On the day when Izuku returned to the Class 1-A dorm after the exhausting battle with Overhaul and the successful rescue of Eri, he lay on his bed, unable to think about anything else but the aftermath of the entire event. The moment for him to sleep zipped past him, escaping his grasp.
He couldn't help but contemplate the chain of events over the last few days. To say it was a roller coaster of emotions and insanity was an understatement.
It was tiring, but life didn't stop there. There would always be more people in need of his help. There was always a new goal to reach. And he still wasn't the greatest hero yet who could save everyone with a smile.
So there was that.
But every time Izuku tried to close his eyes and get some sleep, his brain waded through the events of his work-study repeatedly. Was there something he could have done differently to save everyone? Save Nighteye? To prevent Mirio from losing his quirk?
Izuku sat on the edge of his bed and walked to his door. He opened it and glanced at both ends of the hallway for any wanderers. When he found none, he walked to the kitchen using the stairs. He grabbed himself a cup of water before he sat outside on the stairs, where the chilly air slithered around him, prompting him to shiver. However, the starry nights smiling down on him as he finished the cup of water were a pleasant touch to an eventful day.
Once he finished the cup of water, he turned around to reenter the dorm but noticed the kitchen light on. With alarm bells ringing in his head, Izuku tried to sneak back to his room, but a creak informed whoever was in the kitchen of his presence.
Izuku closed his eyes, praying they wouldn't look his way, but it was inevitable.
Denki Kaminari's head poked out from behind the fridge with concern, but his worry faded when he realized it was Izuku. With a slice of cheese hanging from his mouth and another in his hand, Kaminari waved his hand at Izuku.
Kaminari closed the fridge door and took the slice of cheese out of his mouth before speaking. "Midoriya, I thought you were a monster at first! You know, one of those ladies with the white dress and long hair all down in front of her face?" He said, waving his fingers in front of his face to emulate the long hair.
"Um... But I don't have any long hair?" Izuku pointed out.
"Bah, whatever. You know what I meant. I just thought nobody else was awake, except me... Anyway, what keeps you up late at night? Was it because you also wanted a midnight snack like me?" Kaminari asked, opening the door of the microwave to reveal a burger patty. He placed the slices of cheese in his hand on it, then turned around to ask the important question. "Or was it because of your work-study?"
"Well, that... But it's nothing, though. I'm fine. I promise," Izuku responded with a smile.
"Whatever you say, pal. But if you find you need some help, you can talk to your favorite lightning boy!" Kaminari said, pointing a thumb at his chest and a wink on his face.
"Thanks for the offer. But it's moments like this that I should smile some more to show everyone else that things are going to be okay." Izuku said with a smile.
Kaminari nodded and took a bite out of his midnight snack. "Say... I have one question, though."
Izuku tilted his head in confusion but entertained it. If it was important, he wasn't willing to shy away from helping him. "What is it?"
"Do you by any chance have Nejire Hado's phone number?"
Izuku deadpanned at him. Izuku didn't know why he expected too much from Kaminari, but it was nice to see that some things didn't change.
Izuku let out a laugh. "No, I wasn't under the same work-study mentor as her."
"True, but like, did you see how cute she is? I'm kind of jealous of you, dude. Do you think I'm out of her league, by any chance?"
"I think we all are."
The next day, while Todoroki and Bakugo left to earn another chance at obtaining their provisional hero licenses, everyone had a day off because Aizawa deemed it a necessity. However, Izuku wasn't one to sit still when all the convictions he felt throughout his time at the work-study bogged him down.
This led Izuku to train by himself at Gym Gamma early in the morning, then visit the city of Musutafu nearby for some supplies and snacks Class 1-A wanted for the afternoon. Their attempts to talk him out of it fell on deaf ears because of Izuku's insistence on taking a breather after the tango with Overhaul and complicated moral situations.
As a contingency, if anything happened, Izuku packed his provisional hero license card.
Izuku traveled through the city by foot, surveying the civilians walking around him. As always, it was bustling with life. And it didn't take long before several people noticed his presence and asked for his signature or to take a photo with him.
After fulfilling the requests of the fans, Izuku went back to shopping and purchasing what Class 1-A needed in a general store. He browsed the shelves that were at his eye level and then to the next shelf before gazing down the aisles.
"Huh… They don't have an All-Might themed notebook…"
Izuku sighed. It was the only thing missing for himself, but he fulfilled everyone else's request for their share of items. With a shrug, Izuku bought them and exited the store.
But as he exited the store, Izuku watched a criminal snatch a purse in front of his eyes and bolt down the street. Stunned from the sudden, but bold action, Izuku put his bags down on the floor and was about to take off on a sprint when he heard a woman shout.
"Help! Somebody took my purse!"
"Ma'am, I'll get it back for you!" Izuku shouted as he activated his quirk and blasted down the street.
What would have been a good head start for the criminal was closed by the next person who inherited One For All's quirk.
Izuku pinned him down and tied his arms behind his back. Just as Izuku was about to speak, the criminal's hand opened and splashed his face with a powder that twinkled in the sun. Izuku shook his head and coughed, watching the pink smoke disappear. Something didn't feel right, but he couldn't pinpoint the reason.
Izuku shook his head again to omit the uncomfortable feeling, but it didn't work. Without realizing it, Izuku let go of the criminal, who bolted down the street with urgency.
"Hey, wait!" Izuku exclaimed, about to give chase when he noticed the purse was on the ground. "Or not..."
Izuku glanced around himself and found a couple of civilians looking at him. Some of them had their phones out. It was quite unsettling to know they watched him like a hawk.
Izuku picked the purse up and returned it to the thankful lady. He headed back home with the bags of supplies in his hand as quickly as possible. He didn't know what the criminal did to him, but Izuku craved to go wash his face to get rid of whatever it was.
Hopefully, the quirk wasn't dangerous.
When Izuku made it to the Class 1-A dorm, he opened the door and placed the supplies he bought on the ground next to the sofas while fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie. Several members of Class 1-A greeted him, but stopped, causing Izuku to panic from the lack of continuance.
What were they looking at?
"G-Guys? Is there something wrong with me?" Izuku asked, pointing at himself and releasing the strings of his hoodie.
"Uh... When did you grow fluffy ears?" Kaminari asked, staring at the top of his head with intensity. "Didn't we literally see each other last night?"
"Fluffy ears?" Izuku asked, echoing Kaminari.
"Oh, dear... It seems like what Kaminari said is correct. You have grown ears, Midoriya." Yaoyorozu confirmed.
Sero put a hand on his chin in contemplation. "You know, Midoriya. I never took you as someone who would cosplay. Maybe an All Might impersonation, but you look like a... A..."
"A cat! Why are you dressed like that, anyway, Midoriya? You look like one of those live streamers who wears cat ears to make themselves look cute! Though, I'm kind of into that stuff," Mineta said, earning disgusted stares from his peers.
"What are you guys talking about...?" Izuku trailed off. "Oh, no..."
Izuku sprinted upstairs, leaving his classmates in confusion. Once Izuku made it to his room, he opened the door to his bathroom and stared at the mirror. What stared back at him was on top of his head.
It was a pair of cat ears.
And it was fluffy as Kaminari said.
To say Izuku's mouth hit the floor was an understatement. It dropped to the core of the Earth.
"What the heck... Oh, no, no, no...!" Izuku half-screamed, half-whispered. His heartbeat skipped a step multiple times. "This can't be real!"
But it was.
With a grimace, Izuku reached up and touched them to ensure they were real. They were soft, and every rub sent signals of bliss to his brain, which concerned him.
It was as real as the light was.
Izuku continued to stare at the mirror before he let out a scream.
Izuku touched it again.
Another scream.
What kind of dumb quirk forced someone to grow cat ears on top of their head?
Izuku took a few deep breaths to calm himself down but found it uncontrollable as a billion different situations and a trillion different questions flew by his head.
Everyone was going to see them whenever he went out in public! What were his friends going to think of him? What was he going to tell his teachers? What was All Might going to think of them? It was all so embarrassing!
Izuku inspected the mirror and reached to touch the cat ears with a grimace on his face. It was such an odd feeling as he rubbed the soft fuzz in between his fingers. Izuku released it and flicked his ears. He winced at the impact and let out a sigh.
Suddenly, he heard a knock at his door.
"I'm... I'm busy!" Izuku yelled, praying whoever was at the door would leave.
Instead, the door opened. However, because the cat ears had seized his concentration, he was oblivious to the sound.
A second later, Ashido poked her head through the doorway, startling Izuku through the mirror. "Aww, those ears are just as cute as they said they would be!" Ashido gushed, reaching over to touch his ears. "When I heard you grew cat ears, I just had to come over and see for myself!"
The cat ears on top of Izuku's head curved downwards as he shrank to avoid her hand. But once Ashido's hand landed on his head and rubbed his cat ears, Izuku froze.
It felt nice. And enjoyable. The way her fingers scratched behind his ears elicited an emotion of satisfaction to surge amid his chest. It was like something deep within his heart was being itched and he was powerless to put a stop to it. Instead, the new instincts the quirk gave him coerced him to push his head further in the grasp of Ashido's hand, so he could relish the warmth of her hand.
But then his human instincts kicked in. It granted the perspective of analyzing his situation.
What the heck was he doing?
Izuku pulled away from Ashido's hand with a hand to cover his face. "Um... Ashido, ignore whatever that was, okay? I didn't mean to do that... I was just... Just..."
"Just enjoying it? Now, you don't have to be so shy with me, Midoriya." Ashido said, teasing Izuku.
"Okay, that's enough!" Izuku squeaked, pushing Ashido out of his room.
Once Ashido was out of his territory, Izuku closed the door and locked it. He walked back to the bathroom and touched his cat ears again. With a sigh, Izuku tugged on them, praying they would come off, but their persistence to stay on his head was more than enough to tell him it would not work.
Izuku let out another miserable sigh before he shook his head. "These ears better go away soon..."
And so, for the rest of the day, Izuku created a prison out of his bedroom, afraid to step outside of his room for fear of his anxieties manifesting into the real world. Luckily, his classmates understood him because they didn't bother him for the rest of the day, other than to slip notes under the crack of his door to relay the information that food was waiting for him outside the door.
With no socialization for his brain, Izuku scrolled through social media in the comfort of his bed. At some point, Izuku felt the heaviness of his eyelids weighing down on him. As his eyes closed, his brain took him to the land of dreams.
A minute later, a knock at his balcony door snapped him out of his dreams and pulled him back to the grips of reality where the sun was waving farewell to the world. Izuku inhaled and scrambled with his blanket for a second before staring at the balcony door, curious about who could be behind the curtains. He could see the shadow of a person there, so he did what any person in his shoes would do; try to go back to sleep.
But the knock at the door didn't call for a ceasefire. Instead, its intensity strengthened.
With a grunt, Izuku moved and sat on the edge of his bed. For a second, Izuku forgot about his cat ears, but when he raised his arms to stretch, he felt the fuzziness of it brush against his skin.
Izuku stood from his bed and turned the lights on. Then he cautiously opened the curtains to his balcony door and peeked from the brief view it gave. The palpitations of his heartbeat shot to an erratic rhythm when he saw who it was.
It was as if fate was toying with him.
Nejire Hado stood outside his door.
Izuku unlocked the balcony door and opened it to a tiny degree. "Um... Nejire? Can I help you with anything?"
"Oh, I didn't notice you there," Nejire said as a smile crossed her features. "I didn't want to interrupt anything, but I heard from one of your classmates that you had ears... Cat ears especially! Can I see them?"
"Please don't tell me it was Ashido..."
"Hey, hey, do you also have a quirk to read minds?"
"Um... Please come back another time. Izuku Midoriya isn't available at this time. Leave a message at the beep."
Nejire wedged her foot in the door crack, preventing Izuku from shutting it. This forced Izuku to squeak in fear.
"Wait! But I'm curious! I want to see how cute they are!" Nejire exclaimed, lifting her hands and curling them to imitate the movements of a cat.
Izuku let out a shudder from the curiosity of Nejire staring into the depths of his soul. What was this situation unfolding to? And did he want to know?
Author's Note: I know... This is the weirdest story idea I am writing! XD
With the long hiatus from writing My Hero Academia stories, I wanted to come back and do something fun while making it a heartfelt story! No bitter endings or crazy serious moments, just enough to push the characterization along and make a good romance story!
I'm ready to write a ton of chapters for this story because, well, you guessed it, I still like the Nejire Hado X Izuku Midoriya ship! And I will sink with it for eternity!
Also, I saw the meltdown from the My Hero community about the ending of the manga. Let's just say it's interesting.
With love from your favorite writer, Out4Lunch!