The next few days had been almost akin to juggling for Izuku, attempting to balance a social life with his friends, having a girlfriend, and studying like crazy for the upcoming end of semester tests. Yuuei wasn't known for being easy, so he was expecting it to be a brutal slog through every subject that they had spent the last few months marching through. Trying to manage all three had felt nearly impossible, but he'd found a perfect sweet spot, one that had hit the balance perfectly, without feeling like he was skimping on one of the other two at the same time. How he'd managed that was a miracle he doubted he could repeat.
Aizawa-sensei had made an announcement a few weeks prior, regarding the semester vacation that most other schools would take as a time to relax and unwind. The key word being most. According to their homeroom teacher, taking a month off of the studies was totally irrational, not that he was wrong. Since they were training to be the next generation of peacekeepers and Heroes, taking such a long time off would only serve to dull them and their senses. Izuku would have spent a large amount of that time studying and practicing his Quirk's control anyway.
So the declaration that the students who would pass the exams at the end of the semester got to go on an educational field trip that would go a long way to helping them hone their Quirks was like a Godsend to him. He in particular needed help with controlling his dangerous Quirk, so such an even would serve only as a positive to him and his dream of becoming a Hero.
In terms of his grades, he was quietly confident in his abilities. He'd studied plenty, and while he was still a long way off from being the best academic student in Class 1-A, that medal going to Yaoyarozu without a shadow of a doubt, he felt like he could do the written exams. Of course, he still had plenty of material he needed to study yet, but he was getting there. In regards to the physical exam, excluding his lack of knowledge as to what said exam would entail, he felt better about it than he was expecting. With Full Cowl actually making his Quirk viable as a battle tactic that wouldn't leave him as a twitching pile of broken flesh, he actually felt like, whatever the test would be, he stood a chance.
Mina though, was the opposite.
Kaminari's declaration that he hadn't studied for the exams whatsoever was joined alongside Mina throwing her arms behind her head like she was the most relaxed person on the planet. She had studied, but it hadn't all sunk in yet, and from an immediate standpoint, her grades hadn't changed all that much. She was one step up from the Electrification Quirk user, but it wasn't exactly the biggest achievement in the world to surpass someone who hadn't studied at all. To that end, she was right at the bottom of the class in terms of grades.
Yet another parallel between her and Izuku. Not that he minded it too much. It did add a bit of undue stress onto his system, since he wanted her to pass the finals as much as he wanted to finish them himself. When she requested his help, he was more than happy to deliver, giving her answers, and methods that he used to solve those problems, as well as memory tricks that he had picked up over the years.
She had told him that she was planning on attending some of the revision sessions that Yaoyarozu was offering to host at her house, which was smart. As it turned out, she felt that Yaoyarozu would be a far better teacher than Izuku was since she was one of the few people who was academically better than he was, which he didn't mind at all. He was honestly just glad that she was getting the information that she very desperately needed.
At the same time as well, he was making sure that he wasn't becoming alienated from his friends, whom he realised had also been affected by his and Mina's relationship, despite their statements of understanding. While he was grateful for that, he still felt guilty about having almost neglected them. He'd managed to juggle that back into his time at Yuuei, and he felt he'd hit the perfect balance, in between studying at home, and dividing his time between them and Mina.
"Urgh, I can't believe that little creep Mineta is better at this academic crap than I am."
Not that it did much to mend Mina's pride when she discovered that she was far lower in terms of academic success than the class's lecherous irritation. That had been a low-blow right to gut for her. It was during lunch when she finally cracked, and just wound up laying her head in her hands on the table in either shame or exasperation, or possibly both.
Probably both.
"You should have studied some." Asui told the despairing Acid Quirk user, her flat line way of saying things making it difficult to tell if she was even the least bit sympathetic to Mina's plight.
"Don't rub it in, Tsuyu." Mina groaned, feeling her head sink deeper into her arms.
With a very light laugh, Izuku patted her head gently, akin to what she had done to him a few days prior, as a form of comfort without needing to speak. Mina had expressed that she found the action relaxing when Izuku had absentmindedly done it on a trip through on the train line, so he just kept doing it.
He would just run his hands through her hair, allowing his fingers to slide through the silky strands of her curly hair. Her hair was soft, surprisingly more so than Izuku had ever expected it to be. It made the action pleasant for him too, so he didn't mind it whatsoever. It was nice.
"I'm more worried about the physical exam to be honest." Tooru revealed. With her Quirk making her body invisible, it appeared that a bowl and chopsticks were being Telekinetically held up in mid-air. It still sort of weirded out Izuku to see this, even though he saw it practically every day now, though he'd grown used to it.
The final exams for the semester were two part, one written, one physical. Written work wise, all that they needed to be studying was the material that had been covered up to that point. There wasn't much they could study with otherwise anyway, and while Yuuei was tough and rigorous in its tests and selection, it was inherently fair. If you had practiced and studied, you'd be fine. If not...
The issue was with the physical examination, was that no one had any sort of clue what they were supposed to expect. The teachers had absolutely refused to say a word regarding the physical assessments, telling their students to just 'Be prepared'.
That didn't tell anyone a damn thing. Were they being assessed on their actual physical abilities, like the entrance examination, their intuition, or their ability to make tough calls under pressure? Izuku had a theory that it was somewhat similar to real world scenarios - Heroes didn't get to choose what emergency they had to deal with, they just had to be ready for anything, from fires, to natural disasters, to Villain attacks.
True as that might have been, that didn't help anyone figure out what they were going to do.
The entire lunch group that day was Izuku, Mina, Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki, Tooru, and Asui, each of them discussing the theories that they had, and the methods they could potentially use. None of them particularly knew what they were expected to deal with either, though none of them seemed particularly sure on anything.
All they really could do was study for the written portion of the examinations, and keep their bodies in the best condition possible for the physical. 'Not that that last part should be a lot of trouble for you, Izuku.' Mina thought to herself slyly, hiding a smirk with her arms. She still remembered the beyond ripped figure she'd seen during their 'Hang out', now weeks ago. No question that he maintained it.
It was all so frustrating to Mina. So inconceivably irritating to her that they insisted on keeping everything so quiet, making it impossible to prepare. She wanted to go on the field trip like crazy, it sounded freaking amazing! She could already tell that the people who were able to go were gonna have a blast!
That did depend on if they passed their tests though. Both written and physical - The physical they couldn't freaking study for because they had no idea what they would be doing! How that was fair, she didn't even know.
"We'll mostly be going over what we were doing in class, right?" Uraraka suggested, although she didn't sound too sure herself. There weren't a huge number of options that they had available to them, so it was logically the only thing that she could think of.
"I can't imagine it being anything unusual." Iida had agreed.
"If its what we've gone over in class, that's... Battle Training, mostly. The Zero Gravity Quirk user recalled. She had her own utensils in her hand, but she wasn't eating anything right now, most likely due to being in the midst of a conversation.
Battle training felt like the only thing they did anymore. Between Villain attacks, and All Might being somewhat heavy on the subject when he showed up. He'd mix it up a little by having a competition or a race or something along the lines, but he did seem to have a focus on fighting.
Was that due to how much danger the class had already encountered? Life certainly hadn't been the easiest thing in the world for them, given they were only students. Yuuei was harsh in the first place. Villain attacks made it feel like they'd just signed up for a tour of war.
"Rescue training and Cavalry training too." Asui added on. They had plenty of classes on those, but the ratio felt a bit skewed at times.
Izuku nodded, making mental notes to re-study all of this, and go over some of the notes in the books he had written down over the years. S"o on top of studying, we need to keep as fit as we possibly - Ow!" He suddenly made an exclamation of pain, his head suddenly lurching forward. His hand automatically reached towards the back of his skull, just above the nape, and just below the bone that made up his head.
Quickly, everyone jumped to look at what had caused the classrooms resident timid nerd to make such a loud noise, Mina especially shooting her head to face her boyfriend with concern.
It quickly turned into anger.
"Oh, my apologies." Behind Izuku, a boy with blond hair and a look of what could only be described as both resentment and a self posturing fake smile that could be seen through by anyone in about three seconds. Monoma Neito, Class 1-B, everyone recognised him as almost immediately. "I couldn't get my tray out of the way of your massive head."
Mina didn't like this guy on a good day, ever since the Sports Festival. He irritated her, and she thought he might be... A little unstable was the best way to put it. Bakugou had put him in his place when she had teamed up with him for the Cavalry battle, before Izuku had shown up and become her boyfriend, back when she had a bit of respect for the Explosion Quirk user and his abilities.
Iida reacted far quicker to Class 1-B's spoken representative's words and actions than Mina did. "How dare you! That was completely uncalled for!"
For being the person who had been on the receiving end of what had basically been a grudge push past him, Izuku didn't seem too upset or even particularly concerned about Monoma's actions. How he was calm about this, Mina had no idea. She wasn't sure if she wanted Izuku to get annoyed, or to just One For All this dude through the floor.
"I do recall that I apologised." Monoma commented, his clearly fake smile growing, like he was actually sorry. He was trying to act civil on the outside, while getting under their skin on the inside, so no one could call him out on it directly. "It isn't my fault your classmate has as big a head as the rest of you."
"Do you want a fight?!" Mina asked, one step away from just getting up and decking this guy with his own dinner tray. She knew that this guy had the impression that Class 1-A was filled to the brim with egotists, thanks to Bakugou and his attitude. Either this guy had a superiority complex, was completely insane, or was just an idiot.
Whatever it was, Mina had spoken before she'd even thought about it.
"W-Woah, M-Mina!" Izuku rapidly tried to calm down his girlfriend, placing a hand in her shoulder. His eyes were so wide in surprise they threatened to pop out like one of his old classmate's Quirk. "It - It doesn't even hurt anymore! It doesn't matter!"
"A skull thick like yours, I'm not surprised."
Less than a second later, Mina could already feel her Acid beginning to secrete from the back on her hands. This wasn't like her, but God damn, was this guy a pain in the neck. She'd never felt the urge more in her life to give someone a Hydrofluoric burn scar.
"I heard you had an encounter with the Hero Killer."
For a second, Mina stopped her Quirk, in shock more than anything. Of course, it wasn't a secret that Izuku, Iida and Todoroki had run into that guy. The news officially said that Todoroki's father Endeavour had been the one to save them, though it felt like something was a bit off when Mina had heard about how it had gone down from Izuku himself. Like he was lying, but it wasn't something he was allowed to say. She hadn't pried when he told her. It would be unfair to put him in that position.
The mention of The Hero Killer Stain seemed to catch the attention of both Iida and Todoroki, causing them to pay attention to what their sister class' essential spokesperson was. It was clear though, they appreciated the mention about as much as Mina did.
"So I guess The Sports Festival wasn't enough. Your class just has to keep getting attention with stunt after stunt, huh?" His hair shadowing his eyes, Monoma continued to speak. If he was finding amusement out of this mocking, or if he was just an idiot was hard to tell at this point. "But it's starting to get dangerous now, isn't it? It's looking like all that attention isn't all it's cracked up to be."
There was a certain level of trash talking Mina was prepared to take when it was directed at herself. She had pink skin, horns, and an overall odd appearance, she was used to it by some bastard children she'd grown up with, and it reached a point that she just didn't care anymore. No one mocked the girl who would headbutt people with horns growing out of her forehead when they stepped over the line.
That was her though. And this scumbag was out of line. Izuku hadn't done anything to this guy. As far as she knew, this was the first time they'd even spoken to one another, and Monoma was treating him like dirt for Bakugou's actions. And it wasn't even just her boyfriend either, but the rest of her friends were also getting treated like crap by this guy. He was jealous, that was all it was. He was envious of Class 1-A's spotlight - Like they'd asked to be attacked by Villains!
Izuku dealt with enough crap. His entire childhood had been that, and his own Quirk still screwed him over a fair bit right now, and he was nothing - Nothing - But kind to people. Even to those who didn't deserve that kindness. It amazed Mina that he hadn't thrown Bakugou all the way across the seas and into China yet.
He hadn't so much as given this guy a glance, and this was how he was gonna get treated by this Quirk Copier?
This guy thought not only him, but Iida and Todoroki all nearly getting killed was funny? Something to be made a joke out of?
Consequences be damned.
Feeling her muscles tensing up as she got ready to stand up and scream this guy stupid, Mina felt her Quirk activating again. Though it would require someone observant, her Quirk began to dissolve the part of the table her fingers were now dug into. "You son of a -"
"Not funny, Monoma." Before Mina got the chance, another student she recognised as a Class B pupil came up behind him, stole his tray out of his hands, and whacked him with some serious force on the back of his neck with the side of her hand, like a karate chop. It sent Monoma lurching forwards and even collapse, held up by the girl's hand that she'd just used to beat him with.
It took her a few moments, but Mina recalled the name of this particular student as Kendou Itsuka. She didn't quite remember what her Quirk was, but she had placed high enough to enter the Cavalry battle, so her power must have been fairly decent at the least.
"You didn't hear about what happened to Iida, did you?" She chastised her classmate, though it didn't even look like he was able to hear her at this point. She then turned towards the table, and tried to put of a friendly smile, but it was slightly eclipsed her what Mina presumed to be either embarrassment of exasperation. "Really sorry about this guy! We're not all like that, I promise!"
"I hope not." Mina muttered, looking at the Copy Quirk user's pain before back up to the ginger haired girl who'd knocked him out. Something told her that she didn't want to get into a fight with this girl if she could help it. "What's up with him, anyway?"
"He's kind of crazy." Kendo chuckled. "He's sort of…. Well, don't let him get to you, he's mostly talk." She reminded Mina of herself and her siblings, how she'd give them a small tap if they misbehaved and put them back in line, particularly with Mika and her damn Lego.
She did have to blink a few sharp times when she realized just how worked up with Monoma and his efforts to pick a fight with Izuku, and frankly, it surprised even herself. If he'd kept going and hadn't been interrupted by the President of Class 1-B, she didn't actually know if she would have snapped or not. It actually scared her.
For a short while, she just sat there and zoned out for a short while, looking at Monoma being essentially held up and dragged along by Kendou as the strawberry blonde girl spoke to the rest of the table about something or other. She had to wonder, where had that anger even come from? She wasn't the type to get riled up like that so easily.
Then again, it was probably the same reason that she got angry with Bakugou when she learned just how deep the extent he and Izuku's relationship went, and how ruthlessly serious Bakugou was when he mocked and insulted his old childhood friend.
Not anger for her sake, but rather, for Izuku's.
"They're not detestable." Kendou suddenly chopped the back of Monoma's neck again, before dragging him away towards a table of their classmates, one of them making a joke at their most outspoken member's expense as he was pulled along the floor and placed into a seat by their representative.
"That's got to be great news for you, Ashido." Asui commented towards her fellow Mutant Type friend. What she was referring to, Mina had no real idea.
"H-Huh?" Mina looked between all of the people on the table, before she blinked a few times before returning back to reality. "Sorry, I sorta zoned out there, what're you talking about, Tsuyu?"
"About the physical examination." The Frog girl explained. "Kendou just told us that she's been told it's similar to the entrance exam, with robots being our enemies."
"Wait, seriously?!"
"Yeah!" Izuku confirmed with a nod of his head. "You have issues with your Quirk when it comes to controlling it against people, right? I thought that might be a drawback to your Quirk." Without really realising the absurdity of the action, Izuku reached into his back where he procured one of his notebooks he used to keep tabs on everyones Quirks, and flipped to the page that had his girlfriend drawn in, with all the details regarding her Quirk. "Acid's a strong Quirk, and it's pretty useful for stealth missions as well as close to medium range distances, but it's also really difficult to dial back to a non-lethal level against people, isn't it? You'd have to take i to account all sorts of variables at a moment's notice to ensure that your power would even hurt your target without actually making it fatal for them, but with robots, that's just not the case."
For about the seventh time that day, Mina had to blink hard in order to register what was going on in front of her. She knew that Izuku did keep a record on the Quirks that he observed, it being a hobby of his since he was a very young child, he claimed. It shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did that he had one on hers in there someplace.
It was pretty apparent though, with Shoji and Fumikage's Quirks also in there by hers, that he had sketched out this before their relationship had ever begun. Probably before they'd even spoken. She'd seen drawings that were of a better quality than the one he'd done of her in his book, though she knew that it was pretty clear that he didn't focus on artistry as he did on facts.
She couldn't help but smile though. "I'm not sure how I feel about knowing you'd sketched me before you'd even spoke to me, Izuku." She smirked at the embarrassment that he clearly felt when he realised that he'd just gone on one of his muttered rants. "You're serious though? We're just gonna be fighting robots again for the field test?"
"That's what Kendou just told us." Tooru confirmed, her bowl raising up just an inch or two as she spoke. It was sort of her way of nodding to help punctuate her point.
At this, Mina threw her hands behind her head and smiled broadly, feeling a tidal wave of relief hit her entire body. "Oh thank God! If its like the entrance exam, then its no problem! If Yaoyarozu is gonna be tutoring me, then I'm golden!" The lack of need to dial back her Quirk meant that she could do exactly what she did on the day that she applied for this school - Go absolutely crazy with her unrestricted Quirk for about fifteen minutes and net a place with room to spare.
"Don't rely on Yaoyarozu for all your studying needs." Iida commented. "Take the initiative and make sure that you brush up on the areas you're weakest at yourself."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." She knew that she probably should heed her friend's advice, although right now, she was way too giddy to particularly care. With the information she'd just got, there was no way in hell that she could mess this up! If she'd managed to actually get into Yuuei, this should, theoretically, be a piece of cake!
Kaminari had practically the same reaction that Mina had when she told him what she knew, the clear relief in his face was almost blinding. He and Mina did a small dance at the front they were that pumped, the pair of them throwing their fists into the air without much care whatsoever. Kaminari was the only person below Mina in terms of their grades, so they had wound up being fairly good friends. The bad part of that was, they couldn't really use each other to study or bounce questions from one to the other.
He was practically worthless in that respect, though he was a fun guy to be around when he was just relaxing.
"Those two seem happy." Todoroki commented on their small back and forth from his group, consisting of himself, Izuku, Iida and Uraraka, all hunched around Izuku's desk.
The day had nearly ended, which would release them from the school grounds once the bell hand rung. With their Hero Classes replaced by revision sessions, the group had been faced with a long couple of hours of revising, during which Mina hadn't actually told Kaminari the news until the end of the session.
Uraraka meanwhile, was speaking with Izuku about the revision that they had just done, and was showing him the work that she had completed, asking for his opinion about certain things in her notebooks. He'd noted a few mistakes in her arithmetic, including a couple of things to do with the proper use of powers for Heroes and state sponsored individuals, but for the most part, she seemed okay.
Scribbling a few notes down on her page, Izuku handed her book back to her. "That should help you out a bit. If you need any more help, just let me know."
Sighing, Uraraka smiled. "Thanks, Deku. I might need your help again. These semester exams are messing with me." She wasn't anywhere near as smart as her friends who were at the top of the class, which didn't do a large amount to help her confidence in this scenario. Iida was sixth, Todoroki fifth, and Deku fourth. She meanwhile was way up there are about thirteen, which didn't so sit well with her.
"No problem." Izuku smiled at his brunette friend kindly. He then tilted his head just past her slightly, to see Mina and Kaminari still doing their back and forth dance routine, or whatever the heck it was, which promptly out a smile on the green haired teenager.
Following his line of sight, Uraraka noticed what he was smiling at. For a few moments, she didn't say anything. Instead, she closed her notebook and held it just above her chest "... Ashido's pretty out there, huh?"
"That's a way to put it." Chuckled Izuku. "She's a lot less reserved than I am."
Wasn't that the truth? If Uraraka ever saw Izuku doing that sort of ridiculous dance, she might actually end up killing herself from laughing too much. The two of them honestly could not be more different if they tried, yet they got along so well that it defied logic itself.
Izuku was shy, and Mina was outgoing. He was an average person without any physical features, whereas she was a Mutant shape type and couldn't look less like a regular Human if she tried. He was smart, and Mina... Struggled, Uraraka thought to herself.
"...You know, you've changed a lot since you and Ashido hooked up." The Zero Gravity Quirk user commented without thinking. When she realised what she said, she placed her fingers over her lips like she'd just slapped someone. Quickly, she turned to look at Izuku, who didn't show offence in the least.
"How so?" He inquired, sounding genuinely curious.
"Oh, um, you're just kind of... I don't know, you seem more confident more than anything else." It wasn't a lie of any kind. Everyone was able to attest that since he had been able to refine his Quirk, he had grown more outspoken and... "You're more outgoing as well, though you're still pretty shy. And well... You're really sweet with Ashido. I mean, you're normally really nice, but, it's different with her."
The last one did cause Izuku to go pink in his cheeks, and a small grin made its way to his embarrassed face. "O-Oh?"
"I see why you like her."
It wasn't hard to see why from an outsider's perspective. While they might be total opposites, they did fit and complement one another well. Someone lively like Ashido was bound to bring out the shy type like Izuku from their shells. And regardless of what Uraraka felt about it, she couldn't deny that they went together well.
She'd never seen Izuku or Mina seem happier.
While he was a blushing mess and in a series of awkward chuckles, he was able to get a few coherent words out, along the lines of if Uraraka really did think this sort of thing. It was obvious, he loved Ashido, even if he couldn't say it aloud.
Putting a smile on her face, Uraraka gave her best friend a thumbs up with her left hand. "Well I hope things work out for you two, Deku. Good luck!"
Upon request, Mina had hung back with Izuku once the final bell for the day had gone, and she didn't even need to be told what it was that he wanted to talk about before she knew. It didn't take a genius to figure out why he was concerned, to say the least.
Even she was concerned about it, and she knew what it was that had riled her up so much.
It wasn't like her, she knew this all too well. Monoma wasn't the type of person who would normally be able to get a reaction from her like that. It took someone a lot more pretentious, and someone who was obviously more of a threat that wasn't just someone who was arbitrarily jealous for no reason, to make Mina show any sort of anger towards someone.
Generally speaking, she was calm when it came to things like that. She'd dealt with a bunch of bastard kids when she'd grown up, and had developed a thick skin. By the time she was in middle school, no one really cared, since half of them weren't much better than her.
So it had been at least three years since she'd truly gotten furious. About that long since she'd actually wanted to use her Quirk on someone who really wasn't worth it.
She told Izuku all of this quickly, before he'd even asked the question. There wasn't really a point in waiting around for him to ask. In as much detail condensed into as little time as possible, she explained her rage towards Monoma, and why she'd been so aggressive towards him. An out of character action for her to take.
"Why did you get so upset though?"
Izuku's next question came, and Mina almost face palmed herself at him asking the most obvious question in the universe. For someone who was as smart as him, he really was an idiot at times. She wasn't sure if she was about to burst out laughing or not, she really struggled to tell. "Why d'you think, Izuku? He spoke crap about you, that's why."
"That's it? Mina, it's not that big a deal – "
"The Hero Killer almost killed you." The response from the pink girl was so swift and sharp it made Izuku jump. When he saw Mina lower her head and bring her hands together, he relaxed and understood. "He tried to make a joke out of you getting killed, like it wasn't going to affect anyone… It's just infuriating that he thinks he's…" Mina suddenly became very quiet, and her hair hide her blackened eyes as she went quieter.
There were still things that Izuku knew he didn't quite fully understand yet about being in a relationship. He was aware that, despite everything that he had been though, and what he and Mina felt for one another, there was always going to be a part of him that wouldn't be able to predict the kinds of things she would be thinking and feeling.
Once the deal with Stain had been dealt with, Izuku hadn't thought too much about it afterwards. Sure, it still haunted him in a sense, but he had grown past it, and managed to reach a point in his life where he felt that he had taken that experience and learned from it.
Mina didn't. She hadn't been there, she didn't know what had gone down. From her perspective, the only things that she knew were the things that the media told her.
And the media told her he had nearly died, saved only by Endeavour. That had been part of the deal made to allow him, Todoroki and Iida to keep their freedom, and they had honoured that agreement, unfair as it might have been. But how would that loo to their families, to their friends?
To his girlfriend? Even though at the time, even saying that they were friends was still a whole new bizarre world in itself, enough had happened between them now to make Mina retroactively look at that, and realize just how close things had gotten to Izuku never having seen her again. For the next time she seeing him to be in a picture on the news with the word 'Victim' underneath.
But it was more than that too, Izuku figured out.
"You've dealt with enough crap in your life, haven't you?" Mina asked, looking up at him now, not sure if her expression was one of sadness or one of disbelief with Izuku's calmness. "I don't get how you're so calm towards people like that. Like Bakugou. You've every right to throw him through a brick wall and you just… I can't stand it, seeing people treat you like that. Don't you get sick of it?"
"I'm used to it." The green haired boy explained with a soft smile.
"You shouldn't have to be." His girlfriend muttered underneath her breath.
Without another word being spoken, Izuku took a step forward, and pulled Mina into a tight hug, holding her close as possible. The action was unexpected, and Izuku himself was surprised he'd done such a bold action, but nonetheless, he held his girlfriend tightly in his arms, enjoying the fact that he was just an inch or two taller than her.
She was angry on his behalf… She didn't need to be, but she was anyway, and that was touching. It showed she did care, and that she was willing to stand up to the people who she felt were in the wrong when it came to how they treated Izuku. He felt the same way, hypocritical as it sounded. He knew if someone was unfairly harassing or mocking Mina, he'd be the first person to rush to her defence.
Perhaps that was just part of what loving someone was.
For a moment, Mina didn't react, but she quickly did, returning the hug with as much vigour as ever. "Sorry." She apologised, before resting her head on Izuku's left shoulder. She allowed her eyes to close, and a smile to make its way onto her face.
"What for?" Izuku questioned, confused.
"For making you worry."
"…It's alright."
Both of them remained stood there for a few moments, just enjoying being close to one another, not really needing to speak. Both of them still had plenty to learn about the other, they knew, including how they thought, and how they acted in certain situations. It was a revelation to the both of them that they still needed to get to know one another even more.
Not that it was a bad thing.
"We should go on a proper date." Mina suggested. "We haven't really gone out in a while." It was true. They spent a lot of time together, but nothing that could be classified as a date of any kind. The two had been preoccupied with school and various drama that was going on in their lives.
"D-Don't you need to be studying for the Semester exams?"
"A couple hours isn't gonna be that big a deal. We could go out after school during this week, if that's okay with you?"
"W-Wouldn't the weekends be better?"
"Yaoyarozu's helping me and the others study, remember?"
"O-Oh yeah..." Izuku admitted, he did like the idea of actually getting to go on a proper date with her again. Wasn't the last proper date they had been on when he had visited her family's house? Even that had been cut short due to aforementioned visit to aforementioned house, so they hadn't really had much time to do anything that a boyfriend and girlfriend were traditionally expected to do. "I'm… Okay with doing that if you are."
"Sounds fun." Mina happily confirmed.