frHey, quick little chapter to show I, nor this story is dead. Sorry for the long wait for new content, but I am no longer the man that I once was when it comes to free time. Got a lot more things going on in my life these days.

Anyways, I'm probably going to stick to these ones and a half thousand to two-thousand word updates from now on with this story… Unless I plan really cool or interesting things to happen.

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Mandatory Disclaimer: Something, something, I suppose this is the norm now.

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Sounds of the Heart | Murmur, Part 2

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As Kyouka trudged her way down the stairs, her destination being the outside of the UA dorms (she still didn't know how the whole 'needed to stop by the store to get something for mom' excuse had worked on Mina and Tooru), her mind couldn't help but wander back to what she decided to do with the whole Midoriya situation.

Was her decision the right one? Did she say the right things? Would this come to bite her in the ass at a later date? Those sort of thoughts ran through her mind as her feet touched the ground floor because of course, they would. That was just the normal sort of reaction to being in a situation like this one.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, the young heroine shook her head hard to try and clear her head of the annoying, stupid thoughts that buzzed around her head like flies.

Feet now moving much faster than they were before and after a minute or two of walking, Kyouka soon found herself standing outside the UA dorms, taking in deep gulps of clean, fresh air through her nose.

Oh, stop worrying about it so much, she told herself as she took both her hands, raised them, and slapped both her cheeks in unison. I'm sure Midoriya will understand—

"—A-Ah, J-J-Jirou-san?" Kyouka was a lot of things, but first and foremost, she was a girl who prided herself on her ability to keep a relatively cool head, even under the most unexpected of circumstances. That's why she chided herself when she felt her entire body lock up and freeze in response to a certain, ever-stuttering someone called out her name.

Turning her head towards where the voice had come from, her immediate left, the dark-haired girl found herself making eye contact with the very last person she wanted to be speaking to as of the moment: one Midoriya Izuku.

The two of them stayed like that, staring at each other completely dumbfounded by the other's presence there, until the boy in this situation quickly turned his eyes to look elsewhere, off to his right if one wanted to get specific, and asked, "U-Um… H-Hey, Jirou-san? W-What's up?"

Kyouka felt like cringing in response to Midoriya's strained, strained greeting. Despite having heard the green-haired boy talk like that all the time, it hurt for her to know that there was reason for him to be all awkward around her, that her very own decisions had created the strain that now existed between them. She couldn't help but feel guilty about the whole situation. That's probably what prompted her to open her mouth and start speaking, "About what I said earlier—"

At least, she tried to speak, for when Kyouka got to the part referencing her decision towards Midoriya's request, he cut her off before she could even begin, "—A-Ah, no, it's alright, Jirou-san! You don't have to feel guilty about saying 'no' to me. I totally understand!"

The girl couldn't help but blink when he said all of that, seemingly speaking faster than Iida could run with his thrusters on. It was actually kinda hard to keep up with it, though she got the gist of it.

"You and I barely even know each other and I asked you to do something that only friends do!" Unfortunately, it didn't seem that the boy was done with blabbing her ears off. "I totally get it! So, please don't beat yourself up over it if you were thinking about apologizing! It's alright! Really!"

Kyouka couldn't help but just stare at Midoriya dumbfoundedly as words just kept spilling out of his mouth endlessly. Eventually, after a few seconds of just staring at the boy, she was able to force a response out, though she really didn't find it to be a particularly good one given the circumstances - the awkward, awkward circumstances, "Um…" she began, not really knowing how to proceed. "Thanks for being so understanding?"

To put things frankly, immediately after that last set of words came out of her mouth, Kyouka wanted to slam her forehead into the concrete out. Ugh… she thought to herself as the urge to grip the sides of her head and start pulling suddenly filled her. That's definitely not going to help things at all. Quick! Change the topic before things somehow get even more awkward!

"So, uh… What are you doing out here so late?" That was, unfortunately, the only thing Kyouka could come up with given the circumstances. She didn't particularly like the fact, but nothing could've been done about it now that it had already come out of her mouth.

"O-Oh, um… I-I was just getting in some extra training…" Midoriya explained to her, his voice being surprisingly steady when compared to all the other times they've talked. Sure, the trail off at the end made things a bit awkward until he started talking again, but it was an improvement at the very least. "A few days ago, Kacchan told me that I have too long of a wind up on my attacks, so I've been trying a lot of things to fix it."

"'Kacchan'?" Not knowing just who the green-haired boy was talking about when he said 'Kacchan', Jirou couldn't help but repeat the name back to herself while the speaker scratched at the back of his head and did his best to avoid making direct eye contact with her. It very much sounded like a nickname to her, so it had to be someone he was close with, but as far as she knew, he wasn't close to anyone in the class with a name that even closely resembled—

Oh, wait, I can't believe I forgot about that! the young heroine thought to herself when her mind recalled something that was completely and utterly glorious.

"Oh, right, I forgot that you and Bakugou went to the same middle school," Jirou said to herself out loud, but unlike Midoriya, she actually meant to speak her thoughts as she was trying to use it as a platform to push conversation along, "but wait, he told you that? Bakugou? Katsuki Bakugou? The guy who's told you to "die" more times than the entire class combined?"

"A-Ah, I guess that does seem rather unlikely, huh…?" The boy chuckled to himself awkwardly, his hand once again reaching for the back of his head, though he didn't scratch. Probably because he felt that it would be awkward to start scratching it after having already done so not thirty seconds ago.

"I mean," Jirou put her hands on her hips and cocked them off to her right as she spoke, an amused smile growing on her lips as she did so, "the two of you were literally caught beating up on one another just a few days ago."

"W-Well, um… How do I explain this…?" The awkward boy asked himself as he cupped his chin in his fingers. "I guess, you could say that the fight really helped to clear the bad air between the two of us?"

"Oh, so it was one of those kinds of fights then?"

"…One of those kinds of fights?" Midoriya immediately parroted the question with a tilt of his head, telling her that he didn't quite understand what Jirou was getting at.

"Um… You know, the kind of fights family tends to get into whenever they do something to piss each other off?" The young heroine tried to explain in a way that probably made it clear that she really wasn't speaking from experience when she referenced it. "I don't really know since I'm an only child, but I hear they're a lot like that."

"A-Ah… I g-guess?" Was how the enhancement-type decided to respond to the statement. "I'm an only child too, so I didn't really know about that sort of thing either."

With that last piece of information, the conversation between the two ceased once again. This time, it seemed very much more final a silence since it came about much more naturally.

"Alright, so, um…" Frantically thinking of a way to end this conversation in a way that didn't make things even more awkward, Jirou eventually realized that the continued silence only made things even more uncomfortable, so she ended up spouting off the first thing that came to mind. "See you in class…?"

Real smooth, Jirou, she thought to herself, every muscle in her arm priming themselves for a slap right to her own forehead. Real smooth.

"A-Ah, yeah! B-B-Bye!" With a way too exaggerated bow of his head, the boy quickly made his way back into the dorm building, leaving the earjack heroine completely and utterly alone in the night.

When the boy was completely out of sight, the young teenager immediately slumped her shoulders forward and let out an exasperated sigh. Well, that could've gone better, she thought to herself as she picked her head up and continued on with her bi-nightly jog around the dorm, despite her frustration.

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Chapter End.

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Also, a quick note. Just like a certain other FF-writer who writes shipping fics, I've made a Pat Reon. You can give me money if you want. I'm doing paid commissions over there. So, have me write stuff you want, I guess. Also, also, not illegal. 'Cuz, not paying me for the making of FanFiction, you're just paying me because you like what I do. Commissions are a bit more on a grey area, so those probably aren't ever going to be shared for consumption outside the person who buys it.