Midoriya woke up an hour earlier than usual the next morning.

While he thought life would be less stressful now that he and Jirou were a couple, he was starting to find that the opposite was actually the case. Keeping his relationship a secret was more difficult than hiding One For All, surprisingly enough. Bakugou and All Might had already found out about the two of them - both times inadvertently. But still, it served as a reminder that he had to keep his guard up at all times, at least while Jirou wanted to keep their dating life private.

Last night, Inko Midoriya, his mother, had texted him and wanted to know how his day had been. If he had told the full truth, it was one of the best days at UA yet. Being able to spend almost the entire day with his girlfriend was exactly what he wanted to do since the day his crush on Jirou first started. But instead, he told Inko that he had a good day overall, and mainly talked about what happened during the school day instead. Sure, classes always interested him, and he had a lot of fun in the hero training sessions, but those were not the things that left him overjoyed.

And now, the thing that had been stuck on his mind since going to bed last night weighed on him heavily as he got ready for the day ahead. So heavily, in fact, that he skipped his morning run because of it. He had been good friends with Uraraka since their first day at UA, and through all that time, he had never received a text from her that sounded so urgent and uncheerful as the one from last night. It was so jarring to him that he had not even managed to find a good way to reply to her, other than sending a quick 'ok' to her. Once he was dressed and had his backpack ready for the school day ahead, he opened up the text message from Uraraka once more.

Ochaco Uraraka: Meet me tomorrow morning by my room before class. We need to talk.

"I wonder what this is about... but it sounds like Uraraka is really serious about whatever we need to talk about," Midoriya muttered to himself.

Despite being as apprehensive as he was, he left his room and headed towards the stairwell that would lead to Uraraka's room. Even though he deeply cared about the situation at hand, he was not sure what his emotions were like at the moment. Concern? Nervousness? Doubt? It was something in the middle of all three of them, he supposed.

Now, Midoriya had arrived at Uraraka's door. He carefully knocked on the door, just loud enough that she would know someone was there, but not loud enough to wake up everyone else on the same floor.

A few moments passed. There was no answer.

He knocked again, slightly harder than the previous time. Almost instantly, the door crept open.

Uraraka did not say a word when the two of them made eye contact. In fact, Midoriya noticed right away that she had an emotionless expression on her face. There was no light in her room, either - not even any sunlight from outside. Nothing in her room was visible to him due to the darkness.

"Hey, Uraraka. I got your text last night," Midoriya broke the silence.

"Oh, you did? Well, let's walk over to the classrooms and talk," Uraraka said.

At first, they were heading in the direction of the school building. Then, Uraraka made a sharp turn to the left, walking towards an area that was never busy. Midoriya followed her, all the more confused given that not a word had been spoken since they had departed from the dorm building. But since homeroom would not start for over half an hour, he figured it was worth following wherever she was going. He then noticed that there was a bench under a tree in the distance. Once they reached it, both of them sat down together on the edges of the bench, leaving a large, open gap in the middle of the bench.

While Midoriya really wanted to lighten the mood and start the conversation, he was then hit with the realization that he still had no clue why Uraraka wanted to talk to him that morning. So, he deferred to Uraraka and waited for her to start talking, which took a few more uncomfortable moments.

"What did I do wrong?" Uraraka then asked.

The question startled Midoriya. Wrong? When had Uraraka done anything wrong?

"You didn't do anything wrong, Uraraka. Why would you think that?"

"If I didn't do anything wrong, then why haven't we talked at all recently?" Uraraka countered.

The follow-up question left Midoriya silent. He then thought about the past few days. He was unable to recall any conversation that he had shared with her. In fact, he was struggling to remember the last time he had even hung out with her. It was much longer ago than he wanted to admit to himself.

"I... don't know," Midoriya spat out.

"You don't know why? Well, I think I know," Uraraka said.

"Kn-know what?" Midoriya asked.

Uraraka's scowl only grew over Midoriya's non-answers. It was now or never for her.

"I know how often you've been with Jirou recently," Uraraka answered. "Every homeroom, you and her always talk. Every lunch, you two go off to your corner away from everyone else. Every afternoon, you've been hanging out with her - and probably every night, too, if I had to guess. And - and I know about your whole concert 'date' thing, too."

"I, um, I - I - "

"You like her, don't you? Just admit it. I don't even care anymore," Uraraka cut off the flustered Midoriya.

Midoriya's face was bright red. He quickly realized everything that had happened recently and why Uraraka was so irritated at him. Even though he never thought about it prior to speaking with Uraraka, her perspective was more than enough for him to see what was going on.

Once he was able to calm down, Midoriya was ready to admit everything to her.

"Uraraka, I'm really sorry. I understand where you're coming from. Yes... I really do like Kyouka like that. You're right about that. And yes, I've spent a lot of time with her recently because of my feelings towards her," Midoriya said.

"Just as I thought..." Uraraka croaked, getting up from the bench.

"Wait - please wait, Uraraka," Midoriya pleaded.

Uraraka stopped. After a moment of consideration, she shuffled her feet back towards the bench, sitting back down and looking back over at Midoriya. Her sadness, envy, disgust and anger continued to swell up within her, and yet, she knew she had to hear him out.

"I realize what I've been doing recently is completely wrong. It's been too long since we've hung out. That's completely my fault. In fact, I've neglected hanging out with almost everyone recently - Ilda, Todoroki, Tokoyami, and you - I haven't handled this right at all. And I'm very sorry about that."

Uraraka felt her eyes water up. Despite wanting to tell him everything, she managed to say nothing. She just nodded for him to continue on.

"I'm going to make this right. I'm not going to neglect our friendship anymore. Yes, I deeply care about Kyouka, but I really care about you, Ilda and everyone else in 1A too. So, if you'll forgive me... I won't make the same mistake again. I won't blindly ignore you all anymore."

While Uraraka contemplated what to do, Midoriya continued to feel even more guilty. Even though he knew there was nothing wrong with spending so much time with Jirou and always thinking about her, he also knew that ignoring his other friends as a result was a major misstep, in his eyes.

"Deku, look. I have no problem with you being in love with Jirou or whoever you like. That's your business, not mine. I just want things to go back to how they were. I want to still be friends. I want to be able to hang out with you and everyone else, too. I hope you understand where I'm coming from..." Uraraka said.

"I do. I'll do a better job moving forward. Believe me, I will. In fact, let's walk to homeroom and hang out before class - if you want to, that is," Midoriya said.

Uraraka finally managed to give a small smile. "Let's do it."

The two of them then left the bench, heading towards the school building together. Uraraka felt bittersweet over the whole situation. She was glad that Midoriya got her point about their absence in friendship recently. But still, hearing him admit he liked Kyouka really, really hurt. She knew what that meant for her and Midoriya moving forward.

All that they could be was good friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Better than being ignored every day, I guess," Uraraka thought, trying to not feel too sad over the soft rejection, even without confessing.

"So what are you all doing for the talent show at the Cultural Festival?" Midoriya asked just a few moments before homeroom would begin.

Most of the class had already arrived, conversing amongst their respective friend groups. For Midoriya, that meant standing with Ilda, Asui, Todoroki and Uraraka. Jirou was one of the few students who had not yet arrived.

"I was thinking about doing something related to ice sculpting," Todoroki said.

"Now that sounds awesome!" Midoriya said, giddily thinking about the powers of Todoroki's ice quirk. "Have you ever done it before?"

"Just a little here and there. I'll practice more so I'm prepared," Todoroki said, with the others in the circle being equally amazed.

"Ilda and I are thinking about doing something together with both of our quirks. But I have no idea how that would work..." Uraraka said.

Before Ilda could raise his hand and give a clunky speech in response, Midoriya bolted into action.

"Let's see," Midoriya began his muttering. "So you have Zero Gravity, Uraraka, and Ilda has Engine of course, so if you could somehow combine floating objects and the speed Ilda provides - maybe some art display in the air, or a floating race, or a - "

"Slow down, Deku!" Uraraka giggled.

She had always secretly enjoyed his muttering and obsession over quirks. It was feeling like old times as they hung out in their group again.

"I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, ribbit. How about you, Midoriya?" Asui interjected.

"Me neither. Kyouka and I agreed we'd team up and do something together. We'll keep brainstorming ideas!" Midoriya replied.

"I can give you a few - ACK," Mineta yelped, being interrupted by Asui's slap from a distance.

Hearing the name 'Kyouka' made Uraraka's heart drop. Even though she tried to accept the fact that Midoriya did not like her, she knew it was not going to be easy. It would take a lot of time for her to heal and get over it.

But she also realized that the best thing she could do was to support Midoriya's feelings at this point. After all, she had just called him out over their dip in friendship recently. If Midoriya was going to accept his faults and focus on improving for the sake of their friendship, then she needed to do the same. Further jeopardizing their relationship over jealousy towards him and Jirou was the last thing she wanted to do.

Speaking of which, Uraraka then realized she had been zoning out - partially because of her reflecting, but also partially because Ilda had been going on a spiel about the Cultural Festival.

And, just then, Kyouka Jirou entered the classroom.

"Good morning, Kyouka!" Midoriya said, waving towards her.

"Good morning, Izuku, everyone. Sorry I'm late," Jirou said, as she waved to everyone who had greeted her.

Jirou then joined their circle, standing right next to Midoriya. She bumped into Midoriya's shoulder, and Uraraka could've sworn that she saw Midoriya's eyes light up for a second after the bump.

"Yeah, this is going to be harder than I thought," Uraraka thought to herself.

Little did Uraraka know that one of her classmates kept a close eye on her and saw how she was reacting to it all.

"GET TO YOUR SEATS!" Kaminari then yelled.

The clock showed that there was just ten seconds before homeroom would start.

Everyone frantically dove to their seats, content with letting their conversations end for now. Right as the bell rung, Aizawa entered the classroom, greeting his students with a nice, big yawn. He immediately took attendance, ready to start the long day ahead.

The day was indeed long. For some reason, the students found that every class was a dry lecture, the most boring of school days as they come. After what felt like far too long, however, it was lunch time.

Once the bell ran, Midoriya walked over to Uraraka, much to Jirou's surprise.

"Uraraka, I'll be sitting with you all for lunch. Just give me a minute to talk to Kyouka, okay?" Midoriya asked.

"Su-sure thing, Deku," Uraraka said, leaving the classroom with Ilda and Asui.

The classroom was now empty, aside from Midoriya, who still sat at his desk, and Jirou. Curious of Midoriya's lax pace of packing his stuff up in his backpack, Jirou walked over to her boyfriend's desk.

"Is something wrong, Izuku?" Jirou asked.

Midoriya sighed. "Well, I felt like shit this morning. I feel guilty. I had a conversation with Uraraka and realized that I've ignored my other friends recently - her, Ilda, Todoroki, y'know? I know it's because we've been spending so much time together - and believe me, I really enjoy it, but I need to make time for them too. So... I thought we could sit with them all at lunch, rather than going to our corner."

Jirou nodded. "I'm not gonna lie, I went through a similar conversation with another friend of mine recently - before we became a couple, though. And so I made sure that I made more time for them, too. So I totally understand where you're coming from," Jirou answered. "And I'm more than happy to have lunch with everyone else, we can just spend time together after school."

"Sounds good to me," Midoriya said.

The two of them then left the classroom together, heading towards the cafeteria.

A thought then occurred to Jirou, however.

"Um, Izuku," Jirou started. "You didn't mention that we were together, right?"

"Of course not! I just told Uraraka that I had a big crush on you and that was why I was always hanging out with you," Midoriya said.

Jirou gulped. She tried her best to stay composed.

"Ohhh shit, Uraraka knows Midoriya likes me... just great," Jirou thought.

Midoriya and Jirou sat next to each other at lunch, joining Uraraka, Asui, Ilda, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari at the table. The eight of them sat in a 'circle' of sorts - with four of them on one side of the table, and four on the other side.

"Hey, strangers!" Kaminari said, leading to Midoriya and Jirou chuckling together.

The topic of conversation for their lunch was, much to Jirou's delight, music. Everyone talked about their favorite music genres and artists. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu enjoyed classical the most, leading to some light-hearted teasing from Kaminari. Uraraka and Ilda both agreed that pop was their favorite, while Kaminari was more into hip hop.

"I just like a mix of everything, ribbit," Asui said.

"My favorite band is Deep Dope! I love anything rock though," Midoriya said.

"Just like me, because we all know Deep Dope is the best band of all time," Jirou said. "And anything punk rock clears everything else."

"Dope," Midoriya said.

The response from Midoriya prompted him and Jirou to look at each other. They both laughed again as they realized no one else in the group understood their Deep Dope lingo, with 'Dope' in that situation meaning 'facts.'

While they explained Deep Dope and what Midoriya had said to the group, Uraraka sighed. She could not deny the chemistry that the two of them had together. And she was shocked that Midoriya's knowledge of Deep Dope almost rivaled Jirou.

"How... how can I just act normal and accept the facts?" Uraraka thought.

Before they knew it, the bell then rung to signal the end of lunch. For as long as classes had felt that day, the lunch break went by far too fast for them to be able to fully recharge for the afternoon ahead. The group together, along with the rest of Class 1A, then headed back to their classroom, ready for another afternoon of training with Aizawa.

"We're going back to the demo city today. Get changed and be ready, stat," Aizawa commanded.

Moments later, all twenty students of Class 1A were lined up together in the demo city, ready for Aizawa's instruction for the class that day.

"This exercise is very simple," Aizawa grunted. "We're going to do our own spin on capture the flag. Each of you will have one flag attached to a bandana around your head. If someone takes your flag, you are eliminated. The last person standing wins. Simple, right?"

"Sensei, how do we get the flags from others?" Kirashima asked.

"Use your quirks and fight for them. You will have five minutes to spread out. When the horn blares, we start. Go to your spots," Aizawa said.

The students then ran in all different directions. Some stayed relatively close to the entrance of the city, while others went as far to the back as possible. Some hid in buildings, while others went to alleyways. Everyone was far apart enough to not see anyone else.

The horn then blared.

Uraraka found herself on the roof of one of the buildings. She figured that if a few students were eliminated before she made her move, she would have a better likelihood of winning. She just hoped that no one else decided to go on the same roof as her at the initial start.

"Kirishima is out. 19 students remain," Aizawa said over the screeching intercom, as Uraraka heard explosions in the background.

"This could get hectic..." Uraraka murmured.

"Hey there."

"Oh no!"

Uraraka turned around to see who had already found her.

"I'm not here to fight you," Ashido said. "I saw how you were this morning in homeroom. You looked sad and you weren't saying much. Is everything alright?"

A/N: And Ashido is here. Even if she's been quieter in recent chapters, I haven't forgotten about her role in the story... how will she handle Uraraka's dilemma?

If you're interested in more IzuJirou content, check out my FFN and AO3 profiles (also CuriousPug5) for some IzuJirou one shots!

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