Momo Yaoyorozu had always been in love with one person - Shoto Todoroki. He was always the target of her appreciation and love. That was until one fateful day, where an exchange student joined Class 1-A. His name, Akira Togata.
One would think that Akira was related to Mirio Togata in Class 3-A, but no, they don't even look anything alike. While Mirio Togata was an energetic, enthusiastic teenager with a bright smile always on his face, Akira was anything that wasn't.
He was cold, distant, never smiled, much like Todoroki, Momo clearly had a type. Akira was tall for his age, although not much taller than anyone else in Class 1-A, he had short dark hair, often wore baggy clothing, breaking school uniform code - much to Momo's dismay - and had a scar that ran over his left eye, that eye being pure white.
It was no surprise that Akira would often be alone, whether it be in class, or the cafeteria, but what would be a surprise is Momo seeing Akira standing in front of her, a red tint to his cheeks as he proclaimed his love to her. But… I think we're going too quickly, let's go back to that fateful day, where Akira first joined U.A.
It was an ordinary day in Class 1-A, bound to be full of chaos as the previous week was the USJ incident. Katsuki Bakugo was yelling, mainly at Todoroki, Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Ururaka were talking with Tenya Iida, Denki Kaminari was being an idiot trying to impress Kyoka Jirou, and Momo… well she was sat quietly at her desk, waiting for Aizawa to arrive.
Eventually, he would do so, and as everyone settled down in their seats, Bakugo grumbled as he did so, as Aizawa spoke up to inform the class.
"Class, Principal Nezu has accepted a new student into U.A. They will be your classmate as of today. Do not ask me why Principal Nezu decided to do so, I have no idea."
Murmurs were heard throughout the class. A new student? Why? Who? It isn't that late into the year, but the class quickly became quiet again as Aizawa cleared his throat, looking at the door to the classroom.
"Akira, you can come in now."
The door to the classroom swung open. A boy, wearing grey trousers and a black hoodie walked in. His hands shoved into his pockets as if he would rather be elsewhere. The boy stood in front of the class, a bland expression on his face, his pure white eye and scar capturing attention, as a large contrast to his other eye, just a normal brown one.
"Hey," the boy spoke, almost unbothered by the attention he was getting.
The boy just… stood there. The class started murmuring again, except for Momo, who just stared at Akira in an almost admiration-like trance, broken by Aizawa's voice once again.
"Class, this is Akira, he's the new student I was talking about."
Ever the curious one, Midoriya's hand shot up in the air.
"Yes Midoriya?" Aizawa's voice droned.
"Can I ask Akira something?"
"Sure, whatever, go ahead."
Midoriya looked directly at Akira curiously, and Akira looked right back.
"How'd you get that scar?"
Akira didn't respond for a moment, almost as if he was annoyed that someone asked him this.
"I was injured… there's nothing more to it."
That seems simple enough, right? But as Momo stared at Akira, she can't help but feel like there's something else.
"Can I sit down now? Don't we have a class to do?" Akira asked.
"Yes," Aizawa stated. "There's an empty seat at the back, you can sit there."
"Cool," Akira says, before walking slowly to the back of the class, passing Momo's desk, Momo can't help but look behind her, as she sees Akira putting his bag down under his new desk and sitting down.
And thus, Aizawa began his lecture, something about rehabilitation controversies in the public eye or something, Momo can't remember, her attention was too focused on Akira. There was something about him that Momo just couldn't shake off. Yes there was some obvious attraction there but this feeling was… different.
The day went by in an instant, or that's what it felt like to Momo at least. It seems like lunchtime just appeared out of nowhere but here Momo is, in the cafeteria lunch cue. Her eyes wander around the cafeteria and fall on Akira, sitting alone eating his lunch.
Momo couldn't let Akira be alone like that on his first day, so once she had gotten her food, she walked over to the table Akira was sitting at, and sat directly opposite to her, the clanking of her food tray hitting the table causing Akira to look up.
This flustered Momo… somehow, but it took her a second to figure out what to say.
"H-hey…" Momo managed to say that at least, it could have gone worse.
"Hey," Akira replies, with the monotonous voice that matches that of Todoroki, as he looks back down at his food and continues to eat.
Momo notices the awkward silence and decides to try open conversation with this mysterious guy.
"So… interesting lesson we just had wasn't it?"
"Yeah… I guess so."
Darn it, this is going to be a lot more difficult than Momo thought it would be, but she's already started, so why stop?
"What was it about again?" Momo asked. "Rehab or something?"
"The social controversies surrounding villain rehabilitation and why it's only just starting to become accepted…"
"Yeah, that!" Momo responds enthusiastically, "it was pretty interesting."
Momo looks at Akira, noticing how he's just looking down and eating his food, and thinks that she should introduce herself properly.
"My name's Yaoyorozu, by the way, Momo Yaoyorozu, but you can call me Momo."
"Alright… I guess I'll call you Momo then."
Momo's heart thumps in her chest. Was something as simple as someone calling her by her first name really making her flustered like this? She feels her face going red, she's too embarrassed to stay, so she just stands up and runs away.
Momo keeps running away, until she's out of the cafeteria, where she slows down to a hurried walk, god forbid she runs in the halls! She walks aimlessly through the corridors, just thinking to herself.
'Fuck Momo, concentrate! It's just your first name, it isn't that big! Just because he's attractive doesn't mean you can act like this, get your act together!'
Eventually, Momo's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the school bell, signalling 5 minutes before the beginning of the last lesson of the day. As Momo quickly hurries off to class, she walks through the door at the exact same time as someone else, getting stuck. She looks up and sees none other than Akira!
Momo feels her face quickly heat up again at the proximity they're in.
"Oh.. hey… one of us should probably move…" Momo manages to say.
"Oh, right, yeah," Akira moves back slightly to let Momo pass, but just before Momo walks away, she feels a hand turning her on her shoulder, and now she's staring right up at Akira as they stand in a tad bit of a compromising position.
"Momo, you disappeared earlier, what happened?"
Oh god, Akira noticed that Momo left earlier at lunch and asked what happened? Why is this making Momo even more flustered?
"O-oh, it was nothing Akira, really, I just forgot something in my locker…"
Momo hopes her desperate attempt at a lie was believable, but before Akira can open his mouth to speak, Bakugo pushes through them to get into the class.
"Get a room dumbass," Bakugo grumbles.
As if on cue, Momo's face burned red again. Akira just rolled his eyes and walked back to his seat, and Momo did the same, but not before her friend and school gossip Mina Ashido appeared next to her.
"Sooo, going for the new kid already?" Mina asked teasingly.
Momo sighed as she sat in her seat.
"It isn't like that Mina! We were just caught in a moment, we're not even friends yet."
"Sureee you aren't!" Mina smiled brightly, leaning over the desk to get closer to Momo, speaking into her ear. "Then why is he taking glances at you huh~?"
As Momo looks back curiously at Akira's seat, not wanting to seem eager, she sees Akira looking right at her seat, before glancing away and acting like he was opening his notebook.
"See," Mina says, as Momo looks back at her. "Told you he was taking glances at you."
As Momo feels a light blush spread over her cheeks, she manages to mutter a quiet "you should go to your seat Ashido…", with Mina letting out a slight chuckle as she walks away to her seat as Aizawa starts the final lecture of the day.
As Momo attempts to concentrate on Aizawa's lecture, she can't help but feel Akira's gaze on her every so often, but she manages to get through the lesson, and as Aizawa's lecture ends, as Momo packs her bag and looks back at Akira's seat, it's empty. He's already gone home.
"You're really looking for him already?"
Mina's voice snaps Momo back to reality. "No- no I'm not!" Momo tries to hide it, but Mina can easily see through the facade.
"Oh come on, you can't fool me that easily! Come on, let's go home."
Momo nods nervously. "Yeah… let's." She then picks up her bag, and walks out the class with Mina. As Mina and Momo walk home, since they live in the same direction, Mina starts doing what she always does. Gossiping. Whether it be what the Big Three are up to, or the tests coming up, it seems normal until the topic of the new kid comes up.
"So…" Mina starts. "You've been getting close to the new kid huh? What's he like? Is he quiet like in class? What's his deal anyway?"
"Mina, he's new, I don't know anything about him, he's just… he reminds me of Todoroki you know? That cold, distant, monotonous feel to him, but I can't help but feel like there's something else to him."
"Yeah, I get that!" Mina says, in her usual curious expression. "It's like he's being distant for a reason other than just to be distant."
"Yeah… I guess so."
The next few weeks went pretty normal, nothing extraordinary happened, until… The Hosu Incident.
Momo and Akira had grown closer during this time. Not exactly friends yet, as Akira often posed to staying away from other people, but definitely acquaintances.
Momo didn't have that much of an exciting internship, Uwabami being more focused on modelling and interviews than hero work, but when she got back to UA after everyone's internships, she had heard something, of course she saw it, it was all over the news, The Hosu Incident.
The Hero Killer Stain was finally captured in Hosu City, after injuring Iida's brother, Ingenium. All the story says is that 4 UA students were injured in a fight against the Hero Killer, and the Number 2 Hero Endeavour jumped in and saved the day. But something about the article seemed… off to Momo.
Everyone in Class 1-A knew what 4 students got caught up in the Hosu Incident, Tenya Iida, Shoto Todoroki, Izuku Midoriya and… Akira Togata. But on the first day back from Internships, Akira hadn't come in. Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida were all in class that day, wearing bandages of some sorts over their body, but Akira was nowhere to be seen… odd.
Momo just sat at her desk in silence, worrying about what could of happened to Akira to prevent him from coming in, and Mina could immediately tell something was up.
"So," Mina's voice interrupts Momo's thoughts, as it usually does. "Worrying about Akira are you?"
"What?" Momo says dismissively, a little too quickly. "No I'm not! Maybe a little… but the others are here, so something terrible might have happened.."
"Aww, cheer up Momo, he'll be fine, you've seen him in training, he's strong, and we haven't even seen his quirk yet! Stop being so mushy."
"Yeah I guess so…"
"There you are! Now stop moping, and focus, lesson's about to start."
As if on cue, Aizawa's voice is heard from the front of the class.
"In your seats students, it's time for today's lessons. Many of you might be wondering where Akira is, but I assure you he's okay, he just got a bit more injured than Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida."
And thus, lessons started for the day. Momo concentrated her best, but between the talking off the classroom, the lecturing of the teachers and Momo's worry about Akira, she just couldn't concentrate on anything. The moment school ended, Momo rushed up to Midoriya to ask him something by his locker.
"Hey Midoriya!" Momo yells out as she runs to Midoriya's locker.
"Hmm?" Midoriya turned to see Momo next to him.
"Oh, hey Yaoyorozu, what do you need?"
"What hospital is Akira in? I want to pay him a visit."
"Musutafu Central Hospital, he's in room 17."
Momo smiles widely. "Thanks Midoriya, I'll tell him you said hi!" Momo turns around and runs out of UA and heads towards the Central Hospital. After a few minutes, she arrives, signs in and heads straight to room 17.
When she arrives, she sees Akira laying down on a hospital bed. A cast around his right arm, and crutches leaning against the bed. He turns his head to see who entered the room, and sees Momo standing in the doorway.
"Oh… hey Momo, I didn't think anyone would visit."
"Well you thought wrong," Momo stated simply, walking over to Akira's hospital bed. "You got hurt, I had to check in on you."
Akira lets out a soft chuckle. "Thanks, that means a lot."
Momo pulls up a chair and sits next to the hospital bed as Akira continues speaking.
"How was everyone today?"
"They're fine. Todoroki keeps going on about this weird hand curse thing that nobody really understands, and Midoriya and Iida are doing just well, what about you?"
"I'm fine, could be better obviously but I didn't die, so that's a plus."
Momo chuckles at Akira's odd sense of humour. But there's still one question that's been burning in the back of her mind all day.
"What really happened in Hosu? Endeavour didn't really beat the Hero Killer, it was… you and the other three, wasn't it?"
Akira doesn't answer, but his silence is enough of an answer for Momo.
"I knew it! I knew something was off about this!"
"Don't tell anyone Momo! We promised to keep it secret."
"Your secret's safe with me Akira, I promise."
"Not really my secret, but I get what you're saying."
Momo doesn't press the conversation any further as she knows it could be a sensitive subject, but mere weeks after Akira joined UA, he and 3 other students beat the infamous Hero Killer. She knows there's something else about this guy… but she shouldn't push anything just yet, Akira's health comes first.
Momo gently put her hand over Akira's left hand, curling her fingers in between his, gently holding the back of his hand. Akira doesn't move his hand away, Momo can see that Akira isn't uncomfortable with the contact. She smiled warmly at Akira, and for the first time in weeks…
Akira smiled.