19The sky over U.A. High School was gorgeous, the sun setting early in the day and bathing the academy in a calming orange glow that made the view look picturesque.
Under a gorgeous scene such as that, with the warmth still in the air despite the approaching night, you could be forgiven for thinking everyone was happy and content.
That wasn't the truth though.
Laid out upon his bed, All Might posters all staring down at him with what felt like expectant eyes, Izuku Midoriya felt terrible. He wasn't even really sure why, if he were being honest.
Physically, he was right as rain. Or at least as much as he could be with a body that had been through as much wear and tear as his. Heroics class that day had been fairly easy as well, at least for him with Full Cowling at his disposal, having let him blitz through their exercise easily while barely working up a sweat.
Emotionally… For reasons beyond him, he felt terrible. It felt as though there was an endless well of sadness he'd stumbled upon and no matter how hard he struggled against it, the currents would pull him in yet further.
He didn't feel like he was enough. He didn't feel he deserved to be here, in a place like this and by god did he just want to talk to someone. Tell someone this was how he was feeling, explain the pain that seemed to be in his chest whenever one of his friends DID talk with him.
But he didn't rise from his bed. His feelings were ridiculous! He wouldn't say he didn't think some were unfounded (particularly the feelings of unworthiness) but none of them were worth dumping onto someone else, right?
He had contemplated getting up and going to one of his friend's multiple times over the last hour. To Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, Tsu, Mina, Kirishima, Kaminari or hell, he'd even very briefly considered the idea of going to his homeroom teacher Aizawa for a chat, just to talk with someone.
He'd spent so many years not having people to talk to, he hated that now he did he still couldn't bring himself to actually talk to them. Every time he tried to work up the energy, the image of Uraraka panting after class, clearly exhausted or of Todoroki's face when he'd shared his own fair more serious issues in the past flashed by his mind and all that energy disappeared. He couldn't disturb them with something like this… (Plus speaking about something like this face to face seemed more daunting for some reason with every second…)
It was the… twenty-fourth time? That he'd failed to bring himself to get any further than sitting up on his bed that an idea struck, his gaze turning to the phone on his nightstand.
With a small hum, he gingerly picked it up and turned it on, his screensaver a shot of his friends all hanging out in front of the school. He'd taken the photo, so he wasn't in it as there hadn't been a place to set the phone down and too many of them to take a selfie with.
His heart hurt seeing his absence in yet a small part of him felt it was…. Right. He didn't like that he thought that but he did. With a sigh, he shook his head and unlocked the phone, opening his SMS application and clicking the 'Compose New Message' option.
His idea? He couldn't bring himself to speak to his friends, partially because he would have to confront it with someone face to face and also because he knew them well, knew the issues they themselves also had that made him hesitate with every moment. If he were to contact a complete stranger, he wouldn't know anything about them to get lodged in his mind and prevent him from continuing on, nor would the fear of face to face confrontation be present.
Ok so it wasn't the most well thought through plan he ever had but it was what he came up with first to fix his problem. With that justification, he typed in his own number into the 'recipient' area, and changed a few of the numbers randomly so that he should hopefully still connect to a real number.
He took a moment to think about how he'd explain this…. Then he sent his first message.
090-8520-1786 (Unknown)
You: Hello?
Unknown: OwO, Who Dis?
You: …
You: ….I
Izuku blinked at the opening the conversation, completely unsure how to respond to that. He'd seen Mina text similarly in the past but he just…. Didn't know what to say to it.
Unknown: I should have checked who you were first before I went full weird. sorry :(
You: O-Oh it's okay! I w-was just caught off-guard is all. Y-You won't know me though.
You: I um… I w-was kind of just wanting to t-talk with someone and uh… I d-decided to text a random number?
You: S-Sorry if that's w-weird or a-anything, I j-just didn't know what else to d-do!
Unknown: Oh. Well that's a bit odd but I suppose I can chat if you want! :D
Unknown: I'm not doing anything else important ^-^ So what's up? What'cha doing? =^_^=
You: W-Well uh… H-Honestly I'm k-kinda just stuck in bed. I… can't really work up the e-energy to move, even though I w-want to.
Unknown: Oh that sucks :C Why?
You: I don't r-really know? I'm tired but… not physically? I don't know… it's silly. Maybe I shouldn't have texted…
Unknown: No it isn't! D=
Unknown: Emotional tiredness is a thing :( and its okay to have it!
Unknown: …Be honest please? Are you sad? `～
You: …I guess? It feels stupid but I just feel… bad right now and I don't know why. There's no good reason for it…
Unknown: You don't need a good reason to be sad. Everyone gets sad sometimes! ⊂(・﹏・⊂)
Unknown: Actually, please wait just a moment!
You: ?
"Unknown" has added "The Ring"
The Ring: New chat? Meme Mode Activated
Unknown: Wait, don't-
The Ring: Uploaded twenty-seven JPG files, three PNG files and four MP4 files
Izuku could only blink in surprise at the images pouring in. Confused but presuming there was a reason for them, he began to scroll through them…
And surely but surely the tiniest of smiles began to grace his face. The images were silly, and a few he didn't understand (He had no idea what the heck a "Thanus" was but he wasn't sure he wanted to know), overall though they were good at bringing him amusement. Especially the few about pro heroes that did manage to make small bouts of laughter escape him.
The Ring: My civic duty is complete, now why was I summoned here?
Unknown: Basically for that :/
Unknown: My new friend here needs cheering up, and we were already talking.
You: Oh uh.. you don't have to…
The Ring: I mean an excuse to meme is an excuse to meme, but what's wrong?
Unknown: General sadness.
The Ring: oof. Any requests then for specific memes, stranger?
You: I don't want to be a bother.
You: I guess… I really liked the pro hero ones though. Especially the All Might one.
The Ring: Your wish is my command.
The Ring: Uploaded 10 JPG files
Izuku quickly found himself laughing again at most of the images, comprised mainly of the symbol of peace. His favourite one was also probably the simplest one, with two images of All Might, one falling off the screen, captioned "All Might" and "Some Might."
It was stupid but it was simple things like that that tended to get a chuckle out of the greenette.
Then his phone's notification sounded again and he looked to the new message and his face burned bright red on sight, his phone almost dropping out of his hand.
The image had All Might cropped in front of a lewd image of a woman, covering what was presumably her naked body and looking out disapprovingly at the viewer with lines such as "You should be beating villains, not meat."
"S-Sorry, All M-Might!" He apologised immediately, before his brain caught up to him. "Wait why am I apologizing to a picture?!"
Unknown: Dang it, Reiko! :(
The Ring: What? He never said not to send lewd memes
You: W-Wait, "Reiko"?
The Ring: Yes, that's my name.
You: H-Huh… Just surprised because I know someone at my school called Reiko as well.
Unknown: Wait that's right, we didn't introduce ourselves .
Unknown: I'm Kodai
You: WAIT! AS IN YUI KODAI AND REIKO YANAGI FROM 1-B?!
Unknown: 0.0
The Ring: Ok now this is creepy and not in the way I like. How the heck do you know us?
You: I uh… oh…. It's um… it's Izuku Midoriya? From 1-A?
Yui Kodai: …Jeez, what are the chances of that for a random number? XD
You: Yeah… I um… you two seem very different than I thought you were…
You: AH! I DIDN'T MEAN THAT IN A BAD WAY SORRY!
Yui kodai: I mean that seems fair :p
The Ring: Let me guess, Kodai's emoji fetish threw you off?
Yui Kodai: REIKO!
You: Uh.. well yeah I guess, and Yanagi sending a bunch of images like those oens, it's j-just that any time I've seen both of you you seemed very… expressionless?
You: Ah! That's not what I meant! I just meant it's kind of odd cause I've never seen you two change facial expression much and Kodai seems less intimadting as well?! Sorry!
The Ring: You don't need to apologize, you know that right? And not like you're wrong.
Yui Kodai: I struggle to express myself face to face. I'm just not good at facial expressions :(
Yui Kodai: But I don't want that same problem carrying into my texts, so I learned how to use a lot of emoticons :D It helps!
The Ring: And as for her being more sweet, she is just a cinnamon roll once you do get to know her.
You: O-oh.. I suppose that makes sense. Is there a similar reason for Yanagi's memes?
The Ring: Nope.
Yui Kodai: No this is genuinely just a side of her it's a little unlikely for you too see unless you know her. She's genuinely just a… memelord was it?
The Ring: Wait you're the one who's sad right now Midoriya?
Yui Kodai: Oh yeah :(
The Ring: Wait so why didn't you go talk with one of your friends? Don't you have that Uraraka girl or the blue haired guy to talk to?
You: I wanted to… but I didn't feel like it was worth bothering them over. They have more important things to worry about than me being a little sad for no reason.
Yui Kodai: …Is that really all there is to it, Midoriya? 0 n 0
You: …I guess… I guess it hurts thinking about it, trying to talk with them and waste their time over someone worthless…
You: Ah, I mean-!
The Ring: …It certainly doesn't sound like this is just sadness. Also I suggest looking out for Yui now.
You: H-Huh?
The Ring: We are just a few rooms down from one another and I just heard her door slam open.
Izuku was confused about what exactly the ghost girl meant with her last two texts, not quite sure how they were related.
At least not until he heard Iida's voice carrying from downstairs.
"Oh hello, Kodai, what are you doing here?" …. "Yes, I do believe he is in his room, did you need him for something- Kodai? Kodai, please! It's incredibly rude to just leave- and she's gone."
A few seconds later and the door to the boy's room opened wide, Yui Kodai herself standing there in a simple cream sweater and blue jeans, her usual frown on her face and her eyebrows furrowed slightly making her look maybe a slight bit angry.
For a moment, Izuku worried he'd done something wrong as she stalked towards him…
Then she hugged him.
His face heated up rapidly, as he awkwardly began to hug her back with no idea what else to do.
"K-Kodai? W-what's with the h-hug?"
"Everyone deserves a hug when they feel sad." She said simply, as if that answered everything. Well in a way it did, her tone was completely flat but even so Izuku could just sense something behind the surface.
Then he remembered what she said about expressing herself. 'Do… Do people not know when she's sad?'
"I… think you have a bit more than just sadness." She said simply, arms kept tight around him. It was a really confusing situation for him but he would be lying if he said he didn't feel… at peace in her embrace, the kindness of the action showing more than any words or facial expression could. "Midoriya… I'm not a professional or anything, and you certainly shouldn't take my word for it but from what I do know… it sounds a lot like depression."
"She's right." A new voice said, making the greenette jump half a mile, accidentally picking the raven haired girl in his grasp with him as his gaze snapped over to his window where Reiko was floating on with a small but prominent frown. She wore nothing more than a simple white gown, clearly sleepwear and she touched down on his floor, casually strolling over to them and taking a seat on the bed. "It's some of the common signs of depression. It might just be a coincidence as well, but it would be worth talking to someone over."
Izuku looked down to his sheets at that, gripping the fabric of Yui's sweater unconsciously.
"That doesn't mean right away. You can do it in your own time… but if you need to talk to someone now, and you still won't talk to your friends… you have us now at least, right Reiko?" Yui asked, turning her attention to the white haired ghost-like girl who nodded her head.
Izuku couldn't help but smile at that, but he was still confused.
"W-Why though?"
"Because, how can we turn down someone when they need help?"
Izuku tightened his fists again. Kodai began rubbing circles into his back.
"It's okay to be sad, Midoriya. We're here…"
That's when the tears began.
That was how it started, how this sudden unexpected friendship with two of 1-B's seemingly most closed off girls began for Izuku.
After they had helped him feel better the night before, having almost cried himself to sleep in Yui's arms (An experience he never expected to have), they'd ultimately had to leave for curfew but not before they promised to be there if he ever needed to talk to someone again.
And what Izuku didn't realize had gone unspoken at the time, to be around him more than they used to in general, because that was exactly what began to happen.
The day after, both girls had shown up unexpectedly to the 1-A dorms, then again and again, daily.
It had been a surprise to everyone, Izuku included, especially as they pretty much exclusively began spending time with him. He certainly couldn't complain, finding that he had a lot of fun when they two visited but he still had to ask why.
When he did, he'd gotten such a simple answer from Reiko.
"If you are not ready to tell other people yet, then someone has to be there for you in case of a bad day."
It was such a simple thing and yet It meant so much to the greenette he didn't even realize.
About a week after the visits started, they even began to occasionally join him for lunch, sharing how their days had been going and such.
One of Izuku's favourite memories since coming to U.A. now definitely had to be the moment Yui learned of a small secret of his.
"-I really don't know what he hoped to accomplish with that move, aside from irritating Kendou." Yui hummed as she ate her lunch across from Izuku. It was just the two of them for once, as Izuku's friends had been preoccupied for one reason or another and Reiko had had to see Vlad King about something. "Trying to understand Monoma is a feat I don't think anyone will ever accomplish. What about you, Midoriya? Anything interesting happen for you lately?"
"Not really, our hero classes have slowed down a bit to focus more on some theory work." The greenette said with a small sigh, swirling the soup in front of him. "Outside of that, all I've really been doing when you and Reiko aren't around has been exercising and growing Tomatoes."
"Wait, what?" The girl asked, looking up and managing to furrow her eyebrows in a way that may have been trying to convey confusion. "You grow tomatoes?"
"O-Oh... yeah, I have a small planter on my balcony." He explained, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle. "My mom thought it would be a good idea to have a hobby when I needed to distract myself. It's silly…"
"…Can I see them when I come up later?"
"H-Huh?"
"I really like tomatoes. They're great." The girl said with a completely straight face and almost monotone voice that Izuku had to do his best not to laugh at. He didn't want to be rude but something about it just tickled him.
"I um… yeah I guess."
And that was how later that day he found himself on his balcony with the raven haired teen, watching her carefully pick out tomatoes, sniff them then devour them whole.
Her face actually lit up, for the first time Izuku saw some real excitement on her face as she let out a loud "MMM" and hopped on her feet, turning to him. "These are the best tomatoes I've ever had!"
"I uh… thank you but I doubt they're THAT good." He said with a slight blush growing, scratching the back of his neck with a small laugh.
"They really are." She assured, picking another before she raised a brow. Then she looked at the vegetable and then to Izuku's face before she hummed. "So that's why I like your face."
"E-Eh!?"
"I said that's why I like your face. It's like a tomato when you blush." She said simply, as if what she was saying was totally normal before she then devoured the tomato whole. "I'm not going to eat your face if that's what your worried about."
Izuku felt ready to collapse from embarrassment as the girl put the thought of her mouth on him into his head.
Her words turned out to be incorrect only a few months into the future as well.
It wasn't uncommon once the two 1-B girls started visiting Izuku to find either the greenette sat in the common room with Yui, drawing together in empty notebooks and eating raw tomatoes together (Something that had thoroughly confused everyone else the first time they saw it.)
It turned out the two had a shared interest in drawing, and as soon as the size-altering teen had found out about the greenette's notebooks she'd been more than happy to draw with him whenever they found a chance, commonly making depictions of each other more than anything. (Izuku's favourite one Yui made was one of him just sat chilling on a mountain top, while her favourite of Izuku's was one that had both her and Reiko, depicted with wings that a certain religious girl in 1-B would have claimed made them look like angels.)
Reiko on the other hand…
"Oh, I think there's a chest if you take a left." Izuku advised as he watched the screen in front of the two. Their homework laid half-finished and forgotten, the ghost girl having managed to get the greenette to cave into a little procrastination just once to have some fun with her.
She held a controller tight in her hands, the two playing a game she had brought with her for them to play. A horror game.
Izuku had been a little reluctant at first but upon seeing her excitement (which while not particularly visible still shone through her usually reserved expressions) and hearing her insistence that it wasn't too scary he'd caved and honestly he was glad he did.
He was having a lot of fun, the two taking turns with each round of the game where they were tasked with escaping a serial killer alongside a few other players online, the scare factor coming from when they found you and began chasing you down.
It was a little morbid but Izuku would be lying if he said he didn't want to find the game after for himself. He would also be lying if he said part of why he was enjoying himself wasn't because every time they killer found them, they both jumped and instinctively moved a little closer.
Totally wasn't a reason he was enjoying himself at all.
Speaking of, right as the girl turned the corner they walked head first into the stealth killer they were up against, the music and heartbeat sounds in the game suddenly kicking in at loud volume and making both the teens jump, Reiko pressing into Izuku's chest for a moment.
She quickly moved away with a small laugh after while Izuku just blushed, trying to ignore the traitorous part of his brain wishing she'd stayed a moment longer.
It was just nice when he had some physical contact.
Still though, in the end, he was having fun and that was all that really mattered.
He got his wish for longer physical contact later, and much more of that for that matter.
It was roughly two months after this entire surprise friendship began that it finally happened, that one of them finally realized where they wanted to take this.
"So then all you gotta do is add another zero onto the end when it comes up." Izuku explained a math problem to Reiko, who let out a relieved sigh as she straightened up, putting down her answer in her notebook.
"That is… so much simpler than Ectoplasm made it." The ghost girl said with a slight irritated but thankful sigh, putting her pencil down. Nearby Yui hummed, a small smile present on her face.
"I thought it was simple enough." She said, putting down her own answers to her English homework she had brought with her.
"W-Well we all learn in different ways." Izuku chuckled, leaning back and looking up to the clock before frowning and letting out a sad sigh. "Drat… times up."
"Already?" Reiko asked, checking for herself and grumbling upon seeing the time. "Dang it. Stupid curfew…"
"Well, we should hurry to make it back." Yui said, standing up and packing quickly, grabbing a few tomatoes from the bowl Izuku had set out for them and the two girls getting to the door. Before they left though, they both turned back and pulled the green haired teen into one big hug, all of them wearing small but genuine smiles.
"Do not forget we are on for that game tomorrow, Midori." Reiko said with a small chuckle. "I'm going to win, you know."
"We'll see." The boy chuckled, while Yui nuzzled slightly into him before she let go, making him blush. Her smile was coming out more and more lately…
And it was absolutely gorgeous.
"We'll try that drawing challenge thing you wanted to do soon as well, right? It sounded like it could be a lot of fun."
"Yeah, I can't wait." He said, flashing her a bright toothy smile. With that, the two girls finally set off even though they really didn't want to, smiles shrinking slightly but never leaving their faces as they left the 1-A dorms.
"…I am glad we decided to start visiting him." Reiko suddenly spoke up, surprising Yui as they got closer to their own dorms. The raven haired teen raised a brow and the poltergeist girl just smiled softly. "I feel… happier for some reason since we started hanging out."
"…Yeah, I think I understand what you mean. It's like everything just feels that little bit better nowadays. I really hope things are the same for him." Yui said, her smile growing as she thought about the past experiences they'd had with the boy over the two months. So simple and normal yet somehow amazing all the same.
It was that thought that left her happy expression on her face as she walked into the 1-B dorms, only for there to be a loud gasp the second one of her classmates spotted her.
"Oh my god! Kodai!" Setsuna Tokage shouted as she barrelled towards the two returning students, eyes glimmering. "You're smiling!"
"H-Huh?" The size-altering girl asked in confusion, before she felt her face and confirmed that yes indeed, she was smiling.
"Oh my god! Who did it?! Who finally made you crack?!"
"O-Oh… well I guess…" Her eyes widened. "Izuku."
Suddenly, things came into clarity. Her eyes shifted to her ghost like friend, who seemed to be having some kind of similar revelation upon seeing her own while Setsuna let out a delighted squeal, excited for her friends.
Later that night, both Reiko and Yui sat on the ghost girls bed, sharing glances.
"You're sure about this?" Kodai asked.
"Yeah… yeah I want to try it." Her white haired friend said with a nod. "He is sweet, the worst that can happen is we all just go back to being friends again, right?"
"Right…"
With that assurance in mind, Yui picked up her phone. There was only one appropriate way to do this in her mind.
Izuku:
You: Midoriya… would you like to go on a date?
Izuku: E-Eh?! With you?
You: And Reiko. Both of us are happy when we are with you. We want to give it a try, please.
They only had to wait a couple of moments for a response.
Izuku: YESPLEASETHANKYOU!
After that, things only continued to move forward for the trio and the rest, as they say, was history.
