A/N: Ah the return to high speed internet and relief from Midwest humidity. Do enjoy this chapter and as always, feel free to leave reviews.

**I do not own these characters or the world, that belongs to our lovely author of MHA. Also, cover art was a commission by me from Krumbs. Follow them on if you'd like! They are extremely talented!

Five
Can't Stop Twinkling References The Wizard of Oz and Deku Doesn't Have A Clue Why

He had butterflies in his stomach and he wasn't entirely certain why. They'd been with him when he'd eaten his dinner and when he'd started talking with Todoroki about the English notes he'd borrowed. He'd also been distracted by his phone; kept feeling the need to repeatedly check it to see if he had gotten any messages.

"You seem to be checking your phone a lot. Are you expecting a message?" Todoroki asked softly.

Izuku raised his eyes from his phone and saw Todoroki watching him carefully. He quickly put his phone away and gave a nervous smile. "Oh no! Just checking it, hehe, I guess I just keep thinking I feel it buzzing."

"Oh okay," Todoroki said with the tiniest of shrugs. He went back to going over some of his more intricate notes on English grammar rules and sentence structure.

Deku attempted to focus on what Todoroki was saying but continued having a hard time with it. He was distracted again and he still could feel the flutter of butterflies in his stomach. Why was he so excitable?

"Hey what was going on with Yaoyorozu after class today?" Asked Sero, interrupting Todoroki's note review and pulling Izuku back to the present.

Deku was surprised by Sero's question since he didn't remember him being around when Yaoyorozu had stopped them, but in all honesty, he was a bit curious about her as well.

"Oh yeah, what was up with that? She looked like she needed to talk to you about something serious," Deku surmised thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I think she was sick. Her cheeks were really red," Todoroki recounted.

"Do you think she had a fever?" Deku asked innocently. He remembered Yaoyorozu nervously standing in the hall, not meeting their eyes. It had been unlike her to act so insecure.

"She must've had some kind of fever for her cheeks to be that red," Todoroki said. Deku noted that he seemed quite concerned for his classmate. Sero suddenly laughed.

"Guys, you really think she had a fever? Come on!" He laughed and shook his head.

Deku looked at him in confusion as Todoroki questioned, "You don't think she had a fever? Did she say something to you?"

"No, but I saw her arrive back to the dorms a while after you did Todoroki, and she looked totally fine. A little down, but totally fine. I don't think she was sick," Sero laughed again and shook his head.

"Why would she look so overheated then?" Todoroki asked, mostly to himself. Deku was suddenly reminded of just the day before when Uraraka's cheeks had been so rosy red and she'd looked flushed as if with fever…it had been because she was embarrassed. Slowly, the wheels began turning in Izuku's head but alas, the same could not be said for his half hot and half cold friend.

"You idiots," growled a harsh and angry voice, "the nerd I get not knowing, but icy hot? How can you be so bright and yet so dim?" Bakugo stood behind them from where they sat on the couch and glowered at them.

"Kacchan! Didn't see you there!" Squeaked Deku in surprise. Was Kacchan about to blast him with another explosion? Speaking of which, he'd have to go and train black whip with him again. They were overdue for another chase and capture, capture fail, explosion to face session.

"Shudup! I wasn't talking to you," snapped Bakugo with a sneer. He looked at Todoroki with contempt and asked, "A fever? Really? You can't think of any other reason why a girl would be red faced in front of you?"

Todoroki squinted in confusion but slowly some kind of new idea seemed to dawn on him, albeit at a snails pace. "I guess, if she were embarrassed by something…?" His voice trailed off and he lowered his eyes in thought.

Bakugo stared at him incredulously. Deku thought he could see him physically bristle at Todoroki's careful inward contemplation. "Well I'm not gonna spell it out for you icy hot! Figure it out yourself!" He stormed off then and Deku thought her heard him mutter, 'dumbass' under his breath as he walked away.

"What would she have been embarrassed by? Do you think she wanted to ask for help in English but was feeling shy for wanting to ask for my help?" Todoroki asked, mostly to Deku though Sero was still present and listening.

"Uh, I don't think that's probably it," Deku said sheepishly. He wasn't sure since he'd not been there for the conversation, but he was thinking that perhaps something similar—or at least something embarrassing—had happened between them and she was trying to talk to Todoroki like Uraraka had tried to talk to Deku. Briefly, Izuku felt horrified that perhaps an identical situation had occurred and Yaoyorozu had walked in on Todoroki…but he decided that that was highly unlikely considering his friend's confusion about it all. Even Todoroki, unflappable as he was, would be flustered about that.

"Maybe she was trying to ask you out," Sero supplied and playfully jabbed Todoroki in the ribs. Todoroki just looked more confused.

"Ask me out where?" He asked sincerely.

Sero sighed. "No man, like on a date. Like a girl and boy date! Go get ice cream or go see a movie together, that kind of date."

Finally, realization dawned on Todoroki. His gray eye and blue eye widened in surprise. "Yaoyorozu was not asking me out on a date. I suppose she might have been embarrassed about, something, but I do not believe she was trying to ask me on a romantic date. I doubt that Yaoyorozu has those kind of feelings for me or anyone here," he said firmly.

"Okay, whatever you say," Sero shrugged.

"What would even give you that idea?" Todoroki asked.

"Well if she wanted to talk to you alone and went so far as to ask Midoriya to leave and was all red in the cheeks about it, well that's what I'd think," Sero replied casually.

"I am not you," he responded coolly and with slightly more emotion than Deku expected him to respond with. The reaction seemed to surprise Todoroki as well since he quieted immediately and said, "Sorry, that's just really not what I think was going on. I was worried she was sick."

"She could've been sick Todoroki or maybe she was trying to ask for help with a class like you thought and that made her embarrassed," Deku said supportively, however he couldn't dismiss the memory of Ochako's pink cheeks and cautiously added, "though it could be that she was embarrassed because she was trying to do what Sero suggested."

It was Todoroki's turn to have a blush come over his face. Deku felt flustered for his friend and quickly tried to smooth it over. "But that's probably not it! It doesn't seem like something Yaoyorozu would do. I wonder if she's struggling with English too and was going to ask you for help with it!"

The flush diminished from Shoto's cheeks and Deku was relieved to see that his friend seemed to relax a little at his words and return to his composed self. "Perhaps that is it. Should we resume going over these notes, then?"

"Right!" Deku agreed cheerfully.

Sero looked at the two and shrugged again. It was obvious to him, why wasn't it obvious to them? And the better question, why wasn't Yaoyorozu getting all blushy around him? He would've been delighted to have her sweet face pink tinged confessing her love to him.

Deku and Shoto continued with studying English for a little while longer before they called it quits and Deku began heading upstairs to his dorm. He'd not seen Uraraka that evening because she'd gone straight to her after school work studies immediately after class. Despite not seeing her though, his stomach was still doing flip flops and he felt nervous like he had yesterday.

He had received one message from her early this morning that had been a smiling emoji in response to the last message he'd sent her. He wasn't entirely sure how to take that other than that she was happy to hear from him? Happy for the selfie? He wasn't sure.

As he ascended the stairs to the second floor, he felt his phone buzz and anxiously picked it up only to be deflated by seeing a message from his mother asking him how his work study had been going. He composed a quick response and sent it away quickly before putting his phone away. Just as he entered the hall, Aoyama suddenly fluttered into view with a smile.

"Midoriya! I was hoping to run into you!" He said with a smile.

"Oh, hi Aoyama!" Deku replied cheerfully.

"Mon cheri, I just have to know how you liked the book! Did you simply adore it?" Aoyama asked with a flourish.

Deku was utterly confused. Book? What book was he talking about? "Book? Uh, I'm confused…what book are we talking about?"

A tinkling laugh escaped the blonde haired twinkling star. "My my! How could you forget such an elegant piece of work? The Wizard of Oz is one of my most favorite books!"

"The Wizard of Oz?" Deku asked with a raised eyebrow. He'd never read the Wizard of Oz, in fact he wasn't sure that he'd ever seen the movie even. It was a piece of pop culture that he was familiar with but aside from that, he wasn't had very little knowledge of it. In fact, did he know that it was even based off a book?!

"Mon dieu! Midoriya your memory! Do you not recall the lovely Miss Uraraka here the other night, scandalously outside your door?" Aoyama asked dramatically.

Izuku suddenly felt his throat tighten as all the color drained out of his face. The other night, Uraraka outside my door…he knows! HE KNOWS!

"Wha…?" The words were barely a whisper.

"C'est vrai! She was here to retrieve that most precious of books! Did you not actually read it?" He gasped dramatically and looked at Deku with a frown.

He…doesn't know? He doesn't know! Uraraka must've stumbled into Aoyama sometime between seeing me and leaving and said she was giving me a book. Fast thinking Uraraka! But uh oh, now I've got to run with it, he thought to himself in a panic.

Giving Aoyama his brightest and most cheerful smile, Deku said, "Oh yes, that book! I read it, I was just surprised to hear that someone else had. I didn't know you were into it! Cool!" To perhaps anyone else, Deku's sudden random exuberance would've been somewhat questionable, but to Aoyama it was the appropriate response when discussing one of his favorite books.

"Oh I am so pleased! J'adore The Wizard of Oz! I am so glad you loved it as well. We will all three of us have to talk about it. Perhaps a little book club, even!" Aoyama paused and narrowed his eyes playfully at Deku, "With lots of cheese!"

Deku briefly recalled Aoyama's strange obsession with cheese, the cheese outside his window…his French friend definitely would have cheese at any get together he might arrange.

"Yeah…lots of cheese," Deku agreed, though lacking a bit of the enthusiasm he had mustered previously.

"Indeed! Now I must be away. Adieu!" Aoyama said with a flamboyant bow before he practically pranced his way into his room.

Deku was left standing alone in the hallway, somewhat confused. What a bizarre interaction that had been!

A little while later, dressed in his UA gym clothes, Deku was outside practicing his kicks and punches. It was getting later into the evening so he'd have to call it a night soon, but for now he was content to keep up his practicing.

Before coming outside he'd stopped by to see if Kacchan wanted to do some black whip practice with him…that had gone less than smooth. After he'd asked him Bakugo had glared murderous intentions at him in response and Izuku had taken the hint and been on his way. So here he was, outside practicing to make his fighting skills perfect. He couldn't reach his goal of becoming the number one hero if he didn't practice, practice, practice.

…plus the physical exercise was a nice distraction from any intrusive thoughts about the last few days or about Uraraka in general. As long as his mind and body were focused on hero practice, he could keep all annoying teenage boy thoughts away! That is until the object of some of those teenage boy thoughts was spotted walking up to the front door of their dorm.

He'd been mid kick when the sound of voices had attracted his gaze in the direction of the front doors. There on the foot path leading to the front door, was Uraraka and Asui walking toward the dorm. They must've just returned from their work studies and hadn't noticed him yet. However, Izuku hadn't expected to see her and the surprise of seeing her had thrown him off that he overshot hi landing when coming out of his kick and stumbled.

"Oof," Deku murmured as he stumbled forward to catch himself.

"Deku!" Both Uraraka and Asui cried in equal parts alarm and surprise as they watched him stumble. Before Deku could say anything to deter her, Uraraka started to rush forward, as if to help him. He had easily recovered and regained his balance by the time she reached him, but there she was all the same.

"Are you okay?" She asked, clearly worried, though as she took in his upright form she realized that she'd perhaps been a little over zealous in coming to his aid.

"Yeah, just stumbled is all. I wasn't expecting to see you and Asu—er, Tsu," he bumbled and blushed at having yet again tried to call her Asui.

"We just got back from our work studies, ribbit. What are you doing out here? It's cold." Tsu asked. She made no forward movement to get closer to either Midoriya or Uraraka, instead remaining where she was on the path.

"Oh well I figured I'd get in some training time since Kacchan didn't want to do any black whip training with me," Izuku replied thoughtfully.

"How often are you doing that? I thought you'd gotten pretty good with black whip, ribbit," Tsu asked curiously.

"Oh well I'm still having a hard time maintaining it for any length of time. And I fail a lot when I try to do a capture technique on Kacchan. I need a lot more practice before I can really make black whip my own," he mused and looked down at his hand and clenched his fist. He could feel the energy of black whip just beneath his skin and bones, waiting to be unleashed.

"Well, I think you're doing great with it Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed cheerily.

Deku took in her warm smile and smiled back at her. "Ah, thanks Uraraka!" As he smiled at her he suddenly felt his stomach flip flop again and became acutely aware of her close proximity to him. Blushing, he tried to subtlety put some space between them.

Tsu suddenly broke the silence. "Well I'm going to head in. It may be February but it's still too cold out here for a frog like me, ribbit. See you later Ochako, Deku." She then left them standing together on the grass…alone.

The silence and stillness reigned heavily between them.

"So…" Deku started.

"Yeah," Uraraka said at the same time.

They both stopped and then chuckled.

"It feels like I haven't really talked to you in a long time," Uraraka said softly, her eyes downward facing and cheeks rosy. Whether they were rosy from the cold or from something else, Deku wasn't certain.

"It has been a while, hasn't it? We're both just so busy with school and the work studies. It's a lot to do," Deku added, his eyes also downcast, neither one really willing to meet the others gaze.

"And not enough time to do it," murmured Uraraka. She raised her eyes to Deku's face only to see that his eyes were lowered to the ground. There was a blush on his cheeks that she was certain matched her own. She'd wanted to talk to him all day, still remembering what he'd said yesterday morning that they could talk more. She wasn't sure what they were going to talk about but she knew that she wanted to talk to him now. "Deku," she began nervously.

This time Deku raised his eyes from the ground to meet hers. The blush on his cheeks only deepened. "Yes, Uraraka?" He asked quietly, acutely aware of how close she still was to him. He thought he'd managed to put a little distance between them but he'd either not moved as much as he thought he had or she had moved closer.

"I, uh, I well, I just wanted to talk to you…because I like talking to you and I still feel, uh, weird about the er, what I saw," she stammered nervously.

Deku nervously looked away and laughed anxiously. "Oh yeah. That." His voice had gone up an octave again. Not good! Why does she still want to talk about that? I thought we addressed it, Deku nervously thought to himself. What had they actually said to each other yesterday morning? He raced through the interaction in his mind recalling the embarrassment and then vaguely remembered saying that they could talk later and then, oh he remembered! He'd held his fist out to do a fist bump with her and she'd surprised him by open palm taking his hand and then even more surprising, he'd taken her hand in his! What had compelled him to do that? Better question, what had compelled her to do it in the first place?!

"I don't want there to be any weirdness between us. You're my friend and just because…that…happened, doesn't mean it has to be awkward. We can be like we were," Uraraka said nervously, her voice moving a little too quickly for it come off as any way other than anxious.

"I don't want it to be weird either. I'm sorry if it's been bothering you," he said softly, feeling genuinely guilty that she'd had to see him doing that. He was also immediately grateful that her quirk wasn't mind reading, because if it was, she almost certainly would've found out that he was doing that whilst thinking of her. That thought only made the blush deepen on his cheeks.

"No, don't be sorry Deku. I walked into your personal space without waiting for permission. If there's fault, it's on me not on you. I mean that," she said firmly.

Deku felt touched by her words and said in a quiet little voice, "Uraraka, I," but he didn't know what else to say so his words stopped there and silence moved in between them once again.

Uraraka directed her gaze briefly to the ground, flicked her brown eyes back to his greens, before darting to the ground again and asking, "But…I do have a something I want to ask, if that's okay."

"Yeah, sure," he said softly. He watched her as she seemed to struggle with whatever words she was trying to come up with. He was curious but also nervous as to what she might have to say.

"Why did you take my hand yesterday? Why did you hold my hand?" She blurted out, a deep scarlet settling itself onto her cheeks.

Deku instinctively took a step back and gave a nervous laugh. "Hehe, well I, uh, you, had, well you had taken my hand and it felt natural to just take your hand, I guess," he bumbled. He'd squeezed his eyes tightly closed and plastered a nervous smile on his face, hoping that that was an okay answer. Why did he hold her hand? Why had he done that? It had felt natural, but what else had compelled him to do that? Was it actually holding hands? Or had it just been a handshake?

A pause and then, "Oh," was all Uraraka said. Izuku opened his eyes at her response and couldn't help but see what he was certain was disappointment in her eyes. She wasn't looking directly at him anymore, instead looking down, but he could see it clear as day in her eyes: she was disappointed.

"That makes sense," she said softly and then began to move away from him, "I'll leave you to your practice. Don't work too hard." She forced a smile at him and then turned to leave.

A panic suddenly seized his heart as she turned away from him. He didn't want her to go just yet and it bothered him more than he was willing to admit that she was disappointed by his response. He'd disappointed her and that was something he'd not experienced with Uraraka before and now having felt that, he hated it.

"Wait, Uraraka!" He exclaimed and reached out for her. His fingers brushed against the wool of her brown coat and tugged gently. She stopped where she was but didn't move to face him. His heart skipped a beat in his chest. What was he doing? What did he expect out of this? What was his next move? He watched as her auburn hair rustled with the gentle breeze in the air.

You have to say something, Izuku, you can't just let her stand there waiting for nothing. Say something! But what do I say? Tell her the truth, but what is the truth, he asked himself? His mind raced through all the feelings he'd had over the last two days and over the last year and ever since meeting the rosy cheeked girl who made all things weightless. There were so many emotions to sift through that he didn't think he could begin to get to the bottom of it in this moment. He wasn't sure what he was feeling or what he wanted out of this interaction but he'd stopped her from leaving and now all he really wanted was to remove that look of disappointment from her face.

What is the truth?

The truth is when she took my hand yesterday my heart started beating out of my chest and all I could think was this girl, my friend, was trying to comfort me over something embarrassing that I'd been mostly responsible for, but here she was, making sure I was okay. And her hand had felt so nice against my fist that I did what felt natural and right to do: I held her hand because I wanted to, because I didn't want to let her go.

"I took your hand and held it because I wanted to…because I didn't want to let you go," Deku admitted in a very soft voice. He felt like his face was on fire and he desperately wanted to look away in embarrassment but he didn't; he stared into the back of her head, willing her to look back at him, to see the truth on his face.

"Deku," Uraraka murmured softly and turned just enough of her face toward him so that their eyes could meet. She turned to face him fully then. Deku's hand fell away from her coat and returned to his side. The disappointment he'd seen on her face was gone, replaced by surprise and something else that he couldn't pinpoint.

Despite his heart racing like a frenzied rabbit and his stomach doing flip flops, Deku took a step closer to her and boldly asked, "But Uraraka…why did you take my hand first? Why take it at all?" It was a question that had been bothering him. Had she not open palm taken his hand he never would've felt compelled to entwin his own hand with hers.

Her eyes dropped to the ground but she made no move to put space between them when he'd stepped closer to her. "I…I saw your fist and I don't know, just seeing you smiling at me and," she paused her downcast eyes still somehow twinkling, "and I just wanted to hold your hand. I didn't know what you'd do but I guess, I guess I didn't think about that and just knew that in that moment I wanted to take your hand in mine. To show you it was really okay."

Deku felt like his heart might burst out of his chest. That had not been what he'd expected her to say. He wasn't sure what to even say in response. She wanted to hold my hand. A GIRL WANTED TO HOLD MY HAND! Not just any girl, but Uraraka! I can't believe it, he thought excitedly to himself!

"Oh wow, you don't say," he said nervously and again squeezed his eyes shut and anxiously smiled.

"Deku," Uraraka began anxiously and his eyes sprung open at the sound of her voice. He looked at her and saw the uncertainty on her face and felt concern wash over him. "Deku, what does that mean? What does this mean?" She pointed to herself and then to him and looked at him quizzically.

For the life of him, he didn't know. Did it mean that they liked each other? Like liked each other? Did it mean that they should start going out? His thoughts briefly returned to Todoroki's earlier conversation about Yaoyorozu but he pushed those thoughts away. He needed to be in the here and now.

"I don't know what it means, Uraraka…I think that's something we have to find out over time," he said honestly. Part of him was ecstatic about this moment in time but another part of him was incredibly wary of what was happening. The dynamic between the two was on the verge of changing, he could feel that much and was certain she could too. They hadn't exactly said that they both liked each other but they'd admitted that they wanted to hold each other's hands and to him, that meant that there might be more on the horizon. It wasn't just friendly behavior to want to and to actually hold each other's hands. He'd been transfixed by her bare skin when she'd accidentally had her shirt pulled up by Ashido. He'd been close to her since he'd first started at UA and she was one of his closest friends. It made sense that things could easily progress into a more than friends' situation…but he wasn't sure that that was a good idea. They were both training to be heroes and Izuku had lofty goals to be the number one, not to mention he was the secret inheritor of One For All and likely would have to have some kind of huge show down with Shigaraki in the near future. And what if it ruined their friendship? He didn't want that. He cherished his friendship with Uraraka and the thought of jeopardizing it was not something he could even think about. At the same time, doing nothing and pretending like there was nothing but friendship between them also seemed like not the greatest idea. He didn't know what to do.

"I don't know either," whispered Uraraka and looked at him and said, "but I don't think I can ignore whatever this is or pretend like we're just friends. There's something going on."

Deku nodded but wasn't sure what to say. After a moment he said, "Let's sleep on it and see what we feel in the morning." She looked at him dubiously. "I'm not saying that we should pretend like this conversation didn't happen, I'm just saying that let's give it the night and then see how we feel tomorrow. Maybe it's just all the tension surrounding, well, uh, you know."

Uraraka seemed to accept that suggestion though she looked doubtful. "Right. Okay. Let's go inside." She nodded and turned away from him. He picked up his notes off the ground and followed close behind her.

While he thought that giving it the night was the right thing to do, he was fairly certain that when the sun rose tomorrow their dynamic would stay changed. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do moving forward but as he continued following her to the doors watching her hair bounce as she walked, taking in her rosy cheeks, he couldn't help but feel his stomach flip flop in excitement.

She got to the doors before he could and pushed them open. He watched as the lights from the inside bathed her in a soft glowing warmth and he was struck by her figure in the light. She turned back toward him and gestured for him to come inside, a smile on her face. He hesitated for just a moment at the threshold of the door, staring at her. His hand half raised in an effort to take hers before he realized what he was doing and forced himself to drop the partly raised limb. He followed her inside, his heart racing and his stomach fluttering.

He had no idea what they were or what they were or weren't about to become, but he did know that in that moment, he really wanted to hold her hand again.