Work Text:
First year
Hanta
Hanta was unsure of when he and Iida Tenya had started getting close, all he knew was that they were three quarters of the way through their first year at UA, and Hanta could accurately call his class president one of his closest friends.
Hanta knew how it all started. It was the weekend before the first final exams they would have since moving into the dorms, and Hanta was exhausted, stressed, and more than a little lacking in self esteem. Hanta considered himself to be a fairly upbeat person most of the time, but after their last set of final exams, he felt he had a reason to be less than positive.
One wouldn’t know it from looking at his class ranking, but Hanta’s grades had actually been near the top of his class all throughout middle school. He was considered by his peers and his teachers to be an intelligent boy, one who was quick to learn and eager to work hard. And yet, at UA, he was 17th in a class of 20 people. Not to mention, he was one of only five people who failed his practical exam! Even the pervert grape boy who was his partner had passed, so why didn’t he?
Maybe I’m actually stupid. Maybe middle school was my peak, and now the material is just too hard. Maybe… I don’t actually have what it takes.
Hanta was curled up in the corner of the study room on the fifth floor, trying to keep himself from spiraling into a panic attack. He focused on his breathing, that was what all of the self-help sites said to do, but no matter what he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking.
I’ll fail these tests, I’ll fail the practical again. Sensei will be able to tell I’m not good at this, everyone will make jokes about how dumb I am, and it’ll be true, they’ll be right. I’ll be kicked out of UA, and my parents will ask why they spent so much money on me, why would they be proud of a son who’s such a failure. I should just give up now, make life easier—
“Sero-kun?”
Hanta pulled his head from between his knees, trying to get his eyes to focus on the shape in the door. The tears in his eyes cleared, and the figure came into focus. “Iida?”
“Yes. Are you alright? Do you need medical attention?” Iida stepped into the room, and carefully approached Hanta, who stood up and pasted a wide grin on his face.
“I’m totally fine, prez! I was just taking a little study break, but I’m gonna get right back to it!”
Iida looked at him appraisingly, and after a pause, said “Are you actually okay, or do you just want me to leave?”
Hanta was startled. Most people took blatant lies as excuses to leave uncomfortable situations, but he supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised that Iida, their reliable class president, would be an exception to that rule.
His instinct was to lie again, to say that everything really was okay, that he was just fine, to not worry about him, but something stopped him.
“Actually,” Hanta started to say as he looked down, pulling absentmindedly on his hair. “I’m pretty stressed about finals. I was kind of… spiralling, before you came in. I just, I don’t know what to do.”
Iida went to go look at Hanta’s notes that were strewn across the table. “Wasn’t Bakugou-kun helping you study? Or Yaoyorozu-san?”
“Yeah,” Hanta weakly chuckled as he sat down at the table, Iida doing the same. “Bakugou’s ‘tutoring’ works for most of my friends, but it’s not really my style.”
Iida laughed lightly, surprising Hanta. Iida had been remarkably gentle the whole time, which seemed out of character for the boisterous class president that Hanta was familiar with. “Yes, I’d imagine Bakugou-kun’s tutoring style would be… aggressive.”
“That it is,” Hanta said, smiling. “And loud.”
Iida surprised him again with a soft smile of his own. Hanta had never imagined affixing the description of “soft” to Iida Tenya, but then again, he’d never really interacted with the boy one-on-one before. “What about Yaoyorozu-san? I know she helped you study for the last set of finals.”
“Ah,” Hanta said awkwardly, tugging at his hair again, “yeah, she did her best. She’s really smart, but there were a lot of us, and most of her explanations didn’t really help me. Ah, I know they helped other people!” Hanta hastily added, not wanting to undersell Yaoyorozu’s tutoring skills, “But I don’t really know what I’m doing wrong, so I don’t really know what to fix.”
“I’d imagine that would make studying difficult.”
“Yeah! I always go into tests thinking I really understand the concepts, and then I always do mediocre at best. It’s… it’s…”
“Disheartening?” Iida offered.
“Yeah! Exactly! And it’s stressful, cause I know I’m gonna get stuff wrong, but clearly studying more won’t help!” Hanta took a deep breath, feeling that the tension in his chest had loosened. It was a relief to just have his fears heard, even if they weren’t fixed.
Oh, so this is why people like therapy. Huh.
Iida was silent for a bit, looking through Hanta’s notes. Hanta didn’t let it bother him. Iida was clearly thinking, and Hanta was feeling much calmer now that he had talked.
“I think I could help you, if you’d like, Sero-kun,” Iida said, looking up and making eye contact with Hanta. “Maybe having someone work with you one-on-one could clear up some of your confusion.”
“That’s very kind, Iida, but I don’t want to take up your time! I know you’re busy—”
“Please don’t worry about that, Sero-kun. I would not have offered if I didn’t think I had the time. Besides, one of the most beneficial things you can do to further your own learning is to teach others. This would benefit me as well.”
Hanta blinked, and looked at Iida’s face, looking for signs of apprehension. He found none, and slowly started nodding. “I would really appreciate the help.”
“Then let’s get started!” Iida declared.
* * *
“So, to find this angle, I should use the...” Hanta hesitated, worried about saying something incorrect. He didn’t want to look dumb in front of the second smartest person in the class. He knew logically that the whole point of these study sessions was to help him raise his already-low grades, but he wished he didn’t need them at all. He wanted Iida to know that.
“I will correct you if you’re wrong, but you should try and walk me through your thought process. That way, you will learn better and I will be a more effective tutor,” Iida said once he saw that Hanta wasn’t going to complete his sentence.
Hanta sighed, and turned back to his pace. “To find this angle, I should use the… tangent?” He watched Iida’s face, hoping for the approving nod that the boy gave when he did a problem right. No such nod came, and Hanta’s face lit up red with embarrassment.
“That’s incorrect. Can you walk me through your process?”
“I don’t know, Iida!” Hanta said, pushing away from the table and standing up in frustration. He ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes, horrified to realize that tears were prickling behind his lids. “I don’t understand where to start these problems! I just, I don’t know where I’m going wrong.” Hanta sighed and dropped his head into his hands, trying to discreetly rub the snot from his nose.
He heard Iida push back his chair and stand up, and felt the class president approach him. “It is getting late, and it might be best if we finished for the day,” Iida said after a moment’s hesitation.
“What?” Hanta jerked his head out of his hands and whipped it around to look at Iida. “Wait, no, don’t give up on me, man! I can get this, I swear! Just—”
“Sero-kun!” Iida interjected, raising a hand to Hanta’s shoulder and squeezing it tightly, grounding him. “It is nearly 10 PM, and we have been working for three hours already. Your brain is exhausted. You did well today, so why don’t we go to sleep and pick up again tomorrow. I’ll explain trigonometry when you are best prepared to understand it.”
Hanta slumped his shoulders, and nodded. “Okay,” he said, “that makes sense, dude.”
“Sero-kun,” Iida said, squeezing his shoulder again. “You are picking this material up quickly, so I fully believe that you can, in fact, understand this. I am not lying when I say it is difficult to understand things late at night when you have been working for several hours already. Do not despair! We will pick this up again tomorrow.”
Hanta grinned tentatively. “Thanks, dude.” Iida smiled back at him, and they started packing up their materials.
Hanta knew he was an outgoing guy, and he generally presented himself as confident. But he was pretty chock full of insecurities, he had just learned to hide them pretty well. His quirk itself wasn’t particularly hazardous. His tape could get stuck to dangerous things, but in and of itself his quirk didn’t put him at risk. The way Hanta chose to use his quirk, however, was very dangerous. He swung, and hoped there would be something else for him to latch onto.
He’d fallen many times, and though his years of gymnastic training had taught him how to avoid serious injuries from falls, he also hadn’t fallen from anywhere too high yet. He knew that would change. If Hanta was going to use his quirk to be a hero, he knew that he couldn’t afford to hesitate. That meant that he just got very good at shoving his insecurities deep deep down. That wasn’t healthy, and he knew that, but that hadn’t stopped him so far. Maybe… maybe he could be himself more around Iida. Iida, for whatever reason, seemed to see him.
Tenya walked Sero back to his room, and then started heading down the stairs, towards his own place of residence. He reflected on the study session as he descended, pondering what he could do better for the next time.
The session had gone much better than he had expected, frankly. He had always had respect for Sero for being a fellow hero course student. He knew that attending UA, especially UA’s hero course, was no easy task, and that one had to be intelligent to get in, but he had always seen Sero as a bit of a slacker. He was 17th in the class after all.
After working with the boy for three hours, Tenya could tell that his prior judgement was poorly founded. Sero was bright, he just struggled to pay attention in the lecture-based classes, and that worked against him when it came time to do the assignments and exams.
Sero was also willing to work hard, an attribute that Tenya heavily respected. Natural intelligence is helpful, yes, but Tenya had always found that one could make up for a lack of natural skill in a field with simple drive and effort. Sero had that drive, he just needed better resources. Resources that Tenya, as class president, was proud to assist in providing.
Regardless of Tenya’s responsibilities to assist his struggling classmates, he had simply enjoyed spending time with Sero. The boy had an inviting personality, and was quite funny when he wasn’t frustrated with triangles. Tenya had enjoyed the way that Sero had explained concepts to himself, finding his methods of coming up with puns or ridiculous acronyms entertaining. It was also clever. If he thought a memory device was funny, he was more likely to remember it.
Yes, Tenya had underestimated Sero, but he was very much looking forward to continuing to work with him.
* * *
Hanta threw his pencil down and cheered, running his hands through his hair and slumping back into his chair. “I’m done!” He sighed.
Next to him, Iida chuckled. “Indeed,” he said. “Excellent work, Sero-kun.” Iida started stacking up Hanta’s papers and putting his pens into his pencil-shaped pencil case. “How are you feeling about the material? As you know, the exams begin tomorrow,” Iida said.
Hanta sat up from his slump and started assisting Iida in the cleanup of the study room. “It’s the best I’ve felt about a UA test so far,” he said, shrugging. “You’re really good at finding different ways to explain the concepts. Teachers usually don’t have the time to do that, so if I don’t get their line of reasoning, then I’m screwed.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Sero-kun!” Iida said, grabbing their food containers and putting them into the trash can. “I appreciate your compliments, but you were also easy to instruct. I often found that when I landed on an explanation that worked for you, you latched onto it fairly easily. That is a skill in and of itself,” Iida said, holding the door of the study room for Hanta as the two of them left.
“Well, I’m glad I wasn’t frustrating to tutor, at least!” Hanta laughed, feeling light for the first time in a week. The two of them walked to Hanta’s room, and he opened the door and stepped inside. Iida hesitated at the threshold, and Hanta beckoned him in, shutting the door behind him.
“Thank you for inviting me in,” Iida said, standing stiffly in the middle of the room. Hanta settled on one of the large pillows that he piled in the corner of his room, and patted the open space next to him. Iida took the hint and sat down on the pillow, flumping down gracelessly. Hanta chuckled a little. “You were not difficult to teach at all!” Iida said indignantly, rotating to face him. “Even if you were, I benefited from teaching you as well, as I said.”
Hanta laughed, and grinned at him. “Well I’m glad that even if I’m so stupid that I still fail, at least I won’t have totally wasted your time!” He laughed good naturedly, but was cut off by Iida.
“Sero-kun,” he said, looking intently into Hanta’s eyes. “You are many things, as I have realized while spending time with you. Stupid, however, is not one of them.”
Hanta sat in the silence that followed, a silence that felt like it was teetering on some sort of precipice, waiting to fall into… something. Hanta wasn’t sure what. He stared at Iida’s eyes, compelling and intense, and inhaled suddenly as he felt his stomach do something funny.
He’s… really pretty, Hanta realized suddenly, unwilling to look away from Iida’s face. Oh shit. Oh no. Don’t do this, Hanta. He wrenched his head to the side and looked down, trying to disguise the blush that he could feel flooding to his cheeks. “Thanks, man,” he said sheepishly, pulling on a strand of his hair.
“You’re welcome, Sero-kun,” Iida said. The air grew silent again, although this silence felt less anticipatory and more awkward.
“So, Class Prez,” Hanta drawled, standing up from the pillows and moving to put his school stuff away on his desk, still trying to mask his blush. “How are you feeling about the school year so far?” He asked, hoping desperately to start a conversation.
“That is a difficult question to answer, Sero-kun,” Iida said, also standing up and assisting Hanta at his desk. “I have enjoyed many of the academic moments that I have had the opportunity to experience! I have also deeply disliked the multiple villain encounters that our class has had the misfortune of being party to.”
“I feel that, dude!” Hanta said, flopping on his bed. He felt Iida sit hesitantly on the very edge of the bed, clearly taking up as little space as possible. “How about our classmates? How do you feel about them?” He nudged at Iida with his foot, trying to get him to loosen up. This worked a little bit, and Iida relaxed somewhat, shifting his weight more solidly onto the bed.
“I highly respect all of our classmates!” Iida said passionately. Hanta grinned, fondly amused by the boy’s increased intensity. “All of them are working extremely hard to be heroes, and are using their quirks in creative and impressive ways!”
“I totally agree, dude,” Hanta said, chuckling a little. “Anyone catch your eye?”
Wait, hold up.
“I don’t follow,” Iida said, looking confused. “Catch my eye in what way?”
Not right now, Hanta.
“You know,” Hanta said. “Anyone looking cute?”
You can’t do this! You just realized you liked him! Now is super duper not the time!
“Ah,” Iida said, awkwardly rubbing his hands together, as if he were trying to slowly warm them up with friction. “No, I’m… I’m not exactly interested in dating,” Iida said, glancing nervously at Hanta.
Now you’ve made him uncomfortable. You dumb idiot stupidhead—
“No worries, dude! You got other focuses than significant others! I dig that!” Hanta said, leaning back casually onto his elbows.
Hanta watched as Iida relaxed a little, and he searched quickly for a conversation topic that would ease him further. “How are your friends? You’ve made a group, right? With Midoriya and the others?” Hanta watched as Iida’s eyes softened, growing less impassioned and more fond. Wow, he thought. There’s more to him than I thought there was. I guess that makes sense. He’s a human being, after all.
“I feel very lucky to have their friendship,” Iida said, softer than before. “They are intelligent and heroic, yes, but they are also caring and supportive, and they would do anything to help the people they care about. I am grateful to be surrounded by them every day,” Iida said, smiling softly, not looking at Hanta.
“That’s awesome, dude,” Hanta said, sitting up on his bed and lightly punching Iida in the arm. “Friends are great.” He hesitated. “Maybe… maybe we could keep hanging out, and we could be friends, too?” Hanta said, quickly looking away, not wanting to see Iida’s face if he suddenly started looking pitying, or disgusted, or something.
“I would love that, Sero-kun,” he heard Iida say, and he turned his head back, seeing Iida smiling gently at him. “I enjoy spending time with you, and I am eager to continue to do so.”
Hanta grinned. “Heck yeah, dude, let’s do it.” He held his hand out for a high five, which Iida eagerly slapped very strongly. Hanta suppressed his wince of pain and saw Iida out the door and down the hall. As Iida walked into the stairwell to go back to his own dorm, Hanta closed the door to his room and flopped on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and sighing.
Listen, he thought at himself sternly. Iida’s gonna be a friend, and nothing more, okay? So we’re gonna nip this little crush in the bud, got that?
Hanta was pretty sure he could hear his own brain laughing at him.
* * *
bakugou’s only friends
adhesive properties
I just finished that essay for english!!
Anyone wanna hang out?
Alien Queen
we’re halfway through the new all might documentary in baku’s room rn
adhesive properties
All of you?
The Rock™
yeah! me and mina were talking outside of bakugou’s room, and then jirou and kami came up the stairs, so we figured we’d hang out!
it was all spontaneous
adhesive properties
Kami and Jirou, huh???
lightning mcqueen
stop rubbing it in, bro
aux squared
no, thank you sero
sometimes its nice to be reminded that i did, in fact, land Yaoyorozu Momo
and that kaminari had a crush on a lesbian for a WHOLE YEAR
lightning mcqueen
i hate you both
Alien Queen
come watch with us sero!
adhesive properties
Nah, you’re halfway through, and i don't really care about all might documentaries
Have fun though!
Hanta put his phone away and flopped back into his hammock. He sometimes was disappointed that he lived on the fifth floor of the dorms. He actually really liked the height. It felt relaxing and private, and he appreciated that. But all of his friends lived on the two lower floors, and together. This wasn’t the first time that the rest of the group had spontaneously hung out just because they were around each other, and it wouldn’t be the last. Hanta knew it wasn’t personal, he knew he could join the group midway through and they’d welcome him, but it just wasn’t the same.
Hanta pulled himself out of his hammock and made his way downstairs to the kitchen. He started prepping a snack and considered how he would spend the rest of his evening. As he was contemplating the merits of watching YouTube all night or borrowing the next volume of Haikyuu from Todoroki, Iida walked into the kitchen.
“Good evening, Sero-kun!” Iida said as he pulled a protein bar out of a cabinet and a bottle of orange juice from the fridge.
“Oh, hi Iida!” Sero said, pleasantly surprised to run into his friend. “What are you up to this evening?”
“I confess that I have no plans,” Iida said as he grabbed a glass from a cabinet and poured the orange juice into it, returning the bottle to the fridge when he finished. “I finished all of my classwork, but I have nothing else to complete, and find myself at a loss for ideas.”
“Well,” Hanta said, sitting at the dining room table, “I was thinking about scrolling through YouTube for a while, but how do you feel about doing something together?”
“That would be quite pleasant, I think,” Iida said, and the two of them migrated to the common room. “There are some puzzles in the game cabinet that I’ve been thinking about doing, but haven’t had the time to yet. Would you like to do one with me?”
Hanta hadn’t done a puzzle since he was in daycare, so he figured putting together something more complicated than a twenty-piece All Might photo might be fun. “Sure! Sounds fun!”
They went to the cabinet and sorted through the puzzles, eventually settling on one that depicted an arbor of cherry blossom trees in bloom, with a couple walking through them, hand in hand. It looked peaceful.
Iida carefully dumped out the puzzle onto the coffee table in front of the couch, and started flipping the pieces so they all sat face up. He put some aside as he flipped them.
“I haven’t done a puzzle in a while,” Hanta admitted. “What are you doing with those pieces?”
“Oh! Let me describe my process to you, Sero-kun!” Iida said, firmly but not too loudly. “I flip all the pieces face up, so that we may best ascertain where they fit into the image later. As I flip, I set aside the edge and corner pieces,” Iida lifted one and pointed out the straight edge to Hanta. “Some puzzlers like to work from the center outward, but I find I work best when the outside is completed first, as it gives me a sense of scale.”
Hanta chuckled good-naturedly. “Makes sense, dude. I’ll do the same, then.” He started copying Iida, and the two worked in companionable silence for a few minutes.
Hanta paused for a second and started playing some light background music on his phone. A romantic atmosphere, his brain prodded at him as he set his phone down. No, he thought. Shut up, brain. I’m just doing a puzzle with my good friend. My buddy. He and Iida both reached for the same piece and their fingers brushed. They both laughed lightly, and Iida selected a different piece to flip. That romantic cliché does not invalidate my friend argument, brain.
“So, what’re your friends up to, Class Prez?” Hanta asked as they constructed the outline, the two of them working surprisingly in sync. Hanta would be missing a piece and Iida would hand it to him without Hanta having to ask. Hanta would notice Iida working on a chunk and add some of the appropriate pieces to his pile. We work well together, he thought with pride.
“My friends are with their significant others this evening,” Iida said.
“Oh,” Hanta said, pausing in his efforts to focus on his friend, who resolutely kept working. “That kinda… sucks, dude.”
“It is not something I am deeply bothered by,” Iida siad, reaching for another piece to add to his chunk. “I am not jealous of them for being in relationships. I am happy for them, in fact.”
“Still, it sucks that you’re left high and dry.”
“Maybe,” Iida said, and then sighed. He set his piece down and looked at Hanta, dropping a guard that Hanta hadn’t realized was up until that moment. “I was not lying when I said I am not jealous, that I’m happy for them, but,” and Iida looked back down at the table, as if suddenly maintaining eye contact was hard, “I admit that it can feel… isolating at times. To be the only friend left alone.”
Hanta lifted his hand and squeezed Iida’s shoulder, reassuring him that he was there, that Iida wasn’t alone. “I know if I ever voiced my loneliness, my friends would drop anything and be by my side,” Iida continued, looking back at Hanta. “But I don’t want them to have to sacrifice time with their partners, especially when I really will be fine on my own.”
“That’s very noble, Iida,” Hanta said, squeezing Iida’s shoulder one final time before returning to the puzzle. “Bordering on self-sacrificing.” Iida snorted at that, and sorted through some pieces. “I kind of understand where you’re coming from, though. None of my friends are dating each other,” yet, he silently added, “but they live closer to each other than I do, so sometimes they’ll spontaneously hang out without me.”
Iida attached a completed section to the border and paused in his puzzle assembly, devoting his whole attention to Hanta. He knew that most people had the perception that Iida was a very loud, intense person 24/7. While those people weren’t completely wrong, Hanta knew that if you were lucky enough to interact with Iida one-on-one, you could be witness to his moments of quiet intensity. This focus that permeated the atmosphere, that drew you in to Iida’s presence. This intensity that was palpable, nearly tangible, that made Iida feel so solidly present, even when he wasn’t speaking. Hanta loved Iida’s quiet intensities. He always felt so seen, so understood.
“I also get that I’m welcome to join the hang outs, that I would never be excluded, but sometimes it’s just not the same, you know?”
“I do,” Iida said. “Is that why you are not with your friends this evening?”
“Yeah,” Hanta replied. Then he grinned. “I kinda like this better, though. A quiet night was exactly what I needed, and I love my friends but they are not quiet.” Iida laughed at that and returned to the puzzle, adding some of the last remaining pieces to the scene.
“Besides,” Hanta said, punching Iida’s arm lightly, “we’re friends too, right?”
“Of course we are!” Iida exclaimed, while adding the final piece. “I quite enjoy your company, Sero-kun.”
“Likewise.”
The two stared at the completed puzzle, looking at the cherry blossom petals swirling around the couple, at the sunlight permeating through pink branches. The image seemed to simultaneously capture a moment and a lifelime.
“I haven’t had the chance to see the cherry blossoms bloom in years,” Iida admitted, still looking at the puzzle.
“Yeah, me neither,” Hanta said wistfully.
“Would you like to go with me this year, when they bloom?” Iida asked, looking at Hanta. His face was innocent, but Sero felt a blush rising.
That’s a date, Iida! You can’t do this to me! I’m too gay! I’ll die!
“That sounds awesome,” Hanta replied, smiling gently.
* * *
“Iida! Iida!” Hanta called, chasing after Iida as he walked with his friends towards the cafeteria.
“Yes, Sero-kun?” he asked, turning around. Midoriya, Asui, Uraraka, and Todoroki paused with him.
“Sorry, I’ll just be a second,” Hanta said, looking at the rest of Iida’s group and catching his breath after running from the classroom. “Class Prez, I asked Aizawa-sensei if I could go to one of the UA obstacle courses after classes today, and he said that I could as long as I brought someone else. Could you go with me?” Hanta watched Midoriya and Uraraka look at each other in surprise. He realized that he and Iida had only ever really studied together and then subsequently hung out. There was probably no one else in their class who realized they were friends.
“I would be honored, Sero-kun!” Iida said, smiling. “But would you be more comfortable with one of your friends being there?”
“Dude,” Hanta said, grinning and lightly punching Iida’s shoulder. “You’re one of my friends. Besides,” he added, blushing at Iida’s answering smile and ducking his head, “you’ve been the one helping me with my hero work, so I thought you might want to be there when I test some of it out?” He saw Todoroki mouth “hero work?” at Midoriya.
“In that case,” Iida said, softer than before, “I look forward to meeting you after class, Sero-kun.”
“Thanks, dude!” Hanta said, before leaving Iida with his friends.
That afternoon, the two of them met up outside one of the training fields that contained an obstacle course. UA had several, of course, but this one was designed specifically for free running, making it excellent for both Hanta and Iida to practice on. Hanta was pretty sure that Aizawa was lurking somewhere nearby in case something went horribly wrong, but other than that it was just the two of them.
“I presume this is a race,” Iida said as he pulled his gym uniform pants up to his knees.
“Naturally,” Hanta said, rolling his gym uniform sleeves up past his elbows.
“You should know that I don’t intend to lose,” Iida said, running through some final stretches.
“Intentions mean nothing if you can’t follow through,” Hanta said, side eyeing Iida, who paused his stretches and looked at him.
“Touché,” Iida said.
They braced themselves, and Hanta counted them down from three. When he said “go”, both he and Iida shot off, Iida using his engines and staying grounded while Hanta attached his tape to the nearest tall structure and swung forward.
Hanta proceeded to mostly block Iida out, focusing on feeling when his body had hit its peak momentum before switching tape anchor points, looking at potential heights of buildings and how they might affect his swing arc, and looking ahead to avoid having to be grounded. Sometimes Iida came into his field of vision, and Hanta was pleased to see that he was keeping up with the boy who’s quirk was literally to be fast.
After a few minutes of swinging he saw the end of the course and kept steady, releasing his tape at the peak of his final swing, doing a flip, and landing over the finish line. Iida was waiting for him, but he was panting for breath and his engines were still smoking.
“Dang!” Hanta exclaimed as he straightened out and started doing some cool-down stretches for his arms. “When did you pass the finish line?”
“About three seconds before you did,” Iida said, still gasping for air. “That was excellent, Sero-kun!”
“Thanks, dude!” Hanta said, pulling Iida over to a nearby structure and sitting down on it. Iida pulled a water bottle out of his water bottle holster—dork, Hanta thought fondly—and started drinking it at a slow, responsible rate. Iida pulled out a second water bottle from a second water bottle holster—huge dork, Hanta corrected himself, grinning—and handed it to Hanta, who started chugging it. He promptly choked on the water, had to spit some of it back up, spilled it all over his front, and had to have Iida thump on his back for a solid minute. Iida was very strong, Hanta noted numbly as he tried to get his breathing under control.
“The last time our class ran this obstacle course, I believe your time was significantly longer, Sero-kun,” Iida remarked after saving Hanta from his own stupidity. “I am very impressed that you have shaved whole minutes off of your personal best after such a short amount of time!”
“Yeah!” Hanta said, grinning widely at Iida. “It turns out that physics and trigonometry is super helpful for how I use my quirk! So I worked out a ton of math after you taught me how to do it!”
“Really?” Iida asked, sounding bewildered. “I am… pleased to hear that I have been able to assist you in other ways than just homework.” Iida looked down, seeming uncharacteristically shy. “I am… unused to this. None of my friends need additional assistance with the practical aspects of their quirk. Midoriya-kun is excellent at that sort of thing, so I do not have any useful contributions. I am glad that I can help you, however. It feels… nice.”
“Totally, dude!” Hanta said, elbowing Iida in the arms and peering up into his face. “You’ve been super helpful in a ton of different ways, just like a class president should be!” Hanta watched with fond amusement as Iida preened over his words. “Although, the best thing you do for me? Honestly?”
Iida nodded at him to continue.
“You believe in me.”
* * *
“I really don’t understand the draw of Monopoly.”
“Sero-kun, it’s important to understand how dangerous it can be for wealthy companies to acquire even greater assets! If regulations are not in place, these various corporations can conglomerate even greater power than the citizens of a country! Monopoly aids in demonstrating that concept.”
Hanta hummed, and looked at Iida appraisingly. Iida stared back at him, a wholly convincing earnest expression on his face. Anyone looking at him now could tell that he deeply believed the words he had passionately declared.
Well, almost anyone.
“No,” Hanta said, a wide grin slowly spreading across his face. “I’m calling bullshit.”
And there it was. The tiniest flick of the eyebrow. Most everyone knew Iida Tenya to be the most earnest person anyone had ever met, but Hanta knew the truth. For such an adamantly genuine person, Iida had the best poker face of anyone Hanta had ever met.
“I have no idea what you are suggesting, Sero-kun,” Iida said, his questioning facial expression annoyingly convincing. “Why would I lie about the importance of this activity?”
“I think,” Hanta said, not trying to hide his smug grin, “you’re just trying to prevent us all from quitting, since you’re about three properties away from winning.”
Iida’s face immediately contorted into shock and offense, and Mina, who was sitting across the board from Hanta, looked at him with a distressed expression.
“Sero!” Mina said through her teeth, “don’t say mean things about the prez!”
Hanta flashed his friend a grin, and then looked back at Iida’s face. He was struggling more now, Hanta could tell. Iida’s mouth kept twitching upward. He should only need a little more of a push to break.
“So, then,” Hanta drawled, slowly collecting his Monopoly money that had been steadily dwindling for the past hour, “I assume you wouldn’t mind if Sero Inc. suddenly became a nonprofit, and decided to donate all of it’s funds to Todoroki Heating and Cooling?” Hanta pushed his money at Todoroki, who had been occupying himself with building a tower from the little plastic houses for the past half an hour. The boy clearly didn’t care about the game—he was just enjoying talking to Midoriya, who had finished his homework and had been observing for a while—but he currently held property on two of the three spaces that Iida needed. He was Iida’s biggest obstacle, and the class president knew it.
Iida’s eyebrows twitched, visibly. “Of course not, Sero-kun. Obviously, nonprofits should be praised.”
“Excellent,” Hanta said. “Mina, how do you feel about nonprofits?”
Mina wasn’t anywhere near as attuned to Iida as Hanta was, but she was excellent at picking up on a bit and seeing it through. “I love nonprofits! Todo-kun, take my money too!”
Hanta stared at Iida challengingly, and Iida stared back. Neither boy backed down, and the seconds seemed to lengthen as the tension rose in the room. Hanta knew that he had the upper hand, so he refused to back down.
Hanta watched as Iida’s mouth twitched, and he ripped his eyes away, finally breaking his crumbling poker face. “Fine, Sero-kun,” Iida said. “You win. I’ve just always wanted to win at Monopoly!”
Hanta watched as Mina’s mouth dropped and Todoroki laid down on Midoriya’s shoulder, fast asleep. “Iida, the reason you’ll never win a game of Monopoly is that no one in their right mind would ever finish a game of Monopoly! It takes like, three hours!”
“I would agree that the game is objectively a bad one,” Iida said as he began to clean up the pieces.
“But that didn’t stop your machinations,” Hanta teased as he started sorting the money into piles to be put away.
“Indeed,” Iida said, smirking. “I’ve never beat anyone in my family. I assumed that the situation may be different here. As an aside, I must commend your word choice with ‘machinations’.”
“Thank you. I used it just for you. And dude,” Hanta said as they finished putting the game away, “I support you, but if you ever draw me into a game of Monopoly again, I’ll spike your morning orange juice with Fanta.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“I would.”
* * *
Second year
“Listen, Dunce Face, your quirk is shitty when it breaks your brain! You’ll never beat me with it!” Bakugou produced some mid-sized explosions while he screamed at Kaminari, who laughed loudly. Kirishima went to hold back Bakugou from yet another attempted murder, and Jirou and Mina talked to each other in the corner of the room, speaking loudly to be heard over the fight.
Hanta was overwhelmed.
There was too much sound in the small dorm room. He had been having bad nightmares for the past couple weeks, and last night was no exception. Now it felt like he was on the edge of a mental breakdown, and Hanta was not particularly experienced in dealing with those.
He stood up quietly and slipped out of the room, grabbing the manga he had been trying to read before it had gotten so loud.
He walked down to the common room, and saw the trees in full bloom and the sun shining outside. Perfect, Hanta thought, and headed outside.
He went into the trees, to a spot near a running path, and set up a tape hammock between two of them. He hopped in and reopened the manga, adhering a long piece of tape to a neighboring tree and using it to swing the hammock gently. The sun cascaded through the leaves and the petals, painting a mosaic of multicolored light across Hanta’s face. He closed his eyes, basking in the heat of the sun’s rays and feeling the gentle wind across his face. He heard the leaves rustling and the movements of the birds. His heart slowed and his brain calmed.
He spent time in his hammock, and after about half an hour he heard footsteps rhythmically pounding the running path. He popped his head out of the confines of the hammock, and grinned as he saw Iida approaching, jogging without the use of his quirk. Iida slowed to a stop next to Hanta and smiled at him.
“Sero-kun! What a pleasant surprise to see you out here!”
“Hi there, Prez!” Hanta swung his legs out of the hammock and sat up, grinning broadly at Iida. “What are you up to?”
“I was doing some light jogging around the campus with Midoriya-kun earlier! He left to do some strength training, but the day was so lovely that I decided to complete a few more laps,” Iida replied. He pulled a water bottle from a hip holster—Stupid, Hanta thought fondly—and took a drink. “How long have you been out here? I didn’t see you during my previous lap.”
“Ah, I’ve only been out here for about half an hour. It was too pretty a day to stay inside!” Hanta said, staring up into Iida’s eyes. They look so pretty in the sunlight— shut up, Hanta, you gay idiot.
“May I join you?” Iida asked, “Or would you prefer to continue to enjoy your solitude?”
He’s so considerate, Hanta thought. Shut up, you gay idiot.
“Of course, Prez!” Hanta scooted over in the hammock, clearing a spot next to him.
“Is that hammock made of your tape?” Iida asked, hesitating before sitting down. “Is it strong enough to bear both of our weights?”
“Oh yeah! The tensile strength is pretty high. So is the adhesion!” Hanta said, and Iida slowly sat down, relaxing when he felt the hammock easily support his weight.
I’ve made a mistake, Hanta thought, as the hammock forced the two of their sides closely together. Hanta knew that Iida was buff, he’d seen him at UA’s swimming pool before. But it was one thing to know that Iida was buff and another thing to feel him pressed against him.
“Your quirk is truly remarkable, Sero-kun,” Iida said, running his hand over Hanta’s tape hammock. “Its versatility makes it extremely valuable in a variety of situations. I admire your use of it.”
“Thank you, Iida,” Hanta said, flushing. “That’s kind of you to say.”
“It’s simply the truth,” Iida said, leaning back and relaxing further.
The two of them continued to lounge in companionable silence, Iida scrolling through something on his phone and Hanta finishing his manga. When he read the last chapter, he set the book aside.
“Would you like to walk around the grounds with me before the sun sets?” Iida asked after a moment.
“Definitely!” Hanta replied. Iida got up and offered Hanta a hand, helping him out of the hammock. Hanta detached the hammock and balled it up, tossing it into a nearby compost bin when they walked past it.
“Do you have plans for the upcoming break?” Iida asked.
“Yeah! Me and the squad are gonna do a big movie marathon at Kaminari’s place! It’s probably gonna last like three days, it’s gonna be super fun!”
Hanta paused.
“Although, I’m kinda scared that it’s gonna get overwhelming after a little while…” Hanta trailed.
“Really? Why?” Iida asked, concern flooding his voice.
“Ah, nothing bad! They’re just kinda a loud group of people, you know? I love them, but sometimes I just need a break from the sound.” Iida nodded in understanding. “That’s actually why I was outside today,” Hanta said, looking down and tugging at his hair sheepishly.
“Ah, I admit I can relate, although I fear that I am usually the loud one in a group,” Iida said, while gently pulling Hanta’s hand away from his hair. Hanta blushed furiously. Iida did not release his hand, and Hanta certainly wasn’t planning on doing so. “I struggle controlling my volume when I am not in a small group, and I only realize I am shouting when one of my friends informs me. It is not the most pleasant feeling, to know you have made your friends uncomfortable or overwhelmed.”
Hanta squeezed Iida’s hand reassuringly. “I understand, and I’m sure your friends do, too.”
“Thank you, Sero-kun,” Iida said gratefully.
“How is your brother doing?” Hanta asked, and watched his friend’s face light up. Iida started talking about his brother’s wellbeing in detail, gesturing wildly, although still not releasing Hanta’s hand. He knew that both he and Iida took comfort from physical contact, but that Iida was usually hesitant to initiate it. Hanta had been making efforts to be more physical, but it seemed that he was his own worst enemy, as his current situation was not helping to quash his pesky crush.
* * *
Hanta pulled his hair viciously, staring at his chemistry homework. He understood some of the bare basics of chemistry, particularly how it related to adhesion, but other than that he found himself perpetually lost. There was math, he knew but he never understood why he had to use the math, or which equation to use, or when to incorporate it. He kept tugging the back of his hair, hoping that the answer would just magically occur to him and then he and Iida could go cuddle—not cuddle, Hanta. Remember, you’re just two bros hanging out—in his hammock and watch TV.
“Why do you keep pulling on your hair, Sero-kun?” Iida asked him out of nowhere. Hanta shot his head up and looked at Iida, who was looking back at him in concern. “I have noticed it before, but it seemed fairly benign. This seems rather violent.”
“Ah, yeah,” Hanta said, shrugging and turning back to his work. “I don’t know when I started doing this, I guess I just always do it. And yeah, I tug on it pretty hard when I get stressed.” He tried to refocus on his homework, but he was overly conscious of Iida’s gaze, which hadn’t left him.
“That doesn’t appear to be a healthy habit, Sero-kun,” Iida said, looking at him in concern. “If it causes you pain—”
“It’s not that bad, Iida.”
“—then we should look into a way to help you break from it,” Iida finished, and Hanta looked away from his work and up at him.
While he didn’t think that his way of occupying his hands when he was stressed was harmful, exactly, he did need a haircut. Desperately. His aunt was a hairdresser, and she had been doing the whole family’s haircuts at a discounted price for years. His aunt had moved to a different prefecture about two years prior, and Hanta was suddenly without his go-to hairdresser.
If his first year at UA had been anything close to normal, he probably would have looked for someone else. But after his aunt moved away he had been so busy. First he was training for the entrance exam, then he was dealing with the constant villain attacks, then he was in the dorms and couldn’t leave without permission, and then before he knew it he was a second year. A second year with a rather unflattering mullet, at this point.
“Iida,” he said slowly, making eye contact with the class president. He still looked worried, which was sweet of him. Not that Hanta was thinking about how sweet Iida could be, because that would not be helpful for the whole hopeless crush situation that he had going on. “Iida, how would you feel about going with me to get my hair cut?”
Iida’s face relaxed, and he grinned softly at Hanta. “I would be happy to go with you to do that, Sero-kun,” he said.
“To be clear,” Hanta said, staring Iida down, “I don’t think that the light pulls that I usually do are harmful. However,” he said, cutting off Iida’s protesting noise, “I agree that some of it hurts a little. Honestly, I’ve just needed a haircut for two years, so I might as well get one.”
Iida nodded at him in satisfaction. “That is acceptable to me, Sero-kun. I will talk to Aizawa-sensei about scheduling such an outing.”
Three days later, the two of them were on the train, headed to a well-liked but not too-expensive hair salon about twenty minutes away from UA. Hanta had spotted Aizawa tailing them twice, and just shook his head in fond exasperation.
“I love our teacher, I do,” he muttered to Iida, who sat in the train seat next to his own, “but he acts like an overprotective dad.”
“After the first year that our class endured, I believe that behavior is justified,” Iida sighed. Hanta nodded.
They got off the bus and walked a few blocks to the hair salon. Once inside, only Hanta could go back with the stylist, since the space was fairly small, so Iida agreed to sit in the waiting area. Hanta nervously explained the style that he wanted to the stylist, and after thirty minutes of work, his head felt lighter, and the mullet was unquestionably gone.
Hanta paid the person who had cut his hair, then walked back to the waiting area to get Iida. He smiled nervously as he caught the boy’s attention. Iida stood, slowly, and walked up to him, inspecting his head. Hanta had chosen to cut most of his hair quite close to his head, leaving a slightly longer chunk on the top. His hair texture gave volume to shorter hair, so the top chunk stuck up. His general head area had gone from the shape of a trapezoid to that of an oval, so he wasn’t surprised that it was taking Iida a while to adjust to the change.
He wasn’t surprised, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t impatient. “So?” he asked Iida, probing for feedback.
Iida paused, then pulled back from him and looked Hanta in his eyes. “It’s good,” Iida said, smiling slightly. “It suits your face better. And,” he paused, staring intently at Hanta, “I can see your eyes. I like that, Sero-kun.”
“Hanta,” he said without thinking. “Call me Hanta.”
Iida grinned softly. “Then please call me Tenya.”
* * *
Tenya
Tenya could confidently say that he was generally a very level-headed person, which was why his current state of panic was throwing him so deeply off-balance.
Why why why had he chosen to read a romance novel for the first time in years? Normally romantic storytelling wasn’t something that drew him in. Sure, when romance was well-written, it could be one of his favorite types of stories, but usually he found the characters developed feelings far too quickly to be realistic. They meet and immediately decide to go on dates? Unrealistic.
No, Tenya had a high standard for romance, and therefore strayed away from it, preferring to read historical fiction, or even science fiction.
He had heard good things about this novel though, and as he was on break from UA highschool at the moment, he decided he would give it a try.
He regretted it.
Not because the book was bad! On the contrary, it was probably one of the best books he had ever read. The trouble was, he suddenly found himself relating to the protagonist.
He had never related to a romance novel protagonist before, and he was feeling very confused.
Normally, he couldn’t understand the “fluttery feelings” the characters got, the urge to spend all of their time with the same person, the desire to hear someone talk about all the small, unimportant details of their day.
He couldn’t understand the desire to kiss someone.
But as he was reading this romance novel, this annoyingly good romance novel, he kept understanding those urges. This was new for him. This was outside of his normal.
Tenya did not like being outside of his normal.
He set aside his book and picked up his phone, quickly searching what it might mean when one is relating to romance novel protagonists. The search loaded, and Tenya’s phone was flooded with millions of results, all containing the same word: “crush.”
For perhaps the first time in his life, Tenya had a crush.
Well… fuck.
Tenya hadn’t had a crush in, possibly ever? He distinctly remembered feeling very attached to one of his good friends at his middle school, and thinking that “this must be what a crush feels like,” but that had never gone anywhere, so he eventually discarded that evidence.
In his first year at UA, he again thought that he might be developing feelings. After his fight with Stain, he looked at Midoriya in his hospital bed, and such a strong feeling of fondness had flooded through him. This, surely, was a crush. He started noticing Midoriya more, and his admiration continued to grow. But near the end of their first year, Todoroki asked Midoriya out, Midoriya accepted, and the two had been in a relationship ever since. Tenya thought his friends made an excellent couple, and had no desire to change that, so he let his crush(?) go.
Maybe… maybe this was the same thing. Maybe he wasn’t actually crushing. Maybe he just felt strongly, and had misidentified those feelings as attraction.
“Brother?” Tenya said to Tensei, who sat across the breakfast table from him in his wheelchair. Tensei looked up from his phone. “How do you know if your crush is actually a crush?”
Tenya regretted the words the moment they left his mouth.
Tensei’s face lit up, and an annoyingly familiar teasing glint appeared in his eye. “Tenya! Growing up so fast, aren't we? So, who’s the lucky boy, pray tell?”
Tenya looked down into his bowl of oatmeal, and tried to calm the blush that he knew was spreading across his face.
“Brother, just… answer the question?”
“Aw Ten, of course.”
* * *
Perhaps the worst time to realize one has a crush, Tenya contemplated as he slowly lifted weights in the Iida family gym, is the day before one returns to school from break.
He had been distracted all day, and it was only noon. When Tenya had been reading that novel, he had recognized the feelings as ones he had experienced, but had panicked so quickly that he wasn’t able to pinpoint who he might be feeling those feelings for.
That does seem to be the logical next step, Tenya thought. Perhaps I should run through some sort of checklist.
Who does he enjoy spending a great deal of time with? That question was easy to answer. He enjoyed spending large amounts of time with all of his friends. Izuku, Ochako, Tsuyu, Shouto, Momo, and Hanta, of course.
Tenya was fairly sure that he was only attracted to men, but he decided that since he was inexperienced in the areas of both sex and romance, he assumed that it would be illogical to rule out his female friends. So he had a list of six.
Who does he enjoy hearing speak for a great deal of time? Well, naturally he enjoyed listening to all of his friends speak. He had to admit, however, that his attention tended to waver after too long of a conversation with some of his friends. All of them, in fact, except for Hanta. Something about the boy was magnetic, and he was an excellent conversation partner. Tenya loved the time he spent in conversation with Hanta.
Who did he seek out for physical contact? Well, all of his friends, of course! Although, upon reflection, he always seemed to prioritize reaching out for Hanta the most.
Who evoked those mystical “butterflies?” Tenya was unsure what “having butterflies” actually entailed, but he got most excited when he knew he would be interacting with Hanta later that day, or upon spontaneously meeting up with Hanta.
Hanta? Tenya posed to himself, and felt a flutter in his chest, and a light smile spread across his face.
Would I want to go on dates with Hanta? Maybe… kiss him?
Tenya felt his chest swell and a wide grin split his face at the thought.
I think I have a crush on Hanta.
He smiled broadly, but at his next thought, his face quickly fell.
What the fuck am I supposed to do now?
* * *
“Tenya! Hey!” Hanta called from where he sat at their normal table. His homework was splayed out across his half of the table, and he had a half-finished bubble tea in his hand. Tenya knew from experience that Hanta would go through at least two more teas before the study session was over, he would rush to the bathroom in a panic about an hour after they finished, and would swear up and down that he would never get that many bubble teas again. He would, of course, get that many bubble teas the next weekend, when they went out to study again.
Tenya knew these things, because he knew that bubble tea was Hanta’s favorite beverage, just like he knew that oranges and soy products were his favorite foods. Just like he knew that Hanta had the same taste in manga as Todoroki, but his favorite comics were actually pre-quirk era, surrounding a character called Spider-Man. Just like how he knew that Hanta didn’t have specific taste in music, he just liked whatever he had heard before. Just like how he knew so many specific details about Hanta, and he had never considered that weird before.
Tenya was a good friend; he made a point to know all of his friends’ general preferences. But he knew so much about Hanta that it reached new depths.
How long have I liked this boy?!
Tenya walked over to their table and sat, greeting Hanta with a stiff wave and pulling out his own schoolwork. The workload was light, as they were only checking over what they had been working on over break. Hanta pushed a water over to Tenya and grinned at him broadly.
“It was weird walking here alone today! How’s the brother?” he asked.
“Nii-san is doing well,” Tenya said, fighting a blush. Why am I blushing? He just asked a question! “He is progressing nicely in physical therapy.”
“Ah,” Hanta said, leaning back in his seat and smirking at Tenya teasingly. “And how many times did he make fun of you for knowing more about his physical therapy schedule than he does?”
Tenya picked up his water and sipped, trying to calm his brain so that he could act normally. “His normal amount,” he said, trying to be casual.
Apparently his efforts were wasted, because at his response Hanta sat forward, his teasing smirk replaced with a look of concern. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked earnestly, searching Tenya’s face. “You seem pretty stiff. Is Tensei okay?”
“Nii-san is fine, I promise,” Tenya said, and looked into his glass, trying to come up with a convincing reassurance for Hanta. He should have known, Hanta knows him just as well as he knows Hanta.
“Something’s bugging you,” Hanta said decisively. “Is it something you want to talk about, or do you need a distraction?” Hanta had always been good at calming the people around him. It was something that Tenya admired about him.
Tenya smiled at him softly. “You know me well. I forget, sometimes.” Hanta nodded, and his concerned face softened at Tenya’s honesty. “I am bothered by something at the moment, but it is not pressing, nor is it dangerous. At this time, I would prefer to be distracted from it, if that is amenable to you.” He watched as Hanta blinked in slight surprise. Tenya usually liked to talk about his issues, so him requesting a distraction was uncommon. However, Hanta slid his history homework across the table for Tenya to check, and pulled Tenya’s English over to his side.
Tenya smiled at him, and gratefully turned to check his work. Part of why the two of them had become such close friends was because of the way they both dealt with their problems. It worked out well for Tenya to be a talker, because Hanta was an excellent listener. He told Tenya when they discussed it that he had always found that most people just needed someone to listen, and be sympathetic, and Hanta knew that was something he was good at.
When Hanta had problems, he usually liked to try to sort them out on his own before talking to people about them, which meant that he usually wanted to be distracted from them in the moment. That worked fine for Tenya, who was excellent at finding conversation topics. When Hanta didn’t want distraction, he usually needed advice for something he had already thought about, which was another thing Tenya was good at. The two of them worked well in that way.
“Chemistry next?” Hanta asked when they passed each other’s work back. Tenya nodded in affirmation, and the two of them started working through acid and base reactions together. They spent another hour or so on work before they had finished with the work they needed to do, and Hanta started packing up his work. He then walked up to the counter, ordered a record fifth bubble tea, and sat back down at their table.
“So get this,” he started as Tenya finished packing up his own work, “You know my sister.”
“I do,” Tenya said, grinning. “She’s rather… memorable.”
“Yeah, her sucky personality tends to make her stick in people’s heads.”
“I was referring more to her multicolored duct tape hair quirk, but continue.”
“You’re too nice, Ten,” Hanta said, grinning at Tenya before continuing his story. “So Yui had her friends over to watch some KDrama, I don’t know—”
“Hanta, KDrama is a perfectly respectable genre of television—”
“I know that, Ten, but Yui’s taste sucks. Anyway, so they were watching the show right, and I walk in to grab a snack from the kitchen, and do you know what Yui called me?” Hanta asked.
“Not your name, I presume.”
“She called me ‘Elbows.’ ‘Elbows,’ Ten! She knows those are off-limits for teasing! It’s not like I call her ‘Knees’ or ‘Hair’ or ‘Pointer Finger to Ring Finger Ratio!’ I respect her insecurities, and she called me ‘Elbows’ in front of like ten of the most vicious people I know.”
“Middle school girls are the most vicious people you know?”
“Tenya, have you ever interacted with a middle school girl? Somehow they manage to know your exact weaknesses and then proceed to hit you in all of your sensitive areas.”
“Well,” Tenya said seriously, reaching across the table and grabbling Hanta’s forearm consolingly, before blushing furiously and quickly removing his hand. “I’m sorry your sister was mean to you. However, I’m also sorry that you have fought actual supervillains on several different occasions and are still the most deeply frightened by your own sister, who is four years younger than you.”
“Tenya, you were doing so good at the comforting thing there at first,” Hanta praised, grinning. He went up to the counter and retrieved his bubble tea, and came back to the table, offering his hand to Tenya to help him up. Tenya accepted, as he always does, but predictably flushed deeply, and tried to hide it by turning around and grabbing both of their bags, offering Hanta’s to him.
“Ooh, such a gentleman,” Hanta said, fake swooning and grabbing onto Tenya’s bicep to “steady himself.” He laughed at his own joke, but didn’t remove his hand, and Tenya found himself hyper aware of every point of contact between them, felt blood rushing to his face and, oddly, his arm.
They exited the shop, and Tenya’s brain decided that it was an opportune time to remind him that usually he and Hanta hung out for at least another three hours after each of their study dates—days, and that Hanta always got more and more touchy as the day went by. This arm grabbing was nothing, his brain taunted.
Well… I’m screwed.
* * *
Hanta
“So this is the only TV show you like?” Hanta asked Tenya as the two of them put their stuff down in Hanta’s room.
They had been studying together since the end of their first year, and now that they were well into their second year at UA, they were very used to spending one-on-one time together. After a few months of their routine, they started hanging out after the study sessions as well. They usually headed to one of their rooms and chatted for the evening, or played video games or did a puzzle. They had become very close, and Hanta thought that Tenya probably knew the most about him out of anyone at UA.
Recently, they had started watching a show together. Hanta had heard it was good, and Tenya was down to watch it with him. They both got hooked fairly quickly, and Tenya confided in him that he never really watched TV, and that he usually disliked what he saw.
“This is my favorite television show at the moment, but I do not watch many others. The majority of my family prefers other mediums of entertainment, and my friends here tend to watch films as a group, not television,” Tenya replied, setting his bag down on the chair at Hanta’s desk, then settling into his usual spot in the hammock.
“Well, I’m glad you like this one! Maybe we can watch some of my favorites after we finish this. I’ve watched a ton of TV,” Hanta said as he put down his own stuff and grabbed his laptop. He climbed into the hammock next to Tenya, crossed his legs, and set his laptop in his lap.
Hanta wasn’t sure what compelled him to suggest that the two of them sit together in the hammock for the first time, but he both hated and loved his past self for initiating this ritual. Loved it because he and Tenya always ended up basically cuddling the whole time. The shape of the hammock meant that gravity forced their whole bodies together, and from there it was a simple shuffle that ended with legs jumbled together, Hanta’s head on Tenya’s shoulder, arms behind each other, propping the other up.
Hanta hadn’t realized just how much Tenya liked cuddling when they had first started hanging out, but a couple conversations with Midoryia let him know that Tenya was like this with all of his friends. He, like Hanta, took comfort from touch, so when spending long periods of time with people he trusted, he acted a bit like a koala. Hanta didn’t mind that even a little bit.
So Hanta loved the hammock set up. He did also hate it, though, because it meant he was at a constant low level of gay panic throughout the entirety of the evening.
They watched the episode mostly in silence, as was customary for them. Tenya preferred to discuss the episode after it was complete, so Hanta kept his own talking tendencies to a minimum, only occasionally speaking to make a joke. This episode was different, however. Midway through it, the plot showed the backstory of one of the characters, one with a mutation based quirk. It showed her getting bullied in middle school for her mutation. And the bullying was bad.
Hanta couldn’t help but think of his own experiences, and he started tuning out of the episode, feeling his eyes growing moist. He was surprised, however, when Tenya reached over and paused it.
In the ensuing silence, Hanta could hear him breathing deeply, as if trying to steady himself. He looked over and saw Tenya had his eyes closed, mouthing counts for himself as he breathed.
“Tenya?” he said softly, hoping to catch the boy’s attention but not break his concentration. It seemed to work, as Tenya nodded, but otherwise didn’t change his behavior. “Can I hold your hand?”
In response, Tenya simply reached out. Hanta grabbed the offered hand and held it tight, squeezing it gently from time to time. After another minute, Tenya opened his eyes.
“I apologize, Hanta,” he said seriously. He dropped his eyes to his lap, but didn’t release Hanta’s hand. “I was not aware of how I would be affected by that plot line. I’m afraid it evokes unpleasant memories for me.” Hanta squeezed his hand, and when Tenya looked up, smiled at him gently.
“It’s okay, dude,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that either. Do you want to talk about it? Or would you rather be distracted?”
Tenya gave him a grateful look and gently closed the laptop, reaching out of the hammock and setting it delicately on the table nearby.
“As you are aware,” he began, breaking eye contact with Hanta but not releasing his hand, “I attended a private middle school and its affiliated elementary school.” Hanta nodded, but didn’t interrupt him. “What you do not know, is that I actually started my schooling at a public elementary school.”
Tenya’s voice wobbled and Hanta’s heart dropped. Tenya was an open crier, but it took a lot to drive him to such an emotional place. Hanta was worried at the turns that this story was likely to take.
“My family, though affluent, is largely in agreement that private schools can be toxic environments. They chose, therefore, for my brother and myself to attend public schools. They hoped that we would learn how to socialize easily with peers, and interact with many different types of people.”
Tenya took a deep breath, seeming to steady himself, and continued. “My brother did not have any trouble. He is charismatic and intelligent, and very kind. He made many friends and even maintains some of those connections to this day.” He paused. “My… my experience was less successful.”
Tenya squeezed Hanta’s hand tighter and leaned against him, sighing. “I have never been as… comfortable with people as my brother has. I am too… stiff. Too formal. I cared too much about rules and injury prevention. I know this is what my classmates thought of me because they did not hesitate to tell me. Repeatedly. Whenever I was being ‘boring’.” Hanta slid his free hand around Tenya’s waist, trying to nonverbally support him more. “I have been called a ‘killjoy’ more times than I can count. I did not have friends, despite my best efforts. I was… I was very sad. I wanted to be like my brother, but all I could think was that he was better than I could ever be. He never seemed to struggle with anything, and I couldn’t even achieve basic human connection.
“That was… difficult for me, but I could manage it. The issues escalated in my third year of elementary school. The other students had been less than complimentary about my legs. They said they looked odd. That they were too big, and square, and the engines poking out meant that I could never wear pants correctly. I avoided using my quirk after that, but my daily life was not highly affected. One day, however, some of my peers decided to put pens and other writing utensils into my exhaust pipes.” Hanta inhaled sharply. “I asked them to stop, but they did not listen. I began to panic, and my quirk activated involuntarily. Unfortunately, the writing utensils were still in my engines.”
Hanta squeezed Tenya’s waist and pulled the boy further into his hold. “My engines blew, and severely damaged my legs,” Tenya said. “I had to go to the hospital, and my family feared that I would lose function of my legs entirely.”
Hanta stared at him, stomach churning. To think he came so close to losing his quirk, and could still charge fearlessly into any situation where he was needed. He knew what it was like to be on the brink of intense loss, and still chose one of the world’s most dangerous professions, all because he was determined to do good.
Hanta realized abruptly that he was absolutely gone for his friend. That “getting over” his crush had been a foolish pipe dream. The boy was brave, intelligent, and had such a strong strength of character. And Hanta loved him.
“My parents withdrew me from the public school and entered me in the other school in the area, which was the private academy,” Tenya said, withdrawing a bit from Hanta’s hold but still keeping his grip on his hand. “I was still largely friendless when I was there, but at least I was not bullied, which I considered to be an improvement.” Tenya finished, and looked down into his lap.
Hanta detached his hand, choosing instead to pull Tenya into a long hug. Tenya stiffened, surprised, before melting into the hold. They sat like that for a while, just holding each other.
“For what it’s worth,” Hanta said into Tenya’s shoulder, “you’re an absolutely wonderful friend, and I’m so glad we started hanging out. And I know I’m not the only one in our class who thinks so. The people you went to school with are missing out.”
“Thank you, Hanta,” Tenya said, releasing the hug but leaving his arms on Hanta’s shoulders. “I appreciate the sentiment, and I believe you. I am doing better now. I have friends who I know value me and whom I value in return. This episode simply brought up unpleasant memories.”
“I understand, dude,” Hanta said. “I wasn’t doing too great either.” Hanta looked down at his lap and took a deep breath, centering himself. “It wasn’t so bad for me, but people made fun of my elbows a lot. I usually just laughed it off, so it felt more like an inside joke than mocking, but…” Hanta paused, fighting back tears. “It kinda really hurt my feelings. I hated my quirk for a while there. I just wanted to look normal and not for my elbows to be fucking cylinders and for my teeth to be smaller, and just…” He sighed. “I got along with people, but it seemed like everyone thought I looked weird, or even ugly, and I just never told them how much that hurt.” He hadn’t ever really talked to anyone about how much he hated himself back then. He was… better, now, but finally talking about it felt like a release.
Tears pricked his eyes, and he ducked his head further, rubbing at them. Tenya pulled him back into a quick hug. “Crying isn’t something to be ashamed of,” Tenya said, rubbing at tears of his own. “To be frank,” he said, staring at Hanta’s face with determination, “I quite admire your quirk, including its physical mutations.”
Hanta blinked, and flushed, grinning shyly as his tears started to dry. “Yeah?”
“Indeed!” Tenya said, smiling broadly. “Your elbows are reinforced, which makes them advantageous in a fight. And your smile is greatly reassuring.” Hanta’s blush only deepened at that. “I always find myself comforted when I see it.” Hanta shoved his face into his hands, dying a bit.
Tenya, how could you do this to my poor, gay heart? I’m just a simple teenager! I can’t take this!
”Thank you, Tenya,” he said, “and for what it’s worth, I think your quirk is incredible, too.”
“Thank you, Hanta.”
* * *
Tenya
your mom
speed. i am speed
I am confused and would appreciate assistance
Space Girl
what’s up tenten?
arms weak legs spaghetti
i would love to help!!
speed. i am speed
Thank you Ochako, Izuku.
I am experiencing feelings that are new to me.
Gucci Zuko
zuku do you think
arms weak legs spaghetti
maybe, hang on
speed. i am speed
I am confused.
turn the fricken frogs gay
It is probably best to ignore them for now, Tenya-chan
speed. i am speed
You’re right, Tsuyu
I am unused to romantic feelings but I have discovered that I am feeling them, and I do not know how to process this information.
Space Girl
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
who who who who who who who
speed. i am speed
Hanta.
arms weak legs spaghetti
wow! that’s so exciting tenya!
Gucci Zuko
we were right izuku
arms weak legs spaghetti
it wasn’t very difficult to guess
when did you realize you felt this way, ten?
speed. i am speed
Only a couple days, now.
Wait, Izuku, Shouto, did you predict these feelings?
turn the frickin frogs gay
We all saw them, Tenya-chan, we just assumed that there was a reason you had not pursued them
Space Girl
yeah! you clearly care about him a lot
speed. i am speed
Oh.
I was blindsided by the feelings, myself.
I do not think I have always felt them, but they have likely been present for longer than I think.
But it’s true, I have always felt connected with Hanta, for as long as I have been closer with him.
arms weak legs spaghetti
well, we’re happy for you tenya
Space Girl
yeah! whatever you do with these feelings, we’ll support you!
speed. i am speed
Thank you all.
I am deeply grateful that I can call you all my friends.
Space Girl
<3 <3 <3
* * *
“Iida,” Aizawa-sensei said from where he sat at his desk, “I wanted to talk to you about your internship. There’s some things that your superiors want me to go over with you before you return.”
Tenya nodded, and listened to his teacher give him feedback to apply to his training, and wrote it all down in his hero notebook. As Aizawa-sensei was wrapping up the door creaked open and Tenya looked over, seeing Hanta poking his head in through the door.
His hair looks really good today, Tenya thought passively, then realized with a start that the thought was romantic behavior, and he had been having similar ones about Hanta for several months. I really am oblivious, he thought.
“Hey Sensei, sorry to interrupt,” Hanta said, looking at Aizawa-sensei apologetically and tugging on some of his front strands of hair. Aizawa-sensei just sighed and gestured for Hanta to get it over with. Hanta redirected his attention. “Hey, Tenya,” he said, “I was gonna cook lunch today instead of eating in the cafeteria. Do you wanna join me when you’re done here?”
“Um, uh, yes,” Tenya stuttered, gesturing awkwardly with stiff hands. “That would be a preferable course of action, my good friend.”
Hanta’s brow furrowed, looking between Tenya and Aizawa. “Is everything okay, buddy? You sound nervous.”
He knows me too well, Tenya thought with fond exasperation. “I am, um, feeling flustered, but nothing is amiss. Please do not be concerned!”
“Okay,” Hanta said easily, and flashed a grin. He bowed apologetically at Aizawa-sensei, and slipped out of the room.
Tenya slumped minutely in his seat and exhaled, letting go of some odd tension that he wasn’t even aware was present until that moment. He thought involuntarily of Hanta’s bright grin, and his hair that he was trying to style differently, and his perceptive eyes, and his understanding nature. Tenya felt blood rush to his cheeks rapidly, and felt his engines involuntarily rumble to life before stalling out.
The room was silent, and Tenya looked up at Aizawa-sensei, who was staring at him, looking bored.
“Okay,” he said, “what was that, kid? I’ve never seen your quirk do that before.”
“Ah,” Iida flushed, looking down at his legs again. “I was… flustered. This is not a state I usually find myself in, so I was unaware that my engines would behave in that way.”
“Flustered?” Aizawa-sensei said, and glanced over at the closed door. Understanding dawned in his eyes and he rubbed a hand across his face. “Not you too, kid. I thought you weren’t interested in romance.”
“That’s what I thought, too!” Tenya said in exasperation, standing up suddenly and starting to pace. “I am very confused! These are not feelings that I am familiar with, but I am realizing that I have held them for several months now. How was I unaware? Why am I feeling this now? Why not earlier, when everyone else talked about feelings and crushes and flirting? Was I broken? Am I broken?” Tenya waved his arms somewhat wildly, ranting blindly. He only stopped when he was halted in his path by his teacher, who gently led him back to his seat and sat him down, before pulling up a chair for himself, facing Tenya.
“Calm down, Iida,” Aizawa-sensei said in his deep voice. “Take a deep breath for me.” Tenya did, filling his lungs with air and visualizing his tension leave his body with the exhale.
“Alright, first things first,” Aizawa-sensei said, making determined eye contact with Tenya, “you are not broken. That is not, and has never been, the case. Do you understand me?” Tenya nodded solemnly. “Secondly, it is not unheard of for people to experience little to no sexual or romantic attraction. It is uncommon, yes, but there are many people out there who have felt and do feel the way you do.”
Tenya nodded stiffly, then sighed. “This feels very irrelevant. I am in my second year of hero training. I should not be focusing on something as fleeting as feelings.”
“However you feel is up to you, kid,” Aizawa-sensei said, resting a hand firmly on Tenya’s knee, grounding him. “But heroes are people, too. They have feelings, and those feelings are not irrelevant.” Aizawa-sensei hesitated, then continued. “I have found my own partner to be very important to my health and well-being as a hero. You may someday feel the same way. Or you may not. Either way, don’t think that just because you will be a hero, you have to dismiss your attachments. You are a person, too.”
Tenya nodded again, reassured. He stood, and Aizawa-sensei did too. Tenya made for the door, then turned back and wrapped his teacher in a quick hug. “Thank you!” He said with a stiff bow, then left the room to go find Hanta. He had a lunch date to keep, after all.
Later that evening, he opened his computer and Googled “people for whom romantic feelings are rare.” Instantly he was faced with hundreds of thousands of results, and clicked at some of the websites, explaining terms and identities.
“Demiromantic,” he found, someone who only experiences romantic desire after being very well acquainted with the person.
“Asexual,” he found, someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction.
He looked at message boards and videos, and found himself and his own experiences being shown to him through other people. Saw that other people also made up crushes to fit in, others also thought that sexual attraction was exaggerated by media, others who couldn’t get into quick-moving romance plotlines, and Tenya felt seen.
* * *
Tenya woke up the morning after his talk with Aizawa feeling like something within him had settled. Something that he hadn’t even realized was bothering him. There is comfort, he pondered as he got dressed for class, in knowing who you are.
Tenya showed up to class 30 minutes early, as per usual. Also as per usual, he was the only one in the classroom. He knew that his other classmates would start trickling in in about 15 minutes, and that Aizawa would either be several minutes late or was already lurking somewhere in the room. No matter what, Tenya knew that these next 15 minutes were his to use as he desired. Sometimes he got ahead on his classwork or reviewed the day’s scheduled material, but most often he used this time to think. His thoughts drifted aimlessly for the most part, the only through-line being Hanta.
He reminisced about their first year, about how young they all were back then. True, it had only been a year since that point, but villain attacks and wars and conspiracies forced all of them to grow quickly. Without that growth, they would be dead. And Hanta was no exception. In their first year, he swung aimlessly with his tape, relying mostly on trial and error to get to where he needed to go. He was never weak, but he certainly wasn’t a stand-out member of the class, not like Shouto or Izuku or Momo were.
By this year, however, Hanta had learned to think and strategize more. He had learned all that there was to know about his own tape, and he knew how to use it effectively, and in a wide variety of situations. He had proved himself invaluable in villain fights, rescue situations, natural disasters, everywhere where a hero was needed. Hanta’s strength was in his versatility, and the moment he realized that, he started to excel.
And Tenya had noticed that. The whole class had. Not only did his grades skyrocket, but he became the sort of hero that was always where you needed him to be. He anticipated where he would be most effective, and acted there, and Tenya highly respected that about him, from both a personal and a heroic perspective.
Not only was Hanta a good hero during the active threats, he was also excellent after the threats had been resolved. He had a calm but upbeat demeanor that always put the citizens at ease. Tenya had never said this aloud, but Hanta’s hero persona reminded him of All Might’s. His smile was part of his brand, and it worked to reassure civilians.
Yes, Hanta was shaping up to be an excellent hero indeed, but Tenya saw the teenager part of Hanta far more often than the heroic part, and it was unquestionably his favorite. Hanta spread positivity wherever he went and whoever he hung out with. His emotional intelligence was high, and he was able to empathize with people so easily, which always made Tenya a little jealous, if he was being honest.
Hanta was a crucial member of their class for so many reasons, but one was the simple emotional support. Tenya had noticed that at some point, every single member of the class had come to Hanta for advice, or just to rant or decompress in Hanta’s relaxing dorm room. Yet, Hanta never brought this fact to anyone’s attention. He never needed to be recognized for being such a solid pillar of support. He was happy to quietly uplift his friends, and Tenya loved him for that.
Loved him?
Tenya sat for a minute, thunderstruck by his own thoughts. He hadn’t even thought himself capable of love a week ago, and now here he was, deciding that he was in love with a boy that he had just realized he had a crush on? While it didn’t make any logical sense, after pondering for a while, Tenya decided that yes, he loved him.
It wasn’t a firework sort of love, one that hit him one day and lit up brightly. No, this love was slower, creeping up on him for at least a year, and maybe more. Tenya had never noticed it, because for so long, Hanta was nothing more than his best friend. Tenya was unsure when that attachment turned to love, but love it was. He was certain.
* * *
Third year
Hanta
still bakugou’s only friends
adhesive properties
Hey guys, congrats to all of us to surviving to our third year
Yay we did it
And so on and so forth
king lord explosion boom blast man boy
It’s been a week of our third year already, what are you going on about?
adhesive properties
Well, I kind of have something I wanted to talk to you guys about, but I wasn’t really sure how to bring it up.
Alien Queen
spill!!!!!!
lightning mcqueen
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Rock™
what’s up dude?
adhesive properties
Ugh, there’s no good way to say this
It sounds so
Juvenile
aux squared
nice word choice
not sarcastic btw
adhesive properties
Thanks Jirou
Okay, I’m just gonna say it, but y’all have to promise to hold judgements, okay?
Alien Queen
okay!!
lightning mcqueen
of course, bro!!
The Rock™
absolutely
aux squared
yeah
adhesive properties
Baku?
king lord explosion boom blast man boy
Fine, whatever.
adhesive properties
Thanks, guys
Okay, so, I have a crush
BUT!
I should clarify that I have had this crush for TWO YEARS now
And it is apparently here to stay
Alien Queen
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lightning mcqueen
seriously?!?!?!?
i thought you just weren’t into that sort of thing since you never talk about it
The Rock™
thanks for telling us!
who is it?
aux squared
^^^^^^^^
adhesive properties
The no judgement rule still applies, got it?
It’s Iida.
aux squared
Mina you owe me 2000 yen
Alien Queen
noooo!!!!
hanta i thought you two were already dating!!!!!!!!!
adhesive properties
what
king lord explosion boom blast man boy
What the fuck, tape dispenser.
lightning mcqueen
yeah dude i totally support you
but i gotta say that i don't really get it
like iida’s swole don't get me wrong
but
…
adhesive properties
This is why I haven’t mentioned it yet
And why I asked for no judgements.
I’ve spent a ton of time one on one with him, and we really click
I know he seems uptight, or whatever, but he’s really not that uptight
He’s just really caring and impassioned and intelligent and understanding and driven
Alien Queen
hanta, if you’ve liked him for 3 years, i’m sure he’s great and we just haven’t seen the chiller side of him
aux squared
yeah dude
we support you no matter what
lightning mcqueen
love you bro!!!!!!!!!!!!
adhesive properties
I love you guys, too
* * *
Tenya
“Hanta,” Tenya said, looking at the boy across the dinner table. They had eaten together as a class, as had been the Saturday tradition for three years, and most of their other classmates had dispersed earlier, traveling to the common room to relax or work on homework.
“Yeah, Tenya?” Hanta responded, glancing up from his phone to meet Tenya’s eyes. Hanta must have seen something in his expression, because he set his phone face-down on the table and gave Tenya his full attention.
“As you may be aware, the cherry blossoms are in bloom at the moment. I was wondering if, perhaps, you wanted to go see them with me tomorrow? We mentioned this tentatively as an outing in our first year, but we have yet to have the chance to go. I was hoping we could now.” Tenya winced, hopefully internally. That was far less eloquent than he had intended. He hoped that Hanta would say yes to this date (?), especially since he had already obtained permission from Aizawa-sensei.
Tenya refocused on Hanta’s face, and noted with pleasant surprise that the boy was blushing. I’m very glad that he started cutting his hair more regularly, Tenya noted absently, as it reveals his face, which makes him far easier to read.
“Um, yeah, absolutely,” Hanta said, taking a deep breath and steadying his voice. “I would love to go with you! Would anyone else be going?”
I hope not. I was not under the impression that first dates usually included friends, Tenya thought with a passion. Although, as I haven’t used the terminology of “date” yet, it’s not an inappropriate question. “My preference would be just the two of us. Is that acceptable?” Tenya responded, searching Hanta’s face. He saw that the other boy’s face seemed to relax when Tenya mentioned that it would just be the two of them, so it seemed like Hanta was not disappointed.
“Totally, dude,” Hanta said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The two of them went about their evenings as normal, with a class movie night and some card games before bed. Tenya laid in bed, but found he couldn’t sleep. His thoughts kept drifting to his plans for the outing with Hanta the next day, and something that was either illness, anxiety, or excitement was disrupting his stomach. Eventually, only sheer exhaustion could force him to sleep.
Tenya woke up at his normal time and got dressed as usual, before it occurred to him that he was going on a date, even if he hadn’t labelled it as such, and that he perhaps should dress nicely. After staring at his closet and being hit with the abrupt realization that all of his clothes were basically the same, he settled on a sweater instead of his usual button down. Good enough.
He went downstairs to the kitchen and noted with pleasure that the common area was empty. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and fried three eggs for breakfast. He ate and stared out the windows, planning.
After he finished, he went up to his room and waited for the time he and Hanta had scheduled. He tried to get some work done, but was mostly unsuccessful. His mind was racing and his heart was pounding. At ten minutes till their scheduled meetup time, he gave up on waiting and headed up to Hanta’s room. On the way up the stairs however, he ran into Hanta going down them.
The two of them paused, surprised to see the other. After regaining his calm, Tenya smiled at Hanta. “I was on my way upstairs to get you. Are you ready to go?”
“Yup!” Hanta said, and reached for his hand. Tenya’s stomach jolted at the action, despite it being fairly common for the two of them to hold hands.
“How was your morning?” Tenya asked somewhat awkwardly as they walked out of the dorms and to the train station.
“It was fine,” Hanta said. “I didn’t do anything interesting.” They walked in silence for a while. “How about your morning?”
“Oh! My morning was also fine,” Tenya responded, trying to avoid the compulsive hand chops he did when he felt awkward, since he was still holding Hanta’s hand.
The conversation—if it could be called that—stopped there. The silence that replaced it wasn’t awkward, per se. The two of them had been friends for years, so there was an inherent comfort between them. That being said, it certainly wasn’t the easy silences that Tenya was used to with Hanta. There was a tension hanging in the air, and Tenya wasn’t sure where it came from. The tension didn’t seem bad, though. It was simply clear that a change between them was imminent, even if neither of them had acknowledged it.
They got on the train, which was mostly empty, and sat down in some seats. They still hadn’t spoken, and Tenya steeled his resolve. I will not have awkwardness warp this experience! Tenya decided. He opened his mouth to speak, but Hanta beat him to it.
“Did you know that the Wild Wild Pussycats are gonna put out a TV show?” he said, looking over at Tenya who quickly shut his mouth. “Apparently it’s gonna be animated and they’re all gonna look like cats!”
Tenya latched onto the conversation topic. “I had not heard that! That sounds interesting. Do you know what the plot will be?”
“Nah,” Hanta said, releasing a minute amount of tension from his shoulders and leaning against Tenya. He gripped Hanta’s hand tighter and received an answering squeeze. “All I know is that the studio’s other option was a Best Jeanist show where everyone was gonna be jeans.”
“I would actually like to see that,” Tenya said, smiling down at Hanta. Hanta smiled back, and just like that, the tension was broken. They conversed easily for the rest of the train ride, and Tenya felt elated. He couldn’t stop grinning as they got off the train at their stop, and one glance down at Hanta, who was still holding his hand, revealed that the same was true for him.
They walked a few blocks, now discussing the potential of a tree-inspired fighting game, and saw the arbor of blooming cherry blossom trees. Tenya’s voice died in his throat as he stared at the garden.
It was beautiful, peaceful. There were essentially no people there, so all that they could see were the trees. The blossoms danced in the light breeze, moving the sea of pink flowers that decorated the branches and the ground. Petals fell slowly, shifting and flipping in the air before resting gracefully on the ground. A gentle stream ran through the arbor, and petals bobbed on the surface of the water, slipping softly with the movement of the stream.
Tenya and Hanta walked into the arbor in awed silence, starting down one of the paths and looking up at the flowers above and around them.
“Tenya,” Hanta said after a few minutes of walking. “It’s gorgeous here.”
“It really is,” Tenya replied softly.
I should ask him if he would date me, Tenya thought. There is no possible better opportunity. Besides, he thought, looking at Hanta, who was staring at the trees in wonder, a few petals nestled in his hair. He looks beautiful like this.
The path led them to a bridge that crossed over the stream, and they paused at the peak of it, staring down and watching the petals float past beneath them.
Do it now, Tenya’s mind instructed him.
“Hanta,” he said, grabbing the boy’s attention. Hanta looked away from the stream and into Tenya’s eyes, looking content and happy. Tenya was hit with a jolt of nerves.
No. This is not the place to be illogical, he scolded himself for his reaction. Hanta is a kind and understanding friend. It is one of the things you like about him. If he is not willing to pursue a romantic relationship with you, your friendship will remain intact. You know this.
The relationship might change, Tenya reasoned, and perhaps not in the ways that he wanted it to. But in order for anything to happen, someone had to be brave. They were planning on being heroes. Bravery was in that job description. This situation might not involve villains or disasters, but it required bravery nonetheless.
“Hanta, you are very important to me,” Tenya said, and watched with growing confidence as something that looked like hope started to blossom on Hanta’s face. “You are my closest friend, and I love you. But more than that,” he said, grabbing Hanta’s other hand and pulling him to face Tenya fully, “I like you. In a romantic sense.”
He paused and searched Hanta’s face for a hint of a reaction. He did not have to look hard. Hanta beamed, creasing his cheeks and squinting his eyes, which were looking somewhat watery. Tenya loved Hanta’s smile. It was, it had always been, luminescent. “I was hoping,” he continued, heartened by Hanta’s response, “that you would do me the honor of attending a date with me?”
He waited breathlessly, and watched as Hanta’s smile grew impossibly wider. Hanta wrenched his hands free of Tenya’s grasp, but before Tenya had a chance to extrapolate horrible thoughts about that Hanta had flung his arms around Tenya’s neck.
“Do you mean it?” Hanta asked, his voice muffled as he spoke into Tenya’s shoulder.
“Of course I do, Hanta,” Tenya replied, holding him close. “It would be utterly illogical to be facetious in this moment.” He felt Hanta stifle a laugh against his shoulder, and grinned.
Hanta pulled back and retook his hands, squeezing them. “Tenya,” he said, smiling softer but no less brightly than before, “I would love to go on a date with you.”
Tenya felt his cheeks begin to hurt as he smiled even wider against his will, but couldn’t bring himself to care. “Excellent.”
Hanta looked into his eyes, and Tenya noticed his eyes flick downward. “Tenya?” he said softly. “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”
Tenya’s eyes widened. He didn’t know why he hadn’t expected that response, but he found he wasn’t opposed to it. Not one bit. “Yes,” he responded softly, and leaned down to meet Hanta as he rose up.
Their lips met, and while the sensation was pleasant, the thing that set off fireworks was the feeling of closeness. He hugged Hanta tighter to him and Hanta prolonged the kiss, and Tenya felt seen, and loved.
After a second or a minute or an hour, Tenya couldn’t be sure, Hanta pulled back. He snorted lightly. “What?” Tenya asked. He was fairly sure that laughing after a kiss was not the ideal outcome.
“That was such a rom-com cliche,” Hanta said with a smile, gesturing to where they were standing. Tenya looked around and saw that they were still on the bridge, and that cherry blossom petals were swirling around them in the breeze.
He stared into Hanta’s eyes and smiled back. “Yes,” he agreed, picking a petal out of Hanta’s hair. “It was.”