Izuku walked to his classroom on autopilot.
His thoughts were focused on the discussion he had last night with Fumika.
Many of his doubts about the girl had been resolved then, but he still had a few questions he wanted to ask her...
"Midoriya-kun."
Why did the girl seem to hate her own mother so much...?
Such was a question that Izuku would probably never dare to ask, not wishing to invade his friend's privacy, but even so, he was quite worried about how bad the relationship between mother and daughter seemed to be.
After all, Izuku had to admit that as forgiving as he was, he had held for a while a grudge against his father after he left him and his mother by themselves. But with the pass of time those feelings had changed to simple indifference. Fumika's case was different; considering her attitude, the clash with her mother had been very recent, or really awful.
"Hey, Midoriya-kun."
On the other hand there was Dark Shadow... Izuku could only think of that famous Socrates' quote, because seriously, he knew so much and at the same time so little about the sentient Quirk.
As absurd as it could be, considering that Izuku already knew so much about its abilities, weaknesses and its very origin... But even so, it had taken him a while to notice the fact that he really didn't quite understand WHAT Dark Shadow was even supposed to be.
Was it really a being apart from Fumika born of her Quirk and permanently linked with her? Or was Dark Shadow perhaps a part of Fumika's personality that had come to life and developed intelligence?
Considering how happy and outgoing the shadow creature could be the few times it spoke during the day in contrast with how introverted Fumika was, Izuku couldn't help thinking that perhaps Dark Shadow could be formed by Fumika's repressed emotions. But in that case, what should Izuku think about the violent and dangerous nocturnal aspect of the Quirk? Was it a manifestation of a part of Fumika's psyche as well? Was her repressed anger...?
That was another thing that worried him greatly.
"Deku-kun?"
And additionally...
Was it just him, or did Fumika's hair seem pretty soft despite how stiff and spikey it looked...? Did that even make sense?
Wait, is it really hair or are they just feathers?
...What was even the point, again?
"IZUKU!" A frighteningly stiff robotic face suddenly appeared in his range of vision.
To say he got scared would be an understatement.
"W-What happened, Iida-kun?" he said, trying to act as if he hadn't been close to having a heart attack.
"That's what I want to know," said one of his best friends, Tenya Iida; frowning slightly. "You didn't seem to be aware of your surroundings at all... Nor did it seem like you slept too much. Are you alright?" The worry was obvious on his face.
Izuku supposed that the immense dark circles under his own eyes were equally obvious.
How was he supposed to sleep when he had so much invaluable information about Fumika and Dark Shadow to analyze and transcribe to his notebooks? Easy. He couldn't.
"Don't worry, Iida-kun. I'm fine. I'm just a little bit tired, that's all."
"Hmn, if you say so." Tenya nodded and left the conversation there.
Izuku simply smiled and they both continued on their way to the 1-A classroom.
It was a little embarrassing to admit it, but it was hard for him not to divert his attention slightly every time he noticed a girl with black spikey hair along the way, assuming that maybe it was Fumika.
When he entered the classroom she was already there, sitting on her desk like a bird perched on the tree branch, her long skirt carefully arranged to protect her modesty from certain tiny perverts with purple hair who might try to see below her skirt.
It was a somewhat bizarre scene but at the same time so normal in the world with Quirks in which they lived, that Izuku felt like he lost his breath for an instant there.
At that moment while she was distracted talking to Tsuyu, before noticing Iida's annoyed look and his own stare... He couldn't describe how amazing she looked.
"G-Good morning..." The idea of calling her Fumika crossed his mind but he buried the idea immediately. Not only was Iida still attentive to his behavior, but now so were Tsuyu and some of his other classmates who had turned to look at him. And it was unlikely that they would overlook the new closeness between them if he began calling Fumika by her first name, which he didn't do with anyone else, except for Tsuyu. "Tokoyami-san." He finished with an awkward smile, trying not to seem more nervous than normal.
"Likewise... Midoriya." She replied, her voice neutral, but with a pause so obvious that it seemed to send him a message, considering the amused glow in her eyes.
It seemed that she had read his actions like an open book...
"Eh ..."
His mind went blank for a few seconds, not sure if he should try to start a conversation with her or just retire before he ended up saying something stupid and completely embarrassing himself.
"O-Ok," he muttered, and retired to his seat, deciding to take the safer option. Even so, he could feel Fumika's curious eyes, as well as the others in the room, following him all the way to his seat.
He genuinely wished that the others wouldn't start spreading weird rumors about him and Fumika; Izuku had had enough with half the school believing, after his performance at the Sports Festival, that he was the secret son of All Might.
(…)
The rest of the day passed without anything important to tell.
He and Fumika had exchanged a few glances, and his thoughts began to drift towards her more than he would like to admit. But in addition to causing a bit of confusion for Iida and Uraraka who had noticed his furtive looks, not much happened.
Until noon came and Aizawa dismissed the class.
As he began to store his things, he barely noticed how Aizawa seemed to receive a message on his cell phone, which caused his expression to become more and more irritated as he read it.
The chill that Izuku felt at his back at that moment made him almost certain that it was something related to last night; about him and Fumika. So Izuku tried to look for the girl, noticing how she sneaked up towards the back exit of the room.
For a second, Izuku had in his mind the idea of following her.
Too bad Aizawa got ahead by stopping them both with his capture weapon.
"Stop there, you two." His red eyes fixed on them, while his hair floated. "The Headmaster wants to talk with you."
(…)
"So let me understand." Aizawa brought his hand to the bridge of his nose, frustration bleeding through his words. "How much time has passed? A week?"
"Nine days." Nezu replied, an amused smile on his face.
"Only nine days since Bakugou's unauthorized rescue attempt, and you're already breaking the rules again, Midoriya... Do you really want to be kicked out that much?"
Midoriya just looked at the ground, trying not to shake too much while he felt as if the couch he was sitting on was going to swallow him.
Yeah, the ground was nice, and it was certainly easier to keep his eyes fixed on it than to look up and notice:
Aizawa, standing in the middle of the room looking at him with an expression of wanting to strangle him.
Nezu, sitting behind his desk looking as if he couldn't be more entertained by the situation.
Fumika, sitting next to him and unnaturally expressionless, as if she were forcing herself to suppress her emotions regarding the current situation.
The various monitors in the room that showed recordings of the previous night, with him and Fumika sitting side by side on the dorm's rooftop.
"Let's keep calm, Aizawa-kun." Interrupted the tiny director. "You're taking the matter too seriously."
"Because it is. Villains could have attacked them and infiltrated the dormitories just because Midoriya wasn't interested in following the rules, besides managing to be an element that corrupts his classmates and makes them problematic students like him." His gaze shifting from him to Fumika, towards the end of his sentence.
"That is debatable," Nezu said, although his smile seemed to exclaim 'No, it isn't , because I am right and you aren't' , to Aizawa's annoyance. "First, UA Campus' security systems have been updated and improved since the events of the USJ. So now, not even the villain made of fog could teleport to the campus without us noticing it. So while Midoriya-kun and Tokoyami-chan's actions were irresponsible, there was never any real danger."
Izuku allowed himself to sigh in relief at such words.
"And second, this time, it wasn't Midoriya-kun who started the situation." Nezu pulled out a remote from his desk and pressed one of the buttons, causing the recordings of the previous night to shift to when he hadn't yet appeared and Fumika was sitting by herself. "It was Tokoyami-chan who decided to go out on her own... It seems to me that Midoriya-kun actually intended to convince her to come in so she wouldn't get in trouble, am I right?" Nezu addressed the question to Fumika, who nodded slightly after a few seconds.
"Then why is it that instead of doing that, he ended up staying out there too?" Aizawa asked Nezu, almost ignoring Midoriya's presence in the room, clearly irritated that Nezu was defending him. "And why do something so irrational to start with?" Now the question was addressed to Fumika, who for the first time since entering the room was externalizing how uncomfortable she felt, to the point of looking down.
Clearly the raven girl wasn't going to answer that question no matter how many times Aizawa asked her. And Izuku couldn't help but feel strangely warm, even in a situation like that, knowing that Fumika had trusted him enough to tell him the reason for her actions.
"Again, Aizawa-kun, you're taking things too seriously. This is just a case of teenagers doing teenage things. Nothing to worry about."
Aizawa sighed irritably and his face became expressionless for a moment.
"Whatever. The point remains, these two deserve punishment, even if it's just so that the rest of their classmates don't think of doing something similarly stupid." An unpleasant smirk broke through his face. "Maybe not being able to take the provisional license exam would be enough of a lesson."
As soon as the words gained meaning in Izuku's mind, he couldn't help but get up abruptly with an expression of complete desperation on his face, noticing how Fumika beside him did the same.
"SIT DOWN," Aizawa said in a low voice, while he seemed to want to disintegrate them both with his glare. Reluctantly -but quite intimidated- he and Fumika ended up sitting once more.
"Aizawa-kun, that would be unfair. A punishment too big for such small actions." The Headmaster jumped from his seat and began to walk around the room thoughtfully. "Taking care of their classroom cleaning for the rest of the month should suffice."
"You're being too kind to them, Nezu." The teacher complained.
"Nah, that's just the fair thing to do." Nezu paused for a moment. "But okay, let's make it the full school year, then." Izuku looked at Nezu completely shocked. The rest of the school year was around seven months... "I'm absolutely sure both of them regret having broken the rules in such a way." The rodent's smile (?) suddenly became larger and uncomfortable to look at, his dark and lightless eyes looking at them like black holes, while the scar on his face gave the impression of shining brightly. "RIGHT?"
"YES!" Izuku shouted, nodding repeatedly as if trying to appease a beast from hell itself. He was so upset that he almost didn't notice how Fumika was doing the same.
That was probably the first time he had seen Fumika that scared.
"See, Aizawa-kun, problem solved," Nezu said, as if the last few seconds hadn't happened. "Starting tomorrow, they will have to stay after class cleaning their classroom. That's all. Have a good afternoon you two." When neither Nezu nor Aizawa said anything else, Fumika got up from her seat and began to walk slowly towards the exit, and Izuku followed her closely before things got worse.
Once out and with the door closed, Izuku turned to look at Fumika who looked back at him.
Without saying it out loud they both now knew that they would probably have nightmares about a certain furry individual that night.
None of them noticed the short boy with purple hair and the floating female school uniform leaving the scene.
(…)
Inside the room, Aizawa couldn't help looking at the rodent-bear-thing with an expression of reproach.
"Tea?" Nezu asked.
Aizawa simply sighed and took a seat.
"No milk or sugar, please," he said while the rodent served his tea. "You're plotting something to mess with those two, right?" He asked after taking a drink; It had milk and sugar.
"What? You're overestimating me, Aizawa-kun. I'm not plotting anything at all." He smiled as he watched the recording of Izuku and Fumika.
They kind of made a cute couple.
