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One day, in the beautiful springtime, Midoriya Izuku was tasked with babysitting the girl he went through hell and back to rescue. Aizawa was introducing her to kids her own age, and the girl Eri got along with the most was a girl named Saki. Saki was over to play that day and Izuku was supposed to keep a watchful eye over the two of them. They were enjoying their tea party when Izuku’s phone rang with his All Might “I AM HERE” ringtone. It startled Saki-Chan who accidentally activated her quirk!
“DEKU-SAN!” Eri shouted in horror as he immediately fell asleep. Luckily, the person who was calling him was Aizawa. Eri explained to her caretaker what had happened and he immediately rushed home.
After speaking with Saki-Chan’s mother, they learned she had a quirk called “Storybook.” The quirk replicates one element from the last story the user read onto the target. The last story Saki-Chan read? Sleeping Beauty.
Aizawa explained everything to class A who was tasked with caring for Izuku. They found out the only way to wake him up is a kiss from his “True Love”. They were at a loss for what to do. The quirk was supposed to fade after a week but it was a VERY important week before finals. Deku couldn’t miss it.
“Well Ochaco, get to it!” Mina demanded.
“H-hold on! What makes you think I’M his true love!” The flustered girl protested.
“Only one way to find out…” Momo pointed at the sleeping boy on the couch.
“B-but to k-kiss him when he doesn’t know! It just seems so wrong!!!” Ochaco squealed making herself float.
“You’re damn right it’s wrong.” Bakugo snapped. “That’s fucking creepy. And who has a true love in high school anyway?!”
“Maybe All Might should do it” Mineta joked.
“It is very important Midoriya attends classes. Morals aside, if we can do anything to wake him, we should!” Iida demanded.
“Ochaco, just try it! We won’t tell him, promise!” Ashido insisted giggling up a storm because of how giddy she was.
“B-but- I’ve never even had my first kiss before and Deku-Kun’s smart! He’ll catch up!” Ochaco pointed out.
“Stop trying to force her to do something she doesn’t want to!” Bakugo insisted.
“But he needs to eat, doesn’t he?” Asui looked concerned.
“Yeah…I wonder how long he can last without food or water…” Momo wondered.
Katsuki stared at his childhood friend sleeping peacefully on the couch and suddenly he was reminded of him in a coma after the war.
“Just try it, will ya Cheeks?”
“Okay but…I don’t think it will work!” Uraraka tip toed over and leaned down, her heart beating really fast as the class watched in anticipation. She smashed their lips together and backed away embarrassed. Everyone watched and waited….and waited…And…Nothing happened. Izuku was still sound asleep.
“See! I’m not his true love…” Ochaco puffed her cheeks out mortified but also slightly disappointed…
“That can’t be!!” Mina cried.
“Wait! Wait! I have an idea!” Toru piped up.“In the book, Sleeping Beauty is saved by a Prince, right?!”
“Yeah?” Asui questioned unsure where her friend was going with this.
“So what’s the closest thing we have to a prince in class? Todoroki! Maybe Todoroki has to kiss him!”
“Me?” Shoto asked puzzled.
“The son of the number one hero! That makes sense!” Ochaco concurred.
“I guess I can try.” He said nonchalantly.
Shoto approached Izuku carefully completely ignorant to all the girls with their phones out trying to capture the moment on camera.
He leaned down and gently sealed their lips together before backing up and studying him.
But again, nothing happened.
“Alright, we’ve tried enough, obviously it’s no one in this fucking class, can we move on?!” Katsuki barked.
“Maybe it’s Melissa Shield!” Jiro gasped.
“Someone get Hatsume!” Iida suggested.
“Maybe Hado-Senpai?!” Shoto pondered.
“Wait just a minute Iida! You try! You’re close with him too!!!” Ochaco pressured him.
“I will do anything for Midoriya!” Iida walked over and stiffly pecked him on the lips.
But he didn’t stir one bit.
“Wait!!!!” Kaminari jumped on the table startling everyone. “This has a very simple solution!” He demanded.
“And what would that be?” Jiro groaned.
“Before we get any outsiders in this mess, we all take a turn and kiss Midoriya! And that means everyone, Kacchan.” He teased.
“IM NOT DOING SHIT!” Bakugo screamed.
“You made me do it.” Ochaco pouted.
“Fuck you all! No one’s kissing Deku!”
“Come on Bakugo, he could be seriously malnourished after this…” Jiro pointed out.
“Whatever! You losers do what you wanna fucking do. Leave me out of it!” He stormed off to his room leaving class A to themselves.
“Welp. Who’s next?” Denki questioned as Kirishima stepped up to the plate red in the face.
“The love between Midoriya and I can only be described as MANLY!” Kirishima shouted before planting a dainty small kiss on his lips.
Next was the girls who all INSISTED on apologizing to Ochaco one by one.
“DONT SAY SORRY TO ME!” She shouted embarrassed.
Everyone besides Bakugo had tried and failed. Even Dark Shadow gently kissed Midoriya to no avail.
“Should we let Class B try?” Toru wondered.
“This is too much! Poor Deku would be so mortified if he knew!” Ochaco said exasperated.
“Maybe we should just let the week pass…” Asui relented.
“Hopefully nothing goes too wrong…” Jiro said disheartened.
Two days had passed and Deku was still in a deep slumber. Katsuki couldn’t lie, he was worried. They tried bringing Hatsume who also failed but thought maybe she could make a love potion that would make Deku fall in love with whoever kissed him next and that’s how the support courses lab blew up for the 5th time that year.
The third day had arrived, and Recovery Girl noted if Izuku spent any more time asleep, they would have to take him to the hospital to put him on IV’s.
“Maybe Bakugo was right…finding a true love at his age is rare…” Asui said sadly.
Katsuki wandered to Izuku’s dorm room and kept watch over him like he secretly did the past two nights. He spent the nights talking to him, trying to say anything to get him to wake up. The first night he even let off an explosion hoping it would startle him awake. Nothing. However, tonight was different. Izuku was rather peaceful the first night. He tossed and turned a bit the second. But this time, he seemed to be highly distressed. Like he was in a nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.
“Deku! Deku wake up!” Katsuki tried shaking him as he was crying in his sleep and hyperventilating.
“Izuku! You have to wake up!” He grabbed his hand and tried squeezing it tightly which seemed to calm him down if only a little bit.
Izuku let out a whimper like he was in pain. Katsuki traced circles around his hand hoping he could at least provide him some comfort. His breath evened but his eyebrows were still knotted together like he was still upset by whatever dream he was having. Katsuki studied him hard. The moon light accentuated how pale he had gotten since being under this quirk’s effect. He knew if Izuku ended up in the hospital again, it would stress Auntie Inko out so much. He wanted more than anything for the week to be over already. A tear escaped Izuku’s eye. He was still enraptured in a nightmare. Katsuki bit his lip and sighed.
“If this works….I’ll kill you….” Katsuki’s heart beat quickly as he leaned over his childhood friend’s face. He kept their hands laced together as he kissed him gently and slowly.
He backed away watching…waiting.
Deku’s eyes flicked wide open as he gasped for air desperately jolting up from his bed.
“D…Deku? You’re awake?”
“Kacchan?! What are you doing here?” Izuku gasped looking around, feeling disoriented.
“Uh…you…uh…were having a nightmare!” He managed to get out, unsure how on earth he could explain everything without spontaneously combusting.
“Yeah…it was…it was scary..I- I don’t remember falling asleep…did I fall asleep baby sitting Eri-Chan? Is Aizawa mad?” Deku’s eyes bored into Katsuki’s soul seeking information that he…wasn’t ready or sure how to explain at all.
“I-I wasn’t here Deku!”
“Huh?”
“I- this is still a dream! I don’t know. I wasn’t fucking here okay?!” Katsuki bolted from Izuku’s dorm red in the face, unsure how to feel.
The next day, Izuku showed up to class disheveled, very confused and stressed by the fact it was Wednesday.
“I WAS ASLEEP FOR 3 DAYS?!”
Class A surrounded him in relief.
“YOURE AWAKE!” Mineta cried.
“I wonder who did it?!” Mina questioned.
“Wh-who did what? What happened?” Izuku questioned.
“Uh….N-nothing. We’re just so glad you’re okay!” Ochaco stuttered out, giving the rest of the class a pointed stare as they all became self conscious about them kissing him in his sleep.
“You were hit with a quirk that made you fall asleep unless your true love kissed you.” Todoroki blurted out. “So we all took turns.”
“Todoroki!” Everyone shouted at the oblivious boy.
“WH-Wha-Whaaaaat?!” Izuku turned red.
“Oh no! He’s gonna faint again!” Tsuyu pointed out as Izuku looked dizzy and began muttering to himself insecurely.
“The fact that you’re awake now means…your true love DID kiss you.” Jiro pointed out.
“Who was there when you woke up?” Ashido pried.
“Um…Um…”
Memories of Katsuki in his room acting weird flooded to his mind. But he said it was a dream right? It didn’t feel like a dream.
“I C-CANT REMEMBER!” Izuku stuttered out as Aizawa entered the class surprised by his presence.
“Midoriya! You’re awake. Bakugo, can you take him to recovery girl?”
Katsuki nodded wordlessly for Izuku to follow him and the two walked together in silence. Izuku’s heart was beating quickly. He wanted to say something but didn’t know how.
“Um..K-Kacchan?”
“Hm?” Bakugo grunted, looking straight ahead and not directly at him.
“I had a strange dream….when I was asleep..” Izuku said.
“I bet you had a lot of strange dreams…you were snoozing for awhile”
“W-well! I had this really scary one! I was falling. From a really high place and suddenly it got really dark. I kept waiting to hit the ground but it just got darker and darker, and I heard scary voices screaming at me…I was so scared and I just wanted the falling to stop even if it means I died…I wanted to hit the water, the ground, anything. But I-I wouldn’t stop falling. Until. Until you were there! You grabbed my hand and pulled me up and it turns out I was just on a small hill.” Izuku explained. “So…so what I’m saying is…thank you for saving me…”
“It was just a dream shitty nerd, I didn’t do anything.” Katsuki said softly avoiding his gaze. Izuku grabbed his wrist and turned him around. His face was red but he faced Katsuki bravely.
“I-I don’t know…all the details about this quirk everyone is talking about…but I know the difference between that dream and….and reality. So…it doesn’t have to mean anything, Kacchan. But thank you!”
Katsuki’s eyes widened as he stared into Izuku’s before looking down.
“I wasn’t just gonna sit there and let you stay trapped in that shitty nightmare …” He admitted.
Izuku smiled and nodded in understanding. They stopped at Recovery Girls’ office and Izuku made his way to the door.
“She’s probably sick of me.” Deku giggled.
“Yeah, who wouldn’t be.” Katsuki teased.
“See you in class, Kacchan.” Izuku turned to open the door before Katsuki grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close.
“Ka-” Izuku was interrupted by Katsuki’s lips pressed firmly against his. It was slow and passionate as he leaned into the kiss desperately and happily.
“See ya in class.” Katsuki let him go before ruffling his hair and taking off leaving him the in the hallway stunned.
High school may not be the place to find true love. Perhaps it was there in arms reach his entire life.