thinking about new runner! reader who has adhd and God knows what else, who isn’t even good at running.
you used to avoid running at all costs, making jokes about how much you also hate cardio, lamenting to your professors about how the feeling of your heart beating that fast feels like an incoming panic attack….
sure, your parents both did track in high school, so maybe you have the genes for it, but.. you’ve never felt truly… good at something. anything, really.
A “run” for you mostly consists of sprints, cooldown walking periods, and alterations between jogging and cooldown walking periods when you get tired. You used to run on the treadmill to grind for that perfect time for that perfect amount of mile(s). But there’s something about running outside in nature, where there are different textures underneath the stomp of your cheaply made black boots, where you feel the different dips and humps in the paths, animals to look at (mostly squirrels and birds), and a few people to observe.
You watch with awe, slowing to a walk and stop as an American robin gobbles down an insect. You can’t tell what kind of insect it is, since you don’t spy it until it is in the bird’s beak, moments before being eaten, but it seemed to have a stinger of some kind. You watch as it finds a moth in the grass and eats it as well.
“What a cute little guy!” You marvel, excited at seeing such an interesting act out in ‘the wild’, so to speak, instead of just on the internet. It felt so special to your warming heart.
“Aye, ‘n wot’cher’ lookin’ at?”
You jump at the new voice with an unfamiliar accent. You’d crouched down as to not scare the birdie away, and looked up. The man is decently tall, taller than you anyhow. He seems rough around the edges appearance wise, but his voice register comes off as strikingly friendly. He’s got a muscle tank, a greyed mohawk, scars, and a few tattoos. You’re immediately intimidated.
“Oh, sorry, am I in your way?” You stand up fast, getting a little dizzy in the process.
“Not ‘a all..” You shift your feet nervously as you watch him study you with baby blues. “Name’s Johnny,” he finds himself saying, when he decides you’re worth his while, holding out a callused hand to your softer one.
“Oh, umm..” do strangers normally talk in the park? you wonder, but shake his hand firmly and tell him your name you go by. He seems pleased by the strength in your grip.
You eye his earbuds, running strap on his arm, and vest. “You seem.. pretty serious about this stuff.” He laughs lightly at that. No way this guy is real. His laugh sounds like if little baby bells were flowers. If that even makes sense.
“Nah, ‘s jus’ fer recovery. Fun.”
“Re…covery? From what?”
“I may nae look eet, but aim—“
“Ex-military or something?” He blinks in surprise at your accurate guess, dark eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. No way this guy is real.
“Aye, how’d you..”
“Your dog tags.” You pointed at his chest, where a thin beaded chain lies, as well as dark hairs nesting, poking out of his tank.
“Oh, aye, right, of cairse,” he huffs a laugh,
“Yeah.. didn’t know ex-military guys could be nice,” you say, a little inquisitively, and a little suspiciously- that is, wary of him.
“Nae, na’ really, but my ma raised me right.”
“ ‘S that right?”
“Aye,” he nods, “I’ll show you.”
And show you he did, at y’all’s first date together.
in which Midoriya is forced to deal with his friends trying to get him and his crush together.
for @patt-writes-stuff
Midoriya tried not to make regrets.
This might’ve sounded strange, maybe obvious. But he took chances when he had them. He took the leap, hurtled off edges that others might’ve been worried about because he was finally able to do what he always wanted to. He put a thousand percent into everything he did.
But this? This was some bullshit.
Recently, as an example of goodwill, U.A. took in several exchange students from other countries. They were all valuable and magnificent in their own right, with talents that Midoriya could only awe at. One had the ability to rewind time under a full moon. Another could breathe underwater.
But most of all, one could read minds.
YN LN rarely used it, but it was said that there was a villain attack back at her own school, and she defeated them by only spamming their mind with cringy, outdated Ugandan Knuckles memes. It was funny, of course, but also incredibly powerful. Some mentioned that she was in the same boat as Shinsou, but she seemed to take it much better than he did.
Oh, and she was cute. Really cute.
Midoriya would catch peeks of her in the hallways, waltzing to her class with her books close to her and her eyes shining in the afternoon light. She always seemed to have someone at her side, talking softly with them, or maybe laughing loudly. But she was popular, kind, and strong.
Everything that Midoriya felt he wasn’t.
Of course, he had friends. His quirk was certainly useful, though it had it’s drawbacks. But she was gentle and sweet. Even Bakugou tolerated her and didn’t give her a nasty nickname, which was definitely new.
So when Mina waltzed up to him with a sneaky grin, he was worried.
“Heyyyyy, Deku!” She tittiered, leaning on him in a way that was more than friendly but less than flirting. “You like YN, right?”
“H-huh?!” Midoriya flushed bright red, flailing his arms comically as if to fend off the accusation. “N-no! I mean, she’s really nice b-but I totally don’t have a crush on her and I don’t want-er, really need to dater her, I mean if she asked I would say yes but I don’t have a crush and it’s really not-!”
“We get the idea, loverboy.” Mina cut Midoriya off before he could ramble any more, and turned him around to see Sero talking with Denki and Todoroki. “Sero’s gonna have a party tonight. And guess who’s gonna be there~?”
“Y-YN?” Midoriya’s flush went down, but barely.
“You got it! All the transfer are going to be there, and we’re going to rope her into a game of truth or dare!” Mina cheered, but Midoriya recoiled.
“Wait! What?!”
“Yeah! And you’ll get to find out if she has a crush on you!”
“What?!” Midoriya leapt away from her, bright red again, and gasping. “That’s-!”
“We’re fuckin tired of seeing you pine, asshole.” Bakugou bit from his seat. “Either get your shit broken or date her. I don’t give a fuck.”
“Oh, don’t lie like that!” Mina chastised him and swatted at his head, making him growl in response. “He does care! It was his idea!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Midoriya felt nervousness crawl up his spine, a chill settling in his heart. What if he got publicly rejected? Oh god! What if she said she liked him? How would he react? Would he hug her? Thank her and bow? Kiss her, even? Oh my god! Kiss her?! What kind of response is that?!
His mind was on overdrive, thinking in all caps and screaming at the top of his proverbial lungs. All sorts of scenarios played through his head, most of which were not meant for public consumption. It was pure chaos until he realised he was being shaken by Tsuyu grabbing his shoulders. It made his head roll around until he came to.
“O-oh! Tsu! Sorry!”
“It’s okay, kero.” She let go, pointing at her chin. “If this is how you act now, I wanna see how you act with YN in the same room.”
“S-same...room…”
“Shit, it’s happening again! Someone! Stop him!”
Midoriya was a foot away from her.
They were sitting on the couch together, with Denki between the two of them. The room felt like it was filled with lava; bubbling, hot, and too full. Every other second was spent glancing at YN, who was preoccupied with a game of twister that Jirou and Bakugou were fully absorbed in. They were practically doing aerobatics, growling at each other in a refusal to step down. The tension was climbing until one of Jirou’s ear jacks conveniently got under Bakugou’s hand and made him slip. It was almost artistic how she still stood where he fell, but in the end, Bakugou lost, and most of the class was willing to overlook the foul.
And then came the dreaded truth or dare.
For whatever reason, Sero brought a bottle, but spin the bottle was quickly shut down once everyone realised they would have to tape Mineta to the upside of the ceiling. They chose to tape him anyway, which led to some confusion on what they were going to play, but it remained truth or dare.
The first to go was Ochako, who dared Tsuyu to smack Kirishima with her tongue. She did so and almost knocked him out, but he assured her he was fine and the game went on. Late into the night, borderline dangerous dares (“Hey, Bakugou, can you explode in your mouth?”) and embarrassing truths (like the time Todoroki froze over his own underwear and used Midoriya’s All Might underwear, which Midoriya found more mortifying than Todoroki did) were traded around, until it landed on YN for the first time all night.
“Eh, YN.” Ochako murmured past the thirteen marshmallows in her mouth. “Do you hath a cruth on nnieeone?”
“Huh?” YN tilted her head, crossing her legs with a bit of sass. “Now, isn’t that a bit…?”
“Nobe!” Ochako chirped, her face splitting into a grin. “Anthwer!”
“Ocha…” YN extended her hand, sighing. “I, well…”
“You tho! You tho!” Ochako cheered. Midoriya didn’t realise he was on the edge of his seat until he almost fell off. “Thay it!”
“Well, maybe…” She pursed his lips. “I can tell you he’s in this room.”
Midoriya’s heart skyrocketed. In this room!? There was only him, and Bakugou, and Todoroki, Sero, Denki, Mineta, and Shoki and Tokoyami, Aoyama, Iida, Ojirou, Kirishima, Koda, Sato…
Midoriya’s hopes plummetted. It didn’t narrow it down by a lot.
“Yeah?! Who?! Who?!”
“He has...a darker palette?” YN tapped a finger to her chin, trying to dance around the question. It cancelled out Denki, Bakugou, Todoroki, Sato, Ojirou, Aoyama, Koda, and kind of Kirishima if Midoriya squinted.
“And he’s really smart, and does really well in class.” That definitely outs Kirishima and Sero. Ojiro, Koda, Tokoyami, Aoyama, and Shoji weren’t exceptional in class, either. So all that was left was…
Midoriya’s brain stopped. It stopped fully in its tracks.
All it left was him.
It was like he did a mental stutter, the couch feeling like a rock and his hands feeling far too sweaty for his liking. He wiped them on his jeans, but they seemed to be just as sweaty as before. He swallowed. He slicked back his hair a bit. His eyes wandered. Every second felt far too long.
“That’s not enough, YN.” Mina whined, tipping back so she was laying on the floor. “You have to tell tell us!”
“Nah.” She reclined into her hand with a soft smile, blinking slowly. She seemed satisfied, despite the other girl’s begging for more information. Midoriya coughed into his fist, trying to regain his sensibility before slowly rising.
“I, uh, I’m gonna head to bed!”
“Whaaaatttt?” Mina crooned, leaning forward. “Why? Not even Bakugou has gone to bed yet.”
“Shut up!”
“I’m just tired,” Midoriya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, trying to edge away. Before he could, though, YN rose up and took a deep breath.
“I’m going to bed, too.” She smiled, nodding her head. “We need to get sleep while we can, right?”
“Ughhhhhh,” Ochako groaned, finally swallowing the marshmallows. “Fine. But it won’t be the same!”
“That sounds like a you problem.” YN sassed before walking past Midoriya, glancing at him when she passed. It was as intimidating and romantic as eye contact could be, and made his knees grow weak.
“R-right.” Midoriya said, though no one asked him anything. “Sure.”
“Huh? Dude, are you okay?” Kirishima leans over, but Midoriya just shakes his head as he watches YN walk away.
“Y-Yeah!” He juts his thumb towards the hallway, wondering how long leaving was going to take. “I’m just...gonna go.”
Before anyone else could say anything, he booked it until he turned the corner and was out of sight. He was panting, but less out of the running than it was nervousness. He kept looking behind him, like he was expecting one of his classmates to come barrelling at him. He turned a second corner, only to bump directly into YN. She had been standing, waiting there for him, with a deep stare.
“Hey, Izuku.”
Midoriya jumped, nearly hopping out of his skin at her gentle, quiet tone. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were bearing into him.
“O-Oh! YN! Hi! Hey! I mean, uh, I thought you were going to bed.” He started backing away slowly until his back hit the wall.
“Yeah. But I wanted to talk to you.” YN brought her arms up and promptly slammed them on either side of Midoriya’s shoulders, effectively trapping him between her and the wall. “You’re bright red.”
“R-really?!” His eyes looked everywhere and nowhere, speeding around until they landed on her. Her brow was furrowed and her nose was scrunched.
“Yeah. Say...do you have a crush on anyone?” She leaned in, eyes glancing down onto his lips before flickering back up.
“M-maybe!” He squeaked, desperately trying to figure out how he should respond. Everything about this was something out of a manga, not real life.
“You know…” YN leaned in again, this time not only looking at his lips but keeping her eyes on them. "I've never wanted to kiss anyone as much as I want to kiss you."
Midoriya felt his face flush again, then go cold, then flush redder than before. It was a constant rapture that seized him, lifting him up higher than he could ever consider.
“What?!” He yelped once his mind caught up with what was going on.
“Shh!” She hissed, putting a finger over her lips, which looked very cute. “You don’t want the whole dorm knowing, do you?”
“Oh…” Midoriya wasn’t sure if he did want everyone to know, but YN kabedonning him made his brain keep on stuttering like a broken record.
“Hey…” For a second, there was a flash of uncertainty in her eyes. “Do you like me? All the girls say you do, but still…”
“Yes!” Midoriya nearly shouted, jumping and almost bonking heads with YN. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“Wait, really?” YN leaned back, surprise on her face. “I thought I was going to scare you off, or something.”
“Not at all!” Midoriya started waving his hands, a happy flush growing on his face.
“Then...do you wanna date?”
“Yeah. “ He sighed softly. His eyes were wide and his heart felt like it had soared to the moon. The moment was pure ecstasy, and he couldn’t come down from this high.
