It happens in an instant. A villain attack occurs and two UA Hero Course students are stuck in the middle of it...
Quite literally.
"Watch out!" Deku, Izuku Midoriya, shouts grabbing the hand of his classmate and fellow hero-in-training, Earphone Jack (Kyoka Jirou). He pulls her out of the way of a quickly flying manhole cover. The two roll on the ground for a moment, their hands still holding onto each other. As they get up, they stare at the villain behind this catastrophe.
Dressed in a red jumpsuit, with cartoonish images of glue bottles sewn all across, an orange cap rests at the top of their blue head of hair. A pair of red glasses frames their grey eyes, and a purple cape flows behind them. "Bahaha! You heroes are no match for the Cupid of Pain, Glue Maskman!"
"Why's this guy acting like one of those super old tv villains?" Earphone Jack asks, as she and Deku get up to their feet.
"I'm not quite sure. It could be any number of things, whether it be an unintended vocal trait coming from his quirk, it just being his personality as a whole, or even just what he thinks a villain should act like. I mean, lots of heroes try to keep up that sort of mentality, where they act like the fictional heroes of old-"
"It was rhetorical, moptop." Earphone says dryly, getting Deku to stop talking.
"R-right. Sorry." The greenette responds, as the two return focus to the villain.
Glue Maskman looks at the two with a sinister smile, before his face turns to confusion. "Wait... You two aren't supposed to stick to each other! It's supposed to be my objects of pain!" He shouts, pointing angrily at their hands.
The two hero students look at him in confusion, before looking at their hands. Sure enough, the right hand of Deku and the left hand of Earphone Jack are stuck together, a blue adhesive keeping them stuck together. 'W-W-W-W-WHAAAAAAAAT?!!" The two shout as one as they try to separate their hands.
"Let go, Midoriya!" Earphone Jack shouts, pulling her hand as hard as she can.
"I-I'm trying! M-my hand is stuck in my glove too! I-it must have seeped through!" Deku panics out his response, his not-sticky hand trying to tear the glove off of his other hand.
"ARRRGH! You two ruined my whole plan!" Glue Maskman yells in frustration, the two students continuing to try and shake apart as they focus on his words. "I was going to pair people with heavy objects and take their stuff when they were unable to move! This is ruining everything! Ughhh, doesn't help that my quirk only lasts for about six hours..." The villain slumps down, the two teenagers looking at him with disappointment. "...I might as well just get out of here and wait for night hours to strike again. See if the factory has anything..."
"He's seriously just a pickpocket? The guy threw a manhole cover at me..." Earphone complains dryly, before focusing back on her hand. "Wait, that means I'm stuck holding your hand for six hours?!" She shouts back, a small blush on her face.
"I-It can't be that long. B-Besides, maybe he can tell us how to remove it quicker if we beat him!" Deku muses, before turning to face the villain... Or at least where he was. Where Glue Maskman was, is now empty air, as people are stuck to various objects around them. "Eh... Eh?! H-He escaped!" Deku slumps his head, hanging it in disappointment.
"Man... This is just perfect. Aizawa takes everyone into the city for a lesson on patrols, and of course we end up getting stuck to each other." The violette Hearing Hero whines, kicking at the manhole cover that had been thrown at her. "And for Six Hours, nonetheless. Ugh, why did I follow you to the sounds of disturbance?"
Izuku, falling out of his Deku personage, looks at her in confusion. "Actually, yeah. W-why did you follow me? Everyone else just shook their heads and c-cursed my luck." The greenette says, causing Kyoka (her too falling out of the so-called "heroic state of mind") to look away from the boy.
"W-well, it's not like I could just stand around with everyone else. People could be in trouble after all." Kyoka replies, scratching at her cheek with one of her free fingers, a slight dusting of a blush on her cheeks.
"C-cool..." Izuku says to himself in a hushed voice, thinking no one would hear him. Unfortunately, having a hearing based quirk, Kyoka could definitely hear him.
'Cool? In what way would I ever be considered cool...?' She thinks to herself, holding her free hand close to heart... Herself... An uninteresting person...
Izuku looks at her in worry, her sudden silence setting off alarms in his head. He goes to speak to her, until a familiar voice cuts him off before he can speak.
"And what exactly are you two doing?" The two teenagers turn to face their homeroom teacher looking at them with his usual tired expression, though also with a tinge of concern as he looks at the area surrounding them. "And why are you holding hands?" Aizawa asks, the two looking at each other in embarrassment.
The two lift their hands held together, as a bashful grin grows on Izuku's face. "Er, well, it's kind of a small story." The greenette explains, as he and Kyoka watch the rest of the class run up behind Aizawa.
And of course, the loudest members of the class, at least in relation to the world of 'romance' (Ashido, Hagakure, Kaminari, and Mineta) began to scream in differing tones, before quickly being silenced by their homeroom teacher tying his capture weapon over their mouths. "I would prefer if I didn't have to deal with a second headache, because I already know that this shit is going to give me a migraine. So, Jirou, Problem Child... What's the situation?"
"Some overly strong pickpocket with a glue quirk blasted one of our hands, I'm not too sure which. Greenie pulled me out of the way of a manhole cover he threw at me, and now we're stuck like this. Guy let slip it lasts for about six hours, and then used a... Diversionary tactic to give us the slip." Kyoka explains dryly, very happily leaving out the fact that the two students talking about the weirdness of the guy was what allowed him to escape.
Aizawa looks at their hands, before glancing back up at the students. "I'm guessing it seeped through your gloves?" He asks, the two nodding in response. The underground hero let out a deep sigh, before turning to the rest of the class. "Change of plans. Instead of it being a simple patrol lesson, we've changed it to information gathering and pursuit." He says, pulling out his phone. "I'm going to give you all limited access to the heronet. Once you have access, use it to find out any information about this surrounding area. Pickpockets usually stick around one spot, and this guy sounds a bit more hazardous than that. You get any info you pass it along to everyone else." He says commandingly, getting nods from the students. He turns back to the two glued students. "Despite your condition, you'll be participating in this as well. Think of it as extra credit." He then begins to walk off. "If any of you happen to find this guy, you have your provisional licenses, so feel free to do as you please." He throws out a strand of his capture weapon, before swinging away.
The majority of the class begins to walk away, though there are some who stick around the two students quite literally stuck in their situation, if only to make comments.
"Man!! It's so unfair that Midoriya is the first one to be holding hands with a girl!" Kaminari exclaims, ruffling up his hair. "Lucky bastard..."
"It makes me enraged!" Mineta shouts, his eyes bulging from his head in an intense stare at the greenette. "Though... It's only Jirou, so it's not too bad." The boy says, causing Izuku to look at him in anger. The boy goes to take a step towards the grape headed pervert, only to be held back by his fellow glue victim.
"Just leave it, Midoriya." She says, her eyes covered by her hair.
"W-why? He said something rude, and I want to know-" Izuku begins, before being cut off by the girl raising her jacks, and placing them in front of his eyes.
"Leave. It." Kyoka reaffirms, simply getting a frozen shock in response, before Izuku gives a somewhat hesitant nod. "Let's go patrol around the shopping district, you keep your phone open for the heronet." She says, before the two go walking off.
Ashido and Hagakure, who had originally stayed to tease the potentiality of a new couple being formed, watch them storm off. Ashido puffs her cheeks in anger at the purple gremlin who had stated his rude remark, while Hagakure keeps her attention focused solely on the two leaving... Not that they or anyone else can see that.
Izuku and Kyoka find themselves in an alleyway near a shopping center for electronics a couple hours later, the class having shared that a few witnesses saw someone matching the description of the Glue Maskman heading towards this area. As for why they were in an alleyway...
'Why is Jirou so embarrassed to be seen holding hands with me?' Izuku thinks to himself, as the two are pressed up against the wall. Kyoka looks out from around the corner, attempting to scout out for the man. She takes a step forward, pulling Izuku's arm up a little as she creates a small bit of distance between the two of them. Izuku lets out a sigh in response.
It had been like this since they left the original attack area, with the girl always putting a distance between the two. It... It kind of hurt, if Izuku was being honest. Not in the physical sense that he was so used to, but more so in the sense of emotionally. Another tug on his arm, and Izuku was pulled from his thoughts. His thoughts of controlling black whip with his use of anger filled his head, and finally he gained the courage to speak out in protest. "Y-you know Jirou, if you didn't like me, y-you could just say it instead of trying to pull my arm off." A bit of his quirk crackled as he spoke, a small bit of blackwhip showing up in response.
Kyoka turned back to look at him, the boy looking at her with... Saddened anger. "M-Midoriya, no, I just..." She turns away. "I just thought this situation was too embarrassing for both of us." She says, refusing to look the boy in the eyes.
"I don't have a problem with it though." The greenette responds, his anger fading now that the two were actually talking about the issue for once. "Honestly, I would have accepted you being upset that you were stuck to me. I-I know I'm not exactly the luckiest person, and I don't my less than stellar looks help with anything."
"What are you talking about?" Kyoka asks in bewilderment, shocking the boy a bit. "Midoriya, you... You're so much more than just some bad luck. Man, it's like life just does whatever it can to shit all over you, and yet you still keep going. It's a little scary sometimes how determined you are... But it's also really cool. And dude, your looks? Seriously? I'm sure if you asked anybody with a pair of eyes out, there would be a bigger likelihood of them saying yes than no. If anything... You should be ashamed of being stuck to me."
Izuku tilts his head, before deciding to be a bit... Bold. He tugs back on his arm, pulling Kyoka towards him. Her body faces his now, but her face still refuses to look at him, a sad expression painted over it. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh come on, you can't be serious with that." She retorts, her eyes closing with a bit of saddened pain. "I'm not exactly the girliest in class, and my figure leaves a lot to be desired. I-I'm punk, a bit boyish, I don't exactly have a sweet mouth, a-and there's not any real attributes to like me by, so-" The girl is silenced by a pair of blackwhips tapping above her eyes, the girl opening them to find their ends pointed towards her.
"I-I can't help but disagree with you on this." Izuku says, surprising her a bit. "I-I'm not one to look at girls like what you described them as, my mom would kill me if I even had the thought I'm sure, but y-you're... You'rereallyprettyJirou!" Izuku shouts, and Kyoka feels like she had just been punched in the gut. "And, w-who cares about whether you're boyish, or punk, or whatever! T-those aspects are what make you... You. I-I don't know what a sweet mouth is, b-but the way you sing, no, even just the way you speak is... v-verypretty!" Another gutpunch. "J-Jirou, I-I could never be embarrassed or ashamed, o-or anything negative when I'm around you. I-In fact, I wish I was at least a little more like you. Y-you're never scared to say what's on your mind, y-you tell people how it is so freely, and you don't take crud from anyone. I-... I like you, for you. Jirou, you're... You're Witty and Powerful..." Izuku raises his free hand, raising a finger for the two traits. "Wittyful!"
Kyoka looks at him fully, to see a large blush on his face, and a nervous smile on his lips. The boy looks at her in worry, before she starts to giggle, before that turns into laughter. "Pfffttt, hahahaha! W-Wittyful?! What the heck is that?!" She laughs, her free arm clutching her stomach as she folds over in laughter. Izuku's nervousness fades as he looks at her with a softer smile, happy to hear her laughter. She ceases the action soon after, before looking back at Izuku with her own smile. "Don't knock yourself either though, okay? You've changed a lot from the guy who used to break his bones constantly." She lets her hand that's stuck to his tighten, squeezing the right hand of the boy, the most injured of his two arms. "You've changed not only yourself... But everyone else too."
Izuku looks at her with a small part of his lips, the two now locking eyes. Izuku closes the small gap into a smile, as they look at each other happily...
"BAHAHA!" Familiar laughter interrupts the two's moment, as they look out at the end of the alleyway. They look back to each other and nod, before running out, finding a semi-familiar sight. Glue Maskman standing in the middle of the crowded area, glue firing out from his hands, as he sticks civilians to various items in the surroundings. "Yes! My plan may have been setback a little earlier, but the Glue Maskman will always prevail!"
"Not quite, you conniving trapster!" A voice yells, catching the villain's attention. Izuku steps forwards, Kyoka looking at him in a deadpan.
"Conniving trapster? Really?" She asks, Izuku nodding.
"Well, if he's going to act like an old tv villain, might as well play the part as the heroes." He responds, getting a chuckle from the girl. "Besides, I've got this feeling that we're going to win this time."
"Hm, well in that case..." Kyoka leans over and begins to whisper in his ear. Izuku leans away for a second, looking at her in shock and awe, the violette giving a nod, before Izuku's expression turns determined and he responds with his own nod. Kyoka points at the villain with a smug grin, Izuku copying the action. "You're days of being a thief are over you so called cupid. Know why?"
"What?!" Glue Maskman yells, as the two teens shuffle a bit, until they're on even footing with each other.
Izuku pulls on Kyoka's arm, spinning her a bit, until she lands in the crook of his left arm. "Analysis Rocking!" The two yell together, Izuku letting go of Kyoka, as he begins to crouch down, the violette running around as he spins his arm to keep up with hers. Finally they return to their starting position, before they lean away from each other, their arms and legs angled in such a way that it somewhat resembles a heart. "Deku and Earphone Jack!" The two return to normal poses, before Kyoka pumps a fist.
"Let's go!" She shouts, and the two take off running towards the villain, both yelling out as they do so.
"Foolish heroes! My glue will stick it to you!" The villain shouts as he fires out more globs from his hand. Izuku takes the lead, holding out his free hand, curling up his fingers.
"Delaware Smash!" The greenette shouts, flicking out the attack. Wind pressure flies forwards in a huge burst, halting the progression of the glu globs as they break apart. The boy nods to his partner, Kyoka nodding as she takes the lead. She plugs a jack into her wrist mounted amplifier, as the two come to a halt, before she punches the ground.
"Heartbeat Distortion!" She shouts out, letting loose a beat of her heart, breaking a bit of the ground, turning it to loose rubble. Izuku crouches alongside her, sweeping his leg as he lets his quirk amplify the motion, a gust of wind rising up and lifting the shattered rubble alongside it. The two teens jump up into a standing position, Kyoka grabbing a few of the smaller pieces of rubble with her jacks, wrapping around the rocks tightly. She closed one of her eyes, before using all of her might to swing the jacks forwards and outwards, letting the rocks go with them.
With great accuracy, the rocks struck against the Glue Maskman's hands... Plugging his glue shooting hands. "Aaahh! No! My hands are going to be stuck for six hours! You brats! He shouts, before charging forwards.
Izuku and Kyoka nod towards each other, before rushing at him as well. Kyoka takes her jack out from the amp on her right wrist, switching it to the one on her left, the hand held in Izuku's. The greenette lowered the percentage of his quirk, lowering it to a safe level, just enough to use for a moment. The two fell into sync with their footsteps, before leaping forwards, their joined hands reared back as they approached the villain. "Heartbreak Detroit Smash!" The two yell as one, launching their joined fists forwards, slamming them into the face of the villain. A burst of Kyoka's heartbeat follows the impact, further adding to the damage done.
The punch carries them all the way through, until Glue Maskman is lying against the ground, unconscious. The two stand up, victorious, big smiles on their faces.
"You know, if this were one of those old hero shows, an explosion would ring out right about now." Kyoka says with a smug tone, Izuku looking at her exasperatedly.
"Please do not summon Kacchan. I already know he's going to complain he didn't get to fight, I don't need him blowing the both of us up." He says with a tinge of worry, causing the violette to laugh. "I'm being serious here!"
Kyoka laughs harder.
When it was all said and done, it took three hours to find and defeat the Glue Maskman, the rest of the class being informed of the villain's defeat once the police had arrived for the arrest. What followed... Was another three hours of paperwork, leading to a grand total of Six hours wasted on the pickpocket.
Six hours also being the time limit for the man's glue.
"Just got word that the victims of the glue incident at the original crime scene are all walking about freely, and are being checked on as we speak. Their belongings are being returned to them as well. Good work you two." Aizawa spoke in his usual dead tone, before glancing down at their hands. "You two should have been freed by now, is there any reason as to why your hands are still conjoined?"
"I-I'm not too sure myself." Izuku replies, lifting his hand, and consequently Kyoka's with it. "We really should have been freed from this earlier, but it seems like our hands just... Won't unstick." He says with a bit of worry, yet also a hint of elation.
Aizawa looks at Kyoka, the girl giving him some kind of look, the man nodding. "Well, it seems like you'll just have to make due for now." He says, before walking away, likely to deal with more paperwork. Izuku gives a tired chuckle, closing his eyes with a smile.
Kyoka looks at him with her own smile, her mind lingering on words said to her earlier.
'I-... I like you, for you.'
She tightens her grip around Izuku's hand with a smile, making sure she doesn't let go to this feeling... Not yet.
Maybe even not ever.
Yo! So, this was originally supposed to be my valentines special and uhhhh *Looks at date of posting* Yeah that didn't happen. But hey, better late than never, right? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! Have an excellent day!
Been a bit since the promotion, but if you want to follow my works a bit more closely, or just hang out with fellow appreciators of IzuJirou, then come hang out in Shady's Cul-Er, Discord Server! It's pretty chill there (most of the time at least): https://discord.gg/wXQvzm2