A/N: This was suppose to be my contribution to IzuMina week which was last week but hey, shipping is shipping!

DISCLAIMER: Boku no Hero Academia is not owned by me but by Kohei Horikoshi, Bones studio, and Shonen Jump. Please support the official series.

Slow Recovery

The hard clatter of metal echoed throughout the room.

Another drop.

Usually the sound of a dropped weight would ring out like a bell of accomplishment but instead it's only an echo that signaled ineptitude.

At least, it sounded that way to the young hero in training Izuku Midoriya.

Ever since the doctor told him that he might lose the ability to use his arms if he continues to break them from his recklessness he's had a great fear of that possibility becoming true. Not only will an event like that ruin his chances of becoming a pro hero but it'll forever cripple his ability to live in general; a life where a man can't even butter his own toast with his own hands is quite a fearful thought.

He's been pretty lucky so far that he avoided demolishing his arms since then considering how his pursuited career path involves the very high possibility of that happening. The daring missions to save Bakugo, the tricky trials of the licenses exam, his long time coming duel with Bakugo, the life threatening raid on Chisaki hideout, and his unexpected encounter with Gentle.

All times, all those moments, all those occasions where one thing going wrong could've been the end of his arms and even worse possibly his life. Thanks to his training and friends he's been extremely lucky to get out of them unsheathed of permanent damage.

But luck can't last forever.

Who would've guessed that of all things he managed to survive through without severely injuring his arms that his record would be broken by fighting a multi quirk porcupine villain. Unironically Todoroki was with him on that day and it only increased his paranoia about the curse he thought possessed him; he still calls him sometimes to apologize for being 'The Hand Crusher'.

Thankfully his injuries were recoverable which was why he was currently at the gym, he still had use of his arms, kept his internship, and was allowed to continue his training to become a hero; although his doctor put him on medical rest for at least 6 weeks before he could return.

So why does dropping the weight feel like a defeat to him? That question has a simple answer to it and it's troubling to the young hero.

It's been over two months since that day and yet his arms haven't recovered enough to do a proper set of reps without dropping the weights early. It's utterly frustrating and makes him worry that the damage to his arm was more severe than he thought, he went to the doctor before only to be told to give it a bit more time. But how much time will need to pass before he can even workout much less go back to his internship, Endeavor knew his potential to be patient with his recovery and even Burnin tried doing some weird fire massage that she supposedly learned from China; it didn't work.

He heard that stress can decrease the body's healing speed and tried not to let his lengthy break get to him but the fears were still there. If he never gets better he may never become a hero.

Just when he was at his lowest someone appeared to lighten his day.

"Oh hey, so this is where you've been!?"

The light hearted spunky voice immediately drew his attention to see who had entered.

Surprised that of all people Ashido Mina was the one whose entrance tightened Midoriya's throat making it hard for him to speak. While the number two hero's agency personal gyms, after the first troublesome session where many people voiced their concerns, Midoriya decided it would be better to do his recovery workouts in a more secluded location so he wouldn't worry anyone and he can save himself from the pressure of all his associates looking at him. It took a bit of searching but he found a gym that was exactly what he was looking for, it was small, not well known, and was quite a distance away from the agency meaning there's a low chance he'll bump into anyone, especially from his agency, he knows here. They also had a second floor with a bunch of smaller rooms that had workout gear in them usually for classes like gymnastics or karate, he didn't need to worry about permission as no one cared if you're in as long as a schedule class isn't occupying it or you were doing something that violates the standards. He's been coming here nearly everyday since he discovered it, not bothering too much about timing or using a specific room since schedules fluctuate more rapidly than relevant memes, and a few rooms no matter what day it was were alway open; at least two of them would be empty.

It was the perfect spot to get away from everyone.

So why was Mina here!

"I'm surprised to see you here of all places, what's up Midoriya?" She cheerfully asked, giving him a light wave as she walked deeper into the room toward him.

This couldn't have happened at a worst time as it sent the wrong message.

The Pinkette woman was wearing black athletic shorts with blue outlines and a light blue crop top that showed off her toned abs; they all fit her quite nicely in the eyes of the young hero. Making his stun reaction to her seem less like he was shocked that an unexpected person entered the room and more like he was completely captivated by her look that he couldn't do anything except stare. But that wasn't the case… or at least in the beginning it wasn't!

The lack of contribution Midoriya brought to the conversation helped Ashido notice his strange behaviour, taking a moment to examine herself by tugging at her crop top before nonchalantly asking, "You also think this outfit doesn't fit me?"

The straightforward question was enough to free his throat from it's mute state, or better said it shook him hard enough that he couldn't help stammering something, "W-wha!?" his ears were burning red like his cheek from how flustered that statement made him. He hasn't grown up all that much since his UA days, unexpected comments like those can still easily get him flustered.

"Darn, I knew I should've gone with the tanktop and yoga pants combo!" Continued Mina giving a playful pout.

"N-no I didn't mean that!"

"Oh so you liked it~! No wonder you were staring at me dumbfound."

"Wait no, I wasn't staring!"

At first he wasn't, now he couldn't look away.

"Never knew you saw me as such a bombshell huh Midoriya."

"I promise I wasn't!"

He did.

"Yeah, yeah I know~" Mina replied letting Midoriya sigh in relief while she walking past him, leaving the only view of her to be from behind, "It's embarrassing to admit to rubbernecking," topping off the comment by striking a pose that had her hips stick out, displaying the finer aspects of her backside to the blushing boy purely to tease him; such a sly ploy from the jokester and a effective one. Perfectly timing it so that even a modest boy like Midoriya would set his eyes on her alluring figure.

It overwhelmed Midoriya when he caught himself staring at her backside, he was quickly covering his eyes with his hands to block off both his sight from Mina's rear and to hide his now entirely red face. A thousand thoughts were running through his brain making it hard for him to speak right and only a jamble of incomprehensible nonsense leaked out his mouth. His mind was in utter turmoil and Mina knew it as she had a smug smile on her face.

'I see he hasn't changed much? Guess I'll have to tell him I'm just messing with him… I'll wait till he can talk first~'

She was wrong about one thing, Midoriya did change, back in UA that kind of joke would've sent him into shock for at least half an hour. Now he was only in shock for 2 minutes before finally having the proper response of, "I'm so sorry I couldn't help but get a peak!"

As a snort echoed out into the room Midoriya would lower down his arms to see his pink torturer facing his way but hunch over, she was holding her stomach trying her best not to burst out laughing.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I honest to god didn't expect that response!" She chuckled, it sounded almost like taunting to Midoriya considering how she baited hard for his reaction.

He didn't want to seem like Iida and scold her about how she shouldn't be teasing him like that anymore but he didn't want to let it go, "Can you not do that please, you know how easy it is for things like that to be taken the wrong way."

"Oh relax we're at a public gym, a place where most people go to work on their bodies so that they feel more comfortable or have more confidence when others look at them," Mina pointed out before making her way to the wall, "As long as you don't act like a creep about it I'm pretty sure most girls would feel a little flattered that other people found them physically attractive. I mean I literally stuck out my ass to you like I was presenting a gift, a well worded compliment would be greatly appreciated for my hard work to maintain my body."

For obvious reasons Midoriya kept silent, he did not have a comeback that he felt was appropriate.

"Oh right you don't like that kind of talk, sorry sorry Mr. Puritan I promise to stop accusing you of gawking." She continued, turning back for a bit to give a warm smile despite all her satire.

She hasn't changed much personality-wise since their UA days, never giving anyone a break whether or not of their awkwardness. It's a mystery if she secretly gains great joy from seeing other people's reactions to her shenanigans, but one thing for sure her joyous mood was infectious. They haven't even talked about anything important and yet Midoriya's mood has been slightly lifted, for a moment he actually forgot why he felt so horrible to begin with.

As Mina used the wall's pipe railing to stretch out her legs to get them more flexible, she would ask, "So why are you here?"

The golden question he knew was coming but hated to answer, it's specifically that question which made him search so hard for a place he can train in secret. He already felt pressured to recover as quickly as he can by himself, having others there constantly pitying will only make him feel worse.

He already lie to everyone at the agency that he's been making great progress doing some kind of recovery method of massages and tai chi a mentor taught him, though in this situation he might have to tweak the lie just a bit, he didn't feel good about it but in situations like these little white lies will be gratefully used.

"Oh you know, just doing some light arm work. Why are you here?" He asked back, trying to keep the conversation off him.

…

Mina didn't weirdly didn't respond, instead she suddenly did a backflip, landing on her hands in handstand position before resting a bit of her torso and then continuously rolling in a circular path. She was performing quite the spectacle, especially how she managed to keep her leg in that V-like position, though he doesn't know why she was doing it to demonstrate whatever she's trying to do; she could've just answered the question like a regular person. After 4 spins she popped off the ground and landed on her feet striking another pose.

"I come here once a week to practice my break dancing," She finally answered, "I have a gig with a few friends, we're actually a break dancing group and we have monthly matches."

"Shouldn't you be with them then? Oh I get it, you guys are going to meet here today, sorry this must've been the only room open that can still fit a group. I'll just clear the-"

"Nah, I'm flying solo today and only stopped by cause I saw you here. I still practice with my group but I like doing my own personal training as well; you can't win turk war matches if you can't self improve."

"I guess that's- wait what about a turf war?"

"Nothing~! Anyways you can stay, in fact I want you to stay. It's been a while since we last talked, I don't know but it feels weird that you, me, and Todoroki went to highschool together, were in the same class, and got into the same agency but we don't really see each other that much anymore."

"Actually I see Todoroki quite often, we just got used to doing patrols with each other I guess."

"Wha~! So you two just been having the time of your life together and leaving me out of all the plans! You jerk you've atleast invited me once, there's barely anyone our age at that crusty establishment! Or~... did you not invite me because I would have gotten in the middle of you two's 'personal' time."

"What!? No, we're just work friends! We don't spend that much time outside of work besides once in a while getting something to eat."

"Really? Aw well that's boring!"

"No it's not! It's just how our stable friendships work."

It was around that moment that Midoriya had gotten a text, he quickly took a quick glance toward it.

Mina continued talking, "If you say so, I know how terrible he can be socially and he probably can't take any more emotional baggage. So I guess it's fine that he's doing well."

Todoroki: Are you doing ok?
Todoroki: I'm so sorry about your hand, it's all my fault!

Todoroki: I should have taken out that villain before that situation ever happened!

Midoriya: I'm fine, you don't need to keep apologizing. This is the third time you're texting me about this.

Midoriya: THIS DAY!

Todoroki: I know.

Todoroki: Sorry.

Todoroki: I just felt like I haven't repent enough for being the hand crusher. Your hero career could've ended if your wounds weren't recoverable.

Todoroki: Do you really think I did enough?

There it was again, Midoriya knew Todoroki meant no harm but having the very idea he wanted to avoid being thrown at him again wasn't helping. He was right in the middle of typing that he doesn't need to do this anymore but then his mind wandered a bit, it began sinking back into that sinkhole about his arms and he decided he'll text him back later; he wasn't in the mood to talk about anything that relates to his arms.

Putting his phone away the boy would give a slightly distressed response, "Ye~ah… well….. I'll catch you later."

"Wait, I said you can stay," Mina told him, holding out a hand toward him.

"I know, we can catch up another day," Midoriya replied, already walking for the exit, "I really want to leave right now."

"...It's because of your arm isn't it?"

…

"No."

"That's a lie," Mina called out, "There's the rumors all over the agency about your absence and I was on that highway for a while before I came in."

Midoriya's ears turned red from that reveal, "Yo-you saw!"

"More like heard and it sounded like you were having a lot of trouble."

Covering a part of his face again and sighing he mumbled, "This is just great, I came here to avoid people worrying about it."

Seeing his face drop into sadness, Mina walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, "It's tough repeatedly assuring others of your physical condition while you yourself are not even sure if you'll recover enough to live your life the same as before."

Turning back to his old classmate Midoriya was surprised she said something so relatable to his current situation, he was so shook that he ended up mouthing the words of sentences he thought of saying before settling on the question, "Did you ever…"

"Isn't it obvious? I told you I do a lot of break dancing and I've been doing it for way longer than I have being a hero!" She giggled, "The word break is in there for a reason and let's just say I became familiar with how fragile a human shin is one day," while she explained she lifted up her right leg pointing to a specific spot, when Midoriya squinted get a better look he was see a tiny scar, it was just barely dark then her normal skin but stretch a distance along her leg.

"I actually had a check-up earlier for a completely unrelated thing but when the doctor noticed it she said that it'll be completely in another year or two, apparently I'm super lucky I lucked out with having a mutation quirk."

"Some people have all the luck," Midoriya softly sighed, but this exhale wasn't the same as his other ones, this one was much more light-hearted in tone; Some would say there was a bit of bliss to be heard.

"Oi oi, it's not all sunshines and All Might merch over here either. I'm the lucky few that have a mutation quirk yet came out of it with a decent look. Actually compared to cases like Tokoyami and Shoji I got quite the voluptuous body out of it!"

"And there goes the cordial moment, it was nice while it lasted."

"We can mope about it later, deal with one issue at a time. That's probably why you're stressing out so much about your arm, if you start trying to do 1,000 things then you'll never complete one of them."

"...But I didn't start 1,000 things, I've mostly been focusing on getting my arms better so I can return to my hero duties-"

"That's what I'm getting at!" Mina shouted, pointing at him, "Hero duties, hero duties, hero duties! You're so focused on recovering for the sake of getting back to work that you're rushing your own healing process, prolonging how long it takes to get better because of the constant strain you're putting on it trying to force yourself back into peak condition; you need to recover for yourself!"

…

There was no response from Midoriya.

"When I broke my leg I did something similar. I tried doing all the moves I used to do, all the flips, spins, and tricks. Couldn't do them, I almost rebroke my leg trying and I didn't care at the moment. I didn't want to disappoint my team who was waiting for my team, but as the days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months passed on and I didn't recover enough to dance I realized that no matter what my body is my own body. I can always push it to my limits and then beyond but when it needs to rest it should rest or else I'm only hurting myself. That was when I picked up on doing Yoga!" Mina stated, displaying her flexibility by being able to lift up her leg over the back of her head while standing, "It was a light thing I could do to gradually work my body back the way I want it as I heal."

…

Still no response from Midoriya, just dead silence.

"Uh...hello? You still there buddy?" Mina asked, giving him a small poke.

…

Just when Mina thought her speech had mentally broken the boy an avalanche of incomprehensible mumble flowed out.

"Ah!" Shrieked a frightened Mina, it's been way too long since she encountered this but she knew what it meant. Quickly she went from shook to agitated, "Wait were you doing one of your internal monologues this entire time!?"

Taking her revenge for his lack of manners she would playfully strike at Midoriya's unguard body multiple times, her rapid fire attack worked in bringing him back to reality, making it his turn to be frightened from an unexpected action.

"What! What?" Midoriya blurted out in confusion, he didn't know why he was being attacked.

"Can you save your pleonasm monologues till after I finish talking? Rude!" Scolded the pink beaute, giving a pout as she puffed out her cheek. She never liked being ignored.

Realizing what she meant Midoriya quickly defended himself, "Oh no I was listening I promise!"

"Oh yeah, what was the activity I got into at the end of my motivational speech!?"

…

"I had an epiphany about how right you were, I was only dampening myself trying to magically get my body back to 100% overnight," Midoriya stated, quickly changing the subject.

"Hey- hey! I appreciate the acknowledgement, but don't try to change the subject!" Mina shouted to no avail, "At least explain whatever revelation you had innerly or else it'll feel like a cop-out!"

Midoriya continued speaking feigning ignorance, "No matter what the future of my body holds I'll accept it and work from there. Though I don't know what I can get into that's light but will build back up my muscles."

Sighing Mina scraped her brain for ideas before telling him, "Why don't I teach you break dancing!?"

"Break dancing?" Midoriya repeated giving a weird look, he was surprised she would even want to try instructing him how to break dance again after seeing how terrifyingly bad he did back during the school's festival.

"Yeah I don't expect you to become an expert or anything, last time I saw you dance it looked like you had two left feet, but since no one will actually see you this time that won't matter. if I teach you the basic of basics I can avoid you hurting yourself and the exercise will at least maintain your physique," Mina assured him, "I would suggest Yoga but teaching breakdancing is way more fun~."

"You do Yoga?"

"HA! I KNEW IT!"

The next few hours consisted of Mina displaying and teaching Midoriya to a couple of basic dance moves before watching him hilariously fail at doing them. Sometimes the movement Midoriya did won't even come close to what Mina showed him, it was a barrel of laughs for the pink instructor. Eventually they did manage to get the tipsy-footed boy to perform a few moves, they were sloppy and will still be an embarrassment to see on a public stage but as a light exercise it was passable.

When the sky turned down the two began to pack their things preparing to go home.

Mina was the first to go, taking a moment to tell him, "Alright I'm heading out, I need to rest up a bit and eat, I took a night time patrol shift."

"Thank you very much for all your help, I'll make sure to greet you at the agency now," Midoriya replied.

"I'll be waiting for it and hey if you're not busy maybe another time we can do some light weight lifting."

"That sounds nice, I'll text you whenever my schedule clears up! Considering how I'm still on medical leave it'll be quite soon."

"Perfect~! I hope you can lift 135.7 pounds by then."

"...Why such a specific number?" Midoriya asked.

"Because that's how much I weigh," She stated before giving him a perky wink.

"Wait... what does that mean?" Midoriya asked, not getting the clue.

Not answering Mina would just leave smiling.

He didn't know why but Midoriya found his face getting red and he didn't know why, all he could was repeat his question, "What does that mean!?"

It seems like he might recover from this event better than ever, at least it felt that way until he looked at his phone and realized that Todoroki has been texting him for hours now. Apparently he really wanted that reply and not getting one made him have a self defecating conversion with himself.

It was really depressing to read through, esspecially when one of the textes he got started out with 'I'm going to fucking kill-', there was no reason to read the rest. he'll probably spend the rest of his day fixing it.

Poor Todoroki, he might need more time then Midoriya to recover.

THE END

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