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Minoru Mineta was straight, that was something that he always knew. After all, women are so sexy why would he even look at a boy? When he got to UA and was surrounded by such beautiful women he was even more sure of his sexuality, until he wasn’t. Looking back, if he had to pinpoint when his crush started, it would have to have been not long after he got to UA, at the USJ, but he didn’t realize it until now
He had watched in admiration as Midoriya threw himself into danger, attacking the villains, just so they could all get out. While Minoru was shaking in fear Midoriya had made a plan and acted it out. If it wasn’t for him, they all would have died.
After that day, Minoru knew that he admired Midoriya, but he thought that was it. He thought it was just admiration. The next incident should have made it obvious that it was more than just admiration, but he didn’t figure that out for a while.
Once they were all back at school after the USJ and classes had gone back to normal, Midoriya yelled at him for trying to get a feel of Yaoyorozu’s boobs. Minoru had gotten yelled at many times before for what he was doing, but he had never felt any particular way about it.
Occasionally if it was someone in power doing the yelling he was worried that he would get punished, even if he thought it was completely undeserved. After all his dad had told him over and over again that a man can take whatever he wants from a woman, and his dad is a powerful and influential man on the school board so he had to be correct. If it were a woman yelling at him, he would be admiring the way their boobs jiggled when they yelled. But never before had he felt guilty, and so good? He didn’t know how to describe it but hearing Midoriya yell at him stirred something inside of him.
Looking back once he realized what was going on, he would label that feeling as attraction, he was attracted to Midoriya while he was being protective and yelling. But at the time he thought that it was something to do with how he was treating the girls, so he kept doing it. It took him an embarrassingly long time to realize that he only felt that way when Midoriya was the one that told him off, but even then he still didn’t realize the reason and he still thought that it was something to do with the girls.
During his final exams at the end of the semester, Minoru tried to act like it was his desire to pick up girls that was inspiring him to persevere, but really it was thoughts of Midoriya. He still thought that he just admired the other boy, but it was the memories of Midoriya pushing through his fear to fight at the USJ and all of the times Midoriya protected the girls from Minoru that filled his mind as he claimed his victory.
It was during the summer training camp that Minoru finally realized that it wasn’t the girls that made him feel good when Midoriya yelled at him. The day after Minoru had tried to climb over the wall to see the girls bathing Midoriya pulled him aside to tell him off. He had the same feeling that he always did, but he never got a chance to see the girls, and none of them were around, so they couldn’t be the cause.
Once he had that realization he felt even guiltier. Every time Midoriya had yelled at him he felt guilty, but he pushed it aside to focus on the good feeling that he got, but now that he realized that it wasn’t because of the girls, he finally started to really listen to what Midoriya was saying, and realize how terrible he had been to the girls. Minoru had always recognized the look on Midoriya’s face as protective, but for the first time, he realized that Midoriya was protecting the girls from him like he was a villain.
After that, he tried to be better, even if it meant he wouldn’t feel that again, but old habits die hard, and after the training camp he had to spend some more time with his dad before they moved into the dorms. His father’s ideas about women were so different from Midoriya’s. In the past, he would believe his father without hesitation, but Midoriya’s face kept popping into his mind. Once he recognized that Midoriya felt that he needed to protect people from him, that the nicest boy in his class saw him as a villain, he felt sick.
Living in the dorms was difficult. From the first days there it was obvious that not a single person in their class trusted him around the girls, and he didn’t blame them. As time went on he figured out where the line between acceptable and inappropriate was, and he did his best to stay on the acceptable side. He still occasionally said something that was over the line, but he was getting better. He made an effort to give the girls space, trying to make up for how he had treated them before.
Minoru wanted to compliment his classmates, but he knew that his past actions would make even the most innocent compliment seem inappropriate, and he didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, not anymore. After making a few too many mistakes, he instead, vowed to just remain silent. He stopped talking to anyone outside of when he had to for class. He couldn’t handle seeing Midoriya look at him like a villain again.
He should have realized then that he had a crush on Midoriya. During those days when he was silent, Minoru would spend his time thinking about the boy, dreaming of talking to him, of fighting beside him. Even as the green-haired hero in training filled all his thoughts, he still didn’t realize his feelings.
It took him a couple of weeks to realize that not talking wasn’t the solution. He wants to be a hero, but he is doing the bare minimum. Not making people uncomfortable is literally the minimum requirement to being a good person, a hero has to do more than that, they have to make people comfortable. If Minoru wants to be seen as a hero, by Midoriya and the rest of his classmates, he needs to put in the work.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do. He did apologize to the class, especially the girls, for his past actions, but he could tell that while they were grateful for the apology, they weren’t convinced that he was different. It hurt a bit, but he knew he deserved it. Seeing the disbelief on Midoriya’s face stung, but he knew that it was his own fault that he was in that position.
The next time he should have realized that he had a crush on Midoriya was right after a group of guys had decided to catcall Yaoyorozu as they were all walking back from a class outing. Many people started to step in, but to everyone’s surprise, including his own, Minoru was the first one to start telling the guy off.
Minoru couldn’t recall exactly what he had said, but he went on for a while, and he could never forget the stares he got from his classmates when he was done. Many of them were looking at him in surprise, but the main person that caught his eye was Midoriya. He was grinning at Minoru with tears in his eyes, and at that moment, Minoru knew that he had made Midoriya proud.
He should have realized that no one else could make him so happy with a single look, but Minoru was oblivious. With Midorya looking at him like that he thought he could fly, he could do anything. He would do anything to have Midoriya look at him like that again.
Unfortunately, the next time they had the opportunity to interact Midoriya had no reason to look at him like that, in fact, he had a reason to be upset at him. They were doing an obstacle course in pairs. Normally this would be great for Minoru because of how his quirk can help him with mobility, but this time they would be going through the course quirkless.
The way it worked was that both partners had to get past the obstacle before moving on to the next one, and the partners were chosen by Aizawa. Minoru had been excited to be assigned Midoriya as his partner, but he quickly realized that while Midoriya would probably be able to do fine on his own, this was not a great exercise for Minoru.
As they went through each obstacle it was becoming more and more apparent that Minoru was holding Midoriya back. He didn’t mean to, but every obstacle they got to Midoriya would get through quickly, only having to stop and wait for Minoru to finish. There were a couple of obstacles that he didn’t have to wait long, mostly the ones where Minoru’s short stature was actually useful, but mostly Minoru was moving pretty slowly.
Going over obstacles was a challenge for him, as was running through mud, climbing, and crossing large distances. The only obstacles that really worked for him were ones where he had to go under something, and there weren’t many of those. Meanwhile, Midoriya excelled at each obstacle.
Even as it was obvious that Minrou was the reason they weren’t the frontrunners, Midoriya never lost his smile. He cheered Minoru on constantly, making him feel as though he was doing great, even though he knew he wasn’t.
It was while they were passing the last obstacle that Minoru finally realized that he had a crush on Midoriya. The last obstacle was a large pool that they had to swim across. No team had finished yet, but there were a couple of people standing at the end waiting for their partner to finish and even more people in the water.
Minrou had never been a great swimmer, even with the extra practice he did after the USJ, so he knew that they probably weren’t going to place within the top half of the class. It was disappointing, but it was looking like they weren’t going to be last either.
He was about to dive in and begin swimming when Midoriya stopped him, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes” Minoru didn’t hesitate, there was no question at this point, everyone in the class trusted Midoriya with their lives.
Minoru wasn’t sure what he expected Midoriya to do, but he didn’t expect the boy to grab him, and throw him, overhand, across the pool.
That was how he got to this position, flying across the pool, realizing that being thrown by Midoriya was the most attractive thing he had ever witnessed. With that realization came the realization of his giant crush.
He faintly heard the splash of Midoriya jumping into the water behind him, but he was too busy freaking out to focus on it. He was so lost in the realization that he didn’t think to prepare for landing. He bounced and rolled to the finish line, stopping right before it.
Minoru took his time getting up, waiting for Midoriya to catch up with him so they could pass the finish line together. No one had passed the finish line yet, so Minoru was the farthest ahead, putting them in a great position as long as Midoriya caught up.
Minoru stared into space, deep in thought about all the times he should have realized his feeling before now while waiting for Midoriya to catch up to him. It didn’t take long at all, and before he knew it, Midoriya was pushing him past the finish line, completing the course in first place.
He remained stuck in his head as Midoriya took the opportunity to get a drink of water and breathe. Other teams started crossing the finish line and before long the race was over. Minoru finally got out of his head as Aizawa started speaking.
Their teacher motioned at a scoreboard that suddenly had their finishing order on it. Minoru was surprised when he saw that he and Midorya were not listed first, even after they had finished first. “Midoriya and Mineta were disqualified so the first place—”
“—Why were we disqualified? You just said that we had to get passed each obstacle, not through it!” Midoriya exclaimed from the spot next to Minoru.
“True, however, I also said that this exercise needed to be done quirkless.—” Aizawa explained. Minoru felt his heart sink, he hadn’t thought about it before, but Midoriya had to have used his quirk for that last obstacle.
“—But we didn’t—”
“—Midoriya you threw your classmate across the entire length of the pool.” Aizawa deadpanned.
“Well yeah, but I didn’t use my quirk for that.” Midoriya looked confused that everyone thought he had been using his quirk. Minoru’s eyes went wide as he realized the implication of that statement. Midoriya could throw him clear across a pool without a quirk. His face reddened as he realized that that thought should not be nearly as attractive as it was.
“You threw your classmate across the pool without using your quirk?” Aizawa said slowly, raising his eyebrow.
“Yeah, I can do it again while you use your quirk on me if you want?”
Minoru should have realized what Aizawa’s nod meant, but he had still been so focused on the fact that Midoriya claimed to be able to throw him quirkless, that he didn’t know what was happening.
Seconds later, for the second time that day, Mineta found himself flying through the air. He should have been upset, but instead, he spent his time in the air dwelling on how attractive Midoriya is. He had always been a little insecure about being small, but if it meant that Midoriya could throw him around like this he really didn’t mind.
It may have taken him an embarrassingly long time to figure out that he had a crush, but it took him a surprisingly short amount of time to come to terms with it. The crush called into question his entire sexuality, but he didn’t mind much. After all, who wouldn’t have a crush on someone like Midoriya? He is easily the most heroic person Minoru had ever met, and he is ridiculously strong, what else could Minoru want?