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Izuku was deep in concentration as he worked on his hero analysis volume, updating the section on Tokoyami in light of his recent improvements in controlling Dark Shadow, when he was suddenly squished into his seat as Mina clambered on top of him, eager to stare out the window.
“Woohoo!” she shouted, pressing herself bodily against the window, “It’s the ocean!”
“Ashido, please calm yourself and return to a proper sitting position!” Iida chastised, “Such a position is not safe while the train is in motion! Also, you’re hurting Midoriya.”
“Sorry Izuku,” Mina said, crawling back to her seat and giving him a quick hug in apology, ”Got a little excited.”
“It’s fine,” Izuku replied, straightening the notebook page a little. His last sentence had gotten a little smudged, but it was still fairly legible and that was what mattered.
“Is this your first time visiting the ocean?” Uraraka asked from across the aisle, chuckling at her friend’s antics.
“Nah,” Mina replied, “My family comes out to visit every year or so. But this is the first time I’m coming with friends, so I’m super excited! It’s time for a week of nothing but sun, sand, and good times!”
“And swimsuits!” Mineta called from a few rows back, “Don’t forget the swimsuits!”
The tell tale smack of Tsuyu’s tongue impacting his head echoed through the train car, causing everyone who wasn’t from UA to wince. The students didn’t even blink, though. They were perfectly used to it by now.
“Ashido, we are not going to some resort!” Iida said, craning his neck over his seat in order to lecture her, “We are attending an ocean-side facility for the purposes of training. As such, we should all comport ourselves with the dignity befitting future heroes, and not slack off!”
“No way!” Mina said, crossing her arms defiantly, “We didn’t get to do any fun stuff at the last camp, even before it got attacked. I’m not missing out again! Especially with how hard I worked to get here. I’ll train with everyone else, but the second we’re done I’m heading down to the beach and cracking open a watermelon or two!”
“Mina,” Izuku said gently, “It’s an isolated island that UA uses exclusively for training camps. I don’t think you’re going to be able to buy a watermelon.”
In response, she raised an eyebrow and pointed her thumb back towards where the rest of their class was sitting.
“Did you see how many suitcases Yaomomo brought? She’s absolutely got a watermelon in there somewhere, or enough supplies to grow one.”
Yaoyorozu had indeed brought quite a bit of luggage, though most of it was not for her own use. Two of her three suitcases were dedicated to supplies that the rest of their class might have forgotten to bring, such as sunscreen, insect netting, and even a few sleeping bags. It was probably overkill, especially given that she could produce most of the items herself on demand, but it was the thought that counted. She seemed to genuinely enjoy looking after their class like a mother hen, and Izuku wasn’t going to criticize her for that.
“It is true that you successfully passed your exams this year, Ashido,” Iida said, not one to be easily deterred when it came to encouraging what he viewed as proper behavior, “But that does not mean you can relax in place of training.”
“I won’t,” she assured, “I just wanna have fun, you know? Let my hair down a little. UA is all training and tests. This is our chance to live a little.”
“Mina’s right,” Uraraka chimed in, surprising all of them, “The training camp is important, and we should all do our best, but it has been a long time since we all had fun together. And isn’t de-stressing an important part of keeping ourselves fit?”
Iida looked like he wanted to argue the point for a bit longer, but was interrupted by Aizawa before he could continue.
"Training camp lasts a week, but our ferry back to the mainland isn't for nine days. Behave yourselves, work hard, and the last two are free days. Not my decision, but orders are orders. Now stop arguing so I can get some sleep before we get to the station."
Considering that their train was due to arrive in less than 15 minutes, that seemed unlikely, but Aizawa had impressed them all with his napping skills before.
"Vindicatioooon!" Mina cried, pumping her fist into the air.
The action earned her a pair of glowers from Aizawa and Iida, but Izuku could only shake his head. The fact that Mina was planning some fun in the sun came as no surprise to him. It had been all she talked about for the past week or so, particularly once their exams had ended.
He didn't begrudge her one bit. She'd worked as hard as anyone else in the class during the build up, and while her grades still hadn't been stellar, they had been a marked improvement over last year's. She'd even passed her practical exam with flying colors, despite having one of the tougher scenarios to complete.
“You know,” Uraraka said thoughtfully, pressing a finger to her chin and cocking her head, “We might not be feeling up to playing around after all that training. Remember how tough that last camp was?”
“Training schmaining!” Mina replied, “We’re way stronger than we were last year. This camp’s going to be a breeze!”
After a week of training, they were all singing a very different tune. The training had been absolutely brutal, even worse than last year’s daily Quirk training. Strength training, cardio, sparring, mock rescues, and hazardous terrain exploration were all daily occurrences, with more specialized training depending on individual student’s areas of expertise afterwards.
Several times throughout the week, Izuku had found himself looking back fondly on his training sessions with Tiger. Back then, he’d only had to worry about one wily opponent, rather than a whole group.
Mina was easily as exhausted as he was, and twice as prickly from overuse of her Quirk. Not even the special lotion that she normally used to help with skin irritation had been enough to completely eliminate the strain.
Now they were finally done with the training camp, and instead of dashing off to the beach everyone was sitting around the common room of the temporary dorms they had been staying in. They couldn’t muster the energy to get changed out of their hero costumes, let alone to go splash in the waves.
“Urrrgh,” Mina groaned, “My everything hurts.”
“Preaching to the choir,” Jirou replied.
“It’s proof that we have worked hard, and improved ourselves,” Iida said, his heart obviously not in the lecture.
“It sucks,” Mina said, “What’s the point of having a free day if we can’t enjoy it?”
“I’m just enjoying not having to do any more push-ups,” Kaminari groaned.
There was a long pause filled with only the occasional grunt of pain as someone shifted in position, before Mina, through a supreme act of will, clambered slowly to her feet. The sheer audacity of the act drew every set of eyes in the room, which was probably what she wanted in the first place.
“You know what?” Mina said, spinning slowly in place so she could meet each pair of eyes, “Screw that. I worked hard this week, and I’m not gonna let some sore muscles keep me from having fun. So I am going down to that beach, and I am going to have an amazing day. Anyone else who wants to come is free to join me. C’mon Izuku!”
“Huh?” Izuku said, completely startled to be suddenly included in the conversation.
“Izuku, I’m not just going to go to the beach by myself. That’s super boring. Now, are you coming or not?”
“I… uh, I don’t…” Izuku stuttered, trying to get his thoughts in order. He didn’t want to disappoint her, but at that moment he could barely imagine climbing to his feet.
“Okay, let me rephrase that,” Mina said, holding up a hand to forestall any further resistance, “Do you want to keep sitting here, wallowing in your misery with everyone else, or do you want to come hang out on the beach with me and see the swimsuit I specifically picked out for you?”
He was on his feet in no time flat, perfectly ready to hit the beach.
She snickered at his enthusiasm, though Izuku could see a faint tinge of lilac dusting her cheeks as she did. As confident as she acted most of the time, Izuku knew that Mina had been harassed over her looks a few times in the past, and being reminded that he found her (extremely) attractive always seemed to embarrass her a little bit, no matter how many times he did it.
“G-glad to see you’re so excited,” Mina said, her voice cracking a little as she did so. “Tell you what, how about you meet me down at the beach? Wouldn’t want to spoil my entrance by having you see before I’m ready.”
“Huh,” Kaminari observed, in one of his rare moments of perception, “Ashido’s acting like a bride on her wedding day.”
Mina eeped in a combination of surprise and embarrassment and the slight color in her cheeks turned to a full blush. She quickly turned on Kaminari, who seemed to have realized that retribution was coming his way and was attempting to pry himself out of the love seat he had been reclining in to little success. The task was made significantly harder a moment later when she dumped a load of acid into his lap. Thankfully for him, it didn’t seem to be particularly potent, since his clothes didn’t start smoking. He did immediately begin scratching at himself to relieve a sudden bout of itching, though.
With that, Mina dashed out of the common room, deliberately facing away from Izuku as she did so. It meant she was walking the opposite way as the women’s dorm, but Izuku was in no position to critique her behavior. After all, he was keeping his own gaze firmly set on the floor while he tried to fight down the heat in his cheeks, as well as the images of Mina in a white dress.
Once he had calmed down a little, thanks in no small part to Uraraka’s gentle advice and encouragement, he made his way slowly to the room he was sharing with Kirishima and got changed into his swim trunks and a Hawaiian themed shirt that his mother had helped him pick out. It was much flashier than what he would usually wear, but she had said it made him look dashing.
And, if he were honest with himself, he wanted to be a bit flashy to impress Mina. She was always leaving him speechless with how stunning she looked in her various outfits. He wanted to do the same to her, if only a little.
When Izuku finally arrived at the beach, he was a little taken aback by how nice it was. UA had purchased the island specifically for training purposes, so he'd been picturing something a little bit more rocky, with maybe a few sharks in the water waiting to pick off a foolish student or two.
Instead the beach was composed of fine, dark sand, and sloped gently down towards the ocean. A little ways out, the top of a small, curved reef jutted out of the ocean, breaking any large waves before they could even reach the beach, and forming a perfect swimming cove.
It looked so much like a scene out of a travel advertisement or a postcard that Izuku was tempted to double check his phone to make sure he hadn’t spontaneously gained the ability to teleport. He would never regret his choice to inherit One for All, but he could do without all the sudden discoveries of new powers that came with it.
He was in the midst of exploring the beach, looking for a good place to set out the towel he had brought along, when a familiar call distracted him.
“Izukuuuu!” Mina called, stepping out of the tree line and into view.
She was dressed for the beach, with a pair of flip flops and a light jacket with the same leopard print pattern as her hero costume. She was carrying a large cloth bag that seemed to be filled with beach supplies and snacks, all of which threatened to fall out with every bounding step.
Izuku was surprised to see that her jacket was zipped all the way up, since it was already fairly warm out, and she was usually fairly weak to the heat. Despite how light the jacket looked, Izuku knew that she must already be sweating up a storm.
Before he could do much more than raise a hand to return her wave, she dropped the bag she was carrying and charged him at an impressive speed for someone who had been complaining about how much she was aching just a short while ago.
He braced himself for the inevitable, but Mina’s full body tackle-hug still sent him stumbling backwards. It was her favorite way to greet him, and she was apparently not going to let a few sore muscles dissuade her from using it.
He groaned in pain as his own muscles and miscellaneous bruises complained violently about the sudden affectionate assault, but didn’t dare let go. He’d done that twice before, and Mina had given him quite the tongue lashing about letting her fall to the ground and getting her outfit dirty.
He tried to pry her off of him, but she was stuck fast. Her many hours of grapple training with Uraraka had made her a fierce opponent, and a particularly tenacious hugger when she chose.
“Thanks for coming out here, even though you were so tired. It really means a lot,” she said softly.
“Of course,” he replied, gripping her even tighter, “And thank you for making me come. I think the fresh air is helping a lot.”
“I’m glad,” she replied, finally releasing him and stepping back, “Now let’s hit the water! I’ve been waiting all week for this!”
In one quick motion, she zipped open her jacket and let it fall to the ground. As it did, so too did Izuku’s jaw. He’d seen Mina in plenty of outfits, including in her school swimsuit before, but this was entirely different.
Underneath the jacket was a ruffled turquoise bikini that left very little to the imagination. It accentuated both her feminine curves, and the extremely impressive set of muscles she had been developing during her time at UA.
“Soooo,” she prompted, reminding him that he needed to respond, and not just stare, “What do you think?”
“I, uh… you… pretty,” Izuku said eloquently.
“Not exactly what I was hoping for,” she said, giggling slightly at his reaction, “But I’ll take it. Now come on!”
With that, she grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the ocean, jacket and bag entirely forgotten in her enthusiasm.
“Honestly,” Yaoyorozu chastised, “how could the two of you forget to put on sunscreen?”
Izuku shrugged sheepishly, then winced as the motion irritated the massive sunburn that now covered his face, neck, and most of his limbs. His torso had, thankfully, been spared the same fate thanks to his swimsuit and shirt, but he was still miserable.
Although not nearly so much as Mina. She was sprawled out on the couch, doing her best not to move while she waited for Yaoyorozu to produce some ointment to help relieve her pain. Every bit of her normally bright pink skin was burned a deep lilac, as though she were experiencing a full body blush. It was quite the sight to behold, though it made Izuku feel terrible, since he was mostly to blame for her current predicament. He was supposed to be the responsible one, after all.
“We had more important things on our minds,” Mina pouted, “Like playing with the fish. And watching dolphins!”
“And was that worth getting burned?” Yaoyorozu asked.
The muttered “Maybe,” was almost inaudible, but caused the taller girl to chuckle..
“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed yourselves at least. And you’re in luck. I happen to know how to make a very effective ointment for treating sunburns.”
As she spoke, the familiar sparkling light of her Quirk bloomed in her palm. A moment later, it formed into a bottle with an image of a spiny, cactus-like plant on the front that Izuku assumed was the aforementioned substitute.
“Apply some of that now to wherever hurts, then apply another layer tomorrow morning. If you do, you should be back to full health by the end of the day.”
“You’re a saint Yaomomo!” Mina said, reaching for the bottle, only to wince in pain and fall back as the motion irritated her already sensitive skin.
“You’re welcome, Ashido,” Yaoyorozu said, “I hope you feel better soon. You as well, Midoriya.”
With a graceful nod to them both, she placed the bottle of ointment on the coffee table near Mina and strode out of the room.
Izuku wished there was some easy way to thank her for her help. With anyone else, he would give them a gift of some sort, but Yaoyorozu could simply make or buy anything he could get her. It was a real shame too. She helped the entire class out all the time, and it would have been nice to finally give something back.
Before he could finish that thought, however, Mina’s voice interrupted him.
“Izukuuuuu,” she whined, “I can’t reach it...”
He turned to find Mina waving her arms vainly at the bottle of ointment, which was just out of easy reach. She could probably have grabbed it, if she were willing to sit up and move a little, but Izuku didn’t see that happening anytime soon. Instead, he stepped over and scooted the bottle a scant few inches so that she could finally grab it.
She had other plans, though. Instead of picking up the bottle, she looked up at him piteously.
“I can’t put this on myself. Will you do it for me?”
He spluttered, both in surprise and at the idea of it.
“M-Mina, I can’t. T-This is the common room! Anyone could walk in!”
“Everyone’s already in bed, or watching T.V. in their rooms or something,” she said dismissively, “Besides, I’m dying here, and it will only take a minute.”
He wavered. As much as the idea of basically giving her a full rub-down in the middle of the common room sounded like an exercise in anxiety and embarrassment, he knew that she really was feeling miserable, and it would be difficult for her to relieve it on her own.
“I… O-okay. But just until you feel good enough to walk, okay?” Izuku said.
She hummed in agreement, then stuck one of her legs out for him to start with, hissing slightly in pain as she did so. That hiss, more than anything, set his resolve to help her out. He pulled a chair over to the couch so that he could sit while he worked, and so that she wouldn’t have to hold her leg up the entire time.
He worked as quickly and efficiently as he could, doing his best to think about anything other than the fact that he was running his hands up and down her legs while she sighed repeatedly in contentment. She didn’t make it easy, though, especially since she refused to engage him in any conversation that would have drowned out her exhalations.
He breathed out his own sigh of relief when he was finally done applying the ointment, only for her to pull her legs back, flip over to lie on her stomach, and proceed to hike up her shirt to expose nearly her entire back.
“Do my back too,” she commanded.
“But what if someone comes in?”
“Then they’ll see that I got a big sunburn, and that you treat me like a queen. Who cares? Now, get to massaging mister!”
With a quick glance around, and a silent prayer that he wouldn’t faint mid-application, Izuku set to work.
The sounds Mina was making were even worse now, making Izuku absolutely certain that she was doing it intentionally to tease him. Her strategy was working too. His already warm cheeks were absolutely burning, and he had to concentrate hard to keep his eyes from straying into dangerous territory. Even going over increasingly difficult math problems in his head didn’t work as well as it normally did, so he hurried through the task as quickly as he could.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough.
“What’s going on in here?” Kaminari said, sauntering into the room. He looked quite a bit more refreshed than he had that afternoon, thanks to a day of rest, and ready for a bit of friendly ribbing.
On the other hand, Mineta, who had entered at the same time as Kaminari, looked like he had just seen a ghost. His face was pale, and his mouth agape. If it weren’t for the fact that he kept looking back and forth between Izuku and Mina, Izuku would have been tempted to check behind him to see if there really was a ghost.
“Izuku is being a gentleman and helping with my sunburn,” Mina replied, “Or he was before you two barged in and interrupted us.”
“Hey, we were just grabbing snacks,” Kaminari said, holding up a packet of chips to prove his point, “Not our fault you two were getting busy in the common room.”
“Kami, you’re so lucky I can’t get up right now, or I would absolutely give you the acid treatment again,” Mina said, shooting him a withering look.
“Whoa, hostile!” Kaminari said, backing away slowly with his hands up, “Think I’m gonna get while the gettin's good. Have fun you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
“Kami, I swear to god!”
Laughing, he exited the room, dragging a still gaping Mineta along behind him.
Once they were gone, Mina smacked her forehead into the couch with a dull ‘thwap’, and let out a long sigh.
“Sorry Izuku,” she said, once she had finished expressing her exasperation with her friend.
“I-it’s not your fault,” he replied, trying to keep his voice steady, and failing utterly.
Mina might be used to such ribbing from her friends, but Izuku was most assuredly not. His heart was beating a mile a minute, and he mostly wanted to phase through the floor and never come out again at that point.
Then, despite how much it must have hurt her, Mina hauled herself up to sit cross legged in front of him, and took Izuku’s hands in hers.
“Maybe it’s not, but I’m still sorry. I know you don’t like getting teased about that stuff. I’ll tell Kaminari to lay off the next time I see him.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Izuku said, not wanting to damage her friendship with Kaminari.
“No, but I want to. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, and I know Kaminari doesn’t either. If we’re gonna tease you, we want you to all be able to laugh about it later. And if you ever do feel uncomfortable about anything we tease you about, just tell us and we’ll back off. Remember, we’re your friends first and foremost, and we care about you.”
Izuku ducked his head, unable to look her in the eye after words like that.
“I, uh, th-thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Izuku,” Mina said, leaning forward to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. It stung more than anything, but Izuku still appreciated the gesture.
Although, he wasn’t sure if he needed it. Being teased about Mina and him… being intimate was embarrassing, of course, but he could handle it. After all, he’d endured plenty of teasing throughout his life, almost all of it from people who meant to bring him down, to make him feel small. Kaminari’s words didn’t do that. If anything, they made him feel at home, like he really belonged in the class.
“B-but you don’t need to tell Kaminari anything. I don’t mind it,” Izuku said.
“You sure?”
He nodded his agreement, and a soft smile blossomed across her face.
“I’m proud of you, Izuku. And don’t worry. I’ll teach you plenty of comebacks, so Kaminari won’t even know what hit him.”
Somehow Izuku doubted that he would ever reach that level, but if it made Mina happy, then he would try.
“But before that…” Mina said, stretching back out on the couch while she grinned wickedly, “How about you finish fixing me up, and we go get some dinner?”
It wasn’t exactly the peaceful evening filled with relaxation that he had hoped for during their many hours of training, but Izuku had long ago made peace with the fact that Mina was going to make his life much more lively than it otherwise would have been. It led to a lot of awkward and ridiculous situations, but Izuku wouldn’t trade his relationship with her for the world.
“That sounds… nice,” Izuku said.
“You're the best Izuku! I love you!"
"I love you too, Mina," he replied with a wide smile.