𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 , todoroki shoto ⁽ ¹ ⁾

·₊° 19. preparations.

༉˚*ೃ 19. PREPARATIONS!

THE NEXT TWO weeks went by in a blur, of rainy days, sunny days, and something in between. It was all training for the Sports Festival, as the city of Musutafu recovered from the villain attack on U.A. High School. Tsubame saw her face in the news more than once, even if she was unconscious with a broken nose. It made her smile every time. No matter if she was stretching in front of her living room TV at home, beating up her punching bag with her Quirk, or long-distance running through muggy streets with her headphones in, a rush always came over her when she heard the name Akatsuki Tsubame be mentioned in a media source. I'm famous! Famous for being a beat-up wimp, but famous nonetheless. In those two weeks, Tsubame had never trained so hard in her life.

          A few notable things happened.

          One, Tsubame started going to the U.A. gym with her classmates on the regular—though who the gym group was changed each time and it was never the entirety of 1-A at once. Sometimes Jirou was her partner in boxing, and another time it was Hagakure. Considering it was out of school hours, it was just whoever felt like coming along. This later extended to outside of the gym. Wrecking the free-for-all forest used for training on U.A.'s grounds became a near-daily occurrence. 1-A carved out time to improve their Quirks and get stronger. Those two weeks saw Ochaco seeing how much weight her Quirk could turn zero gravity, or how high of a cliff Kirishima could jump off with his Hardening before he actually got hurt. Kicking over trees with Mina and Kirishima's help became standard, Tsubame's powerful legs and strong feet doing most of the work. Sometimes, she and Iida raced each other at break-neck speed across the grounds, though he beat her in stamina, most annoyingly, every time. One time, Tsuyu and Tsubame practiced their jumping together. Once again, Tsuyu easily trumped her in that. A shame... All it did was continue to spark her competitiveness.

         That was the interesting thing. Even though they'd all be rivals, competitors, at the Sports Festival, 1-A helped each other train. From Mina and Aoyama shooting down Ochaco's floating rocks, to Sero swinging Tsubame around with his tape (Panda and Nobara style), to Yaoyorozu and Jirou having each other's back. It was rare to do anything alone—except for Bakugou, who refused to train with the 'extras'. Tsubame never once saw Todoroki at any of these self-dictated training sessions either. And she'd be lying if she said she hadn't looked for him.

          Two, Tsubame started realising that her classmates apparently did seem to like her, even a little—and as someone who'd never really had any friends past primary school, it was hard to keep up with all of them. Just like everything that was beautiful in the world, they had their own mannerisms and laughs and things that made them them. They each had something else that made them tick. Midoriya always wanted to infodump about heroes—Tsubame would gladly listen. Bakugou seemed to love the whole 'I can do this shit myself and I need no one, fuck off extras' shtick. Kirishima idolised this old-timey Pro called the Crimson Riot. Aoyama liked attention. Tokoyami seemed to thrive in the dark.