Archive of Our Own ^beta

Izuku’s heart beats hard inside his chest, threatening to burst free. His hands shake as he reaches out to press the doorbell, so he pulls back and hides both of them behind his back. He steps from foot to foot, hardly able to keep still.

He looks around. The lady who lives next door enters her apartment with her dog, its tail wagging happily. Izuku adjusts his hair under his cap, even though it probably doesn't matter. After all, he is here regularly.

"I'm coming!" a voice sounds from the apartment.

Right. Izuku presses his lips together to hide his nervousness. The lock gives a click and the door opens to reveal Yagi standing inside.

"Ah, Izuku-kun!" Yagi calls and smiles. "Come, come," he says and steps out of the passage.

Izuku goes inside.

As soon as he steps over the threshold, he bends down to take off his shoes. Yagi closes the door and walks deeper into the apartment.

"I saw your fight with that villain today," Yagi says conversationally. "You were amazing.”

"Thanks," Izuku says quietly. He gets up and follows Yagi to the kitchen island, where Yagi is already turning on the kettle.

"You didn't say you were coming," Yagi says, looking at Izuku from the side. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes. Tea would be good," Izuku says and leans against the counter.

Yagi lifts his eyes and looks at Izuku closely.

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

Izuku shrieks inwardly. How can Yagi read Izuku's emotions so well?

"No, it's... I just... I didn't know where else to go," he says, feeling his cheeks getting hot at the same time.

Yagi sets the can with tea down and approaches Izuku, with obvious concern.

"What happened, Izuku?"

Izuku moves restlessly under Yagi's attentive gaze. It is stupid because it feels like nothing compared to the problems he usually has.

Izuku sighs and rubs his neck awkwardly.

"It's just... I just have to talk about something." He is fine after all, just... "Let's make some tea and then we'll talk."

"Alright," Yagi says. He gives Izuku another thoughtful look and then goes back to making tea.

Izuku follows to help him. He has been here so often that he almost feels at home.

Finally, the two of them sit down at the table in the living room. His memory returns for a moment to U.A., when they sat together, same as now.

This time, however, Izuku faces a different kind of problem than back then.

Yagi looks at him expectantly and finally, Izuku takes a deep breath and says: 

"I want to marry Ochaco."

Yagi promptly chokes on his tea. 

Izuku springs up immediately, hands already flailing in mild panic as he hovers over his coughing and spluttering mentor. 

Yagi waves him off though before he can do anything, and grabs for a napkin to cough into instead. 

Izuku pushes down his rising guilt and sets to work grabbing a handful of his own napkins to clean up Yagi’s spill. 

Honestly, he should be ashamed of himself, he thinks as he wipes down the coffee table and then the floor. Waiting until his mentor had taken a sip to spring the news on him. What was he thinking?? 

“None of that, my boy,” Yagi rasps, clearing his throat and taking another small sip to soothe it before continuing. “I can hear your guilty thoughts all the way over here and it isn’t necessary. I was simply taken by surprise is all.” 

Izuku feels his eyes getting wet. He knows that Yagi has been his mentor for years, knows that he has watched Izuku grow from a weak and gangly teen to the strong and capable pro that he is now. 

But still! 

How is it that the man can read him so clearly???

“As to your question… well I’m not really sure that this old man will be of any use to you…” A light flush works its way up his cheeks as he scratches at it awkwardly. “I must admit that when it comes to matters of the heart I am a little out of my depths…”

Izuku’s mouth drops open. “But you’re All Might! You were the number one hero for ages!”

Yagi grimaces. “Yes… and that simply means that I had rabid fans approaching me with requests to, well as they put it, ‘smash!’”

Now it’s Izuku’s turn to choke but thankfully Yagi doesn’t elaborate. 

“When it comes to relationships and romance though…” His tone is wistful as he says, “well I didn’t have much time for that…” He pauses and his face turns pensive and thoughtful. “No… I suppose… I suppose I didn’t allow myself to have time for that…” 

Yagi looks back up at Izuku and smiles, warmth and affection radiating from him as he says, “I’m so very proud of you for not following in my footsteps my boy. I’m sure you and young Uraraka will be very happy together.” 

“But I still don’t know how,” Izuku says, waving his arms around uncertainly. “What if she says no? What if she doesn’t like how I ask?” 

He turns to pace slightly, hands still dancing through the air, giving away every bit of his uncertainty. 

“It’s such a big moment, and it is so soon, do you think it's too soon? I’m sorry I know you just said you don’t have much experience in this but I just don’t know who else to ask, you were the first person I thought of to come to.”

“As I said, no need to apologize, my boy. I may not have experience but I’ve seen it, and more importantly I’ve seen you and Uraraka. What you two share is no small matter, it is strong and deep. I have very little doubt that she would wish to say no, but even still at most she might want a little more time before that next step. You two share a bond that runs deep, do not doubt that part.” Yagi’s voice is soft yet full of warmth as he speaks.

Izuku turns to watch as his mentor settles back down with his tea, something in him finally relaxing as he takes in what had been said. He takes a deep breath, lets it out, and sits down on the couch next to the older man. They sit in a companionable silence for a time as they drink their tea together. Izuku cherishes the time spent quietly with his mentor, it seems like there are far too little moments like this anymore. Everything is so busy now, as they focus on their careers and building their lives.

He waits until they’ve both finished their tea to ask the next question this time. No more choking on tea for Yagi.

“Will you…will you stand with me? If she says yes I mean.” Izuku twists his fingers, not looking at Yagi as he waits for the response. There is a lengthy pause before Yagi speaks finally.

“My boy…Izuku, it would be an honor to stand beside you as you marry.” The words are slightly choked sounding, and when Izuku looks up at last, there are tears in Yagi’s eyes. Izuku reaches over and slips his hand into the other larger hand and squeezes gently, eyes swimming with his own tears. 

The meeting with Yagi may not give him the answer on how best to handle his engagement, but... it fills him with a confidence that makes him willing to trust his intuition. He goes into his apartment, uncertain and lost, and comes out confident and knowing what he wants to do.

Maybe Yagi says that he is not the person Izuku should ask about such things, but Izuku knows that he couldn't have made a better choice.

He spends the next few days preparing everything. Everything has to be perfect. It has to be perfect because Ochako deserves this moment to be unique. So Izuku will do everything to make that happen.

The only problem is that their schedules have been extremely busy lately. They still manage to find time for each other, but Izuku knows that it's hard to count on finding a day when they both have time off. He also doesn't want to wait and put it off. He knows that waiting would tear him apart.

So he tries to choose a day that he hopes will have the best chance of going according to plan. A day when they can have the most time for themselves.

Of course, in the work of a hero, there is no such thing as an uninterrupted plan, but he tries not to think about it. He wants to do it in a nicely prepared corner on the roof of his apartment building. This is... their place and Izuku feels it's right. He prepares everything. He leaves work early that day and asks Katsuki to take care of his area in case of an emergency. He looks at him strangely, but doesn't ask any questions. And he even seems to be satisfied that Izuku decides to take some time for himself.

Ochako finishes her shift soon and Izuku waits impatiently. He makes sure that the decoration of the place is appropriate, that the soft music in the background is not too loud, that the dinner he prepared will be ready when Ochako returns, that he has enough mochi and that he knows exactly where the ring is hidden.

He checks the latter for the tenth time that day.

Everything seems to be going well.

Until he hears the sound of an explosion in the distance, followed by two more. When he looks in that direction, he sees a huge cloud of black smoke.

Izuku feels his stomach sink because... This is where Ochako is patrolling today.

A moment later, his phone buzzes and Izuku feels a silent horror wash over him as he answers it.

"Deku, we need your help in the northern part of the city. Our heroes are outnumbered, can you..."

"I'm coming," Izuku says into the phone.

He’s not getting his perfect proposal today.

He practically runs out the door, using his quirk to dart all the way to his agency to get on his hero costume and be updated on the situation.

Once he actually gets there, he finds that the outlook isn’t great.

They haven’t had contact with anyone deep within the city near the incident in over ten minutes, the last update saying only that they were greatly outnumbered before it was cut off.

It isn’t a good sign of anything.

If only he hadn’t planned his proposal for today-

He cuts that thought off before it could finish. He had no way of knowing this would happen today over any other day. It was chance and nothing more.

The moment he is briefed and has an earpiece, he’s on the field running towards the damages.

To put it short, the city looks like hell. Rubble lines the streets and the civilians were all rushing outwards towards safety, nearly pushing each other over in the process.

He purses his lips, trying to access the damages. At the moment, he likely wasn’t needed to help rescue anyone from inside the buildings, as the ones on the outer reaches of the damage seemed stable.

He continues his run into the city, making sure to only run on the rooftops and unoccupied areas so as not to get in the way of the civilians leaving the area.

The closer he gets to the center of the damage, the louder everything becomes. It’s easy to hear the screams and the sound of rubble hitting the ground amidst the sounds of fighting.

He finally reaches the main fight and just pauses for a moment. This is a lot worse than he was expecting.

There are people absolutely everywhere, a barrier created by the villains preventing the civilians from escaping and the villains seem to outnumber the heroes two to one.

Almost everyone on the field already seems to be injured, as well.

He touches his earpiece just outside of the barrier, giving a quick report to everyone back in command, before charging straight through the thin barrier into the chaos.

It’s time to fight.

And fight Izuku does.

This is about more than his ruined proposal now, there are lives on the line, (not least the life of the one he loves,) and he can’t afford to be distracted. 

Even if he knows that Ochako is here somewhere, possibly in danger, and he can’t do anything about it because he doesn’t even know where she is– Focus! 

He fires up his quirk, dialing it up as high as it can go, and zooms into the fray in a whir of green sparks, smashing straight through a couple of robot puppets with the force of his kick alone.

He catches the puppeteer villain completely by surprise, slamming his fist into their side hard enough to send them flying into another two villains, knocking all three to the ground like bowling pins.

Immediately he nabs the moaning villains with Blackwhip, spinning on one heel to send them flying in the direction of the approaching reinforcements for detainment.

Three down, only… at least seven more to go oh boy.

A villain opens fire on him and he cranks up the Full Cowl just enough to blip around them, bouncing off the walls in a zigzag till he can come up behind them and yank the weapon away.

It crumbles like paper in his grip and that’s all the warning Izuku needs to tone it down a bit before he grabs the villain's wrists to quickly cuff them together behind his back. 

Damn, he hasn’t lost control of regulating his strength like this in a long time.

“Get it together Deku,” he mumbles to himself, taking a second to run a tired hand down his face.

Danger Sense screams a warning at him and Izuku ducks to the side, pulling the villain out of the way with him because as angry as he is at his ruined plans, he’s still not willing to let anyone die here, even if they happen to be a villain.

Rubble crashes to the ground where they’d been standing moments prior. For several long moments neither of them move, breathing raggedly as they stare at the mess. 

It crosses Izuku's mind that if he'd been just a little slower he wouldn't ever have been able to ask her. She would have had no idea he had been planning to ask. 

Like she knew he wanted to spend his life with her, but he had been keeping his cards close to his chest in the actual asking of it. A voice breaks him out of his distressed thoughts, snapping him back to the present. 

“Hey…thanks.” It is the villain he'd saved, standing quietly beside Izuku, watching him with wide, horror filled eyes. 

“Oh, of course. I wouldn't just stand by and let someone die no matter who they are. I wouldn't be much of a hero if I did.”

The man next to him doesn't say anything further, just nods and looks slightly baffled by Izuku’s words. 

He hurries to escort the man he rescued to the holding area before flinging himself head first back into the action. He wants this over already. Maybe if they finish fast enough he can still salvage some of his plans. 

It doesn't work quite how Izuku wishes. Hours have gone by before the incident is under control and the rescue efforts are winding down. Izuku hurries to find Ochako, worried about her safety and wellbeing. 

He finally spots her standing near some of their other friends, looking dirty and tired. Breaking into a jog, he rushes to her side smiling excitedly. 

She turns towards him, a smile lighting up her face. 

“Will you marry me, Ochako?” The words rush out of Izuku before his sad excuse for an internal filter can catch them. 

Ochako’s eyes widen in response as she looks at him. He covers his face with a moan of despair. All his planning and he ruined it because it's the only thing he's been thinking of saying to her since he last saw her this morning. 

He can hear Katsuki burst into laughter in the background and if he can go any redder he would. 

“I fucking knew it!” Katsuki crows. 

Gentle hands pull his own hands away from his face and he’s looking into Ochako’s teary eyed face. She's smiling brilliantly through the tears. 

“Yes, Izuku. Of course I will marry you.” 

Izuku returns her smile, his classic Midoriya tears coming straight into play.

Her ring is still in the balls of mochi in their apartment,  but that doesn’t matter anymore.

Perhaps, it wasn’t the proposal he’d been planning, but the sheer relief after the battle and ability to just see her alive leaves him not caring in the slightest.

He wants to stay by her side and this is just the last step.

They kiss gently and briefly, mindful of each other's injuries.

They then hug, just holding each other through tears of happiness. Everything would be okay.

“I love you,” he tells her, sincere with tears glistening in the corners of his eyes once they separate.

“And I love you,” she responds much the same.

Katsuki comes over, almost as if just to ruin the moment. “You’re an idiot, Izuku.”

Izuku scoffs, but just keeps smiling at Ochako. “I know this isn’t the perfect proposal and everything’s not perfect here, but I want you by my side, Ochako. I was actually supposed to propose at home tonight, your ring is still there,” he tells her, knowing she won’t judge and wanting to be honest nonetheless.

She shakes her head at him, leaning forward to just barely brush her nose against his. “I wouldn’t have it any other away. We’ve always been a little spontaneous.”

“Yeah,” Izuku snorts and takes her hand.

Once all is said and done on the battlefield, they go home.

Everything is just as Izuku had left it, but his plans are nowhere close to being the same.

He covers her eyes with one hand, digging her ring out of a mochi ball with the other.

“Close your eyes.”

He kneels as she does so and takes away his hand.

Their candles, now burning low and warm, light the scene as he takes a deep breath and holds out her ring.

“Open your eyes.”

She does so with a gasp, her eyes tearing up once again. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers.

Carefully, he takes her hand and slides the ring on her finger. “Thank you,” he tells her, “for always being here.”

The moment the ring is secure on her finger, she pulls him into a long and hard hug.

“And thank you,” she whispers, “for being the best fiance I could ever ask for.”

They aren’t perfect, but they’re happy with one another and perhaps that’s all that matters.

They’ll always be here, right by one another’s sides.