fanfiction | i. midoriya

[07] soba deserves more respect

✎⭒

"deku!" ochaco exclaimed as the green haired boy came into view. it was lunch time, and it was the first time the dekusquad had seen the freckled boy in three days outside of class. "where have you been?"

"we missed you, midoriya!" iida tenya [quirk: engine] remarked genuinely, stuffing his face with chicken and rice.

"hello everyone," izuku said sheepishly, taking his usual seat next to iida. "i've just been...really busy..."

"you've been gone many fortnights." shoto todoroki [quirk: half-cold, half-hot] deadpanned, but his eyes gave away that the fact that he was pissed. "my minecraft server has gone cold."

"listen, i have something to tell all of you," izuku glanced nervously from one friend to the next, his cheeks gaining more and more color by the second.

"what is it?" ochaco asked, her eyes growing wide in an innocent wonder.

"DID YOU FAIL YOUR EXAMS?" iida cried.

"you're all might's love child." shoto said, his chopsticks falling into his bowl of soba as he slapped a hand over his mouth. "i knew it."

"what? no!" izuku wished he could make his voice stop shaking, but his friends deserved to know. he took a deep breath before blurting out, "ithinkilike[y/n]."

all of his friends blinked at him.

"i like [y/n]," he said, very slowly this time, drawing the syllables out smoothly.

"oh," shoto said with a slight disappointment that his theory about izuku was seemingly going nowhere. "okay."

"same," ochaco said with a shrug, recalling how [y/n] had resulted in their success a few weeks ago.

"no--like i mean i think i'm in love with her."

"are we supposed to be surprised?" iida asked, chewing his food slowly now.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN."

"it was pretty obvious," tsuyu asui [quirk: frog] said, speaking up for the first time. "ribbit."

izuku's hands flew to his hair, where tugged on it with all his might. "YOU MEAN IT WAS OBVIOUS THIS WHOLE TIME?"

"you literally showed us the notes you took on her." ochaco said, like DUH.

"also--she's wearing your loins," shoto added, pointing at the girl with his thumb. [y/n] was sitting across the cafeteria with kyoka and momo, and she was waring some of izuku's all might knee high socks.

izuku turned back to look at shoto in disbelief. "how do you know those are mine?"

shoto slurped his soba. "i went through your closet once."

"needless to say, let her hang out with us!" ochaco sighed, beaming at her best friend for finally shooting his shot with the girl he'd been crushing on since day one. "we'll only tease you a little bit!"

"but," iida interjected, "if you commit pda, i will report you to mr. aizawa."

"and if she touches me," shoto added, a blank start on his face, "i will kill her."

izuku let out a sigh of relief. he didn't know why he had been so nervous to tell them, when he knew they were the last people in the entire world to judge him. (PLS THE WAY HE WOULD IGNORE SHOTO'S DEATH THREATS.) "yeah," he said happily. "okay!"

collectively, their table turned to look at the girl then, who was stuffing her face with her lunch while kyoka and momo took pictures of her. noodles were hanging off of her lip like a mustache and the girls were laughing so hard they were snorting.

"that's cute," tsuyu croaked.

shoto shook his head. "no it's not. soba deserves more respect."

⭑

later on, ochaco was still having to baby the boy.

"i still don't know why you were so nervous to tell us. you've only been talking about her since we all started at ua and besides, we already like her," she repeated for the fourth time as izuku pulled out his switch so they could play mariokart.

"i just feel like i'm always going to mess things up."

ochaco huffed, her cheeks puffing as she rolled her eyes. "you befriended todoroki. you can get the girl you like to like you back."

"i know--but i've never done anything like this--"

"shut up, you idiot! that doesn't matter. tell me why you like her again."

"she's kind and creative. she works well with others. she's never backed down, despite her quirk being so tricky to control. she has...big dreams that i admire."

"is that really it?" ochaco raised and eyebrow. with that criteria, you could like anyone.

izuku sighed, but he was smiling. "she has the prettiest laugh and smile. and i like how patient she is--especially with all my questions. and she even asks some back sometimes. she's easy to talk to. she likes my freckles and you know how i feel about those. she can't hide her emotions from her face and i love that she likes me. and she likes..."

"mhm?" ochaco said patiently.

"she likes my fanfiction."

ochaco's eyes widened at that. her and iida were the only ones she knew of that knew izuku wrote it. they were even the ones who had helped him come up with his recent username: smallmight.

there also the only ones (besides katsuki) who knew how he had gotten his quirk, which he had reluctantly told them about after waking up from nightmares for a month straight after all might had fought all for one and lost his quirk during the epic battle to save katsuki from the league of villains.

"she does!? does she know you're famous!? does she know about...?"

izuku shook his head and hid his face into his hands. "i can't bring myself to tell her.

"why not?" ochaco asked softly.

"because just for once, i want to be izuku, and not deku. i don't want her to know i was quirkless before--that i was a loser."

ochaco crawled over to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulder. she pressed her cheek against his and hugged him tightly. "[y/n] would never think that," she said. "she only sees the best parts of people--she even saw them in me and believed in them, with zero hesitation."

izuku gave her a small smile.

"which is probably why she likes you back so much! because you're full of best parts, deku."