Engine Boy, I Love You!

#6: Love is a Tricky Thing

Note: I split these into parts, so if you ever want to find what part you left off in, hit [ctrl] +[f] and type in [PART 1], 2, 3, etc. (Make sure the whole story has been loaded.)

*Story is loosely connected to separate work (The Couples of Class 1-A; "Love-Coach Ochako", between chapters 30 & 31)

Author's Note: The reason I bring this up is because there is a comment made about Uraraka and Todoroki being in a romantic relationship. It's a fake relationship in my other fic, but Iida isn't aware of this yet. (LCO is an Izuocha and Todomomo fic.)

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PART 1

Iida stared up at the sign of the development studio with apprehension. It hadn't been very many days since the near-tragedy everyone had since deemed "the pyro incident," but the memories were still relatively fresh in his mind. He could sometimes still hear and feel the whimpers and twitches Hatsume's exhausted body had made against his back whenever he zoned out. It had left him with a different kind of scar than the others on his body—one that persisted like a hallucination every time he closed his eyes.

By then however, it was Saturday afternoon. Though the memories hung close, Iida knew he couldn't dwell on the past forever. He needed to move forward—and he knew that could only be done by seeing Hatsume again in-person, even if the idea made him nervous.

Iida squinted anxiously up at the words on the sign, Not to mention... I still haven't talked to her about...

He couldn't help the way his lower lip pursed at the memory. Besides the pyro incident, there was also something much more... unexpected, that he had yet to address. And that thing, was of course Hatsume's potential feelings for him.

He scratched his head, Was it just something that she did in the heat of the moment? Or were there actually some r... "romantic feelings" involved...?

This was something he also hoped to answer, but not right away if need be. As curious as he was, Iida found himself feeling strangely hesitant to uncover the truth.

Still, after steeling himself, Iida managed to push open the studio door—heart already pulsing from some bout of jitteriness. Thankfully, it didn't take more than a second for his eyes to find Hatsume in the back of the room, head craned over some new invention she was already tinkering away at. At the door creak, she looked up too.

"Oh, Iida!" she beamed, surprising him when she actually set down her wrench to acknowledge him, "It's been a little while! I thought you'd forgotten about me, haha!"

"Oh don't be ridiculous," he huffed, "I've been busy lately, is all. The hero department has license exams coming up, so all of us have been working extra hard to develop our ultimate moves," then in the back of his mind, he added silently: I couldn't forget about you if I tried to.

Even more to his astoundment, she stood up from her crisscrossed position on the floor, and hurried over to him with engine grease still smudged on her jaw.

"How have you been holding up?" she asked first, as if she hadn't just been the one who'd most recently been in mortal peril, "I've been worrying about how this maybe affected you, since you haven't stopped by much."

"Ironic you should ask that, given the circumstances, but I'm sleeping soundly again, if that's what you mean..." a dreary look crossed his eyes that he hadn't done well enough to hide, "It's hard not thinking about how much worse things could've gone that day."