Chapter 36
Izuku could not stop smiling the next day at work. Most people knew him as a fairly positive person, but the constant lovelorn glances and lovesick, puppy-dog eyes were a bit much. He couldn't help it though. Anytime he had tried to focus on his paperwork, he couldn't help but picture Alyssa's lips on his and the rush that it gave him anytime he thought about their time together and how much he craved more of it; the fact that he still had her flower pen probably didn't help, each sharp twitch of the pen sending new waves of lavender his way, especially when he tucked it by his ear. Outside of getting excited when he was about to meet up with All Might, Izuku couldn't think of any other time he had wanted to be around another person this badly before.
"You sure are thirsty," Kaminari commented with a slight smirk.
Deku, who had chosen to daydream over by the water-cooler, had his cup overflowing onto his hand before he pulled back with a start. "Oh! Sorry! I had something else on my mind."
"I'll bet. Looks like somebody had a good night out," he teased, causing Izuku to laugh nervously and take a sheepish sip from his cup.
"Don't you dare deny it, mon amie. You've had a twinkle in your eye since you walked in this morning," Aoyama tut-tutted, appearing from the kitchen after reloading the rat traps if the smell of camembert was any indication; then again, he could have just had a snack. "I take it the date with your belle fille went well then?"
"It went amazingly well," Izuku admitted, regaling his co-workers with the date he'd had with Alyssa on Sunday. He knew better than to tell them everything- inexperienced as he was, the can-do hero knew it was polite not to kiss-and-tell, especially when there had been quite a lot of kissing -but even the abridged version had him blushing up a storm.
"So it wasn't just a date then?" asked Kaminari. "You're all official now?"
"I guess so," Izuku shrugged and received a few congratulatory shoulder pats and back slaps.
"Good for you, man, but tone down the star-struck lover look a bit. Not everyone had an amazing day like you did and we still need to get through the weekend paperwork before six."
"Sorry," Izuku apologized though he was still unable to rid the smile from his face completely.
"Don't mind him. He's just upset that he has to do all of our paperwork for the next month. Speaking of which," Aoyama held his hand out expectantly towards Kaminari. The stun-guy hero sighed and went into his wallet before handing the shining hero five thousand yen.
"Man... I knew I should have bet the other way the night she showed up at the party. Girls are always a sucker for a pro-hero," Kaminari grumbled to himself. "How did she react when you told her you were in the top twenty? I bet she was real happy to have locked you down when she did."
For the first time that morning, Izuku felt his smile drop from his face, sobering instantly at Kaminari's words. She didn't know. They were together in a committed relationship and Alyssa still didn't know who he really was. She had kissed him without knowing who he actually was. Noticing his boss's sudden pallor change, Kaminari's teasing halted. "Wait, you mean she still doesn't know?"
"...No."
"Oh man... Dude, you gotta tell her."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
Izuku bit the inside of his cheek. "It's... complicated."
"Well, she knows you're still a pro-hero, oui?"
"Technically, yes, she knows I'm a pro-hero and that my hero name is Deku, but she doesn't know that we're the same person."
Both blondes stared at him, uncomprehending and vague, like they had missed an entire novel. "...Man, I am so lost."
Rather than go into it, Izuku explained in a rush, "Look, I'm going to tell her eventually! It just hasn't been the right moment yet. Everything's been going so well so far. I just don't want to screw that up." It had been such an upward climb to this point. Izuku didn't want it all to go downhill from here because of one misunderstanding. They had only been out on one date, two technically if they counted Kacchan's birthday party. Their relationship was in a delicate state right now. What if he told her and Alyssa never spoke to him again or worse- what if it changed her feelings for him? What if she could no longer see him as Izuku Midoriya but only as Deku, the eighteenth pro-hero on the Japanese hero leader-board and her all time favorite hero and celebrity crush? It was true that he had seen plenty of examples of her not flipping out over pro-heroes, but he had also witnessed her level of excitement when she gushed about heroes with him. It was entirely possible that she had just internalized all of her feelings to make him feel better. He prayed that would never be the case, but he was in too deep to find out now. All that he knew was that he wasn't ready to tell her yet.
The stun-gun hero offered him a sympathetic smile before the former glanced once over Izuku's shoulder and the smile shifted into one of alarm. "Well it looks like you're about to get your chance-" Kaminari gestured towards the door behind him. "-'cause she's about to walk through the front door right now."
"What?" Izuku turned and spotted a tall, dark figure standing outside of the entrance of his building, wearing a blue jean jacket and a black romper. Alyssa was here!? Why was she here? She couldn't see him! Not like this! Not when he still hadn't told her yet. In a split second decision, Izuku ducked under the front desk.
"What are you doing?"
"I can't let her see me in my hero costume!" Izuku called back in a harsh whisper, giving Kaminari wide, panicked signals with his eyes to stall as he scrambled towards the break-room where his civilian clothes were kept.
"Dude, you are making this way more complicated for yourself than it needs to b- heeeeey Alyssa!" Izuku crawled faster for the hallway, using Kaminari's voice as a way to mask his noisy army-crawl. He just slipped past the doorway to the break-room before he scrambled to his feet for the lockers and screen room divider, input his combination, flung open his locker and yanked out a pair of pants he had hanging inside.
"Oh... Hey, uh," Alyssa trailed off. "...Genki, right?"
"Denki. Denki Kaminari."
"Oh, sorry. I'm really bad with names."
"That's alright. So what brings you here?"
"I umm wanted to know if Izuku is in. Is he here?"
His hands quickly undid the clasps for his respirator and went for the zipper underneath his chin and start unzipping and peeling off his costume before he found his movements halted, arms snagging on the arm bracers that he had forgotten to undo.
"Is she asking about Deku?" asked another female voice, mostly likely Kobayashi, who had just come back from the bathroom.
"Yes, that's right! Deku! Is he here? I wanted to give him something."
"Do you have an appointment?" she asked with a dull, uninterested tone while Izuku silently thanked his lucky stars that Kobayashi had been the one one covering desk duty today instead of Momozono, who was off today, and that Aoyama's cousin had such an abrasive personality, buying him more time to fight against the complicated arm bracers that snapped onto his costume almost like industrial strength magnets.
"Uhh... no. I just wanted to stop by and say 'hi' and give him something."
"I'll bet," Kobayashi said in a way that made Izuku feel hot under the collar, causing him to accidentally smack himself in the face after pulling his hand free from one of his gloves, the tops of which were buttoned firmly into the upper arms of his costume. He held the side of his face tenderly before going to free the other arm.
"You can leave it here if you want," Kaminari offered. "I'll make sure he gets it."
"Umm... I kinda wanted to give it to him in person. Is he here?"
Izuku rushed to tug off his thigh-high padding, causing him trip and knee the side of bench while trying to keep himself from falling over. Why couldn't he calm down and be quiet for like five minutes!?
"He's..." Izuku was fumbling with his shoes now, trying to pinch and press the release clasps of his iron soles before yanking them off, knocking over the changing screen with a profound clatter. Why did Hatsume make these soles so damned hard to get off? "-indisposed at the moment."
"Oh... If it helps, I can wait here for him until-"
"I wouldn't. It might be awhile. He's very busy. If you want, I can leave a message for you."
No! Izuku shrieked internally. He didn't want her to go away! He just needed her to wait until he was finished changing.
"...Sure. Okay. Tell him Alyssa Blake just wanted to drop by and say hi and..." Izuku could hear the disappointment in her voice, making him try and strip that much faster. Whoever had done the animation for superhero quick changes like they did on TV shows clearly never had to take off forty pounds of equipment before. Having shimmed into his pants now, Izuku was shoving his feet into his boots, having to have to re-lace them since his jumpsuit extended down towards the arches of his feet.
"...and tell him I said thanks for Sunday and that I'm sorry that I missed him and- I'm sorry, is everything okay back there? That sounds pretty bad."
"Oh it's fine. We just have a little uhhh pest control problem. Nothing too serious."
"Like what?" she joked. "You keeping bulls back there?"
"No, just a rat."
"Oh... Well, good luck with that."
"Thank you for coming, Blake-san. It was very... enriching to see you," Kobayashi replied with uncharacteristic smile on her face. Alyssa was giving her farewells and had just turned down the street when Izuku burst through the lobby office.
"Wait!" Izuku called out, taking off like a shot through the doors, barely able to catch up to Alyssa before she disappeared into the crowd. He probably looked like an absolute wreck to her, showing up in a sweat-stained 'All M' shirt and wrinkled pair of slacks held up by a belt that missed a few loops. She didn't seem to care about that as her confused expression about who had called out to her morphed into a grin that widened at the sight of him. "...'Hello there~'"
"Hi."
"Hi," she repeated back, both of them still staring at each other and trading smiles. "Okay more words." Izuku shared in her awkward laughter. She always looked so cute when she was embarrassed, always tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "How are you?"
"Good. Great, actually. How are you?"
"Better now that I've seen you," she said coyly, mirroring his bashful grin before she winced. "...that sounded super cringy didn't it?"
"Not at all." Because of their height different, Izuku couldn't help but notice that up-close, not only was Alyssa wearing the necklace he had given her, but that it hung just above the bust line of her low-cut romper, which appeared to be covered with animal fur. The fine clumps of hair contrasted heavily against the black fabric. Realizing that he was probably staring at her chest, Izuku coughed, "You rescue a cat from a tree on the way over here?"
Alyssa looked herself over before waving, "Oh, that's from the therapy rabbit at my work. I take care of her in addition to planning activities, although if you need a cat, I know a good mouser. Sounds like you need the help."
"Ha ha... maybe? I might take you up on that." Izuku gave her a non-committal shrug while Alyssa started picking a bit at the black fabric on her chest, little rabbit hairs floating in the air as her eyes went to him and pointed to her own ear. "What about you? Did you just come from a luau or do you always wear flowers in your hair and I just never noticed?"
Now it was Izuku's turn to be confused, hand fumbling up towards his ear before his fingers found the satin flower pen perched above his ear and pulled it out. "Oh, that. Forgot I put that there," he chuckled awkwardly before holding it out to her. "Actually, I've been meaning to give this to you for awhile now." Alyssa's cheeks reddened as her lips stretched into a modest smile, probably getting the impression that he was giving her a flower, but her face changed the instant she realized what he was handing her.
"That's my pen..!" she gasped, appearing a whole new level of excited. "I've been looking for this for forever! Where was it?"
"You dropped it on the subway the day we first met. Sorry for keeping it so long. I've been meaning to give it back, but I kept forgetting."
"You mean... you've been hanging onto this the entire time?"
His face burned scarlet, suddenly aware of what he had just confessed as his fingers laced together, twiddling his thumbs nervously. "W-Well it was a good pen and so prettily made, it felt like a waste to just throw it out, and it was too late to catch you before the doors closed and I-" His nervous muttering and fidgeting ceased the instant he felt her hands pull his apart and lace her fingers over his.
"Thank you. That's very sweet of you." She squeezed his hands and Izuku couldn't help the goofy grin that spread on his face. A warm haziness fell over the two of them, encapsulating them in a bubble of their own making before he cleared his throat again.
"So uhh.. what are you doing here?" he asked. "Was there something you needed?"
"No, I just missed you and wanted to stop by and say hello on my way from work."
"Oh... well feel free to stop by anytime." He smiled before she pulled him into a hug, one he accepted willingly.
"I had a nice time on Sunday," she hummed into his shoulder, causing him to melt into her at the memory.
"...Yeah?"
"Mmhhmm... I couldn't stop thinking about you at work today."
"Me too," he admitted with a bashful grin. "Actually, everyone's been making fun of me for looking so cheerful on a Monday."
"I know, right? It's like 'what do you have to be so cheerful about?'"
"Do you want to stick around? If you want, I could whip up us some tea."
"No, that's alright. I don't want to keep you or anything. I just wanted to stop by and give you this." For a moment, he almost thought she was going to lean down and kiss him like they had done on the beach. Instead, she pulled out a yellow, manila folder from her bag and held it out to him. Curious, he took the folder from her and opened it while Alyssa explained in a rush, "They're a rough draft of your business card. It took me awhile, since my color printer was deciding to be a butt and refuse to print files with pictures on them. I'm still playing with some ideas, but these look the neatest and most professional out of all the sketches..."
"Holy whoa! This looks amazing!" Izuku stared in awe at the new business card, admiring the comic-book style with the red and blue backing and yellow Ben-Day dots before turning it over and finding more elaborately drawn panels. "You even made the back into a comic-book panel!"
"Well, I figured since you liked heroes so much, a comic book would be the best way to go," said Alyssa before she quickly added, "This is the one exception to using Comic Sans, since I was technically still working with a comic book, so don't think I just bend the rules for all of my projects."
Overcome by his feelings, the pro-hero could only pull Alyssa into another hug, trying to hide and sniff back the tears that were starting to well up. What was he getting so worked up over? It was just a business card. So what if it blew his card out of the water and that she had made it just for him? That wasn't anything to cry about. "Thank you... I love it."
"Really? You don't think it's too generic? Because I worried that it could be any pro-hero agency's card or accidentally come off as a card for a comic book store."
Izuku considered this for a moment, his girlfriend having brought up some valid points before shaking his head. "We can talk about adding some personal details later. Thank you so much for doing this for me. This means a lot to me. You really didn't have to do this."
"Aww, it's okay, sweetie. I'm happy to do it."
Cliché as it was, he swore his heart skipped a beat at the word. "Sweetie?"
"Oh... did that sound too condescending? Masako says I shouldn't call people 'sweetie' since it's not very professional."
"No, I... I d-don't mind." Izuku suddenly felt very hot, holding her hands in his. He wanted to say something interesting to her, but he was coming up with nothing. Any courage to kiss her had also flown out of the window, now that they were outside and in public, but he wanted to do something. Anything!
"So listen, I was wondering if maybe you would like to do something this Friday," Alyssa suggested, "if you're not too busy with hero work, that is."
"I'd love to," Izuku replied almost instantly. "Do you want to go see a movie or something? I'm not sure what's playing right now but we could always-"
"Actually... I was thinking, maybe we could hang out and watch the premiere of Might-T together. That's supposed to be this weekend, right?"
Izuku paused in realization. He had forgotten. For the first time in twenty years, he had forgotten about something surrounding his intense love of All Might. He had been just so wrapped up in all of the excitement of work and Alyssa that the TV show had completely slipped his mind. For one moment, he had forgotten his mindless distractions like work and comic updates. For one moment, he had forgotten his grief. For one moment, he had forgotten about All Might, and he wasn't sure exactly how he felt about that.
"Yes. That sounds like fun. What time do you want to come over?" Izuku asked, already starting to comply of list of things he would have to do. He would have to get the apartment ready, pick up a few discarded shirts on the ground, and of course he would have to make dinner for her. He had never had a girl over before. What if she saw all of his All Might memorabilia and ran straight back out the door?
"Actually... I was thinking we could... maybe... do it at my place," Alyssa suggested, suddenly appearing small and vulnerable.
"Y-Your place?"
"Yeah... My mother and sister are going away to a spa retreat this weekend with a couple of our neighbors, and I have to work, so we'll have the whole place to ourselves," she conceded with a shy smile. Izuku's heart thumped wildly inside his chest, finding yet another reason to be nervous. They would be there alone?! He had never been invited over at a girl's apartment before, most girls finding him to be beneath them or not close enough to reach that point in their friendship, let alone been together alone with one. It should be fine though, right? They had only been on one date, and it's not like he was going to try anything. But what if it was like all of those American TV shows with the third date rule, the one which involved s-s-se-se-?
"...you okay there, Freckles?"
"FINE!" he squeaked a little more loudly than he'd liked. "I'm fine!"
"Okay, weirdo," she giggled before giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek, causing him to melt a little. "So I'll see you Friday, say around six o'clock?"
"Yeah..." he sighed dreamily, agreeing without another thought.
"Great! It's a date." She beamed at him before glancing at her watch. "Well... I better take off. I told my Mom I'd be home by 6:30 today."
"Okay..." Midoriya had barely registered that she was leaving until he felt her hands slip from his. The lack of warmth snapped him back into reality. They were about to go out on another date, this time at her place, and she still didn't know who he was. What if they were watching Might-T together and Deku suddenly showed up on the evening news? He had to tell her. He had to! "Alyssa?"
She stopped and turned towards him expectantly. "Ya?"
"There's something I want to tell you..."
"What?"
"I..." he began, his tongue suddenly feeling like it was made out of lead. Why was this so hard? Just say it! Just open your mouth and say- "I had a nice time on Sunday too," he finished lamely, chickening out at the last second. He couldn't do it. He couldn't tell her now. She had just made a business card for him and had just invited him for a date at her house, a date that she would be managing and planning, and to watch Might-T, of all shows to possibly watch with her!
Alyssa, oblivious to his inner turmoil, covered her hands over her mouth, cheeks burning red as she looked away from him. She did this for a couple of minutes when, without warning, she strode back over towards him, took his face into her hands and tilted it upward before impulsively kissing him fully on the lips. Izuku squeaked into her mouth from the contact, barely giving him a chance to react and kiss back before she broke away, leaving a tingling sensation on his lips. She smiled shyly at his dumbstruck expression, mouth stretching in a way that her dimples showed on her pink dusted cheeks before her dark eyes stared into his startled green ones then roamed to look over his shoulder.
The greenette turned and saw, much to his dismay, that they'd had an audience. He received a few whoops and hollers along with a couple thumbs-up through the window which he answered with a shaky wave back, along with Kira-Kira holding out her hand towards Kaminari, who slapped yet another five thousand yen into her sharpened claw. Alyssa let out a nervous chortle before retreating back a step and shyly slunk unapologetically off towards the train station without another word. Izuku waved a numb farewell, feeling a mixture of embarrassment, guilt, and burgeoning affection solidifying in the pit in his stomach, all while giving him a sliver of courage.
His mind was made up. During their date on Friday, he would tell her. He had all week to plan on it.
Author's Note: For anyone who asks, yes, Alyssa's 'hello there' is an Obi-Wan Kenobi quote reference from Star Wars. The only other reference is the telephone booth quick change from Superman.
