Ticked Off [Boku No Hero Academia]

52: NEW AGE

"Tamaki," Amaj- Tamaki whispered, shrinking into himself but squinting his dark eyes in a friendly manner.

"You gonna adopt those two, as well, Izuku-kun?" Mirio wondered with a genial head tilt.

"Don't encourage him," Aizawa cut in hastily, seemingly intending to cover the boy's mouth with a palm before learning from his mistakes and instead lightly pressing his fingertips against the back of his head as a harmless deterrent.

"Aw, nii-chan," Izuku teased, laughing and turning his face away when the fingers poked at his cheek instead. "Sorry, sorry."

"No, you're not," he said drily, tucking his hands back in the pockets of his hero costume.

"No, I'm not," Izuku agreed, fondly nosing into Eri's hair and closing his eyes contentedly for a moment. "You know me so well..."

*

It took a lot of persuading to pry Izuku away from Eri again. At least he knew she was safe with Mirio, but... he still didn't want to let her go again.

Eijirou lightly elbowed him and gave a questioning grin. Izuku smoothed out the worried crease of his brow, lips pulling back in a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. When it came to his feelings about Eri, he was far too transparent.

Ochako tucked herself under his arm, and he let it drape over her shoulders. Tsu padded in between Eijirou and Izuku, and all of them turned their gazes to the front door of the dorms as the bell trilled. The atmosphere of the room instantly lit up as the Wild Wild Pussycats entered with their classic catchphrases, automatically falling into formation. They looked different without make-up and their hero costumes. Ashido and Hagakure instantly sprinted forwards to grab the box of buns that Tiger offered, and Ochako squirmed out from beneath Izuku's arm to go over and join them drooling over the buns.

"Please, come inside," Shouji offered politely.

Mandalay raised her hands and shook her head slightly. "Oh, don't worry about us."

"We need to go visit Class B, too," Tiger told them.

Izuku leapt to the front of the group, dropping into a crouch to enthusiastically shake Kouta's hands where he sulked next to Mandalay. "Kouta-kun! Long time no see! Thanks for your letter! I'll treasure it forever!"

He wasn't lying – even in the future, it held pride of place.

Kouta's cheeks pinked faintly, and he averted his eyes sideways. "Whatever."

"Midoriya-kun, look," Mandalay spoke up, stepping aside to point at the red shoes on the doorstep. "He chose them himself. He said he definitely wanted red."

Kouta hastily moved to stand in front of them, waving his arms with a panicked shriek to try and distract them. "N-No...!"

Izuku merely smiled, all soft and fond. "We match!"

"But why are you back at UA?" Satou asked as he entered the room holding a tray of teacups.

Pixie-Bob raised her hands to wordlessly refuse the tea. "We came to let you know we're in business again."

"We suspended activities to recover from the attack and kidnapping," Mandalay informed them. "Even though we weren't active for so long, we still held Rank #411 for the second half of the year, thanks to the outpouring of support from our fans."

"We can't just stand still when there are people waiting for us!" Ragdoll exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air, then lowered one into a wave at Izuku. "It's good to see you in good health, Midoriya-kun!"