that he was about to slip into a mutter mode, and gulped, blushing, "Uh - s-sorry for just rambling, I was just -"

"It's cool," She shook her head, smiling a bit, "I mean, I did ask. Although it does kind of move around back to training, I guess. So, uh," She leaned in, smiling a bit, "how's it going for you? Training at the beach, I mean. I don't really think we talk much between all the garbage we have to move, but I'm curious."

She meant to ask him about his training as a way to move to another topic, wanting to keep this conversation flowing as much as possible and not falter into another awkward conversation - that, and wanting to try and unwind him a bit, she could tell he was still nervous - but she didn't expect him to wince at that question, slowly lowering his gaze to the notebook in his lap and visibly deflating. She blinked in confusion as he let out a small sigh and raised his slice of pizza from beside him on the couch (Gūdo let out a small whine as his quiet attempts to eat Izuku's food was foiled) and took a small nibble of it.

"Uh … Midoriya?" Itsuka wrinkled her brow, "are you okay?"

"H-huh?" Izuku glanced back up, blinking when he realized that she caught his suddenly sad look, and blushed again as he quickly zipped his gaze back down to his food. "O-oh, no, I'm - I'm fine, Kendou."

"... yeah, no, I don't believe that."

"Wha -?" Izuku quickly looked up, seeing Itsuka adjusting herself on the stool and giving him a soft but understanding look.

"Midoriya, is something bothering you about training?" She decided to just ask luntly, having her sudden thought confirmed when he squeaked out loud, "Is it me? I'm sorry if I'm doing something to make you uncomfortable -"

"O-oh, no, it's - it's not you!" Izuku immediately shook his head and hands, looking frantic for a moment as he tried to prevent a misunderstanding, "Not at all!"

"Then what is it? There's obviously something wrong."

"I …" Izuku trailed off, glancing away for a moment as though he found it hard to look at her, before he sighed and looked back down at his notebook, frowning a bit, "... can I ask you a … probably a stupid question, Kendou?"

Itsuka raised an eyebrow at that, but still nodded.

"Am I … am I just in the way?" He asked in a quiet voice, staring down at his feet while he leaned forward slightly. "Like - I don't think I'm improving at all. I just - I trip on my own two feet every time I have to move something heavy, and - and you get done with All Might's training a lot faster than me, and then you both have to wait while I catch up. And I just … I know that I'm not improving. I ache all over and I'm not doing any better with my quirk. I'm just - I'm afraid that I'm holding you and All Might back."

A small silence fell in the garage again while Izuku stared at his feet, feeling bad for just kind of unloading all his problems on her, and tried to figure out how to apologize - and then he became aware of the sound of Itsuka getting up, letting out a small grunt as she started walking over. He glanced up to see her dragging the stool she had been sitting on a bit closer, wincing slightly at the seat squeaking against the concrete floor, and once it was a bit closer to the couch, sat back down with her food and drink, looking back at him with a small frown as she gave him a serious look.

"Midoriya," She said in a small voice, putting her plate of pizza down beside his on the couch and leaning over to pat her dog's head, "do you really think you're just in the way?"

"I …" He hesitated, and then glanced back down, "... kind of. Yeah."

"Well," She shook her head, "I can confidently say that you're wrong. You aren't holding me or All Might back at all."

"I - I don't know -"

"Midoriya," Itsuka interrupted him, sounding absolutely certain, "let me clarify something for you, okay? We both knew that this training plan was going to be absolute hell the moment we got those papers. Just because I'm moving a little quicker than you and don't trip on my feet doesn't mean I don't feel it. Like - last week, when I had to drag that big locker by myself up the stairs to All Might's truck? I came home after that and pretty much immediately collapsed, my back was hurting so much." She giggled a bit at herself, shaking her head, "I had to put like - three heat pads on my back for the rest of the day, I was laying on my stomach for hours. Just because I don't necessarily show it doesn't mean I don't feel it, y'know?"

"I -"

"You are improving," She encouraged him, "it's just going to take a while before it becomes obvious. That's just how exercising is, Midoriya - it freaking sucks. The only reason I'm slightly handling it better than you is because I've been exercising since I was, like - five. And I'm not really showing it, but this isn't exactly my usual training regiment either. Like," She shook her head, smiling ruefully, "I'm used to going downstairs every day after school, and sparring with someone my age. I wasn't exactly expecting to drag around several hundred pounds of garbage for the next ten months."

"I … didn't exactly imagine this either," He admitted, unable to stop himself from chuckling a bit sheepishly, "I just … I knew that I wasn't going to suddenly start lifting cars over my head, or become an instant expert of my quirk, but I just expected … something to change. But I'm still afraid of my quirk."

"... you know," She said in a suddenly quiet voice, causing him to look up and see her small, unsure look as she adjusted herself in her seat, "you never really … I know that this isn't really any of my business, but I don't really know the story behind your quirk. You don't have to tell me, of course, it's just ..."

"O-oh, no, I - I don't mind," He quickly shook his head and put his notebook back behind him, letting out a small sigh as he leaned forward again, "it's just … no, I don't mind telling you. So, uh … pretty much … when I was a kid, I was a - a late bloomer. You know, those kids who don't develop their quirks until after they were four years old. My quirk came after all my friends at the time, like - two or three months after my birthday. You - you know that it's - it's an - an electrical type quirk."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, also sitting back in her seat, "lightning. I think that's what All Might called it."

"Yeah," Izuku grimaced, "lightning. W-well, the truth is - well, my quirk is actually a mutation."

"A mutation?" Itsuka blinked.

"Yeah. The doctor explained it like - like instead of me developing one of my parents' quirks, or a combination of them, I developed an entirely different type. It's - it's supposedly not common, but not impossible. I wasn't too sure - the doctor was kinda weird when he explained it."

"Okay …?"

"S-so anyway - when I eventually did develop my quirk, I was - I got into a fight with my childhood friend. He lunged and me, and - and I just reacted. I ended up destroying a playground, injured my mom, and - and injured Kacchan. He's - he's still got the scar," He frowned, feeling his eyes mist up a bit as he pointed at his own chest, "everytime we all have to change for P.E., I see it. My mom's also got a scar, but - but she hides it. And whenever I see either of them, I just - I get reminded of my stupid mistake, and I hate that they both have to carry those around for the rest of their lives. And only because it was my fault."

Itsuka slowly nodded at his explantation, staring at him in pity.

"After I injured Kacchan …" He sighed, "... everything changed, for the worse. I wasn't - I wasn't Deku the quirkless loser anymore. I was Deku the villain. Deku the lightning maniac. Deku the attempted murder. Deku the -"

"Wait," Itsuka suddenly interrupted, making him falter and look up to see her sitting up in her seat, eyes going slightly wider. "Are you saying - Midoriya, are you saying that - that people bully you?"

"..."

"Midoriya?"

"... sometimes," He muttered, looking away with a bit of shame, "yeah. They don't - they don't hit me, they just - they just call me names and all that stuff."

"Like - like this 'Deku' stuff?" Itsuka wrinkled her brow.

"Y-yeah. That was - that was Kacchan's creation, back when we were kids," He explained, folding his hands in his lap, "since he could read before all of us, he read the characters in my first name - 'Izuku' - as 'Deku'. He said it meant I was 'someone who couldn't do anything'. And it - it stuck."

Itsuka narrowed her eyes slightly, putting her hands on her knees. The more she heard about this 'Kacchan', the less she liked him.

"In - in any case, it's - it's just -" Izuku hesitated again, and sighed as he slumped his shoulders, "- my classmates just think - they called my quirk evil, and - and said I was a villain. And after a while, I just kinda … accepted it. I had an evil quirk."

"Midoriya -"

"But I wanted to be a hero," He continued on, stopping Itsuka's brief interruption, "more than anything. But in my mind, I couldn't be a hero with a villainous quirk. So I just - for years, I just shut down or deflected anything that would even hint that I wanted to be a hero."

He frowned, feeling his eyes start to sting with tears again, "It took All Might himself to convince me that deep down, I wanted to be a hero. But even now, I still struggle with convincing myself that my quirk isn't evil. I - I think that's my biggest problem. I hate my quirk, and - and I can't just brush aside all those negative thoughts about it."

Once again, silence fell in the garage, while Izuku stared at his feet and Itsuka stared at him. Izuku shook his head briefly at himself - what the hell was he doing, just dumping all of this stupid stuff on her lap? He needed to say sorry to her about being so stupid - and was about to open his mouth to apologize -

- and then he suddenly became aware of another weight falling on the small couch, beside him.

Furrowing his brow, he looked to his left - and froze up when he realized that Itsuke had just sat down beside him, giving him a sympathetic look as she also imitated him and leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. Gūdo got up from his spot on the floor and walked over to rest his head in between her legs, prompting Itsuka to give him a few head rubs while still looking at Izuku.

"That …" She bit her lip, frowning as she looked back down at her dog, "... that's awful, Midoriya. I'm - I'm really sorry you had to - that you have to put up with all that."

"It's - it's okay," He managed to squeak out, looking away while his face burned bright red again (soclosesoclosesoclose) , "I - I can handle it."

"No," She shook her head, giving him a small, sharp look that made him automatically zip his mouth closed, "it's not okay, Midoriya. You getting bullied … called a villain … god, I can't even begin to think about what you've had to put up with. This - this has been going on for years now?"

"... yeah," He muttered, glancing down in shame.

"God …" Itsuka slowly shook her head, as though she couldn't believe that the person in front of her could ever be bullied - and then her face turned stormy, "Not gonna lie, Midoriya, I'm half-tempted to show up to your school now, and beat up all your bullies."

"I'm pretty sure you can't take the entire school," He blurted out, and then squeaked and quickly grabbed his mouth with one hand, realizing his mistake. "Oh, I'm - I'm sorry, I -"

"Midoriya, are you serious?" She quietly asked, looking back around and making him glance at her out of the corner of his eye, seeing how serious and - holy crap, she actually looked mad. "Is it the entire school that bullies you?"

"N-no, not - not everyone," He quickly shook his head. "I - I do have friends - well - a friend."

Itsuka slowly nodded, and then leaned back against the couch, unable to stop herself from letting out a small, sudden chuckle.

"I - wow, this conversation got really dark really fast," She tried to joke, wanting to inject some lightness into the suddenly tense conversation, "Sorry about that, Midoriya, I just - I - I don't like bullies." She frowned again as she turned to stare into space, slowly petting her dog's head. "Never have, never will."

"I … don't either," He nodded in agreement, looking away, "it's just …"

"Yeah," She folded her hands together in her lap, "I get it. I - I think I actually get it now, Midoriya."

"H-huh? Get what?"

"I was … okay, truthfully, I've been kind of curious about you," She admitted, blushing a bit in embarrassment while chuckling, "I - I didn't really know what your deal was, y'know? I've always been cool with you training with me, of course, but - but I wasn't exactly sure why, you know? But now I think I do. Training on the beach, trying to use your quirk - All Might's trying to help you rebuild your confidence, isn't he?"

"I …" Izuku hesitated again, and then sighed, "... yeah."

Itsuka slowly nodded, and got back up so that she could get some more pizza from the workbench, letting Gūdo move aside and rest his head on Izuku's lap this time. While the boy hesitantly patted the dog's head, Itsuka grabbed both of their plates from the couch and walked to the box of pizza, grabbing some new slices and bringing them back. Instead of retaking her seat on the stool, however, she stayed sitting beside him, which made him blush a bit as she settled back and crossed her legs, and raised her slice of pizza to take a bite out of.

"You know," She smiled a bit as she slowly munched on her dinner, watching him as he picked up his pizza to make sure Gūdo didn't pull a sneaky and take it, "you really do help me out when you're there at the beach."

"W-wait, what?" Izuku squeaked, going a bit red as she giggled and opened her can of soda.

"You really do!" She admitted freely, "And I'm not lying about that. You can say whatever you want about how you're apparently too slow or you're in the way, and I'll just slap that down. If I was doing this stuff alone, with just All Might there to guide me, I'd probably work myself to exhaustion - but I meant what I said a few weeks ago, Midoriya," She leaned forward to give him a small punch in the arm, not enough to hurt, and smiled when his blush burned redder, "I really appreciate that you comforted me after Nighteye spent his morning shit-talking me."

"Of course I would," Izuku quickly said, and then blushed a bit when he realized how fast he said that, but still looked around at her, "he - he was out of line."

"Yeah. And I hope you know that I'll step up to bat for you from now on too," She raised an eyebrow, leaning back in her seat and taking a sip of her soda, "anytime one of those pricks from your school picks on you, just tell me and I'll come beat them up in the parking lot."

"I -" Izuku stuttered, taken aback by that promise of violence - one that he had heard before, and had to stop Ochako from committing once or twice - and then he let out a laugh, looking back around to chuckle a bit at that while he patted Gūdo's head.

Itsuka smiled a bit at his giggle-snorts as well, chuckling alongside him as she took another bite out of her pizza. Still though, she kind of had a hard time looking away from him now, for some reason; she never really noticed before, but he usually wore an awkward look on his face, or a frown, or just a generally down look, which made sense now that she knew why. But now that she was looking at him laughing a bit, she couldn't help but think …

… wow, she really liked it when he smiled.

Finally, Izuku managed to get control of his laughter, and looked back at her with a genuinely happy smile on his face.

"I - thank you, Kendou," He chuckled, raising his own piece of pizza to munch on, "but if you were there to beat up all the people who were mean to me, that would mean my only friend is out of a job."

"Oh, that's right," She blinked, remembering as well, "you did say that - that you did have a friend. So I guess I'm gonna steal their job, hub?"

Both of them giggled a bit as they took a moment to eat a bit more, and Itsuka asked, through her own mouthful of pizza, "So how long has your friend been working the hard job of beating up all your bullies?"

"Uh - since we were kids," He shook his head, smiling ruefully, "and it's less 'beat up my bullies' and more 'threaten to float them into space'. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or concerned -"

"Flattered," Itsuka laughed, "definitely flattered."

"Er - honestly, yeah," Izuku chuckled, "but yeah, I guess I don't have much room to complain if she wasn't to murder -"

"Wait," Itsuka blinked, looking around at him "'she'?"

"Uh - yeah?'

"Your - your only friend is a girl?"

"Yeah ...?"

Itsuka slowly blinked at that, looking completely taken aback - and then she laughed again, looking away for a bit while she had a small laughing fit. Izuku sputtered, taken aback himself and not really sure what she found funny about that while he slowly slid his pizza away from the dog, hearing the poor boy whining again.

"Sorry, just ..." Itsuka let out a few more giggles, smiling at his confused look, "... it's not all that funny, but - I think we both know that you're not exactly ... well ... confident when it comes to the opposite sex."

Izuku sputtered again, looking indignant and opening his mouth to deny that while Itsuka raised an eyebrow, as though challenging him to even try and prove her wrong - and then he slumped his shoulders, looking sheepish.

"... that obvious, huh?"

"Very much," She giggled, "but it just makes your only friend being a girl a surprise, that's all. So? Tell me about her."

"O-oh," Izuku blinked, looking back around at her as she leaned in, obviously interested, "so, uh - yeah. So, um - Occhan."

"'Occhan'," Itsuka's teasing grin grew wider, "she's got her own nickname and everything! You really are full of surprises tonight, Mr. Midoriya."

"Y-yeah. It's, uh - well, it's a childhood nickname," He explained, chuckling nervously despite himself, "she's … I've known her since we were four, after my quirk developed. She was the only one who stuck by me since, and - and she's been my only friend for years. Honestly, I - I really appreciate her. Do you remember how I mentioned that - that I would shut down any hints about me being a hero?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, she was the one who always brought it up," He smiled fondly, laying back against the couch as he continued to scratch Gūdo behind the ears, and Itsuka leaned against the arm of the couch, "she wants to be a hero too - a rescue hero, just like Thirteen. Honestly, I - if she wasn't there with me at school, every day, I - I probably would be in a worse place now, or at least my - my mentat state would be a lot worse. She's always there to pick me up, and ..."

He was about to go on about his best friend, smiling happily at the very thought of Ochako and how outgoing and kind she was - and then he suddenly thought of her face yesterday when he had lied to her.

How crestfallen, put down and sad she had looked.

While his own face fell at the thought, Itsuka blinked a bit, taken aback by how his happy look had slid away, replaced by a sad and guilty look.

"Uh … Midoriya?" She leaned forward again, feeling concerned, "Are you okay? You just -"

"Kendou, can I ask you something?"

Sputtering to a stop, Itsuka furrowed her brow at the sight of the seriousness on the boy's face, but still nodded. "Of course, Midoriya. What's up?"

"You, uh …" He hesitated for a moment, not sure how to phrase this, but then shaking his head and deciding to wing it, and asked, "... you have friends, right?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... okay, I should've taken more time to figure out how to phrase that question," He muttered to himself, going red again, and she giggled a bit.

"Yes, Midoriya, I have friends," She decided to humor him, "two very dear ones, actually, and a few people I like to talk with."

"O-okay. And - and what did you -" He gulped, trying to gather his thoughts, and then asked, "- what did you tell them you were doing while you - you know - you trained with All Might?"

Itsuka, meanwhile, couldn't help but feel more and more confused by the minute - not really sure where this topic came from or where it was going - but she still let out a small sigh as she leaned back against the couch, letting Izuku take another hesitant bite of his dinner while she thought.

"Well …" She bit her lip, "... if we're talking about who I specifically told was going on - well, I told a version of what I was doing to Yui and Set, they're my best friends."

"Uh-huh."

"Pretty much, I told them that I was going to be training super hard from now on," She explained, "I didn't tell them any details, of course, but I told them that I was gonna start working my butt off to get ready for the entrance exam, and probably wouldn't have as much time to hang out with them as usual. I didn't mention All Might, or you, or anything we were doing - pretty much a basic, watered down version of what we're doing."

She took a moment to sip on her soda again, looking at Izuku over the can, "Why? Did you tell your friend something similar?"

Izuku winced. And that was when Itsuka blinked.

"... wait a minute." She leaned forward, putting two and two together and feeling her eyes widen. "What did you tell your friend about what you were doing?"

"W-well ... uh ..." Izuku stuttered, glancing away and blushing very red, "... I just …"

"... Midoriya, did you tell her?"

"..."

"..."

"... not ... exactly ..." He muttered, a look of shame and guilt crossing his face as he slumped down, "... I just ... I have no idea how to even explain it to her, and … yeah."

There was yet another pointed silence in the garage, with Izuku staring at the ground again and Itsuka staring at him again. And then -

BONK!

"Ow!" Izuku yelped as Itsuka's hand, grown slightly thanks to her quirk, rose up and came down on the top of his head, giving him a good smack that made him reel away from her and Gūdo woof a bit at the sudden violence. She let out a tired sigh as she brought her hand down and shrunk it back to normal size, shaking her head at him.

"Sorry, Midoriya," She apologized, "but that's a really stupid thing you've done."

"... yeah," He nodded a bit, rubbing the top of his head while frowning at himself, "I know."

"You have to tell her at least something," She insisted, "if she's been your friend since you were kids, there's no way you'll be able to hide something this big from her without at least giving her a version of what's going on."

"That's the thing, though," Izuku sighed, slumping his shoulders, "I just … I can't just lie to her, she'll know. She knows me better than anybody, if I try to tell her something obviously fake she'll see right through it."

"Does she think …" Itsuka hesitated, and then shook her head, "... do you think she suspects something's going on?"

"Yeah," He admitted at least, looking a bit ashamed, "I … she knows that I'm holding something back from her, she just doesn't know what."

"And you didn't … have you considered talking to All Might about it?"

"I did, it's just …" Izuku hesitated again, and then closed his eyes, "... I don't want to lie to her."

"I mean -"

"It's not like I don't know why," He assured her, shaking his head, "I know how important it is to keep the secret of what's going on at the beach. But she's had my back for years now, and - and I owe her a lot. I'm just … I'm not comfortable with just lying to her, you know? But I know how important this is, but I know I can't just brush her aside, and … and I just don't know what to do."

Itsuka slowly nodded at that, understanding where he was coming from as the boy lapsed into silence, looking disappointed in himself as he stared sadly down at his knees. She knew where he was coming from with not wanting to lie to his friend - she felt a bit uncomfortable with lying to Setsuna and Yui, but she knew where All Might was coming from. Learning that the Symbol of Peace was training your close friend wouldn't exactly inspire one to remain silent.

She wondered if there was some easy way to fix this that neither of them were thinking about, maybe asking All Might for some advice on how to deal with the problem with this Occhan would benefit them both.

But that could maybe wait, she decided - she could see Izuku continuing to stare down at his knees, not even noticing Gūdo take his chance and trying to pull the paper plate of pizza off the green-haired boy's lap. She let out a small sigh as she realized that her little bop to the head earlier and her little 'you should've done more' thing probably didn't do his mood any favors, so she needed to somehow pick up his mood again, or at least take it off such a serious topic -

- and then she got an idea.

An awful idea.

A wonderful, awful idea.

"Hm," She decided to start with setting this up slowly, trying to stop a mischievous smile that wouldn't look out of place on Setsuna from spreading across her face, "so I guess … you really like this Occhan, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Izuku nodded as though it were obvious, "she's my best friend."

"Your best friend in the world," She raised an eyebrow, trying to stop a small smirk as she saw his brow wrinkle.

"Uh … yeah."

"The childhood friend that you've known since you were … four, right?"

"Y-yeah."

Itsuka slowly nodded, feeling a smirk finally break on her face as she leaned back. It appeared that it was here that Izuku thought something was up, glancing around at her and looking confused by the look on her face - the way she was smiling knowingly at him, crossing her arms across her chest and nodding at him.

"Uh … Kendou?" Izuku blinked a bit as he sat forward a bit, not sure what was going on.

"Yes?"

"W-what's with that face?"

"What face?" Itsuka now had to consciously stop herself from laughing, biting her lip slightly. "I don't have a face. We're just talking about your childhood friend, who you've known since you were kids, who is also a girl. What face are you talking about?"

Izuku felt more and more lost, opening his mouth briefly to ask why she was talking about Ochako like that, as though she were a -

- and then he realized it.

Childhood friend.

Known since they were kids.

A girl.

It was rather beautiful, Itsuka thought, seeing him go from confused and taken aback to completely blood-red in the face, his mouth dropping open with an audible click and beginning to gape at her like a goldfish as he finally understood what she was implying.

"I - oh no - she's - not - you -"

"I mean," She was unable to stop herself from laughing now, seeing him start to flail his hands everywhere, "it makes sense! Your best friend from childhood, who, as we have established many times, is a girl … and who I am assuming is a very pretty girl …"

"N-no, wait, Kendou, I -"

"... someone you need to keep a secret from but don't want to, because it hurts to," Itsuka continued to tease, laughter becoming louder when she saw him grabbing his hair in desperation, "someone who, from what you described, is your closest and dearest friend …"

"P-p-please -"

"Oh, yeah," She nodded, "I'm guessing that you like -"

"Do not say it!" He protested, not wanting her to put that thought in his mind, and quickly brought his hands to his ears, attempting to block out her words entirely. Itsuka's laughter only grew harder as she briefly pounded on the couch, her laughter echoing throughout the garage as Gūdo barked excitedly at his master's laughter, and she leaned forward to try and take one of his hands away from his ear, her touch making him blush somehow even harder.

"Oh, Midoriyaaaa?" She said in a sing-song voice, "Whyyyyy are you so reeeed?"

"We - no!" He squeaked in a high-pitched voice, "She's - no way - we're only - we're only friends! There's no way she doesn't -!"

"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that," Her smirk widened and her eyes shined with mirth, "two of you, known each other forever … you're saying that there isn't love in the -?"

"She doesn't -!"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

At the sound of someone knocking on the garage door, Izuku and Itsuka jumped, looking around from where they had been sitting on the couch, Itsuka moving back to where she was sitting and Izuku hesitantly lowering his hands from his ears, still shaking from both the implication that Ochako liked him (as impossible as that would be, it still flustered him) and how Itsuka had been leaning in pretty close and touching his arm. As Gūdo let out several excited barks at the potential stranger, running to the door and hopping up to scratch at it, the door opened, and Itsuka's father poked his head in, grinning.

"My apologies for interrupting your date," He cheekily said, his grin widening when Izuku squeaked again and hid his face in his hands, and Itsuka rolled her eyes and snorted, "but we've just finished dinner upstairs. Mr. Yagi and your grandpa have come to an … well, we'll call it an agreement."

At that, both Izuku and Itsuka blinked, sitting up from their spots on the couch - honestly, they'd been down here and talking for so long, they'd almost forgotten why they were in the garage in the first place. However, the way Hakushu had said that they 'came to an agreement' did imply that things were okay (albeit the way he said 'agreement' didn't inspire much confidence), and so both teenagers hopped up to follow him back upstairs where the rest of the adults were.

As they moved towards the door, Hakushu gave his daughter another teasing grin.

"So," He stood back a bit, scratching the dog behind the ears while the teenagers moved past him into the warm house, "did you show him your bike?"

"Yeah," She giggled, glancing back at Izuku with a teasing look in her eye, "he said that it looked 'very unfinished'."

Her father let out a laugh at that, while Izuku groaned behind them and shook his head in embarrassment.

Once they made it back upstairs, letting Gūdo run ahead so he could greet the strangers he hadn't had time to properly greet, they headed into the living room, where the small party of adults had apparently moved to. Once they moved past the kitchen and into the living room, they saw Inko and Tenohira sitting on the couch together, holding cups of tea and chatting airily. All Might, meanwhile, opted to remain standing, looking a bit awkward and relieved to see his protegees back, while Teko continued to give him a cold stare as he tapped his foot against the floor, sitting in a chair across the room.

"Hey, you two," Tenohira smiled up at the teenagers as they followed her husband into the room, "have fun down there?"

"Yes," Itsuka nodded, smiling and giving her mother a snarky look, "we had a lot of fun during our exile to the cold, damp garage eating pizza, while you guys enjoyed the warm meal up here."

"See!" Tenohira gestured to her daughter while smiling at Inko, the green-haired woman laughing a bit as Gūdo hopped up onto the sofa to sniff her. "It's just like I said - see how mean she is to her parents. I bet Izuku doesn't give you that kind of attitude."

"He has his moments," Inko giggled, petting the dog while Izuku chuckled sheepishly and blushed.

"In any case," All Might coughed a bit, drawing the attention of everyone in the room back onto him, "we, uh … we had a very productive dinner, and we've managed to come to an agreement, Young Itsuka, Young Izuku."

Both teenagers looked to their mentor as he straightened up, seeing him taking off his yellow jacket, much to Itsuka's relief - now they could take him maybe a little more seriously. At the very least, he looked a lot more relieved than he did when he arrived to their house, although he was still kind of sweating nervously - which she really couldn't blame him for, her grandpa could be very intimidating even when he wasn't trying, she hated to be the one on the receiving end of his actual scorn.

"As we agreed," He explained, "you two will continue to follow my training plan and come down to the beach to clear away the garbage, and practice your quirk, young man. As I've explained in detail to the adults in this room, it's not only a good form of exercise, but it'll also help the community by clearing away the trash littering the beach."

Itsuka glanced at her grandpa at that, and saw him subtly nodding - while he himself wasn't a hero, she knew Teko did care for the city he grew up and raised a family in, so appealing to his love for that would be a good way to get on his good side.

"Of course, now that your parents have educated me on how we could potential get into legal trouble in case someone comes around and accuses us of - well, doing something illegal," All Might continued to explain, "I will be having my - er, I mean, All Might's agency get an official documentation from Musutafu's city hall, giving us permission to clear away the beach, so we can prevent you two from getting into potential trouble with pro heroes. I will also be coming back to your parents with weekly updates, as well as documents for them to sign that will confirm that All Might's agency will handle any potential injuries that occur at Dagobah Beach."

Izuku and Itsuka glanced at each other at that, and slowly nodded in agreement - it made sense, of course, their parents wanted to make sure they didn't get into any potential trouble with the law, and wanted everything signed and accounted for. That at least made sense, and their schedule appeared to have not been affected in any major way.

"With that said," All Might winced a bit despite himself, "there were still a few compromises we had to make, so that the plan could be tweaked."

"Tweaked?" Itsuka wrinkled her brow, "How so?"

"Starting next weekend," Teko grumbled from his spot in the corner, making the two teenagers turn to see his grumpy stare, "once you two are done with the morning training at this beach, you will be returning here to train in the dojo. I will be the one overseeing that training for you both, and once that's done, you will return to the junkyard to continue cleaning before you can go home. It will begin next week so that I can make official plans with the other customers who come here, but until then, assume that you will be here from lunch until four o'clock in the afternoon. I assume that neither of you have any complaints about that."

Once again, Izuku glanced at Itsuka, and he gave the old man a nod once Itsuka gave him a small thumbs up. He glanced at All Might and saw him shrug a bit, in a 'what can we do' kind of way, but honestly, it seemed fair to Izuku. All Might would have free reign for five days of the week, and for weekends, they would only clean in the morning and evening, while the bulk of the day was spent at the dojo downstairs.

It made sense. While the training plan would have to be modified to fit that in, he was at least sure they could proceed on schedule.

"I - I don't have any complaints," He told the Kendou patriarch, feeling a bit relieved when Teko gave him a curt nod.

"Yeah, me neither," Itsuka shook her head, still giving her grandfather a curious look, "but will Midoriya be joining the usual classes? Usually those are a bit more advanced, especially if he's a beginner."

"No," Teko shook his head, "I'll be shortening those classes to conclude before you both arrive at noon. This training, under Mr. Yagi's discretion, will be private."

"Er ... okay."

There was a small silence in the living room, until Tenohira realized that her father was done with intimidating All Might and Izuku, and clapped her hands.

"Well!" She said happily, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Now that that's settled, I think we can finally get to the part I've been looking forward to."

"O-oh, yes!" Inko nodded in agreement, her eyes shining. "I brought them along just in case, so I'd be happy to have someone to share them with."

As Tenohira hopped up to move to the cabinet near Teko, careful to mind Gūdo as he gave her a curious woof, Izuku and Itsuka mutually felt a sudden wave of foreboding overcome them, as Hakushu chuckled and came back to the living room with cups of tea for Teko and All Might, and watched as Inko reached into her purse to pull something out.

"Uh ... mom?" Izuku asked, gulping a bit and fighting down the sudden urge to run, "what're you -"

And then Inko pulled out the green book from her bag, making Izuku freeze up and widen his eyes in terror as he realized what exactly was going to happen right now.

"Now then," Inko giggled as she put Izuku's baby book in her lap, while her son froze in horror, "there are a few pictures of Izuku as a baby in here I wanted to show you, Mrs. Kendou, he was so adorable."

"Oh, you can call me Tenohira," Itsuka's mother waved her hand, straightening up with Itsuka's baby album and making her daughter pale comically, "and I'd love to see them! I can show you Itsuka's own pictures as well, she was such a beautiful baby."

"... Midoriya," Itsuka squeaked out, slowly backing up, "let's go back to the garage."

"Y-yeah, let's -"

"Oh, no, you two," Hakushu chuckled from behind them, stopping their escape, "if we adults have to suffer through this, you two don't get to escape."

What then ensued was an hour of Inko and Tenohira showing each other the baby pictures of their children, cooing and giggling as they told each other stories from their respective child's childhood, while Izuku and Itsuka melted into piles of embarrassment. Izuku ended up hunched over on the opposite couch with his head in his hands, while Itsuka quietly collapsed on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, not even noticing as Gūdo gave her an inquisitive sniff and licked her hair.

Both teenagers groaned with each embarrassing story after another, while All Might and Hakushu chuckled and talked in their own corner as well, and Teko sat in his own chair in silence, slowly nodding at the stories his daughter told about his granddaughter, and occasionally flashing Izuku a suspicious glare.

Alas, much to Izuku and Itsuka's relief, it was getting rather late, and it was about time for the Midoriyas to head home before they missed the last train. As Tenohira wrapped up some leftovers for them to take home, and Hakushu brought the pizza back upstairs to put in the fridge, the two families and All Might headed downstairs and into the yard, while Teko took this opportunity to quietly slip away and go to sleep, volunteering to keep Gūdo upstairs so he didn't get excited outside. Both Izuku and Inko were sure to give him a pat on the head goodbye while he whined sadly at them, although Izuku was comforted that he would be seeing the big dog very soon.

"If I'm being completely honest, I'm not entirely sold on your training plan," Hakushu admitted to All Might as the Symbol of Peace held the leftovers in one hand and shook Itsuka's dad's hand with the other, "but it seems like you know what you're doing. For now, we'll let this go on, but just know that if we see Itsuka getting run into the ground, we'll step in."

"I'm aware that my plan isn't a hundred percent perfect," All Might gave him, "but I'm convinced that your daughter and Young Midoriya will be successful, and the plan can always be adjusted if we run into any problems that need to be rectified immediately. In any case, are you both sure I can't give you a ride home?" He turned to Izuku and Inko as the green-haired boy thanked Tenohira for having them, "It's not terribly out of the way, and it'd get you home much quicker than the train."

"Oh, no, we simply couldn't impose," Inko shook her head, smiling as she patted Izuku's shoulder, her boy still slightly traumatized by the story of how he ran into a glass door now being revealed to the world, "and the train station isn't too far away, we'll get there in time."

"Alright … but still," All Might shook his head, "I'll walk you both to the station."

"Oh, that's kind of you," Inko smiled sweetly, although there was still a hint of coldness in her eyes, "I'm just comforted now that you'll be giving us updates on Izuku and Itsuka's process instead of … whatever it was you were going to be doing."

"Ahem," All Might cleared his throat, gulping nervously at the cold looks from both the Midoriya and Kendou matriarchs, "yes, I'll … yes, I'll be sure to update you all weekly. And since Young Midoriya will be here during the weekend, I'll be sure to give you all updates then, and give Young Izuku a lift home once we're done on the beach."

"And my offer stands, Inko!" Tenohira smiled at her as she also patted Itsuka's shoulder, her daughter still numb to the world after the story of her getting scared of a man with a snake-head quirk as a child was revealed, "I'd love to do something with you on the weekend while our children are working."

"I'll have to get back to you, Tenohira, since I do tend to be busy," Inko smiled sweetly at her, "but it does sound very pleasant."

With that, a small silence fell in the enclosure, with Izuku and Itsuka glancing at each other - and then Tenohira cleared her throat, causing everyone to look at her.

"Er - well, in any case, thank you all for coming over for dinner," She smiled sweetly, grabbing her husband's shoulder and beginning to pull him inside, much to his confusion, "but we'd better get to cleaning the dishes. Itsuka, why don't you bring our guests back to the front? You can see them off."

"Uh - whu -?" Hakushu looked dumbfounded at his much smaller wife as she dragged him inside, and gave their parting guests a look of 'I don't know what I did but I think I did something wrong please help me' as the door slid shut. Itsuka tried not to roll her eyes at what her mom was obviously doing, but tried her best to smile as she turned back to the Midoriyas and All Might.

"Er ... right," She clapped her hands together, "I'll bring you guys back to the front."

Exchanging awkward smiles, Itsuka began to lead their guests back to around the front of the building, clasping her hands behind her back as Inko gave her an interested look.

"So you're also applying for UA?" She asked in an intrigued voice, making Itsuka look around to see the older woman giving her a smile, "That's what your mother told me during dinner."

"Yeah," Itsuka nodded, smiling back at her, "it's always been my dream to attend there - once I settled on wanting to be a hero, I knew that was going to be the place for me."

"It seems like I'm surrounded by aspiring heroes lately," Inko laughed, "and since you were a child?"

"Yeah, since I was five … Mrs. Midoriya, are you sure you're okay with all this?" Itsuka sighed a bit as her smile fell, glancing down at the wooden porch, "I know that this was pretty much sprung on you, and -"

"Dearie, I've had this conversation many times with Izuku in the last twenty four hours," Inko laughed, while her son chuckled sheepishly beside her and looked away, "and … I will admit, when I first heard of this last night, I was against it. I didn't want Izuku to get run into the ground, and I didn't approve of where you would be training - but Mr. Yagi did raise several good points during dinner, saying that the place he had you training in was a safe place for my son to practice his quirk."

Itsuka glanced at Izuku at that mention, seeing his shoulders sag a bit, and briefly brought her gaze to Inko's compression sleeve she wore on her upper arm, remembering what he had said happened when he first manifested his quirk. She decided not to comment on it.

"And I do feel better," Inko continued on, "knowing that All Might's agency will sponsor you two during your training - I feel like All Might of all people can keep you both safe."

"Yeah," Itsuka slowly nodded, glancing at All Might with a knowing look, "he'll keep us safe, I know that."

All Might let out an innocent whistle, glancing away while his successor rolled her eyes.

"Well, anyway," Itsuka opened the small gate for them to step through to get back to the front of the building, stepping back, "I hope to see you again soon, Mrs. Midoriya - we didn't really have much time to speak before your son and I were exiled to the garage."

"I hope so too," Inko smiled sweetly at her, patting her cheek - and then turned to begin pushing All Might through the gate, the Number One Hero sputtering as he was easily manhandled by a housewife.

"Now, Izuku, we'll give you some time to say bye, alright?"

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, looking around at his mother as she pushed All Might easily through the gate, the scrawny man taken aback by how easy it was to push him around in his weakened form. Soon enough, both Izuku and Itsuka were left alone at the gate, glancing awkwardly at each other and chuckling a bit.

"So ..." Izuku trailed off, swinging his arms back and forth a bit aimlessly.

"Yeah," Itsuka giggled despite herself as she stepped back to lean against the wall of her house, "that was ... that was fun."

"Yeah, I - wait," Izuku blinked, looking around, "it was?"

"I mean, yeah," She shrugged, smiling a bit, "we didn't do much talking about me, but I got to learn a lot about you. I guess that means that next time, I'll be the topic of conversation. Like ..."

For a moment, Itsuka faltered, glancing away, and then she slowly nodded, looking back up and smiling at him.

"... tomorrow," She decided, "we're gonna be at the beach all day since it's the weekend. Once lunchtime rolls around, we can bully All Might into going to buy us WcDonald's."

"WcDonald's?" Izuku blinked, looking unsure. "Are you sure? I thought we weren't supposed to - you know, eat things that are unhealthy."

"We aren't," Itsuka smirked knowingly, "but you and I both need cheat days, Mr. Midoriya. And I think WcDonald's for lunch tomorrow is perfect."

"But - but didn't we just eat pizza -" Izuku tried to say, but then faltered when Itsuka pouted at him and raised her hand to point at him, prompting him to wave his arms in defeat. "Okay, okay, WcDonald's tomorrow."

"Good," Itsuka smiled, "and once we've got our unhealthy food, I'll take one for the team and tell you all about my embarrassing middle-school memories. That's the least I can do."

"Oh, I ..." Izuku stuttered, glancing left and right, and blushed, "I - I don't know, you don't have to do that. I'm sure that you'd rather talk to your friends about that rather than me -"

"I mean," Itsuka giggled a bit, stretching her arm out to give his shoulder a light punch, "I like to think we're friends."

"I don't -" Izuku was about to protest, going a bit red at what embarrassing stories she could potentially tell him - and then he froze up, blinking when what she just said finally registered.

Itsuka also blinked a bit in confusion as Izuku quickly looked around at her, eyes widening and his jaw dropping slightly.

"Uh ... Midoriya? Are you good?"

"You -" Izuku's eyes went a bit wider, and felt his cheeks become slightly rosier than usual, "- you consider me a friend?"

"Huh? Of course I do." Itsuka nodded, saying that easily and without much hesitation, although she did take a moment to glance at Inko and All Might waiting for Izuku in the distance, just to make sure they weren't overheard. "I like to think we are, at least. I mean, I don't exactly do secret, hellish training with the Symbol of Peace as a coach with just about anyone. Of course we're friends, Midoriya."

"I ..." Izuku trailed off, continuing to stare at her in shock

"So let's get some WcDonald's tomorrow," She smiled, "and after we're done humiliating me for a change, we can talk about what you'll tell Occhan about what's going on - I'll be happy to sit down with you and figure out what you're gonna tell her."

Izuku continued to stare at her for a few more moments, completely taken aback by her and her casual acceptance that they were friends - and then he let out a small breath, obviously willing himself to not tear up. Itsuka couldn't help but giggle a bit, and then furrowed her brow when his face suddenly scrunched up, looking pretty ugly for a moment until he raised an arm to rub his face with, and then looked back at her with small tears in his eyes and a shaky smile as he lifted his fist up.

"Y-yeah," He managed to say, "see you tomorrow morning."

Itsuka grinned back at him, and raised her own fist to bump against his, "See you then, man. I'll be sure to bring you a cup of coffee."

"Uh … would that be black coffee? I noticed that you drank that."

"Yep. Black coffee's the shit."

"Uh … that's … kinda bitter for me."

"Oh, don't worry, we've got ten months ahead of us. I'll get you hooked eventually."

Both of them laughing a bit, both of them gave each other one last wave, and turned to walk away, Izuku to his mom and All Might waiting for him, and Itsuka moving to go back into her house - and unknown to each other, both sporting huge grins on their faces.

---

The next morning, bright and early, All Might gave his two protegees a grin as they ran down the steps towards him, looking far more energetic and happy than they would working here in the morning for the last two weeks .

"Hm," He gave them a teasing grin as he put both his hands on his hips, "you both appear to be in good moods."

Both Izuku and Itsuka, having gotten to the beach at the same time, exchanged a small glance and smile as they nodded, looking back up at the Symbol of Peace as he paced before them in his true form, having been evidently waiting for them to arrive. Indeed, Izuku's heart had done a little somersault of happiness when he saw his new friend, and Itsuka in turn had been pretty happy to see him as well so bright and early in the morning, having greeted each other with a big high five before heading down the beach together to meet with their trainer.

"Now then," All Might clapped his hands, guiding them over to a couple of printers laying abandoned near the trash pile, "what we'll be starting with is focusing on moving these printers up to my truck. I'll leave you two to work together or separately to move them - I need to make a phone call to my office to get them working on a document from City Hall for us to work here, your mothers wanted me to bring them a copy this weekend during your first training with your grandfather, Young Kendou. After that, Young Midoriya, I'll have you practicing your quirk while Young Kendou works on getting the rest of those lockers up the hill. That sound good?"

"Yes, sir!" Both of them responded cheerfully, and All Might flashed them a grin and thumbs up as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, turning around to move around the hill for some privacy - the hero office probably didn't need to hear two teenagers straining and struggling to move something in the background.

Once he was out of sight, Itsuka and Izuku both carefully surveyed the printers, debating how to go about moving them off the beach.

"Okay, so obviously," She patted a large printer that obviously used to be in an office, "this one we're gonna have to work together for, there's no way either of us are gonna be able to move it if I'm not allowed to use my quirk. But these smaller ones, we can carry on our own."

"Alright," Izuku nodded, letting out a small grunt as he lowered himself down to his knees to grab the nearest one. Above him, Itsuka raised an eyebrow.

"Remember - lift with your legs -"

"- not my back," He finished for her, nodding and grunting as he lifted up the heavy printer. "I'm not making that mistake ever again."

"You got it?"

"I got it," He nodded at her, turning around and starting to head back up to the parking lot, letting out a few pants as he began moving up the stairs towards All Might's truck and letting Itsuka pick out which printer she wanted to grab first.

After about a minute of grunting and straining, Izuku let out a relieved sigh as he tossed the printer inside the hood of the white truck with a loud crash, raising a hand to wipe away his already sweaty forehead. Still though, he couldn't help but smile as he looked back at the beach, seeing the sun begin to rise in the distance and shower him in golden light.

Honestly, he still had his doubts, both about his quirk and his own progress, but the fact that he now knew Itsuka was in his corner filled him with encouragement. Now that he knew he had someone to rely on, he felt like he could -

"Deku?"

… oh no.

At the sound of the soft voice on his right, Izuku immediately stiffened up. The warm, happy thoughts he had been thinking immediately drained away, replaced by a sudden cold in his heart as it began slamming against his chest.

Slowly, Izuku turned his head, eyes widening and body beginning to shake at the sight of a familiar brown-haired girl standing before him, wearing her old black, white and red tracksuit, and staring at him in confusion and surprise as she slowly approached him. Izuku continued to stare at her in horror as he realized that he had been caught completely and utterly red handed.

"Deku," Ochako blinked, looking at him in confusion and concern, "what are you doing?"