Work Text:
Izuku kinda has a thing about favorites.
Izuku has had a lot of favorites in his life, okay? Favorite heroes, favorite documentaries, favorite shoes, favorite foods, favorite places, favorite memories… And okay, lots of people have favorite things, but Izuku is maybe a little… intense about it.
His mom says that it’s because he has a big heart and that he just has a lot of love to give to the world.
It kinda makes sense, he supposes, but only when he’s feeling particularly generous with himself. Usually, having all of these favorites kinda stresses him out.
Like now.
“Dekuuuuuu!”
All of the girls and Aoyama were sprawled out on the common room floor, paints and glitter and construction paper spread out around them in a chaotic circle. Izuku had no idea what they were working on. When they get like this, he always gets a little scared to be honest. The first time it happened, months ago, his naivety ended up getting him covered in glitter that still lingers in his room to this day.
“Y-yeah?” He stays where he is, safe from the glitter next to Todoroki on the couch.
“What’s your favorite color?”
Shit.
“U-um, my favorite?” Izuku stutters out, and he silently burrows deeper into the couch, as if it could hide him from the girls’ inquisitive eyes.
“Uh, yeah, Deku,” Uraraka laughs, looking at him like he grew a second head. Or like he was avoiding answering a simple question about his favorite color. “Your favorite.”
“O-oh, yeah, sure, my favorite color- yeah, um…” Izuku knew that the more he mumbled and avoided the question, the worse he was making it for himself, but they just didn’t get it.
This was a serious question for him, okay!?
“Deku, you’re being weird again,” Uraraka says kindly. The others, even Todoroki, nod their heads in empathetic agreement, and Izuku tries even harder to be one with the couch. Why couldn’t invisibility be one of OFA’s quirks?
“Well, do you mean my favorite color right now? Or the favorite that was the favorite for the longest consecutive time? Or the favorite that I go back to most often even though it’s not my favorite right now?”
“Uh, Deku-”
“B-because they’re all important! And picking one over the other is going to take some thought, and it really depends on what you’re using the color for, you know? So some more context could be helpful-”
Todoroki grabs his shoulder gently, stopping Izuku’s rambling. He smiles at Izuku, and asks, “Do you want to tell us about all of them then?”
Izuku’s face flames.
---
When he was five, his favorite color was red. If anyone had asked, he would have explained that it wasn’t the firetruck red that people assumed it was, or even the red of All Might’s costume like his mom had thought.
Instead, it was the ruby red of his best friend’s eyes.
It was the bright, shiny red that Kacchan’s eyes turned into when he was excited, when he was leading their little gaggle of friends into a new adventure, when he and Izuku curled up together to watch All Might’s latest rescue.
It was a red that made Izuku’s heart beat fast. A red that pushed him, that challenged him, that inspired him.
It was a red that made him sad sometimes, but he didn’t mind that too much.
It was his favorite, and he couldn’t help but love it with his whole heart.
—
“So red then?” Uraraka asks. She splays out a multitude of red markers of varying shades for Izuku to look through. “Does one of these work?”
“Um… that one,” Izuku points to the deep red, the closest to Kacchan’s eyes that a marker could get. “B-but there’s more…”
“I know!” She chirps back, setting the marker carefully to the side. “I just wanna keep track of them all.”
—
When he was around 11, and uh, puberty happened… Well, then his favorite color was blue. A very specific shade of blue that matched the specific eye color of a very specific favorite hero of his.
That maybe showed up in some specific dreams of his at the time.
But not any more, okay!?
Because he knows All Might now, and he respects him way too much to think of him like that, and honestly, he’s kinda more like a dad now and that would be super weird and even thinking about it now is so cringey and-
—
Izuku leans down and grabs the blue in mind, shoving it in Uraraka’s hands before she can ask.
—
When he was 15, his favorite color was pink, which was a little embarrassing.
Not that boys can’t like pink!
But he already had a lot working against him, and he didn’t want that adding fuel to the fire. So he kept that favorite mostly to himself.
He couldn’t help it! It just hit him, that first day at U.A. and seeing the full power of Uraraka’s sweet smile directed fully at him. He didn’t know at the time that her cheeks were always a pretty shade of the color, but all of the variations just made them all the more special.
But the pink flush that comes over her cheeks when she’s bent over laughing, ugly and uncontrolled, at something stupid him or Iida did is probably his favorite favorite.
It was just hard to resist a shade of pink so sweet that it made his teeth ache. But Uraraka is just like that - sweet and kind and funny and generous, and gosh, just the best friend he’s ever had. Honestly, he doesn’t know what he would do without her now, and he just-
—
He lets himself fall to the floor in a heap next to Uraraka, which sends her into a fit of giggles. The sound of it makes Izuku smile, and some of the pressure of the embarrassed anxiety digging its fingers into him lessens.
“You’re the best, Uraraka,” he sighs out, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing tightly, which just sends her into another fit of hiccuping giggles.
“So is this pink dedicated to her then?” Momo asks, smiling fondly at the two of them.
“Mmhmm,” he hums, rubbing his cheek against her soft, strawberry scented hair as he nods.
Uraraka wiggles in his arms until she can wrap her own arms around him and says, “You’re so sappy, Deku.”
“I know,” he sniffles back, not even surprised that he’s starting to get misty eyed.
He just loves his friends so much, okay!?
“Oh wow.” Izuku startles as another voice suddenly joins the mix, and he turns to see Shinsou settling down on the couch next to Todoroki, a bowl of popcorn in hand. “What set him off this time?”
“I think it was the power of friendship,” Todoroki explains, and Shinsou lets out a delighted snort.
Izuku ducks his head as an embarrassed flush creeps up his neck. Not that he’s embarrassed about crying or about how much he loves his friends - he would never be embarrassed of that! He had just hoped that he could keep himself from looking lame in front of Shinsou for at least a day.
“Again?” Shinsou teases, and Izuku peeks up enough to see Shinsou smirking at him, all handsome and cool and gah. “I think that’s the third time this week.”
“Don’t listen to him, Deku,” Uraraka says reassuringly, patting kindly at his back. “Shinsou’s just jealous that he doesn’t have a favorite color dedicated to him.”
Izuku kinda wants to die, just a little, to spare himself any further embarrassment.
“What?” Shinsou gasps sarcastically, all mock offended. “And here I thought we had something special. I’m hurt, Midoriya.”
It’s just a joke, but Izuku’s thoughts short circuit into a embarrassed, desperate rush of I want something special I want somethingspecialiwantsomethingspecial-
Instead, he lets out a strained laugh that mixes with those of the others, and he tries to keep his eyes from straying to the exact shade of purple that matched the shade of Shinsou’s eyes that one time they stayed out too late training and had to walk back to the dorms together in the moonlight. They were both tired, but Izuku had said something that made Shinsou turn to him before sputtering out a surprised laugh.
In that brief moment, his eyes had caught the light of the moon so beautifully that Izuku knew, deep in his gut, that they were going to be a favorite color that lasted a long, long time.
But he is not going into that here, absolutely not.
Uraraka is leaning over Deku to stick out her tongue at Shinsou when Todorki asks, “Are there any others?”
“Huh?” Somehow, Uraraka’s elbow is going directly into his ear, and he’s barely keeping the two of them upright.
“Of your favorites,” Todoroki explains, immune to the chaos and easily ignoring Shinsou flipping Uraraka off. “Do you have any others?”
“Oh! Yeah, just a few more.” Izuku sits up, carefully setting Uraraka to the side so that he can grab the colors quickly and get this over with.
He grabs the turquoise that matches Todoroki’s left side. This one is a given, and he’s sure everyone in this room probably would have chosen it at some point this school year, and he refuses to feel ashamed about it. He still carefully avoids eye contact with Todoroki though.
Next is the deep navy of Iida’s hair because where would he be without Iida? Earnest and noble and strong and handsome and who has shiny, perfect hair that only people like Todoroki and Momo could rival.
Then he goes for the gold that matches the goggles always on Mei’s head because Mei is just Mei-
But before he can grab it, his eyes catch on that purple again.
He flicks his eyes over to Shinsou, who has pulled both his eyelids down to make a gruesome face at Uraraka.
His heart flutters in his chest.
He ducks his head and grits his teeth and grabs the two of them in one fell swoop. He drops them into the now sizable pile of favorites, and he despairs all over again.
It’s not his fault that his school is full of amazing and attractive people, okay?
“Is that all of them then?” Momo asks, quietly sorting them into a neat line.
“I mean, basically,” Izuku hedges. “At least, those are the ones off the top of my head.”
He could fill a whole room with his favorites. He could probably fill the whole school with his favorites, but nobody has time for that. Besides, these are the most important ones, and he basically has his heart bared to the room.
“So which one is your favorite favorite?” Shinsou asks.
Izuku isn’t the only one who lets out a groan at the question.
—
Izuku really doesn’t mind these types of events, where it’s just fans coming up to ask questions. Usually, they aren’t too invasive, and they don’t pressure him like a lot of the usual reporters do.
Plus, he feels a lot more comfortable having his husband at his side.
It’s the first fan event they’ve hosted since revealing their relationship, and they’ve already fielded most of the questions about how they met, when they started dating, who proposed to who…
Now they’re more focused on Hitoshi and his hero work, and Izuku feels fit to burst with pride for his husband.
“Oh, he’s just being humble,” Izuku laughs even as Hitoshi rolls his eyes. “He’s pulled off rescues that I never could. I mean, I know this is a given with every hero, but Hitoshi just knows how to use his quirk so well. He’s worked so hard to get where he is, and he can do such amazing things now. Honestly, I could-”
“You’re just biased,” Hitoshi interrupts with a huff, but Izuku can spot the mottled blush creeping up his neck. “Next question.”
This time, it’s a kid who steps up. He’s little, way too little to reach the microphone, so his dad scoops him up so that he can speak into it.
The kid leans forward in his dad’s arms so that he can grab the microphone fully with both hands. He pulls it up close to his mouth, and asks, very seriously, “Mr. Deku sir, what's your favorite color?”
The crowd laughs and coos at the kid even as Izuku’s insides seize up in panic.
“Oh, I can answer this one,” Hitoshi says with a zealous smirk. “Izuku has a lot of favorites, like an insane amount even for something simple like colors. But I’m your favorite favorite, aren’t I, babe?” Hitoshi laughs again, and Izuku buries his face in his hands in preparation for the incoming embarrassment. “What was it again? It’s the color my eyes look in the moonlight? Because I’m so devilishly handsome? It went something like that, didn’t it, Izuku?”
“It’s purple, thank you for your question. Next!”