Chapter Text
There was a life-or-death matter Izuku had to attend to, and it simply couldn’t wait.
He’d woken up before his alarm that morning—hours before, but that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. His dream was still banging against the corners of his mind, screaming desperately to get out. He needed to talk about it.
He nearly tripped over his untied shoes as he practically leapt down the stairs, hair extra-wild since he’d barely brushed it. His unbuttoned blazer trailed behind him and his tie was still undone, but he couldn’t stop. He had to get to All Might, now!
He crashed into Kaminari as he rounded the corner, some papers flying out of his still-unzipped backpack. His friend fell, dropping the small package he was holding.
“Sorry,” Izuku cried, scrambling to pick up his papers, and grabbing Kaminari’s package to toss back to him. “Sorry, sorry!”
“Whoa, Midoriya, a bit high-strung this morning, are we?” Kaminari teased, standing up.
“Don’t know how it’s any different than usual,” came Bakugo’s tired (and perpetually annoyed) voice from the elevator.
Kaminari extended a hand, which Izuku took gratefully, fixing himself the best he could as a he got back to his feet. Kaminari snickered, “What’s got you so up in arms, dude? A little stressed about today?” He leaned in close, glancing from side to side, like he was letting Izuku in on a huge secret. “Rumor has it that Uraraka’s very excited—”
"You short-circuit bastard, did you eat my last egg?”
Kaminari stiffened. “And, that’s my cue. Later!”
He turned and ran down the corridor towards the front entrance, followed by the very distinctive sound of popping explosions and slamming kitchen cabinets. Izuku stood there for a moment, stunned. Uraraka? She was excited? They just had combat training today—maybe she’d perfected a new technique and wanted to show everyone?
He didn’t have time to think about it though, because his phone lit up with a notification, drawing his eyes immediately to the time. It was that late already! Thirty minutes ‘til class—there was no way he’d have time to talk to All Might!
“Aw, this is bad,” he muttered, speeding down the hallways once again.
He managed to skirt around Iida, even if he got half a reprimand before making it to the common room—just barely missing bumping into Kirishima and Sero, holding small packages just like Kaminari. He waved as they greeted him, not stopping to chat. It was only when he rushed past the kitchen that he hesitated, seeing all six of his female classmates hovered over the counter with pleased looks on their faces. They looked up as he entered, his eyes immediately locking gazes with a particular one.
“Good morning, Deku!” Ochako called sweetly, and Izuku’s heart fluttered, just as it always did when she greeted him. “Whoa, you look like you’re in a hurry!”
He raised a hand to wave, running in place as he stopped to say his good mornings. He nodded to Ochako again. “Yeah, sorry! I have something I have to do, I’ll see you guys in class today!”
“O-Oh,” she said, although her voice lost a little bit of its brightness. Izuku didn’t fail to notice, but had no more time to waste. “A-All right then! See you later, okay?”
Jiro nudged her as she took her place beside them again. Izuku sped out, making a beeline for the office on the third floor he knew so well by now.
“You look like a train wreck, my boy.”
“Sorry,” Izuku chuckled awkwardly, turning to the small mirror, finally buttoning his blazer and tying his tie over it. It was still short and crooked, but it was just as good as usual. Stiffly, he turned back to All Might, who was stroking his chin, looking deep in thought. “I just came as quickly as I could! I wanted to tell you right away, since you asked me to keep you informed about any changes regarding One for All.”
“So you said it happened again?” he asked, looking over his folded hands as Izuku sat down. He nodded, his posture going rigid again as the previous night’s images flashed across his mind’s eye. “It was the same wielder? The one who taught you about this ‘black whip’ Quirk from joint training?”
Izuku’s gaze fell. Almost subconsciously, he cradled his right hand against his chest. The one almost damaged beyond repair, and the same one that his newfound Quirk had sprung forth from all those days ago. He swallowed. “Yeah… But something about it seemed more urgent this time. I haven’t heard from him since the incident with Shinso and Uraraka, but he came back last night.” His fingers squeezed the ones on his opposite hand. “He said the same thing both times. The key to controlling black whip… lies in how my heart feels.”
A deep silence blanketed the room, Izuku’s features softening. He could still feel it. The fingertips of his predecessors brushing his own, guiding his future, taking him forward—
“That’s so cute,” All Might said, slightly misty-eyed.
“Cute? That thing almost murdered me, Shinso, and Uraraka!” Izuku flushed, shoving his hands under his knees to hide them from view. “Before Shinso brainwashed me, I was really scared. I couldn’t control it, and it hurt me. I thought that it was proof… that even though I’ve been working so hard, I’m still not worthy of this power.” He glanced down, unable to meet All Might’s eyes, the sympathy resting there. “But then they saved me. They’re the ones who triggered the vestige. And now, thanks to them, I have a grasp on what this all means.” He closed his eyes. “I think… I might have a chance after all.”
“That’s what I like to hear, my boy.”
Izuku opened his eyes to see All Might, now standing, a grin on his face so big it mirrored the hero that Izuku had grown up knowing. “Your power is yours. You decide what to do with it. If it really reacts how our guy said, then you wouldn’t have hurt Young Shinso or Miss Uraraka. Especially because they’re your friends. Your heart wants to protect them, and so you would have. I believe that with my whole heart.” He tapped his chest, smile never wavering. “Yours is the power to protect. Remember that.”
“I will,” Izuku said, and that was all he needed to say.
Five minutes later, he stood up as the second bell rang, pulling his backpack on. All Might stood as well, ready to follow him out of the teacher’s lounge.
“I want you to try your hardest to manifest this Quirk this week,” he said. “You’ll have a couple chances to do so, so I suggest you take them. It might be good to get some experience with it… before an emergency situation calls for its practical use.”
Izuku nodded and headed out, prepared more than ever now to face whatever lessons Aizawa had to throw at them.
He had lunch with All Might. And then, after school, he stole away with him to train, followed casually by a certain childhood friend of his angry because “I was headed here anyway, you’re just breathing my air you stupid nerd!” They fought and fought until evening, both of them bruised and panting, but Izuku’s energy hadn’t quite abandoned him yet.
His head was buried in his notebook as he approached the dorm’s front entrance. He propped the spine against his forearm, scribbling intently, eyes narrowed on his notes on this Quirk and that Quirk and these heroes and anything that could help him sort this out—
Only to come to a screeching halt upon entering the dormitory, freezing in place at the screams and hollers emanating from the common room of Class 1-A.
“W-What’s going on here?” Izuku wheezed.
No one answered. Instead, someone (who sounded suspiciously like Kirishima) called out, “Duck, Midoriya!” and on instinct he found himself on all fours on the carpet, looking up to a piece of tape hanging from the wall where his head had been. A chill ran down his spine, and he threw himself to the side. Mineta hit the wall upside-down, sliding so that his head hit the floor, eyes half-shut with encroaching unconsciousness.
“No throwing your fellow classmates!” Iida screamed at someone.
“It was justified!”
“Yeah, the little perv was spying on the girls today!”
“The best gift Mineta could’ve given was to just not.”
Izuku pouted, grabbing his notebook and crawling around his classmates’ legs to the stairwell entrance. Mineta spying on the girls, disappointing and uncomfortable but not surprising. The boys roughhousing, though, was a little unusual. Everyone sure was lively tonight! Even though they really should’ve been worn out from training today!
"That was so cheap, Kaminari!”
“It was all I could afford, man!”
Finally, he made it past his rambunctious friends. Everyone was so deep in their conversations that they didn’t even notice Izuku weaving in between them, dumbstruck at their antics. He caught bits and pieces of their voices, but not wanting to eavesdrop, moved along until he sat just beside the kitchen counter. He pulled himself up and brushed off his blazer, burying his nose in his notebook again.
“I’ve heard about Quirks controlled through emotions but maybe I need to do more research on it before I commit to using it the way the man said to—"
“Deku?”
“Ah!”
In all his trying to avoid getting waylaid in the common room, he hadn’t noticed that the kitchen wasn’t empty, either—in fact, there were the last of his classmates, all six girls gathered by the counter eating cookies out of a tin. Izuku offered them a nervous smile, bashfully pointing to the others. “H-Hello. They’re pretty excited, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yep,” Mina said, her voice popping with the p. She pursed her lips as she looked over him, and suddenly, Izuku felt very, very afraid. He then realized that all of the girls were staring at him intently. All except one. “So, Midori, where were you all evening?”
“Um…” Think of a good excuse! “I went out for a run?”
“Did you?”
“Well, uh…” Crap! Why were they so suspicious? He glanced around, looking desperately for an escape—when he found one, slinking lazily into the door looking as tired and annoyed as he‘d appeared walking out of it that morning. “Yeah! Kacchan went with me, right Kacchan?”
“I was trying to kill him,” he replied without skipping a beat.
He sighed. Well, at least he hadn't blown his cover.
Mina didn’t really look convinced, but she dropped it. Taking this as his time to run, Izuku babbled out a high-pitched “Good night!” before sprinting up the stairs to do more research about emotion-controlled Quirks.
He didn’t stop to see Ochako look up as he passed, the rest of the girls glancing to her with sympathetic gazes. He didn’t even see the deep emotions that played across her brown eyes as she bit her lip.
It was something that looked a lot like sadness.
“Hey, Deku!” she said, early the next morning.
“Ah! S-Sorry, Uraraka, can’t talk, gotta go!”
“Hey, Deku,” she said with a small smile, sitting down with him at dinner.
“Hey, Uraraka,” he murmured, shuffling his papers. He was so close--! “Sorry, there’s some research I gotta do. See you later, okay?”
“Hey, Deku,” she said, as he opened the door to find her standing outside of his room in her pajamas. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m good,” he replied with a slight blush. “Just tired, is all! I-I was actually about to head to bed…”
“Oh, of course, sorry,” she said, and hastily walked back down the hallway to the elevator.
“Hey, Deku,” she said, quite a few more times over the next two days, only to be met with mumbles and excuses and declarations about breakthroughs. “Hey, Deku,” she whispered, only to be met with no response at all.
Two days later, “Hey, Deku,” stopped altogether.
“Okay, young heroes, your task today is a simple one. Rescue training,” All Might said, grinning wildly as the class cheered. He held up one hand to calm them. “It’s been a while since we’ve done any proper rescue exercises, and even longer since we had specialized ones. So, Thirteen requested for me to put you all back at the USJ today. I want each of you to partner up and eat lunch, then costume up, and meet down at the front entrance to board the bus across campus.”
Rescue training! Izuku perked up, his own smile growing across his face. He was good at this! It was one of his favorite mission types—and they were allowed to have a partner this time, too!
He had just the perfect person in mind—no better person to have as a partner for a rescue course than someone who was planning to be a rescue hero someday!
His best friend, and the person he worked best with overall—
He glanced over, to the classroom’s back corner, ready to make his way over to her.
However, his smile faded when he saw that her seat was empty. His eyes searched the room, across the heads of his classmates, until he found her bouncy brown hair across the room…
Locking hands with Tsu, a bright smile on her face.
Something swirled deep within Izuku’s chest, clutching at his heart. Disappointment. For the five seconds he’d thought about it, he was really looking forward to having Ochako as a partner. They hadn’t talked very much at all over the past week or so, and he missed her.
A whole lot.
Such was life, he supposed. She and Tsu made an awesome team. Now, he really needed to find himself a partner, or just his luck he’d be stuck with someone he didn’t work closely with a lot!
“Midoriya!” an authoritative voice called out. Izuku spun around, relief crashing over him.
“Iida!”
“Would you like to be my partner for today’s exercise? I believe our teamwork and compatible Quirks would afford us an accomplished mission very easily.”
Izuku nodded fiercely, raising his fists. “Of, course! With the both of us, we’ll pass this exercise for sure!” He ran his fingers across the back of his head. “Thank you—I was kinda worried you’d already partnered with Todoroki or Yaoyarozu…”
“Why, assuming you and Uraraka would partner together for rescue training?” he huffed. “I see how that turned out. Not that I can blame her.”
“Blame her…?” Izuku frowned. But he had no time to question it, because his friend simply crossed his arms and headed toward the locker room, suitcase in tow. “H-Hey, wait a second!”
A few minutes later, they huddled together in a secluded corner of the room, Iida having pulled him aside to get dressed together as soon as they crossed the threshold. However, it had been a few minutes and Iida still hadn’t said a word, not even as he bent over the bench to fix his exhaust pipes to the shorter ones on his legs. Izuku watched, numbly, as he zipped up his jumpsuit over his undershirt.
Finally, Iida stood to his full height—quite some distance above Izuku, if he had to be honest. His no-nonsense expression sent chills down Izuku’s spine, and suddenly he almost regretted agreeing to spend his lunch break eating a nutrition bar and some bottled water. Izuku took a step back, holding his hands up on reflex. “H-Hey now…”
“You hurt Uraraka’s feelings quite a bit you know,” Iida began, a frown of his own spreading across his face. “She won’t admit that it’s bothering her, but it clearly is, and quite frankly I am highly disappointed that you of all people would commit such an unkind act against one of your closest friends—”
Izuku didn’t hear the rest. His thoughts had laser-focused onto one thing: he’d hurt Uraraka? Had he really? He knew he’d been so wrapped up in his Quirk this week that he hadn’t talked to her at all, but he hadn’t talked to most of his friends, either. That happened sometimes, and they were always understanding. So why…?
“I just can’t seem to understand it. You’re usually a perfect gentleman when it comes to the girls—and certainly more than several of our classmates—which is why I must say it shocked me to learn that you’d pulled such a stunt—”
“Iida,” he murmured, wide eyes focused on the ground. “What did I do?”
“What did—Midoriya!”
He shook his head. He felt anxiety bubble up just below his sternum, and he clenched his fists to stop them from shaking. “Iida.”
After a moment of staring at him, searching his features, Iida lowered his hands. “…You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “Midoriya, you have no idea what we celebrated this week, do you?”
No. No no no no no no no—“What’s today’s date?”
“March 19th.”
Nineteenth. Nineteenth.
Crap. Crap. Izuku’s hand slapped across his mouth. This was bad! This was so bad! He’d been so caught up in his research and his future and his meetings and his relationship to his predecessors that he’d completely ignored the relationships happening just around him! He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten something so important! Something he’d been looking forward to celebrating with the first girl who’d ever given him a reason to!
He’d forgotten about White Day!
“I’m a terrible person,” Izuku whispered, horrified. No wonder Uraraka was so upset! No wonder she hadn’t tried talking to him more! No wonder she didn’t want to partner with him! “I’m a terrible friend! I can’t believe I—crap!”
“Midoriya, please.”
“Oh, man, what have I done?” She probably totally hated him! “And after she made me that whole basket of chocolate from scratch, too! She did that because she found out I’d never been given any chocolate before, not even giri—that was one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me, and I wanted to show her how grateful I was, and I totally ruined it, oh, Iida, what am I going to do—"
“Midoriya, calm down.” Carefully, Iida placed a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, lowering his hands from tugging at the root of his hair and squeezing him slightly. Izuku exhaled. After a moment, Iida looked down at him again, his face still serious but just a bit softer than it had been before. “I can see from your reaction that this was a genuine mistake, not made in mean spirit,” he said gently. “Perhaps you can just apologize to Uraraka, and explain to her your honest mistake. She adores you. She’s also not one keep grudges. I’m sure you’ll be given an opportunity to make it up to her down the line.”
“Still…” He ran a hand through his already-messy-enough hair. It didn’t feel right.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. It was only a quick fix for a larger problem, but maybe this would be a good peace offering to tide her over. He pulled his phone out of his pouch, checking to see how much time he had left for lunch.
Twenty minutes. Perfect.
He spun on his heel, darting out of the locker room, sprinting full force towards the first-floor entrance and the road that would lead him down to Musutafu proper.
“Midoriya, where are you going now?” Iida called incredulously.
“I’ve got an idea! I’m gonna make this right!”
Iida lowered his arms, recognizing the determination in the smaller boy’s eyes. Once it appeared there, there was no changing what he set out to do. “Oh, all right. Just make sure you return before the bus leaves! I’m not covering for you this time!”
Izuku nodded gratefully, resuming his run down the hallway.
Just you wait, Uraraka, he thought. This will be the best not-White-Day ever!
Across campus, Thirteen made some final adjustments to the course the students would be running. They stepped back, admiring their work, pulling on the lever that activated adversaries Class 1-A would be fighting against today.
Somewhere in the holding bay, a red light flickered to life.
“Orders received,” it droned out. “Combat mode engaged.”