A/N: A slow burn romance between Izuku and Mina. This story can also be read on Wattpad under the same title. Anyway, this isn't my first fic but it is my first on fan so I hope everyone enjoys the first chapter! I'd love to hear any constructive criticism, and reviews are greatly appreciated. :)

- o - o - o - o -

Izuku had gone outside feeling confident, sure he'd sort out the problem one way or another, but when he tripped over his feet for what could've been the thousandth time that night, it dawned on him: he couldn't dance to save his life. He probably couldn't dance to save the world, for that matter, even if the world was in desperate need of saving.

At first he made an excuse that the moonlight was too scarce, preventing him from seeing his own two hands in front of his face. He forced himself to believe that, but eventually he fell so many times that he just accepted the inevitable. He didn't have the knack for dancing.

But the problem was that he needed to learn how to dance, and soon. Because U.A.'s end of the year dance was coming up, and he'd been asked on a date.

It came out of the blue when she did it, too. That afternoon was like any other, seeing as he was still cramming his backpack with books while the rest of the class had left already to head back to the dorms. And then, as usual, he found Uraraka waiting for him outside the doorway because she was courteous, and that was something she did everyday.

But what caught him off guard was when she just said it. Before he even took a step forward, too, and when Mr. Aizawa was just barely out of earshot. "Will you go to the dance with me?" He had to do a double take because she said it so fast he wasn't sure he heard her right, and he didn't think someone could see him as more than a friend.

But when he watched her stand there, gazing at her shoes, he knew he had in fact heard what he thought he heard, and he might've exploded from embarrassment right on the spot. He was sure he'd say yes, though, once he calmed down, and he did. Uraraka was sweet, and he thought she was a really cute girl. But he wasn't in love with her or anything, not even close.

He decided to focus on the here and now, pushing all his doubts to the back of his mind and letting the sound of the music wash over him. He tried to figure out where to place his feet, but in his attempt he only ended up falling face first into the ground.

- o - o - o -

Mina always hated the common area once the clock hit nine, because there was absolutely no one to talk to. She had a lot she wanted to say, and yet at the same time she wasn't exactly sure what. She just knew she'd start running her mouth to whoever she saw, as long as they were somewhat trustworthy.

She thought she was out of luck until she heard the sound of soft music seeping through the walls, almost like the stuff they played at ballroom dances. Were those even a thing anymore? She didn't think so. Curiosity took her to the windowsill where the sound was coming from, and she lifted it and peeked her head out just enough to see the outskirts of the building. There was a lot of green. The grass, the leaves growing on the trees, and a mess of green hair that could only belong to one of her classmates. It blended in so well she could have missed it.

Even though she didn't really talk to Izuku, she was just glad she wasn't alone. Besides, he was hard-working and friendly and seemed like the kind of person everyone got along with, even if he came off as a little weird sometimes.

What really peaked her interest, though, was that he was dancing. Or at least trying to, because his dancing skills were so atrocious she wasn't even sure she could call it that.

She was filled with this nagging curiosity she couldn't shake (why the hell would Izuku be trying to dance at this time of night?), so, following nothing but her instincts, she headed outside and let the music lead her to him. He stumbled like a baby learning how to walk, and as someone who danced during her freetime, she was disappointed. So disappointed that she thought it was best to go over and help him.

"Midoriya!"

A high-pitched voice made him freeze, because whoever had called out to him probably saw everything. He turned around slowly and could barely make out a figure in the dark, but that abundance of pink stood out against the harsh colors of the night.

"Ashido! Um, w-what are you doing out so late?"

"I saw you trying to dance, and you were so bad at it that I got curious. Like, the worst of the worst."

"Y-you saw that?" He sighed a little. At least she didn't know the reason behind his dancing.

"I've never taken you as someone who'd want to dance, Midoriya. Like, don't get me wrong, I could totally teach you how, but why?" She put a finger to her chin, and the silence made him realize the music was still playing the background. He paused it and turned up the brightness on his phone.

"I-I d-don't really like to dance, actually," he said, sheepishly rubbing his neck.

"What? But you were trying so hard!" Then she gasped, and he winced because she was the kind of girl who only gasped when she thought of something exciting. "Don't tell me you're going on a date!" She threw her hands to her cheeks dramatically. "You got asked to the dance, didn't you?"

His face had gone aflame right then, and he didn't even have to say anything because she knew.

"Who asked you? Who? Was it Uraraka? Was it?"

"Y-yeah, it was her."

His voice was small, though, taken with the wind until it reached past the clouds, and she wasn't even sure of what he said. "What was that?"

"Yes!" he told her, a blush spreading over his ears and his neck and his entire body. He waited for her to say something, but she never did.

Mina was at a loss for words. Uraraka had been pondering her feelings for Izuku for a while now, and Mina thought the day would never come when she actually got the courage to ask him out. And she was happy because finally had something interesting to talk about. She probably shouldn't gossip about her friend's love life, but the little tidbit of information she'd just been given was so good it gave her goosebumps.

And then she realized she'd spaced out, and when she came back to reality Izuku had slid down the tree they were standing by, sitting with his head in his hands. She sat down, too, and was a little distraught when pine needles stuck to the back of her shirt.

"Midoriya. Hey, I want to help you," she said, ignoring the pine needles and tapping his shoulder.

It was a struggle for him to even pick up his head because he was so embarrassed, but he did so anyway because Mina's offer was too good. He'd seen her dance before. The only word to describe it was incredible, and it made him wish he had a talent he could practice in his free time, too.

He remembered the first time she'd ever mentioned her breakdancing skills to the class. They were in the dorms one night, bored out of their minds, when she said, "Look over here!" So everyone looked over at her, and then they never turned away because she was probably a better dancer than everyone in the whole world combined. Izuku was particularly in awe because he couldn't dance if everyone depended on it.

His other friends had some pretty amazing talents, too, like Jirou's singing and Sato's baking, but Mina's talent impressed him the most. He asked her to teach him some dance moves, but he never really got much out of it because the rest of the class joined in, and there were just too many people for her to keep up with.

If only it was just the two of them, then, because then he would have learned how to dance a long time ago, and he would be doing better things with his time. But that was in the past and he needed her help now. He just hoped she knew how to slow dance.

"Ashido, does that mean you'll help me?" His eyes seemed to light up in the dark with what little light his phone had to offer.

"Of course I will. But it might be a while since you're so bad."

He squinted at her backhanded remark, and she must've been able to see pretty well because she laughed. It was a light laugh, one that tickled the back of her throat, but when he looked at her out of confusion she laughed a little harder.

"That face, Midoriya!"

He didn't say anything. Almost as if she could read his mind, she said, "It's just funny because that face doesn't really suit you, and you look like you're trying too hard to be angry."

"O-oh." He just smiled at her anxiously because she was right. He'd gotten better with it lately, but he still couldn't act naturally around girls if his life depended on it. And it wasn't just Uraraka or Mina, but pretty much any girl thrown his way.

"Okay, we should really start dancing now. It's getting late," Mina said, a smile still on her face.

"W-wait, it's slow dancing, right? So don't we need to be partners?"

"Who said we were just slow dancing? And you've been trying to slow dance without a partner? How do you even do that?"

He hadn't really been practicing slow dancing specifically, mostly just dancing in general. It was a school dance, so the deejay could play whatever—something with an electric beat to keep the party going or something slow and romantic to set the mood, or maybe a mix of both. But he didn't want to explain all that so he just shrugged.

She rolled her eyes and got up, offering her hand. He noticed how soft her fingers were.

"So what are we going to do then?" he asked.

"I think the first thing you need to do is loosen up a little bit. You're way too tense, Midoriya, so let's start off by simply dancing! No rules, nothing. Just dance your heart out!"

She grabbed his phone and found a song with a good tempo, one that just made her want to get up and dance until she was too tired to anymore. She tried to pick something he'd enjoy, too, but that was hard because she didn't really know what kind of music boys listened to.

As Mina set the phone down on the grass again, she found herself smiling. Something about Midoriya made him fun to talk to, and she didn't know what because the two of them were polar opposites. She was the kind of girl who would laugh at the wrong time, couldn't keep a secret for her life, while he was reserved, only good friends with a solid two or three people in the entire class. He probably had a whole list of secrets he kept hidden.

And yet she liked talking to him already. Maybe it was because they were polar opposites, or maybe she was just too stunned over Uraraka finally asking him out to think straight.

And what made it even stranger was that at the beginning of the school year, he kind of weirded her out. He didn't really do much besides mumble and take down notes, and he seemed to go through notebook after notebook, to the point where some of them would start overflowing. And then there was his Quirk. It was like it was dormant for a solid ten years of his life, breaking his bones with every chance it got like he didn't have any control over it.

But even though she hadn't talked to him, she noticed he was breaking out of his shell lately and his Quirk was becoming stronger. She wasn't totally opposed to the idea of becoming friends with someone who had such a strong ambition.

She ignored her thoughts before her mind went on a tangent and watched him stagger. "Don't think about it. Just dance," she said, giving him a thumbs up.

He decided to do just that. At first it was nerve-racking, dancing in front of someone with his lack of skill, but when he found a comfortable rhythm, it came easy. And even though he must've looked off balance to her, he still found himself having a good time.

"This actually isn't that bad."

"I told you it would be fun!"

Karma must've had it out for him, though, because moments after she spoke, his feet crossed over and he fell. It was so ironic that she laughed. She didn't feel bad about it, either, because he laughed with her.

It took him a while, but eventually he felt comfortable dancing, feet moving quickly through the grass. And she really smiled when that moment came, because it seemed like they'd spent forever just getting into a nice rhythm.

"Okay, I think you've got the feel of this pretty much down. But your form is still... a total mess."

"At least that's a start," he said, sighing.

"Good! Now I think it's time we slow dance now."

"Wait, what?"

She giggled and took his hands, placing them on her waist, and then she curled her fingers over his shoulders. She could just see the shock pouring out of him, his face lighting up like a candle. "A-Ashido!"

"Okay, now that's all you have to do to get set up." She felt his hands shaking against her waist, and they were warm. His tendency to get nervous was something that would never change about him.

"Alright, now we just have to move our feet," she said. So that's what they did, and they didn't try to make a show of dancing. Instead, she kind of instructed him, more or less, and there was a lot more space between them then when they'd first started.

It only lasted a few moments, though, because his toes pretty much plowed over hers on more than one occasion, and then he was asking if she was okay and she was laughing. But she was actually laughing to cover up the pain because he stepped on her toes so hard she thought they could've been broken.

Yeah, it would be a while before Izuku's got the knack for slow dancing.

They leaned against the tree trunk again after that, and he complained he was tired. And she just said that he shouldn't be, because they hadn't done much, but he told her he'd been training his Quirk already for hours.

"You train a lot, Midoriya. Sometimes it'll be six in the morning and everyone will be laying in bed, and I'll look out the window and see you running around the track before the sun's even up."

He went kind of red in the cheeks. "I-I just like to stay in shape to make my Quirk stronger."

She groaned and slouched back against the tree. "I wish I had that kind of ambition, y'know? But I feel like I couldn't focus on one thing for that long. I'd end up texting Kirishima or Kaminari or something, and then I'd be on the couch watching bad rom coms."

"I just kind of tell myself that training is for the best. That if I want to get stronger, I have to work hard. T-this might sound strange to you, but I think training is fun."

She looked him in the eyes, turning to the side so that she was facing him. "It's not strange. I have a hobby of dancing, and you hate dancing. That doesn't make my hobby strange, does it? Or maybe it does, I don't know."

"I-I think you're really good at dancing, Ashido. Breakdancing, especially."

He smiled at her, and she noticed his eyes were a very bright and lively shade of green. She felt a little warm inside, and she thought it would be best if she turned away. "Really? Thanks," she said.

It was quiet for a second, and then they started talking about how Mr. Aizawa had come into homeroom in his sleeping bag this morning and how Mina almost failed algebra this year. And even though he didn't mean to be funny, Mina found that even though he was a nerd, he knew how to lighten up a conversation.

"So, Midoriya, how'd Uraraka ask you out, huh?" she asked, gently nudging his side as she watched him begin to sweat. They'd been talking for a few minutes already, so it didn't feel weird for her to do that.

"U-um, well, it was kind of sudden, I guess..."

And then Izuku told her the entire story, from the moment he left the classroom earlier this afternoon to the moment he got back to the dorms. About how it was awkward between the two of them, and he wasn't sure what they were now. He kept going on about the smallest little details until he was mumbling about how he had to learn how to dance soon or else he was screwed.

"Midoriya."

He came back to reality after that, and then, internally, he felt like he had made a huge mistake. Knowing Ashido, she would probably broadcast the news to the entire school, maybe even sneak past the teachers and say it on the intercom.

Okay, that last part was a stretch, but Ashido probably shouldn't have been the first person he told. "I probably shouldn't have told you that."

"Nope. You definitely should have."

"Can you please keep quiet about it? Just this once, Ashido?"

"Can I at least tell Uraraka?"

He squinted his eyes again, but this time there was a lot more sarcasm in them. She laughed and said, "Okay, I at least want to know how you feel about her."

Izuku wasn't sure how to answer that, because he definitely liked Uraraka, but it wasn't the kind of like where he couldn't be without her or where his heart beat faster every time she was around. Sometimes it would when she was close to his face or said something really nice, but he wouldn't call that the kind of like where he was in love.

"I-I like her. She's pretty and hard-working, a-and I guess I like her."

"So you don't love her?"

"I-I wouldn't say I love her. I think I just like her."

Mina listened carefully and decided to tread lightly. Uraraka liked Midoriya so much she was in love with him, so Mina wasn't going to mention that last part to her.

"Oh. Well love can take time, I guess," she said. She didn't really mind that he wasn't in love with Uraraka yet, but she felt bad for her friend.

The two of them struck up a conversation for a few more minutes, and when they realized they lost track of time and it was almost curfew, they hurried inside and upstairs.

When Izuku made it to his room, he was surprised he'd had so much fun talking to Mina, because he had always seen her as someone who was just too much for him. She was so hyper and energetic, and he thought if he ever talked to her he'd implode. But he went to bed thinking it wasn't all that bad.

Mina was supposed to be in her room now, but she found herself running to Uraraka's instead, hoping she was still awake. She knocked on the door and heard footsteps, and then Uraraka opened it and looked at her with sleepy eyes. But she was jolted awake when Mina hugged her tight, squealing about something she couldn't quite make out.

Then she pulled away, and Uraraka heard her clearly this time. "You asked him out and you didn't tell me?"

Uraraka went bright red, maybe even a hundred times brighter than Izuku ever did when Mina was talking to him earlier, and she pulled away from Mina's arms. "I-I just d-did it on a whim! I wasn't planning to!"

"But you could've told me, Uraraka! This is important!"

"Exactly. I was scared you'd go and tell everyone." Uraraka narrowed her eyes, and then tilted her head to the side. "How'd you even find out, anyway?"

Mina began to sweat. She didn't know how to say this. "Okay, well, long story short, Midoriya needed my help dancing, so then I kind of got him to tell me the whole story."

"Did you pressure him into it?" Uraraka asked.

Mina just rubbed her neck like she was guilty. She hadn't pressured him to tell her the whole story, but she had pressured him to tell her who it was in the first place.

"Are you serious, Mina?"

"Yeah."

"Please don't tell anyone."

"I'll try," she said. She would, honestly, but she wasn't sure she could promise something like that. She was horrible when it came to secrets. It was just so hard for her to keep quiet about things when it came down to it, because she loved it when her classmates got all shocked and dropped their jaws like they'd just heard the most mind blowing thing in the world. And usually it was, because she always racked up the juiciest information.

"And don't get too close to him, okay?"

Mina knew what her friend was implying, and she had to keep herself from bursting into a fit of laughter on the spot. Sure, Midoriya was funny, but he was way too nerdy for her.

"Honestly, Uraraka, he's all yours. He is not my type." Mina rolled her eyes, but she felt her cheeks get warm. It wasn't because they were talking about Izuku specifically, she told herself. She was just blushing at the thought of love in general.

Uraraka crossed her arms. "Okay, if you say so."

- o - o - o - o -

A/N: This is a slow burn, so their relationship will take a while to build up. Again, I'd love to see reviews, and if you didn't enjoy the chapter please let me know why!