A Week Of Shenanigans

Izuku and Ochako woke up in his room (again) feeling refreshed and ready to face the day. "You sleep well?" Izuku asked.

"My best nights are in here." Ochako paused and actually blushed as she didn't mean to make a double entendre there, but they laughed it off and embraced each other in a massive hug, knowing that it might be a while before they were going to do this again. "I'm so glad you tried that book out on me," she whispered to him as she shook herself side-to-side in his arms. "I'm actually excited to see who else it's used on." She couldn't hold back a fit of giggles from him as he blushed. "You're too fun to tease for your own good, you know that?"

He looked away, coyly whispering "maybe" to her as they finally let go of each other. "So, we're aiming for a normal week, right?"

"Yep!" Ochako, thanks to last night's "experiments" left her in a stranger set of undress than her boyfriend was. "Well, normal for U.A."

"There's normal here?" Both laughed at Izuku's joke. But while the note made sure no one paid any mind to Ochako walking out of his room, Izuku's observation about nothing being quite normal was more on-point than he could ever expect.

Mina was sitting with Toru, Tsuyu, Momo, and Jiro at lunch, talking about whatever came to mind. "Man, yesterday's training was something else," Jiro said with a bit of sarcasm.

"I knooooow~" Mina moaned out in annoyance. "Exsaughsting and tedious!"

"Seemed pretty slap-dashed," Momo said, careful to not sound too critical. "I suppose they didn't have much time to plan it out."

"Yeah, ribbit, teams weren't even that evenly split." Tsuyu chimed in. "Also the first time in a while Aizawa didn't put Midoriya with someone from our class."

"Good to see they've made up!" Toru said giddily.

"Who?" Momo asked.

"Midoriya and Uraraka, of course!" all four instinctively turned to see the trio of 1-A at their usual spot. "I totally bet yesterday's training gave them the space they needed."

"Huh, space?" Mina asked her invisible pal.

"Yeah! Deku was totally on his own for each dome. Guess our teach thought he could handle it himself."

"Far more likely he had to learn to rely on himself without being self-centered," Momo added.

Mina started to tune out the conversation as she looked over at the table. For some reason, the fact that Izuku was alone more or less all day yesterday resonated with her. There was no reason to, but it just did. It was like every time she tried to think too hard about it, her mind dismissed the very thought. But then, something happened. Someone approached. None of the other girls seemed to be paying attention, but Mina could have sworn Ochako was walking up to Izuku with a notebook. It wasn't duct-taped, so it wasn't that hero notebook he had (which she hadn't seen since he got it, now that she thought of it). But after looking for a few seconds, she then noticed Ochako was looking at it as well - which means that wasn't Ochako who walked up to him.

"Hey Mina," Toru got her friend's attention, "Good view?"

"Uh, I, uh," Mina quickly turned around again, but the not-Ochako was gone. "Sorry, I thought I saw two Ochako's by Midori for a moment."

"Suuuuure." Her invisible friend teased.

"You meant Kinoko?" Tsuyu added. "She asked me if Izuku was one to lose a notebook earlier."

"Oh, then that's what she was doing!" Mina smugly sat back, having solved the mystery.

"What were you doing, though?"

"What's that suppose to mean, Toru?"

"It means I think you were enjoying having a good view of Deku and got threatened when competition showed up," Toru said.

"Oh yeah?!" Mina did a good job hiding her panic. "B-bold words from someone who just admitted to spying on him."

"W-what! Why I'd never, I mean I wouldn't, I mean-" Toru's facial expression couldn't be seen, but everyone at the table could practically feel it, "Don't look at me as if you wouldn't." There was an odd silence from the table. At first, everyone assumed it was to not yell and draw attention to themselves in the lunchroom, but they soon started to realize that Toru might have been right. "Like, cute and buff. Kinda short but has a towering presence! If he came over here and asked one of us out, who would say no and who wouldn't be a bit jelly?"

Once more, no one had an answer right away, but Mina noticed Jiro seemed to be in more intense thought than the rest and seemed to be in just ever so slightly a glum mood. Hypothetical dating should not be a time to be sad, girl! was all Mina could think about. Tsuyu herself broke the silence.

"I don't see him asking someone out. I think someone would need to make the first move." There were a series of nods from everyone, and they all went back to eating. While more light-hearted conversations would resume, she couldn't stop thinking about what Tsuyu said.

_First move, huh?- - - - - -

_

Izuku entered the phone number into his contacts and then sent a message. "Hey, it's Deku."

The three bouncing periods made the next few seconds of waiting way more stressful for some reason. He's texted Ochako several times before, why would this be different? But eventually, he got the response.

"Hey, it's Kinoko! Adding you to contacts if that's okay."

Izuku accidentally pressed the enter key too soon, leading to a less-than-ideal start.

"no"

"problem."

"noproblemi mean"

"no problem I mean"

"I swear I'm normally not this much of a screw-up."

Izuku smiled when he got back an "it's fine" with a heart emoji. "ive done that before, actually. Reiko still teases me about it." This one was followed by a purple ghost emoji.

"How'd that story go?" Izuku had to give her a minute to type it out.

"I meant to type out "mushroom" but hit enter at "mush" so she thought I was telling her to hurry up. Next thing I know she's outside my room. We've been good friends ever since."

"Aww, that's nice." Izuku pondered for a moment, not sure how much of his life he should give away. But he figured opening up wouldn't kill him any more than literally the entirety of his U.A. career hasn't already. "Ochako and Iida (the two people who were sitting with me at lunch) had kinda silly ways to meet me. Iida thought I wasn't taking U.A. seriously, and Ochako had to stop me from falling on my face and breaking my nose." Izuku got a series of laughing emojis as a response. I guess it's how she likes to text. Kinda cute. "You're pretty fast on the draw with emotes. I could never be that quick."

"I love Reiko, but she is every bit as verbose in texting as she is in person. So sending emojis keeps the convo going."

"I guess that's just how she speaks?"

"Yeah. Kendo at first wanted her to stop, but now we can't imagine her any other way."

"Friends locked in." Izuku's comment got a thumbs up and an okay sign. "So, you, Kendo, and Reiko the main trio of the girls?"

"Not quite, but not wrong either." Izuku looked to his own phone in confusion as to what that would mean. "All seven of us like to hang out, but the three of us share the most interest. Setsuna is fun but can be a bit of a wild card. I think she's been hanging out with that pink girl from your class as of late to boot; Neito can't stand it. Ibara and Yui like their quiet time so it's a safe bet they'll say no half the time, and Pony tries to hang out with the entire class so we only get so much time."

"I can relate. Kaa-chan and Kirishima can be the same way. When you guys aren't training, whatcha do for fun?"

"Just hang out. You?"

"Literally the same. Say, can I ask you about your quirk?"

"Be careful, I can easily keep you here all night talking about mushrooms."

"You say that like it's something to be concerned about."

"I mean... even Yui has to tell me to cool it. She was totally all about quirks, more so than anyone besides you." Izuku was about to ask his question, but Kinoko kept typing something. "About that, yesterday when you asked me about my quirk, you just listened to me."

"...yeah?"

"And you seemed interested."

"I mean, I was."

"Are you sure?"

"How can I not be sure?"

"It's just... you weren't annoyed. I'm not used to that. I guess I'm trying to say thank you. And, if we keep talking after tonight, can you promise to let me know if I'm going off too long?"

Izuku read and reread the text. He meant to type out a simple "sure" but didn't want to sound dismissive. "I don't think that will be a problem, but sure. I promise." Izuku then got an idea. "We can hang out later this week if you really want to."

Izuku was answered with no less than 7 heart emojis. "By the way, what was that question?"

Izuku had totally forgotten. "Uh, what's your favorite mushroom? You never told me during training."

He wasn't expecting it to take her as long as it did to answer, but it made sense why. "I don't actually know if I can pick one."

Izuku had enjoyed a few days of standard hero work, with only a few moments of him and Ochako passing winks to each other when no one was looking. The nights would be when Izuku started to text more and more frequently than he ever did before; if it wasn't Kinoko, it was Ochako.

So that Wednesday night, Izuku assumed nothing when his phone vibrated. Clicking to immediately jump to the message he received, the greenette was greeted by Mina wearing a swimsuit. Not the U.A. standard female athletic swimwear, but her own personal purple bikini. It was quickly followed by "Oops. meant to send that to someone else." Not long after, she sent "But since you have it, whatcha think?"

Izuku didn't follow up with Mina but instead texted the situation to Ochako. "Man, I didn't think she'd thirst after ya."

"What should I do?"

"It's looking more and more like she's serious. See where it goes."

Switching logs from Ochako to Mina, Izuku chimed back with "Huh, so you are hanging out with Setsuna these days."

It took Izuku approximately 0.5 seconds to realize that wasn't the best idea since he had no idea if Kinoko was even supposed to tell him that, and Mina's response reaffirmed that idea. "Who told you about our little hot-chick Kabul?"

Think fast, Izuku! "Uh, you did. Just now."

"Ooooooh you're clever. So, did you just figure that out yourself?"

"I just couldn't think of anyone besides Toru you'd send it to."

After a moment's pause, Mina responded with "Clever Girl"

"I'm not a dinosaur, and you watch too many old movies."

"Maybe you don't watch enough of them! You ever think about that?"

Izuku found himself chuckling once more. "No, can't say I have."

"Well, we can always fix that. I have hologram discs of all the classics and some of the not-so-classics."

"Movie nights?"

"Yep. I'd love to see a quirk dork like you react to those." Right as Izuku was about to accept, she sent "on one condition."

"?"

"You still haven't told me what you think of my swimsuit."

Izuku's eyes nearly shot out of his head, as he somehow didn't think she'd wrap back around to that. "You serious?"

"Yepperoni. I want to know what you think of it. Only if I know you're willing to be honest can I trust you to observe my most prestigious film collection"

A collection of American Blockbusters is hardly prestigious. "Okay, sure. I'll need a minute to actually look at it." He had a feeling in his gut this wasn't something to try and half-ass, so he actually scrolled back up to take a look at her. For a few moments, her figure raptured his attention. Her hips were fairly wide and her chest was one of the largest of U.A.'s. Once he managed to shake his head clean, he actually tried to look at her swimwear before getting an actual answer. "I wouldn't guess purple as your color, but it's gotta be hard finding swimwear that compliments your... you know... complexion."

Izuku's worries about speaking in poor taste were all for not. "You have no idea. I tried a yellow one because I totally look cute in yellow but then I just realized how much it clashed with me. Same with things like aqua blue or lime green. So I totally tried just black and it worked, but it was so boring looking and actually stuck out too well. So then I tried bright purple but it ended up looking too much like pink and I'm not trying to appear naked when swimming ya know! So I find this thing and my first thought is "eww" because it's so muted. But then I tried it on and fell in love with it and now it's the only color I get these in." Izuku recoiled from what was probably months of events spewed out at once, and the lack of message on her end implied she was doing the same.

"You were right, I had no idea."

"Of course, ya don't, silly! You have the t-shirt that says "shirt" after all."

"If I gave you one, you'd totally wear it."

"Okay, yeah, I probably would. Tell ya what, bring one over when we watch our first movie ;) "

"Sure, on one condition."

"Oh he's getting bold now, isn't he?"

"More so something serious. If I need to reschedule, promise to not take it personally, okay? We're heroes, after all."

Izuku was expecting a simple sure back, but that's not what he got. "Promise you'll make an effort to have time for this?"

She... she really wants this to happen. "Yes, I will. And if I can, I'll tell you what came up if something does."

"Then you got a deal! Also... could you not show anyone that picture?"

"Sure. The more messages we send, the further up it gets buried anyway."

"Oh, so I should text you more often! I like that plan!"

Ochako walked down the halls that morning. With no homework to work on and her having kept up with practicing her gravity quirk, her mind drifted to what Izuku told her last night with Mina. "If that girl is just teasing him through all of this, I'm sending her to orbit." A moment of protectiveness soon passed as she gave it more thought. "She's not like that. Well, maybe the teasing. But even if it's just her having fun, she would totally want to hang out with her classmates more. I'm worried over nothing."

She was quickly given something to be worried over as someone yelled "Fine, I'll leave!" With a more acute awareness of her surroundings, Ochako has wandered to the support lab, and naturally, it was Mei Hastume that had just yelled. She walked out of the lab (for once without it exploding to **** her out) and leaned against the wall.

Ochako, with a degree or two of caution, walked up to the very pissed-off engineer. "Heya, Mei." She moved her eyes to see Ochako before going back to staring out into space. "So, whatcha doing?"

"Taking a break." Mei didn't look at Ochako at all, with a voice deeper and more annoyed than she has ever heard before. "Stupid Power-Loader. Just jealous of babies is what he is."

"What happened?"

"Apparently, we need to take an hour break every day now. Said, "passing out isn't healthy or productive, Mei." Whatever. So I sleep in the lab sometimes? Heroes can sleep on a training field and they're praised for it. Stupid is what it is." Mei then looked over to look at Ochako properly. Her face lost all expression. "Do I know you?"

Ochako's body stiffed up as her jaw dropped. This woman. Every time. "Y-yes!" Ochako yelled, getting movement to her limbs back. "I'm Ochako Uraraka!"

"Name doesn't ring a bell." Ochako made no effort to hide her anger and Mei put her hand on her chin and squinted to look at her. "But you do look awfully familiar... I don't think I've made anything for you."

"Probably because you haven't." She grumbled, trying to reel at least some of her impatience with Mei back in.

"Ah. But, why do you look familiar to me..."

"Maybe because I came here with Deku half the time."

"Oh, that name I recognize! But, who is that?"

With how often he has to visit, you better remember him. "Uh... Izuku? Midoriya?"

"See, that name sounds familiar too... who are they."

"One in the same." Ochako said, fighting her instinct to add "moron" to the end. Mei kept her same "deep think" face but went back to leaning on the wall, starting to mutter physical descriptions of people she's met. Wait... she's trying to remember. With her annoyance turning into the strangest sense of empathy Ochako has ever felt, she walked over to Mei's other side and leaned against the wall with her. "He's not terribly tall, but very muscular. Green, bushy hair with a green hero suit. Metal face mask."

"Oh!" Mei snapped her fingers as a huge grin took over her face. "Number one!"

"Number... one?"

"Yeah! My number one client!" Both girls stopped leaning against the wall as she looked into Ochako with her ear-to-ear grin and stars in her eyes. "He always is willing to come to me with these challenging ideas, especially given how weird and encompassing his quirk is! But it's not just the variety, he actually brings them back! He tells me when something's wrong with my babies! Do you know how hard it is to get feedback in this place? Or he accidentally brakes them. But he breaks them in creative ways, so it's fun to fix them! Almost all of my best work comes from him in some way!"

As Mei went on about him, Ochako's perception of the woman changed. She now saw someone who didn't seem to have many friends (the other support students - the few of them U.A. has - seem to respect and fear her more than anything), and most people just seem to put up with her to work with her. She originally just wrote Mei off as being only capable of thinking of work, and that thought hasn't completely gone away, but the idea she can't or won't form any meaningful relationships no longer seems as sure-fire as she once thought.

"And that's why I recognized you!" Mei snapped Ochako back to reality by pointing at her. "You and that tall guy show up with him here a lot!"

"Hehe, tall guy." Ochako realized she might have to call Iida that once or twice. "Say, Mei, do you... struggle with names?"

"What, of course not! I can recall Powerloader with the back of my hand."

"Then what's his real name?" Mei's eyes shot wide open as she had no idea. "What's your number one client's name?"

For the first time in Ochako's presence, Mei lost her confidence and leaned back to the wall. "I'll build something to remember."

"Or," Ochako pulled out her phone. "You could practice learning names. Think of it as personal homework."

"What's that for?"

"It's a phone," Ochako said sarcastically. "We could trade numbers and text each other from time to time. Might give you something to do on breaks if I'm free as well. Learning my name is a good first step, after all."

"Oh, a phone!" Ochako mentally facepalmed at the idea of Mei forgetting what a phone is. "And that doesn't sound too bad. Now," Mei starting reach into her various pockets. "Which one is that bad boy in?" She eventually found it. "I wanted to make it into one of my babies, but apparently tempering with them shuts them down. Now!" With a look of pure glee and excitement, she looked up to Ochako. "How do I figure out my number?"

You're fucking with me.

"I haven't actually given it out before."

Okay, now it's sad. "How about I give you my number, and you just text me? We can add our numbers to our contacts."

Author's Note: And so now, the story reaches a fork in the road. I left it all to you, and the votes were clear. Six Votes for Mina and two for Kinoko. And a few honorable hopefuls for Mei getting in later despite it not being their vote. Don't worry, Mei is too fun of a character for me to not use here. But the winner, hands down, was Mina. The next chapter follows our perfect pinkette during roughly the same time frame.