Chapter Text
“So Izumi, I-”
“No.” Midoriya replied, cutting off Josei.
“I didn’t even finish what I was going to say.” The big woman noted, chuckling a bit nervously.
“You and Fuyumi are going to try to set me up with Uravity. I’m flattered but no.” The waitress replied, picking up the dishes the heroes had left behind after their meal.
“Well why not?”
“Four reasons. 1) What if he’s annoying, what if he’s obnoxious, and what if he’s gross? I love Uravity but I don’t want to go on a date with Osashi Uraraka and have it be the worst experience ever.”
Josei thought that was shallow but understandable. “Okay, what else?”
“2) What if he’s secretly a murderer? What if this hero thing is an act and the minute we’re alone I’m gonna end up in his basement being bled dry like he’s that Himiko Toga chick!”
Josei nodded again. A reasonable concern in most cases but- “It’s Uravity.”
Izumi groaned. “Okay, he probably won’t but that brings me to number three!”
“Which is?”
The smaller woman let out a deep breath. “What if he hates me? What if I open to him and bear it all to him, let him see who I really am, and he thinks the same thing everyone else thinks, that I’m just a worthless do nothing who’s just taking up space reserved for people who are more special?”
Josei knew Izumi had her insecurities but hearing someone so bright and positive utter those thoughts was still so shocking to witness. “Izumi, you’re not-”
“I am!” Izumi insisted, trying to fight back tears now. “And this isn’t even getting into the biggest reason of all.”
Josei was confused now. “What could be worse than him hating you or God forbid murdering you?”
Izumi took another breath, her face a mess as her tears started winning the battle with her need to not cry in front of Josei. “What if I open up to him and he manages to break down all of my walls and he actually sees me and he still wants to be with me?”
The fox girl was even more confused by that. “What’s so bad about that?”
“Josei, I've spent 17 years building myself up into someone self-sufficient. Someone who can be strong. Someone who isn’t something fragile and weak. Someone who can actually stand on her own. What am I supposed to do if I meet someone who I don’t have to prove anything to? What do I do with someone who just loves me because they think I’m cool? Someone who doesn’t look down on me? Someone who sees me, a 5 '5 quirkless girl who after graduating from UA, the best school in the country, still couldn’t figure what the hell she wanted to do after high school and decided to just settle for working in her father’s diner, and says ‘you are important’?” Izumi ranted, her face a mess of angry tears. “What do I do with any of that Josei? Tell me what I’m supposed to do with that!”
Josei simply sighed, moved to her knees, and wrapped her tiny friend in a hug who reciprocated it and proceeded to make a mess of the big woman’s uniform.
“I’m sorry about this.” Izumi whimpered.
“It’s okay. Tomorrow was laundry day anyway.” The fox girl reassured, running a reassuring hand through Izumi’s green hair.
After a few moments to calm down, Izumi pulled away. “Do you really think he’ll like me?”
“I think so, but I also think this date is the least of your problems.” Josei teased, though still looking a bit worried for her friend.
“I need therapy. I know.” Izumi chuckled, wiping off her face. “But really, do you think he’s good for me? And I’m good for him? I overheard the boys talking so I know Fuyumi and Therafrost want to set us up, and I heard Kacchan saying we’re perfect for each other… Before threatening to kill him if he hurts my feelings. I should’ve made his meal for free after that.”
Josei giggled at that. “I don’t know if it’ll be forever and ever, but I think he’ll show you a good time, and I think he’ll probably have a good time with you, and I think the two of you both deserve to have a good time, so why not have a good time together and see where it goes?”
Izumi nodded. She hated how much that made sense. “The date is friday at 6:30 on Cherry Street, what day is today again?”
Josei glanced at the calendar in the kitchen. “Wednesday. Why?”
“Because that means I only have 48 hours to spiral and doom and gloom about this going wrong.”
The giant suddenly had a nervous look on her face. “Please don’t do that.”
“Eh, it’s not as bad as if I’d a full week.” Izumi dismissed.
Osashi took a deep breath as he walked into the restaurant. He scanned the room once. A hero’s instinct. Where the diner had exposed windows and was a small room where not many people could get into mischief, this was a much larger building with windows covered by curtains and dimly lit like most fine dining establishments. If someone wanted to cause trouble, it wouldn’t be nearly as difficult as it would’ve been at the diner. Especially when it was just him as opposed to when he had Todoroki and Bakugo with him. Luckily it seemed like everything was going to be fine. He then scanned the room a second time.
Where’s Miss Midoriya? Is she not here ye- Oh there she was! Osashi wondered before spotting Izumi waving at him from across the room, having already taken her seat at the table Fuyumi had reserved for the two of them in advance.
“Hey! Good to see you.” Osashi greeted, smiling brightly at the young woman across from him.
Izumi blushed at the greeting. Osashi was dressed very nicely. Black slacks with a pink dress shirt and a black tie. He was still wearing his tennis shoes though but Izumi just chalked that up to the man either not wanting to spend money on what he saw as unnecessary expense (the man was very open about his background) or just wanting to wear something athletic in case Uravity was needed. His hair was combed perfectly. That was something else he’d talked about in interviews, the moment he joined UA, he didn’t want anyone to think he was a trashy poor kid from the Kansai region. So he made sure he looked like a perfect student and a perfect hero. Izumi admired it, but she also hoped that if they got closer she might be able to convince that he didn’t need to hold his barriers with her, even if that felt a bit hypocritical given the fortress she kept around her own heart.
“It’s good to see you too.” Izumi grinned, her adorable face looking like a Christmas tree given the red of her cheeks and the green of her hair and eyes.
Osashi blushed too. This girl was just too cute, especially in the gorgeous green dress with the yellow scarf she was wearing. What took Osashi by surprise was the definition of Midoriya's arms and shoulders. He hadn’t noticed it at the diner but this girl was ripped! She might've even given Bakugo a run for his money.
“Hey, I hope this isn’t too forward or just strange, but you have some amazing guns.” Osashi chuckled.
Izumi’s face went from scarlet to crimson at the compliment. “Oh, um, thank you. Is that a problem?”
“Absolutely not!” The hero replied, a bit hastily.
“Oh well, good! I didn’t want this date to end because you thought girls with muscles were gross or something.” Izumi replied, looking a bit relieved.
“Absolutely not!” Osashi reassured. “Actually, I’ll admit I’ve never really thought about muscles on a woman but on you, it really looks good.” The hero explained, looking a bit more nervous now. “There’s more I’d like to say, but I don’t want to freak you out or anything.”
The civilian giggled. “We’re on a date right now, obviously I want you to think I’m attractive. It’d be pretty illogical if I didn’t.”
“Illogical?” Osashi snorted. “That reminds me of my old teacher from first year.”
“Oh who was your teacher?”
“Ever heard of Eraserhead?”
“Heard of him?” Izumi laughed. “I know him! He’s my little sister’s guardian!”
“Little sister? You know Eri?”
“I do! I don’t know if Fuyumi or Thermafrost told you, but I’m a big sister for an outreach program for underprivileged youths. My littles are Eri and a boy named Kota.”
“Kota huh. Any connection to the Wild Wild Pussycats?”
“Mhmm. He’s Mandalay’s nephew. She’s been taking care of him since his parents died. He’s a great kid too. He’s still really angry about what happened being left behind them but he’s learning to accept it and understand that they still loved him.”
Osashi nodded, a small smile forming on his face. “That’s kind of like my Heroes For Heroes program. A lot of heroes, they’re so focused on helping others that they forget to take care of themselves. What good are any of us if we aren’t healthy? Mentally, physically, spiritually, all that jazz.”
Izumi grinned as well. “I agree with that…”
The hero noticed her trailing off. “You agree with that but… What?” He chuckled.
Izumi let out a nervous laugh. “I agree with that but I’m bad at applying it to myself.” She admitted.
Osashi frowned. “Why do you think that is?”
Okay. Time to drop the bomb. Izumi thought.
“So I was diagnosed as quirkless when I was four years old.” She explained. She didn’t continue immediately, she wanted to wait for his reaction. To her surprise, his reaction was just being surprised as well, but no disgust or fury, just curiosity.
“So what does that have to do with being bad at taking care of yourself?” He asked.
The civilian let out a deep breath. No getting out of this now. “Well because of that, pretty much everyone I ever knew, either treated me like I was useless or just helpless. Like I either couldn’t contribute or like I needed to always be protected. I wanted to be a hero, I wanted to be a hero so badly, I wanted to be able to save people, but when I was told I’d never get a quirk pretty much all of that came crashing down on me. Everyone either treated me like I wasn’t worth having around or like I was deathly ill. I wasn’t. I didn’t have a quirk. I was just a normal fucking person. A hundred years ago no one would’ve looked at me like I wasn’t anything abnormal.”
Osashi nodded. “So you push yourself as hard as you can so you can prove to people that you have a place in the world?”
Izumi wasn’t expecting to be understood, but there Uravity was letting her get everything off her chest. She wanted to run but she felt so… Free?
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it I guess. I never really thought of it that way, but yeah, that’s about it.” The young woman admitted.
“Yeah, I can relate. I heard you’re a big hero fan, so I’m sure you know this, but my family didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up. I’ve told stories about not asking for toys at Christmas or my birthday because I didn’t want to put pressure on them, but you know, I’ll never forget the look of shame on my dad’s face when he realized that I knew we were poor and I was trying to help carry his and mom’s burden.” Osashi explained.
“I went through that with my mom.” Izumi recalled, her mouth feeling dry. “After I got my diagnosis, I was watching a video of All Might, and I was crying so much, I was a mess, but I turned to my mom and asked her if I could still be a hero even without a quirk.”
“And she said no?”
“No, that was the worst part. She didn’t even answer me. She just held me and kept telling me that she was sorry.” Izumi let out a sigh. “I knew she meant well, but that wasn’t what I needed to hear.”
Osashi nodded again. “Yeah that doesn’t sound too far from what I went through with my pops.”
“And then you get into the bullying.” Izumi scoffed, rolling her eyes as she looked away for a moment. “Fucking jerks.” She muttered.
“Classism and quirkism, all branches of the same ugly tree.” Osashi remarked, crossing his arms as his face contorted with anger. “I doubt it was the same thing, but you wouldn’t believe how many times in elementary and middle school I got called out for being the damn poor kid in school.”
“Your drinks.”
The two lovebirds were immediately pulled from their conversation by the sound of their server’s voice as they sat down a pair of glasses onto the table.
“Oh… That’s right.” Izumi noted, looking a bit flustered now. “I ordered us a couple glasses of wine just before you got here.”
Osashi cringed internally. He didn’t really care for alcohol in general but he especially didn’t enjoy wine. It was another unnecessary expense in the first place and he’d also seen way too many people hurt themselves or others because they were drunk and didn’t know how to control themselves while intoxicated.
“How thoughtful!” The hero grinned, looking quite pleased.
“I know you don’t care for alcohol, but I-”
“You really are a big hero fan.” Osashi chuckled. “I only said that one time in one interview for a newspaper back in Kansai.”
“Oh y-y-yeah, I am.” Izumi blushed, feeling herself sink into her seat.
“I ain’t teasin’ ya! I’m actually really impressed!” Osashi said quickly.
“Ain’t?” Izumi repeated, looking amused. “You’re using your real accent?” She mused.
Now Osashi was blushing. “Oh! I guess I forgot to drop it that time…”
“I like it. It’s cute.” The civilian admitted, still blushing.
“Well shoot, if ya’ll think it’s cute, I reckon I can quit droppin’ it for now.” Osashi replied, his face bright red now. “But anywho, what was y’all sayin’?”
“Oh right, um, well I’d actually ordered the drinks just for me. I was nervous and I wanted a little bit of liquid courage.” Izumi giggled, her face still matching Osashi’s.
“I think that makes sense. I’d’ve probably done the same thing if I wasn’t so dang…” Osashi trailed off.
“Frugal?” Izumi guessed.
“That sounds better than when Bakugo calls me a cheap bastard.” The hero quipped.
Izumi laughed heartily at that. “Sounds like the Kacchan I know.”
“What’s with them nicknames by the way? Kacchan and Deku? Did y'all ever go out?”
“Oh my God no!” Izumi answered, laughing even harder now. “No, no, no, Kacchan and I are just best friends. I call Katsuki, Kacchan because we grew up together and as far as Deku goes…” The civilian trailed off. “Well that nickname and I have a…” She trailed off again, this was tricky.
“Have a what?” Osashi asked, looking a little bit confused.
“Well we have a complicated relationship.” Izumi chuckled, shifting uncomfortably. “Kind of like me and Kacchan in general really.”
“Oh is that so?”
“Yeah, um, like I said we grew up together and we were both really big All Might fans, and we both wanted to be heroes when we grew up, but then…” Izumi trailed off yet again.
Why is this so fucking hard?! She screamed internally.
“But then y’all figured out that you was quirkless and that just wasn’t happenin’?” Osashi guessed.
Izumi chuckled. “Would you believe me if I still tried after that?”
Osashi smirked. “I’m thinking I would. Y’all don’t seem like the kind of gal who can give up without fighting first.”
Izumi took a long sip of her wine while pointing and winking at Osashi who let out a small chuckle.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Did ya ever try to get yourself into the Hero Course? Bakugo told me y’all were in general, the same year as me and him. It’s crazy to think our paths ain’t ever crossed in all three years we were in that crazy ass school.”
“I know right? I would’ve thought I’d have noticed someone so handsome.” Izumi teased.
“Oh shush!” Osashi laughed, his face turning red again.
“Couldn’t help it.” She giggled. “But to answer your question,” Izumi huffed, “I made a deal with my mom, I could either enroll in the support course or I could dual enroll in the hero and general course, and if I didn’t pass the practical exam then I’d take my place in the general course. I would’ve loved to have been in support, but I took the gamble and it didn’t pay off. We made a deal, and well, in my family, you give someone your word, you hold to it.”
“I reckon I can respect that.” Osashi nodded. “Still, it just ain’t right that y’all couldn’t have been a hero or at least gotten to work with ‘em.”
“It does.” Izumi agreed. “But at the very least, it made me realize that my experiences in middle school were the exception and not the rule. Even for being pro heroes, the teachers at UA were so kind to me, nobody treated me like I was fragile. There was an expectation of excellence at UA and they didn’t care what your quirk was or if you even had one, they expected you to go Plus Ultra. But at the same time, they didn’t think less of you for- Oh duh! Look who I’m talking to!” The civilian laughed, remembering that she was literally talking to UA alumnus and number four hero, Uravity.
Osashi let out a small chuckle of his own. “No, no, please continue. I’ve always a little bit curious about them general course kids. I talked to them support kids all the dang time, so I had a pretty good idea of what they was up to , but I never knew any kids in general.”
“Didn’t Mockingbird start in general before moving into the hero course?”
“Mockingbird? Oh y’all mean Shinso!” Osashi recalled. “Yeah, yeah, he did start in there if I remember right. In fact, now that I’m thinking of it, weren’t y’all his first opponent during the tournament at the Sports Festival?”
“I was! We beat the shit out of each other too!” Izumi laughed. “I knew what his quirk was because we were both in 1C, so he couldn’t trick me into just walking out of the ring like a moron!”
“I still remember Todoroki straight up asking him ‘Did you seriously just beat up a girl?’ Before freezing his ass in the biggest damned glacier I ever did see!” Osashi laughed, briefly performing his best Thermafrost impression.
“I made sure to send him a thank you letter a day later. I sent Endeavor a letter too, thanking him for making sure Thermafrost drank his respect women juice.” Izumi quipped. “Boy is that awkward in hindsight.” The civilian muttered, taking a sip of her wine.
“Yer heart was in the right place, it’s not like y’all knew who that sumbitch was back then.” Osashi defended.
“That’s true, but still, crazy to think about.” Izumi argued.
“I guess that’s fair, but I think we’ve gotten off the subject. What makes yer relationship with Bakugo so dang complicated?”
Izumi let out a deep breath then took another sip of her wine. “So after I found out I was going to be quirkless, Kacchan… Changed for a while there. We were still friends but he started keeping me at arms length and sometimes acted really mean to me, even downright cruel sometimes.”
Osashi’s hands were clenched in fists of rage underneath the table as Izumi spoke. He had the sudden urge to punch Katsuki next time he saw him but he also had a funny feeling Izumi wouldn’t care for that.
“When he joined UA he got worse for a little bit there but at some point, he called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to hang out like we used to. I was pretty cautious about it but I figured, well he’s about to be a hero, I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything too bad. Let's see where it goes.”
“And where did it end up going?”
“It was a few weeks after the disaster in Jaku City.”
Osashi flinched at the name. It had been almost ten years since all that happened but it still wasn’t a pleasant memory.
“Touched a nerve?” Izumi asked, looking apologetic.
“A little bit, but it’s okay. You didn’t know. You can go ahead.” Osashi replied, briefly slipping back into his Tokyo accent on instinct. “I mean, y’all didn’t know. It’s okay. Please keep talkin’, I wanna hear the rest of yer story.” She was being open with him, the least he could do was keep using his real Kansai accent.
“Right so, we went to an arcade and got some lunch and he told me he’d gotten into a fight with a real villain and that the guy had nearly killed him. Luckily he wound up okay, but after that, well, you know, the whole life flashing before your eyes thing?”
“So he almost found himself face to face with baby Jesus and he realized he’d been nothing but a little bastard to y’all for 12 years?” Osashi guessed.
“Pretty much.” Izumi nodded. “And we reconnected after that and it was really nice having my best friend back after so long.” She admitted, sighing with contentment.
Osashi smiled. He was definitely going to punch Bakugo in the balls later but he had a funny feeling the ‘Great Explosion Murder God’ would forgive him. “So where did Deku come from?”
“I told him that was going to be my hero name if I ever got to be one.”
“Why?”
“So you know what a deku doll is right?”
“It’s like a little wooden doll that ain’t got no arms or legs?”
“It’s kind of useless right?”
“I guess?”
“Kind of like a quirkless person?”
Osashi wasn’t sure he agreed with that. “I don’t think I’d say that, but I think I see where y’all are going with this. You were wanting to say yer a deku but yer not useless right?”
“Exactly! And so Kacchan just started calling me Deku after that. I have a complicated relationship with it now because he kept calling me that during the years we weren’t close and I could tell he was saying it to hurt me, but I can also tell he says it with affection now. He’s like my brother. Sometimes you want to kill each other, and sometimes you’d kill for them.”
Osashi nodded, smiling. “I always wanted to have a brother or a sister. I think my mama and my daddy wanted more kids, but they could hardly even afford me as it was, so they just never tried for more.”
“That’s kind of sad.” Izumi replied.
“Yeah, kinda.” Osashi conceded.
“We’ve been talking a lot, we should probably order now.”
“Oh sweet lord yes!” The hero laughed.
And as if on cue, their server returned to take the lovely couple’s orders. The two had their doubts to start with but they were definitely feeling a connection at this point. This was a person they could talk to for hours and never get bored. This was a person that they could trust with their fears, insecurities, and anxieties because they genuinely understood where they were coming from. And on top of all that, they really were just an absolute pleasure to be around.
By the end of the night the only thing either of them could think to when they got home was, “Thank God for the Todoroki siblings.”