Midoriya sat straight up in his dorm room bed at exactly 3:50 AM, just as he had every day for the past two and a half years.

Getting his body in order and his summer day started had become a clockwork routine for the young student, so finely-tuned and perfected through ceaseless repetition that it had become intrinsic and automatic, a thoughtless process. A minute to roll out of bed, five minutes to shower, two minutes to dress and stretch, and two minutes to sprint to the training yard as a warm-up for his morning exercises at 4 o'clock sharp.

He started with a yawn to open his lungs, stretching his arms as far forward as he comfortably could, then stretching them just a small bit further. The dull ache he invited into his scar-laced muscles helped to warm up his nerves, and served as a gentle reminder of all he'd been through and all he had to lose.

Now that his eyes were wide open, he turned to the nightstand beside his bed, reaching out for one of the two water bottles sitting just in arm's reach, and pausing for a beat as he wondered why there were two. He brushed the thought aside; it was likely that he was tired last night and forgot to replace the empty one. He couldn't remember. Midoriya grabbed the fuller bottle and threw his head back as he emptied it quickly, before exhaling a refreshed sigh.

After capping the empty bottle and putting it back down, the last thing he needed to do was to literally roll out of bed. Every routine has its own little quirks and rituals for luck, and for this, Midoriya's was to side roll out of the opposite side of the bed he woke up on, which started as a bad habit he used to have before his routine was fine-tuned and he would have to rush out of bed to start his training.

Midoriya laid down, brought his arms up to his chest, kept his feet together and relaxed, his legs straight, and rolled slowly to his right, using one line of energy to keep his-

"Ahah…"

His body froze and his eyes widened as he bumped into and rolled halfway on top of a soft warm form, and it struck Midoriya like a kick to the gut that he wasn't alone in his bed. His face was inches from a woman's, and for a moment, their warm breaths mingled in the small space between them. His shoulder brushed her left breast, and in that moment, it seemed like her chest would never stop rising. His toned thigh met her squishier one, and in that moment, the warmth seemed almost magnetizing.

"U…Uraraka-san…?!"

The moment passed, and with a quiet gasp, Midoriya rolled back and sat up, looking down at Uraraka's still-sleeping form beside him. She mumbled slightly in her sleep at the disturbance that Midoriya nearly rolling over her caused, but after a small adjustment where she was laying, she went right back to her peaceful, quiet snoring. Forced out of autopilot, Midoriya could only stare, a blush creeping into his cheeks. What the hell happened last night?

… …

"Deku-kun… After everything that's happened since we started school, I… I just… I don't want to die before I tell you how I feel."

The blush began working its way through his whole face as it all started coming back to him. He covered his mouth with one hand, staring straight ahead as the events of last night played through his head like a film strung on a reel of guilty pleasure. Every so often, he'd peek at Uraraka's calm, pretty face, before the butterflies in his stomach forced him to look away, embarrassed.

He sat in bed, lost in his thoughts, before his blushing face went pale as the film in his head came to a stop at a particular scene that he'd rather have forgotten, in which his unfamiliarity with sexual pleasure, his dizzying, peaking excitement, led to a brief instability in his inherited quirk, a momentary Full-Cowl, the likes of which neither he nor Uraraka were prepared for.

He must've been imagining that, right? There's no way that could've happened, no way he would've allowed it to happen, right? He had a much stronger degree of control over his quirk than this time last year. Something like his first time having sex wouldn't cause that control to slip, would it?

These questions and many like it ran rapidly through Midoriya's head as he glanced over at Uraraka again. Leaning over and holding his breath, he pulled the covers slightly from her half-exposed form… and he found them. A small amount of bruising on Uraraka's hips, roughly in the shape of his grasping fingers.

Real shame burned his throat and boiled in his stomach, the same shame that Midoriya remembered ate away at him last night when they had to stop after Uraraka reeled when they both realized what had just happened.

…

"It's okay, Deku-kun."

He couldn't remember how many times he apologized. But he remembered how quickly she forgave him for hurting her, for ruining that experience, even though she claimed it wasn't ruined. He knew she was genuine, that she really felt the way she did, that she really understood it was an accident, and that she really didn't feel a single shred of anger or hard feelings toward him or what happened.

He wished it was that easy to put it behind him. But as quickly as Uraraka could forgive him, Midoriya could not forgive himself that easily. Shame and regret had taken root in his heart, but from it sprung a burning desire to train even harder, to control One For All well enough that something like this would never happen again.

Midoriya looked over at Uraraka one more time. She'd twisted in her sleep and was turned more toward him now, still quietly, peacefully snoring. The young man slowly reached out, as if to lightly touch her face or shoulder, but fear and chagrin stayed his hand, and he turned away and simply got out of bed. He swallowed a lump in his throat, steeled his resolve, and at 3:53 in the morning, he left his dorm to go shower.

Hey there.

I wanted my first foray into BNHA fanfiction to be something short, simple, and somewhat romantic. I personally don't think I'm too good at doing romance stuff, but stuff like this is a good way for me to practice.

I was aiming for a thousand words, but this ended up being a little bit over. Ah, well. Hopefully, it's an easy-to-digest little read that gets the imagination going.

Tell me what you think. I might do more little stuff like this.