Work Text:
Most people loved to compare Tooru with her best friend Mina. Both of them had loud and bubbly personalities, both loved to socialize and be the center of attention, and both wouldn’t stand for injustice. There were plenty of differences between the two, however, ones that quickly set them apart in very key ways.
Most notably was the fact that Mina was a morning person. She could wake up, roll out of bed, and immediately set off to a party. Tooru, on the other hand, could only trudge down the stairs carefully and make a beeline for the coffee machine.
It certainly didn’t help that Tooru needed to be treated by Recovery Girl after an accident during the rescue exercise the previous day.
Tooru didn’t wake up on Sunday until the afternoon, well after her other classmates had already left to enjoy the day off. More importantly, it was also well after the coffee machine had already been cleaned and put away. Despite this, Tooru still made her way down the stairs to finally face what remained of the day.
Once she reached the ground floor, her feet automatically shuffled toward the kitchen area. There might be something in the fridge that would wake her up…
Or she could slam her toe directly into the island counter. That would do the trick too.
Tooru yelped in pain and did her best to stifle the curse that so desperately wanted to escape her mouth. Curses were reserved for very special moments, like shattering her arm or being left for dead, not merely stubbing her toe.
It was then that she noticed that her ragged breathing was the loudest sound in the room. With pain sobering her tired mind, Tooru distracted herself by looking around the ground floor. The only people she could see were Kouda, who was sitting at a dining room table with a bunch of textbooks in front of him, and Shouji, who had approached Tooru with a concerned look while she rode out the pain from her toe.
“Don’t worry, Shouji—!” Tooru started in an upbeat tone, only to fall silent when Shouji held a single index finger up to his mask.
Normally, Shouji didn’t care to stifle Tooru’s bubbliness, hardly ever telling her to quiet down unless she was being too loud even for herself. If he wanted her to be as silent as the rest of the room, surely there had to be a reason. Tooru tilted her upper body slightly to the left, the best approximation of a confused head tilt her quirk would allow.
Judging by the crinkle just underneath his eyes, Shouji smiled at Tooru. He raised one of his hands and swiftly morphed it into a mouth before speaking through it in a hushed tone. “Sorry about that, Hagakure. Midoriya is asleep on the couch, and we didn’t want to wake him up too early.”
Tooru’s brain took a second to reboot. Midori… asleep? Now? In the common room? She looked past Shouji’s massive form, her eyes automatically searching for a familiar mop of forest green. He was usually another morning person, much like Mina, and Tooru could have sworn he already had plans with Ochako.
“He said he had iced coffee for you, and wanted to wait until you woke up,” Shouji continued, piling more confusion onto Tooru’s questions.
“He got me a coffee?” Tooru whispered. In the back of her mind, she wondered what flavor bought for her. Hopefully caramel. “I… probably should thank him for that.”
Shouji nodded and quietly padded back to the table he and Kouda were studying at.
She knew she should check the fridge for Midori’s gift, but Tooru didn’t take a single step into the kitchen area. Her feet instead carried her closer and closer to the common room, her footsteps dead silent through years of stealth practice. She searched the couches again and again as she approached until—
There.
Midoriya was lying on the couch, as Shouji had said, with his head right in Tooru’s favorite seat. He was dressed very casually, simple men’s pants and a white t-shirt he had written ‘Mesh Shirt’ on. Tooru didn’t even try to stop herself from wiggling subtly upon noticing the silly t-shirt. Sure, Mina was right when she said it was a horrible fashion choice, but the invisible heroine always secretly thought they were adorable.
She lowered herself into a crouch next to Midoriya’s head, allowing her eyes to wander across his face. Tooru knew she was staring, very creepily at that, but… she had never seen Midori so at peace before. His face was relaxed while he slept, not a hint of tension in his brows or his jaw. His mouth was parted ever so slightly as he breathed, hardly making a sound even with how close Tooru was. The gentle rise and fall of his admittedly broad chest betrayed how even his breathing was, completely free from all the stresses in his life.
Tooru sighed silently. She had seen how much anxiety he carried every single day. If someone watched Midori as well as she had, he was an open book. He wore his heart on his sleeve and never shied away from his own emotions. Even when he tried to hide them from others, his wide emerald eyes, squishy cheeks dotted with freckles, and sharp jawline betrayed everything Tooru needed to know.
In hindsight, admitting she liked staring at Midori was probably way too creepy of a thought, but she couldn’t help it! Tooru was fascinated by how expressive he was, how easy it was to tell what he was feeling, and sometimes how easy it was to tell what he was thinking. She had a small guessing game with herself where she would try to guess what he would say if he spoke his thoughts out loud. Tooru was certain she would never get the real answers to her game, but it was a fun pastime to her.
Sometimes Tooru would wish he would do the same with her. Those wishes often just depressed Tooru, as her damn quirk made it so difficult to tell where her eyes even were, let alone to tell what expression she was making.
Her friends and classmates tried to make eye contact with her, same with the staff at UA, and she was thankful for every attempt! More often than not, though, they were off the mark, if only a little bit, clearly not seeing her. Their eyes would focus on where her nose was, or her brow; more commonly, their eyes would flicker and wander as they focused on something behind her that they thought was around the height of her eyes.
All except for Midoriya. When they had met at the beginning of the school year, he was like all the others, just barely off. Unlike everyone else, he shocked Tooru with how swiftly he managed to find where her eyes were, and still held the record for how long anyone has made true eye contact with her. Which was sort of ironic considering he didn’t like making eye contact with anyone at the beginning of the school year.
Internally, Tooru hummed as she thought about the anxious boy that was almost late for the first day of class. Every movement he had made back then was riddled with anxiety and fear. He jumped almost every time someone called out to him, often wearing a somewhat cute deer-in-the-headlights look. It was almost as if he was a stranger to his own skin, terrified that someone was going to finally realize he didn’t belong. Back then, he even made efforts to appear smaller, more unnoticeable. Not enough to be obvious about it, but past-Tooru had noticed anyway. She felt really bad for the guy and secretly wished he would be drawn in by her and come out of his shell a little.
As the year went on, Tooru was so happy to watch him grow up into a real powerhouse, in every sense of the word. His anxious interior had melted away into a compassionate, respectful, and confident personality that Tooru adored. Midoriya still had his moments when his confidence faltered and his stutter returned, usually when Tooru talked to him without his other friends around, but she didn’t blame him for that. Sometimes she felt the same way about him. Whenever started rambling about something he found interesting, usually quirks, Midori’s eyes shined like brilliant emeralds and his whole body almost seemed to vibrate with such passion that Tooru couldn’t help but want to vibrate along with him.
And that was only talking about his personality. Tooru’s eyes slid down from Midoriya’s sleeping face and traced the prominent scar found on his arm, and she felt her face heating up. Tooru never would have pegged the guy for a gym rat the first day of class, but she had never been happier to be proven wrong. He hid such an impressive muscular beneath his school uniform and Tooru had watched him deadlift countless objects with such ease, all without his quirk!
A part of Tooru wondered how easily Midori could pick her up. Would he need his quirk? Obviously not, but would he struggle with it? Could he lift her over his head? Could he lift her with just one arm?
She couldn’t help but pout as she barely remembered the one time he did pick her up: The day before, when she was hurt during the rescue exercise. Tooru remembered emerald light and her given name being called out, and the sensation of being held, but not much more. Bloodloss had made her too woozy to think, and she had passed out shortly afterward.
Tooru was told later by Recovery Girl that Midoriya was the one that saved her, and she distinctly remembered being upset about it. Not about being saved, but the fact that she couldn’t remember what his arms felt like.
The invisible woman realized she had been staring at Midoriya’s arms for a long time, longer than she ever had before.
Midoriya’s arms… She didn’t know what they felt like. But she could find out.
A heavy blush overtook Tooru’s face as she realized what she was thinking. She absolutely could feel them right now, and no one would know. Shouji and Kouda were busy with studying, and Tooru knew that the two quiet boys would prefer to head up to their rooms after they were finished.
Tooru stood up silently and held her breath. Her eyes flicked over to the dining area and found it empty. She was alone with Midoriya himself.
Screw it, Tooru thought and leaned over Midoriya. She planted her hand on the back of the couch to brace herself and lifted her leg to climb on top of him. The moment her leg touched his, she froze and watched his face carefully.
No movement. He was still asleep.
She proceeded carefully, slowly climbing on top of her sleeping classmate and lowering herself down onto Midoriya’s chest. It was far more solid than Tooru had originally thought, and Tooru felt herself melting against it. His heart was pounding a strong beat that was almost hypnotic, and Tooru realized she wanted to hear it as often as she possibly could.
It took a few minutes to find a comfortable position, but she finally settled on top of Midoriya, her legs tucked between his own and her head resting against his chest. She allowed her eyes to slip closed and merely listened to his heartbeat for a few minutes.
He was so warm, so comfortable, and Tooru finally remembered what it felt like to be in his arms. She remembered her final thought before she passed out: Izuku saved me. I’m safe.
I’m safe, Tooru repeated in her head as exhaustion pulled at her once again. As long as she was in Izuku’s arms, she knew she always would be. Sleep claimed her once again, and this time she knew she would wake up again. Perhaps later in the evening, Tooru would thank Izuku for being in her life.
(Later, a picture circulated through the class’s group chat. It depicted Tooru laying on top of Izuku, and his hand rested in her hair as the two napped together. Tooru saved it to her phone and wondered if Izuku had done the same.)