27

Chapter Text

Ochako stared at her ceiling as she lay in her bed, her eyes wide and her mind racing. 'I was just going to give him a hug, but it felt so good to hold him… and then he smelled so good and the way he hugged me back… it felt like I was melting.' She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration as she heard her door creak open.

"Leaving the door open for me?" Mina whispered, the smirk evident in her voice as she crossed the darkness of the dorm room to Ochako's bed. She slipped under the cover and nuzzled herself into the taller woman's side, filling Ochako with a sense of comfort that helped to calm her.

They laid there in silence for only a few seconds before the pink woman whispered something else. "You're tense, what's up?" Mina was keenly observant, but this was impressive even for her.

"It's nothing," Ochako deflected.

"If you say so. Goodnight." Mina gave up easily, for once, as she closed her eyes and relaxed.

Ochako shifted awkwardly. "Okay, fine. It's about Deku."

Mina was immediately at attention. "Yeah? How did you little private talk go?"

"F-fine."

"Are you gonna tell me or not?" Mina bumped her hip into Ochako, prompting her to continue.

"Well, I was planning on telling him that since he's stood between me and danger twice, I'm gonna do the same for him next time."

Mina's grin widened, her white teeth visible in the dark room. "Oh, so heroic~ "

"But then I… well, I hugged him," Ochako continued as Mina's head was drifting closer. "And… I…" Mina was only a few inches away from her face. "I… I almost kissed him."

"What was it like?" Mina whispered excitedly. "Was there a hunger in his eyes as he held you tightly? Did he look deep into your eyes with desire and want? Did he look at you like he wanted nothing more than to keep you close forever?"

Ochako's mouth fell open. "M-Mina, how di- were you spying on us ?!"

"Yes!" Mina admitted, cupping Ochako's cheeks with both hands. "Ochako, listen to me. That boy wants you. If Kaminari had kept himself from being a walking meme for another twenty seconds then Midori would have melted against you!"

Ochako's mind suddenly started imagining how Deku's bare skin would feel against hers. His firm, muscular chest pressing into her as they embra-

She shook the thoughts from her mind. She didn't want another one of those dreams tonight.

Well, maybe she did.

But… what if he didn't feel that way about her?

"Hey," Mina said sternly, apparently sensing her doubt. "Don't worry about it, okay? Leave it to me."

If anything, that made Ochako more nervous. "If you s-say so, Mina. Let's get some sleep, okay?"

Mina nodded quickly and burrowed back into Ochako's side underneath the covers. Maybe Mina was right. She shouldn't worry about it.

If Deku really did like her back, then things would work out, right?

After waking up and doing his morning training with Katsuki, Izuku was prepared to spend all day catching up on the reading he missed, but it barely took him any time at all. It was like he already knew everything. His mother told him that Iida and Yaoyorozu had spent a lot of time talking about their homework and the latter had even read to him. 'I guess I really was listening…'

He left his room around noon as the smell of something delicious wafted up through the air vents. He took the stairs three at a time and burst out into the common room ready to help make lunch.

Unfortunately, the food was already done. To his surprise, it wasn't Satou who was cooking this time, but Tsuyu and Kirishima. "Hey, Midoriya!" Kirishima called as she waved at him. "I was hoping you'd be down soon, I just finished making yours!"

Izuku filed the new information away in his growing dossiers on his classmates as he made his way to the counter. Kirishima passed the steak over to him, flashing her razor-sharp smile. "It's nothing fancy, but there's few foods manlier than a good steak. Bakugou said you'd be down as soon as you smelled it, glad to see he was right. He also said that you liked your steak rare." She pressed the spatula she was holding into the meat, letting the juices seep out slowly.

"I told you that he liked it raw!" Bakugou shouted from a nearby table.

"Wait, you were serious?" Kirishima snapped her head to the blonde with wide eyes. "Isn't that, you know, dangerous?"

"I-it's fine, Kirishima," Izuku muttered quickly. "This looks amazing, thank you."

Tsuyu looked up pat him as she scooped rice onto his plate. "Wait, is it cause you're a dragon?"

Izuku flinched. It was always a little awkward to explain to someone how good bloody meat tasted. Thankfully, his quirk rendered him functionally immune to any sort of food poisoning or other negative effects of eating raw meat. "Kinda, but uh, I'm not actually a dragon, Tsu. It's just my quirk, right? You're not really a frog."

She nodded. "I figured you would know what I meant. We're a lot alike, aren't we?"

He smiled down at her. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Izuku hadn't really considered that, but Tsuyu and him shared quite a few aspects of their quirks. Beyond their shared affinity for water, both of their quirks affected their minds and actions. Hers were more visible, usually, but he guessed that his were more severe.

"Wait, you can eat steak raw?" Kaminari said as he approached the counter. Izuku felt a small tinge of annoyance due to his interruption last night, but he knew he didn't mean anything. "Kirishima, come on, you wanna see it too, don't you?"

"I gotta admit, I'm curious," Kirishima said with a raised eyebrow.

"Kacchan…" Izuku whined. "Why did you tell them?"

Katsuki swallowed his bite of steak and shot a cruel smirk at him. "I missed an entire week of giving you shit, think of this as revenge for the poem."

Jirou had arrived next to Izuku as well. "This I gotta see."

He sighed. "Fine… Here, Kirishima, you can have that one. Give me a raw one." He pushed the plate back to the cook, who eagerly ran off to fetch an uncooked steak.

Izuku sat down at a table while the rest of the class gathered around. Kirishima placed the raw, bloody meat in front of him on a plate and stared.

Izuku looked down at the food, his mouth starting to water slightly. His dad didn't get the pleasure of doing this, so it was something he was actually grateful to his quirk about for once.

He looked around the room at his audience; if they wanted a show, why not embrace it? He let his quirk flow slightly, scales flashing up his neck as his teeth sharpened and elongated. He drew a single claw from his hand and stabbed the steak, lifting it slowly from the plate as his classmates continued to stare.

He opened his mouth wide, showing off his razor-filled jaw as he took a huge bite, tearing the meat effortlessly. He resisted letting out a satisfied groan as the taste of raw steak hit his tongue. It was second only to his mother's katsudon as his favorite food, after all.

Another gnashing bite followed by a third and a fourth caused the steak to vanish entirely. It wasn't a huge thing, so he ate it quickly. His shredding fangs made quick work of the meat as he swallowed and sighed.

He let his quirk fade, returning most of his teeth to their normal, human shape. Only his usual fangs remained, shrunk back down to their normal, large size. He smiled, the blood covering and running down his teeth.

"Woah, gross!' Hagakure yelled, but he could hear the smile in her tone.

Izuku quickly glanced over the room, judging everyone's reactions. Most of them looked stunned, while Aoyama and Iida looked a little offended. But what caught his attention most was the women: Uraraka and Ashido both had small, incredulous smiles and bright blushes for some reason, while Yaoyorozu was wide-eyed, covering her mouth. Tsuyu, Pony, Jirou and Kirishima had the widest eyes out of everyone, but he also noticed a small dusting of red on each of their cheeks.

"Hardcore…" Jirou muttered finally.

Kirishima nodded in agreement. "Manly…"

Tsuyu croaked slowly. "You really do look like a predator. Like from a nature documentary or something."

"So what, you won't get food poisoning or anything?" Kaminari asked with awe in his voice.

Izuku shook his head as he wiped his mouth and hand with a napkin. "Nope. It's honestly really convenient if I ever need to have a quick meal: just wolf down something raw and off I go."

As the rest headed back to their own meals, Izuku suddenly felt a weight on his back. A very soft weight. His nose told him that Ashido was very close, so he had a very good idea what those two, large, soft weights on his back were. Pink arms wrapped around his shoulders as he felt her breathing into her ear. "Kinky," she whispered. "Is that all you eat?"

Izuku didn't know exactly what she was implying, but the husky tone of her voice set off all sorts of alarms in his head. "A-Ashido, w-what are-"

She had started giggling.

"Sorry," she said quietly, "Bakugou put me up to it."

"Up to what?" He was genuinely confused.

"Are you serious?" She looked at him with a exasperated expression as she whispered. "As in eating someone…?" She winked seductively for some reason.

"I would never!" His eyes went wide as he whisper-shouted at her. "How could you even-"

"No, no, you adorable idiot," she clapped a hand over his mouth. "I mean eating…"

She whispered something in his ear.

If she was looking for a broccoli impression, she got it.

"Hey, Jirou!" he yelled as he stood up suddenly, startling the shorter woman and everyone nearby. "You got time for that training session today?"

"Uh, sure, anytime, I guess," she responded, still a little stunned.

"Great! I'll go get changed and meet you in front of the dorm!" He bolted from his seat and up to his room as fast as he could, tearing away from Ashido as his face glowed green.

Kyouka changed into a gym uniform and headed outside, where Midoriya was already waiting. "Hey, dude," she greeted him as the door closed behind her.

"Hey, Jirou!" he responded brightly. "Thanks again for helping me out. I really appreciate it."

"No worries," she said cooly. "Not exactly sure what you want me to teach you, but I'm down for whatever."

Midoriya started doing stretches. "I'll explain along the way. Wanna jog with me?"

"Sure." Kyouka was certainly not staring at his bulging thighs and calves as he stretched his legs, that would have just been shallow. It's not like Midoriya was a total hunk or anything and it's not like those horns on his head or that small ridged sail on his neck were totally badass or anything. She was just helping her classmate train.

After they stretched in silence, Midoriya and her started jogging towards one of the practice facilities. "So basically," he began, "my quirk gives me enhanced senses. Smell, sight, hearing, that stuff. How strong they are depend on how much power I push into them, if that makes sense. I was hoping you could give me some tips on how to utilize my hearing."

He wasn't panting at all as he spoke, nor did he even pause to take a breath. 'His lung capacity has gotta be out of this world,' Kyouka thought as she nodded along.

Shortly after they arrived at a large rectangular structure: one of the practice gyms. Midoriya opened one of the doors and poked his head inside. "Cool, nobody's here." He held the door open and she entered in front of him.

"Alright, here we go." Midoriya took a deep breath as the two of them stood in the middle of the empty facility a few moments later. He let out a deep, controlled breath as his green scales formed along his neck and up to his ears which… disappeared.

"Uh, your ears are gone," she pointed out. "How do you hear?"

He tapped the side of his head softly. "When I'm transformed, I hear through these little holes."

"Alright, well let's start with the basics then," Kyouka said as she sat down, patting the ground to her left. "You hear best when you focus on it. Close your eyes and shut out everything else but your ears, or whatever those things are."

Midoriya sat down next to her and obeyed, breathing out slowly as he closed his eyes. She slowly reached her hand to her right, away from him, and tapped slowly on the ground, so quietly that a normal person wouldn't be able to hear. After several seconds, he reached out and started tapping on the ground in time with her.

"Good," Kyouka said approvingly. "Let's try something a little harder." She listened for a second before continuing. "How many people are outside this building right now?"

Midoriya's eyes opened as he raised an eyebrow incredulously. "What? How am I-"

"Hey," she hissed sharply. "Focus."

"Right, right, sorry." He closed his eyes again and resumed his breathing.

She heard something flowing beneath his skin, like blood but different. 'Is that him using his quirk?' She watched him focus for a few more seconds. 'Gotta admit, it's kinda fun bossing him around. This is the guy that stood up to a supervillain?'

Kyouka found herself daydreaming a little. Now that the danger was gone, she could appreciate just how badass Midoriya looked fighting Terrorflame. The way those two gigantic beasts had moved so quickly was totally unreal, not to mention their mid-air fight. The way Midoriya had nearly pinned the villain as they tumbled… and the way he had bitten down on his throat.

It was fucking hardcore is what it was.

"Oh, uh Jirou," Midoriya brought her out of her reverie. "I think I hear two people outside. You know, it sounds like they're getting closer."

Kyouka listened for a split second to confirm. Midoriya was right, there were two people coming towards the building they were in. Judging from their footfalls, one was a man and one was a woman.

The doors of the facility flew open as two people their age entered, Midoriya and Kyouka standing up as the newcomers caught sight of them. Kyouka was right, by the way.

The woman had long orange hair tied in a side ponytail and was probably a few inches taller than Kyouka. Her teal eyes had strange white pupils, but they looked friendly. The man was a few inches taller still, his head was adorned with messy silver hair and his beady black eyes were framed with a bizarre jagged frame. His mouth was turned up into a small snarl, revealing his razor-sharp, spiked teeth, just like Eiko's.

"Hey!" the man called accusingly. "We've got this place reserved, what're you two doing here?"

Midoriya waved a hand at the two. "Sorry, we didn't know! We'll get out of you way."

As Midoriya and Kyouka headed for the exit, the woman piped up. "Hmm, hey wait, what class are you two in?"

"1-A," Midoriya responded succinctly. "Why?"

The woman's face lit up slightly. "Oh, you're in the other hero class! We're from 1-B. Itsuka Kendou, 1-B class rep, and this is Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu." She gestured to the silver-haired man, who was now looking at the two of them appraisingly.

Midoriya's face lit up in kind. "I've been looking forward to meeting the other hero students! I'm Izuku Midoriya, class rep of 1-A, and this is K-Kyouka Jirou." He seemed a little nervous saying her first name, even if he was introducing her.

It was a little cute. How was a dude eight inches and at least fifty pounds of muscle larger than her so nervous around her?

"Oh, you're Midoriya?" Tetsutetsu asked, pointing a finger. "You're the one that stood up to that villain in the USJ!"

Midoriya took a half-step back from the pointing man. "O-oh, you heard about that, did you?"

"The entire school was shut down for a week," Kendou remarked with a laugh in her voice. "Yeah, we heard about it."

Midoriya half-smiled, but didn't seem keen on talking about it. "I'm just glad everyone made it out okay. Anyways, we'll be going. Good luck training."

"Hey wait, hold on!" Tetsutetsu held out a hand to stop the taller student. "Kendou and I are here to train; how about you spar with us?"

Midoriya thought for a moment, then glanced at Kyouka, asking for approval, or was it permission? She thought for a second, then nodded. The man turned back to the 1-B students and grinned, baring his fangs. "You're on."

"Alright!" Tetsutetsu threw up a fist. "Let's do this!"

"Ground rules?" Midoriya asked as he and Kyouka put some space between them and the other students. "You have the reservation, you decide."

Kendou thought for a moment. "We're here to train, not seriously injure each other. Let's say you're out if you touch a wall or unable to move. Good sportsmanship."

"Sounds fine to me. Jirou?" he asked softly.

"Works for us," she called out loudly before leaning towards her partner. "You got a plan?"

"We don't know their quirks," he reasoned, "so we should play it safe until then. We'll have to think on our feet, but I have a feeling you're good at that."

Kyouka huffed. "Remind me to ask you why you have that feeling later, but you're not wrong. I do alright."

Midoriya took a deep, centering breath as scales began to spread along his limbs as he took his shirt off. Kyouka certainly wasn't admiring his defined back as he tossed the shirt aside. While she wasn't doing that, something caught her eye: a patch of off-color scales on his right shoulder. She thought the darker and lighter tones meshed well with the solid, forest green of the rest of his body, giving him a sort of camouflage look.

A simpler part of her wanted to run her fingers over his scales, to see if the scarred scales felt as badass as they looked.

Another wondered where he got it from.

'Wait, is that where he blocked the fire that was gonna kill-'

The horns on his head streaked back until they formed a sort of crown and his eyes glowed brighter. His fingers flashed into claws as his entire body was covered in scales, save for his head. Midoriya kicked off his red shoes and grew his feet into claws, digging into the ground slightly. "Ready when you are."

Damn, that voice was cool.

'Why do I keep thinking stuff like that?'

Kyouka froze as she realized what was going on.

'Oh, right. He's a dragon. Dragons are badass. Yeah, that's fair. '

She smirked as she eyed the competition. She had a dragon on her side and she knew she could handle herself. These 1-B guys didn't stand a chance.

"I'll stand back and attack from range," she whispered, low as she dared. "I'll have an easier time if you can keep them off me." He could apparently hear her fine as he nodded and took a few steps forward, dropping down into a ready stance to guard her.

Kendou and Tetsutetsu nodded to each other. The woman's hands grew to enormous sizes, easily large enough to grab Kyouka like a pencil, while the man's skin turned silver as he transformed into living steel. 'What, is he just a male Eiko? Weird.'

"Go!" Kendou shouted.

The two broke into a run, charging straight at Midoriya. She saw his arms beginning to bulge and lengthen as she heard that rushing noise under his skin. This time, she was sure that the sound of blood was accompanying it; it made sense, his quirk would have to make blood to keep circulation through his massive transformation.

Kyouka shot her jacks toward what she figured was the more dangerous target. Tetsutetsu made the mistake of underestimating her as he didn't move to avoid her attack. Her jacks slammed into him, cracking his metal slightly under her assault. The man cried out in surprised as he tripped and stumbled to the side.

Midoriya took the opportunity to turn his full attention onto Kendou, who seemed equally taken aback by Kyouka's surprisingly powerful attack. He swung his enlarged left arm, but she recovered quickly enough to throw up a block, causing her to just be pushed back a few feet by his fist.

"Tetsu!" Kendou called with a determined grin, "we gotta take advice from The Offspring and keep 'em separated!"

Kyouka hated that she got that joke.

They began to move towards Midoriya and Kyouka again, this time splitting up so Midoriya could only block one of them. His head shot back and forth, trying to figure out what to do.

Unwilling to get caught by a pincer move, she came up with a better idea, or at least what she thought was a better idea in the heat of the moment. Kyouka ran forward and jumped, latching onto the taller man's neck with her arms and hooking her legs around his stomach. One hand had latched onto his shoulder, while another around his neck against his chest to lock her upper body in place. "Go!"

Midoriya gasped slightly, clearly not expecting a surprise passenger. To his credit, he picked up quickly and tore off across the facility, leaving the two flanking students behind. Thanks to his sudden burst of speed, she had to brace herself, but as her hand slipped down his shoulder, her palm passed over a different texture. She glanced down for a split second and noticed she was palming his scar, and before she fully realized what she was doing, her fingers were running gently along them. They felt rough compared to the of the rest, but at the same time, it almost felt familiar. The texture was reminiscent of one of her leather jackets, but hard like steel.

'Woah, even his scar is punk rock.'

After her moment of curiosity passed, Kyouka refocused, quickly turning back and shooting her jacks at their opponents, but they now had a healthy respect for her quirk and dodged.

Kyouka hopped off his back after they put some distance between them. "Hey, you're a dragon, right?" she shot at her partner. "Don't you have like fire breath or something? Gimme a hand keeping them at range!"

He seemed shocked for some reason. "N-no, I don't have fire! Besides, I can't use my breath here, no way!"

"Ugh, whatever!" She didn't have time to argue with him. "I don't think they'll fall for that again, get ready."

It seemed that the two 1-B students had come up with some sort of plan, as Tetsutetsu was charging Midoriya with Kendou lagging a little behind. The metal man reared a fist back and swung at Kyouka's draconic classmate, who blocked it with a grunt. As soon as the two men engaged, Kendou darted around to the side and made a break for Kyouka.

Midoriya attempted to stop her, but taking his attention away from Tetsutetsu was a mistake. The smaller man caught Midoriya in the gut with a solid punch, driving him to the ground. A ferocious snarl ripped out of his throat as he swiped back with one of his clawed hands, sending the horrendous sound of grating metal echoing through the building, causing Kyouka to flinch slightly.

In the meantime, Kendou was closing. Kyouka wasn't some damsel in distress, but she knew that those giant fists and that almost-playful smirk meant nothing but trouble. She took off running, trying to keep as much distance as she could between the two of them as she shot her jacks back at Kendou.

The woman was clearly well trained and flexible as she dodged every single attack with ease. This game of cat and mouse clearly wasn't working, so Kyouka changed tactics again. She let her pace slow enough for Kendou to gain ground, hoping the woman would get greedy and go in for an attack.

Her gamble paid off as the redhead lunged.

As soon as her foot left the ground, Kyouka pivoted and stepped to the side, shooting her jack around like a boxer's right hook. Kendou couldn't dodge in time as the jack hit her in the ribs, digging into her side. The sharp, literally stabbing pain was nothing compared to Kyouka slamming her heartbeat through and blowing Kendou back as she shouted in pain.

After a few moments, Kendou shakily stood to her feet as she wiped some blood from her mouth. "Good one."

She never lost that smirk.

A quick glance over to the men told Kyouka that Midoriya was struggling. His claws had little effect on the metal armor of Tetsutetsu, but his enhanced strength was keeping him in the game as the two grappled on the ground.

She returned her attention to the redhead as she returned to the offensive. Kendou seemed like a smart woman; Kyouka doubted the same attack would work twice.

Using her hands to push off from the ground, Kendou covered the distance between them faster than Kyouka could react. It was all she could do to dodge underneath the giant fist swinging at her.

Unfortunately, now Kyouka was on Kendou's playing field. She took a couple swings at the taller woman, mixing her jabs with stabs from her jacks. She was hoping to get her to back off, but it became painfully obvious that Kendou was a far superior martial artist.

Painfully was right, as Kendou swiped up with her enlarged left hand, knocking Kyouka's guard away as she drove her right fist into her gut.

For a split second, Kyouka's world went white.

She flew backwards, slamming into the ground and rolling a few times before she came to a stop on her back. Kyouka groaned and rolled onto her side to pick herself up. She took a breath, but as she tried to breathe out, she found herself unable to. Panic set in automatically as tried again, but nothing came out. She focused and took another deep breath, filling her lungs that Kendou had knocked the wind out of.

As she regained her bearings, something else assaulted her senses.

That rush was back, but this time, it was nearly deafening.

Her slightly-blurry vision snapped to the source of the sound, her eyes locking with Midoriya's as he stared at her. His green orbs burned with an intensity she hadn't seen before.

With a furious roar, he drove his left arm into Tetsutetsu's stomach, flinging the nearly six feet of steel off of him like he was nothing. He jumped to his feet, his eyes glowing so brightly they were nearly yellow. Kyouka normally had to look up to him, but this was something else.

He easily passed the eight foot mark as his arms and legs bulged, just like he had at the USJ when he attacked Kurogiri. His vision left Kyouka as his face grew elongated and draconic, his predatory eyes landing on Kendou. "You hurt what's mine." His voice was level, but filled with rage.

'Mine?'

The other three students were all frozen with slacked jaws as he bulked up, but once he kicked off towards Kendou, time resumed. Kyouka staggered to her feet and stepped away from Kendou as Midoriya was on her before she could move. She drove a brutal open-palmed strike into his chest, but he barely seemed to notice.

He crashed down on her, pinning her chest to the ground with a single, giant claw. He snarled in her face, his fangs bared. "Yield."

"Woah, man, I yield!" she shouted back, holding her hands up and letting her hands shrink back down.

Kyouka remembered that that the fight wasn't over and tore her eyes from her massive classmate over to Tetsutetsu, who was pulling himself up from the ground slowly. Her jacks shot out and stopped an inch from his face. "You heard the man, give up!" she yelled, half-surprised her voice still worked.

"Ah, dammit, fine!" He held his hands up.

Midoriya's vision snapped to her again. She felt a little uneasy as his glowing, reptilian eyes looked her all over; she noted the distinct look of intelligence within them as he slowly approached her. The man towered over her as he stood next to her; she only came up to his stomach. "Hey," she smirked as best she could up at the man nearly twice her height as she tried to keep the blush from her face. "What's this about me being 'your's'? If anything, you're mine, dragon boy."

'Shit, that sounded a lot cooler in my head.'

Apparently, he seemed to think it sounded cool, because his mouth dropped open slightly as his eyes flashed to hers. He breathed out slowly as he shrunk back down to his normal impressive height and his face returned to its normal cu- shape. Normal shape.

'Man, fuck you, hormones.' She let out a short, frustrated sigh. 'It's just cause I haven't spent any time with him. There are plenty of hot dudes in the class, I'll get over him.'

It was then that she noticed the unfortunate side effect of Midoriya's transformation. His pants… didn't make it. He seemed to be aware of this, as he didn't let his quirk fully release. His body was still covered in scales, with his chest and stomach covered in his light-green plates. His legs were completely bare from the feet to his thigh and… up. Thankfully, and somewhat strangely, there wasn't anything there.

Regardless, she felt her face heating up just from the implication. "You know, I'm not some princess that needs rescuing. I was fine."

"What?" He looked at her with genuine confusion. "No, I know that. You can take much more than that punch, but still, you being hurt is unacceptable. You don't need my protection, but you definitely deserve it."

She blinked. ' Dammit , that was cool.'

"Damn, you two go hard," Kendou said as she approached the two of them, still smiling. "You have that whole intimidation thing down pat, Midoriya."

"T-thanks," he muttered sheepishly. "But hey, you didn't hold back either, look." He let the upper part of his quirk fade, exposing his chest, arms and defined abs, where a large bruise was forming in the middle of his torso. "I don't think you cracked any of them, but my ribs are definitely bruised a bit." Kyouka noted that the scales around his right shoulder didn't vanish.

Tetsutetsu had gotten up and joined the group as well. "Midoriya, I gotta say: you do the hero course proud! Both of you! That fight got my blood pumping! You better bring that passion to the sports festival, I don't want my victory to be against anything but your best, alright?!"

Kyouka and Midoriya looked at each other before nodding. "See you there, man." Kyouka had to admit, the spar had gotten her blood pumping too. Fighting with Midoriya had felt really good.

Midoriya gave a curt bow. "Thank you for the opportunity, but we'll be going now. Enjoy the rest of your training!"

The two 1-B students waved back as they exited the building back into the early afternoon sun. "Jirou, I-I want to apologize. I didn't mean to uh, do that."

"Do what? Go all dragon on them?" She waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, it was pretty cool."

"Y-you think?" He looked genuinely surprised and touched.

She remembered this was the guy who tried to apologize for 'scaring' them all when he saved their lives. He mentioned that he was what, 'conditioned to expect a certain reaction'? Had he been ostracized and shunned most of his life for his quirk?

She felt a small twinge of anger and indignation at the idea. 'Wait, am I getting protective of him?'

Kyouka opted to avoid the question and change the subject. "Speaking of, why didn't you just go full dragon like at the USJ?"

He flinched. "Oh, uh, well, I can't."

"Can't?" She cocked her hip as she raised an eyebrow.

"At the USJ… well, I shouldn't have been able to do that. It almost killed me."

"...What?"

"Well, it's wrong to say I 'can't', rather I should say I 'shouldn't'." He looked away sadly. "I could probably do it if I really wanted to, but it would almost certainly put me in the hospital again... and who knows if I would come out alright this time. My dad wasn't even going to teach me how to do that until our junior year."

"Wait, that would put you in…" She noticed his particular language.

Midoriya nodded. "Terrorflame didn't put me in a coma for a week, my own quirk did."

Kyouka's jaw dropped. She didn't realize. "I, uh, wow, dude. I didn't know, sorry for asking."

"No no, it's fine. Sorry for dumping that on you." He chuckled awkwardly as his disposition brightened. "I just feel comfortable around you Jirou, I didn't mean to let all that slip out."

"No problem," she muttered, looking away to try and maintain her cool. "Let's head back, alright? We gotta get you some pants."

Midoriya yelped a little. "Oh, uh, r-right. Sorry." Two giant wings slowly sprouted from his back and stretched in the spring afternoon.

She watched his horns grow slightly longer and then ran her eyes over the great, dappled wings. 'His quirk is metal as fuck, are you kidding me? If this hero thing doesn't work out for him, he could get a job acting in music videos.'

"Oh, how rude of me," he laughed, turning back to her. "My mother would kill me if I didn't offer you a ride. Wanna grab on?" He pointed to his back with a grin.

Kyouka flashed back to her impromptu piggyback during their match a little while ago. "Wait, like, a flight back?"

"Yeah! It's a lot faster. Flying is a ton of fun, too. You'll love it!" He was like an excited kid.

Riding a dragon? Sign Kyouka the hell up.

"Like I'd pass on an opportunity to ride you."

'SHIT, that sounded a lot cooler in my head!'

Midoriya didn't seem to notice her accidental innuendo as he bent down to allow her easier access to his back.

Unlike last time, she had the time to fully appreciate what she was doing. Her arms locked around his shoulders and neck and her legs wrapped around his thick core. She could feel his muscles bulging and contracting with every motion and breath he took.

What felt intimate to her was apparently nothing to him. He just looked back with a small smile and asked if she was ready. When she nodded, desperately trying to keep her face from blushing, his wings rose up and beat downwards, sending the two of them streaking into the air.

Her feelings of embarrassment quickly gave way to a rush of fear as her stomach dropped. She instinctively gripped harder, pressing herself tighter into his firm body. Kyouka was much too preoccupied to worry about her thighs squeezing into his sides.

As the acceleration slowed and their ascent stopped, she finally peeked one of her eyes open. As she peered around, both of her eyes shot open and her jaw dropped, or at least dropped as far as it could when it was pressed into Midoriya's back.

The view was spectacular.

The two of them were soaring at least several hundred feet above the ground, well over the tallest tower of the UA main building. Looking out she could see all of Musutafu and the ocean sparkling in the sun.

The wind whipped through her hair as her heart swelled with amazement and excitement and as a wide grin stretched across her face. Kyouka couldn't resist cheering loudly as the two of them soared high in the air.

All too soon, they began their descent. He held his wings out wide to catch the air and slow gravity's pull on them, causing the two of them to glide slowly to the ground. He circled around the dorm several times before landing by the front doors, his muscular legs acting to absorb the impact as he lowered himself on contact.

He stayed crouched, letting her slip off his back and back onto solid ground. She almost fell down as her legs gave out beneath her, but Midoriya seemed to have expected that and reached out to hold her up.

The feeling returned to her legs as her adrenaline faded, but the wide smile never left her face. "That was awesome! You get to do that whenever you want? Consider me jealous, man."

"It never gets old," he returned with a smile.

She stood up tall, or at least tall for her, patting his arm to let her go. "Thanks for catching me. You were on top of things, you do this a lot?"

Midoriya shook his head. "Not really. You're actually the first person other than Kacchan I've given a ride."

Her cheeks warmed up. 'The first…?'

"Anyway, gotta go, thanks helping me out!" he said suddenly, taking back off into the air.

"H-hey, we should do it again sometime!" she called after him, to which he gave her a nod and a thumbs up before he disappeared around the side of the building.

She sighed. 'That was a much more exciting training session than I expected. Midoriya is a really cool guy.' Kyouka realized she was still smiling. 'Oh shit, do I have a crush on him? No, no. No way. I barely know the guy.'

She turned to walk inside, her shoulders slumping slightly. 'Being 18 sucks. Hormones suck.'

'Not like he would even look at someone like me when bombshells like Mina are after him…'

Izuku quickly flew up to his room, where he had intentionally left his balcony door unlocked. He had managed to keep his composure during the flight back, but now that he was in private, he broke down.

He grabbed one of his pillows and shoved his face into it hard, screaming at the top of his lungs. His throat felt a little sore, but a lot of his tension was gone.

'Holy crap, why are all the girls in my class so hot?! Why did I offer her a ride?! Did she know what she was doing?! She was pressed so hard into me…' He reached up and ran his fingers over his scar. 'Her touch was kind, even on something so ugly.'

'Why did it feel so good?'

He slumped down onto his bed and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to calm his quirk as it flared at the memories of Jirou's body against his back and her bright smile. 'At least school starts back up tomorrow. That'll be a good distrac-'

A knock on his door.

"Oh, Midoooriiii~"

'Oh no.'

Notes:

See you guys next time :)