To the joy of Jirou, the school day did indeed fly by on Tuesday.

Long, boring lectures quickly turned into opportunities to daydream about the night that laid ahead. Those daydreams were far too quick for Jirou, although she was not complaining - it just meant that classes would be over sooner than she expected.

The only thing interrupting classes was their lunch break. That, for whatever reason, felt much longer than the rest of the day had been thus far. Jirou sat next to Midoriya at lunch, along with Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Ilda, and Tokoyami. Although she wanted to talk with everyone else, Jirou could not help but remain quiet for much of the lunch. As much as she wanted to talk with Midoriya about their evening ahead, she knew that now was not the time in front of their classmates, as their relationship would almost certainly be revealed.

"Well, lunch is almost over! What are you all doing after school today? I have so much homework..." Uraraka groaned.

Jirou's heart skipped a beat. Without anyone noticing, she stuffed her foot on top of Midoriya's foot, causing him to make a grunt.

"I will be meditating in the dark after homework this evening. Dark Shadow has been out of sync today," Tokoyami commented, with no one daring to ask him to elaborate.

"Studying! What else could you possibly want to do on a Tuesday evening?" Ilda said, causing Uraraka to groan once more.

"I will also be completing homework, as well as having some tea," Yaoyorozu said.

Much to Uraraka's surprise, neither Midoriya or Jirou said anything. Before she could prod any further, the bell rung, signifying the end of lunch. While Jirou thanked her lucky stars that they were saved by the bell, Uraraka was irked.

"Why do I feel like they're both hiding something?" Uraraka thought to herself, as the group walked back to the classroom.

After a grueling heroics class led by Aizawa, the school day was finally over. All of the students went back to their respective rooms. They would all be busy with homework and studying for the night ahead, although some hoped to be done earlier if possible.

Except for Midoriya and Jirou, that was.

The two of them had already done all of their homework for today. Instead, they both packed their bags, ready to not only get to work for the Cultural Festival, but to also hang out together for the evening worry free.

Both of them were relieved to know that there would be no pressure with hiding their relationship that night. As much as they enjoyed living in the dorms, it was a mental grind to always have to watch their backs, knowing someone could catch them together when they least expected it.

Midoriya had his belongings packed together much quicker than Jirou. Carrying his bass case and his backpack, he stood in the lobby, waiting for Jirou to join him. Once they were together, they would walk to his house, free to finally enjoy the evening together.

"Deku?"

Before Midoriya realized it, Uraraka was standing next to him. Although he hid his reaction well, he was surprised that she had managed to appear next to him without him realizing, something that he attributed to him zoning out in the moment.

"Ura-Uraraka! You startled me. I thought you said you were busy doing homework," Midoriya said.

"I thought I'd come downstairs for a little bit to unwind first. But look at you! Standing in the lobby yet again, ready to go somewhere. And - and you have a guitar case too, huh?" Uraraka said in what he interpreted as a rather sarcastic tone.

"I-It's, um, a bass case, but yeah," Midoriya said.

"Oh, okay. Where are you going?" Uraraka asked.

Midoriya gulped. If Jirou caught them together like this, he knew that things were about to get awkward. The last thing he wanted to do was spoil their relationship to yet another person.

"I'm going home for the evening," Midoriya answered. He figured being honest was the best approach to take in this situation.

Uraraka nodded. Midoriya hoped, and hoped some more, that Uraraka would leave now, before Jirou came downstairs. But unfortunately for Midoriya, Uraraka's inquisitiveness was not quite done yet.

"Well, are you leaving now?... Or are you waiting for someone?" Uraraka said.

Now Midoriya was really stumped. He knew if he stayed, it would make Uraraka all the more suspicious as to whether he was waiting for someone. And, now that he thought about it, he was confused as to why Uraraka was even sounding so accusatory all of a sudden.

"It's... It's nothing for you to be concerned about," Midoriya managed to say after a few awkward moments.

"Oh."

Uraraka left the room without another word.

Midoriya hoped that he did not come off as rude. However, he could not think of another response that would have made the situation any better at that point. Besides, he was just grateful that Jirou had not walked into the situation just as they were about to leave, which was the most important matter at hand.

Speaking of which, Jirou then arrived in the lobby moments later.

"Ready to go, Izuku?" Jirou asked.

"Yeah, I'm more than ready," Midoriya replied.

The walk to the Midoriya residence took about the same amount of time as it took to walk to the Jirou residence. Although it was a pain to lug the bass cases down the road, the two of them were relieved when they finally arrived at their destination for the evening ahead. A quick walk up the stairs to Midoriya's apartment felt like a breeze compared to their prior trek.

"Maybe we should've taken the train..." Jirou mumbled under her breath.

Even though she would never admit it, Jirou started to feel her heart pound as they arrived at the front door of the Midoriya's home. On the one hand, seeing what their home was like excited her, as she could only imagine what it would look like based on Izuku's apartment decorations. On the other hand... the thought of meeting his mom made her more than a little nervous.

Despite that, she reminded herself that Midoriya spoke nothing but positive things about his mother overall. Plus, Midoriya had already met both of her parents, so she felt like they were finally 'getting even,' per se. Nonetheless, Midoriya put the keys into the doorknob and opened the door, meaning there was no turning back now.

"Izukuuu!" A feminine voice called from inside.

Before Jirou knew it, Izuku was hugging his mom in the hallway. She had to admit that it made her heart melt to see the Midoriya's have such a nice reaction from seeing each other again since however long Izuku had last been home. It reassured her furthermore that his mom was someone that she could trust, even if she had never even spoken to the woman before.

"And who's your friend that you have with you, Izuku?" His mother asked.

"This is my friend Kyouka from class!" Izuku said, turning towards Jirou.

"Hello Mrs. M-Midoriya, I'm Kyouka Jirou... Izuku's classmate."

Jirou cringed at herself for the rather stiff introduction, in addition to repeating the fact that they were classmates, had that not already been obvious. To her surprise, however, Izuku's mother raised a brow before saying anything else.

"Hi there Kyouka! Please, just call me Inko. And my, my! This is a first!" Inko said.

"First?" Izuku asked.

"You've never had a girl over before! I guess there's a first for everything!" Inko chirped.

"MOM!" Izuku said, his face quickly becoming the darkest shade of red as Jirou had ever seen from his blushing.

Jirou, too, felt her face turn red. Although she knew that she was Midoriya's first girlfriend, the fact that Inko was so forward about pointing out that she was the first girl to stay with them was... not so reassuring.

Maybe this whole idea was a mistake after all.

"Hey Ashido," Uraraka said, as she entered the former's dorm room.

"What's up, Uraraka?" Ashido asked in a rather nonchalant tone. She had been in her room for only a few minutes after class had ended before she heard a flurry of knocks on her door, which were from none other than Uraraka.

"I want your opinion on something. And - I know this is awkward, but, I don't know who else to ask," Uraraka asked with a somewhat nervous tone.

Ashido raised an eyebrow. She sat down on the bright pink sheets atop her bed, while Uraraka took the equally bright pink chair on the other side of the room.

Now sitting across from each other, Ashido began to pick up on Uraraka's rather unpleasant tone. Now she was the one that was nervous.

"So, in your expert opinion, do you think that Deku and Jirou are officially dating?" Uraraka asked.

"Ohhhh shit," Ashido thought to herself.

This was exactly the situation that Ashido was hoping to avoid - at least until Midoriya and Jirou went public with their relationship. And what made it worse was that there was no exit out of this situation. Uraraka was in her room, sitting right across from her, and there was no way she could make up an excuse to buy any extra time to think of something to say.

"Woah there, Uravity! What makes you think something like that would be the case?" Ashido said with a fake excited tone.

Ashido swore that she saw Uraraka's eyes bulge.

"I just know," Uraraka said in defeat.

Even though there were so many things that could be said, Ashido found herself speechless. She knew that spilling the relationship to anyone - especially Uraraka - would lead to a disaster with Jirou.

Despite that, Ashido also could not bring herself to lie to Uraraka. She truly had no idea how to proceed without pulling some strings.

"Why so?" Ashido again asked.

Uraraka sighed. "Things were going well with Deku recently, we were talking more and things felt normal again. But after class, he was in the hallway with a guitar case... and he said that what he was doing was 'none of my business.'"

"Oh..." Ashido said.

"Yeah," Uraraka managed to say. "We all know where he was going. They clearly... have to be together."

Ashido was nearly in a panic. Still, she had a few more ideas.

"Well, they are doing something together at the Cultural Festival. Maybe they were going somewhere to practice?" Ashido pointed out.

"Yeah, but why would he try to hide it from me?"

"Maybe he wants their performance to be a surprise?" Ashido knew it was a weak comeback. She hated that she had to cover up the truth, but there was no other choice in her mind.

"Yeah, practice and a sleepover," Uraraka retorted.

Now Ashido was out of ideas.

"Well, I don't know. Sorry, Uraraka, but this 'expert' has no clue," Ashido said.

"Whatever," Uraraka groaned, as she got up and left the room.

Once the door was shut, Ashido gave a huge sigh and flopped onto her back. She quickly scrolled on her phone, trying to calm her adrenaline, much to no avail.

Even though she felt bad for her, she was just grateful that Uraraka did not discover the truth from her. As long as she was not the one to break the news of their relationship to anyone else, she considered it a win in her book.

"How wonderful is that! You certainly have a lot of talent. I'm sure your Cultural Festival performance will be amazing!" Inko said.

She sat across from Izuku and Jirou at the kitchen table. Jirou had just explained her musical background (including her parents), in addition to her and Izuku's plans for performing their own song together. Izuku, meanwhile, filled in with more details that Jirou had omitted. Most importantly, the two of them made no mention of their relationship whatsoever.

"So we'll be practicing our song and hopefully have the lyrics finalized tonight. That way, tomorrow and Thursday can be practicing just the complete song," Jirou explained.

"Makes sense to me! I can't wait to hear Izuku sing!" Inko said, causing Izuku to blush once again.

"Well, we'll go practice in my room then," Izuku said, clearly not amused by the banter.

After a few more moments of conversation between the three of them, as well as one more cheer of encouragement from Inko, Izuku and Jirou went to his room. Once Izuku turned the light on, Jirou was somehow unsurprised, yet equally stunned.

There was All Might merchandise... everywhere. Literally every single spot of the room had something All Might related. The walls? All Might posters. The shelves? All Might figures and manga. The floor? An All Might rug. The curtains? All Might themed. There was so much All Might stuff - as well as hero merchandise in general - that Jirou had no idea that so many items even existed in the first place.

Although Jirou did not realize, Midoriya could tell that she was staring off into an abyss by that point.

"Um, Kyouka?" Midoriya said.

"You weren't kidding when you said your dorm room didn't compare to your room at home. Woah," Jirou finally managed to say.

"It's - It's been a lifelong dedication towards collecting stuff, I guess," Midoriya sheepishly grinned. "Let's get to work now. I figured working in here would be better than working in the living room."

"You don't want your Mom to hear us practice?" Jirou asked.

"It-It's not that... okay, I just didn't need to hear any more remarks from her, that's all."

"Your mom is very nice, but I understand. She kind of acts like my dad," Jirou pointed out, garnering a chuckle from Midoriya.

Midoriya sat on his bed, while Jirou pulled a chair over to sit next to him. Afterwards, the two of them unpacked their basses, preparing for the practice session ahead. Jirou, meanwhile, took out a few pieces of paper, re-assembling them as Midoriya looked at them inquisitively.

"I wrote some ideas I had about the song. Step one is to make lyrics that can be stringed together. Then, we need to make sure that they sound good. Certain words and sentences sound better than others when you sing it rather than just saying it aloud. After that, I'll make the sheet music for the song, and we'll have it all ready to go," Jirou said.

"Great plan! So how should we start brainstorming ideas?" Midoriya asked.

Rather than answering him right away, Jirou's eyes wandered around the room, taking in all of the hero merchandise that surrounded her. She figured out the best way to convey her idea in an instant.

"Think about all of the heroes you love. What do they have in common? What makes them special? What do you like about them? Then, we can incorporate those ideas into the song," Jirou answered.

Midoriya nodded and subsequently began to mutter, much to Jirou's amusement. He tried to think of all of the words that could describe his thoughts regarding heroes overall. However, he found that there were too many words that came to mind, making it tough to decide where to start. As a result, he began writing down all of his ideas down on paper, which Jirou would then incorporate into the song.

While Midoriya made his list of words, Jirou also added some of her ideas to the papers she had already began brainstorming with. Additionally, she began writing some ideas down for more lyrics based on the ideas she had come up with. After an hour passed, the two were ready to reconvene.

"Wow... that's a lot of ideas!" Jirou could not hide her amazement at the extensive list of words that covered the front and back of his paper.

"Yeah, sorry if its too much," Midoriya said.

"What would you say is the biggest aspect you want included?" Jirou asked.

To her surprise, Midoriya answered without muttering. "Helping people in society, first and foremost. Saving people with a smile. Being there for those when no one else is able to assist someone. That's... that's who a hero is. And that's what our song should be about."

"I'm glad you said that, because I totally agree. I want our song to be about how important heroes are when it comes to helping others - not just the glitz and glamor of it."

Having that central idea was all Midoriya and Jirou needed to hit the ground running. The two of them then sifted through their lists of ideas for another hour or two, and much to their surprise, their lyrics quickly formed. Given Jirou's experience with song writing, she wrote the majority of the lyrics herself, making sure to include both her own and Midoriya's ideas. However, Midoriya did suggest a couple of specific lines that Jirou included.

"How about... save 'em all like All Might?" Midoriya suggested.

"Mmm... I see what you're going for, but let me rework it a bit..." Jirou said.

Jirou really appreciated how active Midoriya was in helping her craft the song. There had been a slight worry in the back of her mind that the song would seem like her own, rather than theirs together. However, it became clear to her that it was indeed their song, which only made her even more enthusiastic.

"Alright... I think we got a solid first draft. Great job, Izuku!" Jirou said.

"Thanks, Kyouka! I can't wait to sing it!" Midoriya said.

"The next step will be to do our first run-through of the song just by singing with no bass. That way, we can hear what we need to fix or change."

Midoriya nodded. Just as the two of them were about to start singing, however, a figure appeared at the doorway.

"Izuku? Kyouka? If now is a good time, dinner is ready," Inko said.

It was indeed a good time for dinner. Given that they had just finished their first draft of the song, now was the perfect time for a break before they fine-tuned it. And, now that they thought about it, they were both starving after an intense songwriting session.

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Midoriya," Jirou bowed.

"Please, no need to be so formal!" Inko said with a smile, leading Jirou to give a nod.

Just as the two of them were about to head to the table for dinner, Jirou got a text. Without even thinking twice about it, Jirou opened the message.

Mina Ashido: Yo, Uraraka saw Midoriya waiting in the hallway earlier with a guitar case and she's convinced you're a couple now.

A/N: Yikes! How will Jirou react to this bit of news from Ashido?

I've been planning on having Midoriya and Jirou stay at Inko's apartment for a night for a while, it was just a matter of finding the right time in the story to do it. Having it parallel the 'Meet the Jirou Family' arc was an important goal of mine.

Thank you for reading! Also, we've reached 100 comments, thank you to everyone who has left a review, all of your feedback is greatly appreciated!

See you next time for Chapter 35! Please leave a favorite, follow, and review if you'd like, and check out my Twitter/X and AO3 as well (also CuriousPug5).