As Mina walked through the cafeteria, she looked around trying to find the guy she wanted to have a chat with.
If she just wanted to eat alongside someone, there were a lot of options, Mina having quickly established herself as one of the people in class almost everyone was friends with. However, she was looking for someone in particular at the moment.
As such, she decided to head over to the table where Tenya sat together with Uraraka and Tsuyu.
The brown-haired marvel and the frog girl hadn't been an especially close pair at the start of the year, but like a lot of new friend pairs of the class, they had bonded during the invasion.
There were a lot of those new friend pairs. Momo hadn't exactly been unapproachable, but she hadn't been all that close with anyone either. That had changed now, as she sat together with Jirou, who she had been teleported away together with during the invasion.
Similarly, Jirou had become friends with Kaminari(Who had also been teleported away together with them), though he was currently together with another one of his friends, Kirishima who was a former classmate of Mina from before Yuei.
He in turn had apparently introduced him to Bakugou, the most antisocial guy in class, who he had been paired with during the invasion.
It was kinda fascinating how friendships formed, not only through the battles themselves but also who the people involved knew from before.
Bakugou who never would have cared at all for Kaminari apparently tolerated him because of Kirishima.
Hell, her own friendship with Uraraka(And to a somewhat lesser extent Iida), had become a much stronger part of her regular circle due to their shared friendship with Midori, who had become really close with since the invasion.
As she sat down on Iida's side, the big dork greeted her in his own, usual manner with his regular, overdramatic arm motions along with his regular way of speaking.
"Greetings Ashido-San! Do you wish to eat with us?"
She chuckled.
"Greetings to you to man."
She nodded to Uraraka and Tsuyu and greeted them in a similar greeting.
Though they did reply, both their replies were pretty… Listless.
A lot of the class was very clearly not getting all their necessary beauty sleep due to personal training lately, but nowhere else was that lack anywhere near as bad as it was with these two, Uraraka in particular.
The normally cheerful and happy girl sat and ate her food just going through the motions, while her eyes fought a constant struggle not to shutter close and have her face plant into the food.
"Rough night?" She said, more a statement with a sympathetic tone than a question.
"Yes, it's been quite awful." Tsuyu said in her usual blunt, no sugarcoating manner.
Uraraka just groaned in agreement.
Both of them seemed completely down and out of it at the moment.
Luckily, she had something that should help with that.
Mina fished out a black thermos from her bag, along with a couple of extra cups she usually carried around just in case.
After filling the two up with… Well not steaming hot coffee, though not cold sludge either.
"Here you go! Have some coffee!"
Both of the two girls just stared at it, but both eventually did pick up their cups and drink. In Urarakas case, she downed the whole thing in one go.
The effect was pretty drastic, as, after about 20 seconds, both of them seemed 5 times more awake than they had just. Uraraka blinking fervently and staring down at the beverage in something akin to awe.
"Is this actually coffee?"
Tsuyu cocked her head.
"Yes, It seems much too strong to be regular coffee."
Mina chuckled, a big grin adorning her lips.
"Yeah, it's coffee. More specifically, it's Solomons Black Brew, some stuff my mom imports from Africa. She's really fond of the stuff. It's got a bit more kick than regular coffee."
"No kidding."
Uraraka seemed like she had just become alive, the way she looked like she had just truly realized there was food on her plate.
"Thanks, Mina you're a lifesaver!"
She then began to devour her meal with far more enthusiasm than before.
"No problem. I'm happy to help." Then she turned serious. "That said I'm actually looking for Midori. Do you guys know where he is?"
Uraraka, who was in the process of devouring a pike, looked up with surprise, her mouth full of food, but it was Tenya who answered.
"Midoriya? No, we haven't seen him since class ended."
Of course, they hadn't.
"Do you think… There's something wrong?" Uraraka asked hesitantly.
"I mean… He's completely stopped eating with us."
Mina blinked.
"Completely? Like, he doesn't eat with you at all anymore?"
"Not since the sports festival announcement…"
It was worse than she thought. She'd noticed Izuku was really out of it lately, and she'd thought it strange she hadn't seen him at lunch, so she'd decided she would seek him out. But to miss lunch entirely? What was he doing?
"You wish to talk to Midoriya?" A voice from behind her asked in a voice that was quite a bit deeper than it naturally sounded.
Both Mina and Tenya turned to look who spoke and found Tokoyami, who hadn't actually turned to face them.
"He was heading up towards the roof the last time I saw him. You may, or may not find him there."
Great!
"Awesome! Thanks for the help Tokoyami!"
As she got up from the table, she turned to look at Uraraka.
"By the way, you still sure you don't wanna train with me Uraraka? Maybe I could help you out with your training?"
She wasn't entirely sure what she could do to help Uraraka with her crippling lack of rest and her anxieties, but she was sure she could figure something out.
Uraraka smiled a smile so forced it was almost painful.
"Thanks for the offer Mina, but… I'm fine. Really."
...
As the rest of the class headed out to eat, Izuku had headed up to the roof, which was his usual place to enjoy his sinful sugary delights alongside his food.
Even so, he felt like not even chocolate could wake his spirits at the moment.
He felt drained like he was a towel that had been put through the washer 4 too many times, as all-nighters with Venom became a thing again.
The fact that he completely forgot to check whether someone was around before he sat down to eat was a pretty good showcase of just how tired he actually was.
"Heya Midori!"
Izuku completely missed the pink girl until she suddenly plopped down right beside him, completely taking him by surprise, and almost making him fumble his box of chocolates to the ground.
As he put it down in his bag again(A blush creeping to his cheeks) he turned to face her.
"H-hey Mina."
A short awkward pause followed his reply as Izuku just stared at her, desperately waiting to see if she would continue with a question, but instead, Mina just sat staring at him in silence with a smile on her face.
Finally, Izuku gathered the courage to speak.
"D-did… Did you want something, Mina…?"
"Well duh, I wouldn't have come here if I didn't. I wanted to check up on you. You haven't been eating with any of us lately, and frankly, you look like a mess, man."
He winced at her bluntness. Still, there was nothing but warmth in her tone. Her expression was equally warm as she looked at him. Then her eyes went down to the chocolate bag.
"... Have you seriously been running off from eating with everyone else just so you can eat chocolate alone?"
The redness instantly conquered his cheeks.
"NOO! I just-I… Kinda…"
Why did hanging out with one of his friends so often end with him wanting to die from embarrassment?
Mina chuckled with a grin but patted his back kindly.
"It's okay dude, I won't judge."
Another awkward silence followed before Izuku took a deep breath to calm down.
"It's… Not the only reason…"
Izuku was still blushing furiously, the box clutched tightly to his chest, but he had stopped shaking as he continued.
"I... Well… Lately, I've been doing some training for the sports festival, and…"
"Ohhh! What kind of training?" She interrupted him.
She beamed at him.
"Any secret, ultimate moves?"
"Um… Yeah actually, I have one technique-" "Really? That's Awesome! You gonna be using that as your big move from now on?"
Izuku bit his lip.
"It's… Not exactly the kind of move I can use against people…"
"Ahhh." Something seemed to click in Mina's mind.
"Like my Xeno-acid!"
"You-Your what?"
"My strongest acid. Remember I tried using it on Rhino? The green ball that just disintegrated the stone beneath his foot? That's it."
"And you named it… Xeno-Acid?"
"Yeah, you know, after the acid blood of the xenomorphs from Alien and… You've never watched Alien have you?"
Izuku winced, but she had clearly gleamed the truth from his confused face, so there wasn't really much point denying it.
"Not… Really."
"Wow. You've really been missing out! Well, we'll have to rectify that! Once the festival's over, you and me are gonna have a movie night with the alien series! The good ones anyway!"
...
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