Chapter Text
“To-todoroki-kun… Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.” A prompt and straightforward reply.
“You’re not?” his really calm and innocent (if Izuku must call it by the tone) follow-up coming from that pin-like device near the green-haired lad’s left ear somehow makes the latter more nervous than he should be or he should have been.
“Well…” Izuku does not even know how to piece together his response. Here he is bothering Shouto on his free day and he actually has the audacity to doubt his friend who offered to help him? Before he can fall to one of his rambling episodes–
“I’ll do it,” he manages to say.
“Okay.”
Designed by Mei Hatsume to easily blend with his green hair except for that small button sharing the same color as its inventor’s hair, Izuku marches to the café that he and Ochako decided to meet; wearing the hidden earpiece.
When he had asked the support course student if she had a spare communication device best for stealth missions that could possibly help him, the pink-haired was too ecstatic to help him even if he had not specified what he needed it for.
With no questions asked, Mei handed him the pin and an earpiece resembling an earplug which is supposed to be for the other line. Both devices look like toys especially with the striking pink color it had, he had noted when she showed it to him.
“This really cute pair of babies here are perf,” Izuku remembers her saying.
Mei is not the type to send some warnings about her ‘babies’ ( as he is both a witness and victim to the circumstances) and he just hopes that nothing is wrong with these transmitting devices.
Spotting the brown-haired girl seated already, Izuku barely feels his feet moving, too entranced by how she looks today to register his movements and surroundings.
There she is, in an unfamiliar pink dress that nonetheless suits her.
The lad approaches the table, noting how her exposed shoulders jolt the slightest when he comes close. He could not help but feel the same line of nerves from those little reactions to his arrival.
However, when he finally sees her flushed face that is unable to look at him directly, Izuku forgets how to breathe for a second, if not for Shouto actually telling him to “Breathe, Midoriya.”
“Y-yeah,” he whispers back.
The tactic is simple: Have Shouto Todoroki guide no-girlfriend-since-birth Izuku on his very first date. What could possibly go wrong?
–
“Ya-yaomomo… Will this be really fine?” she asks in her softest voice, a couple of fingertips touching the clip near her right ear. Though the device was carefully Created by Momo to disguise itself as a hair clip that matched the clothes she had lent her, Ochako is pretty sure that talking to herself while seated in the cafe would make her look weird.
Or maybe, everything right now is just weird, because Ochako in her whole life never thought that Deku-kun, her crush, would ever ask her out on a date.
“There is no need to worry, Uraraka-san. All you have to do is to listen to what I have to say. Please try your best to calm down. I am here to help you.”
With a gulp, Ochako gives her an “Okay. Thank you so much” letting her left hand pat her chest.
You’ll be fine, Ochako. Yaomomo taught you the way of the lady, remember?
Right. When Izuku asked her out the other day and left as a stuttering mess after hearing her say yes, Ochako had floated to the ceiling the moment he was out of the hallway. Coincidentally, Momo’s arrival at the scene marked her as the Zero-Gravity-quirk-user’s official savior – both for helping her come down and for offering to guide her on her first-ever date.
"Now is the best time to bring that smile out. Midoriya-san is here in six seconds.”
Lips numbing to a practiced smile, Ochako sits (too) straight, her hands forming to fists on her lap.
“I’m-I’m sorry I’m late Uraraka-san,” his shaky voice enters her ears with the very first thing he tells her. Ochako could not see how he looks right now, too nervous to actually meet his eyes - or his whole face for the matter. Brown eyes darted to the ground, she can see his iconic red shoes, twitching as he stands. If her peripheral vision is not deceiving her, she is pretty sure that he is wearing a vest that matches that crimson color. She sure hopes that warmth on her face is not as red though.
“I-it’s okay, don’t worry about it, Deku-kun!” The way his name passed by her lips seems to be too loud that some of the people inside the cafe had to give them the looks. She realizes this and ducks her head down. What a mess she already is and it’s just the start!
“Uraraka-san, be more natural.”
Ochako tries to follow the instruction upon hearing Momo. Somehow, her voice casts a magic spell of calm on her and she feels so lucky to have her as a friend.
“It is okay. Just breathe for a second.”
She smiles again, the warm air leaving her nose.
“Please… have a seat, Deku-kun.” Her tone comes out in a fancier voice than the usual her. Those vocalization exercises with Momo surely worked. Her smile is now directed to him.
“You are doing great, Uraraka-san.”
“O-of course… sorry!” She hears him say as he takes the seat in front of her.
Finally, their eyes meet.
–
“Compliment her.”
“Wh-what!?” The expression comes out of him when he hears Shouto.
“Eh?” Now that is Ochako whom he sees, slowly spelling out confusion on her face.
“Oh-oh no… I just heard some… birds… yeah. Hahahaha…” His awkward laughter comes out loud enough that it attracts different pairs of eyes to their table again. This time, chuckles are heard in the air.
“O-okay…” She responds meekly.
Now Izuku wants to smack his face. This is more difficult than he thought.
“Tell her.”
Izuku feels his lips freeze as if Shouto’s right side is doing its work. Well, now that he thinks about it, his body has been on the cold side for hours now as this event came closer by the hour.
“Yaoyorozu told me it is common courtesy to give compliments.”
The freckled boy is almost amazed because it seems that Shouto did his ‘research’ except that he actually does not have the time to be amazed right now. Izuku had panicked after finally managing to ask Ochako to go out somewhere and when he had been trying his best to hide from everyone how anxious he actually is, Shouto just dropped the bomb in front of all the boys while they were changing for the next class, “Did you ask Uraraka out, Midoriya?”
“No one told me we weren’t supposed to ask” was Shouto’s defense when Tenya had reprimanded him for just dropping it like that and “shattering Midoriya-kun’s honor.”
And so, the half-fire-half-ice-quirk user promised to help Izuku as a way to pay back.
Izuku hears a sigh from the device. “Midoriya. Repeat after me.”
“Uraraka.”
The freckled boy clears his throat.
“U-uraraka-san…”
Ochako stares at Izuku the moment he had called her. The way his face makes that serious expression as if she is the only thing that he is looking at right now catches her off guard. But why?
His hair is still in that fluffy green signature look. He is still wearing those favorite shoes of his. He may be wearing a vest that she has never seen him wear before, but other than that, this is still Deku-kun. So… why is her heart unable to calm down just as how Momo kept reminding her?
Is it because there is this light in his eyes that she cannot explain? Or is it because of those growing shades of pink on his cheeks, now fainting his freckles?
“Uraraka-san, remember. Grace.”
“Y-yes?” she finally answers as she waits for him to speak again.
Izuku looks at Ochako, blinking his green eyes, waiting for Shouto’s words from the device, but also taking the moment to just take in her features
Sure, she looks a bit different, with the way her hair is styled by that hairpin and by that dress she is wearing. But whatever she wore, may it be Uravity’s costume or UA’s uniform sets, she had always looked–
Beautiful. He opens his mouth to say that one word–
“Your quirk is useful in rescue situations. It is a great fit for an aspiring hero.”
“Your quirk is useful in rescue situations. It’s a great fit for an aspiring hero.”
The moment he says that, Izuku Midoriya knew that asking for Shouto’s help was not a bright idea at all.