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Everyone at heights alliance was being comfortably lazy that morning, rain on the windows creating a soothing background to unwind to. Ochaco, Shoto and Tsu had commandeered the large settee to finish some coursework, but none of them had their hearts in it. They were too focused on the backpack sitting on the armchair, the one belonging to Izuku.
Izuku had said he was going for a quick run with All Might around campus, rain wasn't going to stop him, but in his haste he'd left his things downstairs, half unzipped.
"He's going to forget his head some day," Ochaco giggled, moving to zip it up for him. As she did, the bag which was overstuffed as always, tipped over. An avalanche of notebooks, pencils, water bottles and half eaten protein bars spilled on to the floor. "Oh no!" Ochaco said, bending down to gather the scattered items. Shoto and Tsu were quick to help. As they started gathering Izuku's things, Tsu picked up a familiar, slightly battered notebook. The cover was simple, in Izuku's messy handwriting, Hero Analysis for the Future no. 15
"Number fifteen already?" Tsu commented. "He's so dedicated, ribbit."
"Mm," Shoto nodded, "He's very private with them, we should probably put it back."
"We're not going to read it read it," Ochaco said, shrugging. "Just a little peek... To see who he's analysing now, I mean! It might be a new pro, or maybe he has some idea for ultimate moves! Come on, don't you want to see if Izuku has an idea even better than phosphor?"
Even Shoto couldn't fully suppress a flicker of curiosity, and gave a slight nod. "...Alright, but only the first few pages." With tacit group consent, Ochaco carefully opened the notebook.
It was initially what they all expected. Detailed breakdowns of Mirko's fighting style, theories on how Hawks controlled her feathers, a page dedicated to recipro turbo. Standard fare. But then, Ochaco turned a page and froze.
Instead ofdiagrams and bullet points, there was a full-page, exquisitely detailed pencil sketch. Of Yui Kodai, from Class 1-B. Her head tilted slightly, a small, almost imperceptible smile on her face. The shading was soft, the lines capturing an expression few of them had ever seen.
"Oh, wow," Ochaco breathed with surprise. "This is a really good sketch of Kodai." She flipped the page. "...oh and, there's another sketch of her in her her costume." she flipped again. "And another." her voice grew more bewildered with each turn. "And... Another of her eating ice cream? It looks like she posed for that one."
Tsuyu leaned in closer, her large eyes blinking slowly. "The background looks like that new crepe shop near the train station, ribbit."
Shoto pointed a finger at a new page, his voice in a flat investigative tone. "This one looks like she's doing karaoke."
The drawing was of Kodai, holding a microphone and looking at something off-page with an expression of fond amusement. A tiny speech bubble from her mouth contained a musical note.
"Karaoke?!" Ochaco squeaked, "Wh-when did they-?!"
She turned the page again, more frantic this time. The next sketch made the girls gasp and Shoto's eyes grow imperceptibly larger for a beat. It was a close up of Kodai's face, her eyes closed, her lips puckered as if blowing a kiss directly at the artist. A small heart floated from her lips.
"She's blowing a kiss in this one," Shoto stated bluntly. "What are the social implications of that gesture?"
"Significant, ribbit. And look," Tsuyu pointed to another two page spread. This one was a full scene, Kodai sitting on the floor surrounded by cats, a calico asleep on her lap as she dangled a toy for a siamese, a wide smile on her face - a smile none of them had ever seen before.
The evidence was piling up into an irrefutable mountain. Their earnest, hero-obsessed, sometimes oblivious Izuku had a whole, secret social life. With Yui Kodai! But the final page they saw was the one that broke them.
It was a coloured pencil drawing, a contrast to the black and white sketches. A sunny beach scene. Yui Kodai, in a simple dark blue bikini, sitting on a towel under a parasol. She was looking over her shoulder, with a smile on her face. The sun glinted off the water behind her, and the detail was so precise they could almost hear the waves.
Ochaco nearly choked, "Wh-when did they go to the beach together?!"
"They didn't just go the beach, ribbit," Tsuyu said, still dtaring at the drawing. "He drew her at the beach. He spenthours on this, look at the colours. He wanted to remember it."
Just then, the main door to the dorm slid open. In walked Izuku, his hair damp with sweat and rain, a towel around his neck. "Hey guys! The run was great, All Might showed me a... new..."
He stopped. His three closest friends were staring at him with wide unblinking eyes. His own flickered down to the coffee table, the open notebook, and the very specific, very personal drawing of Yui at the beach.
"Ah," he squeaked. "Um. You... That's... It's not... It's for analysis!"
"Analysis? Ribbit." Tsuyu tilted her head. "Are you analysing the structural integrity of bikinis?"
Izuku's mouth opened, then closed, then he deflated.
"Okay," he sighed, running a hand through his messy hair. "Cat's out of the bag." He walked over and sank onto the floor, looking at the notebook with a fond, embarrassed expression.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Ochaco asked. "We're your friends, of course we'd be supportive."
Izuku looked up, "I know you would! It's not that I don't trust you. It's...because of me. You know, with Shigaraki, the league, it makes me a target. I didn't want anyone to know she was close to me in case it pu a target on her back."
He looked at the drawing of Yui at the cat cafe. "She's a really private person. She's quiet, but she's really funny and smart. She doesn't like a lot of attention or gossip, so we both just... agreed to keep it to ourselves for a while. Until things were safer. Our little secret."
The explanation extinguished the confusion and replaced it with a profound understanding. Of course that was the reason, it was so perfectly, self-sacrificingly Izuku.
Ochaco gave a small smile, her surprise melting into something gentler. "You could have told us, Deku. We wouldn't have said anything. But... I get it. And you know," she nudged his shoulder with hers, "I'm happy for you both. You deserve it."
Shoto closed the notebook and handed it back to Izuku. "Your privacy is yours to guard." he looked at izuku with a hint of dry amusement, "but you're very bad at keeping secrets."
"Yeah," Izuku laughed weakly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I need to stop leaving my things around the common room like that."
"You left the bag half open, ribbit," Tsuyu said with a flick of her tongue. "Maybe you wanted us to find it. Just a little."
Ochaco perked up. "Wait wait...Does anyone else know?"
"No," Izuku said immediately. "I mean... maybe Tenya suspects something. He's really good at picking up on routine changes. But we've been careful. Yui's good at being unnoticed when she wants to be."
There was a moment of consideration, then Shoto asked, "Is she why you sneak back into the dorms in the early mornings?"
"You noticed that?!"
"I notice everything," Shoto said simply. "I'm very perceptive."