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Your eyes lit on him on that first day at school and you decided immediately that you liked him. He first saw you with your feet up on the desk and your shoes untied and decided immediately that the feeling was not mutual.
“Put your feet down!” he demanded, eyes wide and incredulous at your unforgivable position. “Where is your respect for school property?”
It was a bit hard for you to take him seriously; the boy was pretty, built like one of the old Olympic athletes, with a posture suited for the military. His nerdy concern for ‘school property’ and overzealous karate gestures were completely at odds with how cool he could have appeared.
You offered a soft sigh, half-grinning up at him as you shifted your feet slightly.
“Ah, man, I was hoping you wouldn’t be such a killjoy. Would it hurt you to relax a little? You look like a guitar string about to break.”
“Relax?” Your lax demeanor was obviously not going to spread to him today. If anything, the blue-haired boy drew himself up even taller, his next sweeping hand gesture coming close to slicing your entire face off. “Achieving admittance to UA is something that others could only dream of! To sit in the same desk as the preceding generation is a privilege and should be treated as such, and you would do well to develop a respectful mindset accordingly!”
Oh, boy. He was cute, but wow, did he come prepared with his soapbox.
“Yeah, yeah,” you murmured, not really listening after the first ten syllables, and slid down in your seat until your heels touched the ground.
When you deigned to glance at him a moment later, his severe features had softened out to a sort of resigned acceptance. He might have been about to thank you for your reasonable behavior and willingness to listen, come to think of it, and that would’ve been nice. But you slipped your earbuds in right when Aizawa-sensei began teaching, and there was no more good behavior for him to thank.
He was, you thought as the music lulled you into a half-doze, actually very, very cute.
You were, Tenya thought as he forced himself to take notes instead of staring over at your admittedly distracting profile, a delinquent.
When school let out one day, weeks after that first meeting between the two of you, it was raining hard and you hadn’t bothered to bring an umbrella.
Not a big deal, really – you’d walked home in worse weather, and you could do it again. As soon as you’d almost reached the door, though, you glanced up and met the familiar stern eyes of Iida Tenya.
You could almost feel the incoming bout of awkward silence, and you figured that you didn’t care much for that.
So, “and your pack?” you asked, gesturing at the empty space around him. The flicker of confusion rippling across his face prompted you to continue. “Your friends. Midoriya and Uraraka, I think. You usually walk with them, don’t you?”
“Ah. Midoriya was held back for a meeting of extreme importance, and Uraraka is at home, sick,” he replied evenly, and you nodded. A half-second and the sharp flick of his gaze over your empty hands, he demanded, “where is your umbrella?”
Cute as ever, you thought fleetingly, a half-smile tugging gently at your mouth. And still as high strung and fussy.
“Didn’t bring it,” you responded with a shrug. “I’m not in the habit of checking the forecast. It isn’t a big deal, though.” You paused, hesitating, but decided why not? “I’ll see you tomorrow, Iida. Stay warm and all that, won’t you?”
Figuring that was the end of that, you pushed open the doors and began walking out, bracing yourself for the cold raindrops.
They never came; you blinked and looked up, finding a solid blue umbrella open above you instead of the stormy sky.
“You should be more concerned about your health,” Iida stated almost tersely. “We’re in the middle of flu season and your immune system can’t keep up with your carelessness. What will you do when you catch something?”
Your all-around lack of regard for everything around you seemed to openly perplex him, and you sighed softly, torn between the need to brush him off and urge him home, and the growing desire to hug him until his ribs cracked.
You settled for telling him a secret.
“I haven’t considered that. Actually, to tell you the truth, I haven’t had the energy to care about any of my actions lately.”
It was straightforward and completely devoid of any personal details, but you felt that you were giving away a vulnerable part of yourself anyway.
But whether it was something in your face, or the slight hitch in your voice, or just that your terribly vague explanation was that informative, he got it. His eyes went soft with understanding, and you wondered if maybe he was going through some stuff, too. The thought made something in you hurt a little bit – Iida Tenya was too good to have bad things happen to him.
The quiet between you stretched to the point where you were beginning to get slightly antsy. You nudged him with an elbow, laughing off the moment.
“C’mon. My place is pretty close if you wanna insist on walking me; doesn’t look like the rain’s gonna let up any time soon anyway.”
He looked at you for a very long time before nodding – “Of course,” he replied – and he made sure to match his steps with yours. You had the feeling that a special new understanding between the two of you was reached. Was something like that supposed to be acknowledged somehow? You could try.
“… Thank you for sharing!” you both exclaimed at the same time, each of you meaning something else. The simultaneous shout had you both awkwardly averting your eyes, and you smiled despite yourself.
“Ha, you’re really cute, Iida,” you admitted as you rounded the corner to your street. “I mean it. You’re cute.”
As you said it, you didn’t think much of it. It was true, and you felt you owed him a wider look into the way you thought after he was so nice to you.
But Tenya thought the world of it, and was still blushing long after you’d disappeared into your house.