Work Text:
“You smell really nice.”
Ochaco blinked, her lips parting slightly in surprise. She blinked thoughtlessly at the portrait in front of her that was now forgotten as she tried to process what her best friend had boldly said to her. The gravity user made the final dot to complete the constellation of freckles and craned her head to the side, meeting eyes with one rather red Izuku Midoriya.
“Ah-!”
Izuku jumped at his partner’s unreadable expression on her face- caught off guard, until it dawned on him in horror. “Di-Did you hear that?” He choked out, the redness now reaching his neck. Ochaco slowly nodded at him, secretly impressed with how red he was turning.
Woah! That’s a new shade!
Izuku, on the other hand, after realizing what nonsense came out of his mouth (despite the fact that it was indisputable), sputtered out an apology like a nervous wreck. Immediately his hands flew to his face and he tried desperately to hide from the curious stare of his classmate.
“I-I-Imean, I’msosorrythatprobablysoundedsososoweird-''
“Compliments aren’t we-!”
“I totally get it if you don’twanttobefriendsanymore-!”
“De-huh? Who said-!”
“Imeanyousmellgoodeveryday-!”
His rambling was stopped once Izuku felt something soft yet firm poke his forehead. He raised his hands and his green eyes opened in apprehension, slowly as he looked into Ochaco’s gleaming honey brown eyes.
She gave his forehead a few more playful pokes with her eraser, eliciting a whine from the flustered boy, before retracting it with satisfaction.
“Thank you, Deku-Kun.” Ochaco interrupted with a genuine smile, “you smell pretty good too.” She added cheekily, chuckling at his full-blown blush. The zero-gravity user straightened up her back and returned to her task at hand. She twirled her pencil that sat comfortably in her hand around her fingers and looked pointedly at the blank canvas in front of her.
It was another school day for them at UA Academy. Another day spent in learning about heroics and building themselves up to become pro heroes. Art was just about to start, and the teens were rolling into the classroom after a fulfilling lunch period.
They were in for a surprise when their desks were nowhere to be found, having been replaced with easels that held blank canvases. Mineta had been one of the firsts to enter and he screamed, throwing his hands up in aguish at the sight.
“MY POR-!” Thankfully the slap of a whip against his cheek was enough to hush his sudden cry.
R-Rated Hero Midnight suddenly appeared with a satisfied grin and a new lesson that contrasted their previous ones. Once everyone was huddled together at the front, Midnight finally gave in to her excitement.
“Today we’ll be practicing our analysis skills everyone!” She declared triumphantly. “I hope you’re excited just as much as I am!” She snuck up behind a certain brown-haired girl and whispered the last piece sensually. “Don’t you just get excited being under someone else’s sharp gaze?!” Ochaco jumped, a shiver running down her spine when Midnight went as far as to blow at her ear.
She slapped a hand to her ear and cowered away, mortified. “S-Sensei?!” Midnight simply winked seductively and returned to her spot at the front of the classroom. Izuku who had witnessed it all slowly inched closer towards his best friend, fretting over her and asking if she was okay.
Midnight didn’t miss the blush on her students’ faces and inwardly swooned at the idea of young romance. “It’s…turning me on!” She almost screamed.
All the students in Class 1-A shared one thought. It's...turning her on?
“Um! Excuse me Midnight-Sensei!” Exclaimed one jittery Denki. Midnight who had already started to preoccupy herself with tormenting poor Mineta turned to the blonde and nodded.
“My drawing skills are absolute piping garbage! Is there an alternative assignment?!” He cried, causing Jirou who was standing next to him to snicker in amusement.
“It’s true. He’s only good at charging phones.” Added in Mineta. “He wouldn’t know the true essence of art even if it shocked him like a bolt of lightning! I on the other hand am a genius!”
Mina who was busy looking around the classroom couldn’t help but notice a piece of paper that had gotten caught under the soles of her shoes. She kicked it up and snatched it out of the air. When her eyes laid rest on it though, she immediately regretted it.
Jirou peeked over her shoulder and whirled around to glare at her short classmate in disgust. “Unfortunately, a disgusting one.”
Mina chuckled darkly as she used her acid to burn the drawing to a crisp. “Let’s pig roast the pervert.” Tsuyu who had suddenly already had the frantic Mineta tied up to the ceiling gave a thumbs up to her female classmates.
“Already on it!”
“But it’s art!” The purple-haired boy wailed.
Iida suddenly fell to his knees in angst, face contorted in pain as he cried.
“Such inappropriate things do not belong in a classroom environment, Mineta-kun! I have failed you all as your class representative and must do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen again!” The rest of the class simply looked on blankly as the poor engine hero took the blame for everything.
Midnight sweat dropped at the scene but was quick to redirect the class’ attention. “Thank you Iida-kun, now back to our activity.” She cleared her throat and the rest of the students of 1-A silently paid their thanks to the Art History Teacher.
“The true purpose of this exercise is to learn how to capture important details! No matter how pathetic your artistic skills, you should use this as an opportunity to sharpen your visual analysis and interpretation skills! This is a hero course after all!” She said with a wink.
“Now, partner up!”
Ochaco was too caught up in her thoughts to realize that her best friend was talking to her. She managed to snap out of her stupor to catch the last bits of what he was saying.
“-hanks for agreeing to be my partner, Uraraka-San.” Izuku spoke softly, his face slowly recovering from the redness it gained from earlier. Ochaco couldn’t help but grin sheepishly. How could she say no? He was her best friend after all!
With that, she effortlessly drew her favorite feature: Izuku’s disarming smile. His hero smile was charming as well especially when he swooped in to save others. But this special one that rarely broke through always reminded her that there was so much more to him that she didn’t know.
And yet there was so much more that she was willing to learn about him too. Her grin settled into a soft smile and she held her drawing pencil close to her chest. She was happy knowing he felt that he could trust her with this hidden side of him.
It felt nice.
“It just sounded more fun doing it with my best friend, ya know? Plus, I think Iida has his hands busy keeping Mineta astray from drawing anything pervy.” Ochaco added in with a chuckle, swaying her legs happily in her seat.
The brunette couldn’t help but catch Izuku smiling on his end. Smiling one of those unique smiles that she decided she wanted to see more of. If her heart didn’t burst first.
Ochaco took some time to lean back into her seat and observe her progress. Drawing was no easy feat and she was glad to say she wasn’t that terrible at it. She narrowed her eyes at her work and added more dots to the constellation of freckles she had already been working on. How many did he have anyway?
Her top lip curled upwards and she playfully took another peek at her green haired friend.
Izuku seemed too concentrated to jump this time, she noted.
“Alrighty, even though you are a little plain looking, this might be a challenge, Deku-kun.” The gravity user mused, outlining his unruly hair.
“P-Plain looking?”
She chuckled, adding some shading to his unruly hair.
“It ain’t a bad thing to be honest. Hmm…the more I look at’cha the more I realize that you’re gonna be a little hard to draw.” She sighed and rested her chin in between her thumb and index finger. She pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows as she focused in on the drawing in front of her.
A pause.
“S-Sorry.”
Ochaco tilted her head to the side, poking her cheek with the eraser. “Sorry? For…what?”
“I’m a bit of a mess to look at…to be honest.” She could hear the embarrassment in his voice and Ochaco wanted to face palm. Curse her bluntness! She hadn’t meant it like that at all!
The brunette picked up her chair and placed it in front of her best friend who was busy covering his face with his hands for the second time that period.
She reached out and gently pried his shaking fingers away from his face all the while chuckling at his whines.
“Hahaha, don’t say that! I really like your curly hair…and your freckles! You have such adorable features, Deku-kun!”
“A-Adorable?” He peered at her through a space between his fingers. Ochaco nodded energetically and helped him straighten up in his seat. “You think I’m adorable?” He asked pointing at himself dubiously. Ochaco rubbed the back of her head and gave him an energetic smile.
“Mhm, I do!”
“Oh…uh-“
“Not only that. I think you’re also passionate and dedicated. I think you’re clever and you always think on your feet; it’s amazing to see it firsthand ya know? Even though yer always mumbling at times, it just goes to show how serious you are about doing yer best! Deku-kun always sees the good in people too and sometimes I can’t even do that! But I think that’s what I like about ya the most…” She tapped her finger to her chin as she drifted to her thoughts.
“-is that you’re the type of hero that I can look up to! My hero!” She declared, causing Izuku to go into a fit of fifty shades of red. The One-For-All user could barely keep himself from keeping his jaw from falling to the ground.
He knew that they motivated each other. He knew that they both pushed each other. But he didn’t know that he a useless, quirkless, nobody could make such a great impact. Izuku couldn’t help but tear up slightly at her words. She really was the nicest girl he’d ever met, and he could never thank her enough for wanting to be in his life.
Ochaco, having not noticed Izuku’s current emotional state, squeezed his fingers unconsciously, and continued to speak her mind.
“It’s embarrassing to admit this, but-”
“I guess it was kinda hard fitting all of that in a portrait, hehe.” She admitted, grinning sheepishly, meeting his eyes. Immediately once she spotted the gushing water that was Izuku’s tears, she let go of his hands and frantically tried to stop the flow of tears.
“A-Ah! Deku-kun, did I say something offensive-? Why are you crying, I’m so sorry!” She squealed, embarrassed. Izuku wiped at his eyes with the sleeves of his sweater and couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. Ochaco who was still fretting over his tears, cocked her at head at his laughter in confusion.
“Are…you okay?”
Izuku seized his laughter and calmed his red face down to a simple blush. He looked up at his best friend fondly. She gave him a reassuring smile that didn’t help his reddening cheeks, so he opted for looking down at his thumbs that now fiddled with one another.
“Y-Yeah, uh, thank you Uraraka-san. That was-”
“Annoying as fuck. Damn it, take that melodramatic shit elsewhere round face!” Bakugo infamously barked, storming over to the pair. Both Ochaco and Izuku froze, faces paling as the explosion user approached them with murderous intent.
Thankfully, he wasn’t the only one. Fangirling loudly and hot on his tail was Mina, who didn’t hold back her squeals at the two.
Okay, maybe this wasn’t a good thing either, now that the both of them thought about it. Currently Mina was busy trying to shove Bakugo to the side so she could get a better look at her number one ship.
“Shut it Bakugo. What would you know about love?” Mina snapped back, successfully pushing him away. Izuku and Ochaco’s faces reddened without skipping a beat.
L-LOVE?!
“Stay out of this you ship freak! I know it doesn’t belong in the goddamn classroom!” Bakugo bit back, shoving Mina in hopes to regain his space. Kirishima sighed in his own seat and respectfully apologized to Tooru, for he would be the poor soul to break up this fight.
“Alright, alright, you two. Stop fighting and stop bothering them.” Kirishima said calmly, yanking both Bakugo and Mina back into their seats. “Let them flirt in peace, it ain’t manly to disrupt their moment, both of you.” Ochaco and Izuku simultaneously choked this time, blushes becoming feverish.
F-FLIRT?!
Tooru pouted and dropped her pose. “Eh, but I was excited to see how I look, Kirishima you can’t be done yet.” She said, with a disappointed tone. Kirishima sheepishly grinned and Mineta opened his mouth in confusion.
“Well, uh, Tooru-chan, there isn’t much to see-”. Again, he was met with the slap of Tsuyu’s tongue, effectively shutting him up. Tokoyami sighed and added his final touches to his partner’s portrait. “Asui, if you continue to do that, he might just end up liking it.”
Tsuyu blinked and placed a finger to her cheek. “That’s something worth thinking about.”
Meanwhile, Izuku and Ochaco were doing their best to recover from the relentless teasing, Midnight snuck up on the two, causing them both to jump up in alarm.
“That was so adorably wholesome Uraraka-kun!” Midnight cooed, abruptly stepping into their moment.
“Who knew you had such a way with words and soon enough you’ll be able to represent all of that visually!” She squealed, snatching the poor girl by her shoulders, and shaking her.
Ochaco, now realizing the extent of what came out of her mouth, hid her face in her hands, which now burned crimson. Izuku, feeling bad that his best friend was getting teased because of him, reached out to reassure her.
Izuku squeaked in surprise when he finally saw her face. She was red and shy in the face, staring at him with a face, akin to adoration and his face quickly returned to moving through its fifty shades of red.
“And you! Midoriya-kun! The detail is absolutely out of this world!” She screamed, breathing heavily. She was in fact, turned on…to say the least.
Ochaco’s head snapped up and her attention was brought to Izuku’s canvas and drawing of…her.
She was taken a back at how detailed it was. She sat in her chair, her hands gripping the seat, leaning back and laughing merrily. Her hair framed her face and her signature blush stood out on her round cheeks. He got every detail down to the tea and she was surprised at how gentle yet full of life he made her look.
Woah…does he see me like that? She wondered, looking on in amazement. Midnight gripped him by the shoulders and shook him as she went on about his piece in amazement. “I can literally hear the adoration through this art! I can see his perspective upmost clearly! Pure, heavenly, untainted, a source of light! I see it all, Midoriya-Kun!” The gravity user snapped out of her thoughts and nodded vigorously.
“Deku-Kun, I didn’t know you were this good at art!” Ochaco exclaimed in awe. Izuku scratched his cheek nervously.
“I..observe heroes a lot. Sometimes I draw them too.” Izuku turned to look at her, blush still lingering on his cheeks. “Uraraka-san’s also the type of hero I can look up to.” He said softly, but without any hesitation.
A smile, the smile that was rarely there subtly broke through and for a second Ochaco was blinded. Her vision adjusted and suddenly it was just Izuku there. Izuku and his smile that was finally breaking through.
“Uraraka-san is a gentle yet courageous hero. The one that’s always reminding me to be the best version of myself. My hero.” Izuku finished, laying his own feelings bare and looking into Ochaco’s widened eyes with an unknown passion. Ochaco’s breath hitched in her throat and-
And-
She promptly passed out.
Seconds later her classmates crowded around her. Izuku, having not understood the immense impact his words-no, his words, his presence, his everything- had on her, fanned her face like his life depended on it.
Mina, laughing merrily at her sudden predicament, tried to calm the boy’s fearful sputtering. Midnight caught a glimpse of the gravity user’s brown eyes opening into slits and smiled in relief.
Another successful activity for the books!
Ochaco, on the other hand grabbed a handful of her shirt and pressed her lips firmly together as she remembered the way his words and his groundbreaking smile grasped at her heartstrings.
No longer did Ochaco just see the boy with freckles.
No longer was he just the plain looking boy that was always a nervous mess.
And no longer was this just a crush, she realized pitifully.
“Dammit…I’m screwed.”