What if, and hear me out here, I just don't get up.

You had been sleeping for a day and a bit and had finally woken up, but that didn't mean you had to get up.

If I simply don't move, then I technically am still asleep... but I'm hungry.

You rolled over onto your face and groaned at the soreness of your muscles, every part of you ached from your battles in the sports festival. You stomach growled so you gripped your blanket and rolled off your bed onto the floor.

"Ouch."

You picked yourself up and stumbled to the kitchen looking like a human burrito wrapped in a blanket. You walked past your bathroom and caught a glimpse of your appearance, messy hair and bags under your eyesy even after sleeping for so long.

Ew

You rummaged through your cupboards and fridge and managed to find a granola bar.

I need to go shopping before I starve.

Just as you finished your breakfast, if you can even call it that, you heard a knock on your door.

It's probably just Shota checking in.

You walked over to the door not bothering to straiten out your apperance for your uncle, and flung it open.

"Look I'm fine- Izuku?"

The green haired boy in front of you looked stunned, his had still raised to knock, as his face became a facinating shade of red.

"What's wrong?" You suddenly remembered that you looked like a mess and slammed the door.

"Sorry Izu, gimme a sec."

"That was not my best moment, my two brain cells are working overtime." you muttered quickly getting changed to look somewhat presentable.

You and Izuku had know eachother forever, but he hadn't ever seen you looking like you had just survived a hurricane, and by the way you looked in the morning you could have.

After a few minutes of frantic hair brushing and trying to fing a matching pair of socks you flung back open the door panting heavily.

"Good morning young Izuku... what brings you to my humble abode?"

He seemed to not have moved an inch since you had last flung open the door, as he stood there frozen.

"Aw did I really look that bad?"

He jolted back to life. "What!? No! You acctually looked really cute and-" he slapped a had over his mouth before he could continue and became a tomato once again.

Meanwhile you just stood there looking unimpressed "Sssuuurrreeee. Anyway what are you doing here?"

He managed to compose himself enough to answer, "Oh, um, I just didn't really get a chance to talk to you after the festival the other day and uh, you weren't really answering your phone so I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Aww thanks Izu, sorry for not answering my phone but I'm all good. What about you, are you okay? You kind of got pummelled." you eyed his arm which was in a sling.

He smiled brightly waving his good hand in the air "I'm fine Y/n, you don't have to worry about me! Recovery Girl is kind of getting annoyed that I keep breaking my bones though."

"Me and Recovery Girl both, you dummy." you poked him lightly on the forehead.

He laughed and then looked at you in relization "Y/n, you should probably cheak your phone, if you haven't yet."

"What why?" you asked pulling out you phone to be met by an array of missed messages.

"Ohhh."

Most of the people from you class had texted you and you had a few missed calls.

"Everyone wanted to talk to yesterday and were disappointed that you left so fast."

"I should probably answer these huh?"

Just as you were about to respond to one, a new message popped up at the top of your screen.

"Oh damn, Izuku I've got to go!" you rushed into your appartement and grabbed your bag "Sorry we can't hang out today, something just came up!" you closed your door and ruffled your friends' hair and skidded to a halt before you could run past him.

"Why is your hair so soft Izuku, like what the hell." your phone buzzed again and you remembered what you were doing.

"Bye Izu, see you later, love ya!"

You sprinted away leaving your green haired friend touching his hair and looking like his soul had left his body.

"She said she loved me..."

***

You lent on the wall in front of Shoto's house, exhausted from running for so long.

This is too much voluntary exercise, who am I?

You checked the time and realized you had a few minutes before you were supposed to meet up with your friend, so you started answering some of your text messages.

Quite a few people had congratulated you on getting third place at the sports festival so you thanked them, smiling at how fast Kirishima responded.

"What are you smiling at?"

You looked up to find Shoto standing in front of you wearing a casual outfit.

"Nothing much, ready to go?"

He nodded.

The two of you set off in the direction of the hospital. Shoto had texted you a few times while you were sleeping like a rock, asking about your well being, but he had only recently told you he was heading out to visit his mother for the first time in years, and he wanted you to come with him.

You felt bad about abandoning Izuku, but you couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Rei or leave Shoto alone when he needed you. This was a huge step in the right direction for Shoto and if he needed you, you were there.

After Endeavor sent Shoto's mother to live in a mental hospital, you had visited her when you could, though not as much recently. Shoto knew that you went to see Rei, but he didn't want to talk about her so you never brought it up. You knew he thought that the sight of him would only bring his mother pain, nothing you could say would change his mind.

Regarding issues with his family, you had always supported Shoto, by not using his fire quirk, by helping him get out of situations with his father, but you couldn't leave behind his mother like he had. She was too important to you as a parental figure and as a friend.

The two of you walked in silence, usually, you would talk about random things and he would occasionally comment, but to your surprise things weren't immediately going back to normal.

You had to admit, you had hoped that you wouldn't have to talk about what happened between the two of you and pretend like nothing ever went wrong but you could tell something was different.

You glanced slightly in his direction to find that his face was just as expressionless as it normally was. You had a feeling he was remembering the traumatizing this his mother said to him over and over but you didn't know what to say.

Okay Y/n, all you've got to do is ask him what's been going on. Everything was good at the end of the sports festival why is this so hard? On the count of three I'll say something,

One

Two

Three

...

I didn't say anything... God dammit Y/n.

The rest of the way to the hospital you attempted to convince yourself to address everything but you just ended up earning a confused stare from Shoto when you smacked yourself in the face out of frustration.

Finally, you stood in front of Rei's door, you waited for Shoto to go in first but he didn't move.

"Hey," you asked softly "Are you okay? I can go in first if you want."

He nodded, not saying a word.

You have him a quick side hug and slowly opened the door. A woman, sitting in the middle of the room looking out the window turned to look at you and smiled.

"Y/n! Come in, what brings you here today."

You smiled back at her, stepping to the side so Shoto could come in.

"Hello, mom."

You were happy to see that after only a few minutes Shoto and his mother were catching up as if they never parted. You sat on a chair beside Rei picking up the conversation when it started to seem strained. Everything was going well until Rei brought up a topic you had wanted to avoid that she brought up every time you saw her.

"So, are you two dating?"

"Rei not again." you groaned

"Dating?"

You blinked at his stupid question.

Shoto, either you are a compete idiot or you're trying to make my life difficult.

Rei considered her son's question "People who are dating usually get dinner or lunch together and spend time alone at home together watching movies or hanging out I suppose."

"Then yes, Y/n and I are dating."

You face palmed "No, incorrect. Like I told you before Rei, Shoto and I are not dating."

Shoto looked puzzled, and you knew this conversation wasn't going to end that easily.

"You've talked about this before?"

Noooooooooo, why universe, why have you forsaken me?

Rei smiled innocently, as if she wasn't about to make the next few minutes painfully awkward.

"Well, you and Y/n have known each other since you were kids, and even then you were extremely close. Shoto, I don't know what type of person you are now, but I know Y/n and she always seemed so perfect for you. I watched the sports fesival so I know something happened between you two but here you are, together."

You had heard Rei's speech about you and Shoto being 'perfect for each other' more times than you could count, and you knew it would only get worse from here.

"Okay Shoto, and person who will not be named because she is making my walk home uncomfortable." Rei laughed lightly as you stood up "Imma grab something from the vending machine, I'll be back when this conversation is over."

You closed the door and rummaged around in your bag looking for some loose change as you walked to grab an 'I'm free from that situation' snack.

Rei listened to your footsteps fade away before turning her attention to her son.

"I love her to bits but I just wanted a chance to talk to you alone."

Shoto looked slightly worried "You made her uncomfortable on purpose?"

Rei nodded "It's was the only way that she wouldn't feel bad about leaving."

The woman knew that you would feel guilty or like you were intruding if she asked you to give them a moment, so she used the topic she knew you couldn't stand.

"What do you want to say?"

Rei could tell that her son was trying to make it seem like she had never left and catch up, but she could also see that his mind was pre-occupied.

"You really love her, don't you Shoto."

"What?"

"I can tell you care for Y/n as more than a friend."

The boy didn't even try to deny it, he just kept a straight face. "How did you know?"

"You told me before I... left, when you were just a child, and I suppose it was just a mother's intuition, but from what I saw at the sports festival and how you were acting when you walked in here with her, I don't think your feelings have changed."

Rei watched as her son studied her face, not saying anything.

"Shoto dear, I know it's hard for you to talk about it, I was the same way, but just know I'm here to listen if you want to work out your emotions."

Shoto was trying really hard to mend his relationship with his mother, so if this was what would help, he would do it to the best of his ability.

"We fought." he started his voice clear of emotion "She kept putting herself in danger so I stopped talking to her. It was fine for a while, better than fine, but then it wasn't."

Before he could go on he was interrupted by a knock on the door followed by a muffled voice.

"Okay, so, I know I said I wouldn't come back until you were done but I can't find the vending machines and this low key scary guy told me I can't just be walking around alone, so if you can finish up real quick that'd be very plus ultra of you."

Rei nodded at her son who seemed to be somewhat glad to not have to talk about his feelings, he was a teenage boy after all, and he opened the door to let you in.

The three of you talked for a little longer until you and Shoto were told visiting hours were over and had to leave.

Rei waved goodbye as you left her room and then went back to looking out the window.

She had a lot of alone time, so by the time the sun set she had a good theory on what was going on inside her son's head. She loved the two of you and thought of you as one of her children, so she decided if either of you ever needed help she would have to know what was going on.

She knew her children, even if she hadn't seen them in a while, and even though Shoto wasn't a top tier feelings sharer, he was able to communicate enough for her to understand.

Shoto had cared about you since the two of you were kids and only after he started going to school did he realize that his feelings towards you were different than the ones he had for other people, that's when he told Rei.

Rei assumed that he thought if he told you, the two of you would end up like her and Endeavor. So he completely hid his feelings which only grew over time and got worse when you started hanging out with other close guy friends at U.A.

From what he told her, Rei guessed that when you stopped talking for a while after your fight, he was finally relived of those constant emotions he had to experience all day when he was around you. After a while, he realized that he was able to work and train better when he wasn't always thinking about you and worrying for your safety, so he kept trying to keep you out of his life.

Despite all of the seemingly good things, Rei presumed that he eventually realized that he missed you too much to handle so during the sports festival he tried ignoring you in the first event, defeating you in the second round and by the third all he wanted to do was get away from you.

Rei got to listen to the festival on TV, so she heard the things people at the stadium didn't, so she heard your conversation for the most part. She noticed that he concluded that the reason he stayed away from you was because you were keeping him from becoming a hero by clouding his judgement with emotions.

What really stuck out to her is that he told you that he needed 'more than you could give', which she speculated meant that he wanted you, but he would never ask, or imagine you would want anything other than friendship. When he was put in the position to either give you up or let you back into his life, Rei wasn't surprised that he didn't have the strength to turn you away.

To her dismay, the two of you weren't completely made up, so she hoped that you would finally work it out.

Rei smiled up at the stars, happy with her detective work, in the end, all she wanted was for both of you to be happy.

Preferably happy together.