#is this the second mha idea that i made just to give izuku wings?

[tblsomedoodles]

Dragon Deku maybe?

been rereading mha (i didn't get past the school festival thing after eri the first time (that might have been all that was out at the time? Idk) so yeah) So i started playing with the concept of if Izuku's dad's fire breathing quirk was a result of a dragon mutation type quirk and not just breathing fire (which, of course, leads to dragon deku)

it's just something i'm playing with to kinda stretch my creative muscles as i come back from burn out. (mostly stemmed out of the fact that i went through pretty much all the winged izuku fics on ao3 and none of them were quite to my tastes. (plus a lot of them were with inko being abusive for some reason and i just can't get behind that.) )

Im not entirely sure where i'm going with this. (if i'm going anywhere.) rn my idea is that he still grows up thinking he's quirkless b/c his doctor decided his mutations were deformities and 'fixed' them shortly after he was born.

he still has some dragon-like mannerisms like having a hoard (hero merch) and both lizard and bird like vocalizations. (they aren't quite either but both are close enough that someone with a lizard or bird mutation would recognize what they meant. mostly b/c i want Hawks and Tokoyami to be like "what the f? why is this not-birb birbing?" and then try to figure out the mystery that is izuku. (maybe draging consperacy theorist Todoroki in on it b/c that would be fun lol.))

Honestly i just wanted to draw what this boy would have looked like without meddling. (and maybe what he might look like again eventually? again IDK.)

[kanashierihime]

English fanfiction to come

When you have too many ideas and you want to write them down even if it takes years to do it 😂.

Short abc of stories below. Help me decide priority of writing 😊

AoKuro (Kuroko No Basket)

Regrets (One shot) - Warning: Major Character Death. Kuroko remembers Middle School, his young love and the world of empty sympathy that stole his love away. 

 Can We Still Be Friends (Around 8 chapters not sure)- Warning: Depression, suicidal thought - Kuroko and Aomine didn’t see each other for two years after being thrown away from the team of Miracles . Everything change when while doing his shopping he spots Aomine’s mother who asks him if he maybe could visit her son in the mental hospital. 

Wish (4 chapters) -  Aomine was bored. Everything was boring. New team, new rivals. Boredom created his life, till one day he wakes up from his nap in a cat body. Just what the hell?! 

Chrisawa (Daiya No A) 

You Get My Love  (around 10 chapters not sure) Warning: Depression, Homophobia, yips - Sawamura tries hard to blend into a team, but everyone just reminds him that he isn’t needed. The only person that actually cares about him is his mentor- Chris. He still loud and stubborn to be an ace, but then yips happened and he just couldn’t win over this. So he goes back to Nagano feeling worse than ever. He failed everyone. But surprisingly his mentor still visits him making Sawamura’s heart do some weird backflips. 

Forget ur books (4 chapters).  Sawamura was cursed as a child for disrespecting minor god. Now every time he read book he can make it real around him. So his family reminds him to read in a closed house to not affect the city in this weird magic. But one day while Sawamura is reading some of the history book no one noticed that one of the windows is open, turning the city into a place where nothing is normal. Especially not these warriors with swords ready to cut anyone in their way. 

Mirror (2 chapters) Warning: Cheating, coming out. Chris is working a doctor busy with his carrier. He has a wife but their marriage isn’t happy.  But then one day to his clinic came a young boy (who wasn’t so young) who made his heart skip a bit with his smile and nice words. 

BakuDeku (Boku No Hero Academia) 

(Don’t comment how most of these fics have P!nk song as a title, her song are just A+ okay? xD)

Trapped Mind (5 chapters) Warning: Angst, Hurt, Addiction to drug, alcohol, sex, depression, suicidal attempt, memory lost.  Izuku fell into his own trap of being a perfect hero. Katsuki not wanting to see his friends being judged to death by being just human that can make mistakes, decide to play the bad guy and till Izuku won’t get his memories back. But this task is far harder than any mission he did so far. Being hated by everyone left him trapped in a dead-end. 

Who Am I (5 chapters) Warning: Toxic parental love, Memory lost, bullying, depression.  Izuku moves to USA as a child after his accident where he loses half of his right leg. His mother is warry of everyone in his surroundings, she doesn’t want him to go back to Japan and meet with a person she blames of being responsible for his accident. But Izuku is having enough of being trapped in her arms and want to find out who he is, who he was before his mother decided to create him as a weak man.

90 Days (4 chapters?) Warning: angst. Izuku always wanted to repair his friendship with Katsuki. Wanted to laugh with him, study, going out. But reality showed that it’s not possible. Katsuki found new friends, people he likes to hang out. Their second year in UA and Katsuki b-day was the last straw to kill his heart. Seeing his friend laughing with their classmates, not being bothered by all these hugs and photos. Izuku runs away to his dorm room to cry his eyes out. And decides to go over Kacchan by the end of 90 days.

Walk Me Home (6 chapters) Izuku has autism that prevents him from having normal life. His only friend is Katsuki who seems enoying spending his time with Deku. But hearing his mom talking to his dad about her fears of him not being able to function without their help, to even find a job since meeting with people often ends with him having a panic attack. He wants to change, he wants to show his mom and Katsuki that he can be a proper part of society. But for that, he needs Kacchan help. 

Secrets (10 chapters) Warning: Child abuse, Angst, pedophilia. Deku is a vocalist in Katsuki band with Kaminari, Tokoyami, Awase. Deku is the only person who can deal with Katsuki moods and can sing the song their drummer creates. Fans and media have their fun wondering what is the relationship between them. Deku also wonders what is his relationship with Kacchan and why he can’t sing his own songs. 

Happy (around 10 chapters) Warning: Soulmate, angst, depression. Izuku loves heroes even tho he wasn’t born with a quirk, but he don’t have time to dream since his family life isn’t so happy. His dad found his true soulmate and his mom lost her mind over broken heart since for her his dad was her soulmate. Izuku from his young days must watch out for his mom, and every day he prays to not find her dead when he returns home.  Even meeting All Might didn’t make him eager to focus in hero path. He refuse All Might to be a hero, he doesn’t have time and his mom would go crazy if he would left her side. Wanting to save Kacchan was just a short thought of ending his misery. But somehow Deku ends up in UA in GE curse. And soon he finds up that his Soulmate is Kirishima. He feels how his body is changing because of it thing he doesn’t realize that Katsuki isn’t happy to find out.

Silent Scream (5 chapters) Warnings: Bullying. Izuku has troubles with speaking, so his parents showed him sign langue which find out more fun and enjoyable. But soon fun times ends when he ends up with the same kindergarten as Katsuki who wants to make him speak no matter what.  Everything goes in the far worse direction the moment when Katsuki gets his quirk. Not being able to control his new ability he goes too far with the explosion that made Izuku lose his hearing in the left ear.  (okay so it;s “A Silent Voice” but in MHA AU xD) 

Hurt 2b Human (DUNNO) Warning: angst, war, A/B/O, death. They say that Alpha ones are people that were blessed by gods. Omega were fruits of sweet desire for happiness. Katsuki was an Alpha. Japanese Solider who gonna die in Death Chamber any moment. No one knows why Japan lost the war. The only thing he knows that Russia won and now he gonna die.  Or maybe there is a hope? 

Timebomb (12 chapters) Fantasy AU. Katsuki and Deku fights with the evil mistresses who seeing that she can lose to them decide to split them apart and send Izuku to a different dimension. Katsuki roar with the grief of losing his mate. He captures his enemy to only learn that she can't bring him back. There is no way he gonna see his Deku again. But he can’t give up. He asks Uraraka for help and she creates a necklace to send him to other worlds, tho it will be random... So there he is going through 10 worlds to find his mate and return home with him. 

Dream of the Death ( 5 chapters)  Warning: major character death. Katsuki has few regrets in life. The biggest is telling his friend to kill himself.  But then by villain attack he is sent to the past where Izuku is alive. Soon he realizes that whatever he says to Izuku doesn’t go through. So he changes his tacting and go to his younger self and please him to save Izuku. 

Bonus story: Ten Times where Izuku got hit by quirk and made Katsuki ask himself of his sexuality (10 chapters) 

Haikyuu!!

Different way of love (3 chapters) Warning: Angst, Homophobia, depression, suicide, dealing with lose.  Kuroo thinks he has nice life. Good friends, a lovely boyfriend, and a dog. Nothing to complain. Till in Sawamura’s life show up his first love and things go not the way Kuroo thought it would.  Sawamura is dealing with depression, love issues, and past that can't be really forgotten. Life isn’t an easy mission.

Neko Love (4 chapters) Warning: Abuse.  Yokai had it enough of being ruled by weak humans. They started a revolution against them and won. Now people are their slaves and taste how yokais felt when humans bullied them for ages. Kuroo is a nekomata. He loves living in Sawamura household. He supposed to leave or rule over his past masters but he can’t find a strength to abuse his young master.

Tengu’s Book (6 chapters) Warning: abuse. Kuroo has the worst luck in the world. He was born with these strange powers and thanks to them he can see yokais. Not very pleasant thing to see. People usually are wary of him and are afraid of his weird looks and muttering.  Kuroo is used to being alone. Till one day he meets a tengu who gives him an offer. He gonna be his bodyguard for finding his wings. What can go wrong?

Dragon’s Heart (5 chapters) Warning: Slight angst. Fantasy AU. Iwaizumi is a dragon rider but the thing is, he seems to not being able to bond with his dragon so after his school is destroyed by Demons he searches for beasts master Sawamura who was cursed by Demons to be able to talk with monsters and was thrown from society. Their meeting is awkward. Sawamura can’t really speak human langue since humans usually avoid him and Iwaizumi can’t deal with his responsibilities as a warrior. 

Your Heartbeats (one shot) part of my Soulmate AU. Warning: Homophobia. Kuroo meets Bokuto in middle school and for the first time in his short life can feel his heartbeat. Bokuto was looking at him with the same confusion and happiness. All good vibes ended five minutes later when another player commented on how gross they were and should cure this. But does being in love is a really bad thing? Even if it between the same gender? 

Let me be drunk for now (5 chapters) Publish AU created by @bringmemyqueen  I like this idea so I gonna write something in it. Daichi has enough of his work, of people in his work. Why he seems to attract only men? Doesn’t he deserve some nice lady waiting for him at home? So every night he goes to a bar to drink and forget about his coworkers. He doesn’t know that this nice guy who keeps talking to him while drinking his beer is an author who works under Oikawa. But Iwaizumi is nice and his hands are warm when he touches him.

Where is my fun (one shot) Kenma prefers to stay home and play his videogames. It is his day off, so he has plans of not going out all day. But his friend has a different idea and god. Kenma can’t refuse him.

Bad Guy (one shot) It all started as a simple admiration. Watching Sawamura in action gave him chills. Even his old captain didn;t made him feel this way. He wanted to be tamed by this plain captain so he went to Karasuno to just see the object of his obsession, no big plans for it. Then this weird duo was screaming to him to leave their Queen alone and he barely remembered that cute glasses girl he was focused at Karasuno’s Captain that looked at him with such intensity that Terushima wanted to crawl to him and beg for something he never wanted to do before. 

That is freaking long. XD Thank for reading :) 

In MHA I wish i could write for different pairing alone fics but it just didn’t click in with me to try it. I’m still try to figure out some characters so their appearing in my fic won’t be a total disaster. (I’m looking at you Inasa xD)

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2018 Long Shows

It’s finally here! I’m so close to being done with 2018 (...mostly. We’ll get to it) that I can taste it, but in the meantime, this list is gonna be weird, because there will be things that were already on other lists since I revised my rules of what should be classified how. This post is specifically for any show that ended in 2018 and lasted longer than 13-ish episodes (including shows that aired a second season during the same year or within six months of finishing the previous one), which means that there’s about as much on it as a usual season of shows, but they all had more time to impress - or disappoint me. I’m doing a better job in recent seasons of getting to everything, but last year there were unfortunately things that I missed (I was burned out in the winter) and just have to leave aside for now because I can’t wait any longer for these lists.

Anyway! As usual, let’s start with what I skipped!

* The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the Commandments, The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo S2, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Garo: Vanishing Line, and Mr Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues because I haven’t seen their previous seasons or parent works. (Yes, even Cardcaptor Sakura. Y’all can shoot me later.)

* Hakyuu Hoshin Engi, Beatless, and Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls because by the time I was rounding things up, I hadn’t heard a single positive thing about any of them.

Next comes what I dropped -

WORST OF THE YEAR: Steins;Gate 0 (4/10)

What a fucking mess this show was. Aside from a very noticeable downgrade in production talent from its predecessor, the plot meanders and flirts with maybe actually happening this time before just dropping out again, over and over, to the point where I was perfectly willing to drop it two episodes from the finish line because it was such an insult to fans of the original. (Also, continued disgusting mistreatment of the transgender character.)

Gundam Build Divers (4/10)

Taking the Build series from being a well-written kids show to an averagely-written kids show that hides itself in decent mech designs.

Katana Maidens (4/10)

I remember so little about this show, and granted that I did drop it after one episode almost nine months ago, but what I did remember was that it gave me strong KanColle vibes with laughably inconsistent animation and flat characters. Meh.

Darling in the FRANXX (5/10)

This should probably be lower on the list, but I got out of Darling while the getting was good, sixteen episodes in. I understand that future episodes of the show cemented it as crappy right-wing nonsense in addition to pushing worldbuilding out of its fortieth-story window, but the moment it lost me was much sooner, when the crazy yandere female lead was reduced, almost instantly, to Good Anime Waifu as a reward to the protagonist for going against his friends with his selfish motives.

Persona 5 the Animation (5/10)

In addition to not actually finishing in 2018, Persona 5 just did not give me a single reason to watch it when I’d already finished the source game, with middling-to-bad visuals (thanks to the switch from Production I.G. to A-1 Pictures, and not even the team that created the much better-looking Day Breakers OVA before the game was released in the U.S.) and phoned-in music, which is especially unacceptable in a Persona adaptation. Also, we all absolutely called that the studio couldn’t tell the story of the entire game in just 26 episodes.

Record of Grancrest War (6/10)

There’s people that like this one a lot, but I didn’t see much that interested me in the first two episodes. I’ve heard better things about the manga.

Golden Kamuy (6/10)

I had problems with the first half of Golden Kamuy that the second half simply didn’t fix, and it became difficult for me to keep watching - the show still interrupted almost every fight scene with a dick joke, but still wanted to maintain a serious and occasionally frightening tone - and those things simply don’t go together. It needed to either spend more time being funny, or keep its lowest-common-denominator humor out of the fights.

Next, I have two shows that are (potentially permanently) On Hold, simply because it’s time for me to move on and I don’t have the time or energy to marathon them when the Winter shows are starting to wrap up:

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, because even though I initially dropped it, I’ve heard a lot of good things since and I want to eventually give it another shot.

Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line, because despite the fact that I still enjoyed the previous season, this one started right in the middle of my burnout and I only heard bad things about it. I’ll get to it eventually, but it’s a shame that this series has been on a clear trend downwards since its revival.

And finally, the stuff I finished!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride (6/10)

Keep in mind that this is here entirely on the merits of its aesthetic and its side characters - in the end, Ancient Magus’ Bride is a Beauty and the Beast story where the beast gets what he wants without learning to be less of a dick or even apologizing for his clearly wrong actions.

Major 2nd (7/10)

Always pleased to have even just Good sports shows around, and this one is a very effective reboot of a classic series that’s never made its way stateside (man, the underperformance of Big Windup! really did a lot of damage to this genre in the West). With good character development and a decent second-generation premise, Major 2nd has the potential to be the beginning of a solid baseball story, assuming that it gets a needed followup.

IDOLiSH7 (7/10)

I dropped IDOLiSH7 when it first aired, and though I wound up enjoying it after I was very strongly urged to revisit it, the problems it started with never quite left it behind - that is, it has an okay cast of characters but doesn’t present even passable performance sequences, and if you’re going to include big song-and-dance numbers, they have to be good, or you may as well just be UtaPri.

ClassicaLoid Season 2 (8/10)

In 2017, I gave the first season of ClassicaLoid a near-perfect 9/10, and while this season gives us a satisfying conclusion to the story, it does things both a little better than the first, and also not quite as great. It’s story is much more well-integrated over the runtime so it doesn’t happen all at once in a few chunks, and the jokes that work are still absolute genius, but there’s simply too much that doesn’t quite land correctly, and a little too much immature humor, for it to reach the same lofty Hall of Fame heights as the first season. Still, one of the most underrated shows I’ve ever seen.

My Hero Academia Season 3 (8/10)

God, Izuku in that onesie is too damn cute.

My problems with Hero Academia are frustratingly persistent - the show is at its best when the students are competing with other students, because outside of last season’s Stain (a villain whose motivation is specifically related to the world of MHA), the villains are just not at all compelling and they all seem a little too generic for their own good. I just want Horikoshi to be a little bit less predictable of an author and do a little less reading of the Standard Shounen Playbook. Luckily, when it works, it works magnificently.

March Comes in Like a Lion S2 (8/10)

March remains director/auteur Akiyuki Shinbo’s most accessible work, and one of his masterpieces, as a well-paced and marvelously moody story of a depressed shogi prodigy learning to be a normal teenager before his youth completely passes him by, and the fantastic characters that surround him with their own complex problems and motivations. I just really, really hope it gets a third season eventually, because this one did not leave off on a satisfying conclusion.

Speaking of which...

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma S3 (9/10)

It’s almost a shame that My Hero Academia became hugely popular purely based on its accessibility to American audiences, because Food Wars pretty squarely deserves to be the reigning Shonen Jump king - each season has only improved on the previous one, and this one was based entirely on a continuing arc that could only have happened in the universe of this show, Fighting Food Fascism. That being said, it also leaves off right in the middle of the arc (because it had almost caught up to the manga), meaning that we have to hope that it can remain relevant long enough for there to be enough source material for another season. I’ll be crossing my fingers until they snap.

Banana Fish (9/10)

Yes, this has risen a point since my review, but Banana Fish still deserves to be thought of as both a complete masterwork of crime fiction, being fantastically paced and expertly plotted in the use of its many, many twists, and a work that disappointed the side of me that hoped that, in adapting it into the modern day, MAPPA could have managed to get the author to let them depict what is clearly a queer relationship with the authenticity and legitimacy that it deserved. It’s still amazing, though, and Amazon should be pushing it with their most lavishly-made originals. At least it was the last noitaminA show they’ll get to totally bury.

And, finally, the one you all saw coming.

BEST OF THE YEAR: Lupin the 3rd Part V (10/10)

Lupin is, quite simply, one of the pinnacles of the medium. A simple idea that can (and did) go in thousands of different directions, handled by highly creative writers and an animation staff that has been knocking it out of the park for years, despite the fact that it is criminally (heh) unrecognized in the West. To put it simply, there’s a very, very good reason that it’s been around since the 70′s.

Okay! All I have left to do is finish Dragon Pilot (waiting on a friend) and we can get the last two lists out of the way! We’re almost done...

[whatkindofnameisella]

more self-indulgent izuocha fic

hola friends, i’m here with more izuocha and this time it’s like 3000% more self-indulgent because I made it a ballet au. adults? check. angsty reunion? check. my favorite girl’s pov? check. ballet terminology? you betcha. Giselle references inspired by Natalia Osipova and Carlos Acosta’s heartbreaking act II pas de deux? uhhh yuuuuuuuupppppp. strap in, folks. if you want something that’s not really 100% mha but has those characters together in a fic with a good amount of sensual yearning then you’ve come to the right place. it’s a bit of a long one (about 4000 words) so ill just put a little bit before the cut! it might not seem too fluffy at the beginning but I promise yall it gets there. please enjoy!

“Thank you, again, so much for coming.” Ochako’s arms were getting heavy with flowers, and she was running out of creative places to put them. One sticking out of her duffel, one in either pocket on the ends of her bag, an extra-large one in her arms – she would never have enough vases for them all, she never did. Sometimes she wished that people would just forget politeness and show up at the stage door with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their eyes. No apology for their horrible manners or forgetfulness, no overwhelming compliments that she didn’t know how to take, no trying to describe things they didn’t understand as if they did. Just an, ���I loved it. Thank you so much,” and the hint to move on and let her go home in enough time to soak her feet in an ice bucket. Well, the kids could take their time; the stars in their eyes, their out of breath ramblings and their thousand dollar smiles could give Ochako the power to dance an entire four act ballet all over again. But with the adults? With their praise and expectations seeping through the cracks of their words? It made Ochako want to crumple up into a hole and just hide there for a while. Far, far away from the feeling that she was never actually good enough.

               It was a cold February evening and the city lights in the theater district blocked out all of the stars as Ochako greeted people by the stage door of the Opera House. She battled mounting exhaustion, muscle fatigue starting in her feet and climbing up her legs as old friends and family gave her sparkling bouquets full of fragrant flowers and compliments that made her feel like a million dollars. It made her heart beat a bit faster in her ribcage and the tunneling winds feel a little less intense when she heard someone say that she had made their evening. It was hard to believe, but she chose to take what she could get. It made standing a little more bearable, and people a little more happy, so she struggled through one-sided conversations strung with high praise that made blush creep up her neck to her face. 

“Oh, we should be the ones thanking you!” A group of friends from elementary school stood in front of her, about to leave. “You’ve grown so much since we were kids. Mie was never large enough for you.”

               “You’re too kind,” Ochako touched her hand to her chest, trying her best to convey warmth over the dull, pounding pain in her calves, “Call me again sometime. We need to meet up sooner than every other year.”

               A polite laugh rippled through the group of girls in front of her, “Of course, Uraraka!” They pulled back in to one last hug, “Break a leg with the rest of your performances! I’m sure you’ll be just as beautiful as you were tonight.”

               “Thanks so much you all – good night!” She waved down the alley as her friends walked the other way, back into the lights and cars of downtown Tokyo.

               Ochako sighed, watching the smoke from her breath curl up into the cold night air. She shifted the large bouquet from one arm to the other and stretched from side to side, thinking of a steamy shower and ice bucket waiting for her at home. Giselle was only two acts, but it sucked the life out of her every time she did it. It was her favorite role by far – being happy-go-lucky and bouncing off her feet in act one, being agonizingly slow and ghostly and heartbroken in act two. Playing a role where love won. Ochako never realized she needed to collapse until she got through the wings and to her dressing room, the effects of long petit allegros and pas de deuxs hitting her like a sack of bricks. She blinked a few times as she turned, feeling the dreary-ness of the night pulling down on her like a magnet. She took one last stock of the alley, making sure she finally finished talking to all that were there, wishing that Tsuyu were there to walk home with her as she caught glimpse of curly greenish black hair out of the corner of her eye and –

               Wait a minute… curly, greenish-black hair?

               She snapped her head back to where she had seen it, blood suddenly rushing through her well-worn arteries, air being sucked in through her hoarse throat. He had said that he might make it but she didn’t believe it, he was always so busy nowadays with his galas and international performances and, and –

               Her vision tunneled. Ochako’s heart stopped pumping for a count of two, her stomach taking that time to do a backflip along with all the butterflies that had suddenly appeared there. Her eyes took their time to drink him in; a bit tall and sheepish leaning against the wall next to his mom, a small bouquet of white and pink flowers in his bare hands. A winter jacket zipped up to his chin, a knit hat hiding half of his unruly hair. Perfectly tailored slacks and simple dress-shoes, standing in almost a resting pose, ever the dancer. That warm and good-natured smile pulling at his lips and that familiar spark of innocence in his eyes that made him so handsome. For a second she was sixteen again, looking at her best friend as studio lights bore down from overhead on his smiling face while they warmed up together before morning class. Seventeen and feeling her pulse zing as the popular kid partnered her in front of all the other girls who wanted to feel Izuku Midoryia’s hands on their hips. Eighteen and watching from the wings as the newest prodigy nailed his final UA performance, catching his eye every time he looked into her spot in the darkness behind the lights. Eighteen and drinking in the feel of her best friend’s arms around her as he hugged her at graduation. Eighteen and breathing in his cologne as they danced in a fancy reception hall. Eighteen and trying to burn into her memory the glint in his eyes when he laughed, the way he leaned against the barre when he was tired, the way he fidgeted with his fingers when he got bored in rehearsal or the way he bit his lip when he struggled with a combination. Eighteen and wishing that she wasn’t saying goodbye, anything but goodbye, it wouldn’t really be goodbye, convincing herself that she wouldn’t really bee saying goodbye at all.

               All that in an instant. Maybe she hadn’t needed to try so hard to remember all those details after all.

               Izuku Midoriya looked at her and fatigue flushed out of her legs so quickly she felt like she was floating. Ochako’s arms almost forgot to hold her bouquet; she felt like the flowers would just faze through her. Seven whole years of traveling, and rarely seeing him, getting used to just the idea of him, seeing pictures on the news, catching up through social media in the gaps between his rare visits, watching as he checked one thing after another off of his bucket list, feeling the gap between the two of them grow further and further… And now he was here. Less than ten feet away, tangible, and smiling expectantly. A knot unraveled within her and her shoulders relaxed from a tension she didn’t know she had been holding in. She felt like she was going to combust just standing there, so she took shaky steps that didn’t make her feel any less likely to clip through the ground.

               “Uh… Sorry the bouquet isn’t any bigger,” His voice sounded so different, so much more fitting and grown into than what it had been before. As she looked at him, Ochako looked for the hints of the timid prodigy she had once shared her life with. For a second she panicked. He looked stronger and taller, confidence rooting him to the ground in a way she had never seen in their time at UA. But when she looked deeper, she found bits of familiarity; the way he always hunched slightly in on himself, the tentative way his hands fidgeted when they had nothing else to do, the slight smile that was always genuine, the gleam of burning ambition that was always behind his eyes. He took a hesitant step towards her, biting both of his lips before opening them to speak, clearing his throat like he didn’t trust himself to talk, “I wanted to get something a bit more… you know, deserving, but ah…” He looked down at the flowers, opened his mouth and closed it, sucked in a breath before looking at her again, “I just came off a flight yesterday and there wasn’t really enough time to order a bigger one – oh!”

               Ochako tackled him with a hug, having to stand on her highest relevé to place her head over his shoulder. She hugged tight to his chest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, crushing the bouquet she had been holding against his jacket with one hand and feeling the muscles of his back underneath his coat with the other. She breathed in the scent of his hair and his clothes for the first time in an eternity. After the initial shock wore off she felt his chest rise with an intake of breath and felt his cheeks lift with a small smile against her hug. His arms wrapped around her, warm and gentle and comforting. He was so strong and yet he held her tenderly, like if he grasped her too tight she would break. It was a feeling she felt foreign to; his arms against her like she was made of glass, afraid to constrict any tighter less she would shatter yet just tight enough to admire and wonder at. She felt so secure in those arms. A blizzard could have been raging around the two of them and she wouldn’t have feared the storm one bit. The aching feeling of tears clawed its way up her throat. She fought the battle against them and failed.

               “You of all people should know that the flowers don’t matter!” She whined. Against her will it came out as if someone had poked holes in it. A tear stung her cheek in the cold as it ran down her face.

               A small chuckle shook him and reverberated through her body, “You’re right, you’re right. I should know that.”

               Ochako sniffled and pulled away, immediately feeling a warmth being sucked out of her and barely remaining as she held on to his arms. A new light took its place as he looked slightly down at her, a smile playing on his face and tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He was trying hard not to show it, but it came right through to her. The watery eyed, quick-to-cry teen that she had known throughout all of UA’s upper school would never really go away.

               She cleared her throat and smiled, “I mean, I really should be mad, shouldn’t I? You leave me for seven years and all I’m greeted with is a bouquet barely ten flowers strong!” She laughed and wiped away another tear, “But it’s hard to stay angry at you for too long, Deku. Always has been.” She squinted and smothered a smile hearing his nickname come out of her mouth again. She had missed saying it.

               Ochako watched his breath quickly catch at the sound of that name. A new gleam popped up in the corner of Deku’s eye as he looked at her, she could have sworn she felt his pulse pumping a bit faster through his fingers. She was sixteen and captivated by the underdog’s smile again, all flustered and floating in the light of those eyes. He suddenly blinked and looked down at his right hand, pulling it away and displaying the small white and pink cone of flowers. The scent wafted up to her; fresh roses and chrysanthemums and a dozen other small varieties packed into a dazzling selection. Not glamorous, not flashy, not expensive. Just simple and beautiful in its own way.

               “Well, these are for you,” a nervous sort of humor shook his voice, “If you’ll take them, of course.” Deku met her eye again, a hope hiding within. It melted her.

               Laughter bubbled up her throat and out through Ochako’s mouth, hands shaking as she reached out and took the small bouquet from his hands, “They’re beautiful, thank you.” Her fingers brushed against his for a second in the exchange, rough and freezing in the winter air. Goosebumps raced up her arms at the contact.

               “Okay okay, you’ve had your chance! My turn now!” Ochako turned to her left and found Deku’s mother smiling at her, tears already running down her face. She waved her son off of Ochako and gathered her into a hug of her own. She wailed over Ochako’s shoulder, “Uraraka, you were so beautiful tonight!” Her contact filled Ochako up with a different kind of warmth from Deku’s; motherly and brimming with pride. Like sitting around a fireplace at home, a sense of family warmer than any blanket that could’ve been tucked around your shoulders. Ochako mumbled a quick thank you into the fuzz of her hood collar. When they pulled away from the hug, Ms. Midoriya started rambling through a shaky voice, gripping a well-used tissue in her gloved fingers, “Simply stunning, Uraraka, simply stunning! You had me crying all act two, with that look on your face the entire time,” Her voice wavered as if the memory of it would make her start crying all over again, and she took a breath to compose herself before continuing, “Such beautiful stage presence, just like I remember from UA!” Ms. Midoriya reached out and cupped her hands around Ochako’s face, making Ochako blush against the cold, “I’ve never seen a more beautiful Giselle, never – Izuku, don’t you agree?”

               Ochako turned to find Deku grinning at the interaction between the two of them. He looked her in the eyes again, nodding, twisting her stomach in a knot, “Definitely. I mean, you’re jumps just look like you’re weightless – “

               “Oh, Uraraka, you should’ve seen him during the act two pas de deux! Crying a river next to me, I swear – !“

               “Mom!” A blush cropped up on Deku’s cheeks as he leaped forward to try and intercept his mother.

               Ochako smothered a grin and waved a hand in his face, “No, no, carry on Ms. Midoryia. You said he was crying?”

               “But – “

               “I looked over to see what this sniffing sound is and I see Izuku sitting there with an ocean’s worth of salt water on his face,” a defeated sigh escaped her son as she continued on, “Completely still. Barely breathing, even! I swear he could’ve been a statue in a museum – “

               “Okay, okay,” Deku made a successful interception, placing a hand between Ochako and his mother, “I think that’s enough for now, thank you mother.”

               On the outside Ochako laughed, but on the inside she took a minute to imagine it. That pas de deux was her favorite to both watch and perform. She flashed back to her own performance of it earlier that night and imagined what Ms. Midoriya had just described; herself lifting up her leg in the iconic side develope, promenading to an arabesque with a look of sorrow on her face. She had been hot and exhausted but was powering through. Her leg felt dead and she worried that it wouldn’t hold her up for much longer, but adrenaline kept her upright. And then she imagined Deku, still as stone and captivated by her. Crying. Not the loud, easily triggered type that she had grown to find endearing. A quiet, stunned cry of emotions that couldn’t have been expressed through words. Ones that refused to be tucked away and instead boiled over through tears and more tears. The type that made your lungs ache from the lack of air that refused to be taken in. The thought of it made Ochako’s head spin. She wondered how often an international ballet star cried like that at a performance he had the spare time to watch.

               As Ochako finished laughing a look of sincerity came across Ms. Midoriya’s face, “But really, Uraraka,” Ms. Midoriya peeled her son’s hand back, “It was so touching. Everyone in the theater was so captivated by you,” tears at the corners of her eyes threatened to flow over, “When you did those beautiful developés, with that stunning skirt…” She grasped her chest, “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It just wrenched my heart in two – all of our hearts, really.”

               Ochako felt her chest filled up with warmth. That wasn’t the kind of compliment you received every day – the kind that really touched your heart. Even if Ms. Midoriya wasn’t an expert in ballet, she had still meant every word she had said. Every syllable had been laden with another sobbing fit waiting to happen. Ochako appreciated that a lot. “Thank you, Ms. Midoriya,” Ochako reached out and placed her hand on the mother’s arm, “I’m so glad you got all that from my performance. I wish you two could see me more often!” Those words left a hollow space in her, knowing that they wouldn’t be coming back for her next performance. It was an inevitability that made her sad. She swept it away to the back corner of her mind just in time for Ms. Midoriya’s next words to knock Ochako off her feet.

               “But we will!” Ms. Midoriya lit up with a burst of energy, “There will be so many more opportunities next season with Izuku coming back into town –“

               Ochako did a double take and choked on her own spit. She turned away to cough and regain her composure. She had heard the rumors floating around the Corps girls recently but she hadn’t allowed herself to get caught up in them. Rumors were often just rumors, and no one from the main administration had passed it by her yet, so why should she believe them? She was a Prima with UA’s main Company – Japan’s biggest and most well-known ballet. She even toured and guested at other places from time to time. She couldn’t afford to let herself get caught up in maybes and distractions. Her carrier came first, always. It was always that way: carrier first, emotions later. If she wanted to make it, it had to be that way, it could only be that way. When it came to school she made the quick decision to focus on her training. When it came to graduation she took the route that she had always wanted to take without hesitation. When it came to finally being in the company she blended in to the corps, became the perfect copy. When it came to being a soloist, she treated every role like she would never get another. And when it finally, finally, came to being a principal, she only bathed in the sunlight for barely a minute before getting back to work again. It never stopped. She would never be as good as she wanted herself to be, so she settled for constantly working towards it. The past spent all work hours locked far away where she wouldn’t be able to get to it. It only held her back, to dwell on could-have-beens. That was all it seemed it would ever be.

               But now, for a second, she forgot to put carrier first. Emotions burst through the dam in her heart and surged outward to her fingertips, the floating feeling returning to her brain. Disbelief held thin but tight against her mind. She had waited seven years and given up hope for just as long. Ochako had only worked with Deku once since graduation, and she knew that was all she would get. Of course it was. He was a star; talented and handsome (god was he handsome) and always grabbing at the fruit out of reach. Everyone wanted a piece of him. He gave everyone a piece of him without hesitation, too. So why in the world would he settle for home? For what he had come from?

               Disbelief, however thin, held tight around her and would not let go.

               But she wanted to. Oh how she wanted to let go.

               The butterflies were dancing around her stomach again.

When Ochako turned back, she stared back at Deku’s mother in shock. A storm of emotions boiled within her that she was trying hard to conceal. “C-coming back to town? For next season?”                Ms. Midoriya cocked her head to the side in confusion, “You don’t know? Didn’t Izuku tell you?” She blinked a few times, leaning further in, “Izuku’s signing on with UA for a season or two starting this fall. It’s still a bit under wraps but – “

Ochako snapped her head to her friend, electricity zapping through her veins. She scanned his face furiously for clues – a guilty smile, a gleam in his eye, a reach behind his head and his torso folding in on himself. He looked at her, then the ground, then her again, then the wall, his freckles surrounded by a bright blush that sent her heart racing. She was floating again, so light that she could’ve passed right through the ground. This time she forgot to hold on to her flowers. The two bouquets in her arms crashed to the ground along with her duffel bag as she flung herself back into Deku’s arms. She saw herself at eighteen, alone and with a new sense of fear no matter how many people she had around her. Alone and feeling forever inferior to her best friend who had left her in the dust. Alone and never, ever good enough. Alone. Always alone.

Now, in his arms, sure that Deku would be back, she felt that memory wash away. The air was cold but he was warm and she could, for once, be the selfish one. And nothing else mattered for that moment. She would see him every day. They would warm up and take class together. He would take the empty space next to her at barre and in the center. They would laugh together as they messed up simple combinations and tried to get back on tempo. They would eat rushed granola bars in between rehearsals in the afternoon and go to physio at night.

She would feel his strong hands on her hips and breaths sliding down her neck as he stood behind and partnered her. His shirt would be damp with sweat and his breathing would be heavy, his brows set in concentration as he held her. She’d experience the rush of the crowd next to him, be half of one well-oiled machine. She would hold his hand in the wings before they went on together, feeling the electricity zapping between the two of them, sharing nerves and emotions and anticipation for the lights. She would stand next to him at curtain call, curtsey until her knee was to the floor and hug him in the spotlight.

All of that would happen. It seemed so amazing that she wanted to pinch herself to bring her mind out of a daydream. But it wasn’t a daydream.

It was a cold February evening. The lights blocked out the stars in the Tokyo’s theater district as Uraraka Ochako hugged her best friend for the first time in years by the stage door. His embrace was warm and comforting and she wanted to stay there for as long as he would let her. He had given her a small bouquet of pink and white flowers that she would keep alive for as long as possible in her most beautiful vase she could find. He was signing on to the company that she never thought he would turn back to. Her heart was doing cartwheels around itself in overwhelming excitement.

Ochako couldn’t wait for autumn to begin.