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Miraculous Academia part 6 (final draft)
🕑 Added 2023-04-01 00:44:53 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: This is the final draft of this chapter. The main differences from before are an additional scene while at school, followed by a complete change of the final section at Momo's house. I think it turned out much better.
Izuku stared at the door to the homeroom, butterflies on his shoulders and in his stomach. At least the ones on his shoulders were trying to calm him down.
He was procrastinating. He knew he was delaying the moment of walking down the hall and into the classroom. That knowledge also did nothing to help him.
How was this worse than his first day?!
Sure, the other day he had been all for talking to Ashido. He wanted to get Kirishima’s number, to make sure he was all right, to make sure he didn’t hate Izuku for getting him hurt... Which meant he would be initiating the conversation. He knew that.
It was only once entered the school that he remembered he had anxiety, no experience socializing outside of his mom, and he was planning on asking somebody for a phone number.
Cue panic attack.
He took a deep breath and tried to psych himself to walk to the classroom -
“Hey Midori!“
-and almost died from a heart attack.
Ashido grinned mischievously at him, the pink haired girl watching his reaction, and he scolded himself for being so distracted he didn’t notice her bright emotions.
“G-good morning Ashido,” he stammered while getting his heart under control.
“Awwww, after everything we went through at USJ, you don’t need to be so formal. just call me Mina.” She offered cheerfully, bouncing on her heels a bit, “We all saw what you and these cuties did!” She cooed at his butterflies.
“I, uh, w-well, it wasn’t just us,” he protested as the butterflies began flying around him cheerfully, more than happy to soak in the cheerful emotions.
He’d probably be doing the same if he didn’t actually have to talk.
“Yeah yeah, I know the drill. ‘I didn’t do all that much’, ‘Everybody else helped as well’, ‘Sensei did the majority of the fighting’…” The pink haired girl recited before snickering, “Iida, Momo, and Kiri are all saying the same. Did I get them all?”
His face flushed as he tried to think of something to say. The laughing butterflies around him weren’t helping.
He hadn’t even realized that butterflies could laugh. You couldn’t tell just by looking at them, but that’s totally what they were doing.
She sighed dramatically after watching him struggle, “I get that we’re training to be heroes, but we’re still, like, in-training, right? The fact that you and the others were kicking villain butt despite that was super impressive!”
He wanted to protest - he really didn’t feel comfortable with all the praise - sure, he couldn’t really deny that he had saved Momo from being hurt, and had kept the teleporter villain distracted. But, Momo had kept the Cat villain distracted, Sensei had taken on an army by himself, and Kirishima had held off that same army as well as the villain’s super-weapon. And that was before blocking the Cat’s disintegrating ability at the expense of his own health!
At most he’d been the fourth ‘impressive’ one in that group. And that was only without knowing what the others in the other areas had done.
He just… wasn’t quite sure how to explain all that in the face of Mina’s confidence.
“You can’t, so you shouldn’t try.” Mina replied cheerfully to his mumbling.
… Gah, why was socializing so hard?!
Thankfully Nooroo and the butterflies seemed to sense he needed a distraction, and they immediately flew up from his shoulders and flew around him and Mina in a dizzying pattern, several of them landing on her, causing her to squeal at the sight.
He relaxed a bit as her emotions lifted back up.
“I, um, still think most of the credit should go to Kirishima,” he stammered with a shaky smile, getting her attention again. “Speaking of, I was wondering if you had his number. I wanted to make sure he was alright after… everything.”
There. He did it. He could relax now.
“Sure! Toru and I were actually thinking about getting everybody’s numbers so we could start a group chat for our class.”
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“C’mon! You can ask him about it yourself.”
Wait, what?
She grabbed his hand and before he knew it she had dragged him into the classroom.
Thanks to his indecision, he wasn’t surprised to see everybody else already there. Hagakure was talking excitedly while gesturing to Todoroki, who looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with her attention. Bakugo was scowling in his chair. He could see Uraraka talking animatedly with Iida and -
“Midoriya!” Izuku blinked in shock as he saw Kirishima there with a big smile on his face.
Uraraka snickered, “Don’t you mean Vice-Zu -“
“Ahh! Uraraka! You said you wouldn’t mention that!”
“Did I? I don’t recall such a thing.”
“K-Kirishima?! What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be in the hospital or something?!” Izuku rushed forward, half tempted to drag him back to the nurse. Last he had seen, there had been so much blood…
The red-head gave a boisterous laugh, “Of course I’m fine! Since I was a UA student, Recovery Girl came and used her quirk to heal me. She helped patch me right up!”
That actually helped ease him quite a bit. Except…
“Recovery Girl’s quirk uses the patient’s own energy to heal, which usually means she has to heal in stages if the damage is severe enough.” He recalled, his brow furrowed in concentration, “Your back looked, uhm, bad…” and what an understatement that was. “Without having much time to rest in between, I’m surprised she was able to heal that much at once.”
Uraraka leaned forward on her desk to give the redhead a pointed look, “Yeah, it wouldn’t be manly to come to class if you were still injured, would it?”
“Nope! It wouldn’t be manly at all!” Mina looked more than happy to stir the pot.
“Alright, that is enough,” Iida cut in, chopping his hand down. “I’m sure Kirishima received permission from the proper authorities to return to class, and we should respect their knowledge on the subject.”
They relented, but the way Kirishima’s feelings turned a bit guilty made Izuku more than a little suspicious.
But that was soon buried as Mina launched into a conversation with him, the two’s positivity seeming to bounce off of each other, with Uraraka occasionally jumping in to tease Kirishima about something, something that Mina capitalized on each time with an evil grin.
Huh. He didn’t realize Uraraka and Kirishima knew each other that well.
Izuku was relieved to feel that the red head didn’t seem to hold him responsible for being injured. He didn’t seem to have any resentment at all towards Izuku, surprisingly.
He still wanted to talk, but maybe when they weren’t surrounded by people.
As grateful as he was, he was even more so when he felt a pool of calm emotions walk up next to him, offsetting the excited emotions. He turned and gave a shaky smile to Momo as she stood next to him. “Good morning, Momo.” He greeted.
The whole ‘feeling the emotions of others’ was way more daunting when he actually had friends to feel the emotions of.
It wasn’t unpleasant; the opposite actually!
It’s just… very easily overwhelming to somebody that wasn’t used to it.
You know, like him.
Positive/excited emotions like this were kinda new, which was why he was becoming more and more grateful that Momo was in this class.
N-not that she didn’t feel emotions - because she absolutely did! - but they were definitely more… sedate(?) then most of their other classmates. Like an ocean compared to the sky. It helped balance the more excitable nature of most of his classmates. (He might have to reach out to Asui, she seemed pretty composed as well.)
“Good morning Izuku,” Momo returned warmly before quickly giving him a quick once-over. “I’m glad you're alright. You were pretty exhausted after everything that happened, and you didn’t answer any of my texts afterwards.”
“Ah, s-sorry,” he winced apologetically. “I spent most of the night t-trying to calm down my mom. She was pretty freaked out over everything.”
“Understandable.” Iida said while observing the others teasing Kirishima. “My own brother was quite shocked as well. It was an incredibly bold move to attack UA as the villains did, and I can’t imagine how they thought they’d get away with it.”
Izuku couldn’t help but nod at that. Even if they had managed to kill All-Might, it would have put a huge target on their backs. Every hero in Japan, as well as many around the world, would have been after them.
Most villains that went after All-Might like that already had an established group, and were prepared (so they hoped) but the group that had attacked the USJ seemed… Well, with the exception of the leaders, they were all pretty lackluster.
He was about to answer Iida when he felt the familiar crawl of emotions come close to the door.
“Sensei’s coming,” he called out, and everybody promptly made their way to their respective seats.
By the time the door opened, everybody was in their seats and looking at the door.
“You’re learning.” Aizawa murmured in approval as he walked in. He looked over the class, and when he spotted Kirishima he stared hard for several seconds before letting out a grunt. “I don’t usually have to give this speech till later, but so be it. You all are old enough and I trust you all to be aware of your own limits. If you believe you are well enough to come into class, so be it. If you don’t, call or email and we can discuss it. But Kirishima?” The red head straightened in his seat. “If I see as much as a flinch of pain, I’m sending you to Recovery Girl. Understood?”
Kirishima gulped, but managed a tight grin. “Yes sensei.”
“Good. We’ll get started then. You all handled yourselves well at the USJ, but the fight isn’t over yet...” Izuku practically felt a wall of tension and foreboding hit him from everybody.
“… The UA Sports Festival is in several weeks.”
Aaaand now he sagged as the tension in the room was replaced by overpowering relief. If Aizawa kept this up, Izuku didn’t know if his nerves could take it.
There was the faintest hint of a smirk on Aizawa’s face before he continued, “As I’m sure you all know, around the start of the school year we host an event called the Sport’s Festival.” That got several nods throughout the room. “While there was some debate as to whether it would actually happen this year, Principal Nezu wants to use this as an opportunity to show our strength and resolve despite the attack.”
“A-are we sure it will be safe?” Izuku asked with a frown, even as he hated having to ask. He was the last person that wanted it canceled.
He had videos of each and every past Festival in his room after all, some even recorded by himself. Each sorted and placed with their own small notebook of his observations.
But never had UA been attacked so publicly before. What if the villains were to try again?
“Security has already been increased,” Aizawa stated tiredly. “And many pros will be using this opportunity to offer you internships. While it provides all of you the opportunity to be noticed, it also means that if anything happens there will be a large amount of heroes on-site already.”
Izuku could feel that some people were still hesitant, but the mention of being noticed by a pro seemed to excite the majority of them.
“The events in the Festival are determined at random, so you’ll need to prepare yourself for anything.” Aizawa continued on. “With that in mind, since we were unable to do any rescue training at the USJ, that is what we will be focusing on for the next couple of class periods. If any of you would like to schedule the facilities for personal training, I recommend you do so sooner rather than later. Any questions?”
When nobody said anything, he nodded. “I shouldn’t need to tell you guys, but an opportunity like the Sports Festival only comes once a year. The better you do, the more likely you’ll be noticed, which can give you a boost to your career before it even begins.”
Izuku didn’t have time to feel nervous before he was caught up in the feelings of determination and excitement from the class.
Whether he liked it or not, his emotions were definitely getting a workout in this class…
----------------------------------------------------
He didn’t get a chance to talk to Kirishima until right before lunch.
Izuku barely paid attention to Ectoplasm as he finished up his class and walked out, everybody immediately heading out to lunch while talking about the Sports Festival.
“H-hey, Kirishima?” He asked tentatively, shoring up his courage. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”
“Sure thing!” The redhead agreed immediately, grinning brightly.
He waved away Uraraka, Iida, and Momo, who were waiting for him by the door before turning back to Kirishima, who was looking at him curiously.
Ok, how do you start this…
“I j-just wanted to make sure that you really were ok. After everything.” He stammered out.
Kirishima tried to give a shrug, but after that resulted in a wince (and subsequent check to make sure Aizawa wasn’t around to see it) he settled on a laugh. “Like I told you guys before, I’m doing great! A little tired from Recovery Girl’s quirk and the medicine, but she said that I’ll be all healed up in a couple weeks no problem. I should be good to go for the Sport’s Festival when it happens!”
Izuku let out a breath, “Good, that’s good.” He bit his lip, and nearly jumped when he felt Nooroo press up against where he was in his bag.
Nooroo didn’t think he needed to do this next part, but he disagreed.
“I, I wanted to apologize.” He murmured quietly, looking firmly on the ground. “The whole reason you got hurt so bad was because I chose you, and you had to throw yourself in front of us to protect us from that last attack. I just - “
“Woah woah woah!” Kirishima looked alarmed. “Hey, there’s nothing to apologize for, I’m not upset at all!”
“But you should be!” Izuku stared back with wide eyes. “That villain’s last attack could have killed you! Or crippled, at the very least!”
Izuku could think of dozens of heroes that had to retire due to back related injuries, even with modern medicine and quirks.
He’d have looked up more statistics had Nooroo not stolen his phone at that point…
“Yeah, maybe, but it didn’t, right? The doc’s all say I’ll be back to normal in no time, and if I hadn’t been Crimson Scale at the time, there’s no way I would have survived.” Kirishima pointed out.
“But if I hadn’t chosen you, you wouldn’t have been there to begin with.” He countered.
Kirishima made a face, “Well, if I hadn’t been there somebody else might have gotten hurt. Or, well, worse.” He tried with a frown.
“But you got hurt because of MY decision!”
The redhead continued frowning for a bit, one hand scratching the back of his head, looking more puzzled than anything.
He eventually let out a sigh. “Recovery Girl said that the medicine they gave me shouldn’t be messing with my brain anymore…” he mused before flinching slightly, “Uh, not anymore at least. But I’m not really following… Do you, uh, want me to dislike you?”
The question was said with such genuine confusion that Izuku flinched, “Well, no.” He whispered.
It would, however, make more sense than this.
Kirishima stared at him for a few more seconds before brightening. “Hey, do you remember what you said right before you turned me into Crimson Scale?”
He looked at Kirishima in confusion. What did that have anything to do with this?
“You were blaming yourself for everybody being separated.”
“Right, and you told me that it wasn’t my fault for something the villains did.” He answered, gaining more confidence as he went. “The cat villain is the one that hurt me, not you. You’re the one that offered to help make me stronger to help protect the rest of our classmates, and I accepted. And overall, I think it turned out pretty good.”
Izuku hesitated, turning it over in his mind. It was pretty much what Nooroo kept on telling him, but there was something about hearing it from Kirishima that eased his guilt somewhat.
Especially since he could feel that Kirishima wasn’t faking it. Which was just… confusing. Usually people would get angry at him at the drop of a hat. He wasn’t sure what to do with this, since Kirishima actually had a valid thing to be angry over.
He could practically see Nooroo giving that “I told you so look.” He wouldn’t say it - Nooroo was too nice for that - but he would absolutely look at him knowingly.
He jerked out of his thoughts when Kirishima clapped him on his back. “C’mon, we don’t want to miss lunch!”
“O-oh, right.” He quickly followed along, butterflies trailing behind merrily.
How exactly did people manage this whole socializing thing? The day was only half done and he was exhausted.
Hopefully he wouldn’t have to do much more for the rest of the day.
----------------------------------------------------
Later that day
There was a crowd at the door…
Their last class was just about done, and Izuku could sense a large mass of emotions at the door for some reason.
Curiosity seemed to be the main driving force, but he could also sense the bitter tang of bitterness and envy here and there.
He had managed to avoid talking with people since lunch. He kinda just stuck close to Momo and soaked in her ‘calmness’ and let everybody else carry the conversation.
Though as the day went on, he noticed that Momo was beginning to feel bothered by something. A small current of uneasiness in the ocean of her calmness (was that a good analogy? He had no idea…)
He had almost made it the rest of the day without an incident, and then this crowd formed. He had no idea what they were waiting for (besides them), but he really didn’t want to walk out there just yet.
So when class ended, he quickly stood up. “E-excuse me?” He called out nervously, walking up to the front of the class. “B-b-before anybody leaves, I have a quick announcement.”
What exactly did it say about him when he considered talking in front of the class to be the lesser evil?
Bakugou scoffed, but he stayed, so he would consider that a win. Everybody else looked at him curiously.
He licked his lips nervously, “We, Yoayorozu and I, wanted to set up a multi-class activity with Class-B. Something we could do to get to know each other better. If we were to set up some community work in the next couple of weeks, who would be interested?”
They had actually been planning on bringing this up the other day, but, well… USJ happened.
Ojiro raised his hand. “Won’t we be busy with preparing for the Sport’s Festival?”
“Potentially.” Momo answered smoothly as she stepped next to Izuku despite this not being planned. “Which is why nobody is required to attend. This is just an opportunity that we saw for us to do some good in the community while getting to know our fellow classmates a bit better.”
Izuku nodded rapidly, “A-and since this will be through the school, there will be teachers present, and w-we’d be allowed to use our quirks! Which could count as a form of training.”
Everybody perked up at the idea of using quirks, but their excitement remained muted as they glanced warily at Aizawa’s form in his sleeping bag.
Nobody wanted a repeat of their first day.
“Showing such initiative for the benefit of our classes is admirable!” Iida congratulated, “What manner of community work are you thinking of doing?”
“At the moment, we’re looking at Takoba Municipal Beach Park.” Momo answered promptly. “It used to be a fairly popular beach until people began using it as a dumping ground. Now, hardly anybody goes there.”
Most of the class didn’t seem to recognize the location, but Bakugou barked out a laugh, “You’re gonna try to clean that dump?”
She raised an eyebrow at that, “It being a dump is the reason it was chosen, yes.”
He rolled his eyes. “If you and Deku want to waste your time with that, be my guest.”
“Well, if it used to be a public beach, it can’t be that bad,” Kaminari brought up thoughtfully.
Bakugou let out a snort, “Keep telling yourself that Spark-plug.”
“W-well, even if we don’t get it all done in a day, it’ll still be a good activity to get to know the members of Class-B.”
Best get that out there so people know. Because yes, it really could be that bad. How? He had no idea, but it was pretty bad.
“W-we’re hoping for the weekend after next week, so a week before the Sports Festival. S-so long as that works for everybody else.” Izuku hastily explained. “We do still need to get everything worked out with the school, but I’m hoping that won’t be too bad. Right now, we just wanted to get a few for how many people would be interested.”
“Heck yeah!” Kirishima said loudly, freezing briefly as Aizawa peeked out of his sleeping bag. He coughed and pretended he hadn’t almost winced from the pain.
“Ribbet. Sounds like it could be cool.” Tsuyu said thoughtfully.
“I think I’m busy that day…”
“My little sister has a competition that day, but I might be able to attend half of it.”
“If a couple girls are going, then I’m so there!”
“No.”
“Psh, screw that. If you extras want to waste time when you should be training, I won’t stop you.”
Quickly taking the volunteer’s names, Izuku turned towards Aizawa, who was wrapped up in his sleeping bag.
Inwardly he practically groaned. He had been really really hoping the teacher would leave and confront the crowd (which still hadn’t shrunk!!!) while he was setting this up.
Time for plan B.
“Sensei?” He called out hesitantly, “Who would we have to talk to in order to set this up through the school? And is there anything else we’d need to do?”
Aizawa peeked out of the sleeping bag with a frown, “That would be me.” He grumbled reluctantly. “There’s some stuff that you’ll have to sign as well.”
Sweet, he hoped that was the case.
“Could you show us?” He quickly asked, “If we do this, I want to make sure everything is good on our end.”
He probably sounded way too eager, but he didn’t care.
School Survival 101, something Izuku had had to double down on after Nooroo started threatening to tell his mom. You kept your head down, took the shortest path in between classes, and pretended you couldn’t hear what anybody said. Don’t make eye contact, and try to make it through the day.
Above all else, avoid mobs of students.
Aizawa stared at him for a moment before getting up with a groan. With some muttering under his breath that Izuku couldn’t hear, he gestured for Izuku to follow him while everybody else started gathering their things.
Upon opening the door, Aizawa was immediately faced with a large crowd of students crowding the door.
“What are you all doing here?” He asked in an irritated tone.
The crowd wilted under his stare, but aside from a few scattered mumbles nobody seemed willing to speak up.
The dark haired teacher gave a long suffering groan, “You’re curious. But harassing students that have just been through a traumatic experience is neither logical nor appropriate. It makes you no better than the press.” He levied a glare at them. “Leave.”
Izuku couldn’t help but marvel at how fast the crowd dissipated.
With a grunt, Aizawa gestured for Izuku to follow him, but paused after they turned a corner. “Did you really want those papers? Or did you just want the crowd dispersed?” He asked dryly.
Ah… Oops? At least he didn’t feel that annoyed.
“S-s-sorry,” he mumbled, his gaze burning holes in the floor.
“We will want to take care of everything sooner rather than later though,” Momo cut in.
He sighed tiredly. “Thought so. Everything you’ll need to submit can be found on the school website. I’ll email you the exact locations later today. Next time students are harassing you, just ask.”
Both Momo and Izuku watched him walk away, and Izuku let out a sigh. “T-that went better than I thought it would.” He murmured, feeling just as tired as Aizawa.
“I suppose,” Momo frowned. “I apologize for not realizing you were distressed.”
He quickly shook his head, “D-don’t worry about it! I’ve had to get used to sensing stuff like that.”
“Hmmm…” she didn’t look convinced, “Does that ever get distracting? Sensing everybody’s emotions like that?” Momo asked curiously.
He had to think about that one. “Sometimes? I can usually ignore it unless the emotions are pretty strong. Or if a bunch of people are feeling the same thing. But I don’t mind it.”
It was a constant reminder that even if he didn’t have a quirk, he now had something similar. How could he mind it?
Momo hummed in thought. “Will that be a problem at the Sport’s Festival?” She asked worriedly. “The number of contestants will be considerable. Not to mention the audience.”
He managed a jerky nod. That was something he had already thought of, panicked over, and over analyzed.
“I’ll b-be fine.” He replied, trying to convince himself as much as he was convincing Momo.
Thank goodness she couldn’t feel his emotions.
They walked in silence for a bit before she spoke up again.
“It shouldn’t take too long to get everything with the application filled out. After we finish with it, would you like to hang out?” She asked, her emotions suddenly turning a bit hopeful.
He nearly stumbled at the unexpected question. Hang out? He was just barely getting used to texting and walking to the train with friends!
He didn’t want to say no and disappoint Momo, but he already felt like he filled out his social quota for the day and wasn’t sure if he could do much more. Except…
… He took a moment and focused on her emotions.
The uneasiness she was feeling earlier was a bit stronger. That, combined with the hopeful feeling, told him there was something more than the surface.
If only he could actually figure out what was below the surface…
Still, he couldn’t exactly back down if he could help somebody feel better.
He gave Momo a shaky smile, “Sure, uhm, is there anything that you wanted to do?”
She gave him a bright smile, the surge of gratefulness convincing him he made the right decision. “I was thinking of keeping it small. Maybe going over to my place to watch some movies?” She paused for a beat. “Or your place! Whichever is more comfortable to you.”
He had the sudden image of his Mom, and the reaction she’d have at seeing that he not only had a friend, but was comfortable bringing said friend over to his house.
The mental image included a lot of tears. From his mom. And a lot of embarrassment. From him.
“Oh, uh, no. Y-your place is fine.” he hastily accepted.
Much safer.
“Great!” Her emotions were way more cheerful at this prospect than he expected. “If you don’t have anything after school, you can take the limo with me. Afterwards, I can arrange to have you dropped off at your house.”
He blinked.
“Limo?”
----------------------------------------------------
Momo’s POV
Momo had a hand over her mouth, working hard to stifle her laughter.
Izuku had been quiet since he had seen her ride, and even more so once they arrived at her house. If he had looked any more uncomfortable, she would have asked if he’d rather they do something else.
And then she showed him her father’s movie collection.
Now, every previous interaction she had with Izuku had shown her that her fellow student was a very timid person. Even his texts managed to come across as hesitant, any idea he proposed cautious.
While she hoped that their interactions together were helpful, or at the very least as enjoyable to him as they were to her, she hadn’t expected it to change anything overnight.
It turns out she just wasn’t using the right topic.
“- and you even have the entire series of ‘KnightOwl and Majestia’? I’ve only heard references to them online!” Izuku practically had stars in his eyes as he looked at them in awe, “They were made years before the first quirk emerged, and I didn’t think any copies managed to survive!”
“Were they that impressive?” She asked curiously, finally getting a word in. “I’ve tried watching some of these older shows, but the, ah, special effects of the times left a little to be desired.”
He looked at her in shock, as if she had just insulted All-Might.
“‘KnightOwl' and 'Majestia’ were part of the early years of superheroes!” Izuku exclaimed. “They were the precursors, and while fictional, they and other shows like them inspired the original vigilantes! I can’t believe you have one in such good condition - this is the sort of thing that could be the centerpiece of somebody’s collection!”
Yep, this was quite different from the nervousness that seemed to plague Izuku.
“My father enjoys movies.” She gave way as an explanation as a hand brushed up against the shelves of movies, old memories of her father coming home excitedly with a new movie he purchased or had restored.
She brought herself out of her nostalgia. “I must confess, there are times I think he likes owning the physical copies just as much as watching them.” She admitted with a smile.
“But how could you have something like this and not watch?”
She raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching in a small smile. “You do realize there are more genres than superhero movies, right?” She teased, causing him to blush.
“Well, yeah, but…” he looked longingly at the section of movies he had been looking through.
That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have many superhero movies, but it was only one genre amongst many. Even if the room was fairly modest in her opinion, the fact that they needed a whole room to contain it all was telling.
“So do you want to watch some of that then?” She asked. It wasn’t the sort of thing that she expected, but she certainly wasn’t opposed.
Izuku hesitated. “I mean, if you’d rather watch something else - “ he hedged, his previous anxiousness creeping back in.
She shrugged away his concern. “I don’t really have a preference, and I’m the one that invited you. I think it’s only fair if you choose the movie.”
“But, I mean, it’s your house, and your movies.” He countered with a frown, clearly hesitant, when Tikki flew in front of him.
“I think it’s a good choice!” She chirped cheerfully, cutting through his protests. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. It’s pretty corny, but fun.”
Izuku blinked at her. “Wait, you’ve seen them before?” He asked in surprise, glancing at his own Kwami. “But I thought…”
This time Nooroo flew up with a few of his butterflies and gave a sad smile, “Tikki has had nicer wielders in the past then I have.” He explained gently.
Ah. Momo’s heart clenched at the traces of sadness in the lilac Kwami’s voice.
“It sounds like we have a winner then,” she said with a polite smile, grabbing the movie and pulling the attention away from Nooroo before glancing at him.
“Tikki told me that your diet is similar to hers, so I made sure to have plenty of cookies and pastries on hand. But if either you or Izuku would like something else, just let me know. Tikki can show you where they are.”
The lilac Kwami gave her an appreciative smile, “Thank you very much!”
Walking back to the theater room she started setting things up when she heard Izuku moving about the room.
She heard Tikki and Nooroo move over to the snack bar and talked quietly to themselves while looking over some of the other movies, going as far as bringing out a notebook to write some stuff down.
She found herself relaxing against the noise.
This was exactly what she needed.
Sure, a part of her was excited about hanging out with friends. It sounded like such a small thing, but when you’ve never experienced it before the small things felt pretty big. But a larger part of her reasoning…
She shuddered.
The memory of USJ was still too fresh.
Tikki had been an absolute blessing. But even then, the house had been distressingly empty. The staff being around helped, but not enough.
Honestly, she had been tempted to invite Kyoka as well so there would be more people, but she felt that Tikki and Nooroo would appreciate the chance to interact together without hiding.
Right now, hearing the activity around her, she felt that this was a good decision.
“Do you, uhm, always have a lot of flowers around?” Izuku asked, and she smiled slightly at the awkward attempt at conversation.
It also helped knowing that she wasn’t the only one who felt very much out of her depth here.
‘Not that he’s wrong about the flowers’, she mused as she looked around. Six planters, full of flowers and positioned in various places around the room, probably seemed like overkill.
She had no doubt the staff placed them there when she asked them to make sure the snack bar was stocked.
She’d need to make sure to thank Alfred later.
“The staff noticed that I’ve been enjoying flowers as of late. Ever since Tikki chose me.” She replied with a look towards her Kwami. “Somebody forgot to mention that that would happen when she chose me.”
“I told you about them later!” Tikki called back with a pout. “There’s too much stuff to cover in one day!”
That was true, and she didn’t regret taking the Miraculous. But it would have been nice to know in advance that she would start craving flowers in her diet.
Not that she was mentioning that little tidbit. Especially about the aphids. Nor would Tikki, unless she wanted her cookie supplies cut…
Izuku nodded seriously, his brow furrowed. “That makes sense, ladybugs would be attracted to flowers… Are you also, uhm, sensitive to the cold?”
Momo collapsed on the couch and couldn’t resist a shiver, “Yes, I didn’t even want to leave the house last winter! I normally enjoy the snow, and I couldn’t even think of a good explanation to give our butler as to why that changed!”
He gave her a look of understanding, “I-I spend most of my time inside anyways, a-and my mom spends most of the day at work, so I don’t think she noticed.”
She couldn’t resist giving out a huff. “Oh, Alfred notices everything.” She grumbled. “I’m still not convinced when he says he doesn’t have a surveillance quirk.”
She might not have to worry about her parents noticing anything, her butler was another matter entirely.
Nooroo flew up with a pastry in his paws, “I’m sure it just means that he cares for you.”
She gave the Kwami a gentle smile, “I know he does, but it makes it harder to hide certain things. Especially when I’m surrounded by people.”
Izuku nodded absently, looking thoughtful for a moment. “What about food?” He asked curiously. “I’ve gained a bit of a sweet tooth, but don’t ladybugs eat - “
She could practically feel the blood rush to her cheeks as quickly reached for the remote. “You know, it’s getting a bit late - we really should get the episode started, shouldn’t we?”
Izuku looked surprised, but he didn’t protest, instead focusing on the screen, his eyes brightening as the old style episode came on.
About two hours later Izuku and Momo had to pause the episode as they had gotten into a debate as to the validity of the various support gear KnightOwl brought out, whether it was even feasible for some to exist.
As Izuku started bringing up various formulas to argue for the flight path of KnightOwl’s boomerangs, Momo cross-referencing it with her own knowledge of physics while the two Kwami’s laughed above their heads and occasionally added their own inputs…
It was probably the most fun she had had in a long time.
