Chapter Text
“Hey,” Shinsou Hitoshi said, turning to face Izuku. Aizawa-sensei hadn’t arrived at the classroom yet, and the space was only half full with a scattering of still-waking-up students. Izuku, shaking off a haze of exhaustion, straightened to look at Shinsou.
“Hey, yourself,” Izuku responded, blinking curiously at the odd glint in Shinsou’s eyes. His classmate’s shirt was faintly wrinkled, and his pronounced eye bags indicated a perpetual tiredness, but it was his subtle yet intentional lean forward that drew Izuku’s attention the most. Izuku tilted his head as Shinsou glanced out the window for a split second before speaking.
“How are you feeling about the essay coming up?”
“The one Aizawa-sensei assigned? Pretty good. I have an idea for it that I’m attached to, but I want to clear it with Sensei first,” Izuku replied slowly. “We’ll see if I can actually get started on it more than a day before the due date,” he admitted, smiling at Shinsou. “How about you? How are you feeling about it?”
Shinsou made a so-so motion with his hand. “Still trying to come up with an idea, to be honest. What was your idea?”
Izuku faltered at Shinsou’s genuine attention and bit his tongue to give himself time to answer, ignoring his mild spike in nervousness. “You know how we talked about the Quirk Protests in Art History class? I want to apply that kind of historical analysis to the ethics of modern heroics regulations. I think it’d be cool to keep the perspective of my paper focused on the relationship between protesters versus the system and maybe look at how that has evolved to where we are today? Thinking about things from an underdog angle has, just, always interested me.”
Shinsou considered Izuku’s words. “Yeah, I can picture that argument working really well.” He hesitated. “I’d be down to read it once you’re done. I could provide feedback or something before you turn it in. If you wanted, of course,” he said, refusing to meet Izuku’s eyes.
Cheeks warming, Izuku moved to respond, but Aizawa-sensei entered the classroom before he could, bringing everyone’s attention to the front. Izuku smiled at Shinsou apologetically, who only shrugged before turning to face their teacher.
Breathing in, Izuku tried to reign in his focus, leaning forward against his desk to better pay attention to Aizawa-sensei.
“And lastly, Shinsou and Midoriya. Everyone find your partner and set up your sparring equipment,” Aizawa-sensei instructed blandly.
Izuku made eye contact with Shinsou as soon as their names were called together, and he walked over to stand beside his assigned partner.
“Heya,” Izuku grinned, bouncing on his heels. Shinsou sighed deeply.
“I do not have the energy for this, let alone to keep up with you,” he complained, “You’re gonna kick my ass.”
“Nuh-uh! You’re way better at quirkless hand-to-hand than me,” Izuku protested, “I’m sure I’ll be the one struggling to keep up with you.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Shinsou said, stretching his arms out in front of him. Izuku quietly watched the movement. “Come on, let’s set up our mats.”
Izuku hummed in agreement and fell in line beside Shinsou as they walked towards the gym’s giant equipment closet. Izuku turned his head towards Shinsou to ask if he got any sleep last night, only to find that his partner was already observing him. At the unexpected eye contact, Shinsou quickly averted his gaze. Izuku glanced away in slight embarrassment as well, but failed to suppress a smile. A creeping sense of giddiness warmed his chest, and he vowed to get Shinsou's phone number during lunch. It would be nice to hang out with him outside of class.
“Shinsou,” Izuku said, gripping onto his friend’s arm to prevent himself from collapsing on the mall floor, “Can we please, please, please go home? I can’t do this anymore,” he whined.
“Mmhm,” Shinsou responded absent-mindedly, not taking his eyes off the two identical-looking pairs of gloves in his hands.
Izuku’s eye twitched, and he stumbled in front of Shinsou to grip onto his shoulders. With the most despairing look he could muster, Izuku emphasized, “If we do not leave this store in the next three minutes, I am going to kill myself in front of you.”
Shinsou laughed and patted Izuku’s head condescendingly. “Okay, fine. There’s still one more store I want to stop by, but we can get boba as a pick-me-up before that.”
Izuku became eager at the thought of boba, but his face quickly shifted to reflect the utter betrayal he felt at Shinsou’s statement that there would be more shopping.
“I’ll pay,” Shinsou promised, amused.
“And I get to keep using your arm to support my entire body weight,” Izuku bartered.
“Well, I need both my arms to buy these,” Shinsou said, waving the pair of gloves he had chosen in front of Izuku’s unimpressed face, “but once we’re out of here, I’ll give you a piggy back ride to the boba place.”
Izuku’s mind blanked in surprise at Shinsou’s offer. “Deal,” he accepted, slightly dazed.
Shinsou smirked at Izuku and turned to walk towards the check-out counter. Izuku quickly followed with renewed energy.
“Find everything alright?” the cashier asked.
“Yep,” Shinsou replied as Izuku noticed plant roots wrapping around the cashier’s wrists and braided into her hair. The roots were different sizes, but all the same color and texture, and were clearly part of the woman's quirk. Izuku looked around the counter to see if there was an outside source of the roots or if they were possibly created internally by the cashier. Before he could figure it out, Shinsou wrapped an arm around Izuku’s shoulder and steered him towards the exit. Automically, Izuku leaned into his friend.
“Believe it or not,” Shinsou said dryly, taking his arm off Izuku, “squinting and muttering at a person does not exactly put them at ease.”
Izuku winced, mortified. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”
“You’re fine, she wasn’t too bothered. She probably deals with a lot weirder in the world of customer service.”
“But her quirk was so cool… did you see it? I wanted to see if she was creating the roots herself or pulling them from somewhere.”
“There were a lot of plants on the counter,” Shinsou noted.
“But they didn’t seem the type to match the texture of her roots. There might’ve been more plants behind the counter…” Izuku murmured, trailing off in consideration.
Shinsou smiled fondly as he shoved his new gloves into his satchel. He rolled his shoulders to stretch out the ache from the bag’s weight, then stopped in front of Izuku. “Alright, hop on.”
Izuku blinked at him, remembering their deal. “Um, right! Yes,” he nodded, getting behind Shinsou. He placed his hands on his friend’s shoulders and jumped, the other boy easily adjusting to his weight.
As Shinsou started walking, Izuku wrapped his arms more comfortably around his friend and slowly melted against his back. Izuku noticed the warmth radiating between them and breathed into the feeling, resting his chin on Shinsou’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” Izuku said, sounding far softer than he meant.
“No problem. I was the one to drag you around on all my errands,” Shinsou reminded him.
“Invite me along next time, too.”
“Oh yeah? Promise not to commit suicide if I take too long?”
Izuku snorted. “As long as this deal continues,” he conceded, turning his head to smile against Shinsou’s neck as he noticed his friend’s ears turn pink.