✰keep your cool!

✰Chapter Two: Shenanigans Ensue

Attempting to lift a broken flatscreen TV, Izuku shifts his grip around before successfully hefting it up, only to blush and drop it immediately when he hears a loud wolf-whistle. He turns around and glares at Jun, who just waves back innocently.

"I'll never get anything done here if you don't stop that!" Izuku yells, trying to sound angry, but his twitching lips that threaten to pull into a smile give away his amusement. He huffs, turning back to his task, and tries to ignore Jun's antics.

"But, Izukkun, how else will you know that you're improving?" Izuku hears Jun ask, mischief in their voice, and he rolls his eyes without turning around. He picks the TV back up and walks away without replying, tuning out his best friend's whining and humming an anime intro under his breath.

It's Izuku's ninth month of cleaning up the Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, and he honestly feels great. Aside from his constantly aching muscles and how his throat stings from regularly throwing up, he's been enjoying the experience of training with All Might. It helps that Jun makes sure to stop by whenever they can. They train with him-- always with their own equipment; they leave the beach cleaning to him --and sometimes they let All Might put them on top of fridges that Izuku then pulls across the beach.

Izuku tunes back into reality as he hears a voice he's come to know quite well; the voice of All Might in his proper form.

"Young Kanazawa, stop teasing the poor boy," he scolds, but Izuku can hear the laughter in his voice. Traitor, Izuku thinks sourly, only to backtrack with a frantic, I didn't mean that!

He then groans at himself for freaking out when All Might can't even hear him.

"Are you sure about that?"

Izuku yelps and drops the TV again as the subject of his thoughts suddenly speaks from right next to him.

All Might smiles down at him, visibly amused. "Ah, sorry, my boy. You were mumbling, and I just couldn't resist the urge to get you back for yesterday."

Izuku thinks back to what All Might is referring to and smiles sheepishly. He had tripped and fallen into a fridge before deciding to have some fun. He waited for his mentor to walk past and popped out like a jack-in-the-box, but he felt terrible when All Might had started coughing up an excessive amount of blood.

"Yeah, I deserved that," Izuku says with a nervous laugh. The two of them lapse into a silence that isn't awkward, but at the same time, isn't totally comfortable.

" . . . You know, my boy," All Might says, looking a bit shy as he shifts the tone of the conversation. "You're doing good. Great, actually. I'm-- I'm proud of how far you've come in these past months."

Izuku tries, he really does, but he can't stop himself from tearing up at the praise. He smiles up at his idol, ignoring said idol's mutter of "too bright," and turns back to see Jun disinterestedly lifting weights while singing to themself. He feels a warmth blossom in his chest that's becoming more and more common these days. "I think . . . I'm proud of myself, too."

--

"What's with that look?" Jun asks Izuku with a raised eyebrow on the morning of the entrance exam. They've just arrived at the train station, where the two had previously arranged to meet. They find him sitting on a bench with a pinched, semi-disgusted look on his face. Jun sits down next to him and watches bemusedly as he gulps and shudders.

Izuku looks around for a moment, and Jun realizes that he's looking out for eavesdroppers. "All Might made me eat his hair," he whispers after deeming it safe to do so.

"What the fuck?" Jun whispers back, incredulous. That's a sentence they never thought they'd hear in their lifetime.

"I don't know!" Izuku moans in despair. "He just shoved a strand of his hair at me and said, 'eat this,' so I did! And now I keep feeling it in the back of my throat!"