Heartsick || An Izuku and Ochako story

Tea over talk

For a moment, all Izuku could hear was silence. He wouldn't even attempt to look up at Uraraka to see her face. He could just stare at the concrete pavement and observe its dull colors.

Then, laughter.

He glanced up to see Uraraka quietly giggling. She offered him a hand, and Izuku complied. 

"Deku-kun," she began, stifling her laughter. "You aren't getting kicked out of the hero course."

His head jolted up with sudden excitement. "I'm not?"

She nodded. "I just wanted to see if you would activate 'float' if you had something at stake," she explained. Uraraka scribbled something down and grinned. "Even though you were one minute late, you still were able to use float. That was the only thing I was looking for."

 "I feel stupid for panicking over that..." he mumbled embarrassedly. He glanced over at Uraraka and the two of them burst into laughter.

When they finally recollected themselves, Ochako looked over at her friend and grinned. "I would have done the same thing. I bet my reaction would be worse."

Izuku began pulling off his gloves. His skin was absolutely boiling, even though he'd been swimming in ice-cold water the entire time. The adrenaline kept him going, but it also burned him from head to toe. Uraraka noticed and guilt washed over her. 

"Sorry," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have made it so difficult. It was our first training session, after all."

"It's not your fault, Uraraka! If you hadn't done that, I doubt I would've activated float on my first session at all. Everything you did was necessary," he reassured.

She listlessly nodded in response, though the guilt lingered. Both students caught a bus back to the dorms, just a few hours before the rest of their classmates would wake up. After taking a thought shower, changing and attempting to comb his hair, Izuku walked into the kitchen. Leaning against the counter was Uraraka, who had just finished filling a kettle with water.

"Oh, Deku!" she said in surprise. "I thought you were going to sleep?"

He shook his head. "I was thinking of getting something to eat." Trudging over to the fridge, he yanked the door open and scanned the inside until coming upon a tin-foil covered plate. He set it on the countertops and took off the covering, revealing a plate of sweet baklava.

Uraraka stared at the desert with a puzzling expression. "I didn't know you could bake!"

Izuku picked up a piece of baklava before nervously smiling. "I can't. Sato made it as a gift for my assistance with his quirk training," he explained.

She nodded in understanding and turned her attention to the boiling water. She opened up a cupboard and pulled out one teacup, then paused. "Do...do you want some tea, too?"

He thought for a moment before saying, "Of course. Do you want some baklava?" he offered, showing her the honey and nut covered treat. There was no way for her to refuse.

Izuku watched as she skillfully prepared the tea. Uraraka took a strainer and placed it gingerly over the two cups, before carefully pouring hot water into each one. After two spoons of their desired tea-powders, she took out some sugar and added in a few cubes. A quiet stirring soon filled the room and the faint aroma of tea joined it.

He watched as she took her cup and set it in front of her mouth, eyes closed, breathing in the scent. She took a sip and let out a sigh of content.

"You're really good at making tea," Izuku pointed out. Uraraka fumbled and almost dropped her cup, the tranquility broken.

"My mother taught me," she said, her brown eyes darting to the side. "Since tea is cheap, we bought lots of it."

He nodded and took a sip of his tea, while she bit into the baklava. The smile that spread across her face made him want to shove the entire plate over to her side of the counter, but he resisted the urge.

Glancing up from his tea, he watched her sip and eat. Her smiles were infinite each time, her eyes glittered and-

His eyes peered down below her eyes, then abruptly stopped. Very faint, but not completely unobservable, were bags. Right underneath her eyes. And as if on cue, she yawned.

"I should probably go to bed..." she said, setting down her empty cup. Uraraka warmly smiled up at him. "Thanks for the baklava!"

He didn't return the smile as she left the room. Instead, he stared at the bottom of his teacup, the lake of brown sifting back and forth. His grip on the handle tightened as the realization hit him. 

Uraraka was overworking herself. Izuku was sure of it. These training sessions- the effort she was putting into them was tiring her out. For a moment, he'd forgotten that just like him, Uraraka was a student, too. She was doing the same tests, assignments, and everything in between. On top of that, she had to train him, too.  

The guilt increased even more, and like a rushing flood of water, it broke through his dam.

Before Izuku could change his mind, he rushed after Uraraka.