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Neito could not have been prouder of his position in class 1-B. Despite the attention that the media was giving 1-A, they were just as, if not more competent than those snobs. All because of some stupid villain attack, 1-B was completely overshadowed. During the sports festival, Neito and his class would prove their worth. They'd demonstrate their teamwork and expert planning, and show 1-A they were nothing special.
»-♡->
The sports festival had gone… worse than planned. It wasn't a total failure by any definition of the word, and his entire class had made it to the second round, but only a handful of them had actually made it to the tournament. Neito was proud of all his classmates for how well they'd done, but he couldn't help but be frustrated by his own performance. If only he'd known before hand that Bakugou would hold such an intense grudge for stealing his headband, He would've avoided the boy like the plague.
Neito flopped into his desk chair with a sigh as he opened his laptop. At least he'd be able to get more of a read on 1-A's quirks. He quickly pulled up a recording of the festival and skipped to the tournament. That was where his most formidable opponents would be, and the ones with the best quirks for him to copy. He found the first match and hit play.
The green haired boy—Midori- something? One of the 1-A idiots—dashed forward quickly, and shouted something before freezing and settling into a neutral standing position. The lanky purple guy said something and Midori turned around and walked towards the boundary.
A control quirk, then. Was it more puppetry or hypnosis? He leaned closer to the screen to look at the state Midori was in. Just then, his screen flashed.
"Shit!" Neito brought his hands to his eyes. That's what he got for watching videos in the dark. By the time he recovered from the accidental flash-bang, he looked at the screen and watched Midori throw Purple out of bounds. What? He turned down his brightness and replayed the last 5 seconds. He glared at the screen as Midori used his obnoxiously powerful quirk to break out of Purple's quirk and attack him.
»-♡->
On Monday, Neito was sitting in the courtyard in front of the school when Midori approached him.
"You're Monoma, right?" He smiled. "I'm Midoriya."
Neito rolled his eyes. "Come to brag about how you're so much better than me?"
His brows furrowed and he tilted his head to the side. "No? I didn't even win. You and 1-B did a great job! Your strategy in the cavalry battle was really cool even if it didn't work. And your quirk! Copy quirks are soooo versatile. I bet it'd be tough to make a costume than can help you with so many quirks. Do you get any protective mutations that come with the quirk? Like, if you copied a fire quirk would you get the heat resistance? Is there a limit to how many-"
Neito blinked. Midoriya was still going, but it had petered out into near unintelligible mumbling. Was he… complimenting his quirk? No, he was definitely just scoping out the enemy. Trying to play nice and learn his weaknesses.
"Why would I tell you? Our classes are rivals. You'd just use it against me." Neito stood. "I'd better be getting to class. Is the legendary 1-A too good to be on time?"
Midoriya paused in his rambling, glanced at his watch, and squeaked. "Oh! I should go to class." He hesitated before asking, "Walk with me? I wanna talk about our 'rivalry'." He made finger quotes when he said rivalry.
Quite honestly, Neito was tempted. Even if they were working against each other, Midoriya seemed to be smart. It might be good to try and get more information on 1-A's quirks.
"You know what? Sure, 1-A. Let's walk together." He settled his backpack onto his shoulders and started walking.
Midoriya smiled that bright, stupid smile again and dashed to catch up to him so they could walk side by side. "You know, most of 1-A would much rather get along with you than fight."
"Is that so? You know, I'm pretty sure most heroes would rather villains not be villains, but sometimes peace is a foolish wish."
"That's a ridiculous analogy and you know it. We'll literally be coworkers in the future. It makes so much more sense to try and get along." He huffed.
"To an extent that's true, but we'll also be competing in the hero rankings." Neito pointed out. "This should be a good emulation of what's to come."
Midoriya paused, considering the point. "You're right in a way, but even among actual heroes, it tends towards a friendly rivalry rather than animosity."
He looked for a counter, but couldn't come up with anything. "Fair enough," he sighed. "I'll tell you about my quirk if you let me copy yours."
He lit up and instantly held out his hand to him. "Go ahead! I'm actually really curious to see how your quirk will react with mine."
He grabbed his wrist and felt a quirk slot into his roster. It felt big but empty. Its potential was insane, but it felt like it would take generations to reach it. He's felt similar quirks before, but wasnt expecting it from Midoriya.
"A stockpiling quirk? Didn't see it coming, but it guess it makes sense. I'd bet this quirk did little to nothing until you were at least 10 years old." Neito huffed. Maybe not all of 1-A was so blessed.
Midoriya laughed derisively. "Try 15 years old."
Yeah, this member wasn't seeming especially blessed. Even though his quirk was powerful now, he'd probably grown up thinking he was quirkless.
"I know it's not the same, but without others charity, I'm basically quirkless." Neito frowned. "I get feeling powerless."
Midoriya smiled. "It's nice to know I'm not alone. Talk to you later?" He stopped walking at 1-A's door.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll grace you with my presence." He kept walking to 1-B and right before he opened the door, Midoriya grabbed his hand a slipped a paper into it.
"My number." He grinned. "You still owe me a talk about your quirk."
»-♡->
Neito was laying in bed on his phone. He was reading some article on Quirk Singularity when he got a text from Midoriya.
Midoriya:
hey!!
I heard 1-B was doing obstacle courses today
How'd that go?
Did you do it quirkless? Or if not whose quirk did you use?
He rolled his eyes fondly and smiled as he typed out a response.
Monoma:
It went fine
Vlad-Sensei had us run it quirkless
A lot of us really need to work on parkour
Wait. What? Rolling his eyes made sense, but fondly? And smiling? That was just ridiculous. It was fun to talk to someone about quirks, and Midoriya was smart, kind, funny, and pretty cute, but it wasn't like-
Oh no.
Neito promptly turned his phone off, put it on his nightstand, rolled over in bed, and went to sleep. That was a problem for later.
»-♡->
Much to his disdain, when he woke up and thought back to the events of last night, he felt his face grow hot and he groaned. It was so unlike him to fall for someone like this. He knew it wasn't exactly quick, but Midoriya probably thought they were just friendly acquaintances. He probably didn't even consider him a close friend like Neito did him.
He shook the thoughts from his head. He should probably just get it over with. Tell Midoriya how he feels so he can get rejected, get over it, and go back to being just friends.
He quickly got dressed and went down to the common area to get some breakfast. Kendou had made a batch of rice earlier, so he took a scoop of that from the rice cooker and a serving of nato from the fridge. As he ate, he thought about how he would address Midoriya. It might be best to do it before class even started. He was pretty sure they had a joint exercise for heroics today and he was going to need a while to get over it before he had to see him again.
"Hey Monoma, what are you thinking about so hard?" Tsunotori said from behind him.
Neito fought the flush that he felt warming his cheeks. He clearly didn't do a good enough job doing this, because her eyes sharpened.
"Or would it be more accurate to ask who you are thinking about so hard?" She grinned.
He quickly shoveled the rest of his food into his mouth and set his dish in the sink. "Goodbye, Tsunotori, I'll see you in class." He speed-walked to the door and slid his shoes on. He made his way to the hill he knew Midoriya stopped on during his morning run. After a few minutes of waiting, he came around the corner and caught sight of Neito. It only took about 30 seconds for him to reach the hill.
Midoriya uncapped his water bottle and took a long drink. He lowered it and smiled. "Hey Monoma! What's up?"
God, that stupid smile did things to him. "I just realized something last night and wanted to let you know."
"Oh? Is it about your quirk? Was I right about the DNA contact thing?" He clearly had Midoriya's full attention.
"No, well, yes actually, you were right about the DNA thing, but that's not what I wanted to tell you." He took a deep breath. It'd be stupid to be nervous. He knew this wasn't going anywhere. "I like you, Midoriya."
Midoriya froze and color flooded his cheeks. "I- What?" He squeaked.
"I said I like you, Midoriya." He sighed. "I know you don't return my feelings. I just needed to get it off my chest." He turned to walk to class.
"Mono- Neito!" Midoriya grabbed his wrist. "You're wrong, Neito. I… I feel the same."
He turned back—wow, they were standing really close—as his eyes widened. "Why?"
He giggled. "What do you mean why? Why wouldn't I? You're clever. You've got a competitive streak a mile wide. You like quirks as much as I do." He raised the hand not holding Neito's wrist to his cheek.
He gaped. He was at a loss for words.
He laughed again and ran his thumb over the corner of Neito's mouth. Midoriya's eyes flicked down to his lips. "Can I kiss you?"
He nodded dumbly and Midoriya leaned in those last couple inches, pressing their lips together for just a few seconds before pulling back.
"Midoriya, will you be my boyfriend?" Neito blurted.
He smiles that stupidly bright smile. "Only if you call me Izuku."
Neito snorts. "That's 1-A for you. Always have to get their way." He smirks. "Isn't that right, Izuku?"
»-♡->
"Alright Neito. This'll be your first time sitting with my friends at lunch. And also when I tell them that we're dating. But no pressure!" Izuku pulled him along.
"It's not exactly like they have a good first impression of me. I told them they should be glad they were attacked by villains!" He huffed.
Izuku winced. "I will admit that was not a cool thing to do, but you know now that your thinking was incredibly flawed. As long as you apologize, it should be fine."
Izuku sat down and Neito reluctantly say next to him. Uraraka looked at him like he was insane.
"Deku, why did you bring Monoma to our table?" She said slowly, as if she was talking to a small child.
"Before we get to that, I wanted to apologize. I've said a lot of stuff that was rooted in my insecurities. Izuku's been helping me sort that out." The apology was grumbled and reluctant, but sincere.
"'Izuku'? When did you get so close?" She latched onto the part of the statement that caught her attention, though she did seem a little more at ease.
Izuku answered before Neito got the chance. "We started talking after the sports festival. But as for when he got given name privileges…" he grabbed Neito's hand and pulled it onto the table, half as an example and half for comfort. "We started dating last week."
Iida seemed surprised, but not upset. "As long as you keep public displays of affection to a minimum, I have no issue with this." He chopped his arm. "Midoriya seems to be very fond of you, Monoma."
Uraraka, on the other hand, seemed to be taking him in in a different light. After a moment she said, "And this isn't some scheme to prove how you're better than 1-A?"
He winced. He had been expecting something like that, and he supposed he had earned it, but it still stung. "No. I really do care about him."
Her gaze softened. "Alright. Just know, if you ever hurt him, they'll never find your body."
Ah. Right. This was the girl who went blow for blow with Bakugou. Needless to say, he was scared shitless.
»-♡->
It was a couple hours after class, and most of 1-B was sitting in the common area. Neito was on his phone, waiting for Izuku to come over so they could work on the math homework together. He was training with Togata, and those training sessions tended to take a while when they both inevitably got carried away.
"Hey, Monoma. We were thinking about doing a movie night tonight. You in?" Kendou said, breaking away from the conversation she was having with Komori and Kuroiro.
Neito shook his head. "Sorry, I've got a study date with Izuku."
"Of course you do, why wouldn't you?" Kuroiro muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Neito set his phone down and glared at him.
He rolled his eyes. "It's all Izuku this, Izuku that, with you lately. You even stopped sitting with us at lunch."
Neito was shocked. "I see you guys plenty in class and after school!"
"Sure, sure, I just think its a little hypocritical that you were constantly going on about how stuck up 1-A was, but you started hanging out with them at the first in you got." This comment was from Setsuna.
"Well- I- Of course we're still better than 1-A! Izuk- Midoriya is nothing. He doesn't mean anything to me. He's an overpowered, obnoxious idiot just like the rest of his classmates." Neito clenched his fists. "I'm just proving how gullible he is."
"Neito, what?" Izuku’s voice rang out clear, cutting through the clutter of sound that the argument created.
He whipped around and saw him standing in the entryway to the common area. There were tears clearly in his eyes, and shit, how long had he been standing there?
"Izuku, I-" He stumbled backward a few steps before turning around and sprinting to and up the stairs and into his room.
»-♡->
In Neito's dreams that night, his mouth wouldn't stop moving. He didn't turn away, he didn't run, his mouth just kept moving, spouting horrible things about Izuku and 1-A. And Izuku—not in the doorway anymore, but on his knees in front of him—looked more and more heartbroken as he sobbed. His mouth wouldn't stop moving.
»-♡->
The next day during lunch, Neito drifted towards the "Dekusquad" table, just like he had been doing for a last week or so. Uraraka caught his eyes and glared at him before he could get close. An empty seat—his empty seat—was still next to Izuku. Todoroki sat there before, he thought. He was out sick the first day Neito sat there, and had simply taken the seat on the other side of Izuku.
Regardless, it wasn't his seat anymore. He forced himself to turn around and walk to 1-B's table.
»-♡->
That evening, Neito did his math homework alone. It wasn't too difficult or anything, and it didn't take very long. If Izuku had been there, he's certain he would've gone off on some tangent and the homework would've taken hours. As it is, the problems were back in his backpack within 30 minutes. He wished he had done it with Izuku leaning on his shoulder.
»-♡->
How had he not noticed how bland life was without him? Maybe it wasn't bland, and Neito just got a taste of something more flavorful and wasn't ready to go back. God, he was such an ass. Why did he say all of that? Just because his class made a couple of passive aggressive comments? Izuku was better off without him. Always had been.
»-♡->
If Neito had gotten his way, he would have never seen Izuku again. At the same time, Neito wanted nothing more than to hold Izuku in his arms. He couldn't bear to see the hurt that was certainly on his face, just like it had been that night. Fortunately, it seemed that his indecision on the topic didn't matter, as the decision wasn't on his shoulders.
Neito was lying on his bed, his phone shut off but if he were to turn it on there would be a picture of Izuku and him, Izuku planting a kiss on his cheek and Neito trying his best to scowl. He had failed, in that particular instance, and his expression was closer to a fond annoyance than any actual distaste.
There was a knock on his door and he groaned as he sat up and moved to the door. "Kendou, I already told you, I'm not doing movie night tonight-" he started as he opened the door. He stopped when rather than orange, he saw green.
As he moved back to let Izuku in, he ran through half a dozen possibilities. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you. You ran away, you know." Izuku had a sad little half smile on his face.
"I didn't run away!" He huffed and crossed his arms. "It was… a strategic retreat." The lie was obvious on his lips, and he knew Izuku could tell.
"Semantics. What you said hurt, but I know you didn't mean it. Let's talk about it, Neito."
"What is there to talk about? It's over; I ruined it."
"Yeah, you messed up, but you didn't ruin anything." Izuku paused. "Are you sorry?"
Neito sputtered. "Well yeah, of course I'm sorry, but-"
"Then that's that. I forgive you." Izuku laughed as grabbed his hand.
"No, no, don't forgive me! Why do you do that? Why give me another chance to mess things up?" He lifted his other hand to wipe away the tears forming in his eyes.
Izuku caught his cheek with his hand and tipped his head so Neito was looking into his eyes. "Because I love you, Neito." His smile was soft, like he hadn't just dropped a bomb on him.
"What?" He froze, certain he'd misheard.
And he laughed, light and a little wet, "I said I love you, dork."
There it was again. It was ridiculous, quite frankly, the effect those words had on him. It should be too quick, he knew, especially after what had happened, but Neito couldn't deny that it was nice. The words slotted into his brain, filling something he hadn't thought was empty since he had befriended Izuku.
"I- um," he stuttered, and god, who was Izuku that he had the power to render him speechless? "I love you too."
And he smiled, that stupid, beautiful, bright, sunshine smile, the one the made him feel unsteady on his feet. "I know."