Life is Simple, Love is Not (Izuku x Miruko)

Chapter 18: Healthy Compromises

Izuku frowned as he leaned against the wall of Rumi's workout room while the rabbit hero lifted a set of dumbbells in each hand. He was dressed in his usual standard government black suit while his partner wore a pair of black nylon workout shorts and a plain white tank top. It had been a few days since the incident with Cassandra and Oscar, but it was still very fresh in Izuku's mind.

"So you're telling me that you owe Oscar a favor?" The green haired agent said in disbelief.

Pumping iron like a pro, Rumi rolled her eyes as she responded. "Yeah I do. Before you start lecturing me you should know that I was desperate to find you. Sasaki and I had been trying to find you for days with no luck, so I was gonna take any help I could get."

Izuku was silent for a moment as he let Rumi's words sink in. If he was being honest, he was actually very flattered that his partner had been so worried about him. It was a strange feeling knowing that someone cared about you, but not strange in a bad way. The last person he could remember caring about him so much was his mom, and frankly she was the sole reason Izuku had not gone off the deep end as a quirkless kid.

"If she were still alive I think she would have liked Rumi." Izuku silently thought to himself.

Remembering that he was supposed to be lecturing his partner, Izuku wiped the small smile off his face and made a show of shaking his head in disappointment. "Still, I think Oscar was taking advantage of the situation and was simply looking for an excuse to have a pro-hero owe him a favor. The problem is we have no idea what his goal is." He stated with slight frustration. "If he had just been a regular villain or criminal it would not be so bad, but the guy somehow became a fucking CIA agent."

Dropping her weights to the floor with a loud thump, Rumi walked over to a weight bench and began loading the barbell up with an impressive amount of metal weight disks.

"Personally I think the CIA let him join on purpose." She said bluntly as she laid down on the bench and grabbed the barbell resting above her. "The guy is exactly the kind of scumbag you send to do dirty work and not ask any questions."

Stroking his chin in thought, Izuku nodded in agreement as Rumi began to bench press her weights.

"That isn't too far-fetched now that you point it out." He agreed. "The big question is why was Oscar sent all the way to Japan? The whole thing reeks of a cover-up. Oscar's CIA handlers probably underestimated him and he somehow got leverage over them while doing their dirty work."

"Sounds about right." Rumi grunted as she lifted the heavy barbell. "You said he got reassigned, do you know where?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, after I sent my second report about Oscar to the director I tried to snoop around but nothing came up. My hope is they stuck him in a cubicle somewhere so he could drown in paperwork."

Setting the barbell back down into it's rack with a clang, Rumi sat up and used the edge of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

"I hope you are right Izuku." She said. "Changing the topic, I got an email from the principal of UA yesterday."

Arching an eyebrow, Izuku pushed off the wall, grabbed a plastic water bottle off the floor, and handed it to the caramel-skinned woman.

"What was it about?" He asked curiously.

Taking several big gulps from the plastic water bottle, Rumi shrugged uncaringly. "Something about giving a presentation to some students. I was just gonna ignore it like I usually do when I get invites from schools and stuff. I am not good with kids, and I have better things to do than spend a day babysitting a bunch of brats."