Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Even in a world where ‘superpowers’, so called ‘Quirks’, was the norm, the young girl by the name of Izuki Midoriya was quite often seen as particularly quirky by not only those who knew of her but also those who actually knew her. Not only had her Quirk been one of the very rare ones that didn’t manifest itself for the first time at the typical time when the holder of the Quirk was four years old, it had manifested itself for the first time when Izuki was only three years old. The Quirk itself allowed Izuki to produce threads of something that resembled gold and interact with the threads in various ways alongside giving Izuki literally golden blood, which led to the Quirk being registered in the legal system under the name of Goldweaver. 

While Izuki could use her golden threads like the strings of a puppeteer to manipulate objects, it wasn’t what she, on a practically constant basis, mainly used her Quirk for. It was in a way that made it quite easy for people to forget something that was actually quite important about Izuki. By constantly producing and scattering minuscule lengths of her golden threads and letting them fill the area around her, Izuki obtained a form of radar-like sense of what was present within her zone of awareness, an awareness that easily made people forget something about that Izuki Midoriya was and always been since the day she was born. She was blind. Despite having been told on more than a few occasions that she was very pretty for her age by her oldest and best friend, Kasumi Bakugou, she would never truly know what she looked like beyond the outline of herself she was aware of thanks to the radar-sense produced by the Goldweaver-Quirk… though that could actually be said about pretty much everything from Izuki’s perspective. Her entire world essentially consisted of darkness and shapes of gold, not that she really knew (or cared) about things like colors since such things held very little meaning for Izuki.

However, despite having what many would consider a dark ‘view’ of the world, the young girl actually found beauty in the fact that her admittedly dark ‘view’ of the world made her appreciate what she could ‘see’. Although her ‘sight’ was nonexistent and as a result made it difficult for her and many others to ‘see’ completely eye to eye with her, the only one who got remotely close was Kasumi, who had known Izuki since the two were toddlers and even then, there were still some things that Kasumi (or anyone else for that matter) could properly understand about Izuki. One such thing was something that Izuki had initially trouble accepting and kept quiet about. 

And that something was the presence of legitimate memories from a past life that got knocked loose from the depths of Izuki’s mind after getting hit in the head during a game of soccer with a particularly strong shot by one of the people who was apparently jealous of her for being one of the few people who Kasumi Bakugou genuinely respected (and perhaps something more). More specifically the memories of a legendary hero from a place beyond the Earth known as Amphoreus. The memories of the Chrysos Heir who bore the Coreflame of “Romance”. The primary leader of the Flame-Chase Journey. Aglaea, the Weaver of Gold. While Izuki could feel a resonance between herself and the memories of Agaea, she had a hard time fully understanding and therefore accepting that (when she really thought about it) she and Aglaea were indeed, at their core, the same person. Albeit with various factors such as Izuki being born after Aglaea died alongside growing up in very different cultures and circumstances causing their identity and personalities to develop differently.

Chapter Text

Kasumi Bakugou wasn’t completely sure when her oldest and best friend, Izuki Midoriya, managed to win her heart. Perhaps it was the time when the blind girl found Kasumi crying in a remote corner of the school yard, both of them at the age of twelve, and didn’t show anything that could be taken as pity as she simply sat down by Kasumi’s side, letting Kasumi vent out about what had caused her to run off and cry. By the time Kasumi had finished, she was practically bawling her eyes out… only for her tears to slow down when she felt a gentle warmth wrapping around her waist and giving her gentle tugs in Izuki’s direction. Not seeing any point in resisting, Kasumi let herself be gently pulled towards her oldest and best friend… before winding up face planting into Izuki’s quite ample chest for her age due to Kasumi accidentally getting her foot briefly stuck on an exposed tree root and was simply held there in a gentle hug that placed Kasumi’s ear against the spot where Izuki’s heart was, allowing Kasumi to hear her oldest and best friend’s calming heartbeat… and causing the blond one of the two to blush.

Perhaps it was the time when Izuki gave one of her and Kasumi’s senpai, who appeared to be very slow on the uptake that neither Izuki nor Kasumi had any interest in guys, a piece of her mind, which culminated in the guy (who was in his final year of junior high school) breaking down crying. Apparently Izuki’s comment about the guy being… very small and pushing people around in a futile attempt at hiding his insecurities was right on the money. The blind girl wound up getting detention for causing a commotion, but Izuki didn’t seem to care, sounding very much completely unrepentant about it. Something that made Kasumi genuinely feel a bit saddened seeing her oldest and best friend go somewhere without her. 

There were several other possible moments, but no matter what specific moment it was that made Kasumi realize that she found herself being genuinely happy in her oldest and best friend’s presence, there was no denying the fact that Kasumi Bakugou had fallen in love with Izuki Midoriya, whom she shared a dream to become Pro Heroes with. A dream that the two friends started working preparing for by training in different fields. While Kasumi had a rather straight forward plan for her training, namely mixed martial arts which she would augment with her Quirk, which allowed her to produce nitroglycerin-like sweat from the palms of her hands and detonate it, giving Kasumi Bakugou’s Quirk the rather simple name of Explosion in the legal system, Izuki’s plan for her training was a bit more elaborate. She had multiple fields in her training, swordsmanship (more specifically, swordsmanship with a Xiphos), various artisanal fields (namely woodworking and metalworking), engineering and puppetry of all things. Apparently, Izuki envisioned herself doing Pro Hero work fighting alongside a custom made puppet of some kind filled with various mechanisms that was intended to be controlled by her golden threads while wielding a sword.

Her oldest and best friend’s unusual plans for training in preparation for becoming a Pro Hero aside, Kasumi hoped that she would be able to work up the courage to confess to Izuki about her feelings regarding her oldest and best friend. And knowing Izuki and the blind girl’s quirks, it was likely that Izuki would invite Kasumi to take a bath with her when Kasumi made it known that she had something to confess and insist that the two took part in the confession in the Midoriya’s rather large bathtub… which Izuki’s parents got when their daughter made it clear that bathing was pretty much a hobby of hers.

Chapter Text

Despite the knowledge that her oldest and best friend was of the quite unusual opinion that ’nudity equals honesty’ and that she would insist that she and Kasumi had their conversation while sharing a bath together, Kasumi Bakugou almost refused before simply giving up and opted for going along with Izuki’s idea. While Izuki had zero qualms about shamelessly undressing completely as warm water and steam was filling up the bathtub and the bathroom as a whole, Kasumi was doing the same with significantly more embarrassment, despite knowing that Izuki couldn’t ‘see’ anything, her progress being noticeably slower as a result.

“You wanted to tell me something, Kasumi?” Izuki asked as the blind girl bent over and tested the temperature before turning the tap off, finding the temperature just right. Nice and warm. “Kasumi?”

“*gulp* yes?” Answered Kasumi, who was trying very hard to not stare at her oldest and best friend’s exposed behind as Izuki stepped over the edge of the bathtub, slid into the bath and let out a sigh of relief, stopping Kasumi completely in her tracks and interrupting her in the process of unbuttoning the shirt of her school uniform. Considering that it had been the day when the holder of the Explosion-Quirk and her oldest and best friend had finished their final exams of high school, it made sense that Izuki would let out a sigh of relief as bathing wasn’t just her ‘hobby’ but also her main way of destressing. The fact that she could do both at the same time was simply a very nice bonus for Izuki. 

“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to finish undressing and join me in the bath?”

“Can’t I just tell you from here, Izuki?”

“I suppose you can, but I would prefer that you didn’t.”

“Why?”

“Asking someone else to share a bath with oneself is a gesture of great trust. I trust you, Kasumi. I’m asking you to show me the same by shedding the barriers between our bodies and hearts and join me.” The apparent challenge in what Izuki said was enough to get Kasumi to push through her embarrassment and make her join her oldest and best friend in the bath, which was still warm even after the couple minutes it took for Kasumi to undress herself and step in.

“It’s… warm. I can see and feel why you enjoy bathing so much. It’s like the stress of the world simply melts away.” Kasumi couldn’t help herself from commenting, while trying her hardest not looking towards Izuki, who seemed to be moving closer towards the blonde.

“Indeed. Mind lending me one of your wrists?”

“Why?” The blonde asked as she spotted in the corner of her eye that Izuki had been moving along the edge of the bathtub and was sitting right next to Kasumi, grabbing one of Kasumi’s hands and wrapping both her own wrist and Kasumi’s in her golden threads. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t worry about it. You said that you wanted to tell me something? Well… I’m waiting.”

“Right. You know how we’ve known each other since we were in diapers?”

“Yes. Your parents have told me on more than one occasion that you were apparently quite adorable as a toddler.”

“Can we please focus?”

“Sorry. Continue.”

“Right. Well… at some point, possibly during high school or maybe even earlier than that, I… started seeing you as more than just my oldest and best friend. I started seeing you as a possible life partner. Do you… feel the same about me?”

“Kasumi… look at me.” Despite being relatively slow in doing so, Kasumi’s gaze eventually turned towards the blind girl’s face. “Not once have my golden threads around our wrists stirred, which means that you have been truthful about what you said.”

“Since when have you been able to do that?”

“I’ve always been able to. I just never had a need for it. Now, to answer your question…” Instead of answering verbally, the golden threads around their bound wrists unraveled as Izuki placed her hands on Kasumi’s cheeks.

“Izuki? What are you?" Before Kasumi got the chance to finish her question, Izuki pulled her in and gave her oldest and best friend a firm kiss right on the lips. Once the blind girl finished, she simply settled on leaning against Kasumi’s shoulder.

“Does that answer your question, Kasumi?”

“It does.”

“So when’s the first date?”

“Does this upcoming weekend sound good to you?”

“It does.”

Chapter Text

When Izuki and Kasumi returned to their respective homes after an enjoyable date, both of them (more or less) wound up getting interrogated by their respective parents regarding where they went that Saturday. While reactions from their respective parents varied somewhat, something that occurred in both halves of the newly formed couple’s homes were two exchanges of money between the parents. Apparently, the parents had made side bets on not only whether or not their respective children would be interested in their own gender but also whether the teenagers would wind up dating each other, with the mothers being the winners of both bets. 

While Izuki was rather amused by the whole betting thing… her girlfriend didn’t take it as well and started making her annoyance known to her. Annoyance that turned into embarrassment when Kasumi’s mom offhandedly mentioned that she and Izuki’s mom had been not only dating but also sleeping together during their time in college until they separated on amicable terms as they went through university where they met their current respective partners. Meaning that, had things been different, Kasumi and Izuki could have grown up as sisters rather than as best friends. When Kasumi informed her girlfriend about the whole ‘we could have grown up as sisters’-thing the following day, Izuki simply acknowledged it before declaring that she was glad that she and Kasumi had grown up as best friends rather than as sisters, a sentiment that Kasumi could agree on. 

Unknown to not only her girlfriend but also her family, Izuki knew a thing or two about romance thanks to her previous life as Aglaea. Amongst the many instances of romance that had occurred within the city of Okhema, the Eternal Holy City, the city that served as the base of operations for The Chrysos Heirs partaking in The Flame-Chase Journey, informal courtships between the younger generation of the civilians failing in the romantic sense but an informal courtship between the parents (who tended to be widows or widowed) that succeeded, which resulted in the ‘exes’ of the younger generation becoming step siblings, was something that had occurred on more than one occasion in Okhema. While Aglaea never ‘witnessed’ any of the romances that occurred in Okhema, not only because she was blind but also because she wasn’t prone towards paying attention to everything that happened in the Eternal Holy City. She did pay attention to a lot of things that happened in the city, mainly to keep track of the various things that affected the Flame-Chase Journey, but not everything. On the relatively rare occasions when Aglaea did pay attention to the lives of the civilians in Okhema, it was mostly because she wanted to reassure herself and keep herself down to earth (to use a phrase of expression from her newer home). One such occasion/memory led to Aglaea discovering that more than a few of the soldiers who returned from the battlefield defending Okhema tended to relieve stress with either their life partners or… certain entertainers working in one of Okhema’s shadier corners, which led to Izuki getting quite embarrassed… yet also curious about whether or not she and/or Kasumi were into some of the things she found in Aglaea’s memories.

Something (besides Aglaea/Izuki herself) from Amphoreus that Izuki had been working on not only replicating but also mastering throughout multiple years across multiple fields was the multipurpose puppet that Aglaea had used as both a companion in combat and as an assistant/literal dress up doll known as The Garment Maker. Or rather a version of The Garment Maker that had a more than a few changes done from the original design that Aglaea used, which included the addition of a feature that would allow The Garment Maker to collapse in on itself into an effectively smaller form and allow Izuki to carry The Garment Maker around more easily, various hidden compartments to store various helpful items inside of and finally the addition of a proper head instead of… whatever Aglaea had put on The Garment Maker instead of a proper head. The last one being because of the fact that a proper head with a face would be a lot more calming for civilians than whatever Aglaea had on her multiple copies of The Garment Maker instead of a proper head.