Disclaimer: Of course I don't own My Hero Academia, its characters, or the franchise.
Story: Izuku ends up enjoying a fan convention, only to surprisingly run into and befriend none other than Sir Nighteye. Not that she knows that. Mirai on the other hand finally found a kindred spirit, albeit someone young. These two end up traversing a friendship full of fanboyism and fangirlism, all the while tip toeing around the awkward 'other' tension between them, even when All Might himself enters the equation…
Set as an AU genderbending fic, canon-rewrite.
Spoilers: Probably the whole series, at least up to the Overhaul arc.
Warnings: Age disparity, underage, cursing and sexual situations…
Pairings: Fem!Izuku/Sasaki Mirai (Sir Nighteye)
A Fan's Guide to Heroics
Chapter Twelve: Dress-Up Darlings
The loud squeal she let out happily made him proud and he was glad to have been able to show off his own collection to her. Although much smaller than hers, he did have plenty of rare finds that he'd been able to grab as All Might's Sidekick back then (and even now, as his ex-Sidekick).
"Mirai! Is that the 10th anniversary poster of All Might that was never released to the public? That's amazing! I can't believe you have it —although maybe I can, since you are his former Sidekick. You must be able to find and own a lot of really good All Might stuff," she mused.
"I do try," he allowed a small grin for her. "It was partly what I was doing, moving around in that convention in disguise before I ran across you."
She giggled before turning around in a circle to admire his office. "Wow…You really have some great posters here. You should have them framed."
He blinked, glancing at the nearest one. "What do you mean?"
"I like having posters framed to keep their posterity protected. Aside from not easily torn or damaged by outside forces, even dust or light, it'll keep them looking nice and fresh and overall aesthetically modern and all professional," she shrugged. "If you want, I can get yours done too? I do all mines myself, since that's the kind of thing I do for the drawings I do for some commissions. Paintings I do that aren't on canvas are definitely framed."
Mirai had actually never really thought about that, but now that it had been brought up, he would definitely want to keep his posters protected and continue to look nice for a long time.
"Would you? I'd really appreciate it and I would of course pay you," he said, grateful for the offer and her bringing it up in the first place.
"No, no," she waved her hands. "You're my friend! Of course I'd help you out like this."
Mirai couldn't help reaching over, hand hovering as he realized what he'd done and not knowing what to do, before then just deciding to continue on and finish off some sort of movement to not make his aborted move look odd. He patted her head, noticing off hand again, how small she was compared to him.
"You really are short," he found himself teasing.
"Hey! You're just too tall!"
As lunch came, Izuku was surprised by Mirai asking her if she wanted to eat out. She hadn't minded, but she wasn't sure if he usually ate with the others.
"Sometimes," he informed her. "But given I usually work through my lunch hour, I usually eat by myself in my office. I just recently started eating out more, as I met up with you."
She felt kind of warm and fuzzy hearing that.
"Does that make me special?" she asked teasingly.
"You are special to me," he said bluntly, without a pause. He'd said it so easily too, like it was fact and not something he would ever disagree on or take back.
It also reminded her of his confession before he'd run away, that he'd had feelings for her and was attracted to her. She still wondered if that was still true or had everything changed because he knew the truth about her now…
Izuku gave him a small smile. "You're special to me too."
It made him freeze and probably realize what he'd just said to her, and she was treated to seeing Sir Nighteye actually looking bashful and even a little shy at her response.
"There's a small restaurant around here that the others and I went to for dinner one time," he changed subjects in embarrassment. "We could go there?"
"Sounds good to me," she agreed. "I hope they have katsudon!"
She grabbed his hand and waited, though she noted that he'd looked taken aback and had tensed, before his cheeks tinted red and he turned from her to start leading the way out of his office.
"We'll be eating out for lunch," Mirai told his colleagues and she saw them glance at first at the two of them and then at their clasped hands.
"Enjoy your lunch, Sir," Bubble Girl giggled, looking at them mischievously. Mirio also snickered, waving them off while Centipeder shook his head at the other two.
Mirai quietly huffed and pushed up his glasses, tightening his hold on her hand as he started to quickly stride out of there.
"I like your co-workers," Izuku told him.
"As do I…on most days," he grumbled and she laughed.
It wasn't a long walk to the small restaurant that he took her to, which was quaint and homely. They were seated quickly too and it wasn't a big hustle and bustle crowd at the moment, so they could enjoy the quiet. After they gave their order, they sat in peace and waited together, sitting across from each other in the booth they shared.
"Hey, Mirai?" she asked, thinking of something she had been planning on for a while, but now with someone she was close to, might even share in.
"Hm? What is the matter?" he looked quizzically at her.
"There's a, um, cosplay event coming up soon. I was wondering if you wanted to attend with me? I know it's not your kind of thing, but I thought it would be fun to go with you and for the both of us to hang around others and…dress up too?"
He blinked at her in surprise and then looked hesitant. "I guess I wouldn't mind attending, since it would be with you…but cosplaying too? I'm not exactly the type to cosplay."
"Going in disguise can count a little as cosplaying," she playfully brought up. But she gave him an understanding look. "I get it though. It's fine if you don't want to dress up; I'm happy to have you just come with me. I usually don't have anyone to come with me to things."
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well…I could try it out? I mean, there's no harm done and I suppose it'll be fun if it's with you."
She became really excited at that and wanted to throw herself at him. Unfortunately, the table was in the way. That didn't stop her though —she went around the table and glomped him tightly.
"Yes! It'll be really fun and we'll enjoy it together and I promise you won't regret it," she rambled against him.
After a moment's hesitation, he put his own arms around her too and held her close.
"That said…what would we dress up as? And would we have to order our costumes online?"
Izuku smiled widely. "Well…why don't we start off easy? You can be Kyoya! You can totally pull it off and it's not a hard costume to come up with. And don't worry about costumes —I have that handled. I just need your measurements."
He gave her a bemused look.
As he usually did, he was careful as he dyed his hair and put his contacts in. His new glasses that he'd been wearing after Izuku had commented on his likeness to the character in the hospital and also about his lack of glasses came in handy; they were modeled after the anime character's actual glasses. A quick brush down of his hair made it semi-neat and when he was done with the basics, he looked at the 'uniform' that Izuku had gotten made for him.
It looked and felt like the real thing. It could've been a real high school uniform, if it hadn't been a replica of a uniform from a fictional high school with a fictional uniform design.
Mirai put it on and looked at himself in the mirror, blinking at the uncanny likeness. He knew Izuku said he looked like the character and he had agreed himself, but looking at him now, he hadn't expected being able to really look like the character this well.
He wondered how Izuku looked like. He knew she was going as Haruhi, since he'd told her he'd go as Kyoya only if she went as Haruhi (he shipped them, okay?), so he was looking forward to her cosplay look.
He was, however, wanting to hurry and get out of there since he didn't want to be caught by the others. Since the cosplay event was in Tokyo, Izuku said she'd meet him at his Agency after she got ready in her home and traveled to there, and they'd leave together from there.
When he reached the text that she was almost there, he was relieved and thought he'd just go to his car and drive the rest of the way to her. But upon exiting his office, he regretted it immediately.
Lost in his thoughts and brewing in his anxiety as he was, he hadn't realized the others had already arrived. Their jaws dropped at him simultaneously.
"S-Sir?" Mirio was blinking rapidly.
"W-wait, are you dressed up as that one character you said someone told you looked like?" Awata shamelessly stared at him.
"Izuku and I are going to a cosplay event together," he explained embarrassedly, even as his face heated up. "She suggested the look, especially since she was the one who made the comment that I looked like Kyoya in the first place."
"Very cute idea, Sir," Juzou commented, the first to break out of it and even start teasing. "Am I assuming she is dressing complementary to you?"
"She's going to be Haruhi," he admitted.
Awata chortled. "Totally shipping pair. Shippers at the event are going to go spare!"
"You have to let us take pictures, Sir!" Mirio excitedly said. "You look really good! And is Midoriya-sensei coming here? Or are you meeting her there?"
"Oh, I just made it here! Pictures sound fun! How about it, Mirai?" Izuku's voice sounded tired and he turned to his doors to see her breathing heavily like she'd run there.
"Are you okay?" he asked, striding over even as he admired her own cosplay.
She was playing long-haired Haruhi and had also put in contacts, so that her usually peridot-colored eyes were a warm brown instead.
She smiled up at him, accepting his help to stand up and walk over to the others. "I wanted to hurry and meet you, so I ended up running the last bit to here."
"Wow, Midoriya-san, you look good too. We definitely have to take pictures!" Awata agreed with Mirio, and with so many wanting to, Mirai gave in.
And, just to smugly prove that he could be charming, he made sure to look and act so in the photos, with Izuku as Haruhi amusedly willing to play along.
"Wow, there's so many people here," Izuku said as she looked around the courtyard. "And so many great cosplays! Ooh, that's a really good job on a Draken cosplay! They even shaved part of their head and did the dragon tattoo!"
Mirai looked around and agreed as well; there was a surprisingly great deal of people here and it was obvious how hard people worked on their costumes and that this was a passion for everyone there.
"Um, hello?" someone's timid voice asked from behind them and they stopped and turned, seeing a female high schooler. "I just saw you guys coming in! But you guys look amazing, especially you," she looked at Mirai in awe. "You look dead on like Ootori Kyoya, Sir! Is it okay if I can take a picture of you guys and also with you?"
Mirai blinked, unsure what to do about this. Brand new at these events and not knowing anything about them, he deferred to his partner and looked at her.
"If he's fine with it, so am I!" Izuku beamed back at the girl, looking happy and bright. She glanced at him in question and he shrugged. He was fine if she was.
They took a couple pictures with her and then she asked them to pose. He and Izuku did a few regular poses before they were asked to do some romantic ones, if they were comfortable with it. His face turned red, but Izuku giggled and unexpectedly turned to him, tiptoeing up and kissing his cheek. The flash went off and the picture was captured.
The girl squealed. "Sooo cute! I love this ship from Ouran. You guys are awesome! Please continue to cosplay in the future, especially together!"
She ran off happily and Mirai felt utterly dazed, not just from the experience but also from the kiss on the cheek from Izuku. Utter glee began to fill him then though.
Except, like the floodgates opening, others began to come to them and eagerly ask for pictures.
It really took Mirai off guard and he ended up just doing his best to go along with things and keep up with the photo-taking. There was, surprisingly, a lot of requests for romantic posing, which made him hesitant and secretly very agreeable to.
Before he knew it, the event was ending and many people were leaving. The crowd that had surrounded Mirai and Izuku were dispersing, and the two of them were laughing and holding hands as they also started to leave the area.
"That was really, really fun," Izuku told him happily.
"Yes, it was," he agreed, freely grinning back.
She hesitated then and he squeezed her hand encouragingly. "Let's do it again?"
"…Alright. I don't mind," he decided, finding himself actually honest about that.
A couple days later, while he was with the others on break and after he'd gone over a new case and wanted to have them reach out to a few other Heroes, he'd gotten a call from Izuku.
"Hey! Just got out of class and was going to study in the housing apartment," she said. "How are you?"
Ignoring the others' looks, Mirai was tempted to head to his office to take his call. Awata's deadly glare and hold on his chair made him look at her with a raised eyebrow. He stayed in his seat though. It wasn't like he could keep hiding away somewhere, every time he wanted to talk to Izuku.
"I'm fine; just finished a discussion with my team and on break. We're snacking a little."
"Ooh, on what?"
"Store-bought onigiri," he said dryly. "We also have store-bought bentos for later."
She giggled. "Sounds appetizing. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to come with and cosplay with me at an anime convention this weekend, since we had a good time and did so well at that cosplay event."
Mirai hadn't expected that to come up and for their next cosplay to come up so soon.
"Okay, it sounds doable? I have nothing planned this weekend," he thought about it. "Who are we going as?"
"Why don't you dress up as Sir Nighteye?"
He froze up. Huh?
Started 4/19/23 - Completed 4/19/23
A/n: Heeey! Been some time, huh? Job hunting and then the temp job as a data entry clerk for the tax season kept me busy. Hopefully my free time now will let me be a bit more active.
Quick Points:
1. Yes, the chapter title is based off the manga/anime 'Dress-Up Darling'.
2. I'm surprised canon!Nighteye didn't have his posters framed. Just saying.
3. Damn straight I'm having cosplay in here (and them doing cosplay). Full-on geekage is totally going on display in this fic XD
4. Yamada Yuki from the Tokyo Revengers live film is what I'm picturing as the Draken cosplayer.