Izuku Midoriya and Kyouka Jirou - a new era begins.
It had been another sleepless night for Kyouka Jirou. Another sleepless night of tossing and turning, staring at the clock, and trying to catch a dream. Another sleepless night filled with thoughts that could not be ignored.
But everything was different this time.
Instead of thinking about whether Midoriya liked her, she could only think about Midoriya saying his feelings to her. Instead of wondering whether they would ever hold hands, she could only think about them holding hands during the entire concert. Instead of wishing that she could be brave enough to ask Midoriya out, she could only think about Midoriya being her boyfriend.
Her anxieties had evaporated into a victorious adrenaline.
She did not have to worry about whether Ashido would meddle with her and Midoriya. She did not have to worry about Midoriya choosing Uraraka over her. She did not have to worry about whether any of the other girls would slip up by accident.
Her secret was out. And her dream had come true. It was all reality at last.
"Mmm… I won…" Jirou mumbled.
She then thought about their walk back to UA after the concert. Not many words were exchanged. They just enjoyed the moment, as they held one another's hand, and smiled at each other. It was everything they ever wanted. At one point, Jirou did ask Midoriya whether she was dreaming, but Midoriya reassured her that it was certainly not a dream.
Their first date, a Deep Dope concert, had been as successful as it could have possibly been.
When they had returned to the dorms, no one was hanging out in the common area that evening. Everyone had already called it a night, either studying away in their room, or already asleep awaiting the next day.
"No one saw us… holding hands… thank goodness," a half-asleep Jirou managed to articulate.
Once they had gotten back, they went to their respective rooms, and shared one more hug for good measure. She could only imagine how Midoriya felt once they were separated. As soon as she had entered her room, she immediately dropped onto her bed. Although she was exhausted from the concert, as fun as it was, the thought of sleeping was impossible to her.
But still, she had classes the following day, so sleep then became the priority after a few hours.
"Ugh, classes… Wait. Classes."
Jirou sat up and caught her breath.
"We're going to see everyone today - in class. Everyone - Mina - Uraraka - crap!"
Jirou was wide awake now.
"What time is it - an hour before homeroom starts. Whew, I need to calm down."
She then fumbled around to find her phone, finally finding it on the floor halfway across her room. After composing a quick text message to Midoriya, she got up and started to get ready for the day ahead. It would be an early start to a busy day for Jirou.
Although his mornings always started with a morning run, this run was completely different for Midoriya.
By nature, he was a thinker. A monologuer, as Ilda once put it earlier in the year. So, whenever he went on a run, it was the perfect time for Midoriya to reflect on things that weighed on his mind. Usually, this resulted in long, detailed analyses of various heroes, whether they be his classmates or professionals. He would also think about what he had been doing well and what he needed to improve on when it came to One For All and his classes. And, more recently, Jirou was the center of his attention on his morning walks. Did she like him? Did she care about him? Was she a friend, or something more, or something entirely else? These were the questions that would always consume Midoriya to begin the day.
But none of those things happened today.
Instead, his thoughts were silent. He had a huge smile stuck to his face. He was soaking in the fact that, against all the odds, Kyouka Jirou was his girlfriend. It was all reality at last.
"I won, finally," Midoriya said, the first words he had said on his walk.
While he laid in bed the prior night, Midoriya had thought about how the day would go now that he and Jirou would be together. They had not really discussed how the logistics would work the night before, as they were too awestruck to think about those sort of things.
"Oh man, I wonder how my mom will react to this," Midoriya chuckled. "I wonder how everyone will react? Oh, Tokoyami would be surprised after everything we talked about. And All Might, how will he react - "
"React to what, Deku?"
Midoriya was all too familiar with the voice he heard behind him. It was not a voice he longed to hear, but he had heard it too many times over the years to not recognize it, nonetheless. Turning around only confirmed his suspicions.
"Kacchan, you're up early."
"Damn right I am. What the hell are you mumbling about with reacting and shit? It better not be about One - your quirk," Bakugou said, as he quickly caught himself from yelling 'One For All.'
Bakugou's question only caused Midoriya to grin. It was a full-on, 'I know something you don't' smirk that would tempt just about anyone to learn what they were not aware of. No words came to Midoriya's mouth in that moment. He could see Bakugou's irritation continue to rise as the silence between them grew longer and longer.
"What are you smiling about, dumbass? Did you figure something out about your quirk or not? It's a yes or no answer," Bakugou said.
"It's not about my quirk at all," Midoriya finally assured.
"Then why are you smirking then, stupid?"
"Uh, Kyouka and I, are... yeah," Midoriya said.
"No way. No freaking way, Deku... Well, I don't give a shit about that kind of stuff. Just don't slip up about your quirk around her, idiot," Bakugou said, walking past Midoriya before striding into a jog.
Once Bakugou was out of earshot, Midoriya sighed. He found it weird - a good kind of weird - to refer to having a girlfriend to someone else, even if he had not used the actual word 'girlfriend' at the time. It was something he had always longed to be able to say. Even if Bakugou was not the first person he envisioned talking about his girlfriend with, at least that 'first' was out of the way.
"Let's wrap this run up. I can't wait to see my girlfriend today," Midoriya said, his grin never fading all the way back to the dorms.
Later that morning, when homeroom was just about to start, most of the class was already in their seats, waiting for Aizawa to show up just in time for the beginning of the school day. Among those already in the room were Ashido, Uraraka and Jirou, although Midoriya had not yet arrived. Jirou found it rather strange, given that he was usually one of the first to arrive to homeroom on most days. Her worries grew when she realized that he had not yet answered her text from that morning.
"I hope that concert didn't drain him out too much..." Jirou thought to herself.
Uraraka, on the other hand, sat restlessly awaiting for another day of classes to start. She had hoped that Midoriya would have shown up before Jirou, but that was not the case that particular morning.
With two minutes before homeroom starting, however, Midoriya entered the room. Uraraka gave a quick, nervous wave to him, while Midoriya took his seat. Once he was settled, Jirou immediately went over to him.
"Hey... Izuku, I hoped you enjoyed the concert last night. Did you not get my text this morning?" Jirou said, causing Uraraka's heart to flutter as she overheard.
"Oh, I'm sorry Kyouka, I haven't even looked at my phone all morning. I leave it silenced during my morning runs. Um, was it anything urgent?" Midoriya replied.
"Not really. Just, uh, look when you have a chance," Jirou said. "Can we have lunch together later today?"
"Of course! Crap, Kyouka, go to your desk, Aizawa sensei will be here in 10 seconds!"
Jirou made a quick dive to her seat, giving a quick 'thank you' wave to Midoriya as Aizawa strolled into the room.
"Shoot, I wish we could just be alone so we could talk about the concert last night. No way I'm risking one of us slipping up in front of the entire class." Jirou thought.
Ashido squirmed in her seat as she saw the two of them converse, as she was certain that they both blushed while they talked to one another. Uraraka, on the other hand, was annoyed at yet another failed opportunity to talk to Midoriya.
"Good morning, class," Aizawa said. "Today is going to be extremely busy. Be ready to work hard."
"Yes, sensei," the class groaned in unison, followed by a grunt from Bakugou.
Despite the morning classes feeling like they would never end for Midoriya and Jirou, they were finally over. It was time for lunch at last. It was an opportunity to be together at last.
They went to separate lines, both feeling butterflies, knowing that this lunch was going to feel very different from past ones. There was nothing to hide from each other now. It was exactly what they wanted.
After getting his lunch, Midoriya noticed Jirou at a table near the end of the cafeteria - a table neither of them had sat at before. Barely anyone was over near the corner Jirou was at, since most people crammed the middle tables in the room. However, Midoriya could not help but smile as he passed by everyone else, walking over to the corner before taking a seat across Jirou at the table.
"Perfect spot, right?" Jirou said.
"I mean, any spot is perfect as long as you're here," Midoriya said, leading to a chuckle. "So what made you pick this corner, anyways?"
Jirou looked down at her food. She then made a quick glance up, with Midoriya's eye contact keeping her eyes locked onto his.
"Well, so people don't overhear us talking about stuff," Jirou finally said. "Izuku, can you do me a big favor?"
"Yeah?"
"Keep our - " Jirou stopped as she quickly glanced around the room. "Keep our relationship a secret between the two of us for now."
"Sure, but any reason why?" Midoriya said, not even realizing the confused look on his face that Jirou immediately noticed.
"Don't take it the wrong way, it has nothing to do with you or me. I'm just... so excited to be with you, but I really don't want people in our class to know yet. There's some people in this class that would act like 5 year old's if they found out we're together. I just don't want to deal with that quite yet, you know? I want to enjoy being with you, Izuku," Jirou said.
"No, I totally understand. And the last thing we want is to create a distraction in a class for future heroes of all things," Midoriya said. "Just, um, when should we tell the others, then?"
Jirou sighed. She figured that would be his next question.
"Later. Just not yet. It's just... such a long story."
"I like listening to your long stories, Kyouka," Midoriya said, causing her to chuckle yet again.
"It's just that a lot of people in our class figured out that I liked you. And then they interrogated me about it. It really bothered me to be honest... and I don't want them to mess with us now that we're together, Izuku."
Midioriya gave a blank stare at Jirou, causing her face to heat up. She had no idea where this conversation was going. Their first true conversation as partners.
Jirou tried to continue. "I don't even - "
"Kyouka, you don't need to explain it. I trust you. We'll keep this a secret for as long you want. I just want to enjoy being with you too."
Jirou's anxieties finally disappeared as a smile crept onto her face.
"I really appreciate it. I just want to be with you every day, every moment, without worrying what others think," Jirou said.
"Me too, Kyouka! Like when we went over to your house, or when we worked on that project together, and the Deep Dope concert last night. Being with you makes everything even better," Midoriya stumbled out.
"Hey, speaking of Deep Dope, that's what I texted you about. Wasn't that the best thing you've ever been to?"
"It was amazing! So deep, so dope," Midoriya chuckled.
"Even better than an All Might convention?" Jirou smirked.
"Okay, don't go that far, but it's definitely up there," Midoriya said.
Seeing that their lunch period was almost over, the two of them quickly began to eat their lunches. They knew they would need all of the energy they could get for their upcoming hero class that afternoon. Aizawa had promised a 'busy' day for them, which often meant a very intense class of some sort. The last thing a student wanted was to feel hungry while at work in training.
"Izuku, what are you doing for the Cultural Festival?" Jirou then interjected between bites.
"Oh, the Cultural Festival, I haven't even thought about that yet. Are you doing anything?" Midoriya asked.
"I have no idea. How about we do something together then?"
"Definitely! That would make it even better than just doing something by ourselves."
After Midoriya's agreement, the bell rang, signifying the end of the lunch period.
"Lunch went by way too quickly. Let's meet up somewhere after class," Jirou said.
"See you in class, Kyouka," Midoriya said.
As promised by Aizawa, it was indeed a busy, stressful and grinding class for Class 1A in the heroics course.
Almost everyone was wore out by the end of the class. All of the energy that the students had at the start of the class from lunch had been drained. Class had ran so long, in fact, that the students unlucky enough to be placed in the last group session were forced to stay late to finish their training, while everyone else was dismissed on time. And to make matters worse for Midoriya and Jirou, they were separated from one another for the entire duration of the class. Even worse, perhaps, was that Jirou was in the final group. She would have to stay late.
The last group comprised of Jirou, Tokoyami, Sero, Bakugou and Asui. The goal for today's training exercise was to be the first person in the group to rescue a fake 'lost civilian' placed randomly on the test grounds. Midoriya had hoped to stay for the last group to watch Jirou, but Aizawa told him to leave, and there was no way that Midoriya was going to raise an objection to him.
Jirou moved around the test ground, searching for any sound that the dummy civilian could possibly make, but she heard nothing. All she heard was a flurry of explosions from Bakugou, and the occasional ribbit from Asui.
"Boom!" Jirou then overheard an aggressively loud voice yell from a distance.
"Bakugou has rescued the civilian. This session is over. You are dismissed," Aizawa said over the intercom system.
"It'd be nice if they could've made the stupid fake civilian actually make noise so my quirk would actually help me..." Jirou muttered.
Once Jirou was in and out of the locker room, she finally felt relieved. The school day was over. She had all the time in the world to spend with Midoriya for the rest of the day. They could go anywhere, at any time, without worrying about others noticing them together. It was just a matter of where to go first at this point.
"I can't wait to be with my boyfriend... that's so amazing to say," Jirou said under her breath.
"Lobes!"
Jirou jumped upon hearing a voice behind her. She thought she was by herself, but somehow, even with her quirk, someone had actually been behind her.
"Bakugou? What do you want?" Jirou stopped, turning around to see the one who interrupted her.
"I don't want anything. Just wanted to say congrats, or whatever," Bakugou said.
Jirou felt her heart drop.
"Con-congrats on what? You won I thought, I'm the one that lost," Jirou said.
"Congrats on getting Deku - actually, maybe I should say 'good for you' instead, ha."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Don't you have somewhere better to be?"
Bakugou raised an eyebrow. "Deku said you're together or some shit to me this morning. If you don't know what I'm talkin' about, ya got a way bigger problem on your hands."
"This is ridiculous... I have no idea why Izuku would tell you something like that, but you better not tell anyone about this, got it?" Jirou said.
"Oh, so you two are together - well, I don't give a shit and I've got no one to tell anyways," Bakugou said.
"Yeah, now zip it," Jirou confirmed.
Jirou came to a stop as Bakugou huffed and walked towards the dorms. A mixture of anger, confusion and irritation overwhelmed her thoughts and emotions at the moment. Right when she thought she was finally in control of the situation after all of the controversy with Ashido, it had spiraled away once again.
"Why would Izuku tell Bakugou of all people... he better have not told anyone else. I should've asked him to keep this thing a secret last night, he wouldn't have known not to say anything this morning. Crap..."
A/N: The first school day of Midoriya and Jirou as a couple is in the books. What will happen next? See you next time for Chapter 27! Thank you for favoriting, following and reviewing!