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There were quite a few problems that hero students often encountered. Some of these were pretty obvious. Dealing with villains, improving your own abilities, learning how to appeal to the public. However, some of them were less…heroic. Problems you get from the “student” part of hero students.
Trying not to fall asleep in non-heroic related classes. Trying to figure out what outfit will look nice. Puberty.
And most horrifying of all: Relationships.
That’s what Jirou was going through right now. A relationship issue.
Now, she would never even think to say that she wasn’t loving how her relationship was going. It was going amazingly! Sure, sometimes she’d get teased by Mina for holding his hand, or Momo would ask her all about her “unbelievably romantic escapades,” or even Kaminari wondering how in the hell Jirou was capable of responding to somebody’s attraction to her in a manner that didn’t result in violence.
Plus, she couldn’t deny that seeing her sweet Izuku blush from the slightest praise or cute flirty remark made her heart flutter. When she held his hand, she could see him visibly tense up before trying to seem relaxed. When she cuddled with him, she could feel his heart rate speed up exponentially. Don’t even get her started on how adorable he was when she kissed his cheek.
(She refused to acknowledge how much her heart was the one that melted on the rare occasion that Midoriya felt comfortable or bold enough to kiss her instead.)
All in all, she loved being his girlfriend, and she loved him being her boyfriend. She had no regrets whatsoever about asking her out, really.
Though…there was a small problem that she had. And, she had to admit, it was a small problem. It wasn’t like messing up in this situation was going to jeopardize their bond, or even affect the rest of her friendships in the slightest. It was basically the equivalent to trying to find a good gift for your friend.
She would’ve thought that, with her own quirk and personality, she would’ve already known, but no. She didn’t know. And that bugged her, because it was necessary for her plan!
So, she had to get to work.
“What type does Izuku-chan like, gero?” Tsuyu put her finger on her chin like normal. “Why don’t you…ask him?”
Jirou huffed, acknowledging the point but seeing that her friend missed the point, “I can’t! ‘Cause then he’d probably figure out what I’m trying to do!”
Tsuyu shrugged, though conceded; Midoriya was likely to look into every possibility just out of overthinking alone, and somewhere along the way, come across the right conclusion.
“Skill issue?” She croaked out, purposely being as unhelpful as possible now. She earned a halfhearted glare from Jirou, but only smirked in response.
“I can’t help but realize that you’re right, Jirou,” Momo admitted, receiving nods from the rest of the 1-A girls.
“Yeah!” Uraraka nodded, realizing that the observation was right. “I’ve actually never heard what Deku-kun listens to!”
This right here was the issue.
What music did Midoriya like?
When she started her project, Jirou believed that it would be really simple. She thought that it was going to be a nice little gift for him. She’d done it for a bunch of her other friends. Was there an occasion for it? No. But who said you needed a reason to do something nice for someone?
But, no. What Jirou wanted to do was hear some music that somebody liked, and then make a playlist for them based on their tastes. She’d made a classical playlist for Momo, a pop and dance playlist for Mina, even a workout playlist for Uraraka (who she had personally not expected to listen to, such as Sabaton or Casey Edwards). She thought it wouldn’t be too hard to do that for Midoriya. After all, she felt like she would know his music tastes incredibly well.
No. No, no she did not. Hell, she doesn’t even remember even seeing him listen to a song out loud. She’d heard him hum tunes and sometimes even tried singing (though these were attempts in private that she just happened to hear due to her quirk). But, if he was ever doing anything music-related in public, it was always with earphones in. And, thanks to modern technology, his earphones had such good sound insulation that not even she could hear what he was listening to.
And she was going to find out, damn it! There was no way on planet Earth that she, the literal U.A. music specialist, born from musicians and quite literally had earphones as her quirk, was going to let her boyfriend’s music tastes evade her. It was her mission, nay, her DUTY to find out!
What if he listened to some horrible music? What if he listened to actual garbage, like country (but the BAD country. Jirou would never listen to Johnny Cash slander)? She needed to open his eyes then, to educate him, to improve him as a person! What if, at their wedding, Midoriya wanted Mr. Beer Beer Truck Truck himself to play?! She couldn’t stand for it!
Damn it. Now, this objective went far beyond just making a cute little gift for her boyfriend. Jirou would find out what his music taste was without him knowing, even if it killed her.
And only when it killed her would she suck up her pride and ask him herself.
So, now, she started with her friends. They were just sort of chilling in Momo’s room, because there was enough bed there to cover a few continents. Plus, the bed was hella comfy. The sort of comfy you’d need to enchant a bed with.
Who were proving to be a GREAT deal of help.
Hagakure hummed, kicking her legs back and forth despite the only sign of her doing so being her shoes moving about, “Well, maybe he listens to the same music you do, Jirou? I mean, you two are dating. Would make sense for you to have similar tastes.”
For a few seconds, they considered it. And then discarded the idea. They weren’t sure why, but a gut feeling told them that Jirou’s music doesn’t exactly fit with the typically meek yet sometimes bold-brash-belongs-in-the-trash behavior Midoriya exuded. Even if Jirou’s music was fire.
Mina finally ended up shrugging, “I guess we don’t really know…” She clicked her tongue, coming up with an idea. “Wait a minute! What if you ask the guys! I know he works out with Kiri and Sato every now and then. Plus, there’s no way that Bakugo of all people wouldn’t know!”
Jirou sighed. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask them later on. For now, though, she would just enjoy the time she was spending with her friends. And inevitably being dragged into rewatching a Marvel movie for the 50th time at Mina’s behest.
The Next Morning...
“What music does Mido-bro like?” Kirishima hummed, leaning back onto the couch. It was about 7 in the morning now, and Midoriya was well on his morning run. Typically, he ran from 5-8 in the morning, a feat which basically everyone still found to be nearly impossible to even comprehend. Jirou sure wasn’t complaining about his stamina, though. Gave her more time to ask around.
“Yep,” Jirou hummed, taking a sip of her coffee. “I’m trying to make a playlist for him. Don’t tell him, though.” At this point in the day, Jirou was running at about 40% of brainpower, and needed until a solid 8:30 to wake her up enough to feel productive on a weekend.
“Hmm…” Kirishima furrowed his eyebrows, trying to remember how Midoriya acted when they worked out together. “There’s probably a good variety to the music he listens to, honestly. Depends on the day, I guess?”
Jirou wasn’t following very much. Depends on the day? Well, duh. You’re sad, you listen to sad music. You’re happy, you listen to happy music.
“On push day, he’s bouncing a lot. Definitely some high-energy stuff,” Kirishima remarked. “On pull day, he’s a bit calmer, though he’s smirking. He’s probably listening to some hype music.”
Jirou blushed lightly at the thought of Midoriya smirking. The confidence in his eyes then were to swoon for, after all.
“Though, on leg day?” Kirishima kept going, an almost frightened look in his eyes as he spoke. “I…I have no idea.”
Now, this , Jirou was interested in. Leg day was hell on Earth, as anyone who went to the gym would remark. Even Bakugo had to skip a few days of school once because he quite literally didn’t have the ability to walk to them after leg day.
She leaned in for a moment, before Kirishima explained, “I…don’t even know if he listens to music. He just…sort of turns towards me and Sato sometimes and just tells us that he has no enemies? And then lifts his weight completely silently?” Jirou noted the absolute confusion in Kirishima’s voice, and honestly, she couldn’t blame him.
The hell did he mean, “He has no enemies?”
Her facial expression must have shown off her confusion, since Kirishima kept going, “I don’t know, honestly. Couldn’t tell you. Sorry, though.” There was a glimmer of an apologetic expression on his face, though Jirou brushed it off, thanking him anyway for the help.
Well, that sure did a lot, Jirou sighed, taking another sip of her coffee that would somehow probably go unfinished because it would go cold. Now it’s time for Bakugo.
To be honest, she had a complicated friendship with Bakugo. On one hand, their senses of humor when Bakugo wasn’t constantly trying to murder someone were pretty similar. On the other hand, he was so loud that it could really irritate her hyper-sensitive hearing. Yet, again, they typically hung out together because of mutual friends. But, again, she wasn’t a fan of how Bakugo often treated Midoriya. It was like the most obvious example of a frenemy, sort of. She was fine being friendly with him, but GOD could he be irksome at times.
But she would put aside their differences. At the moment, she had more important goals, and her dislike of his behavior wasn’t bad enough to stop her from this. She needed to figure out what Midoriya’s music taste was.
“Yo, Bakugo,” she directed her attention towards the explosive blond that was cooking an admittedly amazing breakfast in the kitchen. She wouldn’t deny that Midoriya was a really good cook, and that he had mastered the dishes she loved. However, Bakugo was unfortunately capable of cooking a really good wakeup dish. This was unfortunate for quite literally everyone in the class, who had long accepted that he would brag about every dish after they showed any sign of enjoying it. Hell, he would even provide dishes to Midoriya just to brag about how good he was at cooking straight to his face.
“HUH?!” Bakugo bursted boisterously. “THE FUCK DO YOU NEED?!” Surprisingly enough, the heat in the kitchen didn’t seem to have any effect on the boy, as he didn’t even seem like he was going to break a sweat in the process.
“Need your help with something. You’ve known him longest–” Jirou started, and honestly, she should have known that bringing up “you’ve known him longest” would instantly set him off.
“I AM NOT HELPING YOU FUCK THE NERD!” Bakugo blasted with blustery behavior. Jirou’s face flushed instantly, and her heart almost skipped a beat at the suggestion.
“No, no!” She denied, and she hated how quickly her voice had jumped up an octave. “I was just going to ask you if you knew what music he likes!”
Jirou was then granted with an opportunity that she never knew was possible. Hell, even the other people in the room were absolutely flabbergasted. Kirishima’s eyes widened. Tokoyami’s beak fell open. Momo almost coughed up her tea. Hagakure stopped bouncing about.
Jirou engaged in a conversation with Bakugo.
And Bakugo went silent . Then, to only blow them away even more?
“Shut up,” Bakugo whispered, and if Jirou paid just close enough attention, Bakugo’s shoulders tensed. He lowered his head a bit, and Jirou could have sworn she had seen an embarrassed blush on his face. The expression was enough to absolutely flummox everyone in the room. Hell, Hagakure barely had the consciousness to snap a quick picture to use to tease him later!
Jirou realized what it meant.
Her eyes glimmered, a smirk coming to her face as she gasped, “You do know! You know what he likes listening to!” She somehow downed the rest of her coffee, despite the fact that it was uncomfortably lukewarm, and basically raced into the kitchen. Her search had finally bore fruit, and it was in the shape of a muscular blond teen that happened to try murdering anything that mildly inconvenienced him.
Unfortunately, Bakugo had quickly recovered from his brief transformation to shoujo girl protagonist back into murder mode, booming out, “SHUT UP! I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!” Jirou noted that he didn’t admit to not knowing what Midoriya listened to; as much as Bakugo was an asshole, Jirou could respect the fact that he hated actually lying to somebody’s face, citing it as not being true to who he is (and that everyone already loves him for who he is anyways, supposedly).
Well, Jirou could pull back for a bit. She knew damn well that, unless he was incentivized with something that benefited him directly, Bakugo would never just reveal information for free. Especially when he could benefit. Though, she did believe that just complimenting him a bunch would work, if Kirishima’s word meant anything about the subject.
Though Jirou was about 99.9% certain that Kirishima’s compliments worked more because they came from Kirishima and not because they were compliments.
Jirou shrugged, dismissing the matter. She could wait a bit until things had settled, and Bakugo was less in a murderous mood from being caught in a not-so-badass-God-wishes-he-was-me moment.
“Fine, fine,” she brushed him off, already deciding on what she could do to wait:
Go into Midoriya’s room, steal one of his hoodies, and chill in his room while waiting for him to come back.
A little bit later…
As Midoriya opened the door to his room, he was pleasantly surprised to see his beautiful girlfriend bundled up in his blanket, wearing one of his All Might hoodies. Normally, he’d be incredibly concerned about if she was somehow damaging the merch, but Midoriya knew that Jirou would be incredibly careful with his collection.
“Oh, hi, Kyouka!” Midoriya greeted, giving a light wave to her. He’d just returned from his run, and he was feeling a little sweaty. However, he’d already done his post-run stretching routine outside, so there was no need to make the atmosphere a bit awkward with his physical activity.
“Morning~” She chirped out, humming in her comfort. She’d long zoned into her chilling session, just sort of scrolling through her phone in the burrito of a blanket she’d constructed around herself. “How was your run?”
Midoriya took a sip of his water before answering, “Went pretty well! I saw Mirio-senpai running, so I talked with him and Amajiki-senpai for a few minutes before getting back on my own! But otherwise, it was just nice listening to music and enjoying the weather!”
Wait.
Listening to music?
Jirou was interested.
“What were you listening to this time?” Jirou hummed, doing her best to seem casual without giving away that she’d never heard a single song he’s listened to.
Midoriya set his bag down, putting his dirty clothes into his laundry basket as he responded, “Oh, just my workout playlist! Nothing special!”
Well, that didn’t really bring any answer to her, but Jirou felt that trying to prod more might have given a little something away, and she was not risking the possibility of spoiling her plan. She was forced to back down.
“Well,” Jirou tucked away her curiosity momentarily. “Come here, already!” The implicit ask of Midoriya getting into the bed to cuddle with her made its way to him.
However, Midoriya had other plans, lightly chuckling as he rubbed the back of his head, “I think I should shower first, Sweetheart.” Jirou rolled her eyes, but acquiesced that he had a point.
“I’ll be waiting for you, then~” She winked at him, and she grinned at the blush that made its way onto his face.
“I-I’ll be back soon!” Midoriya squeaked out, quickly leaving the room to go take a shower.
And leaving his phone.
With the earphones plugged in.
And Jirou could faintly hear sounds emanating from the earphones.
Oh.
Oh .
She didn’t NEED to get help from Bakugo or anyone else after all!
The prime opportunity was right here in front of her! She had access to Midoriya’s music right now, and he was out of the room, so he would never know that she was listening to his music! The perfect opportunity had literally landed in her lap!
She quickly exited her burrito blanket form, scrambling to grab his earphones.
She put them in, ready to finally be able to make a playlist for her lovely boyfriend–
“Oh, I’m a gummy bear! Yes, I’m a gummy bear! Oh, I’m a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear! I’m a jelly bear! Cause I’m–”
She ripped the earphones out of her ears.
No.
No.
This was NOT the music he was listening to.
He was NOT listening to The Gummy Bear Song.
She put them back in.
“Oh, I’m a movin’, groovin’, jammin’, singing gummy bear!”
She ripped the earphones out of her ears again, horror etched on her face.
Oh.
Her boyfriend, Midoriya Izuku, Hero Name: Deku, Greenie, Broccoli Head, listened to The Gummy Bear Song for working out.
It almost brought tears to her eyes.
She took a deep breath, absorbing the reality of the situation. She needed to be rational. She was worried it would be bad. She wasn’t expecting it would be this bad. She wasn’t expecting that it could be this bad. If she didn’t get her act together, the entire dorm might be in danger.
So, she did. She was able to restrain her emotions from demolishing the entire dorm in a fit of musical rage.
Instead, she released those emotions in a more direct fashion.
Jirou got up, put the phone away, making sure to pause the atrocious song from ever making its way into the world again, and left the dorm room. She had to do something before she could return.
In the men’s bathroom…
Midoriya was simply enjoying his shower. Humming The Gummy Bear Song, he was just finishing rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. It was a nice life, really. He had a really good morning so far. Had a good banana for breakfast, went on a fun run, talked with Mirio-senpai and Amajiki-senpai, talked to Kyouka a bit, and now he’s showering before he’s gonna cuddle with her! What more could he ask for?!
A chill running down his back was not part of the things he would ask for. For some reason, only a few minutes into his shower, Midoriya felt a sense of impending doom come upon him. Yet, it wasn’t Danger Sense telling him this. There was something buried deep inside his soul, his primal instincts, telling him that there was something to be feared.
He gulped, suppressing the feeling. Maybe he just forgot to call his mom? Yeah, that had to have been it.
She’s gotta be worried sick! Midoriya realized; he hadn’t texted her all too often this past week, and they regularly called on the weekends!
Midoriya was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard a sudden clang nearby. The chill ran down his back again, but this time, a cold sweat came to him despite being in a hot shower.
“Oh, Honey~?” He heard Jirou’s voice echo throughout the bathroom, and for some reason, she sounded both sickly sweet and maliciously malevolent.
“Y-Yeah?!” He squeaked out; he was both scared of what she was going to do and of what would happen if she happened to see him naked in the shower.
He could hear footsteps getting closer to the shower, and he turned the heat up more in the hopes that, if she happened to come in, the steam would help cover him up.
“Were you, by chance, listening to the fucking Gummy Bear Song on your run?” Jirou hummed, and the sweetness in her voice instantly vanished.
However, Midoriya responded with a bit of confusion, “...Y-Yes?”
Apparently, that was the wrong answer, as Jirou’s slow footsteps stopped.
And then, they picked up in a flash, as Jirou dashed towards the showers and pulled the curtain open with such force Midoriya thought the nearest wall was going to shatter from the force.
She seemed to not give a singular fuck about his lack of clothing, emotionlessly wrapping a towel around his waist, grabbing his wrist, and pulling him with her, a grip on his wrist that might as well have been a vice.
“I-Is something wrong?!” He squeaked out, entirely shocked by what was going on.
Jirou stopped in her tracks, turned around with the nastiest glare on her face, and almost snarled at him.
She grabbed his head by the hair, pulled it down to a height she was comfortable with, and she hotly growled in his ear, “I’m going to show you why you will never listen to it again. I’m going to punish you for your fucking sin.”
Midoriya gulped, but nodded and let her drag him along back to his dorm room, with only one thought in his mind:
Well, mark me down as scared AND horny.
Omake: The Aftermath
Jirou: So…
Midoriya, already blushing: Yeah?
Jirou, propping herself up on her elbow: Did I give you enough of a reason to stop listening to The Gummy Bear Song?
Midoriya, gulping but feeling incredibly bold: No…could you reiterate your point?
Jirou, already smiling: Gladly~
Omake: Why Bakugo had a chill run down his back randomly
Jirou: How did you even start to listen to this stuff?
Midoriya, unaware of the chaos he’s about to bring about: Oh, Kacchan showed me this a while ago! We have really similar music tastes!
Jirou, surprised: Wait, Bakugo ?
Midoriya: Mhm! Sometimes, we’ll listen to this stuff together when our families hang out!
Jirou, already texting Kirishima: Oh, I’m so using this against him.