Work Text:
They hadn’t been dating for long at this point, but Jirou could tell something was… off, or at least as off something could be with Izuku, given how much bullshit he got himself involved in, both in and out of school.
Normally, when surrounded by his friends, he acted laid back, cracking jokes with Ochako and Iida, jumping Momo with the excuse of “training”, or pissing off Bakugou anytime the two of them were in the same room. Either that, or he would make both subtle and not-so-subtle remarks towards her that would cause everyone in the class to laugh and her to blush while attempting to stab his eyes out. But today he seemed… reserved. Instead of entering the room and immediately attempting to draw someone’s attention towards him, he just walked through the door and sat at his seat. When he was approached by Ochako and Iida, both immediately noticing that something was wrong with him, he played it off, waving his hand with a smile that seemed just a little too wide, claiming that some kid had gotten lost on the way home, and as a hero-in-training it was his moral obligation to get the kid home safe. Given the random events that spring up around Izuku like wildfire, the two bought the excuse and took their own seats. Not long after, Aizawa had entered the room, drawing everyone’s attention away. A few minutes later, it was only Jirou, Momo, Ochako, Iida and Bakugou who noticed the thousand-yard stare Izuku was giving.
It was like everything around him had just… stopped mattering. He wasn’t paying attention to the lesson, shown by the fact that he hadn’t even lifted his pencil, and barely reacted to Kaminari tripping over his own feet when he got up to use the restroom.
He had tuned everyone else out and was off in his little world of thought, and anyone in the room who knew him well could tell that whatever he was thinking about wasn’t good.
A few hours later, when they were walking between Midnight’s and Present Mic’s classroom’s, Pony from class 1-B ran up to Izuku to ask if he could help her with her English homework after school. Again, he turned her down, claiming that he had to go to work after school. Jirou knew that was bullshit since Izuku only took the occasional odd-job, and that was mostly reserved for the weekend’s. Later, during lunch, Izuku had barely seemed to be paying attention to the conversation those around him were trying to have, and when anyone wanted to speak to him directly they had to kick him under the table. After lunch, Kirishima had tried to get a spar with Izuku since they had a free period that day before learning under All Might. Again, he was turned down.
Again, Izuku claimed he had claimed that something out of school had made him too tired to do any extra training.
And again, Jirou knew this was absolute bullshit. And when it came time for Heroics classes, Izuku was nowhere to be found.
As All Might scanned the assembled students before him, he quickly noticed that one of them was missing. Hard not to notice, since he had a head of green hair and would normally be taunting Bakugou by now. As subtle as a 222 centimeter giant could, All Might waved Jirou over.
“Young Jirou, where’s Young Midoriya? Class starts… well class starts now, ” whispered All Might.
She shook her head in exasperation, “I don’t know Old Man, he’s been acting off all day. He’s supposed to be your successor, right? Has he told you anything at all? Can’t you like… order him to ask for help or some shit?”
Normally, All Might would reprimand the young woman for cursing, but from the expression on her face he could tell now wasn’t the time to do so. He wasn’t exactly as close to Jirou as he was with Izuku, but in the short time that they had known each other and his secret had been revealed, he had been able to pick up on a few of her nervous ticks. For example, when she was annoyed, she tapped her foot repeatedly. When she was worried, she played with her jacks. When she wanted to leave the conversation and go do something else, she looked in any direction other than the person she was talking to.
She was doing all three, and after realizing this All Might let out a small sigh.
‘Aizawa’s going to be pissed…’
“Young Jirou.”
She didn’t make direct eye contact, but from the way her head rose a little he knew he had her attention.
“Do you know where he is?”
She looked up at All might for the first time during their short conversation.
“I… I think so, yes.”
He smiled down at her, “Then go after him. If anyone tries to ask where you’re going, just tell them I said you had an excuse to leave class for a moment. If you run into Aizawa… well, let’s hope it’s not him.”
Jirou laughed softly, “Thank you.”
And with that, she ran to the one place where Izuku went anytime he disappeared out of nowhere.
U.A. High School - Roof
Slowly, Jirou opened the roof access door. Looking around the open area, she saw Izuku laying on the roof towards the center. Not bothering to hide her presence, Jirou walked across the gravel covered roof and laid down next to her boyfriend.
“You know, this isn’t exactly the most comfortable place to be contemplating on… whatever it is you’re contemplating.”
Izuku let out a small laugh, “You get used to it eventually.”
For a moment they laid there in silence.
“Do you… do you want to talk about whatever’s going on,” she said, reaching over to grab Izuku’s hand on her own.
Izuku gripped Jirou’s hand as soon as his own entered her grasp, not tight enough to hurt her, but not weak either. He held onto her hand like it was a lifeline. It showed her that the fact that she was there right now, essentially skipping class for him… he was grateful.
“Nah. Not for a while at least. Can we just chill here for a moment, if you’re cool with that?”
“Yeah, I’m cool with that.”
And that’s what they did. For the next few hours they just laid on the roof, enjoying one another's company. At one point, Jirou got up to grab some food from a small convenience store on campus, and when she came back she realized Izuku was noticeably upset that she had left.
She apologized by giving him a small kiss on the cheek and cuddling up to him.
As the sun set and the voices of students and teachers slowly trailed off as the final bell rang, signaling for the students to return home for the day. After that, they heard the occasional voice of someone who stayed after school for a club or extra training, or the teacher’s who decided to stay for a few extra hours to grade a few more papers.
Eventually, it was just the two of them. Once the sun was just a sliver of light appearing just beyond the horizon, Izuku spoke up for the first time in hours.
Sighing, he freed himself from Jirou’s embrace and stood up, walking over to the edge of the roof and leaning over the small guardrail that helped to keep anyone up there from falling off.
Jirou got up to follow him, but stopped a few meters away from where he was standing once he started to speak.
“I’m sure you’re worried and wondering about why I’ve been acting so weird today. Don’t worry, I’m not upset, and I certainly don’t blame you. If you were acting all cagey and closed off I’d be suspicious as well. But to answer the question as to why I’ve been acting so distant the entire day… it's because I realized that your lives probably wouldn’t be any different if I was here or not.”
If Jirou was just listening before, then now he had her complete undivided attention.
“Izuku, what are you talking about, you-.”
He cut her off mid sentence, “I know what you’re about to say. ‘What are you talking about, you’re one of the most important people in our lives!’ In a way, you aren’t wrong. I’ve probably saved about a quarter of our classmates' lives by this point, literally and metaphorically. I’m your boyfriend, and everyday I wake up and remind myself of that, and every day it brings a smile to my face because it reminds me just how lucky I am to have someone like you around. I’m even All Might’s successor. I currently have the Quirk of the Number One Hero! We both know that almost anyone would kill to be in my position, to be declared worthy of such a thing.
“But I’ve been thinking… about how everything that’s happened since the day I met All Might in that tunnel… it’s all been luck, really. A fluke. I was barely able to grab onto his pants before he jumped away the first time, and only because of that pretty stupid decision was I able to learn his secret. Then, I just so happened to walk past the sludge villain after it escaped. I risked my life for someone who I have every right to hate, and somehow made out of it alive. And that in of itself was luck, since All Might was magically able to work against his time limit, pushing himself beyond his limit to save both mine and Kacchan’s lives. After that, he, for some reason, decided that my actions proved that I held the bravery and selflessness necessary to be his successor. He literally rebuilt my body from the ground up to prepare for the Entrance Exam.”
He took a moment to catch his breath.
“But what if I didn’t grab onto his pants? What if, after I was told I couldn’t be a hero, I stayed on that roof for a few more minutes? What if I took a different route home and never even encountered the sludge villain in the first place? I would go home, tell my mom I was fine, and go to my room to cry. I’d bury the feelings of doubt and self-loathing, hiding them from mom as they slowly built up inside of me. I’d graduate from Aldara, get into some shitty college since anywhere that’s worth a damn won’t accept Quirkless students. I’d graduate, only to work a dead-end office job from nine to five, day in, day out. I’d never advance in the company because I’m a quirkless nobody, and within five years I promise I’d be another name in the newspaper, written in small print to announce to the handful of people who actually care that I jumped off a roof. Woop-de-fucking-doo, am I right or am I right?”
Jirou couldn’t find any words, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to form a retort to Izuku’s argument, though now words came to form a proper sentence. She stopped trying to speak when Izuku let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
“If I never met All Might, I wouldn’t be here at U.A. I wouldn’t have met Ochako, Iida, Momo, you, or anyone else in the class. Have you ever thought about that, Jirou?
“What if you lived in a world where you didn’t exist? Not in a literal sense, as if you were never born, but in the sense that you never entered someone else’s life. Their world. They wouldn’t worry about you, or wonder where you had gone off to for the day, because to them, you don’t exist. Their life would keep moving on, the world would keep spinning. All Might would find a different person to be his successor. I bet Ochako and Iida would still be friends, only with Tsuyu filling in the third spot. It would take longer, but Momo would eventually break out of her reliance on melee and intern somewhere that actually benefited her, and you would probably find someone else to date. I remember that you and Kaminari had… something, before the two of us started to really get to know one another. Shoto would take way longer to get the stick out of his ass and use his fire, but I’m sure he’d be able to move past that after enough time passed.”
Izuku let out a long, tired sigh.
“At the end of the day, if I never entered U.A., all of your lives would most-!”
“Shut the fuck up, Izuku Midoriya! ”
Suddenly, Izuku was turned around face to face with his clearly angry, very upset and crying girlfriend.
“I get it! The fact that you got to be All Might’s successor was dumb luck, and if that never happened you’d never have been able to get into U.A.! But the fact that you actually made it into U.A.? That was all you, dumbass! How many people have a fancy Quirk and got all sorts of special training and failed the Entrance Exam!? I can’t give you an exact number but I bet you it was a fucking lot of people, okay! The fact that you were able to be here, right now, talking to me on this roof, is because you put in the effort to do so! You spent ten months training harder than you ever had in your entire life! You punched the 0-Pointer so hard, the damn thing blew up and was sent flying half a block! You figured out how to get past your problem of breaking bones! Admittedly, the first method was absolutely stupid and you still broke your fingers too many times for me to count, but it was a step in the right direction!”
Izuku opened his mouth to try and retort, but was quickly stopped by a hand that clapped over it, as well as the jack that was hovering dangerously close to his manhood.
“Don’t you say a damn thing until I’m done! You got past Bakugou and kicked his ass during our first Battle Trial. Certainly not in a literal way, but you proved him wrong. You proved that you were finally able to stand beside him without having to fear for your legs giving out beneath you. And all of that talk about none of our lives being any different if you never entered them? I’ve never heard someone talk so much and say almost nothing at all, other than to prove that they’re a dumbass. If it wasn’t for you, Ochako and Iida would most certainly not be friends. I mean seriously, they’re so different from one another the prospect of them even sitting next to each other and holding a conversation without you there to guide them along is difficult to imagine. And Tsu? Dude, she would have fucking died at USJ if you hadn’t distracted Shigaraki and his Nomu when you did. Momo and Todoroki have so many problems, both big and small and important in their own ways, and without you I promise that it would take a lot more time to get those two to grow up. Also, Iida and Todoroki would probably be dead if you hadn’t stepped into the fight with Stain when you did. Do you have any idea the toll that would take on the class? Hell, who knows if U.A. would even be allowed to stay open if two kids from some of the most prominent hero families died while on their internship? And me… the idea of me dating Kaminari is actually terrifying if I’m being honest.”
By now, Izuku was crying with Jirou, who was no longer close to her boyfriend to threaten him, but to envelop him into a bone-breaking hug, one that he accepted without complaint. However, that last comment elicited a small laugh from the both of them. A moment later, Jirou continued.
“Seriously though, the idea of me being with anyone else other than you… I don’t know if I can accept that, and I don’t think it would be the same. Kaminari’s a good guy and all, but he doesn’t really know when to take something seriously and when to act like the idiot he normally does. He’s fun to hang out with, but having him be the person that I confide with… I don’t think it would work out. I don’t know everything about him, but he doesn’t really seem like the guy to have a troubled past, you know? But you… you’ve struggled. You’ve gone through a lot of shit that is no doubt worse than whatever I’ve gone through, and because of that you’re able to offer me advice from a perspective no one else can. A peer who’s gone through some rough shit and is able to help other people around him so they don’t have to go through something similar on their own… like you had to.
“Izuku, if you only take one thing I’ve told you to heart, please make sure you understand that I love you more than anyone else on this Earth, and my life would be so much worse if you weren’t in it, even if I didn’t realize it.”
Stepping back, Jirou looked into her boyfriend’s eyes. Slowly, Izuku spoke.
“You… you are the coolest fucking girlfriend a guy could ask for, you know that right?”
She smiled, “Yeah, I know.”
Both smiling despite the tears that stained their faces, the two moved closer once again for a kiss. It wasn’t something that was rushed, or filled with the passion of two hormonal teenagers. It was slow, passionate in a way that instead showed just how much the two loved each other. They don’t know how long they stayed on that roof that night, and to be honest, they didn’t care.
They had each other, and that’s all that really mattered.