Deku the heart catcher

chapter 1 kyouka

Midoriya was a timid kind of guy, and everybody was pretty aware. He didn't like to feel like he was speaking out of turn, had some rather apparent insecurities, and was pretty easily spooked by conflicts with other students. When the chips were down, though, he could pull off a Hail Mary like the best of them; nobody in Class 1-A could deny that, not even Bakugou, as much as he might like to. Midoriya was kind of a paradox, with super strength comparable to All Might's and the compassion to be a really admirable hero, but a meek disposition and more apparent pride in his mental faculties than his physical aptitude.

This was why Kyouka found herself staring at him in deep thought while they packed away gym equipment. Aizawa-sensei had been planning to have a day of general physical training, but almost as soon as the class all made it out to the field, a freak snowstorm blew in over Yuuei. It absolutely pelted down snow and sleet, and the cold snap made everyone try, and fail, to huddle a little closer to Todoroki's left side. Asui looked like she was going to fall over any minute, and Bakugou started throwing a fit over how the cold made his quirk almost unusable, rubbing his arms frantically. To his credit, Iida was trying to control the situation, although his wild gestures and booming shouts weren't doing much. As for Yaoyorozu, she had stepped back to try and assess the situation. Leaning her face on her palm, she went between looking at the snow rapidly covering the ground, and at the class mostly engaged in a chain reaction of chaos.

Aizawa-sensei had a look of abject exasperation on his face as he'd turned to Midoriya and Kyouka. "Since you two have graciously not started to lose your minds over a little sudden snowstorm," he sighed, "I'd appreciate you putting up the gym equipment while the Class President and Vice-President help me shepherd the class inside." With that, he shuffled off to round up the class. The first order of business was to have Todoroki warm up Asui, who had sat down on the ground with exhaustion as the snow piled up around her. This had left Kyouka with Midoriya to handle the gym equipment by themselves, as the snowfall began to slowly drop off. It wasn't very far to the storage room, so Kyouka just handled the lighter objects like the baseballs Aizawa used to measure raw physical aptitude, and Midoriya used his 'Full Cowl' (so he called it, making Kyouka quietly snort as he uttered the name) to move the track hurdles and the like.

By the time they'd packed up all the gym equipment, though, the snow was starting to fall again. And it really returned with a vengeance, too — by the time they'd gotten everything in its proper place, the snow was a foot high at the doorway! Midoriya wondered under his breath, "I wonder what's causing all of this snow? This is way too much for this time of year...Could it have to do with some kind of weather control quirk?" He took out his little notebook of hero-related information, muttering loudly as he flipped from page to page in search of some kind of answer. It was a little bit disconcerting, but it was still kind of fascinating for Kyouka to watch. Sitting on the stack of mats up against the wall, she slouched forward with one elbow propped up on her knee, that way she could rest her chin on her hand and just observe Midoriya as he pored over his notes. It was as if he'd completely forgotten she was there, and his behavior made her give another little snort of amusement.

Once she'd given Midoriya a few minutes, though, Kyouka decided to get down to brass tacks. "Hey Deku," she addressed him with the insult-turned-hero name. Midoriya slammed his notebook shut, having remembered Kyouka was there only after she spoke up. Holding the notebook at his side, he looked over to her to try and respond. He failed miserably, only managing a garbled kind of grunt. "Yeah, cool," Kyouka snarked. "Deku, why are you so timid?" He blinked as though he'd just been asked to give the meaning of life, mouth opening and closing dumbly like a fish out of water. Kyouka fiddled with her bangs, giving Midoriya a sideways look. "You sure have a lot of power to your quirk," Kyouka beat around the bush with compliments, "and you're so ready to throw yourself at something you can't beat, to save someone else. But you're kind of a nerd, y'know? Even though that quirk of yours would probably make you a star athlete. And you kinda just take it when Mr. Explosive Disorder starts up with the insults and threats, without standing up for yourself. What gives?" Handling things in her usual blunt manner of speaking, Kyouka didn't really expect any meaningful answers. She was really just making small talk.