For the umpteenth time, Izuku checked the time on his phone.

11:06

Just like it was the last time he checked.

Izuku sighed. He was overthinking things again.

Probably. He couldn't be sure of anything anymore - his life was getting weird.

Currently, he was seated at one of the benches in front of Kiyashi Ward's infamous shopping mall, waiting patiently at Nejire's behest. She had invited him out here for what she referred to as a 'Super awesome and fun shopping trip', accentuated by many exclamation points, and Izuku wasn't the kind of person to turn that down.

Scratch that. He wasn't the kind of person to turn down anyone for anything, much less his only friend for an outing that seemed like it would, for all intents and purposes, be fun. Izuku didn't know what exactly Nejire had planned - when he had asked all she replied with a 'You'll see', followed by even more exclamation points and even a winking face emoji.

Izuku was so engrossed in his thoughts that it took him a few moments to realize his phone had begun to buzz like crazy again - and he fought down the small smile on his face as he saw who it was… as if there was any doubt.

Nejire

are you here yet?

im here now

youd think with how popular this place is theyd get a second main entrance right? or at least some more smaller entrances?

have you ever been here before?

is that you? i think i see you

Izuku

I'm here.

He peeked his head up from his phone–

"Boo!"

"Ah!"

Izuku was not proud of the way he screamed, nor was he proud of the way he practically flew off the bench in shock.

Nejire giggled as he leapt backwards, slowly reeling herself back onto her own to feet. She had used Wave Motion to hover up close to him, placing her face right in front of Izuku's to give him quite the surprise once he finally looked up.

And maybe a bit of a fright. But how could she resist?

"Hi Izuku!" Nejire greeted, seemingly uncaring of the way he was grasping at his heart, "Fancy seeing you here! Sorry about scaring you!"

Izuku took a deep breath to calm down. Having a heart attack would certainly ruin whatever plans Nejire had. "H-hi, N-nejire." He thought about denying that he was scared, but there was no way she believed him. "Um, i-it's okay."

Nejire. He was still trying to get used to calling her by her first name. When was the last time anyone, let alone a girl, wanting to be so casual and friendly with him?

Not since he'd been diagnosed as Quirkless, that was for sure.

What would she think if she knew the truth?

"How's your day going?" She asked, shaking him out of his thoughts. "Anything fun happen yet? Any crazy plans?"

"Um, it's good," he replied, "I, uh, haven't really done anything interesting yet aside from eat breakfast, b-but that's not very fun, or interesting I guess… and I don't know what my plans are yet."

Nejire smiled. "That's good!" She began, "Means you don't have anything planned aside from this. We're gonna be spending a lot of time here today– if that's okay with you!"

Izuku shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "L-like I said, I didn't have anything planned…"

She beamed at him, and his heart immediately felt like it was going to beat out of his chest again - only this time, it wasn't out of shock.

Her fashion choice for today was quite similar to what it was when they went to get ice cream a few days ago. Another skirt and blouse, but her skirt was white this time - and a little longer, if he had to guess. Her blouse was pink, and she had a small stuffed unicorn that doubled as a purse hanging off one arm.

As for himself, the less that was said about his outfits the better. At least, according to literally every person he had ever met. Shorts were fine, but not a shirt that said 'shorts' as well.

He'd show them. Once these shirts were finally popular… oh, who was he kidding. They'd never be popular.

"Great!" Nejire clapped her hands together. "Let's get a move on! There's a lot of stuff to do here, and I wanna do as much as I can! Have you ever been here before? This place has everything!"

He shook his head. "I usually d-don't go shopping that much, especially not this far from my house.."

That much was true, at least. Izuku worked as many odd and part-time jobs as he could find, but that didn't exactly equate to a lot of spending money. Still, he'd built up a decent amount of change over the past year now that he wasn't spending it all on Hero merchandise.

And by selling some (most) of his All Might memorabilia.

"Trust me," Nejire giggled, "We'll be doing a lot more than shopping!"

Izuku blinked. "Huh?"

She grabbed his hand - predictably making him blush and sputter again - and easily hefted Izuku up onto his feet. "Come on!" Nejire beckoned, already walking towards the main arch that marked the entrance to the mall, "We're burning sunlight!"

Nejire must have forgotten that she was still holding his hand - leaving Izuku to try his best to not trip over himself as he followed (was dragged) behind.

"S-slow down!" He cried, "Please!"

Alas, his pleas were unheard. At least, unheard by Nejire. A few older people who were observing the pair had a good laugh as the woman pulled her (presumably) boyfriend into the mall for a day of fun.

–

"...Mini golf?"

Nejire nodded eagerly. "Mhm!" She looked really excited. "Mini golf is great! There's a few good places around my home in Akita, but I've heard really good things about the one here!"

The employee working at the stand in front of the course nodded. "Hero Golf is the most popular mini golf chain in all of Japan. It is very highly rated at all locations."

Despite the positive message the words conveyed, the girl looked completely and utterly bored as she spoke. Nejire was clearly unfazed, but it certainly made Izuku pause.

"So this one is good then?" She asked, smiling as she received a slow nod. "Awesome! Why is it so popular? Why is it called Hero Golf? What's the price to play? Do you guys have any of those fancy painted golf balls that we can use?"

The worker shrugged awkwardly, her short, black hair bobbing slightly from the action. "Dunno. Prices are on the wall."

She clearly was a little overwhelmed by Nejire's wall of questions - something the periwinkle-haired girl didn't seem to notice. Regardless, her eyes immediately shifted towards the wall of prices, and Izuku could already tell his wallet was going to be crying for mercy by the end of today.

"2000 Yen?" Nejire read aloud, "It has to be good then! C'mon Izuku, let's go!"

His friend - and boy, was that weird to think? - wasted no time in forking over a handful of crumpled bills, quickly moving on to the putts and (normally colored) balls. Izuku was a little slower, limited by the fact that his Quirk - or lack thereof - did not mean he needed a bottomless pool of energy to function, as well as the fact that the price made him hesitate.

Still, Nejire seemed to be dead-set on playing, and had already forked her money over…

The girl stared at him in confusion as he opened his wallet and began to count out 2000 Yen. "She paid for both of you."

Izuku froze in confusion, already halfway through handing the girl his money. "W-what?"

The worker shrugged, splaying out the 4000 Yen Nejire had given her for Izuku to see.

"Y-you don't have to pay for m-me!" He squeaked out, embarrassed. Was it a bad thing that seemed to be his default emotion when he was around her? "I-I can pay for myself!"

Nejire shook her head quickly, not even taking her eyes off the assortment of golf balls as she responded. "Nope!" She said, her tone leaving no room for argument, "I invited you out here, so I pay!"

Izuku gulped. That was true, but wasn't the guy supposed to be the one who paid? Shouldn't he at least pay for himself? "W-we can go fifty-fifty, really! You don't have to be so g-generous!"

She pretended like she didn't hear him, turning back to the attendant. "Are these all the colors you have?"

She nodded, and Nejire sighed. "I'll take the blue one then. What color do you want, Izuku?"

"...Green," he mumbled, defeated.

Nejire quickly plucked the two colors from the rows of golf balls. "Got it! Now come here and pick out your putt!"

He did as ordered, grabbing the medium-sized club slowly. "I'm ready, I g-guess."

She blinked. "Are you sure?" Nejire questioned, "You haven't even tried out your putt! What if it's too small?"

"Um, I think it's f-fine," Izuku replied, "I've never played mini golf before, b-but–"

"You've never played mini golf before?!" Nejire interrupted, flabbergasted, "No way! This is unacceptable."

She smashed her fist down into her hand, a fire in her eyes as she spoke. "We'll have to play, like, five rounds to make up for this! You've been missing out on so much!"

"F-f-five rounds?!" He stammered, "I– w-we can't do that!"

Nejire frowned. "Why not?"

"It would probably get boring." The employee said quietly.

He nodded frantically. "P-plus, that would be twenty-thousand Yen! T-that's so much money! E-even if you pay for this one, I c-couldn't ask you to spend that much!"

"Free game if you make a hole in one on the bonus hole." The worker added.

Izuku turned to her, exasperated. "N-not helping!"

Nejire shrugged, realizing that he was done rambling. "That's not really a lot of money for me!" She said cheerfully, "Ryukyu's agency pays really well! Especially when you're her number one sidekick!"

For some reason, that got the worker's full attention - even more than Izuku. "You work for Ryukyu?" She asked, her voice finally holding a modicum of emotion, "Really?"

"Yep!" Nejire nodded. "Nejire-Chan, at your service!"

"I-is it really a good idea to announce your Hero name when you're not in costume and anonymous?" Izuku wondered aloud, before blushing and slamming his hand over his mouth when the black-haired girl glared at him.

"Maybe not, but I trust her!" She teased, "Unless you were planning something, Izuku?"

The girl's eyes widened as Izuku stammered out a million different words at once. "Wow…" She trailed off slowly, before realizing that she still had two customers. "Um, I'm Kodai Yui, in class 1-B at U.A. Do you think I could get an internship offer from Ryukyu?"

Nejire's eyes eyes lit up. Literally. Izuku was pretty sure he could see sparkles in them. "No way! That means you're my kouhai!" She was practically vibrating with excitement. "I'm in 3-A! I'll have to keep an eye on your performance in the Sports Festival! If you impress me, I'll definitely put in a good word for Ryukyu!"

Kodai nodded, a determined look on her face. Izuku was starting to feel like a third wheel, which was especially bad because Kodai was an employee and couldn't even go along with them. "I will."

"I like that enthusiasm!" Nejire laughed, "But we gotta go - I have to teach my friend how to love mini golf! See you later, Kodai!"

She ran away towards the first hole, leaving Izuku to awkwardly trail behind like a lost puppy.

A lost puppy who was probably about to get his teeth kicked in at mini golf, if the way Nejire was talking meant anything.

–

A lost puppy he may be, but not one who was losing at mini golf.

"How are you so good?!" Nejire whined, flopping backwards dramatically as his ball rolled into the cup, "There's no way this is your first time playing, liar!"

She pointed accusingly at Izuku, who put his hands up in surrender. "W-what?! No I didn't!" He cried, "W-why would I lie about t-that?!"

"I don't know! But you did!" Nejire pouted, puffing her cheeks out in frustration. "It's impossible for you to be winning by so much!"

Izuku looked away from the older girl before he started blushing. He didn't know if she was doing it on purpose or not, but she looked adorable when she made that face. "M-maybe I'm just lucky?"

"You've had three hole-in-ones!" She protested, causing him to cough into his shoulder awkwardly.

"Y-yeah, but they were all on the easiest holes!" Izuku had a feeling that he wasn't going to win this argument. "P-plus, you had one t-too!"

She shook her head. "Irrelevant!"

Izuku sweatdropped. Wasn't she supposed to be the older one? Like, graduate and become a Hero in a few months older one?

Speaking of…

"You, um, n-never mentioned you were a sidekick with Ryukyu, n-not that you had to!" Izuku said, desperate to change the topic, "Do all Hero students become sidekicks before they graduate?"
Nejire went from pouting in frustration to smiling like he'd just hung the moon for her. "I haven't?!" She gasped, "Oh, yeah! It was because you always seem to get awkward whenever I talk about Heroes."

Izuku felt affronted. "T-that's not true," he mumbled, "I like Heroes."

It wasn't a lie. But it wasn't as true as it had once been either. He realized that a lot of pros sat atop broken pedestals once he took a step back from the idolatry and analyzed them objectively. All Might was obvious (as was Endeavor), and he'd seen some shady rumors about Hawks flying around, but even the lesser renowned Heroes like Death Arms and Mount Lady that patrolled Musutafu had plenty of skeletons in their closet that likely could have sunk their careers.

If anybody aside from Izuku had cared to look. Who'd believe him?

And who would care?

"Oh!" The sound of Nejire's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "My mistake! But yeah, I work under Ryukyu! She took me in as an intern last year after the Sports Festival but I've moved on to a full-fledged sidekick! Or at least I will be once I graduate. I'm in a little bit of a gray area; I guess you could call me an apprentice? That sounds good. But no, not every Hero-course student becomes a sidekick. Most do, or at the very least join a larger agency and take direction from a senior Hero - Endeavor's a pretty good example of that. Tamaki's been with him once or twice, so he'd know more about that than I would, if you could get him to open up to you, that is, he's pretty shy! Anyways, a lot of people become sidekicks, but some, like Mirio probably, start out as straight up Heroes! Most of them flame out because they aren't ready for that level of responsibility, but there are fallback options… usually. Depends on how well liked you are! People don't want to offer a job to an arrogant crazy person! But if you're just a bit overwhelmed, usually larger agencies are willing to offer you a helping hand."

Izuku blinked. Her response had taken them through three more holes of mini golf. Did she even breathe during that tangent? "That's interesting. Do Heroes usually only do their scouting based on things like the Sports Festival? It seems kind of, I don't know…"

"Risky?" Nejire finished for him. "Yeah, it kinda is, but that's only part of it! Most agencies are happy to share information about up-and-coming prospects with each other - even if there's competition on the ratings ladder everybody's goal is the same, in the end. Plus a lot of Heroes have an 'in' with their alma mater, so they'll usually offer whatever information they ask for about students if they're probing for an internship. Again, everyone wants the same thing and there's plenty of money to go around, so it's a very uplifting community!"

He didn't know about all that. While the goal of a Hero was certainly to stop or limit crime, everyone did things differently - case in point, Mount Lady. She was clearly using her body for more attention, and her exploits since her debut had only increased since then.

Izuku had a funny feeling that she didn't care too much about purse snatchers.

"No!" Nejire cried as he hit his ball forward, "This can't be!"

It was like magic. Izuku putted the golf ball forward, it rolled up the ramp at just the right angle and speed to fall into the Gang Orca blowhole (ew), out the side of the Hero's likeness, and straight into the cup.

Another hole in one.

Sidenote, this place didn't seem very impressive. It had Hero 'theming', if you could even call it that, but that mostly just meant there were giant decals of a bunch of the top ten sprawled across the walls. Most of them weren't even very accurate - one of the stickers of Mirko turned her into an actual rabbit. The mini golf itself seemed fine, not that he could compare it to anything, but Nejire seemed to be having fun.

He certainly wouldn't pay 2000 yen for it, at any rate - and technically he didn't, but that just made him feel even guiltier about Nejire paying for him.

"Gah!" Nejire screamed, "How can you be so good at something you just started!"

Izuku felt more than a little unsure of how he was supposed to respond. "Um, I-I'm sure you're doing good t-too?"

She pulled out the scorecard, eyes narrowing even more as she read. "You are at thirty-three strokes," she huffed, "Par is fifty."

"And how many are you at?" He asked, knowing full well it was a trick question.

"...Sixty-five."

Her voice was so small. She sounded so defeated.

"S-sorry."

Nejire blinked, and all of a sudden she was back to normal. "Why are you apologizing?" She asked, head tilted to the side like a puppy, "You're winning!"

"W-well, yeah," he agreed quickly, averting his eyes down to his feet, "But you want to win more, right? Y-you play a lot more than I do, and, uh, seem to like mini golf more? It's not really f-fair for me to just be better…"

She hummed. "Well life isn't fair either, you know? Besides, it's just a game! I'd rather have fun and lose to you than play on my own, you know? I had a good time!"

Izuku's face flushed. He couldn't tell if it was her fault or his that she made him blush just about every time she said something positive about him. "I had fun t-too, N-Nejire."

"Good!" She gave him a bright smile. "But we're not done yet. Whole day is open, remember?"

He nodded slowly. "Didn't that employee also say there was a bonus hole to try?"

Nejire looked past the final hole, eyes lighting up as she saw a sign that said 'Hole 0'. "Ooh!" She quickly made her way over to the hole, placing her ball on the turf and wiggling from side to side as she angled her swing.

The level seemed, well, not very fair - it was a simple upwards ramp that shrunk in on itself as it went higher. The hole itself was blocked off by a thick grate, meaning even if you did manage to launch the ball perfectly up the ramp (there were no guard rails, by the way, so if you missed you didn't get a second chance) there was still a fifty-fifty shot that it wound up hitting a piece of wood instead getting to the hole.

Also, the entire ramp was moving side to side. You kind of had to time your shot perfectly to even have a snowball's chance in hell of making it.

Nejire certainly didn't.

The taller girl huffed in frustration as her blue golf ball was sent careening into the darkness at the bottom of the ramp, never to be seen again - at least by her. Izuku was pretty sure they had a collection system somewhere. "Phooey!"

"G-good try." Izuku tried to offer her some comfort, but she just stepped back with a sigh and looked at him expectantly. "I-I guess it's my turn?"

He placed his ball on the green, focusing more on the way the ramp moved than his shot. Nejire was behind him cheering, and it was kind of distracting considering it was the only noise around either of them. For some reason this entire golf course was empty, which was weird considering it was the weekend and the worker in the front said something about this place being very highly rated.

Whatever. Izuku certainly wasn't going to complain about the lack of people around him. And all it meant for Nejire was that she could talk as loud and as much as she wanted.

He hummed, swinging his putter once, twice, and finally hit his tiny green golf ball on the third try, sending it up the ramp, right past the grate, and straight into the hole.

Izuku was not prepared for the way a siren started blaring the moment it went in, nor Nejire's whoops of victory.

"Alright, Izuku!" She cheered, "Great job! I'm a little grumpy that you hit another hole in one, but this one was worth it! Free game!"

A rickety old ticket machine that sat next to the hole's sign sputtered to life, printing out a single yellow ticket with dark orange highlights. Nejire was more than happy to pull it out and hand it to him, giving Izuku a good idea of what he won. "This ticket gives the holder the right to one free game of HERO GOLF at the location at which said ticket was provided."

He squinted at the tiny wall of text that ran across the bottom, the fine print straining his eyes. "This ticket is invalid after ninety days have passed, any significant management changes, if it was discovered to have been obtained fraudulently via Quirk use, if a major federal holiday passes, or at the employee's discretion."

Izuku blinked. "T-that's a lot of rules."

"Pssh!" Nejire laughed, "Who cares about that! It's a free game! You're probably the only one to have gotten a ticket out of that thing in, like, forever!"

He shrugged. "I guess I just got l-lucky…" Izuku turned around to look at Nejire, who seemed pretty happy on his behalf, "But, uh, y-you can have it, i-if you want."

Izuku held his hand out to her, and it took a moment for her to realize that he was offering the ticket to her. "What?" She asked, "Why? You won it! It's yours!"

"Yeah…" He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "B-but like I said earlier, y-you like mini golf way more than I d-do, so you'd probably enjoy it more than mE–!"

He was unable to finish his thoughts, in no small part due to the fact that Nejire pulled him into a hug halfway through his spiel. Izuku was pressed tightly against her chest, and could barely think before she unintentionally smothered him in her boobs.

"You're too nice, Izuku!" She cooed sweetly, either uncaring or unknowing of the way Izuku was struggling to free himself. "I'll take it, but only because you're such a good friend!"

What? Did that even make sense? No, right? Could she let go? Even if her hugs were nice this was a little too much!

Someone up above must have heard his prayers, because she finally, mercifully let go after a few moments. He was sure his face was beyond red, but all Nejire did was giggle and take the ticket from his still-outstretched hand, pocketing it before taking it herself.

"C'mon!" She giggled, pulling him along, "I have more stuff I want to show you!"

It took him longer than he would have liked to realize that they had accidentally stolen the putters.

–

After narrowly averting the disaster that would have been being arrested for theft, Nejire decided that the best course of action would be to get a snack from the mall's food court. Of course, the two of them had vastly differing views on what constituted a snack, so while Izuku slowly pecked at a fresh pretzel, Nejire went to town on several cinnamon-coated pretzel nuggets, a slice of pizza, a churro, and a salad (for health reasons, of course).

If Izuku didn't know any better, he'd have no idea where all those calories went. As it was, however, he knew that there was a better chance of her burning all of that energy before dinner than her gaining any weight.

But that was nearly an hour ago. Now, Nejire was showing him another one of her favorite hobbies…

"S-shopping?!"

Nejire nodded. "Mhm! I love coming to the mall with money to spend, there's so much stuff that looks nice!"

Izuku (despite several repeated offers to pay her back for mini golf being refused) could already feel his wallet starting to restrict. "...I see," he muttered, "U-um, what kind of shopping are we d-doing?"

She hummed. "Well," Nejire began slowly, "Window shopping is the best way to get a real idea of how you want to spend your money, but…"

Her eyes suddenly turned critical, looking him (or more accurately, his outfit) up and down. "We definitely need to take you clothes shopping!"

"W-what?!" Izuku squeaked, "What's wrong with my c-clothes?"

"They're fine… aside from the kanjis," Nejire informed him, "Like, really? 'Shorts'?"

"I-I told you it was supposed to be f-funny!" He squawked, "I d-don't need new clothes!"

Nejire shook her head. "Denial is the first stage of the road to acceptance, Izuku!" She started dragging him to the nearest clothing store, completely unaffected by his desperate attempts to release her grip on his wrist. "You'll thank me later!"

"Wait!" Izuku begged, "Please! We can do something else! Anything!"

"On to bargaining already, wow!" Nejire chuckled. "You're moving quick!"

When he started to scream, nobody came to his aid.

–

It felt like hours until Nejire finally released him from her evil clutches.

…

Okay, it was probably closer to forty-five minutes, but the point still stood.

His arms struggled to carry all the different bags of clothing (there were only three bags, and each didn't have more than three or four relatively cheap-yet-good shirts), but Nejire seemed to be content with that. She had served as the judge, jury, and executioner on his fashion choices for the future, which was… fine. Nejire was probably the only person who would care about what he wore in the first place - aside from his mother - so he didn't mind that much.

Still, being told all his favorite shirts were a disaster wasn't exactly the greatest boost to his already nonexistent self-confidence.

But hey, when you're at rock bottom you can't go any lower, right?

"Alrighty!" Nejire said happily as they exited the latest store on their visit, "We only have one more spot!"

She had stopped dragging him around by the hand (he couldn't take much more of it), but she didn't need to. It wasn't like he was going to run away or anything. Nejire pulled out the map she had picked up by the entrance, quickly scouring it for a second before pocketing it and marching away. "Let's go!"

"D-do I really need more shirts?" He questioned, hurrying to make sure she didn't leave him behind, "I don't think my wallet can take any more abuse…"

"Well, you could've let me pay for it then!" She teased, not unkindly. It was true that she had offered to pay for his new clothes, what with Nejire being the sole reason he was buying anything, but he waved her off. For one, he couldn't ask her to pay for so much stuff, even if she was, in her own words, 'loaded'. Also, Izuku still felt guilty about her paying for the mini golf… even if that was a drop in the bucket compared to the costs he was accruing now. "Anyways, you don't have to worry! This last stop is for me!"

Izuku blinked. "F-for you?" He repeated, perplexed. In all the time that they had been shopping, she hadn't done anything more than give a few glances here and there. When he had asked, Nejire sheepishly replied that she had 'more than enough clothes already'.

Undeterred, the Heroine-in-training nodded. "Yep! One last stop, I promise!"

She seemed happy enough about it, but something in the way she said it was seriously rubbing him the wrong way. Regardless, he just nodded slowly and followed along behind.

Until he saw where Nejire was taking him.

A swimsuit shop.

"I need some new ones for summer," she said simply, walking in without a care in the world.

"O-okay!" He replied, standing as still as a statue in front of the entrance with his voice unnaturally high, "I'll w-wait out here for you!"

Nejire paused, turning to look at him in confusion. "Huh?" She asked, "Why would you wait outside?"

Izuku gulped. "O-oh, you know!" He let out an awkward laugh. "I-I definitely don't need a new bathing suit o-or anything and it's not like you'd need my opinion on what to get s-since I clearly don't know fashion plus I'd p-probably just slow you down if anything!"

He was well aware that he had fallen back on his old habit of muttering again, but he didn't care. Those were all valid reasons, but the real issue was that he didn't think he could keep himself from acting like an idiot if he started imagining her wearing the swimsuits she picked out.

Or worse, made him watch as she modeled them like he had with the t-shirts. He would almost certainly die.

It was like she read his mind.

"It's fine!" Nejire waved off his concerns without a care in the world. "You're not gonna slow me down! Besides, I need someone to tell me how I look in them before I buy anything!"

Izuku was fairly sure that she could, in fact, tell what he was thinking at that moment because it looked like she was hiding a smirk.

"A-a-are you s-sure?" He stammered, almost comically, "W-wouldn't you r-rather get an o-opinion from someone e-else? A f-female friend? An e-employee? L-literally a-anyone?"

Nejire put a finger to her lips as she looked up, clearly pretending to humor his idea, but shook her head immediately after. "Nope!" She exclaimed, "But don't worry, it'll be fun!"

She reached out towards him again, likely to drag him inside by force if she had to, but hesitated at the last moment.

"Actually," she began, slower, "What time is it?"

Izuku blinked, quickly searching for the nearest clock. "U-um, three f-forty-one?"

She looked pensive for a minute, frozen in place, before ultimately sighing as she dropped her hand back to her side. "Dang it," she sighed, "I think we spent too much time fixing your wardrobe. Swimsuit shopping will have to wait until next time!"

"N-next time?" He repeated, slightly worried.

Nejire nodded. "Well, yeah! I still need new bathing suits! I keep outgrowing my old ones - you lucked out today!"

Izuku wasn't sure whether to agree or disagree with her on that statement. On one hand, he'd get to see Nejire in a swimsuit. On the other hand, she'd probably call him a pervert, slap him, and launch him through the mall with her super powerful Quirk.

And then he'd be friendless again.

That thought made Izuku sadder than he thought it would.

"S-so, um," he eventually stuttered out, "Is t-that it for today then?"

She shook her head. "Of course not!" Nejire said loudly, before realizing she may have gone a bit overboard. "Unless you want to leave, of course! But I had something else planned, too!"

"G-got it," Izuku replied, "But, uh, I-I'm okay to stay. What e-else did you want to do?"

Nejire gave him a bright smile in response to his words - practically blinding him. "Great!" She looked ready to hug him again. "Let's go to the movies!"

What?

Izuku had a few questions immediately flash through his mind as she spoke - not the least of which was how Nejire expected a movie to take up less time than buying bathing suits, but he wasn't going to push his luck. Instead, he went with the safe option.

"T-there's a movie theater in here?" He asked, more than a little surprised.

Nejire giggled at the awe in his voice. "I told you this place has everything, didn't I?"

She led the way proudly, with Izuku falling in step behind her. "Let's go," Nejire beckoned, "It's not too far from here!"

"We are going already…" he mumbled under his breath, before blushing as he realized she heard him. Lucky for Izuku, she just laughed.

Did he mention she had a really nice laugh?

–

The movie theater really was close. They probably walked for less than two minutes before they stumbled upon the red and purple carpets laid out at the entrance.

"So what do you wanna see?" Nejire asked, bouncing up and down as they waited in the ticket line, "Have you seen anything in commercials that looks interesting? What genres of movies do you like? What's your favorite movie of all time?"

"Um, I don't know," he admitted, "I haven't seen anything stand out to m-me recently. I did s-see that they were making another All M-Might documentary, b-but apparently it's being released in tandem with the fortieth anniversary of his debut, which is in a few months, so…"

Izuku trailed off, frowning softly at the mention of All Might. His eyes briefly turned towards his feet, but he was quick to remind himself that he was in the middle of a conversation.

Too bad Nejire already noticed.

"U-uh, I l-like comedies though!" He rushed to say, "A-and d-documentaries. S-science fiction is g-good, too. My f-favorite movie is an old pre-Quirk movie, s-so I doubt you'd know what it is. I d-don't like horror that much, but w-we can watch whatever you want to! I-I'm sure there's something else you're interested in…"

His companion hummed. "Try me! I watch a lot of movies! And…"

She looked back towards the front of the ticket line, where a list of movies being shown was hung. "Hmm… that one isn't until five, that one has a bad audience review, I've already seen that one…"

Nejire went through the list of available showings, slowly picking off options until–

"Aha!" Nejire proclaimed, "We'll watch–"

She was interrupted by her phone going off - and not merely buzzing or making a small alert sound. No, it sounded like her phone literally exploded in her unicorn-plush-purse. It took him (and just about everybody else in the line) by surprise, although Nejire seemed more irritated than anything.

"Aw, really?!" She whined loudly, quickly pulling it out and stopping the alarm, "Damn it!"

Izuku blinked. He'd never heard her swear before - heck, he was half-certain she didn't even know any curse words before now.

"E-everything o-okay?" Izuku asked, still taken aback by the alarm.

Nejire just sighed, a big frown now present on her usually smiling face. It didn't look like it belonged there at all.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna have to take a raincheck on that movie," she mumbled sadly, "That was Ryukyu, or at least her agency. Today was supposed to be my day off, but I got called in for an emergency. I'm sorry!"

"Y-you don't have to a-apologize!" Izuku said quickly, putting his hands up to stop her. "I-it's fine, um, being a Hero is o-obviously more important than hanging out with m-me so–"

Nejire placed a finger on his lips, shutting him up immediately. "Don't say that," she chastised calmly, making him turn maroon (he was running out of colors to describe his blushes), "I enjoy hanging out with you a lot! It's not fair to you for me to have to leave in the first place."

He was well aware that they were now making a scene in the middle of this theater. "M-maybe we s-should get out of l-line first?"

It was kind of hard to say that with her finger still on his face, but she got the message after a minute, allowing the two of them to 'gracefully' bow out of the line and have their little discussion off to the side.

To be fair, though, they probably shouldn't even be talking right now, considering what Nejire said.

"U-um, n-not to rush you or a-anything," he squeaked out, "B-but, ah, d-didn't you say it was an e-emergency?"

Nejire rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but that can mean anything. One time that stupid alarm went off in the middle of the night because Ryukyu started snoring and smoke came out of her mouth."

Izuku nodded slowly. "S-still, though…"

She frowned, and he thought he finally pushed her a little too far, but she nodded in agreement after a moment. "Yeah," Nejire agreed, "You're right… not that I like it. Sorry again, Izuku."

Briefly, he wondered if there was literally anything else in the world she didn't like - aside from his shirts - before he shook his head. Not the time.

"I-it's okay, r-really!" He reassured, "I, uh, know I don't exactly know what it's like to be a H-Hero or anything like that… but I-I'm sure responding to emergencies is in the job description!"

Izuku took a breath as Nejire watched him muster the courage to say something that would probably embarrass him. "A-and, um, y-you said next time, r-right? T-that just means I'll have to hold you to it!"

God please kill him now. It wasn't that the idea of a 'next time' with Nejire sounded bad, quite the opposite really, but the fact that he made himself sound so damned eager really made him want to crawl underneath the nearest rock and hide.

Izuku really expected her to laugh at him for that one, but to his befuddlement, she just looked really happy.

"Next time," Nejire repeated slowly, her big, blue eyes as bright as ever, "Got you. I won't let you forget."

Izuku could barely hold her gaze, she was too cute! He forced himself to look away after what felt like an eternity (but was probably half a second, tops), coughing into his fist awkwardly. "R-right," he stuttered out, "U-um, s-stay safe, Nejire… n-not that I think you aren't capable of that a-already or anything! I m-mean, uh–"

For the second time that day, Nejire pulled him into a tight hug that made him shut up faster than if he were being threatened by Bakugou.

"I know what you mean, silly," she whispered, giggling all the while as he continued to stammer out meaningless words, "One more hug for good luck, okay?"

Izuku wasn't even sure he was conscious anymore, but he was pretty sure he mumbled something out similar to 'okay' at some point.

She released him after a few long, torturous (wonderful) seconds, and couldn't keep herself from giggling again at his gobsmacked look. "I'll text you when I'm finished with whatever's going on over there, okay?"

He nodded dumbly. He probably resembled a neanderthal at this point. "Uh-huh."

Nejire gave him one last smile before she started rushing to the exit. "Get home safe!"

"Y-you too!" He called back, wincing immediately after saying it. That was bad. That was like having a waiter tell you to enjoy your meal and you responding 'thanks, same to you'.

Izuku was such a mess.

…

Oh well. At least she didn't shove his head into her boobs again… wait, was that even a bad thing?

He was so confused.

—

A/N: For clarification, Nejire is like, way taller in this story than in canon. Think like 5 '10-5' 11 instead of 5 '4-5' 5. Or don't. My story, but you can imagine things however you want them to. We don't share the same brain. And I am, in fact, running out of ways to describe Izuku blushing. Please give me more words for that.

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think! See you next time!