Chapter 16: Shopping

"Hey Uraraka you in there?" Deku called knocking at her door.

"Yeah I'm here Deku what's up?" She called back.

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yeah just give me one second" she replied. Deku waited a few moments before Uraraka opened the door and he burst into her room sitting on her bed and burying his face in his hands. She closed the door behind him and began to worry.

"Deku are you ok? You seem stressed out" she asked concerned.

"Well that's because I am I'm kind of freaking out right now Uraraka" he said not looking up at her keeping his face hidden by his hands.

"Deku what's wrong? Talk to me" she pleaded wanting to help.

"Well I just got off the phone with my-" he began as he looked up to see Uraraka in nothing but a towel wrapped around her and her hair soaking wet still.

"Deku you're freaking me out" she said getting scared now.

"Uraraka a-are y-you n-naked?" He asked red faced and very nervous covering his eyes so he couldn't see her.

"Hm? No of course not silly I've got a towel on" she replied confused why he was asking her that and why he was so flustered. All he could see was her shoulders, arms and her lower legs other than that the towel completely covered her.

"R-right o-of c-course but u-under the t-towel y-you're n-not wearing a-anything a-are you?" he asked.

"Oh for goodness sake Deku yes I'm naked under the towel I just got out of the shower so I don't have any clothes on but I've got this towel wrapped around me so you can look at me you're not going to see me naked" she said getting annoyed.

"A-are y-you s-s-sure?" he asked still not wanting to move his hands away from his face. Uraraka was fed up so she walked over to him and knelt down in front of him.

"I'm sure" she said as she grabbed his hands and moved them away from his face.

I've never seen him this red in the face before. It's so cute but I'm covered so he has nothing to worry about. I hope he doesn't react like this if we ever have se-....no don't even go there you're 12 hours into this relationship so stop it it's not happening anytime soon.

"Deku calm down I'm not naked because the towel is covering me. You have nothing to worry about. Besides you saw me in my underwear this morning so it's not like you haven't seen me somewhat naked already and I saw you in yours so it's fine. Now tell me what's going on" she said softly to reassure him she wasn't going to get mad at him for looking at her with nothing but a towel wrapped around her. Deku let out a sigh of relief before composing himself to tell her about the conversation he'd just had.

"So I just got off the phone with my mom. The short version is she knows I have a girlfriend and she wants you to join us for dinner tonight after we've been shopping" he said. Now it was Uraraka's turn to be red faced.

"Tonight? We only became a thing last night. Why so soon Deku? Why tonight?" She asked beginning to worry. She didn't mind meeting her from what Deku had told her she was lovely and she had been meaning to go with Deku to meet her before as his friend but she was his girlfriend now and that's a completely different ball game. The thing that shocked her is they weren't even a day into dating officially and his mum wanted to meet her.

"I don't know she's very protective. I'm her only child and she made her whole life about raising and caring for me so she's probably worried about me since you're my first girlfriend" he explained.

"But...how did she even find out? Did you tell her?" Uraraka asked confused.

"No I didn't I wasn't planning to until I next saw her" he replied.

"So who did?" She asked.

"All Might" Deku answered.

"ALL MIGHT!?" she screamed.

"Yes All Might told her" he replied.

"Why the hell would he tell her? How do they even know each other? Did he call her or something?" Uraraka had so many questions.

"Well the thing is All Might kind of promised my mother he'd watch out for me and guide me and take me under his wing. Part of that includes calling my mom at least once a week to update her on how I'm doing and things. I mean I see her every weekend I make time to go home and see her so she doesn't worry too much. Anyway the gist of it is while he was on the phone to her he told her I'd gotten a girlfriend and she'd called me 68 times before I finally answered this morning" he explained.

"....ok. That's a lot to take in...but why tonight?" She asked again.

"Well I forgot I'd told her I'd be coming home for dinner tonight and I told her we were going out shopping today so she said that since you'll be with me already she wants you to join us for dinner. Although she did say you don't have to come tonight if you're not comfortable I'm fine telling her you couldn't make it or something" he offered giving her an out.

"No. No it's ok. I wanted to meet her before we were a couple so it's fine. Anything I should be worried about?" She asked.

"No honestly she'll love you and I don't see her having any problems with you. I think it's mainly her making sure I know what I'm doing with a girlfriend. She always told me to never make a girl cry or break a girl's heart otherwise she'd kill me" he said.

"Well I'll be sure to tell her if you do either of those things" she teased.

"Please don't she meant every word" he pleaded.

"Oh I know" she said in a playful tone.

"So what should I tell her?" he asked.

"Tell her we'll be there as soon as we're done shopping. I can get her a small gift while we're out" she said not wanting to feel rude.

"Ok if you're sure" he replied getting his phone out to text his mom.

"And sent. So what do we do now?" he asked.

"You are going to go back downstairs and wait for me while I finish getting ready. Sound good?" she said gesturing for him to leave.

"Wow are you kicking me out?" he asked a little playfully but also slightly disheartened.

"Yes I am Deku. Unless you want to see me take the towel off" she threatened grabbing the knot she'd tied beginning to undo it.

"No no no no no no no no no. It's ok I'll go please don't do that" he begged her.

"Why Deku what's wrong? Don't you want to see me naked?" she asked. She'd only meant to tease him but it sounded a lot more flirtatious than she'd intended it to.

"It's not that I don't want to" Deku replied. Uraraka blushed furiously hearing this suddenly getting very flustered. She felt a warmth surge through her body and she was overcome with this sudden desire for Deku's body to be against her own.

"Well another time now hurry up and get back downstairs I need to finish getting ready" she said very quickly pushing him to the door and opening it to shove him out into the hallway before slamming it shut.

What's this feeling? Is this what being turned on feels like? Is this how it feels when you want to have sex with someone? No don't be ridiculous I don't want to do that with him not yet anyway. How did that one sentence make me feel so flustered and happy and warm inside. Was it because Deku basically said he wanted to see me naked? Because that's what he said! Just calm down and get ready to go shopping with him. I'll have to put something nice on since we're going to his mother's for dinner too.

Uraraka got ready as quickly as she could and met Deku downstairs who was waiting patiently for her.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah let's go" he replied. She grabbed his hand and ran out the door pulling him along behind her.

"Hey why the rush?" he asked surprised by her hurry.

"The stores close in 6 hours and the train there is an hour journey so that gives me 5 hours to get a decent gift for your mom and for us to enjoy ourselves" she said wanting to make sure she got a good gift and as much alone time with Deku as possible.

"Ok ok I get it but if you want to get there quickly I have a better idea" he stopped her running and picked her up bridal style before activating one for all and sprinting towards the train station. She laughed as the wind swept through her hair and a little surprised by Deku's actions but happy nonetheless. She was going to make every moment with this boy last for as long as she could.

*Later at the mall*

"Finally we're here it feels like that took forever. How far away did you say your house was from the mall?" She asked.

"It's a 30 to 40 minute walk depending on your pace" he replied.

"Ok that's fine it's not even 12:00 yet so let's start looking for a gift I could get for your mom. Any ideas?" she asked.

"Well she got a cat recently so I don't know maybe a cat toy or something?" he suggested not quite sure.

"I mean I'll definitely do that because I would love to play games with the cat but that's not really a gift for her Deku that's a gift for the cat" she said.

"Yeah good point. Hm let me think" Deku said stopping in the middle of the mall to think about a good gift for his mother. He stood there for a while deep in thought about what they could get.

"Don't think too hard" Uraraka joked. It surprised her that Deku was taking so long to think of a good gift for the woman who raised him. Suddenly an idea popped into her head.

"Deku forget it I know just what to get her. Wait here I'll be right back" she said.

"Can't I come with you?" he asked confused why he had to wait.

"No you can't I want it to be a surprise for you when I give it to your mom" she said before turning to run and get her gift for his mother.

"She's up to something and I'm not sure I like it" Deku said aloud to himself.

I wonder what she's getting. Either way I hope mom likes it. I'm sure she will she's too polite and kind not to. I still can't believe how desperate she was to meet Uraraka. It makes sense I mean I don't think I remember dad ever being home so that's 16 years where it's just been me and her just the two of us. Thinking about it I'm all she's got really. Knowing her she probably got paranoid and started overthinking and convinced herself because I have a girlfriend now I'd forget all about her and there would be a more important woman in my life but that simply isn't true I don't think even Uraraka could be more important to me than her after everything she's done for me. She raised me to be the person I am today and I'll never forget everything she's taught me.

"I'm back" Uraraka said waving at him.

"That didn't take long" he said.

"Well technically I don't have it yet I put my order in and it'll be ready at 2:30 so I'll have to go pick it up later" she explained.

"Ok cool. So where to first?" Deku asked.

"Pet store. I wanna get a toy for the cat" she said getting excited at the thought.

"Then let's go" Deku said offering her his hand. She took it and they began their shopping trip. When they arrived at the pet store Uraraka decided to get the cat a ball of yarn before they headed back out of the store.

"You sure you don't wanna get something for the cat?" she asked.

"I told you I've already got the perfect toy" he said smirking a little bit.

"What is it?" she asked curious.

"A laser pointer" he said giggling at the thought of the cat trying to catch the laser as he pointed it at the wall the last time he'd visited his mother.

"Oh that's so good why didn't I think of that?" Uraraka pouted.

"It's fine she'll love the ball of yarn. Come on let's keep shopping we've still got a couple of hours before everywhere closes. They spent the rest of the day looking at clothes they could buy and trying them on giving each other little fashion shows for amusement trying on clothes that they would never actually wear. Whoever was 'modelling' would pull a few poses in their outfit and the other would applaud and wolf whistle at them eventually leading to the two of them bursting out with laughter. After a while they realised neither of them were actually going to buy any new clothes unless they saw something they really liked and they were just there to mess around and have some fun together. Eventually Uraraka returned to the store to collect Inko's gift before returning to Deku with a paper bag. He tried to sneak a look but she caught him giving a gentle jab in the arm for the third time today.

"Can you stop doing that?" Deku asked not enjoying being punched every time he did or said something she felt deserved it.

"No I can't. Not until you learn to behave yourself" she said playfully giggling a little when saw the look of annoyance on his face.

"Fine. You wanna get lunch? I'm hungry" he asked his belly rumbling once again.

"Sure let's just get a sandwich each or something I imagine your mom is cooking a big meal tonight right?" Uraraka suggested knowing they'd had a big breakfast already and she didn't want to be too full and seem rude if she was unable to eat her dinner.

"Yeah she usually does. I was craving a sandwich anyway so your idea works fine for me. There's a lot of benches around if you wanna sit somewhere while we eat" he offered not wanting to walk and eat at the same time.

"Sounds good" she replied. The two of them found a store where they could get a sandwich and a drink each before finding a bench to sit down on. They sat and ate their sandwiches talking about the party last night and everything that had happened before going on their phones to look at all the drunk pictures everybody had been posting at the after party and laughing at them. One of them was a picture of Tokoyami kneeling down crying in front of some eggs on the floor that had been smashed to pieces and the caption said "Dude thinks he's a real bird and they were his eggs". Another was of Mineta frozen in some ice the caption reading "He tried to grope Yaoyorozu so Todoroki froze his ass". There was even one of Bakugo smiling. Seeing it Deku and Uraraka stopped laughing and studied the image for a moment.

"See now that one's just creepy" Uraraka said.

"Agreed" Deku replied before the two of them erased the image from their mind.

"Anyway we should probably go. It's 3:34 and I don't know about you but I'm done shopping" she said after a while of laughing and making fun of their friends' drunken antics.

"Yeah let's head off I'll let mom know we're on the way" he said texting his mother. The two of them left the mall and began the walk back to Deku's house. On the way Uraraka asked Deku a lot of questions about his mother. She was sure she'd heard most of what there was to know already but she really wanted to know more about the woman who managed to raise Deku all by herself and make him the wonderful, empathetic, intelligent, driven and kind boy that she'd fallen in love with. She also asked him about why All Might and his mother were regularly on the phone to each other. Deku explained it was nothing more than All Might making a promise to his mother to look out for him but she still had her doubts.

"You sure they're not meeting for coffee too?" she teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Oh look we're here" he said stopping in front of his house. Uraraka stopped to study the house that Deku had grown up in.

"So this is where you grew up huh? I like it" she said squeezing his hand and smiling at him.

"You ready?" he asked seeming really nervous all of the sudden.

"Deku it'll be fine. For me anyway like you said she'll be watching you to make sure you don't do something to upset me or anything like that. After all we can't have you going round breaking young girl's hearts now can we lady killer?" she teased winking at him. She was only trying to make him feel at ease and lighten the mood a little but he still seemed on edge a little.

At least his shoulders don't look as tense as they were so it helped a little.

"Thanks Uraraka" he said grateful for her light hearted attitude but he couldn't relax something had been bugging him in the back of his mind all day.

She called us here for a reason. Why do I get the feeling she wants to talk to me about something? And why do I feel like it's something that's going to be really uncomfortable or something I really don't want to talk about with her.

"Hey Deku. You ok?" Uraraka asked snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Hm? Oh yeah I'm fine I was just thinking about something" he said playing it off and grabbing the door knob.

Well whatever it is it's too late now

He opened the door and entered his house.

"Mom I'm home..."