Chapter Text
Izuku chewed on the end of his pencil, stuck on a particularly tough question of his homework. With a frustrated sigh he rested his head on his desk when he heard a knock at his door. Thankful for a distraction he got up to answer it.
“Oh, hey Kirishima,” he said as he pulled the door open. “What’s up?”
“Midoryia! Hey!” Kirishima greeted him with his usual enthusiasm. “A few of us are going to watch a movie down in the common room and I wanted to see if you wanted to join us?”
“Oh, um, that sounds great, Kirishima but I’m kind of stuck on some homework and I have to have it finished by tomorrow. Thanks for the invite though!”
“Aw man. That sucks, dude,” Kirishima said, as he shot a sympathetic look towards Midoryia’s desk. “Hey, wait! Is that the homework from Midnight’s class?”
“Um, yeah. I can’t seem to get past question five.”
“Yeah, that was a tough one but hey, Bakugo helped me on that assignment earlier so if you want I could help you on yours? Then you could still come watch the movie with us.”
“Really?!” Izuku asked, surprised by the offer.
“Yeah, man! Of course!”
“That would be great! Thanks, Kirishima!”
The two boys smiled at each other as Izuku moved aside so Kirishima could come into his room. He led him over to his desk and Kirishima leaned against the side of it as he began explaining the homework. Izuku caught on quick and after Kirishima briefly explained the part he had been struggling with he was able to work through the rest of the assignment with little problem.
Kirishima stayed as Izuku worked, just in case he had anymore trouble and as he waited for the other boy to finish he looked around Midoryia’s room.
“Man, you sure do have a thing for All Might, huh? And I thought Bakugo was bad.” Kirishima laughed as continued to look around.
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Izuku replied, his cheeks tinged a slight pink, but he otherwise stayed focus on his homework. Everyone had already seen his room after all, and he was used to his classmates’ amusement.
“Oh, hey, what’s this?” Kirishima asked, pushing himself away from the desk as he walked across the room towards the bed. Izuku only half paid attention too him, figuring he had spotted one of his limited-edition collector items or something.
“Operation: Friend Multiplication?” Kirishima asked slowly as he read from the chart Izuku had hung near the end of his bed.
Izuku felt his stomach sink at the words, his blood running cold as he dropped his pencil and pushed hurriedly away from his desk, his homework momentarily forgotten.
“Ahhh!” he all but yelled as he dove over his now toppled chair towards Kirishima. He quickly flipped the board around to the other side so that it now displayed the All Might poster that was supposed to keep the chart hidden. Izuku couldn’t believe that he had invited someone into his room without making sure that the friendship chart he made was hidden from view. Stupid. Stupid.
“That’s, uh.. it’s, uh…” Izuku stuttered out as he waved his hands in front of him, trying to find an excuse to explain away the chart to Kirishima. “It’s.. it’s.. nothing…”
Izuku brought his arms up and awkwardly wrapped them around his head to shield his growing embarrassment, his face now red enough to rival Kirishima’s hair.
“Dude, are you okay?” Kirishima asked, clearly confused by Midoryia’s reaction.
“I.. uh.. I,” Izuku let his arms drop with a defeated sigh. Taking a deep breath, he raised his gaze to meet Kirishima’s questioning stare. “Can you.. Can you just not tell anyone else bout this? Please.”
“Of course, man!” Kirishima readily agreed, bringing a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “But I don’t get it, why’re you freaking out about it?”
Izuku’s mouth dropped open, not quite able to believe that Kirishima couldn’t see what he had to be upset about.
“It’s.. it’s, uh, really embarrassing, I guess. I just.. didn’t have a lot… or well, any friends in middle school really and I was just excited about how nice everyone here seems to be and um, how you guys don’t seem to, um, hate me, you know? So, it just felt so nice to have friends again and I just thought it would be cool to use a chart to keep track of who I was friends with but, uh, now that I think about it that was probably a super lame thing to do and something everyone would probably think was weird. That’s why I was hoping you would just maybe not tell anyone else? But I mean you don’t have to of course! I would just really appreciate it and –"
Izuku knew he was mumbling but he couldn’t seem to stop himself, thankfully Kirishima did it for him.
“Midoryia, hey,” Kirishima interrupted, grabbing Izuku’s shoulders. “It’s okay, dude. I promise I’m not going to say anything to anyone. But seriously, I don’t think your chart is lame, man. I think it’s kinda cool actually.”
“Really?” Izuku softly said, searching Kirishima’s face for any hint that he was actually making fun of him.
“Really! I think it’s pretty manly that you’re putting in such an effort to be friends with everyone!”
“Oh, well, then thanks, I guess,” Izuku said, giving Kirishima a weak smile.
“There’s only one problem with it though, dude.”
“Oh. What is it?”
Kirishima grinned and flipped the board back over so that the chart was displayed once more. Pointing to his name he said, “You have me listed under ‘Acquaintances’ and you should definitely have me under friends, bro!”
“Really? You consider me a friend?” Izuku asked, his face back to a nice shade of pink.
“Of course, dude! I wouldn’t have come and asked you to watch a movie if I didn’t think of you as a friend.”
“Oh. I thought you were just being nice or that Iida or Uraraka sent you.”
“Nah, they’re not even watching it with us actually. It’s just me, Kaminari, Mina, Sero, Tsu, Jirou and hopefully you.”
“Oh. Oh, wow. I- I think of you as a friend too, Kirishima. I just didn’t want to assume that you considered me one, but I’ll definitely move your name to my friends list! Thank you!”
Kirishima watched as Midoryia, with a huge smile on his face, moved his name from ‘acquaintances’ to ‘friends’. Kirishima couldn’t help but grin at the way Midoryia carefully lined up the name tag so it was even with the other names already there and lightly smoothed down the edges of it.
He hadn’t realized before how important making friends was for Midoryia and he had definitely not considered that Izuku might have been unpopular before. The thought didn’t sit well with Kirishima.
“Hey Midoryia?”
“Yeah,” Izuku asked turning back to his new friend.
“How about I help you with your friends list?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can help you get to know everyone better so that you can move everyone to the friends section on your chart.”
“What? Oh no! I don’t want you to have to worry about anything like that! You’ve helped me a ton already, Kirishima!” Izuku argued, clearly flustered and waving his hands in front of him again.
“Dude, it wouldn’t be a problem. I really like hanging out with you and you’re super cool and likeable so this will be easy!”
“O-o-okay. If you’re really sure, I’d.. I’d really appreciate that, Kirishima.” Izuku beamed up at him. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe how blessed he truly was for the amazing people he had in life.
Kirishima whooped, pumping his fist in the air.
“Heck ya, man! Operation Friend Multiplication is a go!!”