Cuddly Midori

Mamadoriya Defends an Orca

It was an off day for Kugo, usually he didn't mind the way people looked at him. The way they avoided him in the streets as he went on patrol or stared at him as he passed. Usually. But as he said; today was an off day.

It started when he woke up, something not sitting right as he went about his morning routine. When he saw the papers, he realized why he was feeling so off. Front page was a picture of him on patrol with the people around him giving him far too much space, looking skittish or disgusted. The header was 'top 10 heroes that look more like villains'.

Nothing new for him, but still, it threw him off all the same. He was scheduled to speak with some of the hero course kids at UA in the afternoon, so he decided to try and calm himself with a trip to the aquarium. There were a few school trips scheduled that morning and the aquarium employees let him stop by and give tours or answer questions.

Again, things weren't much different today, teachers led the kids around him or stayed on the opposite side of the room from him, most of the kids shied away from him anyway due to his appearance and height. The few kids that didn't mind him were caught and corralled back with the others by their teachers. There were also some parents and older teens here and there, the only ones to approach him were an elderly couple and he led them around the aquarium, answering questions and naming the fish they pointed to. Two of the children snuck away from their teacher just long enough to ask him for a picture which he happily gave before being rather forcefully removed from his side by a panicky teacher.

So, yeah, his day was normal, but it hit different for some reason he couldn't name.

By the time he got to UA, he was having trouble smiling, which, granted, many wouldn't be able to tell because of his facial structure, but he still knew and it threw him off even more. He was found at the gates by the green haired boy that broke himself in the sports festival and Eraserhead. The boy lit up as soon as he saw Kugo, bouncing on his toes and smiling widely with excitement. As he neared, the boy introduced himself as Midoriya Izuku and enthusiastically asked for a picture and his signature.

Kugo was a little in shock, most people weren't this happy to see him, which Midoriya seemingly picked up on as he launched into a summarized retelling of his whole hero career with analysis on his quirk and other things that started to blur together as the boy picked up speed on his mutterings. He glanced at Eraserhead in silent question, but the man was focused on the boy, failing to either hide his fond smile or notice it.

He interrupted the boy's mumbling and posed for a picture with him that Eraserhead reluctantly took, signing the notebook that was handed to him from out of nowhere. As they walked to the gym, Midoriya continued talking, it was hard to keep up at first, but Kugo was slowly adapting to it, so he was surprised when the boy stopped talking for longer than a second.

He was even more surprised when the boy asked, after a full minute of walking in now awkward silence, "are you sad today, Gang Orca-san?"

No one said anything as Kugo mentally processed that, Eraser was side-eying him as Midoriya kept his eyes on their path. Eventually, Eraser asked for him, "why do you say that, Izuku?"

That's another thing that made him pause; Eraser called his student by his given name, what?

"Well, it's just you're not smiling today, Gang Orca-san. It's rare not to see you smile. Did something happen?"

Kugo blinked, this kid could tell when he was smiling? "Uh, nothing more than usual, Midoriya-kun."

There was a few moments of quiet as they continued walking, who knew the UA campus was so big? Before the boy said, "just because it's normal for you doesn't mean that it's alright or that you should ignore how it makes you feel."