"What?! Say that again?" Ilda said, caught completely off guard by Yaoyorozu's question.
The other 16 Class 1A students in the room all stared at Yaoyorozu and Ilda without saying a word. Many of them - for a variety of differing reasons - were too dumbfounded to give a response to their class vice president.
"I want to have a debate. Who else thinks Midoriya and Jirou are in a secret relationship?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"I KNEW IT!" Mineta yelled, although no one acknowledged him.
Now the pressure was back on the group of students to think of something to say to the question. Ashido could not believe that it was Yaoyorozu of all people that was asking such a private question in a public manner - especially considering the fact that she was willing to call a late night meeting to have a discussion about it. The thought of an enraged Jirou screaming at Yaoyorozu consumed Ashido's mind, and had it not been for being in the midst of an awkward situation, she would have burst out laughing.
"And why do you think that?" Uraraka said to Yaoyorozu, breaking the silence.
Ashido raised an eyebrow over Uraraka's remark.
"Well Uraraka, do you notice who the only two people missing from this meeting are? Midoriya and Jirou. Who always seems to talk together and 'slip away' from everyone else? Midoriya and Jirou. Who is performing together at the Cultural Festival? Midoriya and Jirou - with no one else even allowed to know what they are doing, I might add. I think the evidence is pretty clear," Yaoyorozu explained, leading to Bakugou yawning twice during her claim.
"Okay, you make some good points, but like, seriously?" Kirashima said to the surprise of the room. "Why did we have to meet to talk about this?"
"Yeah, what shitty hair said!" Bakugou said - although in the back of his mind, he knew that he could not slip under any circumstance.
"I thought we were meeting over something important, not relationship drama," Ojiro said.
Yaoyorozu nodded over the different comments she heard. Even though that the comments were not pleasant, she figured that some people would react in such a way. Thankfully for her, she had already thought of a few comebacks to help make the debate seem worthwhile. Surprisingly, however, she was not the first to defend her idea.
"Hang on a minute now - it would be the first relationship ever in our class! We HAVE to figure out the truth!" Hagakure yelled.
"Yeah, what Tooru said! This is important y'all! Imagine all the shit we can give Jirou over this too!" Kaminari added, standing up to illustrate his point.
"We gotta know how Midoriya of all people got a girl before any of us! Like, seriously, this is worth debating over!" Mineta added.
Yaoyorozu cracked a smile. Even if the whole thing was awkward, and some of the reasons given from the others were amusing at best, she did see a clear reason as to why they needed to have this conversation. Even if Ilda was short-circuiting and on the brink of fainting, it was still worth putting his 'orderliness' aside to make sure everyone in the class was on the same page.
"Listen, everyone," Yaoyorozu finally calmed everyone down. "I know that it might seem frivolous, but I can assure you that this actually matters. I personally think that if Midoriya and Jirou are in a relationship, we should welcome them. I think they would feel better if they could be open about their relationship rather than hiding it from us."
"You have a point, ribbit," Asui said.
"Remember, we are training to become the next generation of heroes. I think it is important for Midoriya and Jirou to put their full focus towards that instead of worrying about their relationship being a secret. And besides... it would be fun to rib them about it," Yaoyorozu grinned, with several members of the class chuckling over the remark.
Several members of the class began to chatter amongst themselves about what they should do. Even some of those who did not care were compelled to share their opinions with one another as well. After a few more moments of discussion, the class returned to Yaoyorozu.
"Alright, I can see it," Kirashima said. "But how exactly would we get them to reveal their relationship to us anyways?"
"That's really the main problem, ribbit," Asui said. "Technically, it isn't our business, even if it would be better for them to be honest with us."
Although Yaoyorozu was ready to give her planned rebuttal to the question, Uraraka stood up from her spot on the couch and walked over to Yaoyorozu. Now standing next to each other, Yaoyorozu yielded to Uraraka to see what she suggested.
"After classes on Thursday, we need to help set up for the Cultural Festival. Chances are good that Deku and Jirou will be together since they are doing their performance together. Maybe some of us can be around them, and then we can try to make them feel comfortable enough to admit it to us," Uraraka suggested.
"That is a smart idea, Uraraka. I would recommend that only a couple of us do something like that, though. They would probably feel too overwhelmed if we all bombarded them at once," Yaoyorozu said.
"After all, all we need is for one of us to find out, then we can tell the rest of the class," Uraraka added.
These points then led the class to once again engage in chatter. It was clear to Yaoyorozu that the majority of the class was on board with her logic at that point. That in of itself was a win in her book. And the fact that others were going out of their way to think of ways to make her plan happen? It was all just a bonus at that point for her.
"The best way to go about this would be to play natural the entire time," Shouji said.
"Exactly, my friend. Rather than having someone specifically try to make them admit it, we should just see who happens to be near Midoriya and Jirou on Thursday and go from there," Tokoyami said.
Yaoyorozu nodded. Things could have not gone any better according to her plan.
"Perfect. Well, this meeting is adjourned. See you all tomorrow and thank you for attending," Yaoyorozu said, much to the relief of Ilda.
The next morning, Inko Midoriya was the first to begin her day. After getting dressed, she was about to go into the kitchen to make her morning tea, but a thought then came to her mind.
Before she started her day, she decided to look into Izuku's room to see if he was up yet.
As she peaked through the cracked door, memories of a much younger Izuku came into her mind. She remembered when he was in elementary school and how he always bounced around the house each morning. Even if he had stayed up past his bedtime, he always seemed to wake up before her, and naturally, Inko's days started earlier too.
Then, during the years he was in junior high school, things changed. It felt like he would sleep in every single day, even if he had went to bed earlier than usual. Inko always had to barge into his room and wake him up for school each morning. Alarms never seemed to do the trick for whatever reason.
Surprisingly to Inko, however, Izuku was still sleeping. She had figured that he would have already been up - either preparing for a morning run, or at least preparing for the school day ahead.
But then Inko took another look. She did not see the trademark green hair of her son laying in his bed. The figure was now stretching and waking up.
"I-Izuku?" Inko said.
"...Oh!" The startled person shouted, who Inko now saw was Jirou.
The two of them stared at each other with groggy eyes for a good ten seconds without saying a word. Jirou felt her heart thump.
"What's going on?" A voice called from behind Inko.
Inko turned around to see that Izuku was now behind her. As Inko peered into the living room, she could see blankets and a pillow on the couch, which were all ruffled up and wrinkled.
"Ah," Inko said.
"Oh... I guess we forgot to tell you about where we were sleeping," Izuku said, rubbing the back of his hair.
"Well, let's have some tea and breakfast before you have to go to school," Inko said in a much calmer voice.
As the Midoriya's departed for the kitchen, Jirou threw the blankets over her head and covered herself even more with her arms. While she took a few moments to scold herself for not telling Inko sooner, she eventually managed to get up and join them in the kitchen.
Thankfully for the group, Izuku was in a chatty mood that morning. Plenty of school related conversations kept Jirou engaged as well, along with telling Inko about some more things related to their planned Cultural Festival performance. The group then shared a quick breakfast together as they finished their cups of hot tea.
Soon enough, it was time for Izuku and Jirou to depart for school. Once they were dressed, they trudged all of their bags to the doorway, as they prepared to say goodbye.
"Thank you so much, Inko, I really appreciate everything you did for us," Jirou said with a smile.
"Thanks Mom, I'll see you soon," Izuku said while hugging his mother.
"Thanks, and Kyouka, you're more than welcome to stay again!" Inko beamed.
After Izuku and Jirou gave one more wave, the two of them headed towards UA for the long school day ahead. Jirou reached her hand out and found Midoriya's hand. Upon the initial brush, the two of them interlocked hands together. They continued to hold hands for the remainder of their trek down the busy streets of Tokyo.
"It's Wednesday... Another day, another heroics class. I hope you're all as ready as I am," Aizawa rambled.
The rest of the class silently groaned. While they were more than happy to take part in heroic classes, the way Aizawa phrased his sentence made it sound like they were in for a long class. It did not help that for the majority of the students, the day had already felt so long to begin with.
Everyone but Midoriya and Jirou, that was. The two of them felt like the day was flying by. Even Midoriya had to admit that he was looking forward to class being over so that he and Jirou could get back to practicing for the Cultural Festival.
"Here's the deal. Since the Cultural Festival is on Friday, all classes are cancelled so that you can take part in it," Aizawa said.
Most of the class cheered silently. They had been in Aizawa's class long enough to know that even a squeak of excitement would get them a glare at best, and a suspension at worst.
"But Principal Nezu just informed me that the final class for all students will be cancelled tomorrow so that everyone can help prepare for the Festival tomorrow afternoon. That means we need to get as much training done today before class is over since you will have four days off from this class," Aizawa continued.
The class nodded. The thought of no heroics classes for four days made Midoriya and Ilda disappointed. The rest of the class, on the other hand? More and more silent cheers.
"Let's go to the demo city, and hurry," Aizawa commanded.
Mere moments later, all twenty students in Class 1A stood in the demo city, the site of many of their class training sessions. Aizawa stood in front of them, keeping a count of each student in his head to make sure that everyone was there. Once Mineta, the last of the twenty arrived, he began giving instructions.
"This is a civilian rescue mission. Throughout the city, there are 200 'people' who need to be rescued. In real life, you would need to help get the people to safety. But this exercise is only focused on finding people as quickly as possible. So, when you find someone, there is a button you can press that will tell me who found it, and you get a point. Whoever finds the most people wins. Any questions?" Aizawa explained.
The class shook their heads. Thankfully for them, the directions were simple, even if they would be very busy with finding everyone for the remainder of the class.
"Good. Go."
After Aizawa gave his command, the entire class sprinted into the city. Some students used their quirks to jump into the air - Bakugou, for instance, used Explosion to get to a roof, which was where he found the first person.
Others went into buildings immediately to see if they could find any people on the different floors of the buildings. Since the city was just used for demo purposes, the inside rooms of the buildings were all empty, but most of them did contain multiple floors.
Midoriya, meanwhile, used One For All to quickly navigate through several buildings. Due to his great timing and processing, Midoriya was able to sprint by people and press the button, allowing him to rack up seven points early in the session.
As Midoriya screeched past another building, Hagakure suddenly moved in front of him, leading Midoriya to stop in his tracks. Standing right next to Hagakure was Uraraka, who who completely caught off guard by the matter.
"Hagakure? Are we supposed to be fighting during a rescue mission?" Midoriya asked.
"Stop taking everything so seriously! I need to ask you something!" Hagakure replied.
Uraraka winced. Before Hagakure could say anything more, Uraraka reached out and tapped Hagakure, causing her to float up into the air. After Uraraka motioned for Midoriya to run on, Midoriya gave a quick thumbs up and sprinted off into another direction, much to Hagakure's disliking.
"Hey, what was that about? I thought we were on the same team here! Besides, aren't you curious about his relat - " Hagakure yapped, before Uraraka took her hand and shut her invisible mouth up once she was back on the ground.
"Not now. We're training. Leave Deku be. Focus on class now and that other stuff later," Uraraka said.
Despite some pouting from Hagakure, they ultimately were able to continue on without further incident. Uraraka ran past Jirou twice, although neither of them spoke to one another during either occasion. Aizawa warned the class when there were just ten people left that needed to be rescued. Moments later, it was five. Then, after another ten minutes, the last person was finally found. The exercise was complete.
The class returned to the front of the room, awaiting to hear the results of the class session.
"Coming in 3rd place, Bakugou," Aizawa read from the screen, leading to a grunt from the unsatisfied Bakugou.
"Coming in 2nd place, Yaoyorozu," Aizawa followed up, with the class quickly understanding why she had been successful upon seeing a radar in her hands.
"And the winner... Midoriya. How did you get 57 people?" Aizawa elevated his tone to indicate his surprised reaction.
"Well... I just hit the buttons very quickly," Midoriya sheepishly said.
"Great work. Class is dismissed. Good luck with the Cultural Festival, everyone," Aizawa said.
"Okay, but like, how did you actually rescue all those people?" Jirou asked.
A chuckle from Midoriya brought a smile to Jirou's face as the two of them sat next to each other in her room. The two of them held their basses, while the sheet music for their song was on a music stand in front of them. They were ready for their afternoon practice now that all of their homework was out of the way.
"Well - I guess I can tell you the truth since you know about One For All," Midoriya started. "I can run and jump really fast with my quirk. I figured out that 'rescuing' them by pressing the buttons was a quick process. So I just sprinted around and pressed the buttons as fast as I could."
"Why do you call your quirk Super Strength if your power is more than just strength alone? I get you're hiding the true power of One For All, but still," Jirou asked.
"Honestly, that's just what All Might told me to call it. That's what they put on my files, too. I guess I can say that Super Strength gives me other powers beyond strength itself."
"Makes sense to me. My quirk was pretty useless since none of the fake civilians made noise. I only got five people."
"Different situations call for different quirks. I'm talking about real life, not just school. There's going to be plenty of situations where Earphone Jack is the best quirk for a situation!" Midoriya said.
While Jirou nodded, she tried her best to hide the smirk that nearly crept onto her face.
"Tell me some scenarios that Earphone Jack would be useful for, Izuku" Jirou asked.
Although Midoriya was ready to rattle off his answers, he paused. For one, he did not want to mutter yet again in front of her. But for two... he could hear a mischievous tone in her voice.
"Well... you can hear people's heartbeats, Kyouka," Midoriya answered.
Before Midoriya could continue any further, Jirou placed one of her earphone jacks on Midoriya's chest, right near his heart. The two of them sat still for a few moments as Jirou 'analyzed' the situation.
"Hmm, your heart's racing, huh? What could that be about?" Jirou grinned.
"...My heart's always racing when I'm with you."
The two of them leaned in to share a kiss. One kiss turned into two, and two turned into a good ten minutes of embracing and kissing one another, although they had lost track of time by that point. The only thoughts on either of their minds at that time were each other.
Both of them would admit that neither of them really knew what they were doing. Although they had seen others make out before, all of the emotions and sensations they felt were completely new to them. Rather than letting their anxieties get the best of them, however, they ignored it and opted to enjoy the moment for what it was.
Once they decided they had enough, they laid on their backs next to each other, grinning while thinking about what had just happened.
"Making out with you was even better than I thought it would be like," Jirou said.
Midoriya did not say a word. There was no snarkiness, no sarcasm, nor any witty comment from Jirou in that moment. It was all genuine honesty and straightforwardness at that point.
"Yeah, me too," Midoriya said, reaching to grab her hand, which she gladly accepted.
The two of them continued to lay next to each other, hand in hand, as they thought about everything that had transpired since they had first began talking to each other. They had gone from being classmates, to working together, to friends, and now, in a relationship. Even they had to admit that the sudden 180 in how they viewed each other was a rather unimaginable thing just a short time ago.
"Well, I guess we gotta practice now," Jirou said.
"Yeah. Let's get dinner afterwards," Midoriya agreed.
The two of them then ran through their song several times. They went verse by verse, with Jirou giving Midoriya constructive feedback, while Midoriya asked any questions that helped clarify things for him. Most of their conversation dealt with playing the bass. Making sure that they were in sync with one another on bass was the most challenging part of the whole ordeal for both of them.
Another two hours of practice helped to mitigate the issue. Midoriya was beginning to feel more confident in his abilities to play the whole song accurately in one go. Jirou, meanwhile, gained more confidence at the prospect of potentially having a flawless performance between the two of them.
After one more run through, the two of them cleaned up from their practice session, satisfied with the progress that they had made. Midoriya could tell that the vocal exercises that Jirou had told him to do were a big help for increasing the stamina of his voice. Once they were done, the two of them headed downstairs, ready to enjoy dinner together.
Even if it was not a 'date,' both of them secretly viewed their chances of having dinner together in the dorms like it was a date. They often ate at a different time than most of the others, so they usually had the dining room to themselves.
Upon entering the kitchen to see what food was available, however, they realized that they would not be alone for dinner on that particular evening.
A pair of eyes darted from the microwave over to the entrance of the room to see who had entered. Their serious, straight face quickly became a smile as they waved towards Midoriya and Jirou.
"Hi guys! Let's have dinner together!" Uraraka said with cheer.
A/N: Oh boy! Looks like there will be a third wheel on this 'dinner date!' What will happen next?
Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a favorite, follow or comment, all are greatly appreciated!
See you next time for Chapter 37! Also, feel free to follow me on AO3 and Twitter/X (both CuriousPug5) if you'd like.