Chapter Text
It's mushrooms.
It's always mushrooms when it comes to her.
She loves mushrooms.
Now however, she's looking at this guy, and she's feeling that same pang in her chest whenever she looks at mushrooms.
But it's a guy, he's not a mushroom. The feeling is the same, or maybe... it's just more intense.
Why...
Kinoko frowned, but not in displeasure. She was just trying to work out this feeling she felt in her chest. She idly created a few mushrooms on the table she was leaning on, comparing them to the cute guy she was watching out the window.
I never thought I'd see the day I liked something more than these little guys... although I guess he's more of a someone rather than a something...
Kinoko pouted, stroking one of the more larger shrooms as she looked between it and him. All she knew was his name, and a bit of what he was like, but that smile...
Just one look at that smile had been enough to almost knock her out.
Kinoko panted a bit, looking around at the gym she'd filled from top to bottom in shrooms. It'd been a bit difficult to create so many of them with the limited moisture in the area, but she had to train.
She hoped Vlad King wouldn't reprimand her. They do go away after a couple of hours anyways... so it's not like I have to clean them up...
Just her luck, the gym door swung open, startling her. She let out a small 'eep' before slipping and landing on her butt.
"Oh! Wow that's a lot of mushrooms... I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you! Are you okay?" the person called out, voice filled with worry. She watched as Izuku Midoriya right? tiptoed towards her, being careful not to step on her shrooms.
She appreciated that, alot.
He finally made his way over to her, lending her a hand. She scolded herself inwardly that she'd stayed on the ground. His hand feels soft and warm...
She coughed, forcing the thought to go away. "Uh... sorry about that. And about the room..."
Izuku chuckled a bit, calming down now that she seemed to be fine. "It's okay. It's my fault for startling you... I was looking for an empty gym but... I guess they're all empty. Well, I'll leave you to it!" Izuku said, preparing to tiptoe out of the gym.
"Ah no! That's okay, you can use the gym... I'm done training anyways hehe..." Kinoko lied, feeling a bit bad she'd hoarded an entire gym to herself.
Now how am I gonna clean all these up...
And like an angel answering her prayers...
"I uh... I can help take these out if you want... It's my fault anyways for barging in." Izuku chuckled nervously.
"No no it's my shroom-mess so I should be doing it!" Kinoko argued, hoping her hair hid her worried eyes.
"You don't have to do it all by yourself... besides I only need half the gym. We can both still train anyways. I think it's big enough, right?" Izuku asked, looking around the mushroom filled gym. He couldn't even see the actual walls. It's really impressive... Izuku admitted internally.
"You've got a pretty cool quirk." Izuku told her, beaming. She felt her face heat up at the compliment. "It's just mushrooms..." she tried to say.
"Yeah, but you can make so many of them. You can use them to disorient villains by sprouting a bunch all over them, or use them to cushion a fall if you can make lots of big ones. Or you could even-" Izuku coughed, cutting himself off.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ramble on, I just find quirks really interesting..." Izuku looked down in embarrassment.
Kinoko felt her cheeks heat up even more at that. "I uh... thank you." she choked out. She wasn't used to someone looking at her with so much... admiration.
"We should... probably start removing these... though they'll disappear anyways in a couple of hours." Kinoko looked around the room, running her hands through her hair.
Izuku nodded, kneeling down to begin taking them out. Kinoko frowned a bit, used to seeing her classmates simply pluck and toss them away whenever she got too excited and made some in the common area.
Her frown was immediately erased as Izuku calmly and carefully picked up the ones around him, holding them in his arms and making sure they wouldn't fall. She gaped at him.
"Uh... did I... do something wrong?" Izuku asked nervously. Maybe I should've asked before picking up her mushrooms...
"N-no! I just didn't expect you to be so..." she mumbled out the last bit. "Uh sorry I didn't hear you..." Izuku tilted his head, looking like a confused puppy.
Dammit Kinoko! Spit it out!
"I didn't expect you to be so gentle with them. So thanks..." she mumbled out, her heart beating a little faster. She had to admit, he looked pretty sweet holding her m- ahem
"Where do you want me to put these, uh..." Izuku internally winced at the fact he hadn't introduced himself. His mom didn't raise a disrespectful kid dammit!
"I uh, sorry. Kinoko Komori! You can just leave em outside by the door" she squeaked out, distracting herself by picking up some of her shrooms.
"Uh, Izuku Midoriya." Izuku mumbled, tiptoeing out the door and gently plopping his handful of shrooms on the grass.
Izuku and Kinoko spent the next couple of minutes taking shrooms out of the gym, and Izuku couldn't help but think maybe he'd freaked her out or something. She seemed pretty quiet, or maybe he thinks it was pretty quiet.
He glanced down at one of the larger mushrooms he was currently picking up, an idea blooming.
"Hey uh... Komori?" Izuku hesitantly called her attention.
"Mm? Oh, Kinoko is fine!" she beamed at him, and he really wished he could see her eyes because right now he wasn't certain how she was feeling.
"Oh uh, alright K-Kinoko. Izuku is fine, if you want."
"Sure! What'd you need Izuku?"
"Well..." Izuku scratched the back of his head, holding up a droopy, sort of dark looking mushroom. "Since your quirk is Mushrooms, I assume you know quite a bit about them, and well I was curious..."
Kinoko instantly perked up, sitting down next to him and tenderly grabbing the mushroom away from Izuku.
"Hehe... well you're in for a shroomtastic summary then! This little guy right here is known as an inky cap mushroom! It's scientific name is 'Coprinopsis Atramentaria ' and it's edible! Although it is poisonous." Kinoko calmly explained, a small smile on her face as she held the mushroom in her hands.
"Uh... poisonous? But they're edible?" Izuku asked, confused.
"Oh yeah hehe don't worry. This little guy only reveals it's toxic effects when it's consumed with alcohol... or if someone's under the influence." she carefully placed inky cap down, leaning over him to grab another mushroom.
"This one I call Schizophyllum Commune-Chan! Did you know this little cutie has over 28,000 mating types? Hehe and that's just me oversimplifying it. It's too mush for me to get into in one day... but it is known to cause fungal infections in the respiratory systems of some people, so it's not really cute to use when I have to take someone down, but I thinj it looks lovely!" she exclaimed, her grin widening.
Izuku merely watched on, listening in curiosity and basking in her excited energy. It reminded him of himself when he geeked out about quirks and heroes.
She leaned into him, making him nearly choke on his breath and making him blush as she held up another mushroom in front of his face.
"Enokitake! Scientific name is 'Flammulina Velutipes' and it's edible too, but it does have a more toxic cousin. That one's 'Galerina Marginata' if you were wondering! I think Enokitake tastes so delicious! It's pretty common actually." Kinoko told him, and he nodded along.
"Oh oh! Fun shroom-fact on this one. It can be grown in zero gravity environments! Say... like a space shuttle orbiting Earth!" she nearly squealed out, setting it down softly.
"Wow that is pretty interesting!" Izuku admitted. Uraraka would find that pretty interesting too...
Come to think of it, she kind of reminds me of Uraraka... but only the hair. Even then, Kinoko's is different, shaped more like a... mushroom heh Izuku smiled warmly as he noted the similarity between Kinoko and her fungi friends.
Izuku was cut off from his thoughts as another mushroom was pushed against his chest, not hard enough to hurt, but just enough for him to notice.
"Frondosa! Although it's better known as Maitake! It's pretty tasty... but sometimes I eat a bit too mush of it hehe..." Kinoko laughed, not noticing Izuku's hand had sort of wrapped around her own as he looked at the mushroom in her hand.
She continued on. "It's known as 'King of the mushrooms!' but it does have other names. Ram's head, Sheep's head, Dancing mushroom... it can also get pretty big." Kinoko explained happily, trailing off as she finally realized what she'd been doing.
She was leaning against a cute boy, basically holding hands as she rattled on about mushrooms to him.
Her hair had moved a bit to the side, revealing to Izuku her frankly gorgeous and entrancing eyes. Her warm brown eyes with little crosses for pupils. It reminded him a bit of Hatsume's eyes, but also of Uraraka's. However, Kinoko's eyes were their own thing, and Izuku couldn't stop staring.
Kinoko was in a similar position, looking into Izuku's own green and warm eyes. He seemed distant, like he was looking at her but also lost in thought. She shivered a bit with warmth as she noticed the tender and awestruck gaze he had, before finally realizing she was staring.
Oh.
Oh...
OH?!
Kinoko blushed furiously, coughing and nearly leaping away from Midoriya as her heart rate spiked up. Izuku also realized the position they'd been in and rapidly sprouted apologies. They stayed like stuttering, blushing messes for almost a minute before they finally calmed down.
"I'm sorry!" they both nearly yelled out.
"For what?" they both asked each other in confusion.
They blinked, and then began to giggle at the situation.
"I'm uh... sorry for distracting you from training and all that! And uh... for holding your hand without permission!" Izuku added as an afterthought, looking down in shame and embarrassment.
"Oh that? I didn't mind..." Kinoko said offhandedly, before stiffening as she realized what she said.
"I mean uh... I was having such a shroomtastic time that I didn't even notice! Yeah! So it's ok..." Kinoko said.
"Yeah... sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Izuku said, apologizing again.
"No no! If anything I should be saying that. Sorry for spouting too mush information about these little guys. I got too... caught up in the moment." Kinoko admitted sadly, a bit embarrassed she'd rambled so much. She hadn't even noticed at all.
"Oh uh... I didn't mind that. It was nice." Izuku said, honest as can be.
"Huh?" Kinoko asked, startled but intrigued.
"I mean I uh... I had fun, just listening to you tell me about the different types of mushrooms. It was interesting, and I definitely enjoyed spending time with you. I think Enokitake were my favorite ones." Izuku explained, recalling the zero gravity shroom. It seemed pretty interesting to him.
Then he realized what he'd said, and began to blush hard.
Kinoko was in the same boat, her heart fluttering as she heard his words. He didn't mind...?
A few more mushrooms began to sprout up around her, and one of them even sprouted from Izuku's wrist. "Oh uh... Inky cap, right?" Izuku asked her as he lifted his wrist.
"Huh, I didn't know they could grow on skin, although I did assume so. That's pretty amazing! I wish I'd gotten to see more of 1B's quirks during the sports festival..." Izuku lamented as he smoothly removed the shroom from his arm.
I didn't mean to release spores! Kinoko screamed internally. She was tempted to apologize again, but he didn't seem to mind.
"I uh... it's getting late." she murmured out, her excited demeanor having died down.
"Oh uh... yeah we should go. I... hope we can do this again sometime." Izuku hesitantly said.
She looked shocked at that. "You mean that?"
"Ye-yeah!"
Kinoko beamed at him, her eyes briefly shown. Izuku's heart skipped a beat as he noticed the happiness in them.
"Great!"