Title: Reunited
Author: Altairadactyl
Rating: PG-13/FR15
Disclaimer: Compared to the majority of the shit that I write, this is a relatively simple disclaimer. Namely because the ownership of My Hero Academia is likewise simple: the entire thing belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.
Summary: "She didn't ghost me, she was just in the psych ward! Let's goooooo!"
Tara's Note: Someone sent me a screencap of ForeverIHYY's tweet because it reminded them of me, which I feel personally attacked by because I've only had like... five girlfriends end up in the psych ward at various points? Totally uncalled for. It immediately made me think of Himiko, though, and from there Himiko and Izuku. So I started scribbling this into Google Docs while at work and it just sort of went from there. Nothing deeper to the origins of this story, just me feeling goofy. Enjoy.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patre0n, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

"She didn't ghost me, she was just in the psych ward! Let's goooooo!"

Hopping out of his desk, Midoriya Izuku danced from foot to foot excitedly as he stared down at his phone. Unlike most of his classmates, he practiced relatively good phone etiquette at school: he kept his in the front pocket of his bag except at lunch time. Mostly because he didn't really have anyone to talk to at the moment: his mother would obviously contact the school if something serious came up and his girlfriend had disappeared into thin air three weeks ago. Except now she was back! And she wanted to see him! She was waiting for him at home, even! He had to get out of here!

Izuku leaned down, hastily shoving all of his textbooks and school supplies into his bright yellow backpack before realizing that all nineteen other students in the class were staring at him in varying levels of disbelief. Bakugo Katsuki seemed to be about a half step from an aneurysm, his jaw hanging wide open as his right eye twitched sporadically. Maybe he should get that looked at? Finally, it fell to the silver-haired YukI Mitsuki to ask what everyone was thinking. "Who didn't ghost you? Do you... have a girlfriend, Midoriya?"

Oh, he had said that out loud, hadn't he? Well, shouted it, technically. Because he was really happy and excited. Turning to face Yuki, Izuku swung his backpack up onto his shoulder before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I wasn't sure about it for the last few weeks... but yeah. She's a first year in high school from Nagoya. We met... well, I'm sure you don't want to hear about that."

"Yes we do!" Seisuigo Mizu scrambled out of her desk and down the aisle to tug at his sleeve eagerly, drawing his attention to her. "Because no offense, but you are literally the last person that we would have expected to be the first person in class to be dating someone. I think I speak for at least all seven of us girls when I say... I want to know literally absolutely everything about this girlfriend of yours."

The other five girls in the class scampered over to join them, not that Izuku knew any of their names. Quirks, sure. But given that nobody ever wanted to talk to him, he'd never bothered to learn most of their names. He knew Yuki because they sat near each other, and Seisuigo had once let him pester her about her hydrokinetic quirk before quickly tiring of his questions and rebuffing him the same way the rest of their peers did. One of the newcomers, a shorter girl with chin-length brown hair, planted both hands on his desk as she leaned in toward him. "I second what Mizu said. Tell us literally everything."

On one hand? She was waiting for him. On the other hand, his classmates were actually interacting with him and for once in his life it wasn't to bully him. She could wait just a few minutes, right? Nodding decisively, Izuku pulled his phone back out of his pocket and woke it, turning it so that the assembled group of girls could crowd in closer and see the screen. "This... is Himi-hime. She's from Naka Ward in Nagoya. We met when I took the train out there to look at a new hero merchandise store that was opening. The store had a super limited printing of All Might hoodies with glow in the dark accents and I got one of only two in my size. Someone tried to mug me for it outside the store and Himi-hime stepped in and chased the girl off."

A girl with red hair brought her hand up to her mouth as she giggled softly. "You almost got mugged by a girl? And she couldn't have even been very big if she could fit into the same hoody as you. You look like maybe a medium in unisex sizing. That's like, a Mitsuki-sized girl." All the girls looked over at Yuki, who was the second tallest in the class and decidedly non-threatening. "You got mugged by a girl who was one seventy tall?"

"She, uh, had a flame quirk? And I was worried that she'd try to set my bag of merchandise on fire? Or the hoody itself? Like, if she couldn't have it, nobody could?" Izuku raised his hands defensively at the exasperated looks on his classmates' faces. "But it didn't happen because Himi-hime stepped in and fought her off. And then we went and got dinner and at the end of the night, she gave me her number and it just sort of went from there."

Throughout his explanation, Yuki and Seisuigo were exchanging looks and a few gestures between them. Evidently Yuki won - or maybe lost? - whatever discussion they were having and turned to face him again. "You keep calling her Himi-hime. Just out of curiosity, do you mean 'hime' in the classical sense or like... the Kansai sense?" When Izuku just stared at her blankly, Yuki grimaced before leaning in a bit closer. "Did you buy yourself a girlfriend, Midoriya?"

"What? No! We're actually dating! Hime means... that? In Kansai-ben? I never knew." Izuku considered that for a second; maybe he should come up with a new nickname for Himiko? While they were far enough east that he'd never personally met someone who spoke that dialect, he... wait. That would explain some of the weird comments that had popped up from complete strangers on his Instagram and Twitter posts about the two of them. Yeah. He definitely needed to find a new nickname for his girlfriend. "Wait, how would that even work? I'm only fourteen."

Seisuigo bit back a laugh before gesturing down at... his shoes? "I mean, you wear those really slick red high tops all the time. They look expensive. And you have more hero merchandise than like, the next four boys in the class put together. Sure, you live in an apartment but that could just be your parents choosing to live a bit more modestly so they have more money for luxuries."

Opening and closing his mouth, Izuku tried to process that. "So you think because I have nice shoes and a lot of hero merchandise, I have prostitute levels of money?"

The seven girls exchanged awkward looks at that before the only other girl whose name he knew nodded slowly. It was incredibly strange to be interacting with Kayano Michiru of all people, given that she was generally regarded as the prettiest and most popular girl in their class. Izuku would agree with the former at a minimum; he'd always appreciated her long green hair in particular but had known his station and therefore never tried to talk to her.

"I mean, you're also quirkless and kind of weird so it wasn't a completely unreasonable guess that you'd have to pay a girl to spend time with you?" Kayano shrugged before reaching up to tap at his phone curiously. "So, we have Someone Himi-something. Who is evidently not dating you for money. What's her quirk? What's she like?"

Turning his phone back to face him, Izuku unlocked it and opened the Photos app, navigating to the 'Himiko' album - all three hundred and sixteen images of it - and picking one of her smiling widely at the camera. "Toga Himiko. And her quirk is Transform. If she drinks someone's blood, she can turn into them. It's actually a really powerful quirk. We thought it was just a simple physical transformation at first because she was experimenting with it using my blood but when we got her some samples from the hospital, it turns out that she copies quirks too!"

Kayano frowned, bringing her hand up to her neck? Was his mark showing? Oh wait, right, there'd been another boom in Western-influenced vampire media a decade or so back fueled by the debut of Vlad King and studios had yet to tire of making sequels of those films yet. That was the popular spot for vampires to feed from in those movies. Which was where Himiko had gotten the idea from, so it wasn't completely unreasonable for Kayano to make that assumption. "That sounds... weird. You let her drink your blood?"

Nodding enthusiastically, Izuku pulled the collar of his uniform to the side to show off the partially healed bite mark on his neck. It was actually the most healed it had been in a while, given that Himiko hadn't reopened it in over three weeks now. "We haven't gotten it tested yet, but we're pretty sure her saliva has anesthetic qualities. She licks the skin a few times first and then when she bites, you barely even feel it. Like getting your blood drawn at the doctor, except even less of a pinch."

"That's weird. You're weird. But she's weird too. So I guess it makes sense that you're being weird together." Yuki crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded Midoriya uncertainly. "I mean, evidently she's been in the mental hospital so I feel like you can't even deny that she's definitely weird."

Izuku nodded agreeably. "I feel like this is where most boys would say something like 'I can fix her' but honestly, whatever's wrong with her is way hotter." Yuki bit back a laugh at that even as Seisuigo and Kayano looked decidedly unimpressed with him. "As for what she's like? She's really cheerful and friendly. Absolutely loves all things cute. She actually picked her high school based on the uniform, because she didn't want to look ugly every day for the next three years." That made even Kayano crack a smile. "At the same time, she does have a mean streak and can get a bit violent. Like when she stabbed the girl trying to mug me. She doesn't have anger management issues like Kacchan-"

"The fuck you say?"

"-but she definitely has hemophilia." At the assembled girls' uniform look of curiosity and confusion, Izuku elaborated. "She's not going to attack you because she has a problem with you, she'll try to cut you because she wants to see you bleed. And she's super yandere. Like, I'd offer to bring one of you to meet her but she'd probably think you were trying to steal me and stab you." Pausing, Izuku considered some of the racier conversations that the two of them had. "Well, Kayano and Seisuigo, you're both kind of pretty and so she might try to stab you and she might try to kiss you. Fifty-fifty really. Probably don't want to take that risk, though."

If possible, the two girls he named looked even less impressed with his choice of girlfriend at that revelation. Kayano scoffed derisively. "I don't even like you and I'm still slightly concerned that you're dating someone who likes to stab people. Also, good luck ever trying to break up with her. We'll know it happened when the police start finding parts of you from here to Nagoya."

Izuku shook his head vigorously at the insinuation. "Oh, Himiko would never hurt me. Except for when she does. Which I kind of like, actually." As his classmates processed that, staring at him with the same dumbstruck expressions as when he first revealed he had a girlfriend, Izuku felt his phone buzz in his pocket again. Thump thump. Thump thump. A heartbeat vibration. Himiko. He quickly shrugged the other strap of his backpack onto his shoulder before waving awkwardly. "Uh, nice talking to you? Gotta go, though. Bye!"

Himiko awaited!

Several of the older tenants of his apartment complex were peering through the windows at the stranger loitering outside their building, but Izuku only had eyes for his girlfriend as he rushed up to her. She looked... a little worse for wear, to be honest, but Izuku imagined the food probably wasn't great at a psychiatric ward to say nothing of the atmosphere. She was wearing the 'THOTSFERATU' shirt that he had made for her with his trusty Cricut - source of so many of his questionable fashion decisions - and that made him smile even wider. He'd never stopped thinking about her during her absence and if how fast she'd made it to his apartment was anything to go by, the feeling was mutual.

Despite the fact that she was nine centimeters shorter than him, Himiko managed to lift him off his feet and spin him around as they collided in a desperate hug. "Ahh, I missed you so much! Your face! Your blood! Your mumbles! Your stupid shirts! Having to wear those super uncute hospital clothes for three weeks was a major drag. Except the socks. The socks were cute. I brought some home with me."

According to what Izuku had read on the train home, that wasn't uncommon. He had to agree, the ankle socks with the cute little grippy soles actually did look kind of cute. His hands coming to rest on her hips, Izuku hesitated for a second before deciding to be daring and press a brief kiss to her lips. In public, even! "Let's go upstairs and you can tell me everything."

"They actually kept me properly fed at the hospital and I learned a new trick from talking to their quirk counselors. You need to see it." Himiko let out a laugh as Izuku grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the stairwell eagerly, leading the way up to his apartment. "I'm going to be so far behind on my homework. You're going to need to tutor me so hard once I pick up all my remedial work tomorrow."

Given that he was working in excess of his grade level on most core subjects, Izuku was reasonably confident of his ability to get Himiko caught up on her homework and so he nodded agreeably. "You mean I get to see you twice in two days?"

Himiko let out a slightly nervous sounding laugh at that before shifting to show off that she was wearing a backpack of her own. A fairly large backpack, not one of the cute mini backpacks he'd seen her wear previously, and it strained to contain its cargo. "Uh, remember how you said your mom would probably love me and do anything for someone making you so happy?" Izuku nodded slowly, wondering where this was going. "So, my parents may have thrown me out. Like they picked me up from the hospital and let me pack a bag but I... may or may not be homeless at the moment."

It took him a moment to process what Himiko was implying by presenting him with that bit of information and then Izuku's eyes widened. "You mean you can actually move in here with me? No more pretending to stay at friends' houses and crashing here?" The blonde let out a relieved sigh and a laugh, and Izuku made an excited noise that was quite possibly only audible to dogs. "And you're sure that like, your parents aren't going to call the cops and the cops will show up here and they'll be like 'did you kidnap this girl, Midoriya' or anything like that?"

"No, my parents gave me an hour to pack up whatever stuff I wanted to take with me and then... good riddance. They made a point of telling me that they were taking my code out of our electronic door lock so I couldn't get back in. I'm pretty sure they're just... done with me at this point." Dipping her free hand into her pocket, Himiko pulled out her phone and showed it to him. "They didn't take this but they did shut off my account. Thank God I had your wifi password saved or I wouldn't have been able to message you when I got here."

Reaching the front door of his apartment, Izuku hurried to unlock it and usher Himiko inside. Slipping off his shoes in the genkan, he waited for her to do likewise before leading her down the hall to... "Do you think we should get a new nameplate?" The verdette turned to look back at Himiko, who was looking at him in confusion. "Well, this is going to be our room now. I feel like we need something that says 'Izuku and Himiko' or something."

Himiko giggled and reached out to brush her fingers against his All Might nameplate. "You're taking this really well. I was worried that you'd think this was taking things too fast, or that you'd just say no outright and I'd be out on the street."

"You're joking, right? You're literally the best thing to happen to me since I was four. I was ready for you to move in like, two weeks after we met." Blushing, Izuku opened his door and made his way inside, shrugging his backpack off and dropping it next to his desk. "Besides, now we can focus one hundred percent on getting you ready to apply to transfer to UA High next year. I did a lot of research while you were gone and-"

Holding up her hands, Himiko flopped over sideways onto his bed, staring at him with an amused smile on her face. "Do you really think that any hero school is going to accept me with my record? My academics are spotty and my mental health is... ehh."

Izuku shrugged in response. "But your quirk would be so amazing for a hero! Even just the spotlight hero implications; you're an instant force multiplier on any battlefield that you enter. Can you imagine if you teamed up with All Might to take down a villain and just... Detroit Smash! But then you add all the underground potential and then there's the infiltration and espionage opportunities, because you could literally replace anyone and infiltrate anywhere without anyone the wiser." As Himiko continued to just stare at him in amusement, he grabbed Hero Analysis for the Future: Volume H off his desk and opened to the last page that he'd written on. "I even figured out your hero name while you were gone: Selene. Goddess of the moon, but also a vampire from fiction. It's not as obvious as like, Carmilla or anything but how many Japanese people other than us and some chuunis would know who she is anyways?"

"You're still serious about that, then. Going into the management course at UA and learning to be my manger when I become a hero?" Izuku nodded excitedly and Himiko sat up just long enough to take her backpack off and drop it on the floor before tipping back over onto the bed. "Gahh, I don't even know if I want to become a hero. So many people just hate me for who I am and so a really big part of me is like... good riddance."

Scooting his desk chair across the floor, Izuku closed the distance between them and took Himiko's hands in his. "But think of how inspiring you could be for all the other people out there who are hated for their quirks? You could be a role model for little boys and girls whose only crime was to be born different from what society says is useful and acceptable."

Himiko nibbled on her lower lip as she considered that, her yellow eyes narrowing as her brow furrowed in thought. "I could probably also be an advocate for mental health services. Address the stigma associated with mental illness, encourage people to get help, push for more funding and expanded access."

"Yes! All of that!" Slipping one hand out of hers, Izuku leaned back to grab his Volume H notebook and dropped it on the bed next to their hands so he could add notes. "I didn't want to assume that you'd ever be comfortable about talking about that sort of thing openly but if you were, of course we could make that a facet of your community engagement. Your medication is brand name, right? Maybe we could approach them about a sponsorship? I don't think anyone's ever done that before."

Snorting, Himiko scooted a little closer on the bed so that she could plop her head on top of his notebook, blocking his ability to take notes as she nuzzled against his hand. "I mean, Ingenium has a juice sponsorship because his engines run on it. I suppose a sponsorship from Big Pharma because it keeps me running isn't really any different."

Izuku grinned and leaned down to press his lips to Himiko's temple as she nuzzled his hand. "So do you want to try? I've got some costume designs based off patterns that I found online; I'm pretty sure that mom can sew you a basic costume to learn how to fight in. I came up with a meal plan that includes food we can probably mix blood into so you can fuel up without just sitting there chomping on blood bags. And I had the greatest idea while you were gone: there's this beach nearby that's an absolute mess and we can try to clean part of it as a free way to work out and get stronger."

Sitting up, Himiko pulled her hand out of his and clenched her fists determinedly. "You know what? I refuse to accept what my parents told me. I don't have a villainous quirk. I'm not a monster. You're right, I can absolutely be a hero! So let's start training!" Izuku hopped to his feet excitedly and Himiko stared up at him for a few seconds before flopping over sideways on his bed again. "Maybe after cuddles. I need cuddles to function and I haven't had any in three weeks."

"You know what? That's absolutely valid. Scoot over." Himiko wiggled backwards across the bed as Izuku returned his notebook and pencil to the desk before sprawling out next to her. After shifting around on the bed for a few seconds, he frowned. "Going to need to buy a bigger bed. This isn't bad for once in a while, but I feel like it'll get cramped for long-term sharing."

"Not to mention if we get a girlfriend."

"Are you still thinking about that?"

"Are you not?"

...fair enough.