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Chapter Text

The first time he felt the flutter in his chest was seeing Izuku overcome Shinsou's brainwashing quirk. Knowing how powerful it was himself, and how careless Midoriya was with how often he injured himself during fights, Ojiro couldn't help but smile at the small boys will and power. But it was just being proud, not anything romantic like Hagakure insisted it was.

The second time he felt it, it was in sparring matches. Watching Midoriya bounce around like a rabbit, finding a weakness to everyone, was both cute and inspiring. Of course he himself couldn't say watching the match did him much good, considering his sparring partners at the time, Tokoyami and the fearsome Dark Shadow, quickly introduced his face to the floor, multiple times.

The third time was when Izuku offered to help him with his tail. Because even if didn't hurt, having the fluff on the end of his tail being messed up from Kaminari's playing was a slight annoyance for him. He didn't deny that he was more than appreciative for Izuku's help, although he wished the annoying flutter in his chest to go away.

Asking Uraraka for help didn't help him much either. She said more or less the same thing, except with a more competitive tone to her words. She seemed quite adamant that Izuku should decide who he liked, before smiling sweetly again. Ojiro could only awkwardly smile at such an emotional whiplash.

Even All Might, who insisted they could tell him anything seemed quite insistent that Ojiro be careful with talking to Izuku, although he wouldn't say why. Ojiro was starting to believe the rumors that Izuku was secretly All Might's son. The thought made his chest flutter, and his face flush for thinking of something so personal of the boy that he didn't have feelings for.

Everyone else seemed to have other ideas. Perhaps sharing his private business with the two most likely to tell people about his private feelings was a bad idea, but the amount of times that someone told him to confess was getting to him. When even Tokoyami and Dark Shadow insisted he should, all he could do was sigh and at least try it.

Izuku however insisted on misinterpreting everything he said. Asking if he wanted to go somewhere for lunch turned into a race, wanting to go to a movie was turned into Izuku critically analyzing the movie before even walking through the door, and even asking for his help on classwork somehow ended in Izuku and him sparring, even if he was just waking up.

It was starting get frustrating, but he just decided to take it in stride, thinking of this as OTHER ways to get his supposed point across. Perhaps his classmates would finally let him have the flutter in his chest in peace if Deku rejected him.

He hates having that thought. He didn't want to be rejected, even if the flutter was nothing special. Being rejected would just confirm that Deku didn't think of him in some special way beyond all the ways his quirk could be used to save people.

Still he just walked and bottled it up, trying to ignore it, and he only stopped when he heard a voice groaning from the common room. He stopped, trying to assess the situation, in case it was a villain attack.

Thankfully it was just Deku, laying on the couch groaning into the pillows on the couch, surrounded by his friends. "Just tell him Deku! He obviously likes you too." Uraraka seemed to be trying to get him to confess to someone. Ojiro couldn't help but feel an even bigger connection to Deku, especially after all the hassle he had received from the class for him to confess to Deku.

"I have to agree with Uraraka! After all he has asked you out numerous times." The loud words coming from the class president put a blush on Ojiro's face despite him not even being in the room. Hearing even the most upright and procedural student in the class, or even the school, saying things like that made him start to reevaluate his own feelings.

"B-but what if h-he says no? Or he laughs in my face? Or he just walks away?" Deku's stuttering and pessimistic words nearly brought Ojiro into the room to say he was wrong. But obviously he was talking about someone else. Ojiro couldn't even imagine himself laughing at anyone for confessing their feelings, much less someone as nice as Deku.

"Oh come on Deku! Only a villain would laugh at something like that." Uraraka seemed very insistent that Deku agree that this mystery person wouldn't reject him. Of course she would, she was the number one meddler.

Ojiro didn't notice how intently focused he was on their conversation until his phone buzzed in his pocket and he nearly fell out of surprise. His face flushed as he started to realize maybe all the pestering had paid off. He decided to just get this over with, and texted Deku asking of he wanted to go for a run. After hearing a ding and a squeak from the other room, he went down the stairs, a smile on his face

Chapter Text

Ojiro stood waiting for Deku outside of the dorms, trying to think of how he was even going to get him to talk about his feelings of all things. The whole class knew that Deku managed to hold an awkward balance of hiding none of his emotions, yet still hiding some important things about himself.

Ojiro starts contemplating just treating this like a normal run, when Deku walks through the door of the dorm, wear a t-shirt, jeans, and a bright smile, while carrying two water bottles. He can feel his face flush, and his chest start fluttering and it takes him a few seconds to realize that Deku was talking to him.

"S-so, u-uh, w-where are we running to?" Deku's speech is jittery and jumpy, his hands shaking and moving, probably a nervous habit or something he picked up from spending so much time with the class president. His face was turning a light pink, and Ojiro couldn't contain the small smile that broke through his attempted facade.

"Oh, uh, right. Tokoyami told me about an old cherry blossom tree not too far from here. Not many people go to see it, but it's about the time of the year for the petals to fall." Ojiro smiles at the idea of everything going perfectly in a place like that.

"Sounds perfect! I'll race you there!" Deku's words come out too fast, his face flushed, and already running, although running in the wrong direction.

"You're going the wrong way De- Midoriya!" Ojiro cuts himself off from using the nickname and the other boy's hero name, trying to remember that they are just running partners, at least just for now hopefully.

It was almost comical how fast he turned around and ran back in the opposite direction, head down and face flushed from embarrassment but he was still a fast runner when he wanted to be, Ojiro had to run as fast as he could to keep up.

The run was a long stretch through the city, weaving in and out of alleys, and it was a work out for Ojiro, thought Deku seemed to be running it just fine. By the time Ojiro reaches the tree, whose petals were falling, Deku had already sat down and started drinking some water.

Ojiro sits next to Deku and takes the water bottle, and starts drinking it, trying to catch his breath and rehydrate at the same time, while Deku was mumbling something about optimizing the run from the dorm to the tree by wearing weights.

Ojiro sets the water bottle down and looks at Deku, deciding to steal a peek at one of the things that he liked, maybe loved, about the boy. "Midoriya, what do you know about cherry blossoms?" It was a simple question, and it was generally common knowledge.

Deku stopped mumbling and looked at Ojiro shocked for a moment, before furrowing his brow again and starting to ramble. "W-well, they're edible, associated with death, used in a lot of stories and movies for symbolism, and they are pretty looking." Deku blushed at the last statement as if he just confessed something embarrassing.

"They are pretty I guess. But what I was hoping you'd mention is how they're associated with love." Ojiro stops talking and looks at Deku, and seeing his confused expression, continues talking. "They do stand for death, but they're also a symbol for new beginnings."

Ojiro stops, and takes a short breath, gathering all of his courage, before diving in, and throwing all caution to the wind. "I heard you talking with Uraraka and Iida, before we came out here, and I was wondering if I could uh, help you with getting your feelings across."

Ojiro couldn't help but smile at the other boy's reaction, starting shocked, to blushing, to laughing nervously. "I uh... I could use the help. I-I tend to m-mutter when I'm nervous a-and I've been t-trying to put this off and u-um-"

"The first step is being confident in your feelings. If you can't tell them how you feel, then how can you move from there?" Ojiro tries to remember the advice he had received from the majority of the class, and decided to keep it simple, and straightforward.

Deku frowns for a moment, brow furrowed in thought, and tapping his fingers in a rhythm on the grass before speaking quietly. "J-just be confident, right?"

"Yeah... being confident is the best way to do it." Ojiro tries not to mention the fact that he only had an idea how to do this sort of thing because he had a friend basically dedicated to it.

He didn't get a chance before he felt lips pressed on his own, Deku's face in his, completely red, and with his eyes closed. Ojiro feels his own face flush, but before he can react, Deku pulls away, blushing, stammering and hiding his face "I-I'm s-sorry!"

Ojiro sits, a smile on his face, along with a blush that rivaled Deku's blush. The kiss wasn't terrible, but he couldn't really react yet, his brain still processing what just happened.

"I-I'm s-sorry! I-It's f-f-fine if you d-d-don't feel the same..." Deku's stuttering apology and sob filled voice was like having just kicked a puppy. "I-I k-know that I-I'm s-stupid and u-useless b-but I-"

"You're not stupid or useless." Ojiro cuts Deku off, but with a soft tone, taking his hand in his own, not willing to back down now, especially since Deku seemed to really care about well, someone bland and as opposite as flashy as possible.

"You spent so much time analyzing for heroes and quirks, and you have shown more times than any of the rest of us what it means to be a real hero." His tone is soft, and caring but with enough steel to make his words the truths that they were.

Deku wipes the tears from his eyes, and puts on a wary smile before continuing, his voice filled with a nervous cautiousness. "S-so c-can we just forget about w-what just happened. W-with the u-uh, k-kiss?"

"I don't think I want to." Ojiro smiles, and gives Deku a kiss on the lips, light and brief, but still enough to send the boy into a flustered mess.