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Everybody and their mother knew full well that Mina Ashido was very good at pulling pranks on people. They were basically always lighthearted ones that actually never had any negative effect on others, unless it was Bakugo, in which Jirou usually had to suffer the side effect of him being loud as hell. But, for the most part, it was all in good fun.
Of course, this didn’t exclude one such Izuku Midoriya, who only became more and more prone to being the target of her little pranks when the two of them started dating. Of course, Mina knew how to hold back when she needed to. She fully understood that her boyfriend wasn’t the type of person who would easily react to any old prank, and she understood how to tailor her pranks to be for the person she was pranking. It wouldn’t do for her to hit Izuku with the same sort of thing that she’d hit somebody like Bakugo with. She wasn’t sure his heart could handle something like that.
(Never mind the fact that his heart could handle country-threatening villains. That was a different matter entirely, apparently.)
And she had an idea.
~~~
Unfortunately…
“G’morning, Izu!” Mina brightly greeted as she basically raced down the stairs to tackle her boyfriend in a hug, though she wasn’t exactly able to budge him very much given the sheer strength he possessed.
“Good morning!” Izuku smiled at her, planting a soft kiss on her forehead that Mina gladly leaned into. “I’m making you some egg fried rice for breakfast, does that work for you?” She nodded, humming contently as she just kept hugging Midoriya while he cooked her breakfast.
“Wish I had a boyfriend that would make me breakfast like that every day,” Hagakure sighed dreamily and teasingly all at once, though Mina just rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her best friend.
“You’re telling me eggs fried this rice?” Kaminari muttered under his breath, and this time, Mina scoffed at the joke he’d used plenty of times throughout the past semester. Primarily because it wasn’t as though egg fried rice was the most well-known dish in the entire class. And that was primarily not many of them were particularly good chefs.
Mina turned her attention back to her boyfriend, who was so perfect and wonderful and handsome that she just had to kiss him on the cheek while humming, “Thank you for cooking for me, Izu~”
“Of course!” Midoriya smiled at her with a look that she knew was only reserved for her, and her heart fluttered at the sight of it. She loved how precious he made her feel, how sweet he was to her, and just as importantly, how he’d gradually started feeling comfortable showing that in public and not just behind the privacy of their closed doors.
Then, just as she was taking a seat with her friends, Midoriya turned around and communicated, “Oh, by the way, Iida-san invited me to go on a run with him, and I already ate breakfast. You mind if I go?” The last part was more of just an affirmation than anything, because he knew that Mina would be fine with it. It was just more of a comfort thing, letting her know and stuff.
She nodded casually, not thinking much of it. Though, she’d probably start watching out for him potentially overworking himself by the end of the day, and that was the point where she would probably choose to get involved.
So, yeah, they had class later, and she wanted to spend more time with Izuku, but of course, the two of them were still their own individual people. They loved each other, and their lives were made so much better by being together, but it wasn’t like their whole lives were just the fact that they were together. She would be totally fine if the two of them weren’t together for a bit.
Until, of course…
After a few minutes, Midoriya finished all his cooking and set down the food in front of Mina, whose stomach comically growled in response to the aroma wafting into her nose. She smiled at Izuku gratefully, gently grabbing his hand and kissing the back of it to show her affection. She watched as he blushed lightly, a warm smile worming its way onto his face as the happiness couldn’t stop itself from being expressed.
Then, the strangest thing happened.
And her plans to prank him were entirely derailed.
Mina blew him a kiss and waved him off, “Have fun, Izu! Stay safe! I love you!”
He blew a kiss back at her, and spoke with a smile on his face.
“I love you too, Ashido-san!”
Then, his focus back on the run he was going to join Iida on, he made his way out of the dorm with a smile on his face, seemingly unaware of the fact that he’d suddenly learned how to freeze people in place.
The people in question being none other than Mina herself.
Who sat in her seat, her jaw dropping as the realization kicked in.
Then, it hit.
“...HUH?!”
~~~
“What do you MEAN you didn’t hear that?!” Mina sputtered out, absolutely flabbergasted as she was hitting her entire friend group with the most baffled expression she had ever worn in her entire life. “You guys were RIGHT there!”
Kaminari looked at Hagakure with a confused expression on his face, “Uh…because he didn’t say that?” He was looking at her for confirmation, like he was wondering if he was, in fact, the crazy one.
“Yeah, I don’t think he actually said that, Mina-babe,” Hagakure agreed with Kaminari with an emphatic nod, even more emphatic than normal so she could get her point across while being invisible.
“I know what my boyfriend said, guys!” Mina defended, suddenly feeling as though they thought she was crazy, which she knew she wasn’t. “MY Izu is MY boyfriend, and I hear his voice every day! I think I would know how to pick apart his voice by now!”
“And have you been able to pick apart his muttering, AshiBro?” Kirishima prompted with a quirk of his eyebrow, to which Mina faltered away just a little bit.
“Well, kinda!” She defended herself further. “I’m starting to get bits and pieces of it!”
“Dunno how you’re even able to do that,” Jirou noncommittally interjected. “I can’t even do it, and I’m the one with the hearing quirk.”
“So YOU had to have heard him say that, right?!” Mina whirled and looked at her with wide eyes, basically pleading with her to finally show the world that she was sane.
“Uh, no, I’m pretty sure I just heard him call you by your first name. Like…you know. Every day. Unless he calls you one of your little cutesy nicknames,” Jirou shrugged casually, and Mina almost did a spit take if it weren’t for the fact that, well, she wasn’t drinking anything. What did she mean she didn’t hear Izuku say that?! Did she really just make that up?!
“Also, let’s be real for a second here,” Kirishima hit Mina with an interrogative look, slightly unimpressed. “Do we think that Midobro, the same guy who looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky, would ever think about going back to calling you that formally? I don’t even think he has the muscle memory to say an honorific whenever he says your name anymore, and he still struggles with Tsu sometimes if it’s not calling her ‘Tsu-nee-chan!’”
Also a valid point.
God, was she really just crazy?!
“Oh, hi!” A new voice interjected.
“It is nice to see you all before class, my friends!” Another far more serious voice joined in, and all eyes darted in the direction of the new conversationists.
None other than, of course, Iida Tenya and Midoriya Izuku.
Who was just the topic of conversation.
“Minaaaa~” Izuku smiled brightly at her, the dopamine flowing through him from the run he’d gone on and seeing her again combining into an utterly joyful state for him. “Hiiiiiii~”
…Okay, HUH?! Mina tossed around his words in her head, trying to decode them to the best of her abilities. WHY IS HE TALKING TO ME NORMALLY NOW?!
“Midoriya-kun!” Iida cleared his throat. “I believe it is pertinent we clean up as soon as possible so that we may be early to class!”
“Ah! Okay!” Midoriya nodded, a little caught off guard, since he seemed to want to talk to Mina some more. “Sorry! I gotta go!”
Though, before he left, he walked up to Mina and sweetly gave her a warm kiss on the cheek, filled with affection and love and every sentiment of appreciation of everything she was in it.
“Love you, Mina~!” He waved quickly as he followed Iida, who had started walking (though was clearly paying attention to make sure he didn’t leave Midoriya behind) towards the showers already.
Mina blushed a deep purple, fuzziness spreading through her whole face and warmth reaching the tips of her ears as she processed the loving gesture. She smiled at it, and her chest felt lighter from the love of her life.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to appreciate her boyfriend’s love for long, for Hagakure had cleared her throat behind her. Mina turned around to see her best friend with her arms crossed, and even if she couldn’t see her face, Mina knew that she was wearing the most unimpressed look on planet Earth.
“So…what was that about him being formal with you?”
“THAT DOESN’T COUNT!”
~~~
“I’m telling you, Ochako-chan, something’s off!” Mina whisper-yelled as she slammed her hands down on her friend’s desk despite the fact that she was just sitting across from her. Aizawa, the inactive homeroom teacher that he was, had given his class study time…yet again…and it was only natural that Mina had gravitated towards Izuku and, as a consequence, his normal friend group of Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida, and Tsu. She watched her Izuku talk with Todoroki and Iida through the new assignment that Midnight had given them that was due next week (which she would undoubtedly be procrastinating until one or two nights before that due date).
“...Huh?” Uraraka raised an eyebrow at her. “You haven’t even given me the context of why something’s off, Mina-chan.”
Oh. Oops. Mina had had a bit of a mental simulation of a conversation with Uraraka and her telling her every single detail of why she thought something was off. Because something was! Why would her own boyfriend say something like that?! Because she knew she heard him clearly! Because she was only paying attention to him! So she had heard him right!
She laid out the details to Uraraka, and for a moment, she started to understand a little bit of what Todoroki felt whenever he got into his absurd conspiracy theories.
Why?
Because Uraraka was looking at her the exact same way that she would look at Todoroki when he got into his theory-building.
So she added, “I am not crazy, Ochako-chan!”
“Uh-huh…” Uraraka slowly nodded, and Mina frowned at how unseriously she was taking it.
“I’m being for real right now!” She emphasized, and Uraraka only slowly nodded again.
“Mina-chan, I know I’m not dating him–” She emphasized the fake disgust by gagging. “But I’d like to think I know Deku-kun pretty well, and I don’t think he would ever call you by anything that’s not a way you’d talk to your partner.”
“That’s what everybody’s been telling me, but I know what I heard!” Mina rebutted.
“Uh, did you guys say my name?” Midoriya interrupted awkwardly, hoping he wasn’t butting in on their conversation. His smile was an awkward one meant to pacify them, which was completely useless considering how the two women in question were probably two of the closest people to him in his entire life. Barring Eri.
“Uh, yeah!” Mina turned to him; she knew full well that the best way to get answers was just to ask him, because, well, it was good communication! If he hadn’t called her “Ashido-san” and she’d actually just misheard, then she could take that. Her friends could be right, sure, whatever, but it would feel a lot more comforting to hear it from the person who was accused of saying it. She knew he wouldn’t lie to her, either, so she didn’t need to worry about that.
But if he had called her that, then maybe there was a conversation that needed to be happening. Was there a reason that he would call her that? Did she do something to upset him or make him feel like he needed to distance himself from her? No, it almost certainly wasn’t that. If it was important enough to him that he would revert to talking to her so formally, then he would’ve definitely brought it up to her by now and they could’ve had a legitimately serious talk then. He wasn’t the type to do something immature like that, right? Right? They communicated really well, so there was no reason that he would just start doing something like this for no–
“Uh…Mina-chan, you’re muttering…” Uraraka interrupted, and Mina snapped out of her thought process, quickly glancing around the table that they were sitting at. Uraraka had a shit-eating grin on her face, Tsu had a slightly teasing smile on her face, Todoroki had one eyebrow raised (which was never a good sign), and Iida only had a soft, appreciative smile.
And, of course, Izuku was blushing a bright red at the sight, his heart pounding out of his chest at just how adorable Mina looked right then and there. He didn’t know that she could look even cuter than how she always did, which was insane! How did the cutest person in the whole world get even more cute?!
“T-There’s n-nothing wrong, M-Mina!” Izuku stuttered out, evidently flustered by what had just happened, possibly even more than Mina, who had started to sport a powerful blush of her own, especially as she realized that her other friends, like Sero or Jirou, had almost certainly witnessed that as well. “B-But w-what’s up?”
Mina quietly grumbled, trying to regain her composure as she realized that Izuku had seen that for himself. However, she couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of gladness and joy at the fact that he was clearly affected in a rather romantically positive way, as if it signified their bond was even stronger than before. Somehow.
Unfortunately for her, the timing was off, for Midoriya’s phone started buzzing at that moment, the loud “I AM HERE! CALLING YOUR PHONE! I AM HERE! CALLING YOUR PHONE!” interrupting any hope of a full conversation, and Mina’s eyes darted to the clock for a moment before she clicked her tongue in light dissatisfaction.
“Oh, crap! I need to head over to All Might’s office!” Midoriya sputtered through how hard he was caught off guard. “H-He probably wants to talk about–”
“One For All?” Mina finished his sentence with a teasing smile on her face as he nodded. “It’s okay, Izu. Pinky promise! Just something silly I was thinking about.” Even though she did want to ask him, it was definitely okay now. The fact that nothing was wrong between them took out all of the actual conflict, and at this point, it had become a matter of her curiosity over everything else.
“Thank you, C-C-Cutie,” Izuku stuttered out, catching himself on the affectionate name for Mina. “I-I’m gonna go now, okay?”
The whole group nodded, and they started gravitating towards each other once again. Uraraka and Tsu started talking to each other, as did Todoroki and Iida. Mina shrugged, knowing that this would’ve probably happened and wasn’t too upset by it. She started getting up so that she could scoot back to her regular set of friends, who were getting involved in an…argument about ketchup? She had no idea how they could be arguing so passionately about the condiment, but she wasn’t all too surprised.
But she was in for another surprise.
As she waved goodbye to Izuku, he waved back to her and stepped towards her, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead this time around. Mina lightly giggled into it, a happy blush on her face as she enjoyed the affection from Izuku.
Then, as he backed up and did a small nod to signify the end of the conversation, he smiled at her, “I’ll see you later, Ashido-san! Love you!”
Mina froze again, her jaw dropping much faster as she processed the words quicker than the first time around.
But not quick enough to actually catch him before he was out of the door.
“...HUH?!” She grabbed at her hair in a mix of frustration and confusion, utterly flummoxed. “IT HAPPENED AGAIN!”
“Uh, Mina-chan?”
Her head snapped towards Uraraka in a heartbeat, so fast that there might have been a concern about whiplash.
“What are you talking about?”
She almost choked on her spit.
“THERE IS NO WAY YOU GUYS DIDN’T HEAR HIM SAY THAT!”
“Say what?”
“HUH?!”
“Ashido.”
Aizawa sat up from his sleeping bag for just a moment.
“Please. Quiet down.”
Then he laid back down and got back to his nap.
Leaving the rest of the classroom to get back to business.
And leaving Mina to her own devices, absolutely gobsmacked.
~~~
Unfortunately for Mina, she wasn’t able to catch Izuku for what seemed like the rest of the day, since he seemed to be swept up by tons of other things. That meeting with All Might took all of lunch, their heroics class had them separated as Izuku had instead been partnered with Sero and Uraraka while she was partnered with Momo and Tokoyami, Izuku had a meeting with Mei that was already organized from yesterday to talk about some of his costume’s needs as well as new babies that she wanted to test out, so on and so forth. It seemed as though fate itself just blue-balled her, leaving her wondering just what the fuck was going on.
She wasn’t going to be caught off guard again, though. If he had the audacity to say it again, she would catch the cat by its tongue, damn it! Even if the cat in question was her own boyfriend!
And she was ready from the moment he finally got back to the dorms!
As she watched him walk into the dorm, there was a bit of fatigue in his eyes, no doubt from everything that had happened today. Granted, she also knew that part of it was on him, considering how, well, he was the one who agreed to schedule so many meetings today. That said, that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t still be more than willing to take care of him and cuddle him and treat him with all the love she had in her.
She gently pat the seat that was right next to her, since all she was really doing was lounging around, laying down on one of the couches while scrolling on her phone. Slightly grunting as she sat up, she made sure that he had enough room to fall into her.
And fall into her he did, because the moment that he took off his shoes, he was well on his way to going straight over to her, knowing full well that he didn’t have anything else planned today other than, well, cuddling. And maybe homework. But mainly cuddling.
He sighed happily as she wrapped his arms around him, and he nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck, taking a soft inhale of his lover’s smell.
“Sorry we haven’t been able to spend much time together today,” Midoriya started off the conversation with an apology, accompanied with a regretful smile that looked for forgiveness. It was a forgiveness that Mina was more than willing to give considering how, well, she knew he wanted to spend time with her, too.
“It’s okay, Izu~” Mina hummed, just appreciating the fact that she was able to hold him in her arms again. “You’ve been really busy today, right?”
He sighed sweetly into her arms, melting into her loving embrace as he accepted her love and affection, “Yeahhhhh…”
“God, get a room, Deku-kun,” Uraraka teased from the table she was sitting at.
“Why am I always the target here, Uraraka-san?” Midoriya raised one eyebrow interrogatively. “Why don’t you go for Ash–”
“AH!” Mina finally got her chance to strike back, quite literally grabbing Midoriya’s jaw and holding it still so he couldn’t do much more other than just have Mina’s hand on him. “I FINALLY GOT YOU!”
“Uhghgh…whuh?” Midoriya garbled out, Mina’s hand being on his jaw preventing him from speaking normally. “Whuh dyou mean you goh me?”
“YOU WERE ABOUT TO CALL ME ‘ASHIDO-SAN’ INSTEAD OF MINA LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO!” Mina accused with a booming voice, though one filled with triumph instead of anger. It was the sort of voice one would take on if they’d just realized they became champion of the world at something.
She finally let go of his mouth, waiting for an explanation from him.
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
Then…
“I w-wa–” Izuku started, unsteadily as his eyes darted around every which way. “I wasn’t g-goin–pff–” he closed his mouth again, his lips pursing multiple ways as he tried stopping the smile from coming to his face. He moved his mouth around his face numerous times, doing everything he could to stop his facial expressions from showing, even going so far as to actually put his hand to his mouth and covering it up to try hiding it.
“Are you…LAUGHING?” Mina asked, truly perplexed as her jaw fell for what must have been the eightieth time today.
“I w-wa–pfft–I wasn’t going–*snicker* to call–” Izuku kept on failing to get a coherent sentence out, and at this point in time, his composure was failing throughout his entire body instead of just his face, his body shaking from amusement and the laughter that was just itching to escape from him.
Mina couldn’t believe it. What was so funny about this?
*snicker*
Her head snapped around to see that Uraraka, as well as Kirishima and Tsu, who were both sitting with her, had also started laughing under their breaths, though they clearly weren’t making any sort of effort to contain it. Even Tsu was making some amused noises, though to call it laughing might be a little bit of an exaggeration.
“Wait…” Mina balked as the realization started setting in. She looked around to where Kaminari, Jirou, and Momo were sitting. “No…”
They, too, were starting to laugh, with Kaminari and Jirou being open about it while Momo retained her composure, but the smile on her face told Mina that she was having just as much fun as everyone else.
“YOU’RE ALL IN ON THIS?!” Mina sputtered out, though her eyes were only on Izuku, who had finally devolved into full-blown laughter, clenching at his sides as he giggled his way through his amusement in a manner…eerily similar to how she would when…
“No…” Mina gasped, her breath actively being sucked out of her chest. “Izu, did you PRANK me?!”
He didn’t even answer with words, just an erratic nod as he continued laughing his ass off, to the point where tears were starting to fall from his eyes. She could only watch, her cheeks burning a bright purple as she realized that, this entire time, she’d wanted to be the one pranking him, but she’d been fully hoodwinked in the process! She was pulled into the flow of his prank! He’d…he’d…he’d pranked her!
“We wanted to keep it up a little longer, but the moment that you asked him that question, we knew it was up, kero,” Tsu teased with a knowing look towards Izuku. “We know he can’t lie for his life, so if you ever actually asked him, then he would’ve given it up way earlier.”
“T-THEN WHY DID HE ACTUALLY CALL ME ‘MINA’ SOMETIMES?!”
“...To throw you off,” Izuku admitted with a sheepish smile, earning a groan from Mina. “I thought that, if I actually just called you Mina or a normal nickname, you might’ve thought that you just misheard me the first time…”
Mina groaned even louder, because he was right, it did work!
“I should’ve known it was a prank when you said you didn’t hear him call me that!” She pointed accusingly at Jirou. “But, nooooo, I just HAD to believe that even your hearing would mess up like that!”
“Uh, duhhh,” Jirou snorted. “‘Course I heard him say that. The literal only thing I can’t get is his muttering, and I’m even getting a bit better at that.”
Mina wanted to facepalm. It was so obvious in hindsight!
She looked at Izu, who looked so pleased with himself.
She pouted at him, and even then, he only let out a light laugh at that, too. She hated that the prank worked on him, but she loved the fact that he felt so comfortable around her that he was willing to try it out! What a meanie! All her plans to prank him and get him accustomed to her and understand that he deserves love and comfort and to feel safe around her were backfiring!
“If we were living together, you’d be sleeping on the couch tonight,” Mina pouted, crossing her arms and playfully scooting away from him so she wasn’t holding him anymore. “I guess I’ll have to settle for you sleeping in your room and me sleeping in mine, then…”
Unfortunately for her, everything had started to backfire even harder, as he simply fired back with, “So…you don’t wanna cuddle tonight?”
And, for what might have been the first time in their relationship, he hit her with the meanest shit-eating grin of his entire life.
She pouted even more, and she knew she didn’t have the ability to say that she didn’t actually want to cuddle with him, because she always wanted to cuddle with her Izuku, damn it!
“...I do,” she admitted, still pouting at him. “Meanie.”
Even though she called him that, there was nothing that could’ve made her happier than him pulling her closer, hugging her in his arms, and kissing the top of her head while correcting her, “Your meanie~”
“...Yeah~”