The elevator doors slid open on the 2nd floor of UA's dormitory building.

A girl then bolted out of the elevator. Her eyes were set on a specific room, not even realizing that Tokoyami had walked past and gave a wave towards her as he headed down the stairwell.

"I'm finally doing this. No more putting it off."

Standing in front of Midoriya's doorway to his room was Uraraka. Although she hated to admit it, her stomach was full of butterflies at that moment. She knew what was potentially on the line here. For better or for worse, the question that had been eating away at her every day and every night would finally be answered.

Conversations with others was not going to cut it anymore.

"There's only one person that I can get the truth from at this point."

Even with her hands trembling off beads of sweat by the moment, the urge to do the right, yet scary thing, was finally within her.

She knocked on Midoriya's door.

"...Deku? It's Ochaco, I want... I need to ask you something."

A few moments went by without a response. There was no sounds of movement within his room. There was no call from Midoriya to give him a moment. There was no clue or answer given to her from her request.

She knocked again.

"Deku. Please answer me," Uraraka pleaded.

But there was still no answer given.

A third round of knocks ensued.

"Class just ended. I know you're in there. Please, I - I have to ask you this."

The third time was not the charm for Uraraka. No matter how badly she wanted Midoriya to answer, there was still no response given to her. Uraraka's nerves were beginning to calm down.

Those nerves, and her hands that still trembled, were beginning to turn into anger.

"Deku, please!" Uraraka began to speak louder, hoping her voice would reach Midoriya. "We've barely talked recently. Are you mad at me about something? Do you - are you just ignoring me now? What happened?"

Silence was all that Uraraka still received from his room.

She pounded her fists on the door.

"DEKU! Am I not good enough for you anymore?!" Uraraka yelled. "Would you answer if Jirou - "

"Uraraka, what's wrong?" A voice then echoed from the stairwell, cutting Uraraka off.

Her shouting stopped. Uraraka felt her tension reach her breaking point. She turned around to see who had interrupted her.

"Kaminari. I'm sorry if I disturbed you," Uraraka said, feeling an emotion far worse than just embarrassment alone as she slowly realized what had just transpired.

Kaminari stood motionless. He tried to think of something, anything, to say to her.

"Are you okay?" He finally asked her.

Uraraka shook her head no. She tried to look at anything else around them to avoid eye contact with Kaminari.

"Did Midoriya do something to you? I've never seen you this upset before," Kaminari followed up, unsure if that was even an appropriate question to ask.

"He did nothing. He's said nothing to me for awhile. He just ignores me now. All because he's obsessed with Jirou, probably," Uraraka said.

"Obsessed with Jirou? Well... they do talk a lot, now that you bring it up. And Jirou did text me after class that she and Midoriya were going to hang out somewhere - oh."

Kaminari realized with a jolt what was going on. Uraraka's shouting was to no avail because she had been faced with an empty room.

"Ah, so he's not here... That explains it, I guess. Oh well," Uraraka said, walking past Kaminari to leave the floor.

Just as she was about to go to the stairwell, however, she stopped.

"Oh, Kaminari. I'm curious. Have you talked to Jirou recently?" Uraraka asked.

"Yeah. We've been talking more recently. She does say a lot of stuff about Midoriya, though. They must be real besties now, or something like that," Kaminari answered.

Uraraka left before she could muster a reply back.

Midoriya and Jirou, meanwhile, were taking a walk around the perimeter of UA's campus.

It was the typical trek that Midoriya took during his morning runs. The difference being that this time, there was no running involved. There was no training taking place. In fact, there was no thought of hero-related work whatsoever.

The typical intensity of his runs was replaced by the serenity of the two of them holding hands together in the midst of their slow stroll.

"I've been wanting to do this for so long, Izuku," Jirou then interjected, looking at their hands.

"You have no idea how long I've thought about this, Kyouka," Midoriya said.

The two of them continued on their path, enjoying the solitude of the moment. In a world filled with noise, especially as heroes in training, being able to enjoy a nice, quiet afternoon together was a needed change of pace. Instead of worrying about the League of Villains, they could focus on one another as a couple now, having no more doubts about how they felt towards one another. They both smiled as they realized how much less stress they felt now that they were officially a couple.

Together, they went deeper along the path, entering a denser portion of a forest. Taller and wider trees began to surround them as they kept moving forward. Midoriya could recall many times he had met up with All Might in this portion of the path to escape the calamity of UA's main grounds. Of course, the forest was still within UA's land that they owned, so it was protected by the external barriers to prevent anyone from sneaking in.

"Do you ever see anyone on this path?" Jirou asked, looking in different directions to observe the area.

"Not really," Midoriya replied, deciding to omit All Might for the sake of anonymity. "Oh, I have seen Bakugou around here occasionally. And I saw Kirishima once too. It's pretty quaint otherwise."

"Oh, Bakugou, huh..." Jirou thought aloud, not realizing at first that she had said anything.

Midoriya was intrigued by the way Jirou had mentioned Bakugou's name. Although he was tempted to prod further, he decided not to. It was not worth potentially ruining the blissful moment they were sharing together.

Jirou, however, had other ideas.

"You know, something interesting happened after class today," Jirou said. "After my training group was done, I meant."

"What's that?" Midoriya said.

"Bakugou congratulated me on becoming your girlfriend," Jirou said with a hint of sharpness in her voice.

Midoriya gulped. He had totally forgotten about the fact that he had told Bakugou about their relationship that morning. Taking his hand away from Jirou, he bowed in front of her.

"Kyouka, I'm so sorry," Midoriya said in the most sincere tone he could manage. "I know you wanted to keep our relationship private... but I told Bakugou this morning before class started. Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone else, not even my mom or All Might!"

Rather than saying anything back at first, Jirou reached out and grabbed both of Midoriya's hands. Startled by the sudden gesture, Midroiya looked up, standing up straight to look at his girlfriend directly in her eyes.

"There's no need to apologize. I figured that was the case - that it was before I told you to keep our relationship private," Jirou said.

Feeling a sense of relief, Midoriya managed a smile. "Thank you for understanding."

The two of them then continued their walk. They held hands, just like they were doing before they had stopped, with Jirou feeling relieved that no one else knew about their relationship. Despite having her answer, however, something still nagged at Jirou about the whole ordeal.

"Okay, I have one more question about this, then I'll shut up about it," Jirou said.

"Sure thing," Midoriya responded.

"Of all the people you could've told... why on earth was it Bakugou?"

Midoriya chuckled as he crafted his response in his head. "Well, he saw me on my morning walk today, and he overheard my muttering... so I was forced to tell him. And trust me, I'm not muttering about us anymore, either."

Jirou laughed about the 'muttering' part, leading Midoriya to join in with a sheepish laugh. "Makes sense, honestly. Well, Bakugou can be an ass, but it's not like he'll tell anyone about us, so it's not a big deal. Weren't you two childhood friends, or something like that?"

"It's complicated," Midoriya muttered. "He was my friend, rival and bully, all rolled up into one person. We went to school together, too."

Jirou nodded in response. She could tell that he was not keen on explaining his relationship with Bakugou any further. And given that she had her answer about why Bakugou knew of their relationship, she figured now was the time to rest her case, anyways.

And, well, she also had the perfect remedy for this situation.

"Izuku," Jirou changed her tone to be more upbeat.

Before he could even react, Jirou wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, giving him a tight hug. As deep in the forest as they were, there were no holes within the bushes and trees for anyone to have a peak at their hug. Seconds later, Midoriya joined in, tightly embracing her girlfriend. They continued to hug for what felt like hours, not having a care about anything else going on in their lives.

"I'm glad I don't need any dumb excuses to hug you anymore," Jirou said, continuing to embrace him.

"Me too, Kyouka, me too," Midoriya cheerfully replied.

They continued to hug for a while longer. Given how long they had already walked that afternoon, both of them figured it was the perfect way to take a break before they continued their trek.

In fact, their joy was so strong in that moment, that they did not even hear the footsteps walking on crunched up leaves behind them.

Those footsteps came to a stop as soon as they realized who was in front of them.

The happy couple still had no clue that someone was now watching them.

"Erm... Young Midoriya."

Midoriya's heart dropped. Jirou's spine shivered. The two of them separated, looking towards the direction of the voice that they had instantly recognized.

"AHHHHHH!" Midoriya screamed, while Jirou had no nerve left to even yell.

"Did you just hear a scream?"

Tokoyami, walking alongside Ojiro, stopped in their tracks. They had just exited the school building after a quick post-class study session.

"I didn't hear anything, Tokoyami," Ojiro replied.

"Hmm. Maybe it was Dark Shadow. Or maybe it was just my imagination," Tokoyami said.

The two of them continued to head back to the dorms, disregarding the screaming for better or for worse.

"I'm - erm - sorry for invading your privacy, Young Midoriya and Young Jirou," All Might said to them, after Midoriya had finally calmed down.

While Jirou tried to hide the embarrassment and disgust from her face, Midoriya sat on the ground trying to catch his breath. Despite being a hero in training, All Might somehow 'sneaking' up on him was still far more scary than a lot of the other things that he had experienced in the past.

"Okay. I'm sorry, Kyouka," Midoriya looked towards All Might, with the former #1 Pro Hero giving a nod towards his mentee. "All Might and I meet out here occasionally, and well, I kinda forgot about the fact we were meeting today."

"Just, unbelievable - ugh, I don't even know anymore," Jirou scoffed.

"I can assure you that Young Midoriya and I had planned this meeting a few days ago, so this was certainly not my intention to crash upon you two like this," All Might said. "I'll be heading the other way to leave you two be."

"No," Jirou belted.

All Might, surprised by Jirou's sharpness, turned around to look towards her and Midoriya. Even in all of his years of being a Pro Hero, he had never found himself in a scenario quite like this. He wished that he knew what to do in this situation.

"Look, I get that Izuku's a huge fan of yours. I've seen the merchandise he has, I've seen you two have lunch together in your office, heck - I went to an All Might convention with him! But why exactly are you two always meeting up with each other? What makes you want to be his special mentor? It's just - " Jirou looked over at Midoriya, with her boyfriend gulping at the situation unfolding before them. "It's just that I feel like I need to know what's going on between you two."

Now it was All Might that gulped. He had been dreading the day that another student potentially stumbled upon One For All.

Thankfully, unlike being clueless about how to handle catching an intimate moment, he was prepared to handle this. He figured he would encounter a situation just like this one day.

"Well, you see Young Jirou, Young Midoriya has a special situation with his quirk," All Might said, as Midoriya tried to not burst out yelling. "He's what we call a 'late bloomer' in the world of quirks. As you know, most people develop their quirk around the age of four years old. Midoriya's quirk, however, manifested when he was fourteen years old!"

"Oh wow... I never knew that," Jirou said in mere disbelief.

"Because of that, I just so happened to encounter Young Midoriya one day when he needed a hero to save him. That's how we met for the first time, actually. Once I learned of his situation, I decided to help him train, given how passionate he is about becoming a hero. So, that's why we always meet up and why I mentor him. If you feel like I've neglected you or your classmates, I deeply apologize and will try to be better in the future. The success of all of my students is paramount to me."

Jirou was shocked by the story, yet believed every word All Might had said. "That all makes sense. And sensei, you haven't neglected anyone - I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you and Izuku. I know how well he's done, but still, I was just nervous that he was behind somehow... especially since I'm his gi-girlfriend and all."

Midoriya was mortified about everything that had just taken place. He was also equally amazed that All Might had given such a compelling story while successfully hiding One For All. Meanwhile, All Might laughed, and subsequently coughed, as everything now made sense to him.

"Well, well, well. Congratulations, Young Midoriya, and congratulations, Young Jirou! That's quite the twist, I must say! And I appreciate your concern, Young Jirou, but I assure you that everything is just fine!" All Might said.

"Just - please don't tell anyone about our relationship, All Might..." Midoriya said.

"Of course not, I would never do something like that! Well, I'm on my way, see you both in class tomorrow!" All Might said, as he walked past them and headed back to campus.

Once the coast was clear, Midoriya and Jirou stared at each other for several moments. They were too dumbfounded to even speak to one another by that point. Jirou never would have thought that Bakugou and All Might of all people would be the first ones to learn of their relationship.

"I felt like I had to tell him the truth since he told the truth about you and him. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, Izuku," Jirou managed to say.

Midoriya felt his heart flutter as he heard the word 'truth.' "Yeah, it's all good. I guess awkward moments like this are a part of entering a relationship, right?"

With a nod of agreement from Jirou, the two of them reached out to hold hands once more. As they walked back towards campus, they stayed quiet as they reflected on everything that had just happened.

After their walk together, the two of them had dinner together and then parted ways, having to complete their homework and studying for the evening. While they wanted to spend more time together, the Deep Dope concert from yesterday was starting to catch up with them, as they both felt exhausted.

Midoriya tried to speed his way through his homework as fast as he could while not being careless. He then spent an hour studying, a bit shorter than normal, but he was confident that it was enough to be ready for tomorrow's classes, at least.

After he was done, he crashed into bed. It was a bit earlier than usual for him to be retiring for the night, but Midoriya was ready to have a nice, long night of sleep after the craziness of the past 24 hours.

Midoriya then received a text message. His heart fluttered upon hearing his 'I Am Here' ringtone, figuring it would be a goodnight text from Jirou.

Upon reading the message, however, he was shocked, instead.

Ochaco Uraraka: Meet me tomorrow morning by my room before class. We need to talk.

A/N: I'm finally back with another chapter! I know the updates have been slow, but I appreciate those who have kept reading When Our Passions Unite.

It's hard to believe the My Hero Academia manga is officially over. I won't be giving any spoilers since this story takes place in Season 4 of the anime, but it's definitely going to be weird not having new chapters of MHA every Sunday anymore.

Now for some news: I posted a new IzuJirou one-shot recently! It's called Jirou's Mixed Bag of a Birthday. It was posted on here and AO3 and is based on Jirou's birthday after the ending of the My Hero Academia manga (so it will contain manga spoilers). Check it out if you're interested!

Thanks again for your patience with the slow updates recently. I hope to update more frequently for future chapters.

Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment, favorite and/or follow if you'd like! I appreciate all of the support I have received throughout writing this story.

My Twitter/X: CuriousPug5

My AO3: CuriousPug5