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Right now probably could’ve been the best day of his life, if they had met under different circumstances. Perhaps a more professional setting. Especially being trapped in a hotel elevator wearing her hoodie merch line, black sweats, and curly thick hair not brushed from his night’s rest looking for the nearest coffee shop in the hotel. More importantly than his appearance, he knows for a fact it’s not due to some of the shadow that he hasn’t shaved off for a few days, that she already figured out who he was by the way she was squinting at him as she lowered her sunglasses a little bit. After all, it was only less than two weeks ago that he went viral again for the podcast he and a few college friends had created. It currently has 4.5 million hits and counting. His publicist/manager has been updating him every 500k. Maybe Kacchan was right about watching his wording, but he’ll never admit it out loud, not if he was on his deathbed.
He didn’t even say anything bad, but maybe he did go overboard, and maybe he should’ve used fewer curse words. Well there are a lot of maybes and should-haves that should’ve happened, and he should’ve forced the others to take it down, but it was life, of course, it had to happen live, therefore not an easy fix. He didn’t find out he went viral until after the podcast ended. It went viral in Japan, America, and parts of Europe. It also didn’t help that he ended up publicly quitting the podcast. Now even when he goes to the outside world cameras get shoved in his face. Still, he doesn’t regret what he said, and now actually seeing her face to face, made his stomach flutter even more than when he saw the videos, interviews, and photos.
“Do I know you from somehow,” her sweet voice cut through his thoughts; a chill ran down his spine. He might as well bite the bullet, no matter the embarrassment it has caused him.
“Uh, sorta?” ‘Smooth Izuku’, he thought to himself, cursing how he stuttered out, “You probably heard of the Hero Analyst podcast.” Her eyes went wide. Deku felt his face warm up. This is it. He’s probably going to get banned from every con, awards show, or premier.
She pointed at him, “So you’re Deku!” He winced at the nickname, even though his stage name is his first name, ever since Kacchan called him that in an interview that nickname would pop up every once and a while in the comments.
“Yep,” he responded sheepishly with a pathetic wave in his opinion. They stayed silent for a few moments, “I-uh I feel like I should apologize about what my co-hosts were saying.” She gave him an awkward shrug and looked away pushing her sunglasses back up to their place. He couldn’t really read her expression very well with the glasses on her face.
“It’s not your place to apologize for them,” she said softly, “Besides, it comes with the territory of being a hero.”
Deku felt his mouth move fast before his brain could process what she said, “It shouldn’t have been like that, I still stand by what I said.” He noticed her cheeks flush a bit pinker than they initially are, and the word ‘cute’ flashed in his mind. He bit his cheek, now is not the time for his hormones. She leaned back on the bar on her side of the elevator to face him, and he could feel her eyes studying his face for a few moments.
“I can’t figure out the proper words to say right now,” she crossed her arms, “I don’t know whether to thank you or apologize that you got fired from the podcast.” Deku felt his lips tug into a soft smile.
“I actually quit, but you’re welcome,” he paused then added, “Those guys are assholes anyways.” They were a few guys he met in college, they were cool at first, but as the podcast got popular they started to get worse especially when the female heroes were part of the topics. Quitting was bound to happen anyways, Deku didn’t want his reputation to go down than it already has due to the association with them.
She shot back instantly, “Then why be in a podcast with them?” Deku froze. This is why he’s been in hiding for two weeks, he hasn’t prepared his answers for questions like that, if he’s going to start his own podcast, or if he’s going to do something else. In fact, being at this hotel as the starting point, his manager scheduled him to do a sponsor ad that was going to be posted in a few months. It also gives him time to decide what to do till then.
“They were my friends and it was something fun to do,” he responded lamely.
“I’m sorry it ended that way.”
“Don’t be,” he shook his head, “Besides, it was bound to happen, I honestly should’ve listened to Kacchan.”
“Kacchan?” Izuku winced, Kacchan will definitely murder him if the name gets out again.
He clarified, “His hero name is Dynamight.”
Her eyes went wide in recognition, “Oh! I know Bakugou, I worked on a case with him last year. He’s a bit…”
Deku let out a laugh. “I know.”
“But he’s still nice and supportive,” she said with a shrug.
An awkward silence filled the air as their conversation paused. Deku looked at his phone, they’d been trapped in the elevator for ten minutes so far. He quickly unlocked his phone and sent a quick text to his publicist that he was stuck in the elevator. He took a small glance at Uravity, his heart raced a bit. Even in casual attire, she was really pretty. She now had her sunglasses on the top of her head, wearing black shorts, and a dark green zip-up jacket. She was typing furiously on her phone, probably messaging her manager as well. Izuku quickly looked away in case he gets caught.
“So what are you going to do next, Deku?” her voice rang out again as his heart skipped a beat again at hearing the nickname.
“I’m..not sure?”
“You should create your own podcast, you have the fanbase for it and the talent by the comments.”
His face heated up, did she think so? Oh gosh, he doesn’t know what to say. Wait-did she researched him? The 15th hero of all time looked him up!? Before he could open his mouth, she continued, “You’ll have more control of your creativity.”
He has to be dreaming now. His head felt like it was spinning, but at the same time, he felt more of a burst of energy to do exactly that. Yeah, he could totally do it. He has some of the equipment, sure it’ll be somewhat expensive to get the rest of the programs, and oh he’ll need to create a podcast room for those who like to watch it on Youtube too. Only one thing comes to mind, what would he call it? His mind is going a mile a minute.
His thoughts get cut off, “Call it Dekusquad after your fanbase.”
“W-what,” he stuttered out.
Her cheeks turned a little pinker and replied, “Dekusquad, you were mumbling and I caught a sentence on what you should call the podcast.”
“Deku isn’t even my name.” Her eyes went wide. He gave another wince when he felt his word vomit, he didn’t mean to say that bluntly.
“It’s not? But it’s in the comments, and articles.”
“It was a nickname a childhood bully gave me,” He and Kacchan are on better terms now, probably better to hide that he was his childhood bully, “It means useless; my real name is Izuku.” He suddenly felt nervous as she looked confused.
“No way it means that! But it sounds cute, it’s pretty close to the word dekiru, which means ‘You can do it!’, right?”
It now feels like his entire being just exploded with warm fuzzy feelings. Deku never thought of it that way. He stared at her in shock, as his mind went on overdrive not realizing Uraraka herself started feeling bashful and wondering if she overstepped herself as she flinched a bit.
“Sor-”
“You can call me Deku,” he blurted out in a rush, “Yeah, I like the idea of the podcast being called Dekusquad. I’m going to do it.”
As if God himself made his presence the elevator’s bell ding as the elevator started to move again to the lobby causing both of them to jump at the sound and movement. Before any words could come out, he noticed his publicist, a lady who he’s assuming is Uraraka’s own publicist looking alarmed with their cell phones, a hotel agent, and a few firemen. At least he didn’t have to pull Rody back in case his anger wasn’t in check. How on earth did he manage to make two easily angered prone friends, he doesn’t know.
“Midoriya!” “Uraraka!” the two publicists yelled out. Between their publicist and the hotel agent, it felt like chaos with the noise level. Deku could barely make out what they were saying.
“We’re fine,” Uraraka stated breezing out of the elevator with a smile, “Deku was great company, I could really use that breakfast sandwich.” Deku stared at the girl in amazement as he dumbly walked out of the elevator. All three of them watched her grab a paper and pen from her publicist blazer pocket, she wrote something on it, before handing it to Rody, “I imagine we’ll be in connect soon,” she glanced over at Izuku with a smile, “I hope I’ll be the first guest on your podcast.”
Taking the business card, “Podcast?” Rody looked confused as he looked between Izuku and Uraraka. His mind went blowing up question after question, as he now stared down at Izuku, waiting to drill him. However, the culprit wasn’t even giving him a second glance.
“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of anyone else first,” Izuku stuttered out. He watched Uraraka wave at him bye as she started to drag her publicist away from the men. Rody let Izuku dumbly grin for a few seconds more before popping the bubble.
“Oi, what is she talking about?”
Izuku grinned at Rody and replied, “A new adventure.”
“I’m too young to get premature gray hairs.”
“It’s’ going to be a good one,” Deku stated as he headed out to keep looking for the coffee stand.
“A good one?” Rody looked confused for a few more moments until he noticed Izuku walking away from him, “What do you mean a good one!”
4 Months Later
“We’re live in 3…2…1” his producer called out then gave him the signal.
Deku smiled his showtime smile as the light for the mics and camera light went on. His set up with comfy black chairs, a dark green backdrop with neon lights with the words DekuSquad. He never felt more at home than he does right now.
“Hello everyone, I would like to start off with thank you to my fans and newcomers for supporting me, and for giving me a big enough platform to continue to do what I love and sharing it with all of you. I also want to thank everyone's patience for allowing me to take some time for myself, I know it's been a long 4 months. I also know you all have been waiting for this, but I welcome you to my new podcast where we’ll discuss heroes, heroes’ fights, quirks, and all that good stuff. I want everyone tuning in to know that when we chat either with each other or in the comments we treat each other with respect, there’s also a monitor as well so we could keep this civil.”
Izuku took a glance from the camera to Rody who gave him a thumbs up for him to keep going.
“Before we could get into the fun stuff, you, my Dekusquad deserve to know why I’m doing this. When I cocreated Hero Analysis with the guys, I didn’t sign up to degrade female heroes or go on about how a male hero would be the better fighter. I truly want my fanbase to go over the million different quirks, pick apart the fights that get recorded, interview heroes, and just discuss the old and new heroes. I didn’t know how much different direction I wanted to go until that episode. Should I have handled that better? Yes, I should’ve, and I deeply apologize. Do I regret the way it went down? I actually don’t, it allowed me to figure out what exact path I want to go down. If you guys have any questions feel free to add them in the comments, I’ll do my best to answer them on the next episode.”
“Now, further adieu, we could get into the fun stuff, I want to introduce you all to my wonderful guest who gave me the idea of starting this podcast, so let me bring out the woman so we could all thank her, the badass queen herself: Uravity!” the camera zooms out from the close up of Deku to Uraraka who is sitting on the other chair with a big grin and a little wiggle dance.
“Hello everyone,” Uraraka giggled out, “before we go into it, Deku, thank you for having me.”
“No, thank you for being here and being the captain of this ship.” Deku matched her grin. Since that day in the elevator, Deku and her have been in contact. He knew there was no one better than Uravity herself to kick off this new adventure. It ended a chapter of his life with the mention of her and started a new chapter with actually being friends with her. She still makes his heart beat as if he was still a teenage boy with a first-time crush. He’ll be damn if he lets that go. For now, he’s content on being her friend first, but soon hopefully they’ll become more. Besides he knows the drama channels will go crazy today’s episode. She’s worth it every second, minute, hour, and day, and he doesn’t regret his rampage one bit.