Chapter Text
It took Izuku a while to finish unpacking and setting up. All of his hero merchandise had to be properly organized and displayed, of course; anything less would be an insult to the great heroes that they represented. His meticulousness caused him to miss a text from Katsuki, and it was nearly an hour and a half later when he finally finished, a proud smile on his face, when he finally checked his phone. Apparently, the rest of the students that had moved in today were congregating in the common room.
He hurried out of his room, locking it behind him. He checked the lock several times just to make sure his collection was safe, and then headed towards the stairs. As he walked, he felt his previous excitement start to swell, as well as his nervousness. He would finally be able to play his 'game' again. The one he hadn't been able to really play for ten long years. The other students had no reason to fear him, and he would have an entire room of people to meet.
He would start by observing the room, noting anything obvious: potential friend groups already forming, people who appear to be loners, people who seemed to be talkative and those who seemed to be more fond of listening. He would then look for more subtle things, such as clothing choices, body language and more. Once had this foundation, he would move to talk to them, subtly guiding the conversation so he could learn their likes, dislikes and mannerisms. Then, once he had everything he needed, he would move in for the kill.
He grinned widely.
Friendship was inevitable.
He reached the bottom of the stairwell and opened the door. He began to look around the room and noticed that a good number of people were alread-
"HORNS!"
That stopped Izuku in his tracks. That was one of the names that Katsuki called him sometimes, but that voice was most certainly not Katsuki. He blinked and turned to the source of the noise. What he saw, well, it wasn't what he expected.
A girl was standing about twenty feet away from him, pointing accusingly at him. The first thing he noticed was her pink skin and the black sclera in her golden eyes. Her pink hair was messy like his and sticking out of it were a pair of curled yellow horns. She was also really pretty. 'Are all the girls at UA like this?'
The girl stomped towards him and stopped just a few feet away. Izuku was keenly aware that most of the eyes in the room were on the two of them. She looked up at him and got a wide smile on her face. She leaned forward and pointed a thumb towards herself. "I'm Mina Ashido! I like your horns!"
Izuku blinked a couple of times. This was new. "H-hi. I'm Izuku Midoriya, it's super nice to meet you! I, uh, I like your horns too?" He basically had no experience with women, at least none this forward. He probably would have frozen up if he hadn't already had the experience at the entrance exam with that nice girl. Almost everyone at his old schools were too intimidated to talk to him, male and female alike, but at least he had Katsuki and the group of guys who hung around him sometimes.
She stood back upright and shouted behind her. "Kiri! Come here!" Izuku managed to tear his gaze away from the pink girl in front of him to look where she was yelling. A student with red eyes and a smile filled with razor-sharp teeth walked over. On her head was spiked red hair, styled up with two small horns on the front.
"Midoriya, this is Eiko Kirishima! Kiri, this is Izuku Midoriya." The girl introduced them happily.
"Hey man, what's up?" Kirishima smiled widely, and Izuku returned the gesture.
"We're all horn buddies now!" Ashido stated this as fact and grinned wide as she pointed at her own horns with both hands. Her energy was infectious. "Come on, Midoriya, you're late! I'll introduce you to everyone."
Izuku smiled dumbly. 'Well...that was easy.'
Izuku finally got the good sense to look around the room and he counted 12 people, including himself. He already knew three of the others in the room, and he'd just met Kirishima and Ashido, which left six new people for him to get to know. He quickly looked around, noting that there were two girls and four boys.
Time to get to work.
Ashido took him around, as promised. She led him to a small circle of three guys first, the same group that Kirishima was standing in before she was called over.
"Hey dude, name's Denki Kaminari. Sweet horns." The blonde boy with a jagged black streak in his hair looked up at him and smirked.
"Thanks!" Izuku was getting back in the swing of things after being knocked off-balance by the pink girl. "Izuku Midoriya. Is that streak natural?" Izuku gestured at the lightning bolt in his hair. The boy seemed to be proud of it, so Izuku took it as an opportunity.
"Yeah!" He gestured proudly to it, just as Izuku predicted. "Pretty sweet, right? I have an electricity quirk, so it's totally thematic!"
'Boisterous personality, and very casual.' Izuku made mental notes. 'He's not afraid to say what he thinks and he seems friendly.' Izuku grew a genuine smile. "For sure! I assumed it was fake because it was too cool."
Kaminari grinned back and looked at the other students. "I like this guy!"
"Name's Hanta Sero." The boy had a good few inches on Izuku, and a toothy smile. Izuku noted his strange elbows.
"How was your move-in, Midoriya?" Tenya Iida was standing with the other boys, chatting away in his stiff yet animated manner, chopping the air from time to time.
"Great, thanks! It took me a while to unpack, which is why I'm late. It's really nice to meet all of you. I'm sure you're all excited to start school on Monday." Izuku tested the waters. As a precaution in Iida's case; he was right about them not seeing each other for a long time, after all.
"I mean, yeah, but I'm more excited for the 'hero' part of 'hero course', you know? Schoolwork can be a drag." Kaminari lamented.
Izuku talked to them for a bit longer. Sero and Kirishima seemed to be of a similar mind to Kaminari regarding schoolwork, although Iida lectured them all on the importance of good grades. All-in-all they all seemed like good people. Kaminari, Kirishima and Sero seemed to be fast friends, although they seemed a little wary of Iida's intensity. Izuku understood that reaction completely.
"Come on, we've got more people to meet!" Ashido cheered, gripped Izuku by his shoulders and pushed him along, leaving the other four students to continue their conversation.
'She got touchy awfully fast…' Izuku thought as he blushed a bit. 'Are all the girls going to be like this?'
Mina pushed her new horn buddy towards two students talking by the window, lost in her own thoughts. 'Wow… his shoulders are firm...' Her eyes drifted downwards, ' And he has a cute butt.' She felt her cheeks warm up a little, tinting with the faintest dusting of lilac.
Ashido's smile never left her face as she planted him in front of the two boys. Sero was taller than him, but the one on his right was taller than him. Taller than his dad, even. He was built, too. Not a sculpted physique like a bodybuilder, but a strong, thick core of real strength.
The giant of a man pointed a thumb towards his face, Izuku noting his rather thick lips. "I'm Rikidou Satou. You making the rounds?"
"Sure! I want to meet all my classmates. I'm Izuku Midoriya, I'm sure we'll be fast friends." He smiled and turned to the other boy. He was quite a bit shorter, about the same height as Ashido. The most obvious thing about him was his head, which was in the shape of a bird's.
"You may call me Fumikage Tokoyami." The boy's red eyes stared stoically into Izuku's green.
'Serious, reserved. Not much to go on.' Izuku wasn't having the best luck so far, but it was only the first day.
After a much shorter conversation, Ashido dragged him off again, this time plopping him down next to the four girls who were sitting together: the three he noticed earlier, as well as Kirishima, who had made her way over. Ashido began introducing the girls eagerly.
"This is Kyouka Jirou..." she gestured towards a short, petite girl with purple hair and what looked like audio jacks hanging from her ears. Jirou gave him a slight wave.
"You already met Kiri, of course." The red-haired woman flashed him another sharp smile. Izuku smiled back, noting for the first time her well-defined musculature: an indication she might have a passion for weightlifting.
"This is Tsuyu Asui..." Ashido gestured towards a girl with big eyes and dark green hair. She was slightly shorter than the rest, but no less full-bodied.
"This is Tooru Hagakure," she pointed to… nothing? Izuku looked twice before he saw floating clothes sitting in the seat next to Asui. The girls giggled at his reaction.
Ashido extended her hands towards the taller woman with black hair and onyx eyes. Her body had certainly developed since the last time Izuku had seen her. "And this is-"
"Miss Yaoyorozu, it's a pleasure to see you again." Izuku interrupted Ashido's exposition with a slight bow, eyes downcast.
Yaoyorozu laughed once, hand close to her mouth. "Midoriya, no need to be so formal. We are classmates now. Just 'Yaoyorozu' is fine." Izuku smiled and nodded, but still didn't meet her eyes.
"You two know each other?" Jirou asked, raising her eyebrows and smirking slightly.
"Our… parents travel in some of the same social circles," Izuku explained, "so we've met a few times in the past." Izuku was intentionally vague. People treated him differently once they knew he was the son of a pro hero, and doubly so when they found out his family was wealthy. He was sure that it was the same for Yaoyorozu.
'It's good to know that still makes her laugh. I've missed hearing it...'
Izuku noticed all the girls looking at him expectantly as the thought faded. "Oh! Sorry, my name is Izuku Midoriya. It's great to meet all of you." Izuku flashed his eager smile.
"Call me Tsu, by the way." As- Tsu told him. Izuku smiled wider at this. She was making this game easy .
Izuku talked with the girls for a few more minutes, learning a little about them. Tsu seemed the strangest to him, like she was just a little emotionally different than most. Oh, and she croaked like a frog, that was a lot different. Jirou was relaxed, but eager to tease the other girls. Kirishima was boisterous and open. Hagakure seemed bubbly, much like Ashido was. Yaoyorozu was just as elegant and refined as he remembered, maybe a little bit happier too.
Eventually he glanced around for the last person he needed to talk to. He found him, sitting by himself on the other side of the room, staring at his phone, looking disinterested. Ashido saw him staring at the boy.
"Oh, careful with that one," Ashido giggled a bit, "he's a little prickly. Could hardly get a word out of him."
Izuku gave her a knowing smile before turning back to the boy. "Hey, Kacchan! Come say hi!"
Everyone else in the room froze and looked at the blonde and the greenhead. The boy rolled his eyes and put his phone away before slowly sitting up and walking over to his friend. "This is Katsuki Bakugou. He doesn't bite."
Katsuki rolled his eyes again. "Hey Izuku, you forget about our bet?"
Izuku paled and his eyes went wide with fear. "N-no, of course not. R-right here? Now? "
Katsuki grew an evil grin. "No, not now. Just be ready for it."
Izuku gulped. This interaction got the rest of the room to release the tension in their bodies and return to what they were doing. Katsuki slumped down next to Izuku and the conversation continued. He didn't participate, but at least he was being more social now.
After about twenty more minutes of socializing around the room, Izuku was getting frustrated. He wasn't making acceptable progress. Sure, he was finding out more about these people and he already made friends with several people, at least in word, but that wasn't good enough. All of these small circles around the room weren't doing him any favors, either.
So he hatched a plan.
Izuku stood tall and waved his arm in the air. "Hey everyone!" He paused for a second as the other students turned to him. "We're all going to be classmates for four years, so let's gather around and get to know each other. Come on, grab a chair and circle up!"
Ashido was the first to react. She jumped up out of her seat and shouted in affirmation, before dragging Hagakure with her to grab more chairs. This got the rest of the students to move.
Soon all twelve of the students were circled up. They seemed to be waiting for Izuku to make a move, as it was his idea. Katsuki sat on his right, while Ashido had grabbed the seat on his left.
Once everyone was situated, he began. "I figured it would be good if we all go to know each other a little better, seeing how much time we'll be spending together..." Izuku held up a finger. "I've found one of the best ways to break the ice is talk about our favorite heroes, and since we're all here at UA, it seemed like an especially good plan."
Several of the more reserved students grumbled at this seemingly grade-school icebreaker.
"So, let's just go around and just tell us who's your favorite hero. It'll be easy, you'll see. Oh! And to make things more fun, you can't say All Might." He looked to his right. "Kacchan, how about you start."
Katsuki groaned. "You already know- Outside of All Might? Miruko. She kicks ass and doesn't take crap from anyone."
Kirishima had pulled up the seat next to Katsuki, and she was much more into it than some of the other students. "My favorite is Crimson Riot! He's what inspired me to be a hero."
'Now we're getting somewhere.' Izuku thought to himself. "Crimson Riot? He was bold, I can see why you like him."
Kirishima grew a proud smirk. "He said to live a life full of manliness, which means to live a life without regrets. That's my motto, too!"
As they went around the circle, it became evident to all the other students that Izuku was a hero nerd, through and through. Whenever one of them would mention their favorite hero, he would immediately start spouting off facts and trivia about them. Once he even pulled out a notebook from who-knows-where and started listing off notes he had taken on them recently.
The other students found this interesting, to say the least. Their impressions ranged from slightly annoyed to intrigued to amused. What they didn't realize that Izuku was using this as an excuse to gather information on them. He was eliciting reactions, watching body language and facial expressions. Nobody but Katsuki realized that this little circle had ulterior motives.
Things continued in the same way until Kaminari's turn. "My favorite hero, eh? Probably Stormclaw."
Izuku stopped reading his notebook. Everything seemed to freeze for him. That was not what he was expecting to hear, but it was something he could work with.
"Oh, he's one of my favorites too." Tsu added in. Izuku was doubly stunned.
"Why Stormclaw?" Izuku was too curious to not ask.
"Oh man, have you seen the way he throws around lightning?!" Kaminari pointed his finger and thumb like a gun, a little electricity crackling off his fingertip. "I've followed him since I got my quirk. I really wanna meet him someday."
"He's one of the few aquatic heroes, too." Tsu said with her finger on her chin. "Besides Gang Orca and Stormclaw, there aren't many prestigious ones. It's a shame that he got injured and stopped doing as much work."
Izuku sighed, half proud and half morose. "Yeah. He's my favorite hero, too." He realized he spoke aloud before he could stop himself.
"Really? Why's that? Is it 'cause of your horns?" Ashido hit him with a barrage of questions, but before he could respond, a noise came from outside. "Oh, was that a car door? Maybe someone new just arrived!"
"I'll go see if I can help them carry stuff in." Midoriya quickly took the opportunity to leave the circle and head outside. He saw the taxi in front of the dorm, the trunk was open and there was clearly someone back there unloading stuff. It was too dark out for him to get a good look at them.
"Need some help?"
"No, I've got it, thanks!"
Midoriya stopped.
He recognized that voice.
It seemed that the other person had the same revelation. The tall, nice girl from the entrance exam slowly righted herself, her bundle of luggage floating behind her.
Time seemed to stand still again as they both stared at each other, not more than a few feet away from each other. After what seemed like an eternity passed-
"Thank you for saving me!" They spoke simultaneously. They also bowed simultaneously. Their heads cracked together.
Both students quickly recoiled, rubbing their heads in pain. It was fortunate that she was taller than him, and impacted his skull a bit higher up than most would. Any lower and she might have hit her head on his horns, and he really didn't want to give the girl who saved his life an injury like that.
"I-I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to- are you okay?"
"Ow!" The girl rubbed her head furiously. "You've got a really hard head, Deku!"
"D-Deku?!"
"Yeah, isn't that your name?" She stopped rubbing her head, her pain seemingly lost in her confusion. "That's what your friend called you when you tripped back at the entrance exam." She giggled lightly at the memory.
'Wow, even her laugh is attrac-' Midoriya brought his mind back. "Well, y-you see, Deku is what Kacchan calls me to tease me, m-my real name is Izuku Midoriya."
"Oh, I didn't know!" She seemed apologetic, but then quickly returned to her normal, bubbly self. "But you know what? I like 'Deku'! It has a 'You can do it!' sorta vibe, you know? Plus, I think it sounds pretty cute!"
She screamed internally, but didn't let her smile fall. 'Why did I say that?!'
Midoriya's brain shorted out for a second. "D-Deku it is!" He couldn't move, he just stared into her eyes, unable to do anything but blush furiously.
'Woah, is he blushin' green?'
She blinked once at him, mesmerised by the unusual color spreading over his face for a moment, then her brain kicked back to gear. "Oh! Of course, I never told you my name. Sorry about that!" She straightened herself out to her impressive height, Midoriya's eyes tracking her the whole way. "I'm Ochako Uraraka, thanks for holding that massive robot still!" She smiled so widely her eyes had squeezed closed.
This brought Midoriya roaring back to reality. "Uraraka?!" He gasped. "You got first place on the entrance exam! Of course! I should have known someone who blew that robot to pieces would get first!" He slapped himself on his forehead, wincing as he hit the sore spot from their previous headbutt. "How did I not see that?!"
It was Uraraka's turn to blush. She began frantically waving her hands in front of her. "Oh, that was nothing, really! It was only because you ran in front of me and stopped that fist all by yourself!" She had recalled the memory often in the past two months, it was like something out of a movie. His muscular body, those eyes burning bright with passion and energy, him single-handedly stopping that robot… She sighed. Her blush redoubled once she realized she had sighed out loud.
"Oh, well, I couldn't just let you get c-crushed, right?" He rubbed the back of his head. He was too distracted by his own furious blushing to notice her sigh.
"So you're just that heroic, huh?" She teased him. 'Why did I just t-tease him?!'
"W-well, it's what anyone would've done, r-right?" His face turned to a deeper tone of green as he rubbed the back of his head faster.
'Oh.' She couldn't help but feel satisfied with how flustered he got from her teasing.
"If you say so, Deku..." But nobody else had done anything. They were all running away. There was only one guy there who put his life on the line for her that day, and he was currently staring at her like a deer in headlights. 'How was someone who is so heroic and strong also this adorable?'
They just stood there, staring at each other as the taxi drove off. After another minute or so, the door to the dorm opened up again. "Yo, Izuku, what's taking you so long?" Bakugou was walking down the path towards them.
Midoriya didn't react until Bakugou lightly punched his arm. He looked at the girl his friend was staring at. "Oh, Round Face, you're in our class?"
"Round Face?!" Uraraka was startled.
Midoriya regained the use of his tongue and held up his hand to stop his friend. "Ah ah, no, Kacchan. This is Ochako Uraraka."
"Oh yeah?" He raised his eyebrow, intrigued. "And why's that?"
"Why's- that's my name?" She was more confused.
"She got first place on the entrance exam, ahead of you, in case that slipped your mind. Besides, I told you how she destroyed that zero-pointer by herself."
"Well, only because you stopped it…" They didn't really seem to be listening to her.
Bakugou thought for a moment. "Fine, fair enough. Uraraka it is." He turned to the girl in question. "You better keep it up, then. I'm not having any slouches as rivals, you hear me?" He turned and walked away, heading back inside.
"Rivals?" Uraraka was thoroughly confused. She turned to Midoriya for some kind of explanation. "What just happened?"
"What? Oh!" Midoriya seemed to remember that she was there. "Uh, Kacchan happened. Basically, he sees you as a rival because you proved your strength to him." He was rubbing his neck in embarrassment again. "I-It's a good thing, I promise."
"If you say so, Deku..." She repeated herself, not knowing if she believed him. "Well, I need to get these to my room." She gestured back at her luggage, still floating behind her. "I'll talk to you later?"
"Uh, sure. Sounds good." Midoriya stood still as she walked past him. He watched the woman walk across the sidewalk and up the stairs, staring at her the entire time, admiring her athletic legs under her leggings. The door closed behind her and he was left alone.
He sighed heavily.
He held his forehead in his hand, shaking his head slightly. "I need to learn how to focus around her. She's gonna be in my class. I need to focus on being a hero, and not her face and legs and- no, stop that Izuku." He threw his arms up in frustration. "Why do I go stupid around her?!"
He dragged his hands down his face in exasperation. "I think you know why."
"Dammit…"
Ochako walked into the dorm, and was quickly greeted by the people inside. She was pleased to see that they were all friendly, especially the girls. But something struck her as odd. She was usually the tallest person in the room, but that wasn't that strange for that not to be the case. However, she was absolutely always used to being the tallest woman in the room. When she greeted the black-haired girl who introduced herself as Momo Yaoyorozu, she was immediately taken aback slightly.
The girl was just as tall as she was, if not taller. Ochako's permanent blush grew a bit at this realization, and she could see the slight surprise and a hint of a blush on her face as well. Red looked good on her.
The rest of the girls were also quite nice; the froggy girl even insisted that she already call her by her first name. Then, her eyes locked onto something familiar. Yellow irises, so intense they almost seemed to be glowing, stared back at her, keeping her mesmerized. Her brain got thrown for a loop, reliving Deku dashing to her aid.
But the eyes didn't belong to him. They were a deeper, golden yellow compared to Deku's bright, bright green, and they were accented by the black sclera surrounding them. As she noted the differences between their eyes, the rest of her face registered in Ochako's mind and she took notice of her new classmates pink skin and hair.
Reality came crashing back.
Ochako continued to stare as she internally scolded herself for getting so lost in the moment. She couldn't deny that it wasn't just the color of her eyes that made her recall Deku so vividly. 'Maybe the way she is… lookin' back at me…'
"S-sorry, didn't mean to stare!" She chuckled awkwardly, "I- uh, like your eyes!"
The woman she was staring at, who was still staring back, shook her head, dispelling her faint, lilac blush. Her smile grew wide, but was a little shaky. "Thanks!"
After she said a hurried goodbye to them all, she eventually made her way to room 405 and let her luggage and furniture fall gently to the ground. She sighed loudly and flopped onto her new bed. 'I've been at UA for less than an hour and I'm already... why couldn't Deku have been in the other class? There's somethin' about him that's so... distractin'... I don't have time to be distracted! I'm not a kid anymore, I'm 18! I should be past this!' She hit her bed in frustration.
She sat up and sighed again, pulling herself to her feet to begin slowly unpacking. Even with the distraction of her luggage, her thoughts kept wandering to Deku. 'He's cute, sure, and totally heroic. And his quirk is super cool, and I kinda like how he looks at me… but he wouldn't like me or anything. We just met. I'm sure I just intimidate him… them...' Her mind went back to the girl that looked at her with the same expression.
She sighed once again. 'Besides, guys just don't like tall girls. That's fine. I'm not here for anythin' but being a hero. I can- need to learn to be one of the best while I'm here. Four years will be gone before I know it. I can't get distracted thinkin' about cute boys with horns and really muscular arms…or cute girls with horns....'
"...Do I have a thing for horns?" She slipped down to the ground, clutching her knees to her chest and feeling her permanent blush growing once again.
"Dammit…"
Notes:
Next chapter is already written, but needs revision and proof-reading, so it might be a few days.
Leave a comment down below and I'll see you next time!