"Thanks… I… I needed that… I… Really did Midori…"
She paused for a moment, before awkwardly saying.
"Can… Can we hug again?"
...
Izuku gave her a weak smile, and after disentangling his hand from her's, he embraced her, to which she returned in full, sniffling all the while.
This hug lasted way shorter than the last one, and eventually, as the sky finally began to brighten she let go, a weak smile on her lips as she did.
Despite the bruises, the dark under her eyes, and the hint of tears, Izuku had rarely seen a more beautiful sight in all his life.
The two teenagers then stood there in silence, looking out over the railing as they leaned on it.
This time, rather than put her hand over his or the opposite, Mina instead sought out his hand and intertwined it in her own grasp.
It felt… Good.
It was still a bit off from sunrise, but the sky was really brightening up in orange and blue skies as Mina spoke again.
"I… I've been thinking… About something else too… Well… Different from this stuff but… It's still related to the leagues I mean, but…"
Izuku looked at her.
He… Hadn't really thought too much about the leagues themselves, but now that he thought about it… He had an inkling of what Mina was about to say.
"We… We're going to have to face the Leagues again. Like this. Just completely out of nowhere, and when we aren't expecting it."
Izuku nodded.
"Yeah."
There wasn't much fear in Izuku's voice. Not as much as resignation.
"That… Doesn't seem to bother you…"
"Well… I'm not exactly… Thrilled about it you know? I'm really not… But… You can't go through life, worrying about what will come… That way… That lies madness…"
That part was true enough. As he was learning rather quickly, worrying about the future… Or worse… The past… Too much was a quick way to madness.
"We got… To live you know? And you can't do that, if… If you're afraid of what might come…" Or of what lurked behind you.
Mina's face scrunched up… Then she realized it.
"That's…That's what I said to you a few days ago!"
"Yes…" Izuku admitted. "It's… It's a lot more profound than it first appears… There's… So much more to it, than it appears at the surface." He smiled weakly. "Kinda like you, Mina..."
Mina immediately blushed as Izuku punctuated that by giving her hand a squeeze, but she did not pull away.
"You were right though… You can't live like that… Afraid of… Things… You have to live your life to the fullest… Because you never know… When it might end…"
The next part wasn't really something he'd thought about. Or something he'd contemplated. Rather it was something that… Kinda fell into place as he talked.
"You… We… Everyone in the world… We only get one life… That's… That's what makes life so precious… Worth protecting."
Mina, her cheeks still burning, looked Izuku over with a… Look he hadn't seen before.
"I… You know… I'm used to giving advice to people… I like to help others, but… This is the first time anyone's ever called me profound."
"You are though... You are profound. And… You're far wiser than I am… I… I don't know how to act with people… How to cheer them up… How to make them feel better when they're down… You do. You're amazing Mina."
Mina scratched the back of her head, looking rather more bashful than usual(If nowhere near as energetic) at the praise.
"Well… You could have fooled me… You managed to make me feel a lot better."
She squeezed his hand. Then she looked out over the still not quite there dawn.
Izuku looked as well, though, in his opinion, the majesty of the rising sun was nowhere near the wonder of the girl right beside him.
"...Living life to the fullest huh?" Mina eventually said softly, her hand still intertwined with Izuku's.
"Yeah… It's a good way to live."
Mina did not answer at first, instead looking out over the western skyline.
Then she suddenly nodded, having seemingly come to a decision.
"I like you Izuku."
Izuku froze.
Then, slowly, he turned around to face her.
Mina's blush was still there, and her smile was gone, now replaced by something far, far more nervous. But… She did not back down as he looked at her, the way Izuku of old might have.
"You… Make me feel… Happy. Just being around you, you know?"
She leaned closer, her face, her eyes now being just across his own.
He felt his throat dry.
His cheeks by contrast were nowhere near as burning as he would have expected them to be.
Weird.
"Like… Like everything just becomes so much better when you're around… Even when everything sucks…"
As he felt Mina's breath on his lips, Izuku's suddenly frozen mind found itself focusing on Mina's black and golden eyes.
Her beautiful eyes.
"...Do you feel like that too?"
It was a simple question.
And yet, so, so much hinged on it. A simple question… With a simple answer.
"...Yeah… I do…"
Mina closed the final gap.
It was… Nice. That was the only way to describe it.
Not like a thunderclap, sudden, passionate, and all-consuming… But instead a nice, stable flame full of warmth.
It was wonderful.
He melted into it, feeling all his doubts and fears wash away in that moment, everything else taking a backseat to… To this.
…Right up until the moment where he relaxed so much that he felt Mina's soul… And realized that another soul was on the roof with them.
He immediately pulled back from the kiss to Mina's great irritation.
"Wha-Oh. Ohhhhhhhh…"
Up on the structure that housed the stairs down, sat Black Cat, looking down at the two teenagers with an expression of complete and total amusement.
"Having fun I see?"
The stereotypical thing to happen would be for the two of them to break apart, but instead, Izuku felt Mina's grip on his hand tighten even harder. Her cheeks had gone completely flushed as she looked up at her mom though.
For his own part, Izuku felt his cheeks burn. He felt his face burn. He felt his very skull burn.
"Well… I just came up here to tell you kiddo's that now that Izuku's awake, we'll be leaving in an hour or two, back to the hotel."
She grinned, showcasing a set of mischievous canines that were tooth for tooth the same as Mina's own grin.
"Once we're back there, I'll leave you two kiddos alone for the day. Oh, and since I was going to cancel the rest of the training to let you two recover, you'll have a lot of free time going forward."
With that, she gave a wake, then jumped down, and with one final grin, she left.
Izuku and Mina just stared after her.
"You know… It's times like this where I really see where Mana gets it from…"
Izuku for his part, still felt his cheeks burn as it felt like his brain was rebooting from having fried itself.
Then the reality of it all hit him.
He… He had to ask. It was dumb… stupid… Idiotic… But… He had to ask. He had to be sure this wasn't a dream. That it was… real.
"So… We're together now then?"
Mina gave a look like she was thinking it over. Then grinned, closed her eyes, and gave him a smile as energetic and warm as any other he had seen on Mina's lips.
It was the single most wonderful thing he had ever seen… So beautiful it put the rising morning Sun that lit it up to shame.
"Yep!"
...
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