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“Uraraka!”
“Welcome back, Kirishima!” Uraraka did her best to sneak a quick glance at him and acknowledge his return, but it was really more of a head swish before her eyes glued themselves back to the screen. Crap, where was her car, did Bakugou—
“Bakugou, I’ll slaughter you!”
“I’d like to see you fucking try, Circlecheeks!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Uraraka could see Kirishima leaning down to peck Bakugou on the cheek and, she suspected, pout dramatically. “What kind of boyfriend are you, Katsuki? Uraraka at least said welcome back.”
“Shut the motherfucking hell up shitty hair, I’m trying to—FUCK YOU, CIRCLECHEEKS YOU PIECE OF SHIT I’LL KILL YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY—”
“That’s no way to treat your boyfriend, Bakugou—Ha!” Uraraka crowed as her car whooshed past the finish line and tossed the controller on the sofa in complete and utter glee. She beat Blasty McSplooode, she beat Mr. All-Taaalented~ Suck on it, Rageman! “I win, I win, I win!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Bakugou screeched, throwing a couch pillow at her. “I’ll kill you!”
“I’d like to see you try!” she parroted back at him. Bakugou really did fling himself at her, wrestling her to the ground with all the finesse of an angry dog foaming at the mouth. She didn’t have as much raw muscle as Bakugou, but never fear, a fighter never had just one move! She thought hard. He pinned one hand to the ground. She had to one-up him! Her best move was distracting her opponent while she prepared her trump card, but she’d gone up against Bakugou enough times for him to know that, so she had to be real subtle. Like, maybe gently stretch out her foot while he was still focusing on her fighting back, and—
Knee him in the crotch hard.
Time stopped. Bakugou was still. The look on his face looked a cross between constipation and death itself.
Kirishima, meanwhile, was losing it.
Uraraka felt a little sorry joining in with spittakes, laughing and laughing spittakes, but honestly, you couldn’t not laugh at him on the floor so utterly defeated. She was so gonna pay for it later, but that was fine. She could handle him. And anyway, Bakugou wasn’t a bad guy! He wouldn’t really murder her. Probably.
At least if she died her parents would be paid compensation.
Kirishima and her both helped him up and Kirishima did his soothing boyfriend voodoo on him until Bakugou stopped (literally!) breathing down her neck, to which Uraraka marveled at. She marveled at it every time it happened. Which was like, every day. It used to be every hour. This was a vast improvement.
“So, what did you want to tell me?” she prompted him, the three of them back on the sofa with Bakugou trying to subtly lean on Kirishima and the other two pretending it was subtle.
“Huh?”
“When you came home. You were yelling for me.”
Kirishima blinked once, twice, before it clicked.
“Oh!” A characteristic grin broke out over his face. “Right, right! So I hung out with Midoriya today—”
A semi-hissy fit grunt from Bakugou—
“And I met a friend through him! He’s really cool. Kinda big on rules, I guess, but nice guy!”
"Okay…” Uraraka nodded in confusion. Alright, so Kirishima made a new friend. He did that every other day. Why would he tear through the apartment yelling for her to know about it…?
“I thought he seemed like your type!”
“What?!”
Bakugou straight-up snorted. “Shitty hair, you can’t go around setting people up with other people.”
“No, no! I meant like,” Kirishima looked around the room, gesturing. “He seemed like someone you’d like hanging out with! I took a selfie with him, take a look!”
Uraraka had just been about to say—say something, true to her chatterbox personality, but to be honest, what could you say to something like that?
The photo had Kirishima grinning at the camera as per usual, arm slung around a guy about her age, with a square jawline, shiny black hair, glasses, kind smile and. Oh. Oh boy. Uraraka was sold. She was heterosexual.
Kirishima started grinning once he saw her face. “I know. That’s not all either.” He zoomed in on the picture, focusing on the guy’s arms. “Look at those guns.”
There was another snort from Bakugou. “I have better.”
Kirishima petted his hair with a fondness most people would dub disgustingly sweet. Uraraka, used to this, just found it cute they were so grossly in love. Especially since she had more blackmail on Bakugou.
Sometimes she kind of wished she had someone to be that lovey-dovey with. She knew she didn’t need someone else to complete her or anything, but it just. Looked nice to have somebody to come home to.
“So, are you in for a date?” Kirishima looked at her expectantly.
Uraraka tore herself away—no, bad! No sad thoughts! Besides, she had awesome friends like Kirishima, who just scored her a good-looking date! She hoped he was gentlemanly. At least she’d spend a day with eyecandy, and she’d get in some ass-kicking practice if he turned out to be a dick.
“Hell yeah.”
“Awesome!” Kirishima beamed. He motioned with his hands.
Uraraka blinked at him.
“Gimme your phone.”
Uraraka squinted at him. “The last time I did that you set Umi saying ‘love arrow shoot~!’ as my ringtone and called me.” A pause to let the full depth of the betrayal sink in. “I was in class, Kirishima. Now the entire hall knows I’m a nerd.”
“It was for a good cause,” Kirishima said solemnly. Unrepentantly.
“No, you jerk!”
Uraraka relented eventually, handing over her phone but with a lot of suspicious stares. She insisted on looking over Kirishima’s shoulder to make sure he wasn’t doing anything shady again.
“What’re you gonna do with it?”
“Give you his LINE ID!”
Uraraka and Bakugou both levelled him a judgmental look at once.
“That’s not how blind dates work, Kirishima!”
“That’s not how blind dates work, hedgehog fucker.”
Both of them turned their stares onto each other. A silent agreement passed between them to never speak of this again. The idea that she was becoming more like Bakugou was—far too terrifying to acknowledge. Right alongside her responsibilities. She was going to have to bury this moment deep, deep down.
“Don’t you know anything about this shit?” Bakugou scoffed.
“There’s no point in not giving it to you!” Kirishima insisted. “If you guys make friends now, it’d be much less awkward, I promise.”
Which was a fair point. Uraraka accepted this.
Hours later, she wished she hadn’t.
She sat on her bed, staring at her phone nervously. Like it might bite her or something.
She was Uraraka Ochako! Chatterbox girl! She befriended Bakugou! But still, she was nervous. She wanted to make a good impression on this guy. Iida, Kirishima had said his name was. Iida Tenya.
She wanted Iida to like her.
Not because he was handsome—which he totally was, but Uraraka looked for something beyond that—but also because something about his smile had looked kind and warm. She was sure he was a good guy. The fact that he was friends with Kirishima only supported how she felt.
If she was right, surely a guy like that wouldn’t judge her.
[uravity! ☆ ]: hey!!!
[uravity! ☆ ]: i’m uraraka!
[uravity! ☆ ]: you probably guessed by the username though haha
[uravity! ☆ ]: kirishima gave me your id, i hope that’s okay! he thought it’d be nice if we made friends before our…date
[uravity! ☆ ]: that sounds kinda awkward!!! sorry!!
Okay. She started the conversation. Now she could give herself a pat on the back for a job well done, and relax—
[Iida Tenya] is typing…
SHIT.
HE WAS ONLINE. SHE HADN’T EXPECTED THIS!! What was she gonna do? What was she gonna do?! Her eyeballs bulged out her sockets. She wasn’t mentally prepared!! What if she sounded lame?! She had to go hibernate in the woods and meditate for a year before she was ready for this—
[Iida Tenya] stopped typing…
Uraraka blinked. Her eyeballs gently returned back to their sockets.
[Iida Tenya] is typing…
[Iida Tenya] stopped typing…
[Iida Tenya] is typing…
Wait.
Was he trying to type the perfect message?! Was he trying to make a good impression too? Just like her! What a dork! She pressed two hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter, the tension in her flowing out easily.
[Iida Tenya]: No worries at all, Uraraka!! It is of utmost pleasure to meet you!
She spat. He was so earnest!!
Wiping off her screen, she started to type out a reply with a much lighter heart.
[uravity! ☆ ]: you’re earnest!!! that’s cute!
[uravity! ☆ ]: was that forward of me? sorry, i tend to be really affectionate!
[Iida Tenya]: Oh! That’s fine! My brother is an affectionate person too, so I’m quite used to it.
[uravity! ☆ ]: you have a brother! that’s so cool, i’m an only child! what’s he like?
[Iida Tenya]: He’s a wonderful person! An excellent role model who prizes the rules and guides the people. I want to be someone like him someday. Growing up with him was a privilege, even. I’m very grateful to have someone like him in my life.
[uravity! ☆ ]: aw, that’s sweet! you two sound really close!
[Iida Tenya] is typing…
The conversation kept flowing from there. Sometimes Uraraka went on different apps while he replied and came back screaming about cat videos. Sometimes Iida seemed like he didn't know quite what to say. It wasn't a romance movie instant connection, but Uraraka felt like she'd made a friend, and that was enough. That was so, so much more than just enough.
[Iida Tenya]: I must go to sleep now. Goodnight, Uraraka! I had fun talking with you!
[uravity! ☆]: ohmgod i'm so sorry i meant to reply earlier
[uravity! ☆]: goodnight, iida! sleep well!
Uraraka flopped onto her back, staring at the ceiling with a dumb smile. He was nice!! He was a friend!! Man, life was awesome.
[uravity! ☆]: kirishima bless your soul
Iida didn’t really know what he was doing.
Uraraka was nice! Very nice! But he was just—socially awkward. He tried to join in conversations and it usually worked, but he seemed to forever be a little stiffer than the rest, a little stilted, not entirely in there. With Midoriya it was much easier, but with anyone else, especially new people, he always felt a little out of his element.
He looked at the most recent message from Uraraka, eight hours ago, and felt his brain kick itself into an unnecessary overdrive. He wanted to message back, but wasn’t that a conversation ender?
Should he begin a new conversation then? But about what? He barely knew Uraraka—he didn’t know what to share!
He wasn’t proud of it, but he left his phone on his bed and went to go pick out clothes for his—date tomorrow. He still couldn’t really believe Midoriya had arranged a blind date for him. “Think of it as meeting someone new,” he’d offered sheepishly. “Kirishima just thought you guys would g-get along.”
Then why couldn’t they all go do an activity together? Midoriya didn’t have an answer for that, but he’d offered again, “I think it’d be nice to try new things, Iida. If you want out, call me and I’ll definitely get you out of there! I-if you want, of course.”
And well, who was Iida to back down from that? Life was about stepping out of your comfort zone, even if it was—well, uncomfortable. And Uraraka seemed like a nice girl! He would try his best on this endeavor, for the sake of everyone.
He stared at his closet, wondering what was appropriate datewear.
Tensei poked his head into the room. “Midoriya said you have a date!”
Iida turned. Midoriya? He wasn’t the kind of person to just spill that—
“I figured that out on my own,” Tensei explained, putting up both his hands. “Kid’s too obvious. Who’s the lucky person, eh?”
Oh. “It’s a blind date,” Iida said. “A mutual friend of ours said he had a friend who he thought would get along with me, and set us up.”
“Huh,” Tensei flopped on his bed and examined him. “Lil bro, do you want me to pick out clothes with you?”
Iida stared at the insides of his closet again.
Silence settled.
“Tenya?”
“That would be appreciated, thank you.”
“Don’t worry,” Tensei said, with a grin and gunfingers. “Your big bro’s got this in the bag! Years of wooing people have led up to this moment. I have your back, Tenya. Your date might be more impressed with me than you.”
Not that Iida didn’t love and admire his older brother, but sometimes he needed putting back on the right track. When he’d decided to be a policeman, all those years ago, Iida had asked why.
“Because I wanna be cool,” he’d said, and Iida had said almost the exact same thing he said now.
“How impure!”
“You gotta admit, your big bro’s pretty cool,” Tensei twinkled. “Okay, listen up. You gotta wear blue, because that’s your colour…”
Iida stood bewildered as Tensei dove into his closet and piled clothes on him, throwing this and that like a cartoon character. Shirts, jackets, trousers, even socks went flying. A single white sock hit him on the glasses. It slid off, defeated. Iida secretly suspected Tensei just enjoyed his dramatic antics.
“This is a present from Midoriya, isn’t it?” Tensei said, holding up a T-shirt that declared that it was, indeed, a T-shirt.
“Yes,” he said.
“No,” Tensei expressed, and threw it onto his bed for emphasis.
This went on for a while. Finally, Tensei surveyed the masses and held a dark blue jacket up against Iida.
“Lil bro,” he said. “Do you like this jacket?”
“Yes?”
“Good,” Tensei said in a tone of great reverence, “because it’s perfect.”
Iida slid on the jacket. He didn’t wear it very often, but now with his brother’s approval, it felt better. If he didn’t usually already stand straight, he would have straightened his back.
He straightened his back mentally.
Tensei steered Iida into Tensei’s old room and parked him in front of his full-length mirror. “Whaddya think?”
The jacket looked—well. Iida was no fashion expert, but he thought he looked pretty good. Tensei gave him a thumbs up. He looked extra good.
"Think you can find matching pants?" Tensei challenged as they walked back to his room. Tensei peered into the mess he'd made Iida's room into and winced.
"A hero never backs down from a challenge," Iida said, not managing to stop the grin taking over his face. The two of them used to play at heroes when Iida was small, Tensei trying to thaw him out of being a robot.
Tensei got the reference and grinned in return. "Let's see you do it then, little hero.”
[uravity! ☆]: oh i forgot to ask but where do you want to go for our date?
[uravity! ☆]: i thought we should decide together
[Iida Tenya]: Oh, right!
[Iida Tenya]: Well…since you’ve shown me an abundance of cat videos, I took the liberty of looking up cat cafes near here.
[uravity! ☆]: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[uravity! ☆]: can anyone get any more perfect than you??????
[uravity! ☆] sent a crying sticker.
[Iida Tenya]: I am far from perfect…!
[uravity! ☆]: you’re perfect to me rn :’)[uravity! ☆]: kirishima he’s so good i love you
[red riot! ☆]: ;3c
[uravity! ☆]: iida u said u liked rollerblading right
[uravity! ☆] sent a link.
[Iida Tenya]: It's 2am! Go to sleep!!!
[Iida Tenya]: I appreciate the video, however.
[uravity! ☆]: i thought of u when i saw it
[uravity! ☆]: you're awake too though >:T
[Iida Tenya]: I appreciate that too!!!!
[Iida Tenya]: ...Touché.
[uravity! ☆]: im glad!!
[uravity! ☆]: whats your rrason
[uravity! ☆]: reason
[Iida Tenya]: College assignments. A lack of foresight on my part, I admit...I put it off until quite late.
[uravity! ☆]: same
[Iida Tenya]: But you're on YouTube.
[uravity! ☆]: yep
[Iida Tenya]: ...Please get back to work, Uraraka.
[Iida Tenya] sent a judging sticker.
[Iida Tenya]: What are you majoring in? Perhaps I could help?
[uravity! ☆]: ohmygod
[uravity! ☆]: u have ur own assignment!!
[Iida Tenya]: I'm just reading it through one more time now, I'm almost done.
[uravity! ☆]: u need sleep tho
[Iida Tenya]: A little while more won't make a difference. I want to help.
Iida fell asleep at 3am after an onslaught of grateful messages, crying stickers and a completed essay from Uraraka.
[Iida Tenya]: I've arrived at our meeting spot!
[uravity! ☆]: wow you're early!! wait, i'm almost there
Freakin' traffic jam! Uraraka stood in the train impatiently. Stared at the map. Maybe if she intimidated it enough, the train would move faster. She was excited to see Iida!
Well.
Mostly she was. But there was always the underlying anxiety of actually hanging out with someone new. What if it turned awkward? What if the person thought she was weird? Especially since Kirishima was his friend; she wanted to at least be friends with Iida for his sake.
Nope, gotta keep her chin up! It was a just one-off thing, she reminded herself sternly. It wasn't like she had to see him all the time after this. And if it didn't work out, it would be fine. Bakugou didn't get along with 90% of the living population, but Kirishima was still good.
Yeah, it'd be alright. She took a deep breath and let it whoooosh out.
The train announced her stop. Uraraka still had uncomfortable violent butterflies in her stomach, but punctuality forced her to keep moving.
It only took a little while to spot him. He had dark hair, glasses and was really tall. Taller than Bakugou. She probably should've known from the selfie with Kirishima, but damn. This was mega tall.
She wondered vaguely if she could ride on his shoulders and go into battle or something. She'd be unstoppable.
"Iida!" she called out, walking towards him. Despite everything, she still felt a rush of happiness at seeing him. They'd only talked a few times over LINE, but he'd never once made her feel uncomfortable. She hoped real life would be like LINE too. Sadly, less cat videos.
Iida had on a nice jacket! It suited him, and she said so.
Iida smiled.
Oh my god. Ohhh boy. What a powerful force. That beautiful smile directed at her. She was going to straight-up melt. Uraraka beamed back, her face warming. Her heart warmed too.
When she smiled, Iida blushed a little.
Uraraka almost started flaming. He was so cute! He was so cute!!
“I didn’t think you’d get embarrassed so easily,” she teased, poking at his side. “Was I too cute for you?”
Iida turned his head away and mumbled something.
“Huh? I didn’t catch that!”
“N-nothing! Let’s get going to the café!”
Uraraka instantly brightened up. Not that she wasn't already happy before, she just started straight-up radiating excitement this time. Cat cafe!! Cats!! They were so fluffy!!! Adorable!!! Small and soft!!!! She was going to pet and love all of them. All. The. Cats. They deserved it, every single one of them.
"I'm gonna scoop all the cats up into my arms and love them with all I have," she declared as they started walking. "I still can't believe you looked up cat cafes for us! This is the best thing that happened to me all year."
"I'm honoured," Iida said. He sounded slightly flustered. "It wasn't anything. There's no need to thank me."
"No way! A good thing is a good thing, no matter how small." Uraraka smiled up at him again. Iida smiled back, a little awkwardly. Nevertheless, it was very cute. Uraraka reached up to pet his head. Iida squawked.
When they arrived, it was heaven. There was no exaggeration. It was heaven in form of a tiny cafe. The bell on the door rang as they pushed it open and let themselves in. Soft pop-y music played in the background. Uraraka stared in awe, halfway through closing the door. Cats laid everywhere. They were snacking from their bowls, walking on counters, laying down in corners. There were cat baskets on the tables. People stopped eating and left their seats to pet them.
This was her homeland. Where she truly belonged.
A Persian cat with a yellow coat walked over to her, her tail stuck up confidently. She purred as she circled around Uraraka's legs.
She’d been chosen.
"Iida, look!!!" Uraraka almost could've cried as the cat rubbed its face up against her leg. She didn't know what she'd done to deserve this, but boy was she grateful for it.
"Oh, that's Mari," a girl behind the counter called out, craning her neck to see who had arrived. "Close the door though, she likes to—”
As if Mari knew they were talking about her, she bolted at that exact second. Uraraka only saw a streak of colour shooting from her legs straight for the door.
Good thing she had good reflexes. Iida stepped out of the way, clearly sensing she was going to do something. Uraraka slammed the door shut. Mari meowed disappointedly, somehow still maintaining the physical version of :3 on her face. She put her paw to her face and cleaned it. Now she was :3c. Uraraka felt a little like she was witnessing the eighth wonder of the world.
“Power couple," the girl commented.
Wait.
"We're not dating!!" Uraraka said, probably a little too loud for it to sound casual. At the same time, Iida spluttered "We're—we're not—"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I assumed. My name's Jirou, I'm the boss. Come on in, we have tables. Not very busy today."
True to her word, the cat cafe wasn't crowded at all. Uraraka looked at Iida. "Which one do you want?"
Iida shrugged. "Any is fine."
"Same for me. Aw, we're gonna be here all day like this! OK, rock paper scissors! Whoever wins gets to choose."
That made Iida laugh. He threw rock. Uraraka threw scissors, and hissed in mock outrage.
"How about the one by the window?"
“Sure!"
Uraraka slid across from Iida, grinning uncontrollably. She was in a cat café, sitting across from a cute guy.
Sitting across from Iida. Who’d arranged this for her, because he knew she liked cats. Who’d helped her with her essay at freaking 2AM in the morning. Who cheered her up by just talking to her.
He started smiling too when he caught her grinning like an idiot. They ordered food, Iida a proper lunch of katsudon and her a dessert platter of a brownie, cookie and ice cream. He squinted at her when she ordered, but let her off when she winked at him.
Life really didn’t get any better than this.
While they were waiting, an orange cat jumped onto the table, proving that life did, indeed, get better.
Iida was taken off guard and flailed a little about hygiene. The cat looked at him with big green eyes and meowed cheerily, as if it was trying to reassure him.
“What’s your name, cutie?” Uraraka gushed, reaching for it and lifting up a name tag on its collar. The cat meowed. “Rin! That’s so cute! I love you!”
Rin purred as she petted her, entirely content and happy with the world. “There can be no evil in this world when Rin and Mari exist,” Uraraka told Iida seriously. “I’ll fight anyone to protect them.”
“You’ve met them for five minutes,” Iida pointed out.
“Yes,” Uraraka confirmed, starting to laugh. “I’ll still protect them with my life! I love cats!”
“I gathered,” Iida said, smiling back. Rin turned in a circle and settled on the table next to them, nudging against Uraraka’s hand as an order to keep petting her. “Tensei once picked up a stray cat when he was smaller, and insisted he was going to keep it.”
“Really? What’d your parents say?”
The conversation went on like that again. Conversations still weren’t perfect; they weren’t super close friends, but for someone she’d only known for a little while…Uraraka felt so much more comfortable than she did usually.
She hoped Iida felt the same.
The waiter came with their food, sliding their plates smoothly onto the table. Rin hopped off the table and onto the seat next to Uraraka, almost as if to give them space. “Enjoy to the fullest,” he said solemnly. “As you should with all blessings in life.” He turned just as smoothly and left, his walking weirdly birdlike. Uraraka and Iida both blinked after him.
“That sounded wise,” Iida said, obviously taking the words to heart.
“Sound advice,” Uraraka agreed. She picked up a fork and poked at her ice cream, looking back up at him. “Hey, Iida.”
“Yes?”
“Are you made out of ice cream?” she wiggled the spoonful of ice cream in his face for emphasis. “’Cause I’d eat you up!”
“Uraraka—!” Iida’s cheeks went red. Uraraka smiled wider; messing with him was so fun. He got flustered easily, and she intended to use that to her full advantage.
“If you were ice cream, you’d be my favourite flavour.”
“Well—you make my heartbeat rice!”
Uraraka stopped. His face was red and he was obviously trying his best to be on par with her (super awesome) pickup lines. Her heart skipped a beat.
Well, she wasn’t going to let him one-up her. “I’ve said this before, but I think you’re purrfect!”
The date went well.
Iida was sure it wasn’t just on his side, either—they’d laughed several times and talked a lot. The only silences were comfortable, when they were both either eating or scrolling on their phones. The latter always ended with one of them going, “look at this!” and opening up another conversation.
Socializing was always tiring, but with Uraraka, it’d been so much easier than he’d anticipated.
“I had a lot of fun today,” she said, looking up at him. She was so cute. Iida didn’t think he could ever get enough of that smile. She’d smiled so much today; he was so, so grateful.
“So did I.” It wasn’t late, but in winter the sun set early, so the two of them walked in the dim light, passing by pools of street lights already. The world seemed quiet and still, so much more peaceful.
“I’m glad! Are you going to take the train home?”
“Yes,” Iida said. He fidgeted. “Actually—I’ll take whatever you are. I’d like to walk you home, if that’s okay.”
Uraraka smiled again.
“I’d love that.”
EPILOGUE (2 months later)
“Eat shit, Circlecheeks!” Bakugou yelled, furiously jabbing at his console.
“Like hell I’d do your job for you!” Uraraka hollered back. She swerved so hard her entire body swerved along with her car, losing her balance and plopping right into Iida’s lap.
“Oh,” she said, grinning up at him. He was blushing, even though this was a regular occurrence. Her boyfriend was so cute. They hadn’t been together for long, but they’d known for each other for months now, and Uraraka still never stopped thinking about how cute he was.
“Bakugou’s going to win,” Iida managed, gesturing at the screen.
Uraraka considered this. Then she dumped the console to one side and sat up, leaning over to Iida and kissing him, quick and sweet. “He can have the game. I’m winning at life.”
“Get a fucking room!” A couch pillow hit her in the back of her head, but she didn’t even care.
Bakugou was so uninventive. He’d been using that on her ever since the dawn of time.
“I’ve been suffering you and Kirishima for years now, Bakagou! This is the least you deserve!” Uraraka watched as he huffed and left the room, then turned back to Iida. “Where were we?”
Iida smiled. “You were kissing me.”
“Damn right I was.” She leaned again, twining her arms around Iida’s neck, and he met her halfway.
She’d found her someone to come home to.
