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The time after the USJ incident was tough for all of the 1-A students and their teachers. Especially for one Tsuyu Asui. Tomura Shigaraki’s hand was literally on her head. She almost wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for Aizawa cancelling Shigaraki’s quirk and Midoriya trying to ‘Smash’ the whiny young adult in the face. Of course, the Nomu got in the way of that attempt, but seeing Midoriya get so beat up and broken by the hulking birdbeak monster after saving her made her worry. A lot.
After the incident, Midoriya and All Might had been loaded onto stretchers and taken to a hospital nearby to U.A. As the ambulances were leaving the USJ, the members of Class 1-A, all looking very tuckered out with ripped costumes and bruises and cuts all over watched them go.
“Is… Deku gonna be alright?” Ochako Uraraka asked.
Yaoyorozu placed a comforting hand on the gravity girl's shoulder. “We all know that Midoriya is a tough one, he's going to be just fine, Uraraka.” Though she herself looked worried.
Of course Bakugo was scowling and grumbling, with Kirishima trying to calm him down. “Shitty Hair, leave me alone! I don't care about the stupid nerd.”
Kirishima frowned at that. “Dude, Baku-bro, not manly… like, at all.”
Small explosions attempted to light themselves in the palms of the blonde bomber's hands, though he flinched from the quirk overuse he was experiencing.
All the while, Tsu, despite her neutral expression, wasn't having the best time. She was worrying like crazy about Midoriya.
“Ribbit…. Ribbit.” She was fighting like crazy to hold back tears.
Of course, her classmates weren’t oblivious to her current emotions, as Ashido and Hagakure walked over from where they were standing and placed comforting hands on the frog girl’s shoulders.
Before either of them could get a word in, Tsu suddenly wailed and hid herself in the crook of Ashido’s neck while hugging her tightly. After a moment of silence, Ashido softly muttered, “Guess that answers that,” before hugging the frog girl back. Hagakure very shortly joined them and hugged Tsu from the side.
It didn’t take long before the rest of the 1-A girls were surrounding Tsu from all sides, Jiro wrapping her earjacks around the group as the frog girl broke down in tears, all of her emotions spilling out.
Thankfully, the rest of 1-A (even Bakugo, surprisingly enough) gave the group some space while they were comforting the girl with backrubs and encouraging words.
After a little while, Tsu tapped Ashido a few times on the shoulder. “Alright, girls, let’s let her go,” Ashido whispered. The group untangled their mass of limbs and set Tsu free.
“Ribbit, thank you, girls, I feel a little better.” As she glanced around at her friends, she could tell that some of them were on the verge of shedding some tears, though Uraraka was nearly imitating a waterfall as the tears openly flowed.
Ashido gave her a soft smile. “Glad we could help a little, Tsu.” The frog girl returned the smile, but she wasn’t all there.
When she got home that night, Tsu hugged her parents and siblings, then cried herself to sleep.
Two Days Later
U.A. closed for a few days to allow the students to recover and give the staff time to clean up after the incident. Some of the students of 1-A took the time to train a little more, or get together to maybe attempt to lift their spirits before going back to school.
Tsu, however, spent her two days at home, alone, mostly flipping between crying and staring at her personal chat with Midoriya.
As she walked into 1-A’s homeroom that Friday, immediately spotting the source of her sadness the last few days, Izuku Midoriya, sitting at his desk having a deep-looking discussion with Sero.
Tsu almost broke out crying again seeing Midoriya’s left arm in a cast and a bandage around his head. She steeled herself and walked over to her own desk and sat down.
Ashido, who had been talking with Hagakure, noticed that Tsu had sat down and turned in her seat to face her. “Hey, Tsu, how are you holding up?”
Tsu’s normally stoic face fell a little bit at her question. “About as well as I could be, ribbit,” she said with a side glance at the green-haired boy across the room.
Ashido reached out and patted her on the shoulder a few times. “Tsu, you’ll be alright, you’re strong, I know it.”
Tsu sadly nodded at that, crossing her arms on her desk and putting her head down.
Soon, the bell rang and a mummy shuffled its way into the classroom. “Alright, settle down,” a bored voice was heard from inside the bandages.
“MR. AIZAWA?”
Classes passed slower than usual, Tsu realized. It definitely had something to do with her mood as she shuffled her way into the cafeteria.
She had nearly made it to the lunchline before she felt a rough hand clamp onto her shoulder. She looked to her side and saw Katsuki Bakugo sneering at her like she had just kicked his dog. Tsu gave him a bland look. “Bakugo, what do you need?”
The explosive blonde turned her toward him. “Alright, I know that you’ve been worrying about the nerd this whole time, right?” Tsu’s eyes narrowed.
“What makes you say that, ribbit?”
Bakugo scoffed. “That whole scene after the incident, Frog Legs. You had all the girls cuddling up to you.” and then he muttered something under his breath, but she could barely make out ‘fucking disgusting’. She smirked a bit at that.
“Anyway, just go confront Deku about it, I’m sure he’ll apologize or some shit.” And with that, Bakugo walked away to go do whatever he did.
Tsu watched him walk away before joining the lunchline, thinking over his words. Well, she thought to herself, there's never been a better time.
With that, she grabbed a small onigiri to eat while she headed over to the table where Izuku, Ochako, and Iida were currently seated.
The three of them turned to look at her when she approached, and Ochako's face immediately turned into a worried expression upon seeing Tsu.
“Ribbit. Midoriya, may I speak to you for a quick second? In private, I mean…” she managed to croak out.
Said boy's eyes widened a bit before he nodded with a small smile on his face. “Of course, Asu- I mean, Tsu.”
Tsu lightly blushed at the smile. Over the few days away, she had also developed a small crush on Izuku somehow. She wasn't sure how, but it had to be his heroic nature and him putting other people before himself.
Iida helped Izuku stand up and Tsu led the boy out of the cafeteria into a small corner just outside of the room. Once there, Izuku spoke up. “S-So what's up, Tsu?”
Trying to maintain her normally stoic expression, Tsu replied, “I never really got to express my gratitude for you saving me at the USJ, Midoriya. Throwing a punch at another human with that volatile quirk of yours must be pretty hard to do, even if that human had the intent to… y'know, murder us, ribbit.”
The boy lightly chuckled in spite of the subject matter. “Well, Tsu, I was just doing what a hero should do, and that's meddling where they shouldn't.”
The boy grinned and it felt like the sun was shining directly in Tsu's face despite the fact that they were indoors. “So, you're w-welcome, Tsu!”
It was at that moment that she broke down, nearly tackling the boy to the ground while beating his chest with her fists, though she clearly wasn't doing damage.
Tears started falling from her eyes as she blubbered out, “I-If you ever go and get yourself beaten that badly by another villain, I… I…”
To say that Izuku was taken aback was an understatement. He had never seen Tsu this sad before, but his heroic instincts told him to help her out.
He gently guided them to the wall of the corridor, placing his back against it and sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor, Tsu's arms wrapped around his torso, her face tucked into his chest as she bawled her eyes out.
With his one good hand, he gently stroked the back of her head. As people walked by giving them strange looks, Izuku decided to use his ‘brave face’ and gave them a look that told them “Keep walking, nothing to see here.”
Eventually, Tsu calmed down, but she still kept her face tucked into his chest. Usually, Izuku would be blushing up a storm and his face would be as red as a tomato, but oddly, he didn't feel like that.
As he kept stroking her head, he started talking, “Y'know, Tsu, at one point or another, we're gonna be at our lowest. And when we're at our lowest, stuff is going to attempt to keep us there.”
Izuku thought back to the day that Bakugo had burnt his notebook and other days where the explosive blonde wouldn't leave him alone. And when All Might told him he couldn't be a hero without a quirk.
“But I heard this song recently from a Pre-Quirk artist, and it really spoke to me. The song was called ‘Everybody Needs a Hero,’ and man does it not just speak to you?”
Izuku thought back to later that very same day when All Might chose him to be his successor and the next bearer of One For All.
Tsu, her eyes a little red from crying, lifted her head with a bit of difficulty and nodded, giving Izuku another reason to smile.
“Ribbit… I think I love you, Izuku.” She finally relented, spilling her heart to the boy.
Izuku's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “Wha… what?”
Tsu looked at him. “I think after you attempted to punch Shigaraki… I might have started having a crush on you.”
As the boy sat there in silence, Tsu began to panic a bit. Did I screw it up, is this gonna mess with our friendship? Oh my go-
“I… think I have a crush on you too, Tsu.”
“Ribbit?”
“I love your blunt nature, how you always speak your mind. Your little ribbits you do sometimes when you talk and text is honestly really cute. And… you're really pretty.”
Tsu was over the moon. “Ribbit… so, will you go out with me, Midoriya?”
Izuku smiled. “You've wanted us to call you Tsu for so long, I think it's only fair that you get to call me Izuku.”
Tsu started shedding a few small happy tears as she closed her eyes and a smile grew across her face. She wrapped Izuku in a hug and rested her head on his shoulder. Today might have started kinda shitty for her, but it was going to end better.
“Everybody needs a hero”