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Alright, look. Minoru knew he wasn't hot shit, alright? He's not delusional. But he still managed to get into UA's Hero track (sticky balls were a godsend for gumming up robots), so that should count for something, right?! He's not much to look at, but he likes to think he's smart and funny, so why the hell is everyone treating him like the scum on the bottom of their shoe?!
He compliments a girl? He gets a disgusted look (at best, an almighty slap at worst).
He tries to bond with his fellow men? Uncomfortable looks and a lecture from Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass.
Hell, he even got looks when he tried to share his reasoning for being a hero! What's wrong with wanting to be cool and get girls, anyway?!
It's not like he's got a chance anyway, not next to ikemen like Todoroki or rugged bad boys like Bakugou. He's short, his voice sounds weird, and even though he's not all that scrawny, he might as well be a fishbone next to guys like Iida or Kirishima! What the hell is he supposed to do next to the bulkiest nerd he's ever seen, or the walking embodiment of a brick wall?
It isn't fair.
He's musing over his latest disappointment (failed attempt number who-cares to ask out one of the mega-hotties they got in their class) when he feels a cold shiver up his spine. Minoru freezes, feeling himself break out in a cold sweat as a threatening, predatory presence approaches from behind. He's just about ready to toss some balls and run, public Quirk use laws be damned, when the presence speaks.
"Oh, hey Mineta-kun!" Midoriya??? "I was looking for you! I had some questions, if that's alright?" he asks, smiling his stupid little sunshine grin as he crosses into Minoru's field of view. Minoru swallows his fear (was he scared?) and tries for a confident grin back.
"O-Oh, Midoriya! What's up?" he asks, grin probably edging more towards terrified than friendly. The presence was gone, like it never existed in the first place, but he knew what he'd felt.
"Ah, I just.....was wondering something. Why do you wanna be a hero?" he asks. Minoru blinks. Hadn't he already....? Oh, but wait, Midoriya wasn't there for that, was he? Minoru relaxes further, the conversation still in familiar territory.
"Oh, that? That's easy! I wanna be super cool and get all the hotties!" he says, grinning. Something flashes in Midoriya's eyes, but his expression doesn't change, so Minoru writes it off as a trick of the light.
"That's.....really? You wanna be cool?" Midoriya asks, an edge of something in his voice. Minoru nods, his own smile slipping. "Then why a hero? There's tons of other things you could do to be cool, like an actor or something?" he questions.
Minoru scoffs, a bit bitter. "Yeah, maybe if I were like 60 centimeters taller," he mutters. He's not even looking for above average height! He's never gonna be massive like Shoji, but would it be too much to ask to be able to look his classmates in the eyes without straining his neck?! "Being a hero is like the only way I'll ever be cool, you get it?"
Midoriya tilts his head like he doesn't understand, still smiling, but his eyes are..... cold. Like Aizawa-sensei's, or Midnight's when she gets sadistic. "Mineta-kun......what is a hero? Not the legal definition, obviously I know that. What makes a hero a hero, in your opinion?" he asks, sounding like he's.....quoting someone? Weird.
"I.....don't get it?" he says, after thinking about it for a bit. "What do you mean?"
Midoriya sighs a bit through his nose, expression shifting slightly. "Alright, think of it this way. In your opinion, what are some things all heroes need to have?" he asks.
Ah, well this Minoru can understand. "Well they gotta be strong, right? Like, super strong," he says. "Otherwise, how are they gonna save people?"
Midoriya nods like that was a good answer, so Minoru feels like he's on the right track here. He's still not sure why they're having this conversation, but hey, might as well right? Midoriya's one of his only friends, and the guy doesn't really talk much, so it's.....interesting, to hear him being so talkative? "That's true. Strength, be it physical or mental, is important to a hero. What else?" he asks.
Minoru wants to say a rockin' bod, but that tends to come with strength, and to be honest Aizawa-sensei is a lot of things, but Minoru wouldn't exactly call him attractive. Fucking terrifying, maybe, but not attractive. So what else?
"They.....should probably want to help people, right? Like, villains are strong. Villains are really strong. But if being strong was all it took, why would there be villains at all?" he says slowly, something like a realization tickling at the back of his brain. Does.... he want to help people? Of course he does, right? It's not his fault people don't wanna be around him!
Is it?
"Right. Wanting to save someone is pretty important to being a hero. At least.....a real hero," Midoriya says, his smile slipping a little bit. Minoru starts at that. A real hero?
"What do you mean, a 'real' hero?" he asks.
Midoriya blinks, tilting his head in that creepy way again. "Well.....there's heroes, that is, people who went to hero school and have a license, and then there's heroes. Sometimes, they're the same, but not all the time. One of my favorite heroes.....he's not a Pro at all. He'd probably smack me for even suggesting he's a hero, honestly. But that doesn't mean he didn't save me, you know?" he says. "If he hadn't stood up for me and given me hope....." He trails off with a shrug.
And that, Minoru can agree with. How many times had he wished someone would stick by him in middle school? But.....a hero that doesn't want to be a hero? "Weird.....Someone not wanting to be a hero, but acting like one anyway? Isn't that weird?" he asks.
Midoriya shrugs. "Sometimes, when you go through life for so long with nobody bothering to save you, it's really easy to get bitter and angry. Some people decide to save others the way they were never saved, but some want to get back at everyone that ever hurt them. It's really fascinating, honestly--!" he starts, before cutting himself off. "Ah, sorry. Villain psychology isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."
Minoru blinks. For a second there, Midoriya seemed..... darker. Like he was seeing a path he could've taken, for a split second. "Actually.....I....have a couple more questions?" he says shyly. Midoriya nods at him to go on. "If a hero is a hero because they help people, then is a villain a villain because they hurt people?"
Midoriya's lips twist slightly. "I.....think there's more to it than that," he says carefully. "Because.....heroes hurt people too, you know? They're human. They have bad days, say things they don't mean, and the entire industry is built around fighting. But I think what really matters is both the intent and how the hurt person sees it?" he says. "Like....a hero fighting a villain should try to hurt them as little as possible, because the villain is still a person. But at the same time, both the hero and villain are trying to protect themselves, right? So sometimes, a hero has to hurt a villain, to make sure they don't hurt anyone else."
Minoru nods. "Right.....I see. And.....what about villains who don't hurt people?" he asks. Midoriya gives him a shrewd look, and Minoru suddenly feels the need to defend himself. "N-Not that I like villains or anything! It's just.....Iida keeps saying the things I do are shameful or villainous, but I'm not a villain! I'm not going out and breaking laws or beating people up, so why is he acting like I am?!" he asks, almost desperate for an answer. Midoriya is smart, almost scarily so. And yeah he didn't score all that high on Aizawa's test at the start of the year, but he still did better than Minoru, even without a visible Quirk! If anyone could tell him why everyone seemed to hate him, Midoriya could.
Something seems to dawn on Midoriya then, his previously-wide eyes narrowing like Minoru is a particularly intriguing puzzle. "Mineta-kun.....do you..... not know how you sound?" he asks carefully. Minoru puffs up in indignation (and a bit of embarrassment). "When you talk to the girls, I mean."
"Wh- Huh?!" This is..... not where Minoru was expecting this to go. "What's that gotta do with anything?! I'm trying to compliment them, and then they go and smack me around for it!" he snaps, a phantom stinging starting up in his cheek.
Midoriya squints at him. "Mineta......We haven't been at school very long, so I don't actually have a lot of knowledge on it, but....I do remember you trying to run for class rep with a manifesto to make the girls wear miniskirts," he says flatly, before rubbing his ear. "Very vividly. You weren't quiet about it." Minoru blinks again. Alright, to be fair, that does sound bad when put that way. As sexy as the girls in his class are, nobody would be able to focus if they all wore miniskirts, right?
"Ah," he says, for lack of anything better.
"And......well, I wasn't actually there for this, but Iida-kun told me later about how you found a peephole in the locker rooms?" Midoriya continues. "Using a peephole isn't a compliment, it's a violation of privacy. Would you like it if someone drilled a hole into your room and watched while you were changing?" he asks.
Well duh. If a girl found him hot enough to.....wait. Midoriya.....didn't specify it was a girl, did he? "What, like a girl?" he asks, to clarify. Midoriya just smiles that terrifying smile again.
"You wouldn't know, would you? Especially since in this scenario, you wouldn't know about the hole at all. It could be anyone—a girl, a villain, or even a creepy old guy. You wouldn't know," he stresses. Minoru pales at the thought. It's one thing to have a girl find him attractive, it's another thing entirely for some creep to peek in on him, especially when he'd have no idea about it!
"That's—!" he starts, but pauses. "That's.....your point, isn't it?" he says, defeated. "I'm the creepy uncle in that scenario, aren't I?" he asks.
Midoriya nods sympathetically. "Yeah," he says simply, no further elaboration. It's almost frustrating, honestly.
"But.....even if I don't do things like that, people still call me a creep," he says softly, avoiding eye contact and pulling off one of his hairballs just to worry it between his fingers. "Like earlier. I tried to ask Ashido, since she seems fun, if she wanted to go to an arcade or something. And she just looked at me like I was a bug."
Midoriya raises an eyebrow. "How did you ask?"
Minoru blinks again in surprise (he's been doing that a lot in this conversation), fingers stilling on the ball. "What do you mean?"
"What exactly did you say?" Midoriya presses. Minoru.....has to think. He can't really remember, mostly just saying the first pick up line that came to mind...probably?
"I....don't remember," he confesses. Midoriya shakes his head.
"I was afraid of that," he mutters, low enough that Minoru's pretty sure he wasn't supposed to have heard. "I....was in the room too, you know. I left after you, so I heard at least a bit of what you said," he says, louder. "You called Ashido-san an alien, said a dance with her would be....something, and then I think a gag about flexibility?" he says. Minoru grimaces. Not his best work.
"I.....should probably apologize for the alien thing, huh," he says. His own Quirk wasn't a mutation, and neither was Ashido's, but he could see how something like that would be considered really offensive.
"You should probably apologize for all of it," Midoriya counters. "I just.....You're a cool dude already, Mineta-kun. When you're not hung up on girls or p-porn,"—was Midoriya blushing?—"you're actually fun to be around. Girls are people too, and.....well....." He sighs. "You really aren't treating them like they are. Just....think about it, alright?" he asks.
"......Okay. But......you really think I'm cool?" Minoru asks, glancing up at Midoriya.
"Well, you're clever and funny, yeah. I just....think maybe you should get some jokes that aren't dirty," Midoriya says, looking away. "I have to go, or I'll miss my train. Think about what I said, alright?" he says, turning to leave. Minoru nods and watches him go, raising an eyebrow when Midoriya stops again. "And....Mineta-kun?" Minoru makes a questioning noise, freezing when Midoriya turns to glare at him over his shoulder. "Don't let me hear about another inappropriate peephole attempt, got it?"
He shivers, nodding rapidly. "Y-Yep! Got it boss!" he squeaks, a plastic grin and weak thumbs up enough to make Midoriya keep walking. Gods the hero course was insane. Was he really cut out for this?