Reactions varied throughout the classroom towards Izuku and Mina announcing their relationship. The only common reaction that everyone seemed to hold was surprise and shock, mostly at the fact that these two, who could only be more different if Bakugou was thrown into the works, were not only this close, but now dating! Barely anyone had missed their avoidance of one another the past week, and for them to now come out with this? The reactions were somewhat valid when considered like this. It hadn't been supposed to spread like the wildfire that it had done, but it managed to explode and expand all at once.
The plan that the two of them had come up with was to just inform their closest friends at first, and then go about the day like normal, only no longer hiding any public displays of affection - All of which were bound to have come from Mina, since Izuku was way too reserved to ever do something like that - and if anyone who didn't know asked, they would tell them. It was better than getting up at the front of the class like they were on some sort of trial and declaring it for all the world to hear. At least it was better for Izuku. Mina wouldn't have minded so much.
So the list of people who would be told really came down to Kirishama, Siro, Hagakure, Asui and Kaminari on Mina's side, and Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki for Izuku. Mina expressed a bit of surprise at Izuku's inclusion of Todoroki on that list, until she was reminded of their joint venture against the Hero Killer. It made her laugh. Izuku could have the ever loving crap beaten out of him by someone one day, and consider them a buddy the next. A part of her was actually sort of surprised he hadn't made any plans to inform Bakugou, given the sort of person her green haired boyfriend was. In the face of pure hostility, he was still able to only address the positives in an individual, whereas any sane person would have gotten tired of the explosive teenagers attitude years ago, and probably thrown him out a window had they possessed a strong enough Quirk. She was thankful that Izuku wasn't that suicidal or cocky enough to tell his childhood friend / bully. He was smarter than that.
And so, they attempted to tell their social groups one by one. Since Uraraka hadn't arrived at the room yet, and nor had Bakugou or Kaminari, that left a smaller list of people that they had to inform right out of the gate, which in a way, made things easier. For Izuku, the first person he spoke to was the Half-Hot-Half-Cold Quirk user, since Iida was busy with his class president duties at the time they made their way into the classroom.
Todoroki's reaction ranged onto the lower end of the scale, showing more an indifference than anything else. His expression barely changed, not showing really any sort of surprise. The only slight change you could see was the fact that, on the burned side of his face, his eyebrow raised slightly.
"...Is there a particular reason you felt the need to inform me of this, Midoriya?" He added a particular emphasis when referring to himself, which did indicate a small amount of intrigue in the Quirk Inheritors choice to trust him with this knowledge. His question almost bordered accusatory, like he thought Izuku was attempting to get a reaction of sorts from him.
Izuku quickly shook his head, and desperately made arm flailing to try and get Todoroki to please lower his voice, since he had made no effort to adjust his volume when speaking back to him. "W-Well, we're j-just trying to tell people we're good f-friends with, so it doesn't you know, explode."
"And you seriously think that telling Hagakure of all people is a good idea in that situation?" The bi-hair coloured boy asked, pointing behind Izuku. Located a few seats and rows away, Mina had evidently told the Transparency Quirk holder about the relationship that the two of them shared. Excitable as ever, Hagakure had presumably clasped hold of Mina's hands - Honestly, with no visible anatomy, it was difficult to tell - and begun to jump up and down on the spot like an excited child. Not exactly subtle.
Only able to nervously laugh, Izuku had to concede that Todoroki made a strong case.
"Still... You consider me a friend, huh?" Todoroki questioned, his expression relaxing somewhat. Given the drama and heat of combat the two of them had engaged in, Izuku was taken aback that Todoroki needed affirmation that this was indeed the case. Once Izuku confirmed that he did, the scarred teenager seemed to allow himself to smile lightly. A rather rare sight, since he barely wore much expression at all, given his stoic personality. "Thanks for trusting me with that then, Midoriya. I appreciate it. Good luck to you two." A small display of the softer side to the son of the world's number two Hero. A very rare display he certainly wouldn't show again for quite a while.
By this point, Izuku was already sweating pretty badly out of sheer awkwardness. To top that off, he heard another worryingly loud reaction behind him. This time a male reaction, sounding like Kirishama doing a weird combination of gasping in shock and bursting into laughter.
"I think it's really cute."
Shocked by Yaoyarozu's sudden insertion into the conversation, Izuku jumped, and very nearly let out a surprised yelp, snapping his neck to look at their fellow student whom sat herself next to Todoroki. The young woman had her head rested in her hands, with tinted red cheeks. Wearing a warm smile directed at Izuku, it was pretty evident she had heard what he had just told Todoroki.
"Y-Yaoyarozu! How did -"
"You aren't as quiet as you think. To be frank, it was hard not to hear you from where I'm sitting." She answered before Izuku even managed to force out the rest of his question. Prompting him to check around, the teenage boy quickly looked over his shoulders. Attention wasn't on him or Mina more than it would be under any normal circumstances. He thanked God that he hadn't subconsciously been shouting which he had feared he had been doing since Yaoyarozu had heard him. She continued, almost seeming like she was gushing over the developments she had overheard. "I think nearly everyone noticed that something was going on between you and Ashido. It's really sweet that you're dating her now." She paused and waved her hand, to dismiss any concerns that her classmate had. "Don't worry, I'll keep it quiet if you want."
Blushing, Izuku nodded, and slightly bowed towards the class's vice president. "Th - Thank you, Yaoyarozu-san. I - I appreciate it."
"Don't mention it, Midoriya." Yaoyarozu smiled kindly. She then quickly shot a look behind Izuku and pointed. "She seems to be a lot peppier today."
Taking another glance behind him, Izuku saw Mina right now in a huge fit of giggles and laughter alongside Kirishama and Asui, the Frog girl giving the pink girl a warm hug, presumably just having heard what Mina had had to tell her. He knew that they were friends, but Izuku wasn't sure exactly how close the two of them were. Judging by that, they had to be on pretty good terms, which honestly surprised him, given their conflicting personalities. Then again, he wasn't in a position to talk, was he?
Each move that Mina made, every step she took, seemed to be filled with a visible spring to it. To add onto it, she didn't seem to be able to stop laughing, or to stop grinning the way she was. Izuku blushed at seeing her perfect smile once again.
"She does seem to have more energy than usual." Todoroki commented, throwing in a rare optional piece of conversation into the discussion. Typically, he was quiet and reserved, not really speaking unless he felt the need, or was directly being addressed. If he was making the observation without prompting, it could generally be trusted to be accurate. Befitting how his body seemed to be genetically split down the centre right down to his Quirk, he seemed to be half deadpanned, and half amused that somehow, the class's resident energy ball seemed to have taken it up to eleven.
"I think you're having a good effect on her. She seems really happy." The Creation Quirk holder observed with another soft smile.
"She - She was always happy." Izuku said, doubting that his presence had that much of an effect on her in such a short space of time. He recalled that Mina was always seen with a smile on her face within the classroom, laughing and making dumb jokes in her social circle. Them dating shouldn't have that big a deal on her general mood, should it?
"No, she was always energetic." Yaoyarozu stated. "She's a social girl, no doubt, and she'd got plenty of enthusiasm, but I don't think that I've seen her this happy in quite a long time. I think you're having that direct effect on her, Midoriya. She likes you, clearly."
As if to punctuate the point, in that exact moment, Mina must have felt the three sets of eyes focused on her from the top right corner of the room, because she turned around to see three of the class's top five ranked students in terms of grades looking over at her. Under any other circumstance, it would have creeped her out, but since she knew of Izuku's plans to tell Todoroki about their relationship, she came to the quick and correct conclusion that he had informed him, that Yaoyarozu either overheard or just guessed, and they were discussing the two of them. Figuring this out, Mina gave Izuku a beautiful smile and a wink, tilting her head along with it to make it more obvious, before twirling back around to her group conversation with Kirishama and Hagakure.
"I think that proves my point." Yaoyarozu smiled, pushing aside a strand of her hair from her eye, and a slight tint of pink in her cheeks.
Izuku blushed crimson for perhaps the fourth time that day, and tried to hide his colouring by burying his face into his arms and hands to minimise the visible surface area as much as possible, though he couldn't keep a dumb, big, curly smile off his lips.
Through a small gap in his arm shield, the embarrassed teenager saw Iida finally sit down after going about the daily tasks he claimed were his duty as the Class Representative to do. These tasks included a great deal of miscellaneous jobs, including going to and from the teachers' lounge for whatever reasons, retrieving registers, and a number of tasks Izuku wasn't even aware of. Upon completion of these tasks, he'd always plant himself in his seat at his desk, and await for the lessons to begin.
Izuku had wanted to tell the Engine Quirk user all of this first, and then Uraraka. They had been his friends since the very start of the year, so it almost had felt like an obligation that they got to know first, but since the Zero-Gravity user was nowhere to be found, and Iida had been busy, Todoroki and now Yaoyarozu had learned of this first. Normally Izuku would have waited, but since he and Mina had arrived a bit later than normal, and they were running out of time before homeroom ended, Izuku had just taken whoever was available.
He excused himself as quickly and politely as he could from the two students at their side of him, and shuffled his way over towards the Class Representative, one of the closest friends he had honestly ever had alongside Uraraka, Kacchan before he was trying to kill him every other day, and now Mina, who probably had shot her way to the top of that list, for obvious reasons.
"Hey, uh, Iida?" Izuku patted his friend on the shoulder to get his attention. He felt no anxiety in communicating with the person who was arguably one of the most intense and serious members or their class under regular circumstances. Since their first hostile conversations, he had grown used to interacting with him. Right now though, he had to swallow a lump in his throat. There was no real reason for Iida to be against him and Mina, but all the same, Izuku fretted. Ever since he had first begun to speak with Mina, he seemed to have been doing and thinking a lot of things against his own logic anyway.
Turning in reaction to feeling his shoulder being weighed down, Iida turned around so that half of his face was visible to Izuku. His head was tilted slightly down, so the frame of his spectacles wouldn't interfere with his line of sight. "Midoriya? Is there a problem?" Normally, Iida remained fairly quiet before classes began, preferring to prepare in silence after finishing any duties he needed to perform. Of course, when someone called for him, he was more than willing to respond. He seemed more surprised that it was Izuku who was speaking to him, since he was also one of the quiet ones but more generally, wondering if there was an issue that needed to be addressed.
"No, it's - It's not a problem... I just... Need to talk to you for a second, if you're not busy."
"Not at all." Iida now fully turned around in his seat to look at Izuku face to face. A small clang could be heard as Iida accidentally hit his naturally mechanically integrated leg into his table's leg as he shifted, but he didn't seem bothered by it too much. "What's the matter?"
"I-I just need to talk to you about Mina, that's all."
Suddenly, Izuku froze.
Crap.
He'd called her Mina, hadn't he? Not Ashido, or even Mina-san. Just Mina. No honorifics. Given the polite personality Izuku had, this obviously indicated that something major, and Iida hadn't missed that. If his friend hadn't been interested before, he was now.
"Go ahead, Midoriya." Adjusting his glasses, Iida focused his undivided attention on Izuku. His expression indicated interest. Only a week ago had he learned that Izuku and Mina were on friendly terms, and that had been followed by four days of them being as awkward as humanly possible around one another. Naturally, this had confused him, and when he questioned his friend on it, Izuku told him that there wasn't anything going on. A downright lie, as he was now discovering.
Izuku bit his lip and inhaled sharply. He'd dealt with Todoroki just a few moments prior, who was infinitely more intimidating than Iida was, not to mention that he knew Iida far better than the Half-Hot-Half-Cold user. He could handle this.
"W-Well... We're um... Sorta of... D-Dating." It came out easier this time than with Todoroki, but Izuku still felt himself sweat, for a reason he couldn't explain. Before his friend even had the chance to respond, or even fully comprehend what he had just heard, Izuku flew into a flurry of explanations and qualifiers to the statement, accompanied with widened eyes and frantic hand gestured, being what a frag grenade was to stealth, justifying himself and why he was even telling Iida. "I - Um - This - This only happened l-like, really recently, l-last Saturday a-actually! We - We didn't hide anything - I mean, I-I sort of liked her before... No! That's not - A-Anyway! W-We just thought I-it might be smart to e-explain to our c-closest friends, a-and you've been such a good f-friend to me that I wanted to let you know, so you would understand my erratic behaviour, and - "
"Midoriya. Relax." Iida halted the rambling with an upraised, open, flat palm, indicating for the green haired boy to stop speaking. Izuku obeyed immediately, slapping his hand over his mouth to stop his jaws from unhinging and letting out the verbal vomit that he was holding back. Taking off his spectacles, and cleaning them with his uniforms sleeve, Iida requested, "Run that by me again."
To the Engine user's credit, he didn't pry too much into the private details, not that anything had happened between him and Mina Izuku wouldn't mind sharing. Instead, he listened carefully and intently, not interrupting once, only interjecting at the end to gather some details that he had been unable to hear. For the most part, Izuku had been coherent at the very least, and had managed to control his stutter a lot better than normal, but he still felt like his knees had been replaced with bedsprings.
Once he had the full story, surprisingly, Iida smiled. "I must admit, I'm shocked." He confessed. "It appeared to me that you were the type who would attempt to avoid relationships while training to become a Hero. I misjudged you once again, Midoriya."
For a second, Izuku wasn't sure if he was being insulted or complimented.
"Though I will confess, I am surprised that you have chosen to establish a relationship with Ashido. I didn't think you would be interested in someone like her." The glasses
-wearing student nodded firmly and smiled. "I thank you for informing me of this. I value your friendship as well, and I'm pleased to see that the feeling is reciprocated. Your faith in me isn't misplaced."
Relief and pride swelled through Izuku in that moment, and he was glad he had made the choice to tell Iida about him and Mina. All the same, a huge chunk of oxygen made its way out of his system as he sighed in relaxation. "Thanks, Iida..."
"What the - Are you serious?! Midoriya?!"
Izuku nearly leaped through the roof in shock at such a sudden calling of his name. It wasn't an angry call, nor was it one of jealousy, or demanding. It really was just a call of sheer shock and surprise, disbelief, like the ability to comprehend was impossible, whatever the subject matter was.
Quickly turning around, and nearly knocking into Iida in doing so as quickly as he did, Izuku was faced with Kaminari, who had apparently made his way into the classroom and, judging from how Mina was literally trying to pull him back and throw a hand over his mouth to make him shut up, had just heard from her about their relationship.
Kaminari wasn't the sort to act out of malice, and it seemed incredibly unlikely that the Electrification Quirk user was genuinely jealous in a conceivable manner, but when presented with shock or surprise which made him descend into panic, he had a bad habit of acting without thinking, prone to making irrational choices that he later came to regret. Right now though, he wasn't thinking.
Combining that with his lecherous attitude... Well, he wasn't anywhere close to being on Mineta's level quite yet, but it was enough for this reaction to come out of nowhere.
There wasn't even the shadow of a doubt what was going to happen in Izuku's mind, which was now racing to come up with a way to prevent this disaster from occurring! Every set of eyes in the classroom were on him, Kaminari, and Mina now, he could feel them burning into his skull. None of them had any idea what was going to happen if Izuku didn't get this guy to shut it! His mind raced from just straight up bailing from the entire school premises to throwing his classmate out the window behind him, and every single action in between, no matter how awkward that it might be for him later down the line. Resorting to some sort of compromise his brain had filtered and decided existed, he threw his arms into the symbol of an X and tried desperately to get his blond classmate to quieten down. He wound up hissing himself, to try and get across that he wanted the boy with the natural lightning bolt highlight to please, for the love of God, to shut up! "K-Kaminari, p-please keep your voice low!"
"What's wrong with you?" Jirou, the person Kaminari was seated next to on the class register flatly asked, with a curious eyebrow raised in Izuku's and Kaminari's direction. Her normal expression was otherwise unaltered. "You're acting like a bigger idiot than normal."
"You haven't heard?!"
"Shut up, Kaminariii!" Mina strained, trying her damnedest to pull away the idiot by his collar while Izuku pleaded with him in frantic gestured and hissed messages.
"Heard what?"
"Midoriya and Ashido are dating, that's freaking what!"
Had someone the power to freeze time in that exact moment, they would have achieved a freeze frame of Izuku's wide eyed face light up like a bonfire, Mina's exasperated sigh evacuating her body coupled with her face-palming herself, about ten shocked stares, and Kanimari's guilt racked face as his brain finally caught up to him, and he realised exactly what the holy hell he was doing.
The room fell silent for a few seconds, many members of the class just waiting for someone else to make a statement before making their own. Todoroki could be heard making a loud sigh, but that was pretty much the extent of the sound in the room that could be heard.
"Crap...!" Kaminari glanced between Izuku and Mina, finally figuring out what they had been doing, and what he'd basically destroyed in less than fifteen seconds. He'd overreacted, big time, and in all honesty, he didn't even know why. Surprise mostly. "Midoriya, dude, sorry, I -"
"How did you pull that off, Midoriya?!" Mineta was the one to break the silence, with widened eyes, like he'd just met his Hero. He suddenly began scanning his eyes over Mina, and predictably, one of his infamous perverted comments swiftly followed. "Forget that, what did you pull off?!"
"What the -" Izuku suddenly went scarlet red, and Mina followed suit for lilac, using her arms to cover up her chest with the grey uniforms sleeves to defend herself from their small classmates stare. The implications were clear, and with Mineta, that was about as blunt as he would get. "That - We - No! I-I-It's nothing like that!"
"The hell it isn't! Tell me everything, Midoriya! Throw me a freakin bone here!"
"Do not pry on such inappropriate and private matters, Mineta!" Iida called out, defending his friend and attempting to save him from this embarrassment.
"Damn it, Kaminari!" Mina punched her friend's shoulder, deciding not to hold back since he pretty much deserved it at this point. She didn't mind him normally, but she was beginning to regret trusting him with this, not so much that everyone knowing like this bothered her too much, but it clearly bothered Izuku.
"I said I was sorry!"
The whole room basically descended into noise from that point on, nearly everyone throwing in their opinions and questions all at once, so the only thing that could be asserted with certainty was that there was a bunch of people making noise. Anything else was open to interpretation. Barely anyone could hear anyone over anything that was currently happening in the room right about now, and for the quieter students like Todoroki and Kouda, and the more serious and mature students like Yaoyarozu and Shouji, the room became nothing more than a collection of people fighting and yelling at one another, almost like a theatre performance.
Izuku meanwhile, wished he had a Quirk that let him just fall through the floor and never come back up. Right now was pretty much the one thing he feared about disclosing his and Mina's relationship - Becoming the centre of attention in the fullest capacity possible. Mina was doing her best to reassure him and calm his hyperactive thinking down, but this only proved to have limited effects.
How had this all escalated so quickly?
"What in the fuck is going on?!"
Roaring above every other person in the room, with such violent force behind the yell that it practically demanded that everyone else shut their mouths or be turned to ash, thundered Bakugou's voice.
He was stood in the doorway, his uniform as always scruffy, lacking the tie altogether, and the top two buttons of his white shirt undone. He looked tired to boot, dark bags underneath his eyes for whatever reason, and had walked in on the room essentially in a free for all shouting fest. Clearly, he was in even less of a mood for this then he normally would be.
The room fell completely silent for a few seconds, and everyone turned to face the Explosion Quirk user. Small, red eyes darted from person to person, waiting for a reply. Upon noticing Izuku, and that he was the centre of all of this noise, Bakugou's mouth made a scowl.
Meanwhile, Izuku was practically sweating buckets right now. There was no way to gauge Kacchan's response. No amount of thinking helped him come to any sort of conclusion regarding this particular classmate of his. Bakugou really could go either way in this scenario, but given what he knew about his childhood classmate... He prepared himself for a bombardment of explosions.
Before anyone could respond, another series of footsteps came pattering from down the corridor, joining Bakugou at the front door to the classroom, but standing about two or three steps behind him when she came into view. Uraraka stood onto her tip-toes to look over Bakugou's shoulder, to see the scene that the classroom was currently in. Her previously soft expression devolved into one that was barely even an expression at all.
"Ummm..." She glanced over everything, only to become completely and utterly confused. Evidently, she hadn't been expecting this first thing in the morning, just like everybody else. The Zero-Gravity Quirk user fretted over saying anything to break the horrible silence that hung overhead, only doing so because her curiosity bested her. Timidly, she the least imposing question that she could think of. "Whats... Going on?"
"That's what I'd like to fucking know." Bakugou responded, as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet. "Anyone gonna speak up or what?"
"It's Midoriya and Ashido!" Unintimidated by Bakugou's loud yelling, Mineta answered both him, and the person who he was really intending to inform, Uraraka. "Midoriya managed to pull himself a girl before any of us did!" The use of the word us was intended, not limiting the reference people to just the males. Mineta of all people wasn't about to rule out any of the girls getting girlfriends. God knew that he'd have fun if that were the case.
Once more, Mina really wished that Mineta just... Stopped speaking. At all times. Did he even give a damn about the bad blood between Bakugou and Izuku? He had seen the fight the two of them had during their first combat training session, hadn't he? And even if, somehow, he hadn't figured out their relationship yet... Had he not even gauged Bakugou's personality at all yet?!
In a twist, the one who showed the most obvious reaction, one of clear shock, was Uraraka. She didn't say anything, but her eyes shot wide open, and her mouth dropped, darting between the pink girl, and freckled boy in clear disbelief. But it was more than just surprise. Part of her almost looked... Hurt. Like she'd been betrayed. She covered it up well, quickly converting that into just unexpected shock again, but for a brief moment, she looked heartbroken.
Izuku was unable to blame her. Not even slightly. This hadn't been how he'd wanted his best friend to find out about this. Could there have been a worse way to learn like this? It just looked like he was a huge liar now, hiding everything from her. Like he'd taken her trust and abused it. He owed her nothing, of course he didn't, it wasn't like he was under some sort of obligation to inform her of every little detail that happened to him, but all the same, he felt like he'd betrayed her.
The two of them locked eyes, Izuku's only able to convey just how apologetic he felt that this had been how she learned about him and Mina. 'I'm so sorry.' His eyes said. 'This isn't what I had in mind.'
Attention shifted to Bakugou, who didn't make any notable reactions. No one was sure if that was a good or bad sign when it came to the spiky, blond haired individual. He was like dynamite, just waiting for that reaction between flame and Nitroglycerine to meet before demolishing a construction site. But that explosion never came. After an audible scoff, he made his way to his desk without a word, throwing his bag on the floor as he normally did, letting it hit the legs of his desk, and sat himself down, swinging his legs onto his desks surface without a word.
"You don't have anything to say to that?!" The Pop-Off Quirk user sounded genuinely surprised, and at that point, Mina had to question, was he seriously trying to start a fight of some sort?!
Although she would admit, she was equally as shocked. This was the same guy who basically declared war on that guy from Class 1-B who had the Copy Quirk for daring to copy Bakugou's power, to the point of abandoning a ten million point prize just to eradicate them from the competition. Why he wouldn't react to this was beyond comprehension. What -
"What fucking difference does it make?!" Bakugou erupted at Mineta, slamming his fist into the desk and turning his full body to face the lecherous pervert, who jumped behind his seat at the explosion of his classmate.
Every single set of eyes was now focused squarely on Bakugou now, many of them equally surprised. Expectations would have suggested that Bakugou would have done everything in his power to brutally murder Izuku, but instead, he'd done quite the opposite.
"Why the hell would I give a damn about who Deku's trying to fuck?" Bakugou added sharply, glaring at the class's smallest member so ferociously they looked fit to detonate like a Stielhandgranate. The sheer blunt force of that statement nearly caused so much heat to shoot into Izuku's face that he came close to passing out. Mina also threatened to fall over in embarrassment. "Fucking Deku can crawl into bed with whoever the fuck he likes, I couldn't give a shit! He wants to waste his damn time with whatever crap he's got in mind, fucking let the prick! Just keep the damn noise down, before I throw one of you fuckers out the fucking window!" With a show of his teeth firmly clenched, he turned around again and faced the front of the classroom, and remained silent for the rest of the conversation.
Had he not made it clear he wanted absolutely nothing to do with the discussion, Izuku would have actually thanked him. The honest truth was, he had had the one reaction that Izuku wanted everyone else to have. To simply not care. Those who displayed a sense of acceptance and faith, those were welcome too, but Izuku preferred people to just not care. To see it as what it was - Just two people who liked one another and wanted to spend time together. Really, it wasn't anyone else's business. It shouldn't matter to anyone else. And somehow, Bakugou was the only person who saw it like that.
The remainder of the students seem to realise this, and seemed to phase quietly back into the background, forming the normal groups again, bar a few people, quickly and began to discuss the current events. A few even moved back into their previous topics.
Kaminari was one of the few who didn't go back to his original position. Instead, he ran his hands through his natural highly and bit his lower lip. He bowed his head towards Mina and Izuku, showing his remorse. "Crap, I'm... I'm really sorry, you two. I didn't think before I, y'know..."
As much as he wanted to, Izuku couldn't hold a grudge. He tried to remain angry, but he simply couldn't. Sighing, he shook his head. "I-Its fine, Kaminari... People were gonna find out anyway... A-At least now it's out of the way."
"You sure you're okay, Midori?" Mina asked fully of worry, placing a hand gently onto his shoulder. Her darkened eyes conveyed the real concern that she felt for her boyfriend, her gentle touch conveying a lot more than her words would ever be able to.
Nodding, Izuku reassured her with a small smile. "Y-Yeah, Mina-san... I-It's okay."
Staring at one another for a few seconds, Mina took the initiative, and wrapped Izuku into a large, warm hug, her arms sliding around his torso, and pulling herself close to him, and resting her head on his shoulder. It was the only thing she could think of to comfort the certainly humiliated late Quirk bloomer, plus it was something she desired in equal measure. Warmth. Contact. Closeness.
Love.
Overtaken with surprise at her sudden display of affection, Izuku burst out into another shade of red. It wasn't that he disliked it - Quite the opposite, but he was taken aback was all. "Wh-What - M-Mina, what - What are you -"
"Just accept the hug, 'kay, Midori?" The Acid Quirk girl's gentle voice so close to Izuku's ear... He wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to that beautiful voice being so softly spoken so close to him... "I wanna hug after all that. You look like you could use one."
It took him a few seconds to respond to it, but eventually, he returned the warm gesture. He was a bit shaky in doing so, the aforementioned conversation with every member of the classroom still affecting him subconsciously. The anxiety was gone now, but its properties still lingered around his body and nerves.
Mina could feel his shakes through their physical contact. It only made her more determined to hug him better. A few more sets of eyes had returned to stare at the two of them, no doubt surprised at this openly public display of affection, but Mina couldn't care less anymore.
Uraraka hadn't said a word throughout watching this entire thing unfold. And she didn't get the chance before Aizawa-sensei walked through the door and begun homeroom sessions.
Monday's typically didn't do combat practice sessions. That was how the rule went, but for whatever reason, today was an exception to that rule. According to All Might, they had to pick up the pace of their training sessions before the end of term exams came up, to give the students the best chance of passing possible.
So for the first time in a while, a Monday would see the beginning of a new timetable for Class 1-A. One that dictated that there would be more combat sessions a week. For someone like Bakugou, that was absolutely perfect news. His eerie grin spread as he heard this news, small sparks flying from his palms.
That was how the entire class had changed into their Hero costumes and made their way to training ground Sierra. It was pretty much the same as grounds Beta, except this place was an open village type of deal, and allowed the participants to go from building to building as part of their training session.
What that session was however, was something certain interesting.
"Colour tag?"
"Indeed!" All Might beamed with his ever present smile and spoke with his utmost confidence, holding in his hands, a selection of coloured tags that could be fastened to specially designed belts via Velcro. Some were red, some green, some white, etc. The aim of this training session is to see which of you is able to render a target unable to battle first!"
"I'm liking the sound of this more and more." Bakugou smirked.
"In order to avoid injury, we'll be using the method of colour tag. You'll see that in my hand here, I have these tags. Each of you will be given one of these each, that you have to apply somewhere onto your body, wherever you desire, as long as it is possible for an opponent to grab hold of it!"
Iida, being the class rep, was given the duty of handing out the coloured tags to each of the students. He made sure to do this as quickly as possible. Izuku and Mina stood next to one another, and gave each other a glance as they were both given a red tag each.
"Maybe we'll be on the same team?" Mina asked, hopeful.
Unlikely, since the odds of that were about one in ten, but Izuku nodded, hoping that the laws of maths would be disregarded for this particular day.
"The rules are simple!" All Might continued once every member had their tags. "You can use your Quirks as freely as you desire, but the goal is to steal your opponent's tags. One your tag has been stolen, you can still fight and steal your tags back, so it may be worth going on the offensive at that point. However, you can't give your ally their tag back - They have to acquire it themselves. The first team to lose both of their tags are the losers. Outside of these restrictions, anything goes!"
The rules were easy enough to understand, Izuku considered. He remembered playing a similar game in pre-school with Kacchan and crew before they hated the Quirkless boy. Whenever someone had their tag ripped away, they had to desperately try to steal one back. The side with the most tags was only different in the sense that it was all or nothing. Each side needed all the tags in order to win, so it was possible that one person could sway the entire match.
Speed was the name of the game here, as well as reaction time. The faster students would be able to dart in and steal tags quicker and win the match. At the same time, students with heightened reflexes, like Mina, would be able to counter that speed and dodge, and maybe even launch a counter attack. This was the sort of thing Mina, Iida, Bakugou and Siro were practically designed for.
"You will be working in pairs for this assignment!" The world's number one Hero declared, and to his side, the large computer monitor was already selecting teams, choosing students at random like a slot machine.
Mina sighed in disappointment, suddenly realising that the colours were meaningless in relation to who was going to be paired up with who. The chances of them working together still remained the same statistically, but she still would have liked to think that fate had declared that Izuku and she would be paired together.
Starting things off, the first teams were Jirou and Todoroki. The two didn't share Quirks that would be of high compatibility, but neither of them seemed particularly bothered by their assigned partner. They would be going up against Mineta and Hagakure. Mina could almost feel Hagakure's exasperation from a good ten meters away, while Mineta was basically drooling at the prospect of being teamed up with a girl who was basically naked, even if she was invisible.
Yaoyorozu and Kaminari were up next, and they were to fight Bakugou and Shouji. A far more even match up than the previous one, although Kaminari looked terrified at the prospect of fighting Bakugou.
Then came Izuku's name. His name was selected first, and the second roll began to spin, selecting his partner. The slot machine randomly chose the name he was to be teamed with. It skimmed over the remaining names that hadn't been selected. Each name was shown next to the green haired boy's.
Mina's name slowly came into view, and for a second, it looked like they might actually be assigned together... But it kept scrolling, just one position further.
Midoriya Izuku and Kirishima Ejirou.
"Alright!" The hardening Quirk user seemed happy by the selection, appearing out of nowhere to pat Izuku's shoulder, and show off a grin with his sharp teeth visible. "Let's knock 'em dead, Midoriya!"
"R-Right!..." Izuku nodded shakily at his newly selected partner. He couldn't help but feel a twang of disappointment, but he supposed that a Hero couldn't choose who he worked with all the time. In the heat of the moment, it really came down to luck.
"Aww..." Mina groaned in disappointment, but she had the same thought process that Izuku had, and got over it fairly quickly. With a smirk, she tilted her head and pointed at Red Riot. "Make sure you take care of my boyfriend, got it Kirishima?"
"M-Mina!" Izuku flushed crimson at the word 'Boyfriend'. Such a public declaration!...
Kirishima grinned and let out a small laugh. "Midoriya's man enough. He can look after himself, ain't that right? I'd be more worried about you."
Mina needed a second to understand the meaning of those words, but when she turned to face the screen, she saw exactly what was going on. The pink girl almost wanted to smile and laugh at the face of irony here, but another part of her wanted to protest this arrangement. It really came down to what Mina knew... And she knew that this wasn't going to be what tore them apart, if they ever were. They were Heroes in training. They had all signed up for this. They all knew that they would be put into comfortable positions occasionally that they didn't want to deal with, but that wasn't an excuse for them to just give it up.
If anything, a refusal to give it her all would be what tore her and Izuku apart.
"Hey, Midori." She said, with a smile. "No holding back, and no hard feelings, yeah?"
"R...Right! O-Of course!"
Midoriya Izuku and Kirishama Ejirou VS Uraraka Ochako and Ashido Mina.
As of December 1st, I am now 18 years old, so sorry this took a bit longer to update than usual =_= It annoyed me as much as it did you guys. I also now have a girlfriend who I spend time with, so that takes up a bit of time (I know you're reading this. Hello Jess ^_^) College has been a pain, and I finished this chapter while sick as holy hell, so basically a lot of stuff has been happening. I'll try and get things sorted for next week.
Kaminari isn't a bad guy. He's just an idiot. Truth be told, since we saw his reaction to Izuku being cornered by naked clothes melty girl in the manga, I figured he might react this way. I couldn't see Mineta being told by either Izuku or Mina, and he's the one we all know would spout this aloud for Bakugou to hear, so Kaminari was mainly just a conductor - Ironic, given his Quirk. Uraraka will be looked at in detail more. Trust me, I have a plan for her.
And it's hilarious to think that Bakugou is the only one who didn't really have an opinion of Izuku and Mina. When I wrote him, for some reason I imagined that's him in support of LGBT. "What fucking difference does it make?!" I agree, Bakugou!
My thought process aside, I hope you all enjoyed.