"Ughhhhhh, whyyyyyy."

You dragged your feet along the sidewalk as you trudged home after school. The sports festival was only a week away. You had spent the last week training tirelessly at school and at home, partly to prepare for the sports festival and partly to take your mind off of everything that was happening.

Shoto still wasn't talking to you and every night you had the same nightmare, one you didn't want to think about.

You and Katsuki were finally back to being kind of normal, mostly because he was excited to face you in the festival. You both silently elected to ignore what had happened at his house, but he was still acting weird.

You had been training with all of the people in your class, trying out almost everyone's quirks and working on your combat skills. You had improved a lot, but because you were using so many quirks you were always exhausted. The tests from the hospital came back, but they still don't know why you suddenly are able to recover so quickly after using your quirk.

Everything hurts! Note to self, don't use Denki's quirk after swimming. That was a bad idea

There was still a week left of training to do, but you just wanted to become a human burrito and wrap yourself in a million blankets.

Finally you made it to your apartment, usually you would go on a run or do some other form of exercise but today, you just wanted to take a nap.

***

You woke up and checked the time.

10:00? I guess I'm not sleeping tonight.

You sighed and went to grab the most healthy dinner, cereal. You opened the cupboard only to find it empty. You look through your entire kitchen and only found some stale bread and expired milk.

Well, I can take a risk or I can go shopping...

You stared intently and the milk and bread weighing your options, but decided if you wanted to live until tomorrow you should probably get some edible food.

You threw on a hoodie and some shorts and made your way to the 24 hour convenience store.

It was dark out and you were the only one waking around so you kept your guard up. You never know who is waiting around the corner. The only light was from the moon and from the streetlights, which made everything more creepy.

Not gonna lie, this is kind of scary, why is nobody around?!

You shuddered and gingerly walked down the road jumping when you heard the smallest sound.

This is fine, I'm not scared.

You finally half convinced yourself that nothing was going to happen and you confidently walked around a blind corner only to hit something hard and warm.

"HOLLY SHIT!"

You squinted your eyes closed and blindly punched whatever was in front of you. You raised your foot to kick, but felt you something grab your leg.

You prepared yourself to use all of your training to escape, but stoped short when the thing talked.

"Y/n! Stop!"

You slowly opened your eyes and saw a boy with spiky red hair holding his nose.

"Kirishima?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!"

You must have punched him in the nose, but luckily it wasn't bleeding.

"I'm really unlucky, this is the second time you've attacked me."

You smiled guiltily thinking back to the time he woke you up.

You scratched the back of your neck, "Haha yeaahh, sorry again. What are you doing here anyway?"

He took a step back so you could see him properly, "I'm training, just doing some running." He was wearing exercise clothes and you inwardly smacked yourself for not figuring that out. "What about you? Why are you walking around and attacking people so late at night?"

You glared at him playfully, "I'll have you know that this is my hobby."

He laughed, showing his spiky teeth.

"Okay fine, I'm just grabbing some food from the convenience store. You should come with me, we can get ice for your nose."

"Sure!"

The two of you walked the last few blocks to the store and talked about nothing in particular. You found that you could just talk for hours with Kirishima about anything and still have fun. He was just that type of person.

You bought your food and some ice and stared walking back to your apartment. Kirishima insisted he would walk you back so you wouldn't assault anymore innocent people.

You felt much more safe walking with him. You were perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, but something about him made you feel strangely protected.

"Kiri, are you nervous for the sport festival?"

"Hell yeah! Who wouldn't be? I'm just going to do my best and I'll be happy."

You smiled, Kiri's constant positivity always made you feel better.

"That's a good mindset."

"Thanks! Why do you ask?"

You didn't respond for a second, and fiddled with the bottom of your hoodie.

"It's just... I don't want to use my quirk and ruin it for other people."

You had been thinking about it for a while. If you used your quirk and took someone's power they would have less of a chase at doing well. Stealing someone's opportunity to win or get noticed was not something a hero would do.

Kirishima didn't say anything, you could tell he was thinking about what you said.

"To be honest Y/n, I don't know why you're so worried."

You glanced over at him his expression seemed genuine.

"What do you mean?"

"You're worried about taking away other people's shots at fame right?"

You nodded, "Not exactly right, but close enough."

"It's your quirk Y/n, your advantage over other people. If someone is relying completely on their quirks then they won't do well anyway."

"You think so?"

"Yeah!"

You smiled, who knew Kiri was great at advice? He didn't solve your problem, but he made you feel a bit better, which was good enough for now.

"What did Mina say the other day, umm, oh! You do you girl." He exclaimed proud of himself for remembering.

...

You broke out into a fit of laughter bracing your hands on your knees.

"Will do!"

After a moment of painful laughter you were able to stand up, still giggling, and look towards Kirishima.

"Thanks Kiri, I needed that."

He stared back at you, unmoving. His eyes wide and his cheeks red.

You were hit with a wave of guilt, "Oh god, I'm so sorry Kiri I didn't mean to laugh at you-"

"No no, you just... look so pretty when you laugh."

...

"I'm sorry my good sir, but that is incorrect."

"What?"

"I appreciate the complement, but you don't have to lie to make me feel better."

"Y/n, I'm not lying-"

"Shhhhhh, you're too nice Kiri anyway this is my stop, thanks for walking with me, get home safe, don't die, byyeeee!"

You yelled to him until he was out of sight so he couldn't get a word in.

Kirishima turned around very confused and stared to jog home, after a few minutes he finally realized what he had said and his face turned a colour that rivaled his hair.

***

For the next week you trained harder than you did before, you went on runs Iida, who scolded you on your running form. You did endurance training with Kiri who kept trying to compliment you even through you knew what he said wasn't true. You did weight training with this guy named Sato, he was really sweet. You swam laps with Tsu who always beat you. You also did some martial arts with a guy named Ojiro who was super nice.

Usually you would ask Shota for help with training, but he wasn't in great shape after the USJ attack so you left him alone.

By the night before the sports festival you were exhausted, but prepared for anything.

You told yourself you would only use the quirks of people who you knew would be fine without them. Which meant basically your whole class. There were still some people who's quirks you had never tried.

Izuku, because All Might had told you that you wouldn't be able to handle it... mean.

Bakugo, because he refused to let you take any amount of his power.

Tokoyami, because dark shadow is scary.

And Mineta because ew.

You decided to not stay up all night so you got into bed and checked you phone before you went to sleep.

Oh damn, that's a lot of messages.

Almost everyone had sent some type of good luck tomorrow message, you responded to all of them, but found yourself looking through your old conversations with Shoto.

You really missed him, but he wasn't doing anything to indicate he forgave you. You had tried a few times to talk to him, but he responded shortly and then walked away.

I really hurt him... but now he's hurting me. He's being unreasonable! I get he is upset but I said sorry and I'm trying to fix it but he's just pushing me away!

You punched your pillow in frustration.

If he wants to pretend like we were never friends that's fine, I'll do the same.

***

You walked into the waiting room at the stadium where the sports festival was being held. Everyone seemed excited, even Tokoyami.

You were pumped, you could feel the auras of thousands of people's quirks. You had asked principal Nezu about using people's quirks who were in the stands, but he said you could only use those of people you know. Things could get dangerous otherwise.

"Everyone! Get your game faces on we're entering the arena soon!" Iida announced from the door.

"Sonic! Our ears!"

"Sorry!"

You tried taking some deep breaths to calm yourself, but that didn't help. You looked around and saw Izuku looking nervous so you went over to talk to him. Before you were close enough to call him over, a certain icy-hot boy got to him first.

"Midoriya."

"Uh hey Todoroki, what's up?"

You clenched your fists, you had turned all of your sadness and regret about your situation into anger.

You turned around and made it look like you were meditating while you eavesdropped... like a real hero.

"From an objective stand point," Shoto started "It's clear that I'm stronger than you."

You bristled What a cocky high and mighty little-

"However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out. I'm not here to pry about what's going on between you two."

No good, annoying, snoopy-

"But know that I will beat you."

...

"Arrogant bastard." you slapped a hand over your mouth, not meaning to speak out loud.

You looked around in a panic hoping nobody heard you. You didn't care if people knew you were angry at Shoto, but you didn't want to look mean.

Luckily everyone was shocked at what he said and hadn't heard your quiet outburst.

"What's with all these declarations of war lately?" Denki asked

"Yeah what's the big deal?" Kirishima stood up "Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden, and right before we get started?"

What was his deal? Izu had never done anything to him and now he was making things difficult. The fact he had just threatened your friend made you even more angry.

"We're not here to be each other's friends," he was addressing everyone, but glanced briefly at you "All they do is hold you back."

You stood there unmoving, you could feel the eyes of your classmates on your back. They had all noticed the tension between you two, but didn't dare inter fear.

"Wait a sec Todoroki," Izuku said quietly, "I don't know what's going through your head or what's going on with Y/n or why you think you need to tell me that you'll beat me... and yeah of course you're better then me. In fact, you probably have more potential than anyone in the hero course, except for maybe Y/n, that's why you got in so easily."

"Hey Midoriya, you're being a little hard on yourself, and us-"Kiri tried to calm him down, but Izuku interrupted him.

"No, he's right you guys. All the other courses are coming at us with everything they've got. We're all going to have to fight to stand out... and I'll be aiming for the top as well."

...

After a moment, Kiri was the first to speak up "Wow Midoriya that was intense!"

You stared blankly at the wall in front of you a blizzard of emotions hidden from everyone else.

The main one being fury.