Chapter Text
In 2014 a man named Ahmed Gabr swam to a depth of 1082 feet underwater, the deepest a single person had ever gone without a pressure suit. Many people tried to reach that depth but the pressure is so immense that most died before even getting close to that number but Izuku swore to every kami-sama that he could not only reach that number but beat it because he was under so much pressure right now he felt like it was going to kill him.
This is what he gets for fucking around with his friends instead of studying, he's finding out that he is terrified of what he has to do.
What started as a simple truth or dare game with his friends has now ended up with all of them at a bustling mall. Objective? Ask 5 people for their phone numbers. Sounds simple? Too bad for Izuku it wasn't so simple, especially since he'd never done it before. Not that his friends cared from the looks on their faces, especially Ochako who seemed rather pleased with herself. One of these days...
Christmas was about a week away so the mall was packed with people. Young and old, families with kids, couples holding hands, groups of rowdy friends, a crowd of faces moved seamlessly between each other and in the sea of people stood Izuku who had a blush on his face at the thought of asking a random stranger for their number. His mind was racing with too many possibilities, mostly on how many ways he could get rejected, and it was keeping him locked in place, unable to move. His friends, seeing this from a corner they had gathered at to watch the spectacle, had a quick talk with each other and then one of them, a purple haired sleepy eyed teen, walked up to him and nudged his back. "You know you're going to have to talk to someone to get their number right?"
"AAHH! Shinso! Please don't scare me like that! And yes for your information I do know what I have to do I'm just...it's terrifying! I've never done this before and I don't know how to do it! What am I supposed to say?" Izuku's face turning weird, he made a posture with his chest puffed out and his hands out with his fingers pinched with an Italian pinch and with a lowered his voice he said," 'Hey babe, you look hot can I get your number?' I...I...I can't do that!!"
Shinso coughed to himself a few times so as not to laugh at his friend and replied, "I don't know Izuku but uh, don't use that line."
Izuku's face went from embarrassed to anxious to terrified in a matter of seconds and then he planted his face into his hands. "OH MY GOD! I have no idea what to say!"
Shinso turned to look back at the group of friends but they were no help since they were too far away so he took a deep sigh before saying, "Look Izuku just...just think of it like a game where you go up to an NPC and you have options on what to say. All of the people here are NPC's and you can say whatever you want to them but the goal is to get information so you have to be smart with your choices."
A video game. Right. That was much more simpler. Right. Everyone is an NPC. Ya that'll work. At least that's what Izuku thought to himself as he finally worked up the courage and upon seeing a pair of girls around his age, walked right up to one of them and in a loud high pitched tone asked, "Uh can I have your number?"
The girl just made a disgusted face at him and immediately replied, "Uh NO," and walked right passed him, laughing with her friend.
Izuku walked dejectedly back to Shinso who was trying his best not to laugh but failing. "Ok I was wrong maybe you should have used that line," he said between laughs, earning a mean look from Izuku.
"You want to do this?"
Shinso put up his hands and replied, "Not my dare buddy. At any rate I don't need to do this, I have a boyfriend already." Izuku groaned at the reply. "Ya ya you've talked about him plenty. So when are we going to meet this Denki person hmm?"
"Nice try Izuku but changing the subject isn't going to save you. Now get your butt moving you got 4 more people to ask."
Izuku groaned again and did another face palm. Why did he have to get himself into this embarrassing situation? Ok so the first time was a massive failure but having learned that asking outright for a number was a mistake, he changed his game plan. He looked around at the crowd, this time aiming for someone who looked single which wasn't an easy task during Christmas rush. As extremely typical for a Christmas mall, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" was playing and Izuku tried to use the familiar tune to calm himself down as he searched through the crowd, a hunter looking for prey.
As he searched, he saw a group of girls sitting on one of the large sofas that dominated the central lane of the mall so that people could sit and rest and that's when he noticed one of them standing a little off from her group of friends on her phone and not paying much attention to her group. She was dressed plainly, with a clean slightly oversized white hoodie and slim blue jeans with dark boots, face adorned with large gold earrings. Black haired with a olive toned skin, the way she stood, her demeanor, told Izuku that she was confident as she was beautiful. He took a deep breath, steeled his nerves, patted his hair down some to not look so messy, and walked up to her.
"Hi there." The girl looked up from her phone, a slightly annoyed look on her face, and she just stared at him. "Oh uh sorry to bother you but I was over there with my friend when I noticed you and uh...well you're just so beautiful I just couldn't help myself and I would absolutely love to take the time to get to know you more but only if you're ok with it. I mean I'm sure you get this a lot since you're so damn beautiful, guys are probably always hitting you up huh? But if you're not feeling it I'll walk away right now, no harm done, I just want you to know how beautiful you are."
She didn't say anything as her eyes went up and down his body, judging him. Izuku knew how he looked, he wasn't ignorant. Sure Ochako had once called him 'plain' but he knew he was cute and he had been working out a lot recently so he knew he had a sexy body which his clothes were doing a decent job of showing without being too obvious, so when he saw her checking him out his confidence grew and sure enough a small smile appeared on her face.
"Ok, you're kinda cute and I'm definitely feeling it," she said with a smile that was not innocent at all and she held out her phone. Izuku gave her his best smile, put his phone over hers to exchange numbers, smiled once more and turned around to walk away but stopped, tuned his head and asked, "And the name of the beautiful girl is?"
She opened her mouth real quick to say something but stopped, as if she were about to say something mean because this cute boy had come out of nowhere, grabbed her number and walked away ASAP but upon hearing the word 'beautiful' again from those sweet lips, she smiled that smile again and replied, "My name is Rachel."
"The sublime Rachel..."he said, loud enough for her to hear as he walked away and as he disappeared into the crowd, she hoped she would be able to see his cute face again.
While Rachel may have been impressed and wondering about their potential future together, Izuku barely made it back to his friend when he started to gag like he was going to throw up. Shinso seeing this went to help him with a worried look on his face but when he went to reach out to pat Izuku on the back, Izuku saw this and swatted the hand away as he took deep breathes to try to calm himself down because feeling the touch of another human would probably make him actually puke and he did NOT want to make a scene right now. His friend noticed this and backed off a bit to let Izuku catch some air, what fresh air could be caught inside a stuffed mall.
"What happened?" Shinso asked.
Izuku, still bent over catching his breath, showed Shinso his phone with a new number on the screen. "You got her number?" Izuku just nodded still trying to calm himself down when he heard Shinso say, "Holy shit he got a number. Hey guys! He got a number!"
Izuku could hear a squeal and before he knew it rest of his friends had rushed up to the pair.
"Oh my god you did not," he heard Ochako say so he lifted his phone to her so she could see the new number. "Mother fu..."
Tsuyu, looking impressed, said, "Wow Izuku that was your 2nd try wasn't it?"
"Ya." Izuku was finally in control of his breathing and his mind was replaying what had just happened, over and over. Wow. He had done it successfully on his 2nd try ever and that was one hell of a boost to his confidence.
"I am very happy for your success Izuku and I hope you continue to have success!" Tenya shouted loudly as he swung his right arm up and down like a robot.
Shinso started to shoo the rest of them away. "Alright alright, Izuku got 3 more to ask, go away." As the rest of the group went back to their corner Izuku gave Shino a thankful look to which he gave a small smile to. "Well that went well. I mean, except the whole almost throwing up part, you did really well." Izuku's smile turned into a frown and he said, "Sometimes I really hate you."
Not even phased, Shinso replied, "No you don't, you can't hate your friends. You're incapable of it."
Izuku didn't want to admit it but he knew his friend was right, barring one of them outright killing his mother, he could never hate his friends. Couldn't even dream of it.
Now that he was finally collected enough oxygen to breathe normally, he felt excited. He knew he could do this, the success of his 2nd try was proof. As he ran through the entire event in his head he noticed the difference between his first attempt and second attempt. While the first one he had just gone to the first person he had seen, with the second attempt he had taken his time and when he went on the attack, he was honest. She was indeed beautiful, every time he said those words he had said them honestly, from the bottom of his heart. That was probably the reason why the event had turned out so favorable, because he was just honest and he was just being himself
Armed with this information and new confidence, his 3rd and 4th attempts ended in success. Looking over to his group of friends after the 4th successful try, he noticed that Ochako had an unpleased look on her face, like this had turned out differently from what she had imagined and that made his day that much better. Not only had this backfired on her but now he had a newfound confidence in his looks and his charm and, by how well his approaches were received and reciprocated, his future seemed that much more achievable. Izuku had 'it' he just never realized it until it was forced upon him.
"You know, I'm a little jealous. You're actually really good at this," Shinso said with a depressed look. Izuku, being the sunshine boy that he was, gave his friend a bright smile before chirping, "Yup!" Shinso sighed before said, "Let's just go back, this obviously isn't a dare anymore, you're too good at it," and started to walk away
Izuku objected loudly, "Wait I can do one more!" and turned around to look for another person but as he did he bumped into a wall that wasn't there before. A warm, slight squishy wall. Wait. A warm and firm but slightly squishy wall? He opened his eyes to see his hands on a firm large chest and his head turned up to see something that took his breathe away.
There before him stood a blonde haired red eyed god whose breast he was fondling gently. The man looked down at his chest when Izuku didn't stop his hands from squeezing and when Izuku's eyes followed where the other persons eyes were going, he noticed his hands were still gently fondling the other mans chest.
"Uh I know they're kind of big for a man but do you mind?"
Izuku shouted, "Oh my god I'm so sorry! I don't mean to! I just turned around and I hit this wall but the wall turned out to be a breath of fresh air, " he said. The man raised his eyebrows a little but Izuku saw a dust of pink glitter his cheeks and that familiar confidence started to ebb back.
"Well, as nice as that sounds, your hands are still groping me..."
"AAHHH," Izuku shouted as he finally took his hands away from the other man's chest. "Oh my god Izuku what the hell are you doing?" Izuku asked himself as he hit himself on the head.
The other man started to laugh at Izuku's antics and, even though this was an extremely embarrassing moment, he felt a tug in his chest at the sound of the other man's gentle laugh.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry about that, my hands have never not listened to me before but you're just....you're just so...you're like...my god..." Now what Izuku had meant to say was, "You're just so beautiful you're like, you're like, my god I can't even describe how beautiful you are." but instead it came out a jumbled mess. A mess that worked. The other man's cheeks turned a bit more red at being called a god before saying, "You're...you're good, it's ok. Thank you...for the complement."
"Wow, so pretty," Izuku whispered at the sight of a blushing god who blushed even harder at the words.
"OMG OMG OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING IZUKU GET YOUR HEAD BACK IN THE GAME!" Izuku's mind shouted at himself. "I uh...sorry. I'm here on a dare to get phone numbers from random people and even though my first try was really bad I actually did really well with my other 3 tries. Like I surprised myself! I didn't think I could do it but once I figured out that being honest and just being myself worked really well I did so well I got 3 numbers right off the bat but my friends saw that this was too easy so it wasn't a dare anymore so they-"
"Do you want my number?" the other man asked Izuku, stopping his muttering.
"Huh?"
"This is a dare right? And you need a number right? Do you want my number?" the god asked.
"Ye..yes...but...but why? I...I just made such a fool of myself-"
The other man got dangerously close to Izuku and whispered in his ear, "Green is my favorite color."