Chapter Text

Maybe you’re alone in this feeling, but knowing that you have somewhere to be at 1:30? It throws your whole day off. It’s hard to sit back and relax when you know that you have to leave by at least 1, to be there on time — what if you get turned around? Maybe 12:45, then. Or 12:30, to be safe.

You need to shower, so you have to be doing that by 12:10 at the latest, just in case. And since you got out of bed at about 9... your day is basically over, waiting for this meeting.

Answering texts and scrolling social media are about all you have time for.

Dad

Today

Dad

So... how is it going? _{5:45 AM}

You

nothing big yet dad lmao _{9:13 AM}

feels like a big vacation honestly _{9:14 AM}

Dad

U deserve a vacation... Take time to recharge _{9:20 AM}

You

i guess.... _{9:21 AM}

just hard to be idle when everyone i know is working hard i think _{9:22 AM}

Dad

U gotta take care of yourself kiddo. _{9:24 AM}

I know you’d work yourself to death if u could _{9:25 AM}

But ur old man likes u alive and kicking u know _{9:27 AM}

You

well when you put it like that i guess i won’t argue... _{9:30 AM}

Dad

Exactly. I knew u would see reason. Have u been to the beach yet _{9:32 AM}

You

not yet... I’ve been busy i guess? _{9:33 AM}

Dad

I thought u said nothing big happened _{9:35 AM}

You

it hasn’t been! promise _{9:36 AM}

i went grocery shopping and to the park _{9:36 AM}

it’s just. a lot. in a new place _{9:37 AM}

Dad

Give it time and you’ll get all ur old energy back _{9:40 AM}

You’ll be bouncing off the walls in no time _{9:41 AM}

You

I’m not a little girl anymore idk if that’s achievable _{9:43 AM}

Dad

Excuses... _{9:45 AM}

You

🙁_{9:46 AM}

Dad

😛 _{9:46 AM}

There’s a lot of new stuff in your feed since last night when you went to bed. Promoted videos for an esports tournament, new stills from an upcoming movie that people seem very excited for. Someone on a hot take rampage trying to, in your opinion, make other people feel bad about where they find their fun in manga. (You block them reflexively.) A reel of this week’s Best Pro Hero Takedowns in Tokyo, which you skip with impunity. Every time it passes by. (All seven of them.)

You find yourself scrolling through a gallery of cats with heinously silly names, smiling to yourself. ‘Mochi’ is cute, after all, but ‘Internet Explorer’ makes you smile. ‘Impossible Suffering’ is the one that breaks you into full-on laughter.

When you look at the time again, coming up for air, it’s just turning noon. And, gripped with that same anxiety for being late, you leap off the couch and into the shower.

Backpack on (with a water bottle inside, just in case, it is hot outside) and weird silver bangle on your wrist, you make it to the old mall with no troubles. It’s not even 1 PM yet, and you spend your extra time circling the building, looking for an entrance.

Most of it is boarded up, cordoned off, and your stomach twists at the idea of you missing the meeting time because you couldn’t find the right place. As a landmark it’s incongruous to what you’ve seen of the rest of Sakura Beach, and if anyone other than Izuku had sent you, you would have concerns. The place looks like a wreck, like a tornado hit it.

Unfortunately, trustworthiness has nothing to do with scatterbrained-ness, and Izuku definitely didn’t tell you where to meet this person. Just ‘the mall.’ Maybe you could just stand outside and wait, but where? It’s on the corner of a block, they could come from any direction.

“Hey!” A voice calls, then calls your name, and you turn to see —

Kirishima, from the gym, waving at you. There’s a bracelet on his thick wrist, shining in the sunlight even from the distance.

You go stock still, smiling reflexively in what is probably the most awkward way you ever have, and —

“I didn’t think I’d be meeting you here!”

“Me neither,” you tell him, forcing yourself to be normal when he’s within real speaking distance. This is unexpected but not the end of the world. Is this better or worse than meeting a total stranger? “Izuku said ‘Kirishima,’ but... I thought they might be your relative.”

“Aw, aren’t you excited to see little old me?” he teases, bumps your shoulder with his. “Come on, I know the way in.”

You fall into step with him, then, relieved at least to know you won’t be stuck standing out in the sun any longer. He seems to refuse to let you lag behind, too, stopping after every odd obstacle he steps over with his long legs to help you do it too. You feel a little bit like a damsel for it, but — you’re starting to get the idea that maybe he’s just like that.

“I can’t believe you’re compatible for this, honestly,” he rambles, pushing open the door to the mall. You never would have found it on your own: a service entrance, tucked down an alley between the shells of two anchor stores.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean — and sorry if I’m too excited! But I’ve only been able to come a couple of times. Finding a compatible wielded is really hard. Hatsume has all of us on a list in case she gets one, but...” He rolls his shoulders, grinning. “Should have known the cutie I ran into at the gym was too good to be real.”

Cutie? Did he really just say that? “I’m definitely real,” you say, at a loss. You blink a couple of times, adjusting to the dimness inside and trying also to adjust your brain to the stuff coming out of his mouth.

He just grins at you, sunshine incarnate, brighter in this space somehow. You step closer, distinctly ill at ease with this empty, liminal space, and he bumps you again with his shoulder. He has too much energy.

“So are you ready for this?”

“Uhh...” What?

You look around, like something new that makes sense is going to jump out at you. Inside the court area you’ve stepped into, there’s not much to see. Some (fake?) potted plants sandwich benches against the wall. The floor is dusty, with no other footprints in it. There’s an escalator on your left, still powered and leading down into who-knows-where.

“Don’t be nervous! You’ll have fun. I’m sure of it.”

“I don’t really... know? What we’re doing?” You peer up at him. “You sure you didn’t bring me here to axe-murder me?”

“Oh, hard no, Midoriya would have my head. Here, give me your hands.”

Well. You aren’t going to argue with him. You hold both hands out, bracelet catching on the bones in your wrist, and you stand and watch as he does the same. You’re mirrored, you realize, as he lays his empty hand into yours. As he curls his other around your forearm, doing a little shake of his arm until his bracelet is touching yours.

He grins, then, for one brief moment, and —

Turns into a necklace in your palm.

What does he think he’s doing?

“What—“ you start to demand, but —

Put me on! he says, directly into the soft parts of your brain, and you jump. You nearly drop him, and there’s laughter in your skull.

“What the hell are you doing?” you demand, forcing yourself to keep your palm flat. You’ve only handled one person as jewelry, and then only twice, and it was a wreck both times. Any transformation you’ve done has been on your own, just to make sure you can still do it.

Put me on, Kirishima insists again. And then you can hear me more clearly.

“I really don’t think we’re at that level!” I met you like four days ago! you think but don’t say. Wearing someone as jewelry is supposed to be an intimate thing, not this.

I trust you. Don’t worry so much about it. A pause. I can feel your brain spinning from here, you know!

“You are freaking me out,” you tell him. You look down at the heavy torc in your palm as if just looking would give you the answers to any of this.

Just trust me, okay? It’s step zero of a dunj run.

“Nobody told me I was gonna have to wear my partner,” you tell him. You can feel your heart racing, throbbing in your throat. You aren’t prepared for something like this, mentally or otherwise. You don’t want to revisit the holiday party from three years ago, or the event a year before that.

We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You can almost see the concerned shape of his expression. You’d seen it enough when he was holding your elbow like a princess over debris and parking lot dividers, outside.

Midoriya seemed sure you were gonna like this, though. Do you want me to turn back?

The metal shimmers, and you curl your fingers around it in an instinctive, panicked, embarrassed move. So this really is what is supposed to be happening.

“No— No, it’s fine. Just.” You suck in a breath. “Gimme a second. This is not something that should just be sprung on somebody.”

You’re telling me nobody told you?

“I already said that!” you snap. You take three staggering steps to one of the benches and drop yourself onto it. You lean back in the seat, squishing Izuku’s backpack between you and it. Uncomfortable, but grounding. “I was hoping to get some answers when I met you here and — now there’s this.”

I’ve always learned best by doing!

“Good for you,” you mutter uncharitably. Then: “Sorry.”

No, you’re freaked out. It’s okay.

“You’re sure I’m not like... Accidentally marrying you, or something? If I put this on?”

What? I don’t think so!

“I mean. It’s just. A whole weird ritual you did with our hands and whatever, right, what am I supposed to think?”

All we did was hold hands! Is that a marriage proposal where you’re from?

“Shut up,” you say, but you’re smiling. He laughs in the back of your mind, too, and — you bolster yourself. “Alright. Talk me through this.”

You stare down at him in your hands again. This close to the clumsily boarded window, there’s a little more light — he’s burnished bronze, a thousand twisting strands wrapped together. The knobs at either end are a dragon’s head — mouth open and roaring — and a tail, curled in a loop like a snake would.

I’ll loosen up some. Just me put around your neck! A beat. Have you ever worn someone before?

“Only a couple of times...” you admit. You hope he doesn’t ask further. It makes your back teeth ache to even think about it.

Okay! We’ll be able to talk in your head, if you want to, but it takes some practice, you know? So it’s okay to keep talking out loud to me. Nobody’s here to hear.

“Suddenly I’m anxious about something totally new,” you mutter wryly. Something changes in the metal as you watch, something impossible to explain, and you lift it to your throat before Kirishima can urge you to do it.

It — he sits heavy on your neck when you settle the torc into place. It feels like a thousand pounds.

Good?

“...yeah.”

Great! Now head for the escalator. We’ve got this!

Even when he’s not talking, Kirishima’s presence is unmistakeable in your mind. He feels like an intrusive thought, like the voice that says ‘just step in front of that bus’ that you have to ignore some days. Except — something softer. Like a voice that might say ‘let’s go for a walk, isn’t it nice out?’

There’s laughter, then, as you finally step onto the escalator, and you stop mid-motion.

“Are you laughing at me?”

I’m sorry! I’ll try not to. You’re just super cute.

The escalator is leaving with half your body and you join the rest of it, sinking down into the level below. You’re not entirely sure what you’re going to find, but you wish you’d brought a light.

Hard to believe somebody as nice as you hasn’t been wearing people for a long time, Kirishima says. You force yourself not to think about it, even keep your face neutral.

“Mm, I guess I was never really the type. How hard to I have to think for you to hear it?”

Pretty hard, I think? Sorry, I’ll mind my business with ‘em. Talking out loud is okay! Don’t forget!”

“Right. Sure.” You turn your eyes to the level you’re stepping off onto. You can’t help but notice, feet squeaking on sleek tile, that there isn’t an escalator going back up. “Should I be nervous about that?”

Hmmm. You can almost feel him thinking. It’s... weird. Normal’s kinda different for everybody I think? But I bet there’s an elevator somewhere for when we’re ready to go back up!

“Not inspiring a lot of confidence, here, Kirishima.”

You keep looking, turning into a slow circle. It’s just another court, like the one you’d come down from. When you look back up, toward the ceiling —

“What the hell is going on here?” The escalator is gone.

Hey, don’t panic! It’s okay!

“Don’t tell me not to panic! Where did the escalator go! What is this place?” You dig your phone out of your pocket — no signal. What the hell is going on?

I mean, I don’t know entirely how it works either! It’s just — in your head, you know?

“The only thing in my head is you!” you bite, turning in a circle again. You feel dizzy. “How many times do I have to tell you I don’t know shit about this dunj stuff?”

Right. Sorry. Uhh. You try to take deep breaths while Kirishima figures out what he’s going to say. You’re... not incredibly successful. The dunj changes to match your, like, brain, when you’re in it. Everybody else said they could feel it when they came in, upstairs. Did you feel it too?

You — you don’t know. You’d been distracted and anxious, trying to talk to Kirishima without ruining a social interaction irrevocably.

“...maybe?”

Melissa talked about it like uhh. Fighting inner demons? It’s hard, but it’s rewarding! She and Mister Pierce both seemed to have fun doing it.

“Why do I get the feeling I was a bad pick for this,” you mutter to yourself, glancing around again. There’s a shifting sound, and then —

A mannequin steps into the court — steps! — and you freeze. It’s slow, but reaching out in your direction, and you can’t hear whatever Kirishima is saying in your head over that animal instinct, that fight or flight.

Except you’ve never been able to fight, not counting your sharp tongue and a single well-intentioned but ineffective self-defense lesson, and that can’t possibly save you from a horror movie nightmare monster.

“Am I gonna die down here?” you blurt. Your vision is starting to go dim at the edges. Or is it the light?

I won’t let anything happen to you, Kirishima promises. Defend yourself! You can do it.

You can’t. You can’t do it. The mannequin is close, closer than you thought, and there’s a pillar at your back when you try to step away, and there’s something shifting over your body, and —

When you come to, you’re in the sunshine. Kirishima is sitting with you, your head in his lap, and his whole face lights up when you open your eyes.

“You’re okay! I was getting ready to call Hatsume, I was starting to worry—“

“Stop talking to me,” you demand, forcing yourself up. You head throbs, sore, and — “Did I pass out?” In the corner of your eye, you see him jerk his head in a nod. “How did I get out?” You’re sat underneath a tree, part of the mall’s landscaping, the one place they apparently decided to bother maintaining. Kirishima opens his mouth, stops, and — “You can talk again, god.”

“I carried you out,” he blurts. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t think —“

“I can tell,” you mutter, bitter. This whole thing has been a wreck from the start. “I’m going home.”

When you get up, he doesn’t argue. He watches you grab Izuku’s old back pack and walk away, but he doesn’t call your name or demand you stick around and listen to him.

Under other circumstances? You might have liked him.

Day officially ruined, you stalk your way back to the apartment. The sidewalk you’re on runs along the beach, and you wish you had your bathing stout, that you could go out there and linger in the water. Your chest is still tight, but your heart has calmed down. You don’t want to throw up anymore, at least.

Fuck it, you think, and take off your shoes and socks to start walking on the sand. Even if you can’t submerge yourself, you deserve the ocean water on your shins after a shit day like today.

There are a few people around — a family further up the beach, building a sandcastle, watching their kids play; a couple of girls laid out under an umbrella. The water is clear and blue and beautiful, and the tide is high. Watching the waves crash over each other soothes your spirit. The foam splutters away into nothingness, over and over again, far from shore, but it’s always coming back to itself. Nothing ever lost, or gained.

In addition to deserving the ocean, you apparently also deserved a sunburnt face, for standing out there so long. You’re cranky about it as you stop by the konbini nearest the apartment. You need aloe vera gel for your face and something to eat, for your twisting stomach.

Sunburned or not, though, you do feel a little bit better. And it’s hard to still be mad at Kirishima. He might have been part of the problem, maybe, and quite unhelpful as well, but those scientists could have given you some preparation, right? Or even Izuku could have mentioned it. It’s not like it had to be kept a secret, surely.

Kirishima had also bothered to carry you out and to take care of you, too, which is... nicer than you deserve, maybe. Probably. Matches the big heart you think you’ve seen in his smile, though, despite only having met him twice. He really does wear it on his sleeve.

You eat your onigiri on the way back to the apartment, aloe vera tucked away for when you have a mirror. A few more minutes won’t make it any worse, and you aren’t so bothered that you want to try to do it blind or with your phone in one hand as a mirror. Little bit of sunburn makes you feel alive, anyway, right?

When you step in the lobby looking for the doorman to give him a polite ‘hello’, because you can’t find it in yourself to ignore him on your way in, you find — Izuku there, talking to him. The sight stops you in your tracks.

“Hey, there you are!” he calls, bidding farewell to the doorman — and you should learn his name, but also you’re afraid to ask at this point, why couldn’t he wear a name badge — and coming to your side. Izuku rustles you into an elevator, as if that hadn’t already been where you had been going, and he’s quiet for the ride up. Pensive.

He waits at your side while you fumble with the keys to open the front door — does he really not have a set? — and folds his hands together when you’re finally inside together, door shut behind you.

“Kirishima was really worried about you,” is what he says first. You feel like a teen getting scolded by a disappointed parent, which is — not on a list of things that happened in your childhood, and you aren’t trying to live it now. “And you wouldn’t answer my texts, and you weren’t here, and... I thought something happened to you.”

You hang the backpack on the hook next to the door, toe off your shoes in silence. You’re trying to find words. You feel tight all over, in your shoulders and your thighs, like you have a full body sunburn instead of just your face.

You turn to face him when you can no longer make excuses for being turned away. There’s a smile on your face, but it’s tight. Awkward. Fake. Pulls at the sunburn that you do have.

“Sorry for being out of touch,” you say. You’re trying so hard to keep your voice mild that you’re shaking with it. How dare he— “I spent most of the afternoon trying to bounce back from an anxiety attack, I’m sure you understand.” The one thing you’d bonded over, years ago, was anxiety. Surely he hasn’t forgotten.

Izuku looks at you then, eyes wide and searching, confused and concerned and open like a book, and says: “what happened?”

You step out of the entryway and into the living room; if your emotions get big you don’t want to be trapped right there at the door with them. You need some room to wave your arms. You suck in a breath. “What do you mean, what happened?” You could shake out of your skin. “I went to the dunj expecting, you know, an escape room or something, because nobody told me anything different, and instead I got to go toe-to-toe with a demon with one of your FRIENDS in my brain.”

Izuku blinks.

“You mean it wasn’t — fun?” He’s followed you, sinks down onto the couch while you give in to the urge to pace. Dressed as casually as he is, he looks like he still lives here. Maybe you should just go back to your dad’s, if this is how things are going to be. You didn’t think —

Well, it doesn’t matter what you thought.

“No it wasn’t fun,” you answer, turning on your heel to wave your arms wide. You’re so full of fresh anger and fresher anxiety that you want to scream.

“Everybody else Hatsume has sent said they had a good time...” he says. It’s quiet, like maybe he’s talking to himself. Unfortunately for him, you still hear it.

“And how many of them went into it clueless, Izu? I mean I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do in the face of something like that! I would have brought — shit, I don’t know, a baseball bat? Anything other than my empty hands as a weapon!” The single part of your brain that isn’t twisted up in emotion starts brainstorming weapons for next time. Would there even be a next time?

“You don’t —“ Izuku sighs like it hurts him, rubs his face.

“I don’t, you’re right.” What does he mean? It doesn’t matter, when it feels like getting another sharp word in. “If you wanted me to have a shitty time so badly, you coulda just told me that I couldn’t do it. Hurting my feelings that way woulda been kinder, you know.” You imagine the sting you’d feel in your chest from your closest quirkless confidante, the one person that understands you, telling you that you just couldn’t do something. He’s never done it before, but your stomach twists sickly at the thought of it.

It’s still not as bad as what had happened today.

“I didn’t —“ He gets to his feet, then, approaches you. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. Please forgive me.” He holds his arms out, offering a hug, and you can only blink at him, surprised. But when you don’t give him a ‘no’ he hugs you, crossed arms and surly posture apparently a nonissue.

It’s easy, after one, two beats, to give in and unclench. To wrap your own arms around his back and press your forehead to his shoulder. When did he get taller than you like this?

“You had all those questions and I should have answered them. Of course nobody told you. I expected her people to do it, and I bet they expected me to do it.” He sighs over your head, chest a rise and fall against your own.

With the wind out of your sails, you’re boneless. You lean against Izuku and let him hold you up while he thinks. You aren’t ready to let go yet — when was the last time you had a hug? Your body is tingling all over just from the contact, from being held by someone you trust.

When he pulls back, finally, taking you by the shoulders, you don’t resist. His expression is set, determined. “I don’t have all the answers, but I want to make up my mistake to you. I’ll answer any questions you have. Would that be okay?” At your silence — bewildered, but maybe he doesn’t know that — he continues: “And if I need to call Hatsume to get more answers I will. Anything you want.”

Of all the things you expected him to say, this was never on the list. Maybe another apology, but... “Really?”

“Of course. I can’t apologize enough for sending you into that without warning. Kirishima can take care of you physically, but he’s too ‘learn by doing’ to have been able to tell you much, wasn’t he?”

You laugh for what feels like the first time in years, nodding. When he directs you both to the couch, you follow. Sinking into the cushions grabbing the soft, ugly throw that he’d left behind when he moved — it’s far better than being unsteady on your feet. You curl up in the corner against the arm of the couch and cover up, tucking in your feet and your elbows, your shoulders. You’re one sunburned face atop a floral lump.

From the other corner, Izuku is watching you. Waiting.

“I’m not sure what I want to ask,” you admit, tucking your mouth into the blanket. It feels stupid, suddenly, to have had all those questions before and to have an empty head now.

“That’s alright,” Izuku allows, folds himself up a little too. “It must have been pretty scary for you, today.”

“You have no idea.” Oh — an idea. “Speaking of which... what’s the point?”

“What?”

“I mean, what makes that terror worth it? Why do people go to the dunj?” You can’t imagine going in there for fun.

“Hatsume does know more than I do about the specifics, but she talks about it a lot... It’s kind of complicated?”

What isn’t, you think but don’t say. You’re trying to keep that sharpness at bay, now.

“Her and her company pay people to keep it under control, basically.”

“What?”

“I mean — like I said, it’s complicated.” He bites his lip. “The bracelet she gave you is tech that she’s trying to test, right?” You nod. Sure, you can believe that. “And even though other people could go through the dunj and clear it out, it’s a good — testing ground, you know?”

He’s making sense, but —

“No, I’m sorry, you said they pay people for this?”

When he looks at you blankly, you almost feel bad for butting in. “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t they?”

“I—“ You fidget beneath the blanket, picking at your fingers. “I didn’t know it was a job-thing. I thought it was an escape room or something — really can’t stress that enough.” He laughs and it makes you smile, even though it’s... super true. The idea of doing an escape room with Kirishima might have been a fun one, too.

“It’s kind of like... Well. If no one went in to keep the levels down every once in a while, she says it’s possible the... barrier? That keeps things separate from the rest of the world? Could break and then this place could be in trouble. Apparently it was really rough here when she first got started.” He hums, thinking. “But she wants to use it as a testing ground, and the people of Sakura Beach deserve to be safe, and so it’s a win-win if she pays people to clear it out. Like you!”

“You’re telling me there’s not a pro hero that could do this for her?” You haven’t seen any Pros in your few escapades in town — you may not know any of them by name, but heroes always stick out like a sore thumb, with their big personalities and their bigger, brighter costumes. Like Pinky does.

“They could! But... there aren’t a whole lot of pros on duty here. I mean, there hasn’t been an agency on this island in nearly a decade, can you believe it?” Oh no, you’ve triggered the special interests part of his brain.

Still, though, even to you, that’s impressive.

“And, even if a pro did come do it... it still doesn’t test her tech. So...” He shrugs. “I think she’s had someone do it a couple of times for her, when she couldn’t get in touch with someone compatible for her testing to do it. There’s only a couple of them I’ve met, personally — Melissa, and then a guy from the west, what was his name...”

Izuku trails off, thinking about some nobody’s name, and you realize: “Haibara told me I was supposed to come back to the research center, but... She never said they were going to pay me.” The stereotype of scientists as single-minded is starting to feel... not off the mark.

“Surprise! There’s your good news for the day, then.” He smiles. “It’s good money; I’ve seen the budget for it. And I’m pretty sure you’re the only person on the island right now that’s compatible, or I would have heard about them already. So...” He twists his fingers together. You realize the back of his hand is heavily scarred — what happened there? “Your continued work on the project would mean a lot to Hatsume. But... I’d understand if you didn’t want to do it.”

“How much are they paying?” you ask — you can’t not ask, thinking of your savings and the goodwill that allows your continued presence here. When he gives you a number, you can’t help the low whistle that comes out of your mouth. It’s more than you ever made, working back home.

“Well, that settles it then,” you tell him. The uncertainty you were feeling before is gone, which is nice; you deserve that. “Guess I’m gonna go back in.”

“Really?”

“I mean. I can’t turn down money like that,” you tell him, and maybe he doesn’t understand the idea of money issues like that? How well off was Auntie Inko, anyway? You can’t remember. “How am I supposed to deal with those monsters, though? Like —“ You uncurl enough to bring out the bracelet, turning it over in your fingers. It’s got a clasp but nothing else. Maybe there’s a code word?

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, they gave me this bracelet but like, not a user manual. Does it turn into a sword or something? I dunno what else is in there but that mannequin was...” You suck on your teeth. “Horrible.”

“Oh, you’ll use your partner’s quirk!” You blink at him. “Did you not get that far?”

“Kirishima was transformed for most of our adventure today,” you tell Izuku, propping up your chin on your knees. You’re losing the blanket but you don’t much care; it’s warm here. “I don’t think he’s really gonna be able to help me like that. Unless he was just messing with me? But I don’t — I mean, he’s your friend, would he do something like that?”

“No, no, no, that’s not it,” he waves the idea off and you do feel something like relief that maybe you did read Kirishima right. “You’re gonna use his quirk. Kirishima’s quirk is Hardening, it’s really cool, I think you’ll like it! You’re basically invincible.”

... What?

When you’re silent for too long, Izuku finally really pays attention to you again. You watch it happen. But —

“What?!”

His nervous laughter should be funny, but you can only frown.

“Izuku, I’m — I’ve never had a quirk. How am I supposed to use someone else’s? He’s had his quirk since he was a kid!” You suck in a breath. “I won’t even ask how it works, because I bet this has something to do with it.” You shake the bracelet between the two of you, shiny in the light.

Something soft and sour settles in your gut, then. “I didn’t even know people could share quirks.” Why has this been a secret from you your whole life? Why did no one ever offer, before? 4 out of 5 people are quirked, and no one ever wanted to —

“No, you’re right, it’s because of the bracelet. It’s Hatsume’s development! That’s the whole thing she’s testing.” He reaches out, covers your shaking hand with both of his. “It’s still super new.” You force yourself to calm down, to not spiral again. You really are out of sorts today. His palm is rough on your skin but his hands are warm. You count breaths until you can think straight again. What a mess.

“It’s a partnership, you know?” he continues, like he’s been waiting for you to be able to listen. Izuku is too good to you, knows you too well. “That’s why there’s the — transformative aspect, too. I don’t really know all the specifics.” He looks off to the side — is he embarrassed not to know it all? Feeling awkward for having to comfort you twice since he showed up? “But it’s about... being greater than the sum of your parts, you know?”

“...kinda hard to believe when I’m not bringing anything to the table,” you mutter. It earns you a poke in the forehead, and you frown at him. “What, I mean it!”

“I know you do,” Izuku says. “You have no idea what you ‘bring to the table,’ I promise. Don’t worry about that, okay?”

Sure. Okay.

Izuku answers a thousand of your questions over the next hour or so. Eventually, though, he has to go handle a work problem — his phone had rung like it was trying to outdo a fire alarm, impossible to miss.

You’d been happy to let him go, though. You’re wrung out from the company and the sunburn, from your long day and the emotional roller coaster you did not sign up for.

It’s only as you’re getting ready for bed that you think — oh.

Kirishima

Today

You

hey, i need to apologize to you _{9:48 PM}

can we meet up somewhere tomorrow so I can grovel for forgiveness? _{9:49 PM}

Kirishima

u don’t have to apologize to me _{9:52 PM}

not even the meanest thing that’s ever been said to me tbh _{9:53 PM}

You

Kirishima i hate every thing about that for you 🙁 _{9:55 PM}

Kirishima

well, if youre that desperate to see me... _{9:58 PM}

u can come by the gym tomorrow afternoon? 😉 _{9:59 PM}

You wheedle him into setting a real time — ‘tomorrow afternoon’ is so vague — and put your phone on the charger for the night. You go to brush your teeth, and put the gel on your burn, and drag your sleepy body back to the bedroom. As you settle into the blankets, staring at the ceiling, you tell yourself: tomorrow can only be better.

Maybe it’s even true.