Chapter Text
2in1 Chapter 7: Talking, Shopping, and Planning Part 2
“Mikata-kun! Over here!” Midoriya is standing on his tiptoes to be seen over the crowd and waving at him excitedly, his expression bright and cheerful. Yujin can’t help the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he jogs toward his friend. It’s nice to have someone be so excited to see him. The moment he reaches Midoriya, he is pulled into a tight hug that makes air leave his lungs. Yujin wheezes, startled and confused. Midoriya has never done this before. Not that anyone greets him with hugs, not even his mom.
“Um, Midoriya-kun?” Yujin squeaks out, which makes Midoriya loosens his hold a little so that his friend can breathe normally again. Now that the immediate discomfort is gone, it feels weird to just stand there while being hugged but he doesn’t really know where to place his hands. He finally settles on hugging back, placing his arms around the shorter boy’s shoulders and petting his back awkwardly. They must look strange, two teenage boys just standing there hugging each other in the middle of a busy crowd.
“You’re a lot more colorful than before, Mikata-kun!” Midoriya looks up at him with literally sparkling eyes and a wide beaming smile. Yujin blinks. How is he supposed to reply to that? Should he feel flattered?
“Thank you?” Yujin hits Midoriya’s shoulder weakly and pushes him away. They have been hugging for long enough to fill his quota for intimate contact for at least the whole day and it’s starting to feel uncomfortable. The other boy lets go without resistance but still stays quite close. Yujin takes a moment to look down at the clothes he’s wearing: just a blue well-worn hoodie, a pair of jeans, and his favorite black sneakers. Not exactly what he would consider colorful. It makes Midoriya’s comment a little bit unsettling, but it’s probably just the freckled boy being his weird self again.
“I’ve been thinking,” Midoriya pulls him to get them both out of the walk way and stand next to the statue of the first hero to ever appear instead, “we’ve been friends for a while and I think we know each other well enough. Can I use your given name? You can call me Izuku or Deku, too!”
“What make you think of that?” It’s true that they have been friends for over a year now but that just comes out of nowhere from his point of view. What do people usually do in situations like this? Maybe knowing the reason will help him to decide which action to take.
“Hmm, I guess it’s because of Cha-chan and Ten-Ten.” Midoriya turns away, seemingly embarrassed. “We’ve been friends for more than a year now but we’re still calling each other by family names, while I’ve only known Cha-chan and Ten-Ten for a week and eighteen hours and we’re already using given names and nicknames. It just doesn’t seem fair. What do you think, Kat-chan?”
Yujin can’t see nor hear Bakugou, but from Midoriya’s expression the response must be positive. The freckled boy continues, his voice turns up in volume with his excitement, “Kat-chan agrees with me too! Well, he said he doesn’t care but that’s as good as a ‘yes’ coming from Kat-chan.”
“Alright then, Izuku-kun.” Yujin chuckles as Mi- Izuku lets out a happy squeal and pulls him into a hug again. How can he regret his decision when his friend responds like this? This boy is seriously easy to please.
“Thank you, Yu-kun! I’m gonna call you Yu-kun, okay? Okay, let’s go!” Izuku lets go of him and starts pulling him along by his wrist. Although he is smaller, Izuku is actually a lot stronger than Yujin. He picks up his pace a little to not stumble. “I really need to go get a thing for my project. After that we can go to the cat café. Do you need anything, Yu-kun?”
“Uh, no, I don’t need anything.” It feels weird to be called by a nickname. It’s not bad, just… weird. He’ll get used to it sooner or later. “Do you really need to hold my wrist?” Izuku’s hand feels unnaturally warm.
“Sorry. I don’t want you to get lost,” the green-haired boy replies. He loosens his grip and slows down a little so they can walk side by side. Yujin notices that people seem to move out of their way pretty fast. It might be because of how Izuku walks; full of confidence like he owns the place and his eyes focused on his destination. Yujin will probably jump to get out of Izuku’s way if they cross path and he doesn’t know him.
“Where are we going?”
“Just an electronic shop that my acquaintance owns. It will be kind of hard to get what I need otherwise.” Now Yujin is both curious and a little suspicious. He doesn’t understand why Izuku doesn’t just tell him what he’s getting. Is it illegal or something? He hopes not. “Don’t worry. It won’t take too long to get my order. I already messaged Akarui-san beforehand. She should have what I need ready for me.”
Yujin decides to keep his mouth shut after that cryptic answer. It’s not his place to be nosy. They keep walking until they reach a moderately popular electronic shop simply called ‘Akarui’s’. To Yujin’s surprise, instead of going in by the front, Izuku leads him to the alley next to the shop and enters the door labeled ‘for employees’.
“Akarui-san! We’re here!”
“Hey kiddo!” an upbeat woman with bold colors everywhere on her body greets Izuku with a big smile. “How ya doin’?”
“I’m doing great! I got accepted into U.A.!” the freckled boy lets go of Yujin and starts to converse with the woman who is probably the owner of this shop amicably, leaving his friend to stand in the corner awkwardly.
Feeling uncomfortable with listening in on the conversation that has nothing to do with him, he decides to look around. He has never been to the back of any store before so he doesn’t know if the parts and broken looking machines lying around the room is considered normal or not. Noticing some weird movement from the corner of his eyes, he turns to look at it, only to see that things are moving around on its own, out of the shop owner’s sight. He only needs to look at Izuku to notices the amusement in his eyes and how he keeps directing Akarui-san’s attention away from the things being swapped places randomly to conclude that it’s probably just Katsuki playing a prank and Izuku indulging him.
Yujin lets himself be amused by his invisible friend’s antics for a while, the awkward feelings momentary forgotten, until Izuku comes back to him with a small paper bag in his hand. They share a knowing smile and quickly get out of the store before the shop owner notices things being misplaced.
“That was strangely fun. Do you do that often? Playing pranks on people, I mean.” He didn’t even do anything except staying silent but he still feels the rush from being a little mischievous.
“Just when Kat-chan feels like it. I just let him do whatever he wants and sometimes help out a little. He’s so excited when he does them, it makes me happy too.” They both laugh out loud when they hear yelling from the shop and walk even faster. Izuku explains between laughs that keep bubbling up that most adults he hangs around are used to being pranked like this by now, doesn’t mean they don’t feel exasperated afterward.
“Hey, hey Yu-kun. Do you want to know what I bought? I’ll let you guess.” Izuku suddenly asks, his voice filled with mirth. He looks around to make sure that no one is looking at them before taking something out of his paper bag discreetly. It looks like a black button, only a bit bigger. Yujin tries to remember what Izuku said about it. He needs it to make the presents for his new friends who he is quite obsessed about and it’s kind of hard to get. Yujin gets a feeling that this thing is probably illegal. “It’s just a precaution really, with hero work being so dangerous.”
“Is that… a tracking device?” Yujin guesses uncertainly. He feels a little creeped out by the smile on his friend’s face, suddenly feeling grateful that he isn’t the object of Midoriya Izuku’s obsession. The cold touch on his shoulder comes with a feeling of something akin to sympathy.
“I knew you can figure it out, Yu-kun.”
TBC.