Over the next several days, Mina and Izuku began to fall into a routine. The night after Izuku would stay the night with Mina, he'd usually sleep just fine. The night after that he'd have a hard time falling asleep, and by the 3rd to 4th night he was back to barely sleeping at all. He'd tell Mina during lunch or between classes and they'd have a sleepover that night.

On the days leading up to him staying over, Izuku's workouts would get more and more vigorous. He'd often come over sore all over and exhausted from his extensive training. Mina would often offer to massage his muscles like she had when the whole class had been together. When asked why he was training so hard, Izuku would just shrug and say something like, "it's a good way to pass the time" and that was all he'd say on the matter.

Sometimes he'd come over earlier in the evening and they'd spend time playing games together, watching movies, or just talking for hours. Even on days where Izuku would've slept fine, they'd hangout and when it was time to leave sometimes Mina would playfully shove him onto the bed and pin him down to keep him from leaving. Other times Izuku would just get in willingly and pretend to fall asleep, even as Mina shook him while laughing.

They had to be careful to not get caught whenever Izuku made his way to her room or was leaving in the morning, especially on school mornings.

One time they made the mistake of leaving her room at the same time and were seen by Iida. They played it off by telling him that Izuku had left his phone in her room from hanging out the night before. He was skeptical but Iida believed it and told them to be careful with being alone in dorms alone. From then on they made sure to stagger their exits.

While neither of them saw this as anything romantic, their friends began to see that they had gotten closer as friends. On group hangout nights, Izuku started hanging near Mina more, laying on her lap while she played with his hair or talking with her group of friends more than he normally would.

One particular late Tuesday evening, Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima were relaxing in the common area when they saw the curly haired duo walk in through the front door both in gym attire. After some begging, Mina had convinced Izuku to let her train with him to see what his training looked like. She now perfectly understood why he was is such good shape. The man trained like an Olympic athlete.

"Alright see ya later!" She said with a wave and a smile as Izuku made his way up to his room. She saw her friends and made her way to the couch and sat down with a relaxed sigh.

"Omg I am exhausted!"

"I've trained with Midoriya once or twice myself," Kirishima said with a chuckle, "bet you were as surprised as I was. The dude is an animal when it comes to training."

"You got that right," Mina groaned while rubbing the back of her sore neck.

"Don't get me wrong, I had a great time but I just can't believe he does that several times a week."

"It seems like the only time he is ever really enthusiastic, "Kaminari said as he unsuccessfully attempted to solve a Rubix cube.

Mina paused for a moment at his comment. It hadn't seemed rude but she didn't quite understand.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, at least lately he always seems to just be moping around or is too tired to really do much. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you guys are friends, but for someone as high energy as you, it just seems a little odd that you made a friend with someone that has the energy of a slug."

"HEY!" Mina angrily snapped at Denki, making everyone sort of jump in their seats in surprise.

"You have no right to say that about him! He is training just as hard as anyone else here! Who cares if he's tired? You don't know what he's going through! HOW ABOUT INSTEAD OF JUDGING HIM YOU CHECK UP ON HIM EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE SINCE I SEEM TO BE THE ONLY ONE WHO ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT HIM!"

The boys stared at her in silence for a moment. Where had all that come from they wondered. Their jaws hung open as they processed what their friend had just said. Mina was a passionate friend to everyone but this seemed deeper than that.

Kaminari raised his hands slowly in defense, "Hey I'm sorry, I genuinely didn't mean to be rude. I could've chosen better words, I'm sorry if I upset you."

Mina's demeanor relaxed and she realized just how aggressive she had come off. She meant what she said but that behavior was very out of character. She never yelled at her friends, especially in anger. Denki's genuine apology made her regret her words just a bit.

"I'm sorry," she said looking down not meeting their gaze, "I don't know what came over me. I know you didn't mean any harm Denki."

He placed a hand on her shoulder in consolation, "it's ok, we both messed up. But if you don't mind me asking, is everything ok with him? Midoriya I mean, cause the way you said those things made it seem like there was something we don't know."

"Yeah, is something wrong?" Sero asked leaning forward towards their pink friend.

Sitting in silence for a moment, Mina took a breath and tried explaining.

"He told me that he has been having trouble sleeping ever since we all moved in to the dorms. I'm talking "less than two hours a night if he's lucky" type of bad sleep."

"Oh wow, I didn't know," Kaminari remarked.

"I've been letting him take naps in my room during the day while I play games or do homework," Mina lied. She trusted her friends but she didn't want to tell them the whole truth.

"I'm sorry for how I said it a minute ago, but it just seems like I have been the only one who noticed that he has been utterly exhausted lately. The few times we've hung out together as a class he has been practically sleepwalking and nobody has said anything."

The boys listened intently to their friend. They had noticed Midoriya's lack of energy but just assumed it was from extra training. They hadn't thought twice about it til now.

"I just wanted to help him as best as I could but even now he still has trouble with sleep."

"But why?" Kirishima inquired, "what's causing it? Is he an insomniac?"

Mina shook her head, "no, he said this was new since he moved in."

"Wait a minute," Kaminari piped up, "he slept when we hung out in your room and the other week when we were all in the common area and he came in late and slept while on the floor in front of you. What's up with that?"

"From what I've gathered, he falls asleep easier when in social settings or when I'm playing with his hair."

"I'm with him on that one," Kirishima agreed, "you've played with my hair before and it just about made me fall asleep too. It's super calming."

"But why me?" Mina wondered, "Ochaco said she had played with his hair too and he only fell asleep around me."

Pondering that idea, Kirishima brought something back up, "When you were chewing out Denki, you said you were the only one who cared about him. Is this a "he's my friend" type of care or is there maybe something more?"

Mina froze. She had considered the possibility several times but she'd always chalked it up to just friends flirting. There had been moments where they held each other longer than normal, held extended eye contact, and the few times their faces were close enough to each other where they could feel the breath of the other. Had he tried to kiss her, she probably wouldn't have stopped him. But she hadn't intended for those things to happen, she wanted to be there for him and those things just sorta happened. Did she care about him like that? Had she started to have a crush on Izuku Midoriya?

Thirty seconds later she responded looking at her lap, "I don't know."

Kirishima didn't pry further on that matter but her answer led to his next point.

"Well, have you maybe considered that he may fall asleep easier in your presence because he feels that way too?"

Now that was something she hadn't considered. Sure, she figured he thought she was pretty like most boys, but him liking her back? She knew there was chemistry between them by how they acted when close to one another but she couldn't definitively tell what he was feeling.

"But…,"Mina said trying to shift the subject, "even if THAT was true, and that's a big 'if', that still doesn't explain why he can't sleep. It could potentially explain why he sleeps better when near me but what's causing it to begin with?"

The four of them sat in silence before they heard a familiar condescending voice.

"Are you all really this dense?!" Bakugo said in his usually cocky tone. He had been casually listening from an armchair across the room only half paying attention while he scrolled his phone. He hadn't even bothered to look at them while insulting them.

"It's pretty damn obvious, the stupid nerd is lonely."

The four looked at each other then back at Bakugo.

"What do you mean lonely?" Mina asked, "he has tons of friends around all the time."

Bakugo flopped his head in their direction, not even wanting to sit up to talk to them.

"You're his little stalker, you're telling me you don't know about his outside life?"

Mina wanted to clap back with info to prove him wrong but she didn't really have all that much to go on. She knew Izuku liked All Might, studying heroes, and training but that pretty much summed it up. When they hung out they tended to just talk about classes, pop culture, or the movie they were watching.

The explosive teen rolled his eyes at her silence. "The man has only ever lived with his mom and now he's living in a solo dorm room away from the only place he's ever lived. Like I said, he's lonely."

She just sat there processing what she heard. Why hadn't she thought of that? Mina had loved having her own space to decorate and live in, she hadn't considered that maybe that kind of freedom might be hard on someone else.

Once she had told him that he can always come to her if he needed anything, he began finding her in the evenings as well as standing near her at class trainings. He'd lay his head in her lap now without invitation because he knew it was safe to do so. And he'd fall asleep in her arms because he knew he wasn't alone. Holy crap Bakugo was right.

Mina sat back against the couch in silence. What kind of friend was she that she hadn't noticed that Izuku was lonely. Him finding her at hangouts, finally agreeing to her working out with him, him staying the night even when he wasn't having any problems. The signs were there but the dots never connected.

"What should I do?" she said looking back at her friends.

"Well something I think WE should do is make sure he knows he isn't alone," Kirishima said, "He's all of our friend and he deserves to feel at peace wherever he is."

The other two boys nodded their heads in agreement.

Mina smiled at their sentiment but that's not what she meant.

"No, I mean…what should 'I' do?"

She didn't want to say it outright but she was implying what Kirishima had mentioned earlier.

"Ah," the redhead understood. "Well if you want my incredibly professional advice," he said in a silly, sarcastic tone, "I genuinely think what you're doing now is your best course of action. Hanging out, being kind, letting him know you're there for him. You're already on the right track."

"Thanks Kiri, I'm still not exactly sure what I feel but he's my friend first and I don't let my friends down."

A sharp toothed grin appeared on her friend's face.

"Atta girl, best of luck to ya."