It took Inko a day to figure it out.

  "Who is it?" She asked at dinner.

  "Who's what mum?" Izuku asked.

  "The girl. Or boy." She said.

  Izuku almost spat out his katsudon. Almost.

  "What? Why do you think that I..?"

  Inko giggled quietly.

  "Sweetie it's written all over your face. And I'm your mother, I can tell these things." She said. "So who is it?"

  "I already get teased enough by Mirio. Even Tamaki chips in occasionally! I don't need someone else embarrassing me about it." He grumbled childishly, picking at his dinner.

  "So Nejire isn't in on the secret?" Inko asked, a smile spreading across her face.

  Izuku froze, and Inko's smile grew wider.

  "Well then, I approve." She said.

  "Mum!"

_______

  Izuku slumped down onto the bench beside Mirio. He could see Nejire and Tamaki walking across the park to join them.

  "Mum figured it out. Took her a day." He said.

  Mirio shrugged with a smile.

  "That's how parents are. Our parents would probably get on like a house on fire. If they ever met."

  "We must never let that happen."

  "Agreed."

  Nejire and Tamaki sat on the bench either side of the two, Mirio's eyebrows doing an impression of a pair of caterpillars as Izuku's face coloured.

  "So, where are we going?" Nejire asked. "Is it fun? Will there be food?"

  "We're going..." Mirio said dramatically. "To the arcade!!"

  It was easy to figure out why Mirio chose the arcade. Quite a few of the games were older versions of the fighting games they played on Mirio's console.

  Of course All Might has always been stupidly OP, so Izuku was banned from using him in any of the games there too.

  They got lunch afterwards, and spent some time just wandering around Musutafu. They were all recognised from the Sports Festival, to Izuku's embarrassment.

  The quadrio spent most of the summer just going out to new places and hanging out. Sometimes one of them was busy with family, or had other plans, meaning their quadrio occasionally became a trio or duo.

  A few instances were fabricated by Mirio, who conveniently had some vague plans already while Tamaki had an appointment or was visiting his grandparents in Hosu.

  Consequently, Izuku and Nejire were left on their own at some point every week to hang out together. They had fun, but Izuku was a nervous wreck 70 percent of the time.

  Until the day before school resumed, when Mirio set up a final pseudo-date.

  SmokeMight: Why does my name insinuate a high All Might?

  LeTintin: lmao!

____

  SmokeMight: Park.

  LeTintin: ?

  SmokeMight: Park.

  LeTintin: Is this about your daaaate?

  SmokeMight: Paaaaaaaaaark.

  LeTintin: alright alright, hold yer smokey horses.

  Mirio entered the almost deserted park, immediately spotting his friend's bushy green hair resting on a picnic table. He sat down beside Izuku and rested his chin on his palm.

  "You alright buddy?"

  " 'm fine."

  "Did you confess your undying love and she rejected you?"

  "No."

  "Did someone else come along and-"

  "She kissed me."

  "And that's bad... Why?"

  "It's not."

  "Sooo...?"

  "I'm just kind of.. stunned."

  "Understandable. So.. are you together now?"

  "I don't know? I mean, she kissed me. On the cheek. And just sort of.. skipped away while I stood there."

  "I see. Probably not then. But maybe soon."

  "I feel stupid."

  "Eh, that's normal."

  "Ok. I still feel stupid though."

  They sat in silence for a few minutes.

  "Are you gonna go home anytime soon?"

  "Probably not. Although I should."

  "Yeah. Do you wanna come over and play Smash Heroes?"

  "Sure."

  "Come on then!"

  They played for a few hours, on duo campaign mode, Izuku demolishing the opposition with All Might. After the final boss, which had been thoroughly beaten with much yelling and name calling of the villain organisation's shadow leader who had an unknown, multi faceted set of abilities, Izuku just sat and stared at the screen for a few seconds.

  "It's just hit me."

  "Ah. Are you going to go up onto the roof and scream in joy?"

  "No. I'm going to sit here and robotically demolish every CPU while I think about feelings."

  "Now that I have to see."

  True to his word, Izuku used Wash (the weakest hero in the game) to destroy multiple max level CPUs at a time, even taking on All Might and only losing by a thin sliver of health.

  "Have you figured out the meaning of life yet?" Mirio asked, grinning slightly.

  "No, but I know what I'm going to do. And no, I'm not telling you. You'll just try to 'help' and be an ass about it."

  "An ass? Me? No! When are you going to tell her?"

  "After the licensing exam in three weeks."

  Mirio shrugged.

  "That's fair. Just don't leave it too long. What if she does something before then though?"

  "It could-"

  "It wasn't just a friendly kiss, that's A) not a thing and B) she was skipping, you said. I think that explains itself." Mirio cut him off. He thought for a moment. "It's not a thing unless you're French."

  They sat in silence for a moment, Mirio wielding Wash on screen to far inferior effect than Izuku.

  "We're going to be making more Ultimate Moves soon. Got anything in mind?" The blonde asked.

  "I've got a few ideas. Should be simple enough too, just a stylised version of an old move. You?"

  "I've got an idea to blind opponents. I can use the same move to attack through shields and raised arms too. Something like 'Blinder Touch Eyeball Crush!'"

  Izuku snorted.

  "Why not keep with the Star Wars theme?"

  "You've just given me a brilliant idea. The four of us could have a Star Wars themed Ultimate Move! You could make a smoke collar around an opponent's neck and lift them up with it!"

  " 'Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director.' " Izuku said in an eerily good impression, holding his hand up as though he were pinching someone's windpipe.

  The duo cackled, and continued making silly impressions of various characters until late into the evening.