13

"There we go," Recovery Girl observed Midoriya's arms with a clinical eye as her quirk went to work rapidly healing his wounds, "just one or two more treatments, and we'll have you as good as new. In the meantime, make sure to take it easy. That means no training, no fighting, and absolutely no quirk use, understand?"

"Yes ma'am. Thank you for all of your help." Midoriya bowed his head, "I never got a chance to properly thank you for your care last time either." He bowed deeper. "Thank you very much."

Recovery Girl waved him off. "Just try not to give me so much work. I think having to pull you out of critical condition twice is enough for one semester, don't you think?"

Midoriya smiled faintly. "Well, technically the semester hadn't started yet when you saved me the first time." Recovery Girl's glare spoke volumes. "I'm kidding. I'll try to keep in one piece."

"Honestly…" Recovery Girl clicked her tongue, "you and All Might both. Always trying to play the comedian."

Midoriya raised an eyebrow. "Nobody's accused me of that before. Most people tell me I need to loosen up…if they have any opinion of me at all, that is." He looked around the deserted clinic. "Where is All Might, by the way? I expected him to be here since didn't get to finish our conversation yesterday."

"Ah, I sent him home." Recovery Girl tutted. "That big lummox was sulking for the rest of the day after you left. He wanted to stay and wait for you, but I had work to do and he was annoying me." The aged woman peered at Midoriya curiously. "Just out of curiosity, is there any chance you'd let me in on what could shake the unshakable 'symbol of peace' so badly? An unbiased set of ears might be useful to you."

This set off alarm bells. "Did All Might say anything to you about our conversation?" Midoriya's tone was clam and breezy, but close observation betrayed his extreme tension.

"No, I just know that whatever you two talked about must have really upset him." Recovery Girl pouted. "I even tried to press him, but all he would tell me is that it wasn't his place to discuss it without your consent."

'Points for you, All Might.'

"Sorry," Midoriya replied as the tension left his frame. "I know he trusts you implicitly, but this is a private matter, it isn't something you need to be concerned about."

"You cruel boy, denying an old woman some juicy gossip." Recovery Girl sighed. "But very well, I won't press any further."

Midoriya bowed, "I appreciate it."

Recovery Girl pressed some gummies from her pocket into Midoriya's hands. "Eat these," she ordered, "you might not be feeling it now since you're sitting down, but your treatment consumed quite a bit of stamina, you'll need to keep your blood sugar up."

"R-Right." Midoriya stared at the warm clump of partially-fused candy in his palm and picked a piece of lint off it. 'Yeah…there's no way I'm eating that.' Midoriya mimed eating the mass of pocket gummies and scooted off the examination table. "Well," he said, concealing the uneaten candy in his palm and making his way to the door, "if that's all you need from me, I'll be going now."

"Yes, yes." Recovery Girl waved him off, not bothering to look up from her clipboard. "Make sure you take care of yourself."

"I will." Midoriya said, turning the door handle.

"Oh, just one more thing before you go."

Midoriya paused. "…Yes?"

"Eat that candy!" Recovery Girl barked. Midoriya flinched. "You must think I was born yesterday! Put them in your mouth and swallow! You aren't leaving until I see them gone!"

Midoriya grimaced.

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

"This is completely unacceptable!" Iida complained. "We were all given a specific meeting time, and yet here we are, waiting on the very people who invited us! This is the height of rudeness!"

"Mmhmm." Midoriya absently replied as he flipped through the paperback book he had stashed in the pocket of his green hoodie. He knew that reading while someone was talking to him was bad form, but Iida had been ranting for the last five minutes, and Midoriya doubted that Iida really cared if he were listening or not.

Iida paused in his indignant diatribe. "What is it that you're reading there, Midoriya?" Midoriya flashed him the cover. "The Book of Five Rings." Iida read aloud. "Not exactly what I would call light reading." He adjusted his glasses, "I didn't know that you were interested in classical literature."

Midoriya let out a hum of acknowledgement as he turned a page. "Yaoyorozu mentioned Musashi Miyamoto at lunch the other day, so I was interested in learning more about him. I normally rely on Sun Tzu when it comes to strategic philosophy, but there's some pretty good stuff in here too."

"I agree," Iida said with a smile, "my favorite part is—"

"Sorry everyone!" An approaching voice called out. "Am I late?"

"Yaoyorozu." Midoriya greeted his studious vice president. He glanced at his watch. "Just a couple of minutes. I wouldn't worry about it. Iida and I are the only ones here right now."

Yaoyorozu let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I got a little caught up getting ready and lost track of time." She perked up when she saw the book in Midoriya's hands. "You're reading The Book of Five Rings?"

"Indeed." Iida agreed. "We were just about to discuss it when you arrived. I'm particularly fond of the main lesson in 'The Book of Earth' myself."

"Know the smallest things and the biggest things," Yaoyorozu quoted, "the shallowest things and the deepest things…From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of Strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see…"

"You must study hard." All three finished the quote and grinned. For the next few minutes, they chatted about the book—something Midoriya was infinitely grateful for, since he had no idea what he would say to them otherwise. Eventually, the inevitable topic of their experiences during the USJ invasion came up.

"How are you feeling, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked. "You were injured quite severely during the invasion, were you not?"

"No need to worry about me." Midoriya calmly replied, "It's no big deal." An indecipherable expression appeared on his face. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?"

Yaoyorozu gave Midoriya a contemplative look, and after a moment, she shook her head and smiled. "I suppose so."

"Heeeey!" A familiarly energetic voice shouted. "What's up guys?" Grinning ear-to-ear, Ashido practically skipped up to the three with a gaggle of their other classmates in tow. "You excited for some karaoke?"

Flushing with indignation, Iida pushed up his glasses and took a step forward, ready to lay into Ashido when Midoriya stopped him by extending an arm. He had no desire to let Iida go off on another multi-minute long rant.

"It's 1:10, Ashido." Midoriya said curtly. "I thought we were meeting at 1:00. Why are you the one who's late when you organized this whole thing? Iida and I have been standing here for nearly fifteen minutes." In fact, Midoriya had been there for nearly thirty minutes, since his appointment with Recovery Girl had gone faster than expected, but that was neither here nor there.

Ashido let out a snort and slapped Midoriya on the back hard enough to make him stumble forward a step. "Lighten up dude! Everyone knows that when it comes to big groups like this, meet-up times are more like guidelines. When I said 1:00, I meant more like 1:00-ish."

"I didn't know that, and obviously neither did Iida, since we both showed up early." Midoriya pointed out. He sighed. "Whatever, let's not make a big deal out of it. Is everybody here?"

"Yep!" Ashido cheered, throwing a fist in the air. "Let's get moving! The place isn't too far of a walk from here." The rest of the gathered students cheered along with her.

Midoriya glanced around at the gathered students. In addition to Ashido, Jirou, Kaminari, Kirishima, Asui, Hagakure, Satou, Aoyama and Tokoyami were also there. What caught his attention more than anything was who wasn't there. As they began to walk towards their destination, he furrowed his eyebrows and discretely pulled Ashido off to the side.

"I thought Uraraka was coming." He said in a low, accusing tone.

Ashido looked away with a blush and rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed chuckle. "O-Oh, did I say that?"

"Yes." Midoriya flatly replied. "You did. You said she was 'really looking forward' to it, if I'm remembering correctly."

"Well…" Ashido sweated, "You must not be—"

"I am remembering correctly." Midoriya cut her off.

"Look," Ashido whispered, "I tried, okay? I thought that she'd be totally down when I told you that, but it turns out that she's got some money problems, so she had to bow out."

"You lied to me." Midoriya said flatly.

"I didn't lie!" Ashido defended herself. "She did want to come, she just couldn't! I just…massaged the truth a little bit."

Midoriya continued to stare at the girl. "That's called lying, Ashido."

"All of the other girls are here though!" Ashido continued to justify herself, "And they're all super happy to see you! They wanted to hang out with you, it's true!"

Midoriya glanced at the other girls. They had all broken off into various little circles of their own and were chatting amongst themselves, not sparing him or Ashido a second look. "Uh-huh." He looked sideways at Ashido. "…What's your angle with this?"

Ashido blinked, taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Midoriya's social danger radar, honed by years of bullying, was blaring in his head. "Why are you so set on getting me to come to this? To the point where you're willing to lie to me and butter me up…what are you planning?"

"Nothing!" Ashido held up her hands defensively. "I swear!"

Midoriya stared at her for a few seconds. "…I'm going home." He slightly picked up his pace to walk ahead of Ashido, "Hey everyb—ack!"

Ashido cut him off by grabbing the back of his hoodie and yanking him back over to her. "Wait!" She whispered. "Fine! Geez, you're a suspicious bastard, aren't you?" Midoriya glared at her as he rubbed his throat. "…Sorry. Is your throat okay? I didn't mean to yank you that hard."

"I'm fine." Midoriya readjusted his hoodie. "So, what are you up to? And before you say anything, I'll know if you're lying!"

"What?" Ashido snarked, "Is lie detection part of your confusing grab bag of powers too?"

"Yes." Midoriya lied, channeling just enough One for All to make his eyes glow as he stared her down.

"Okay, okay," Ashido said, "you can put your freaky glowing eyes away, I was only kidding!" When Midoriya relented, she let out a huff. "Man, you're usually so chill. What crawled up your butt?"

"A bunch of villains who tried to murder me." Midoriya replied in a monotone. "Almost successfully, I might add. So I apologize if I'm not chill enough for you right now."

"…Oh." Ashido's voice was soft and devoid of the laughter and energy it normally carried. "Right…sorry."

Midoriya took a deep breath. 'Damn it. My nerves and mood are still frayed from the loop, and then there's the whole thing with All Might…this was a mistake. I shouldn't have come. I don't even know what I was expecting to happen anyways.'

"I'm sorry Ashido." He apologized, "That was…I'm, uh, I guess I'm still a little wound up from…everything. It doesn't mean I should take it out on you, though." He cleared his throat. "I'm going home after all…I don't want to ruin everyone's good time."

"I was trying to hook you up." Ashido said suddenly.

Midoriya blinked. "…Come again?"

"That's what I was doing." Ashido whispered. "I wanted to do something to return the favor."

Midoriya wracked his brain for what she could be talking about but came up empty. "…What favor?"

"For starters, you lent me your jacket when I was freezing my butt off during the combat trial."

Midoriya shook his head. "To be honest, that was more for my sake than yours…"

Ashido continued. "Then your warning helped enough of us escape that portal guy's opening move that we were able to get Iida to go for help."

Midoriya rolled his eyes. "Come on, any one of us would have done the same, I just happened to shout it out first."

"Then you almost died to protect Tsuyu from the guy with the hands and the big brain guy."

"I'll admit, that was…unpleasant…but it doesn't have anything to do with you."

Glaring, Ashido reached over and flicked the end of Midoriya's nose. "Will you stop trying to downplay everything you do for one second and let me talk!"

"…That kind of hurt." Midoriya said mildly while he rubbed his nose.

Ashido let out a huff. "My point is that you're clearly a really good guy, and even though you said it was okay, I could tell that I really hurt your feelings with some of my jokes during the combat training. I feel kinda bad about it, so when I saw how blushy and cute you were with Uraraka on the bus and at USJ, I thought that if I could help nudge you two together, it would…I don't know, balance things out."

"…It's not a big deal." Midoriya said. "I know you were joking."

"I still feel bad." Ashido countered.

"You really don't need to do anything to help me in that regard." Midoriya said.

"But I want to." Ashido said. "I actually enjoy it."

'This girl can't seem to take a hint.' Midoriya's eye twitched minutely. "I'm fine with things the way they are."

"If that's the case," Ashido replied with a grin, "then why did you only agree to come when I mentioned her name?"

"You said she was looking forward to seeing me." Midoriya riposted. "I didn't want to disappoint her. She's a…" he hesitated, "friend…I guess? We're friendly, at least."

"Oh really?" Ashido drawled. "That's funny, you sure seemed okay with the idea of disappointing me, and we're friends, aren't we?"

Midoriya blinked. "…We are?"

Ashido frowned and smacked Midoriya on the shoulder. "Wow, you jerk! That's actually kind of hurtful, I thought we were cool!"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Midoriya said. "I've never really had friends—acquaintances, sure, but Uraraka…" He paused. "and you, and maybe Iida, I guess, are the closest things I've had to a friend in a long time."

Ashido had to resist a sudden urge to give Midoriya a hug. "How is that even possible?" She asked, "You're kinda weird, but you're a good guy. You should have made at least one friend."

'Why am I telling her all of this? Nobody wants or needs to hear about my problems…I better just keep my mouth shut.' Midoriya shrugged. "It doesn't really bother me. That's just how it turned out. Look," he pointed to a building with a gaudy sign. "We're here."

"Hell yes!" Ashido pushed her way to the front of the group, leaving Midoriya to walk in the rear. "I'm going first!" A chorus of complaints followed this declaration, and she began to argue spiritedly with the others.

'Well, Izuku.' Midoriya thought as he watched his classmates file into the building one by one. 'If you want to back out of this, now's your last chance. Nobody's looking, I could just slip away, and if they ask later, I'll say I got an urgent call or something.' He nodded. 'Yeah, that's definitely the best move right now. I shouldn't be around people when I'm so high-strung, I'll probably do something I regret.'

Just as he was about to make his exit, a voice stopped him. "Don't even think about it."

"…Jirou?" Midoriya raised an eyebrow at the only other person still outside. "What are you talking about? Don't think about what?"

"Ghosting out of here and going home."

Midoriya blinked. "I wasn't—"

Jirou held up a hand and stopped him mid-sentence. "Stop. Unlike you, I actually do have a lie detector…of sorts, anyways."

Midoriya stared at Jirou in confusion for a moment before everything clicked. He closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "You heard everything we were talking about just now, didn't you?"

"I hear a lot of things." Jirou smirked as she twirled one of her earphone jacks around her finger. "You know, Ashido put this little outing together after she heard about what you did for Tsuyu. She can be kind of annoying, but her heart's in the right place. If you duck out now, you'll seriously hurt her feelings." She waved him over, "Now come on inside."

"…Fine." Midoriya sighed and walked forward. He gave Jirou a wary look. "You're not trying to play matchmaker too, right?"

Jirou scoffed. "Please, that girl's got love on the brain. I just don't want to have to hear her complaining for the next week because you decided to be antisocial and ditch out."

"Fair enough." Midoriya admitted. "But I have one question."

"Shoot."

"How did you know I was thinking about leaving just now?"

Jirou gave him an unimpressed look. "Ashido has a point, you're a genuinely decent guy. If you haven't ever had any friends, it's because you chose not to make any friends. A social tornado like Ashido might not understand not wanting to make friends, but I do. It was obvious."

Midoriya opened his mouth to reply, paused, and then closed it. He really couldn't dispute that statement. "…I'll just go inside now."

Jirou smirked. "You do that."

After going inside, Midoriya and Jirou paid the clerk at the front for their time and made their way to the back room reserved for groups. "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Midoriya said quietly.

"Depends on how personal it is." Jirou replied.

"When you said that you understood not wanting to make friends, what did you mean?"

Jirou glanced sideways at Midoriya. "That is kind of personal…but I feel like I can trust you, for some reason. Promise to keep this to yourself?"

"Absolutely."

"My dad is the Jirou Kyotoku." Jirou said in a matter of fact tone, as if that explained everything.

"…Okay?" Midoriya said uncertainly. "No offense, but that's important because…?"

Jirou stopped in her tracks and stared at Midoriya incredulously. "You haven't heard of Jirou Kyotoku?" Midoriya stared at her blankly. "Front man of Deep Funk?" Midoriya continued to stare blankly. "One of the top rock bands in East Asia for the last fifteen years? Sold tens of millions of albums? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"Not really, sorry." Midoriya said. "I don't listen to music very much. I'm guessing he's pretty famous then?"

"Yeah." Jirou said sarcastically. "Just a bit." She sighed. "My whole life, I've had people trying to get close to me just because of who my dad is. They didn't like or care about me at all, they just wanted to use me—not everyone was like that, but it happened enough that I started looking for reasons not to trust people."

"…Better to be alone than to be disappointed, right?" Midoriya said softly.

"Pretty much." Jirou said. She smirked. "What about you? Care to share the deeply rooted childhood issues making you such a brooding, anti-social loner?"

"Well, when I was eight years old, my parents were killed in front of me. We were on our way back from the theater, and it was a mugging that went wrong." Midoriya replied, completely deadpan. "From that day on, I swore that I would strike fear into the cowardly, superstitious hearts of criminals. I cast aside all personal connections and dedicated myself wholly to that goal."

"Funny." Jirou said drily. "I feel like I've heard that story somewhere before." She shook her head. "I guess you don't have to tell me if you want to."

"Sorry." Midoriya apologized. "I know it's hypocritical for me to say this after asking you, but it's really personal."

Jirou shrugged. "Whatever."

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

"Oooh!" Ashido grinned saucily at Jirou and Midoriya when they entered the room together. "What kept you two for so long?" She waggled her eyebrows up and down. "I can't say I saw this coming, but now that I think about it, you would be super cute tog—Ow!" Ashido rubbed her forehead where she had just been poked by an annoyed Jirou.

"Give it a rest." Jirou said, retracting her earphone jack. "Believe it or not, two people can have a conversation without romantic subtext."

"Killjoy." Ashido grumbled. "I take it back, you aren't cute at all!"

"Oh no, how ever shall I survive?" Jirou rolled her eyes.

Wanting no part of this interaction, Midoriya quietly slunk to the corner of the room, where Tokoyami, Kaminari and Satou had set themselves up. "Hey." He said quietly. "You mind if I join you?"

"No prob." Kaminari grinned.

"Sup." Satou greeted Midoriya with a wave. "Take a seat, man."

Tokoyami didn't say anything, but nodded.

"Thanks." Midoriya said. He took a seat and picked up a menu from a nearby table. "Wow. You can order food here?"

"Yeah man." Satou gave Midoriya an amused grin. "Have you never been to karaoke before?"

"No." Midoriya replied. "…Should I have?"

Kaminari shrugged. "It doesn't really matter all that much. It's just kinda weird, most people have gone to karaoke at least once."

"I see." Midoriya said, glancing around the room and feeling slightly overwhelmed by all of the noise and people in the confined space. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to find somewhere quiet and read his book, but even if he disregarded the noise, the room was too dimly lit to read.

"Yes, I'm up!" An excited Hagakure exclaimed. She bounded up to the stage in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt.

'Probably so nobody bumps into her in such tight quarters.' Midoriya noted absently. 'Especially since people have drinks.'

Satou grinned. "Well, you're here now, and that's all that matters! What you singing?"

"I'm not." Midoriya replied.

Kaminari shook his head. "Nah bro, if you're here, you gotta sing! It's like a rule!" He elbowed Tokoyami. "Tell him, dude!"

Tokoyami nodded gravely. "It is tradition, inscribed in the annals of karaoke halls everywhere."

"Pretty sure it's not." Midoriya said. "I'm not a good singer anyways."

Satou crossed his arms. "It's not about being good or bad at singing, man."

"Yeah!" Kaminari cajoled him. "Nobody cares about that, it's just about the fun of singing your lungs out with your friends!"

As soon as he said that, the four of them winced slightly at a horribly off-pitch note from Hagakure. Despite this, everybody clapped and cheered her on, and she began to sing even louder, bouncing around the stage to the beat of the music.

"See?" Satou said. "Nobody cares. The only important thing is that you try."

"Even if I were to sing," Midoriya said, "I still wouldn't know what to perform, I don't really listen to music, so I don't know any songs."

"Just look through the catalogue." Kaminari said. "They've got a stupid huge list of like…three million songs in more than ten languages. I don't care how little you listen to music, I guarantee that there's at least one song that you know on there."

"Three million?" Midoriya said. "Seriously?"

"Fucking science, man." Kaminari grinned.

"Fucking science." Satou echoed, nodding.

'What does that even mean?' Midoriya wondered.

"Don't worry too much about knowing the songs." Tokoyami reassured him. "I only know about 70% of the songs I pick. There's a screen with the lyrics so you can follow along."

"Oh." Midoriya said. "That's handy."

"Satou!" Ashido called. "You're up!"

"Aww yeah! Let's do this!" Satou pulled himself to his feet and grinned at Midoriya. "I'll show you how it's done!"

As Satou made his way to the stage, Jirou walked over and handed Midoriya a tablet. "Here you go." She said. "You can put in your song selection here."

Midoriya cleared his throat. "Uh, hey Jirou?"

In the background, a heavy hip-hop beat began to play and Satou started to rap. "Yeah…Uh-huh…So seductive…"

Jirou raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

Midoriya scratched his cheek. "I get the feeling that nobody's going to leave me alone until I sing something."

"You're right about that." Jirou agreed with a smirk. "If you didn't sign up for anything right now, Ashido was planning on signing you up for something suitably embarrassing and peer pressuring you into doing it."

"I'll take you to the candy shop…" People began to laugh and cheer as Satou ran his hands seductively up and down his body.

Midoriya blanched. "Yeah…I don't really know any songs, so if it's not too much trouble, would you pick something for me that's not completely embarrassing?"

Jirou shrugged. "Why not?" She slid into the spot next to him. She rubbed her chin for a moment and gave him a knowing smile before typing in a song title. "You know, I actually think I have the perfect song for you."

Midoriya blinked. "…Okay."

"I'll let you lick the lollipop, go 'head girl don't you stop, keep going 'till you hit the spot, whoa…"

"Oh, wow." Kirishima said, laughing. "I didn't know Satou could rap in English!"

"Yeah," Hagakure giggled, "He's pretty good too, but what's he saying?" She nudged Iida. "You're pretty smart right? Do you understand that?" Iida's face was beet red. "…Iida?"

"You could have it your way, how do you want it? You gon' back that thing up, or should I push up on it?"

"N-n-no idea." Iida shook his head. "N-n-not a word!"

…

Midoriya licked his lips. It was his turn. 'Why do I have to go after Jirou?' He wondered despairingly. 'Why couldn't I have gone after Iida, or Aoyama?'

Not that Aoyama did a bad job, but his flamboyant performance of Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy, complete with a pseudo strip show—to the cheers and laughter of everyone, including Midoriya himself—was more of a comedy routine than a serious performance.

Jirou on the other hand…Jirou just plain rocked. She sang with complete confidence, projecting the aura of an experienced performer, and her voice was able to perfectly oscillate from husky and seductive low notes, to crystal clear high notes at a moment's notice. She was the only person who didn't receive any cheers or applause during her performance, simply because everybody was stunned into silence by how jaw droppingly good it was. It was only when the song ended that everybody went absolutely insane.

And then they handed the mic off to Midoriya. He stared at the small device with the expression of someone who had just been handed a live stick of dynamite. '…Shit.'

Satou slapped Midoriya heavily on the back. "You're up, man! Kill it!"

'I don't wanna.' Midoriya shook his head. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but no noise came out.

"Mi do ri ya!" Kaminari began to chant with a grin. "Mi do ri ya!" Ashido joined in. "Mi do ri ya!" One by one, the other classmates joined the chant and Midoriya dragged himself to the front of the room with a groan.

As soon as the song's intro began, Midoriya was slightly taken aback by the wild cheers from everyone in the group. 'Wow, I guess this song is pretty popular.'

"I keep my ideals alive when destiny caaaaaaaaalls!" He began slightly shakily, not really familiar with the pace of the song or the lyrics, but caught on quickly since almost everybody else in the room started singing along. "Everything is like a rust escaping me, and we're living in a darker history, every single excuse I've ever made, I just gotta learn to throw them all away, I think I still remember all my lies, I was always living with dead eyes, but now I've got to live every day more aliiiiive!"

'Okay it's kind of creepy how fitting this song is.' He thought, glancing over at Jirou and feeling the hairs of his arms and neck stand on end as the rest of the instrumentals kicked in.

"What's going on?"  The group sang the backup vocals, cheering wildly.

'Even so…this…is actually kinda fun.' Midoriya began to genuinely smile for the first time since the USJ loop began. "Well I guess, I just haven't finished yet, live the day-to-day but never try to fix it!"

"What's going on?" Everyone chorused again.

 "Well I guess that I'm different from the rest," He squeezed the mic harder and began to sing louder. He knew he sounded like crap, but he didn't care. "Now I recognize that this is a test, yeah.."

"Dreaming…" Everybody sang.

"…reverse in my mind between the silver line," What Midoriya was doing now was closer to shouting than singing, but he was having a blast, "my heart's in the sky, through the darkest night, let's run to the dawn's first liiiiiight!"

Caught up in the mood, Kirishima jumped up on stage and grabbed another mic. "Dropping…" He sang, pointing at Midoriya with a massive grin on his face.

"The resolution of the future…" Midoriya wondered what was going on, but continued, "we're looking away in the day-to-day, let's try to stop living a liiiiiiie!" He blinked, and suddenly Kaminari, Hagakure, and Ashido were on the small stage singing with him as well. "I keep my ideals alive! If you can live through all of the danger, and get to the love and dreams then you'll be alright!" By now everybody was on the stage—most came willingly, but some, admittedly were dragged there by Kirishima and Ashido, who seemed to be working as a unit.

"Just try not to fall when destiny caaaaaaalls!"

XXX

(Several Hours Later)

XXX

"Sooooo?" Ashido repeatedly poked Midoriya in the ribs as the filed group filed their way out of the building once their time had expired. It had been nearly six hours since they entered the karaoke lounge, and the sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon.

Midoriya swatted her finger away. "'So,' what?" He swatted at her hand again. "What do you want? Stop it!" He was utterly exhausted, and his voice was hoarse from hours of singing/yelling, but he felt oddly…good. Relaxed even, like a spring that was finally allowed to release its stored-up tension. 

"Wow Ashido," She poorly imitated his voice with a grin, continuing to poke at him until he leveled a glowing glare at her, "you sure are an amazing, beautiful, wonderful, brilliant friend! Even though I'm a total stick in the mud, I had a great time because you were smart and kind enough to organize this little outing! Anything along those lines. Feel free to add more glowing descriptors as you see fit."

"Yeah, I'm not saying that." Midoriya shook his head with a small, content smile. "But thanks, Ashido, everyone. I…I think I needed that."

"Ah!" Ashido shouted, pointing at his face and drawing the attention of everybody nearby. "It's back!"

Midoriya blinked. "What are you talking about? What's back?"

"Heeeey…yeah, it is!" Hagakure noted.

"Midoriya just seemed wrong without it." Satou agreed.

"Could somebody please tell me what you guys are talking about?" Midoriya said.

"Your Buddha smile." Asui explained. "It's back."

"…It was gone?" Midoriya asked. "I didn't notice."

"Hooo yeah," Kaminari threw an arm around Midoriya's shoulder. "Let me tell ya buddy, you had a mad case of R.B.F. going on there."

"…R.B.F?" Midoriya repeated.

Kaminari grinned. "Resting Bitch Face."

Midoriya raised his eyebrows. "…Resting Bitch Face?"

"You were frowning all day and it weirded everyone out." Asui translated.

"Seriously," Kaminari continued. "Between Jirou, Bakugo, and Todoroki, our class has enough R.B.F to go around!"

"I will cut you." Jirou casually threatened Kaminari.

"You were a lot cuter when you were singing." Kaminari teased. "Where did that Jirou go? Where's the manager? I want to make an exchange."

"Yaoyorozu, can you make me another sword?" Jirou asked. "Like the one you gave me at USJ?"

"Sorry," Yaoyorozu chuckled. "I'm afraid that would make me an accessory."

"Also, it's wrong to threaten people with deadly weapons." Iida added.

"That too." Yaoyorozu agreed.

"Yeah Jirou." Kaminari laughed, "It's wrong. Why can't you be an upstanding citizen like me and Midoriya here? We would never try to hurt someone with a sharp object."

"Don't drag me into this." Midoriya said, removing Kaminari's arm from his shoulder. 'Also…wrong."

"Midoriya!" Kaminari exclaimed, holding his chest with a wounded expression. "I thought we were bros! Did our rocking duets mean nothing to you?"

"…Hey Iida, wait up." Midoriya quickly moved to escape the situation. "I have something I need to ask you."

Iida adjusted his glasses. "Oh? What's that?"

"I didn't actually have to ask you anything." Midoriya admitted. He cracked a wicked grin. "I just wanted to get out of the splash zone, I like this hoodie."

"Dude!" Kaminari cried.

Hagakure cracked up. "Hahaha you just got dropped like a bad habit!"

"Never before has a bromance been so short-lived." Tokoyami added. "Truly tragic."

"Well, you know what they say." Asui croaked. "Tragedy and comedy are just two sides of the same coin."

"I hate all of you!" Kaminari moaned, making everyone laugh.

The group continued to walk together and talk until they reached the train station, where they each went their separate ways to get home.

Just as Midoriya boarded his train, he felt a small hand grab his shoulder and a heard a familiar voice whisper something in his ear that made him stiffen in shock.

Time seemed to stop for Midoriya, and he stood frozen in place for a second before he whirled around with green sparks flying off of his body. Glowing green eyes searched the crowd but the person he was looking for was nowhere to be seen. "Wait!" He called out, moving to step off the train when the doors closed in his face.

'Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.' Was the thought that played on repeat in Midoriya's head during the entire train ride home, along with the words that had been whispered into his ear.

"Try not to die on the way home, Midoriya."

AN: Oooooooooooooh shit son! There's a lot to unpack here, but I'm just going to say that the thought of Satou sensually singing 50 cent's Candy Shop brought me to near hysterics. Lyrics to the song Midoriya sang was from the English Cover of Odd Future by Jonathon Young—he does a bunch of excellent covers of anime and other songs, so check him out on Youtube. Until next time, Plus Ultra!