Quirkless Time (part 1)

"Watch out for that rock, there, Midoriya."

"Ah- oops! Th-thank you, ss-sir!"

"Good form, Okano."

"Thank you, sir!"

Class 3-E struggled only slightly as they climbed up the mountain behind the school. Their score at the vacation island proved to be a victory on their part, showing how much they've grown since the start of the semester. Still, they weren't pros yet, but that was okay for the most part.

Izuku stopped on a ledge, hefting himself over it to take a breather. He looked at his calloused hands, somewhat red from his tight grip on some rough rocks. They weren't too bad, all things considered, but his knees were probably worse off, a few scratches and tiny cuts here and there from nicking some stones that stuck out while he climbed.

He glanced up and saw Kimura, Isogai, and Okano miles ahead. With a sigh, he turned his gaze down to see the other students still trekking along the best they could. Karasuma and All Might stood at the very bottom, watching and ready to catch any of them should they lose their grip and fall. Korosensei wasn't allowed around the class during these private practices.

He dodged All Might's glance and began to climb again. He had to be better too; pull his weight in this class. Get stronger… Shoot for that ever distant dream of being a hero.

His head throbbed a bit at his crown, but the freckled teen ignored it.

"Get out of the way, nerd!" he heard the gruff voice of Terasaka underneath him.

"Uh, go around?" Izuku stared down. He kept climbing.

"I'm right here! Just move over!"

"Ahah, uh, nn- no . Go around." Izuku kept climbing. He didn't particularly care too much this nice in early fall. He heard Terasaka give out a growl before he activated his quirk, using his Tiger Arms to climb way faster than Izuku ever could (well, he could, but he's not about to use that in front of everyone). Izuku snorted and took the increase of speed as a challenge, swinging himself to higher ledges. "Ss-see! You c- could do it. G-good on- good on you!"

"Shut up, nerd!!"

Izuku laughed, stopping at a ledge that Kayano took to rest on. Emerald eyes stared up at the tiger teen, muttering, "C-coward," under his breath. Kayano laughed a bit too loudly at that.

"You're still going strong, huh?"

Izuku nodded with a smile. "You t-too. Nn-not too shhha-abby for ss-some quirkless nn-nobodies, huh?"

Kayano's smile turned solemn for a moment, sending a shock of worry through the other, wondering if what he said was wrong—but she quickly brightened up with a giggle. "Yeah! Who needs quirks, anyway, huh? Look at that-" she pointed down at the few students still at the lower half of the mountain, Okajima, Takebayashi and Chiba. "Even with amazing quirks, we still have the upper hand on most, huh?"

"Hmmm, yeah!" Izuku beamed. Then he glanced back down. "Ss-seems a bit unfair f-for Chiba-kun, though. Do you th-think he can ss-see the ledges with his- his, uh, his quirk? I wonder how he ss-sees exactly- he's blind r-right? Tha'sso cool if he's only…" Kaede gave the hopeless boy a withered grin, knowing just how engrossed her fellow quirkless member could get in his own mumbling thoughts.

"Alright, note boy, let's get back to it, 'kay?" She pat his head, blinking when her fingers brushed over a few bumps and he flinched back a bit, seemingly startled. Kaede's heart shot up just a tad.

"Eh? O-oh! Y- right! Oops, I almos'- hah, yeah- 'kay, l-le's go, yeah?"

Kaede blinked again before nodding. He didn't… seem to notice anything? His face was a bit pink, but he always gets that way whenever the girls did anything remotely affectionate to him—Nakamura always chose to use this fact as a tool to tease him with. Nodding, Kaede shrugged it off as another 'Midoriyaism' and started climbing after him.

"H-Hey, Izukun?"

He paused, looking down to her from under his arm, a curious expression on his face.

"Do- uh, so, um…" she glanced away— how to word this..? This was a delicate subject to start with… She pulled herself up next to Midoriya who matched her with those curious emerald eyes. Kaede's face began to heat up a bit. "Well, uh, y-you see… I, how do I- WH- !"

Her voice hitched then, suddenly feeling her grip become way too loose. Ice froze her heart then sling-shot it through her throat and hammered it down her stomach. She felt the rock under her hand lose its presence, falling down and her body began to sway backwards at the imbalance. She met Midoriya's wide eyes—

Help me —

—and he dove for her hand—they brushed fingertips—

He missed. Then came the screaming—

No, no no no- from that height, she'll die- no no no NO—

Kaede felt arms wrap around her and she was turned around, her screaming stopped. Snapping her eyes open wide, she saw—Midoriya— His eyes were closed but his arms were tight around her. No, they were both falling— no, they couldn't die, not yet, they still had- no! They couldn't- why, Midoriya?! Is he actually sacrificing himself-?!

Kaede couldn't breathe, this was happening all too fast— thoughts spun around her head like a whirlwind, split second thinking— she still had things to do, she still had to avenge her sister— she still had so many words to give to people, so many treasures and wishes—

And Midoriya , he had so many dreams he needed to accomplish too, didn't he? Why would he waste that on her?! Stupid, petty, worthless, quirkless nobody Akari! She- she wanted to see him become what people like them could never hope to be— a hero!!

Before she could open her mouth to scream his name, another pair of arms came under them and she couldn't feel the wind untying her pigtails anymore. Craning her neck, she saw All Might smiling down at her—but his expression seemed much more serious now than she's ever seen it before. They touched ground and Karasuma was by them in an instant, helping her to stand while All Might set Midoriya on the ground gently.

"Are you alright?"

Standing on trembling legs made of jello, Kaede couldn't feel her voice to answer so she nodded instead. Her grip was tight against Karasuma's arms. "I-I-Is…?" Terrified, she turned to the quiet boy on the floor. She gasped seeing him so pale and with his eyes still closed. Tears pooled in her own eyes as a hand pressed against her mouth, a squeak coming out. No, he couldn't be…!

"Fear not, young Kayano. Young Midoriya merely fainted from the shock."

The relief swelled in her chest and she brought both her hands to her mouth to suppress the happy sob that left her. She fell to her knees before Karasuma could help steady her. "Oh, M-Midoriya-kun, I-I'm…!"

"Hey, don't worry, Kayano," Karasuma attempted to calm her down. "He's going to be fine. All Might, can you stay and watch the kids while I take Kayano and Midoriya back to class?"

All Might appeared apprehensive, somewhat hesitating to answer—perhaps worried for Midoriya and Kaede—but he nodded anyway, lifting the boy into Karasuma's arms. "Of course! I'll take care of the youngins! Be careful on your way."

Before they left, Karma and Nagisa had lowered themselves on the mountain. "Is Midoriya-kun okay?!" Nagisa called from their height, his voice thick with concern. Karma stared down with wide eyes.

"He'll be fine, Nagisa," Karasuma called back. "Class 3-E! I'll be back soon. Continue your training while I take Midoriya and Kayano back to homeroom. All Might will continue to watch over you."

Nagisa's shoulders sagged and he shared a concerned glance with Karma before they continued their ascend albeit without the vigor they had before.

All Might watched his students intensely with a distraught expression masked under a pensive smile.

 ---

Izuku came to rather quickly, not even reaching the End Class building. He was awfully flustered to the point of incomprehensible babbling and Karasuma had to take a moment to calm him down before they reached the class again.

Suffice to say Korosensei quickly overwhelmed the two students, fretting over their safety while chastising them for being reckless. He checked them for any injuries, only finding scrapes and blisters on their hands from the rocks. Despite them being nothing serious, Korosensei's overbearing self couldn't allow them to go unattended, so he put some balm on their palms and wrapped them up gently.

Izuku and Kayano shared the same exasperated smiles as he fretted.

"He's kind of like a mother hen," Kayano whispered, leaning toward Izuku. Korosensei comically tensed behind them.

"Yeah, 'cept he'ss'a octopus," Izuku whispered back.

"I am not a mother hen!!!!"

"Sss-sure."

"HNNNNNGGGGG!!!"

The two students laughed at their teacher's expense. Karasuma huffed in the side. "If you both are laughing, you're fine. I won't make you go back climbing the mountain today, but you should continue to train. There's still time left in the period, so head outside and spar until the class returns. Korosensei, I trust you can look after them in my absence? Don't do anything stupid." Somehow, the three knew he was talking to all of them instead of just Korosensei. They agreed anyway.

Outside, Izuku and Kayano swung half-heartedly at each other with their anti-sensei knives while their target watched them from the sandbox, sipping a cup of tea in innocent peace.

Kaede bit her cheek as she dodged a swing. Nerves bit at her insides, the words she wanted to use to break the awkward silence between them kept dying in her throat. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around what just went on back with the class. All Might was there in case one of them fell, so why…? She couldn't understand why Midoriya would dive back after her? If All Might wasn't there, he'd surely die, especially with the extra weight of her there to crush him with gravity.

Not that she weighed much, but even she knew that 75 lbs was still a lot of weight for gravity to slam onto someone like Midoriya! She probably wouldn't have escaped without injury either, but she doubted she would have died —

She stopped her thoughts, letting her hands fall to her sides, head bowed. Midoriya mirrored her, but with concern edging his frame and expression.

"Kaya-ano-chan?"

"…Why?"

A confused noise came from the freckled boy. Kaede lifted her head and tear-filled eyes trapped Midoriya's emeralds, leaving the both of them breathless. She only vaguely acknowledged Korosensei shuffling curiously in the background, but ignored him.

"You… You jumped after me," her voice came out soft but tinged with a bit of anger and pain. "You could have died… Why did you do that, Midoriya-kun?"

Midoriya's expression grew blank before tears swelled in his own eyes and his breathing quickened. For a moment, Kaede thought about taking it back; say to forget it, that it didn't matter anyway, but that would be insulting to Midoriya and she knew it, so she simply swallowed thickly and waited for Midoriya to reign in his own emotions. He took a few deep breaths while he wrung his hands and cracked his knuckles in nervousness, rolling his shoulders. His eyes broke out of the cage she set between them, dodging to the side anxiously.

"I, um, you...Your… Your eyes," he started slowly and then swallowed, "…They… They were… assskin' ff-fer help. Mmm-my body jus', um, mm-moved in- um- on its own…"

Kaede felt struck to the core and she stepped closer, eyes burning with hot tears. She felt her face heat up in the center before she found herself with her hands around his shoulders and her head pressed against his chest.

"...Stupid," she whispered. "Why would… for me…? Useless, quirkless, n-nobody me…?"

She felt Midoriya tense at the touch, felt the way his shoulders trembled at the urge to roll again or fidget, to crack, and yet after a moment, his own calloused hands wrapped around her shivering frame.

His voice was soft and jittery, but still felt strong to her ears when he spoke, "You're nn- not useless. We- we're… ss-strong an'- an' we don't nn-need a ff-freakin' quirk t'do amazing things. You- Y-You're gonn'a be 'mazing."

"So will you," Kaede heard herself before she processed her own words, but she kept going. "I know you'll… you're gonna be an amazing hero, Midoriya-kun." Kaede raised her head and found her teary, puffy eyes meet equally puffy eyes. They both smiled at the mirror image of each other, and they laughed and parted, trying to hide their heated blushing faces behind the mental excuse of having just cried.

Midoriya raised his anti-sensei knife as a distraction, attempting to pitifully hide his beaming, flustered smile behind a challenging smirk.

"Roun' two?"

Kaede raised her plastic knife and nodded.

"You betcha!"

 ---

The hour was going fine, and they even left school in high spirits albeit a bit emotionally exhausted—and they came back the next day energized and ready for another day in assassination training. Everything was going fine, until Karma and Nakamura strolled up to the clueless Izuku with devilish grins that could only mean hell for him, phones raised and displaying the image of Izuku and Kayano— hugging.

Half the class could swear Izuku developed his quirk, that being facial explosions.

Korosensei was nearly strangled by the boy after Karma copped him out for blackmail trading with the two classroom devils.

Izuku cupped his red face with itching fingers, humming loudly in befuddlement.

Crap..!!! Do I seriously have a crush on her?!?!