Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started right after the Final Exams – Uraraka-chan is acting up around Izuku: blushing every second, stuttering her words every now and then... All the signs for an impending teenager crush. 

“What do you think Toshi?” 

The Vestige rubs his cheeks, something he always did when he was embarrassed, almost always when the subject of relationships was brought up. And Nana, being the Mother Bear that she was, stopped Morita from going any further. 

“Leave the kid alone. If he doesn’t want to talk, he doesn’t need to. Besides, don’t we have anything better to do than playing matchmaking?”. 

“Awwn come on Nana! We are bored.” 

This time Ichigo raised an eyebrow. 

“And your best idea to pass the time is to try to get a date to Izuku? Really?” 

“I mean...” 

“Look. I know that they are at that age, but I think Uraraka-san deserves to be more than just a potential love interest. She is a hero in the making, has a great fighting drive, and deserves our respect. So, let’s drop it.”. 

(They do.). 

(Until the fateful meeting with Melissa Shield.). 

(Both Morita and En screamed at the top of their lungs like two maniacs that had won the lottery.) 

* 

The next time they are in the void, there is a whiteboard with the name ‘potential love interests’  there with the names of Izuku, Melissa, Uraraka, and others. Including... 

“Why. The. Fuck. Is. His. Name. There? ” 

(“Also, since when can he materialize stuff here? C-could we always do that?”) 

“Oh, come on, there is some tension going on there.”.

(“Dude, someone answers me!”) 

“Of course, there is some tension! Bakugou suicide baited Izuku, what the hell is his name doing on that board?!” 

(“Screw you guys, I want some food! Hikage, help me summon some fried chicken!”) 

“Honey. We’ve been inside Izuku’s head for 14 years. It’s not like we can deny anymore. I don’t like it, you don’t like it. But Izuku feels something and we promised to help him with everything we can.”. 

(“Wait what? Fried chicken?”) 

(“Whatever dude! Just picture some food and focus!”) 

“At hero work!” 

“Name me one adult figure in his life that can help him with his love life. I dare you.” 

“But...!” 

(The rest of the holders are proposedly ignoring Banjo and Hikage in a meditation pose at the edge of the void while they are repeating their desired snack as a mantra.) 

“Because my brother is out. For fucks sake, when someone tried to flirt with me for the first time, Hisashi frame that kid so hard that he got expelled from school. To this day I don’t know the whole story, but I think there were some scandalous photos involved, and I am pretty sure even his family had to move to another city.”. 

“Yoichi!” 

“Inko is a saint of a woman, but her taste of man is questionable. Not her fault, but let’s not go there.”. 

“Yes, I know but...!” 

“And I don’t think any of his teachers are qualified for that. Except if you count Midnight but -” 

“THE FUCK WE ARE!” 

“Okay, so that’s settled. The two of us and Nana will help.” 

“Hey, what about us?” 

“I mean, considering that only the three of us had successful relationships with actual children... Sure, they were short, but they happen.” 

“ Rude .”. 

Ichigo is massaging his head, probably trying to accept that this will happen. Toshi claps his hands, a clear way to call for everyone's attention. 

“Respect limits. ”. 

“What...?” 

“ Respect. Izuku’s. Limits! ” 

“Oh Toshi, we won’t force him to do anything! If he is not ready to talk about it, we will wait. Things like these happen at their own time, and whatever his orientation is; we are here for him.”. 

For some reason, that seems to bring tears to the Vestige eyes, and everyone apologizes, thinking that they offend him somehow. 

(Except Nana, because a mother always knows.). 

And apparently, the food mantra worked, to the joy of everyone. 

* 

They all choose to star with Uraraka-chan. She is the most obvious choice by far. Izuku doesn’t mind spending time with her, either being with studying sections or with training. The girl is still a blushing mess around Izuku, so much that he thinks that she should go to Recovery Girl. 

When Izuku brought his concerns to his mentors, both Morita’s and En’s eyes shine for a moment. 

“Oh, my sweet, sweet Padawan. My summer child.”. 

Izuku is looking at both Holders like they are having a stroke. En puts his hand on Izuku’s shoulder, leaning closer to him. 

“Maybe she is just overwhelmed with the studies. God knows I was when I at your kid's age! Do you know what helped me?”. 

“... Going to cat cafés?”

“Going to cat caf-. I am not that predictable,  thank you. But yeah. It’s perfect! You get to eat some cake, pet some cats and relax on fluffy pillows!” 

It does sound promising in Midoriya’s eyes. 

“But... Uraraka-san is always struggling with money...” 

“And that is why you are going to be a gentleman and pay for her stuff!”. 

That also makes a lot of sense. Friends often paid for each other stuff, right? It wasn’t weird? With that in mind, he picks up his phone and texted his friend and ask when she could go with him to a cat café, and went to sleep. 

* 

He woke up with a cold sweat a few hours later, almost jumping on his bed. He grabbed his phone and open his texts and confirm what he suspected. 

He did ask Uraraka to go with him to a cat café. 

But not on a private channel. Instead, he accidentally sends that text to the class 1-A group chat. Thankfully, it was the one without Mineta. Mina was the most enthusiastic one, practically planning everything steps by step, comparing places and prices; thinking about everything. Both Momo and Iida thought that it was a great class socializing exercise. 

With each and every message, Izuku’s blush intensified, and that didn’t make sense. Why is he blushing?! It’s just two good friends going out to forget about the stress of school life, why is he so nervous about the whole class going now? The more the merry right? 

Right??  

Chapter Text

Izuku’s eyes are the size of a dinner plate right now for some reason – heck, he jumped out of his bed, hand gripped the cell phone even harder. Even Nana and Banjo hurried up by the kid side, both speaking at the same time, in a speed that Ichigo can’t keep up. 

“Oh no no no no no no no no no…!”

“Shiiiit. Crap, did anyone already saw that—Aw fuck! The bubble-gum girl and Ultraviolet?!”  

“And they are already flooded the chat with so many messages?!” 

“WHAT DO I DO?!”  

“DELETE IT!”  

“IT’S CLEARLY TOO LATE FOR THAT!”

“Besides, this is Ashido-chan we are talking about. She took at least 10 screenshots already.”.  

It’s like they are talking in another damn language while drunk on cheap beer. So, he looked at Hoshizu and asked what happen. 

“He sent the text to the wrong group.” 

“And why is that bad?”. 

“Think it as… ‘The Enemy managed to decode our crypt messages’ level of bad.”. 

Ouch.  

“And why were they talking about deleting the text?”. 

“Apparently you can do that now. In that little app of messages.”. 

“Really? Wow, kid’s these days have it way too easy.”.

They do. And yes, he sounds like an old man when he says this, but it’s true. They have apps for everything, their cell phones and TV are way too thin and portable… Back in his days, all they had was dial-up internet and short-wave radio for communication, mostly for safety reasons. Cell phones were accessories to cars back then, and you had to be freaking rich to have one of those.

Thank God, on-line shopping wasn’t possible back then, because that is both a blessing and a curse. His mother, may she rest in peace, would be a hoarder of the most random and useless shit. 

But enough was enough, because now Ichigo needs to bring the big guns: his so-called “Leader Voice. ”. 

“Izuku. Here is what you are going to do. Open a conversation with Uraraka-san and explain the situation: write a small text to her, carefully; let me and Yoichi see it before you send it. Tell her that you meant to send her an invitation, to take her out to a cat café.” 

His poor nephew is blushing up a storm and ended up rewriting the same little text at least six times, but they finally came up with something that both Yoichi and Nana deemed good enough. 

“Make sure it’s the right chat.”.

“Yes.” 

“Did you send it?” 

“Y-yes.” 

“Okay then. Let’s wait for an answ-, Whoa, she is already typing.” 

Indeed, she was.

That little bubble with three dots took its sweet time to vanish and to Toes Bean answer finally come up, but it was worth it:

Oh! Thanks, Deku, that’s very sweet!!! (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

Don’t mind Mina, she is just a meanie and likes to tease as usual! (`ε´) 

I’m looking forward to Saturday!  

… 

“I'm sorry, but are we all ignoring the phrase Tease as usual? What is there to tease Toe Beans? Huh? Tell us your secret's kiddo!”

As soon as En said that, Izuku choked, mutter nope and threw his phone across the room.

Chapter Text

As soon as Izuku steps out of his room, Nana suggested that maybe he should change into something better. 

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” 

Yoichi-san looks him up and down, a frown on his face. 

「 Oh, nothing, nothing! It’s just...! 」 

「 You are not going on a date using a T-shirt that has the word ‘T-shirt’ on it. The shoes, we can accept. It’s part of you by now. But the combo of T-shirt and a khaki shorts? No. 」 

He blushed down to his neck. 

“It’s not a date!” 

They groan at his response, mostly because he repeated that phrase repeatedly, enough to make them tired of hearing it. 

「 Okay Izuku. Then humour us. If you were to take someone on a date, what would you do? 」 

“I... I would go to them in the amusement park! An-and we would hold hands and share crepes!” 

The past holders share one of those secret looks among themselves, holding a silent conversation as they do so. It is one of their looks that Izuku hasn’t managed to figure out yet but is determined to do so. 

「 Fine. It counts. Still, the clothes need to go. 」 

「 If you don’t believe us, go ask your mother. 」 

“Fine. I will.”. 

His mom was washing the dishes and nearly dropped one when she looked at him. 

「 Yeesh. 」 

That means nothing! Maybe it just slipped out of her hand!  

He asks what she thinks about his outfit. 

“Oh. It... It is certainly something!” 

「 Double yeesh. 」 

Still means nothing.  

She put the plate down and dry her hands. 

“L-let me help you. I’m sure we can find something better.” 

「 Triple yeesh! 」 

Okay, that one stings.  

*

There are at least 12 cats lurking around him, all of which keep staring at him. Just... Just staring right into his soul. Well, not his perse... Just to all the other seven souls walking around him. At the very least Izuku can confirm with extreme certainty that animals can in fact see ghosts, all the non-believers can suck a lemon.

He senses the amusement of Yoichi-san and just like magic he appears by Izuku's side, a smile on his face. 

「 ' All the non-believers can suck a lemon'. That’s adorable.」 

Have you ever been tricked into sucking a lemon?  

「Sadly for both of us, yes, I have! An extremally sour one. 」 

Your brother?  

「Nah, it was a bully. But nii-chan did beat the crap out of him when he found out. 」 

… Sometimes I really want to know more about your childhood, but I am constantly afraid of what I can find out.  

The older man shrugs his shoulders, but no one could deny the uncomfortable expression on his face. As soon as it came, it was gone. The man leapt into a dramatic pose and started speaking in a very poor English accent. 

「 Nevertheless, I digress. The lemon! The terrible punishment for the non-believers! The one that leaves a bad taste in your mouth for weeks! 」 

Yeah, one of those.  

He doesn’t know why that lifted his humour. It’s something that only Yoichi-san can do: the other holders could comfort him and advise him on all different ways of life, but only Yoichi-san could make him laugh. 

Looking around, he saw some of his classmates already trying to decide what to order: Iida and Yaoyorozu were comparing and weighing the benefices of the size/price of the food and drink in question... Without knowing that by their side, Morita-san and Shimura-san are drooling over the patisserie on display on the menu, lamenting once again that they can’t eat anything. 

Saito –san, however, is looking at the same menu as if it had personally offended him. 

What’s wrong?  

「... Why are there so many types of milk? Rice milk? Almond milk, sesame, sunflower, nuts ?! I understand goat milk but when did that happen? WHAT DOES “VEGAN” MEANS AND WHY IS THAT SO IMPORTANT?!」 

Huh...  

「And why is everyone being so obsessed with gluten?! Last time I know, that was a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and triticale! So why do they insist on stamping the phrase “gluten-free” on EVERY DRINK?!」 

En-san just told Izuku not to worry. 

「Is just one of his "old people ramble". Remember when he found out about smartwatches? 」 

Looking down, he saw the Sixth Holder sprawled on the floor, with at least five cats on top of him, all of them quite content to be sharing that spot, all purring at the max volume, and that is the most content Izuku has to ever remember seining him. 

Are you okay there?  

The man smiled. 

「 Oh kiddo, let me tell you: this is life. I love this. I am zen. I am in the zone. I am one with the universe. I have achieved enlightenment and my soul is ascending to a higher planer of existence... You guys go on, I’m living here from now on. 」 

「 Motherfucker, I know you are not ditching our little Mochi for some cats. 」

Before En-san and Banjo-san could go on, the rest of his classmates arrived. Ashido and Hagakure were leading the group, which consisted of practically every one of class 1 – A, except for Kacchan. 

“Hey, guys!!” 

Just like that, their booth (yes, they rented a booth!) became drowned in a cacophony of excited voices, some of them chatting about their day, others cooing about the cats... And Iida-kun trying to organise the chaos. 

Todoroki-kun zoomed in to his side. 

“Midoriya.”. 

“Oh, hi Sh- Todoroki-kun.”. 

Ugh. He still didn’t like calling his friend that. Was his family name, sure! But every time he called the other boy by his father's surname, it felt wrong. Not only that, but he could also tell that his classmate was uncomfortable with his constables' slips. Why else would he keep blushing? 

「Oh, honey... No, no.」 

What?  

Before Nana-san could explain, Ashido-chan pushed Uraraka and made her sit by Izuku's side, giggled and blinked before leaving her there, her entire face red as a tomato. 

“Thank me later! ~ ” 

The past holders looked at the scene intrigued, heck, even Toshi looked somehow alarmed. 

What is it with you guys?  

「 Oh, nothing, nothing. 」

Morita-san whispers something to Saito-san, in Korean. Luckily, he was taking lessons in Duolingo and managed to catch some words. 

Why are you betting in favour of Ochako-chan?  

The Third Holder looked alarmed.

「... 좆됐어. 」 

Nana-san hits him. 

Was that a curse word?  

「 Don’t worry about it. 」 

Can you teach me?  

Seven voices answer him at once, denying him the pleasure of becoming a polyglot. 

... What if I say it was to mess up with Kacchan?  

「 Nice try. 」 

Some of the cats that were staring at Izuku decided to snuggle Todoroki-kun, especially on his left side – which really makes sense, considering it was probably warmer than other bodies. 

A waitress came and asked about their orders. Ilda-kun, apparently anticipated his friend's chaotic energy, was prepared for this and asked in advance, took note of everything that each classmate wanted and handed it to her. 

“I do apologize if my actions seem rude, miss! I simply wanted to make things easier for the staff!” 

The waitress in question blushed and smiled. 

“Oh no! Not at all! Thank you, it helps a lot. We will get started right away!” 

“Thank you.” 

Nana-san had tears in her eyes. 

「 As someone who worked in the service industry as a teenager, this is touching. 」 

… Really?  

「 She didn’t even have her “ I don’t get paid enough for this ” smile on! That one was genuine! Do you know how hard that is? 」 

...No?  

「 IT’S HARD OKAY! 」

He zones out and decides to pay attention to his friends. The waitresses arrived with the drinks and said that the rest of the order would come shortly. Meanwhile, both Ashido-chan and Hagakure-chan were asking random questions to each other, like what their favourite colour was or their favourite food. Iida liked beef stew, but he tends to drink a lot of orange juice thanks to his quirk (it acted as a sort of fuel.). Kirishima just liked meat. When asked what kind, he simply said that if it was meat, it was fair game. 

Izuku took a sip of his drink... 

“What about you Uraraka?” 

“I really like Japanese food, especially Mochi.”. 

… and almost choked Izuku barely managed to hide his surprise. What were the odds? 

I hope no one noticed that...  

“Midoriya?” 

Crap.  

Toshi-kun told him to mind his language. 

“Sorry, sorry. Is just... Hum...”. 

「 Go on Casanova. 」 

“That was my childhood nickname! My mom used to call me her little Mochi .”. 

Uraraka blushed even harder. 

“R-really?”

“Yeah. B-because of my hair. It’s white and fluffy so...” 

Most of the Holders are holding their laughter. 

“Awwnn.” 

“That’s so cute!”

Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin when Todoroki started petting his hair. 

“T-todo-!” 

“Hm. Your mother is right.” 

“W-what?” 

He just keeps touching his hair, like Izuku was a cat. 

“... Is very fluffy.” 

「 Damn, he is bold. 」 

「… Maybe he’s just dense? 」 

Again, what are you guys talking about?

「 Oh, nothing, nothing. 」