Perhaps, on reflection, kissing Izuku like that, Mina thought, had been a bad idea.
She hadn't expected the reaction she'd gotten from him. Then again, given the kind of person that he was, she wasn't sure exactly certain what sort of a reaction she had been expecting in the first place. A blush? A return kiss? Him falling dumbstruck for her? Well, she was fairly confident that she achieved one of those things, judging from how he acted on Tuesday through Friday.
One of two things happened every morning that week. Either Izuku would walk in after Mina had arrived and then, after a polite wave and wobbly smile, during which his palms looks as red as his cheeks did, and then he'd make his way to his seat and try desperately to avoid making eye contact with her, or even be within a two meter proximity of if he could get away with it, going through some very convoluted routes to do so at times. At one point, he ended up doing an entire lap around Todoroki's seat, leaving the Half-Hot-Half-Cold boy giving Izuku a look like the guys brain had just fried.
The other thing that happened was those times where Mina arrived later than Izuku did, and those times, she didn't even get the wave. He'd check who had walked in, and engage in conversation with whoever the heck was near him at the time like it would make his heart start working again. Uraraka and Iida were common recipients of this, but Mineta and Todoroki, and even people he didn't speak to that often, like Kaminari and Kyouka were also included. This plan of his failed on the Thursday, when the only person who was close enough for this to work was Bakugou, who just unleashed an explosion in his palms as a warning of what was to happen if he kept trying to speak to him.
What was unique about their out of school interactions were how repetitive and otherwise barely existent they were. Izuku rarely started a conversation between the two, but whenever he did end up messaging her, he would send her the same message, all in capitals, every time. '1PM SATURDAY OUTSIDE YUUEI.' There wasn't any doubt in Mina's mind that it was done to convince himself that it hadn't all been a dream of some sort, that if she turned around and asked what the hell he was talking about, he'd instantly forget it ever happened. Like he was checking with her to see if it was still happening. Not that she ever did say that she was going to call it off. She was looking forward to their inevitably awkward date.
None of this meant that they didn't talk throughout the week whatsoever. They did, but their conversations weren't at all like they were previously. They spoke in short bursts at a time, before one of them made some sort of excuse, flustered, to do something else, get out of one another's hair, or finish some work assignment they'd been given an hour previously. This series of excuses made for the most productive week Mina had had in a while, actually keeping her up to date with assessments and theory. She'd never taken such a keen interest in Maths and Ethics in her entire life.
To say that they had a bad relationship because of the kiss would be inaccurate. In truth, neither of them had ever felt as close to another person in their entire lives. Mina had basically all but confessed her feelings to Izuku with that pack in the cheek, whereas Izuku had been wrestling his emotions for the past week, and was still trying to conclude on what he felt. Their issue was their lack of knowledge, of understanding as to what they were supposed to do in this sort of situation they found themselves in, in which they were more than friends, but less than lovers.
It didn't go unnoticed by their classmates. Not at all. Anyone with a working brain was able to identify that something was going on, even if they weren't totally sure. It wound up quickly becoming one of the topics bored groups would bring up to add a spark to their dwindling conversations.
"They're in love." Tsuyu was the first one who suggested it to her immediately surrounding classmates at the end of Friday lunch break, in her trademark painfully blunt and straight faced manner. The way she stated it indicated she was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt about it, and that she wasn't just throwing out ideas at random.
Until this point, theories had been limited to an idea that something awkward had happened between the two of them and they were doing their very best to forget that it had ever occurred. Some people rumoured a crush from one side or the other, but Tsuyu was the first person to suggest actual love.
If it was possible for an invisible girl to blush, Hagakure managed it at the simple suggestion, before squealing out and her skirt began to sway from side to side, indicating she was squirming on the spot. Her sleeves of her uniform, now bent, indicated she was clasping her own cheeks. "Kyaaa! Young love!"
Kirishama just laughed, showing off the sharp calcium maulers he had lined in his jaws. "Ah ha, no offence to Midoriya, but uh, I don't think he's the sorta guy a lot of girls would be fawning over. Don't get me wrong, he's manly and all in a fight, and he's a cool guy, but he's kinda a wimp otherwise."
"I think you've got a very limited idea about girls, Kirishama." Tsuyu responded flatly, once again with the wit that characterised her. Her head was rested on her arms on her desk once again, but she was resting it on its side so she could face her group, this time slightly more involved in the conversation due to being the instigator of it.
"I'm with Kirishama on this one." Sero popped up this time, offering his two cents on the discussion. "Guy seems a bit too awkward for anyone to take interest in him. I mean, I sure wouldn't want to get in a fight with him, he'd freakin' scrap me, but like... Look at the damn guy." He pointed behind him with his thumb towards Izuku's desk.
From the perspective of the group, it looked as though Izuku had been taking notes on what they had just finished learning in class, when he looked up and saw the group, whereupon he went scarlet, awkwardly smiled, and waved timidly, nearly robotically, no flow to his movements at all, like a malfunctioning robot. He looked like the biggest damn nerd had just spotted his crush walk through the door in one of those God awful high school soap dramas from the United States with poor translation to Japanese that went up at one in the morning.
"Perhaps Ashido has a liking towards to the socially awkward." Tsuyu suggested only as a half joke. The other half of the Frog girl was wrestling with the possibility of the Acid Quirk user actually being attracted to that particular trait.
"What's this about me now?"
Mina's voice suddenly cut through the conversation, almost naturally slotting herself into the group's discussion without needing to greet them. She dropped her bag on her seat and sat herself down in her desk, the exact opposite way those things were supposed to be placed, and begrudgingly fastened up her white shirts top two buttons and her tie before the next lesson began. More Maths. Joy.
Her sudden appearance had gained her four sets of eyes focused on her, none of them particularly surprised by her random appearance in the group and informal way of joining their chat. They were used to it by now.
"Hey Ashido." Kirishama greeted the pink girl with a wave of his hand. "We're just talking about you and Midoriya dancing around each other all week."
She should have expected it, but still, hearing that their interactions had been noticed by their various classmates still embarrassed Mina, whose cheeks began to light up that lilac colour when she blushed. It was still way too early in the day to be dealing with this. It didn't help that this morning, she'd had to forgo her morning coffee thanks to her sleeping in, so she'd had to use some of her allowance for the week to buy some of the cheap crap they sold in the cafeteria and force that down her neck before she'd gotten to class. She was tired and not in the best of states. That needed to change for tomorrow. She needed a whole lot of caffeine to deal with tomorrow.
"What dancing around?" She asked, feigning ignorance fairly convincingly.
"You two having short conversations, Midoriya trying to keep out of a certain distance from you, the awkward smiles and the blushes from both of you. Eye contact, and those looks across the room you'd give each other when one wasn't looking." Hagakure suggested. When she was given a bunch of looks of surprise that she'd gone into that level of detail, she shrugged and rose on her tip toes, bouncing up slightly, and responding with cheer. "Invisible, remember? You don't know where or when I'm looking~" Since no one had a clue what she'd look like if she wasn't invisible, no one could really picture her with a smug smirk on her face, but everyone knew she must have had one in that moment.
"How exactly was Asui the first one to notice this again?" Kirishama asked with a raised eyebrow. If Hagakure had noticed all of this, why the hell hadn't she mentioned it sooner? Maybe she just didn't connect the dots. Or maybe she liked keeping it to herself, and letting everyone else guess. Maybe she was just having fun.
"You two like one another, don't you?" Tsuyu, for the third time this conversation, was as blunt as humanly possible. She looked up at Mina completely straight faced, showing how serious she was in asking that question.
Mina blushed. Was she really that obvious? She knew Tsuyu was a perceptive girl, but the horned girl liked to think she hid her feelings somewhat well from her classmates. Tellingly, she didn't deny it at all, not because she couldn't think of an excuse, she had truckloads of them, but weirdly, because she didn't want to hide her feelings for Izuku. Even if they weren't... Officially dating, she still wanted to be honest with the feeling she had for him.
She wanted to talk to him, be close to him, hold his hand, hug him and...
And... She blushed again, remembering her bold action at the subway station on Monday. This time harder, the lilac this time far, far more obvious on her cheeks, unmissable to anyone who didn't have a colour-blindness deficiency. She had only chosen to be quiet about her crush on Izuku because she imagined he wouldn't appreciate her spreading any rumours around the place, but instead, she'd been found out. She couldn't decide if that was more embarrassing than her apparently being about as subtle as a freight train or not.
After a few moments of crushing silence in their group, during which the room became noticeably quieter, the chattering of other classmates becoming much easier to hear, the group realised that Tsuyu had hit the nail on the head. Or horn, in this case.
"Wait a second, Asui's right?!" Sero was the one who broken the silence between the group, practically staring at Mina in surprise. In saying so, the canister shaped elbows from which his Quirk activated slipped, causing him to nearly smash his head into his desk, quickly forcing him to readjust himself.
"Told you." Tsuyu croaked with a smile.
Too late to deny it, to cover it up and make an excuse, Mina resigned herself to the teasing and jesting she was destined to receive at the hands of her social group. "D...Damn it." Her lower lips suddenly felt a harsh, sharp pressure, and it wasn't until a few seconds passed that she realised it was her own teeth. "I... I don't know how Midori feels, but..."
And now she let slip her nickname for him.
"She even has a cute nickname for him!" Hagakure's feet seemed to alternate between one being on the ground, and another being half cocked up, flicked at the heel. Cute, boundless energy came in the form of a girl no one could ever really see, rivalled only by Mina's usual enthusiasm.
"Damn, looks like I got it wrong." Kirishama commented, looking like he was holding back a grin. "Midoriya has got eyes on him."
Mina had to avert her eyes from her group, far too flustered to even look any of them in the eye at this point. The temptation to just melt a hole in the floor and fall through it was strong. Sure, from this floor, she'd end up falling in on the third years mock exams, and she'd almost certainly end up with detention, not to mention a bill back home for the damaged that her father would beat her over the head with, but it had to be better than this. That she could deal with.
"Why so embarrassed?" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head to an angle. Concern that her Quirk made difficult to express seeped out with her words, being the only one to actually show some for Mina. "We're at that age. No one gets to choose who they like."
"You got your eye on someone?" Hagakure asked the Frog girl. It was clear that she was enjoying the current conversation, even if her face was never visible, and never would be. To help convey those emotions she felt, she was incredibly dependant on clothing, tone, and body language. Somehow the girl who never had an expression was the most expressive of all class 1-A.
"Not particularly." Tsuyu responded plainly.
Mina sighed. "That doesn't reassure me much." She thanks the various Gods that none of these guys knew that she'd kissed his cheek, or she would just straight up die. Her lilac cheeks were an unusual sight for everyone around her. It took a lot to get her to blush. Cute as seeing the pink girl flustered for once was, the group seemed to understand her emotional state right now.
"I do know there are lots of worse guys to fall for aside from Midoriya though." The dark green girl added on to her statement, sitting up in her desk. "Back in the USJ, he was the only reason me and Mineta even got out of that ambush. Ran to help All Might despite me constantly telling him not to. Then we all saw what he did with Todoroki."
Smiling at the memories that inspired her feelings for Izuku, Mina felt her stress levels simmer down. Her blush was still clear, but it decimated ever so slightly, returning her skin to its normal pigments slowly over time.
"Hey, I'm not saying I've got a problem with it!" Kirishama assured their inhumane looking colleague with a banterous smile.
"Nor do I. It's just... Surprising." Sero agreed with a nod. "Sorry for, y,know, hounding you like that."
The group began to issue a list of sudden apologies their various reactions and prying into Mina's romantic life. She forgave them all before they'd all even issued their individual pleas of forgiveness, since Mina knew that this was, in all honesty, a hole she'd but of her own creation, and no one else was to blame for it. She'd made the choice to kiss Izuku, to make her feelings for him known, and by extension, caused this whole mess. She couldn't blame Tsuyu, Kirishama, or anyone else for noticing it.
They wished her luck, and she thanked them for it. After all, she was going to need every scrap of luck she could get.
"Yo, Pinky."
Mina's eye subconsciously twitched when she heard her older brother call her by that damned nickname. Ever since she'd revealed to her family that her Hero name was Pinky after her initial idea was shot down, Micha seemed to have forgotten that she ever even had a first name, and just stuck to calling his sister 'Pinky'. It was a limitless source of entertainment for him. He was way too easy to please.
"Yeah?"
"Mind if I come in?"
"Sure."
Her brother opened her heavily decorated door, and stepped into the haphazard mess that was Ashido Mina's room. Cleanliness wasn't missed on her... She just darted from one thing to another far too quickly to ever consider putting something away. She knew her room was a mess, but she just didn't care. As he attempted to open to door, Micha ended up slamming to door into a pile of clothes near the entrance. He had to squeeze in through the gap he had created in order to enter the room.
"You ever think of cleaning up in here?" Micha asked, glancing around, carefully treading between the small gaps of floor he could find. He wasn't exactly a neat freak himself, but his room at least had walking space. The amount of junk around the place was so maddening, he wondered how Mina even got from point A to B without breaking something, or herself.
"No time. What d'you want bro?" Mina was currently standing over her bed, looking at thee selected outfits she'd decided she'd want to wear when she met with Izuku in a few hours. Considering everything, she knew that this was going to be pretty much an all or nothing sort of day out. Just thinking about it flustered her.
Micha shrugged. "Nothing much. Mom wanted to know what you feel like having for dinner. She's trying out another one of those freakin' variants again, so if you chose Natto again, I'm gonna melt everything in here."
"I'll dissolve you if you even try it." Mina grinned in response. She knew her brother wasn't serious, but they had these sorts or back and forth spats, mostly as their way of showing affection. They shared a similar Quirk, which had led to them having a fairly close bond. Micha's Quirk was called Meltdown, and it allowed him to cause any object he touched to melt, as long as he willed for it to happen. With his sort of Quirk, it was a wonder he hadn't been accepted into Yuuei. Still, he expressed pride in his sister for managing to do it, even if he was a bit jealous of her.
"Well, you gonna answer or what?" He asked, his arms folded. Only once he asked this question did he notice that Mina was inspecting different clothes on her bed. All of them were relatively skimpy and revealing, but they did the job well enough. He wasn't unused to seeing his sister go about with a lack of modesty. That was just her style, but he didn't actually know that she had plans. With a joking smile, he asked, "What's with the get-up? Hot date lined up?"
Mina blushed. There was no way in hell Micha knew that she was meeting Izuku. She'd guarded her phone with her freaking life since they had exchanged those messages. No one knew about the self-proclaimed date Mina was about to go on with Izuku. Her brother was just teasing. But even so, the fact he was so spot on caused her to erupt in embarrassment.
"Holy crap, you actually do have a hot date lined up." Micha repeated himself with a look of surprise. His lips suddenly curled into a smug grin. "My little sisters growing up."
For the first time since he had entered the room, Mina looked at her brother with a panicked expression. Her hands clapped together, like she was about to go into prayer, and she bowed her head so her horns were pointed directly at him. "Please Micha, for God's sake, don't tell anyone."
"Chill, I won't, I won't, don't worry." He smirked, having to hold back a laugh at the inevitable number of jokes he had to be creating inside his head. His lips were pursed like he'd bitten into a sour lemon, all in an effort to stop himself bursting out in laughter at his sister's sudden embarrassment. "So, who's the lucky guy? Or girl? Or intermediary?"
"Guy." Mina sighed. She knew her brother wouldn't let her leave until she spilled the truth, so she decided to just get it over with. "H-His names Midoriya Izuku..."
"Sounds boring as hell." Micha dismissed practically immediately, an action that slightly pissed off Mina. "When you meeting him?"
"At one..."
"Guess that explains the clothes then. What're you going with?"
Picking up two of the outfits, one in each hand, Mina showed him the two she was torn between. One was a very similar variant of the clothes she had worn when she first went out with Izuku, except the black shirt no longer had the word 'Acid' sprawled all over it. Instead, it was completely plain black. That aside, it was basically the same combination of clothes that she'd worn.
The next set was a lot less revealing, but gave the same sort of vibe that the previous one gave. It constituted a dark red jacket with white lines going down the arm's length and to her wrists, covering up a plain white shirt. Along with this, there was a dark blue skirt that cut off just a bit above Mina's knees, covering up her toned thighs. Accompanying the outfit was a pair of knee high white socks that would cover up her calves and shins.
"I dunno... I like this," Mina held up the first, skimpier outfit a bit higher than the other second choice. "But I already met him in something like this," Micha gave her a weird look. "Don't ask. Anyway, I like it, but I kinda wanna show I'm putting in some effort to mix it up a little. And this one," She lowered the first outfit, and held up the second one. "I like it... But I dunno. I don't think red best suits me. Not with my complexion... What d'ya think?"
"I'd say go with the second one." Micha answered without hesitation. "You can wear the jacket around your waist if you're not keen on it, and it'll be good if it gets cold out. Better to have it and not need it."
The logic was there, so Mina nodded. Her brother hadn't led her wrong before, so she trusted his judgement, and decided upon the red jacket combination, in spite of her previous misgivings about it. She gave him a warm smile. "You always give me good advice."
"Well, you always help me when I go on dates with Kiro-chan."
"That's cause you're useless at picking your own clothes, big bro." Mina teased, remembering how her brother once thought it was acceptable to go out on a date to a restaurant in his part time jobs messy clothes. She felt the need to confess to her brother the true nature of her meeting with Izuku, if only so he had the needed context. "And uh... This isn't really a 'date' date... It's... Well, I said it was a date, but I don't think Midori fully believed me..."
"So he's not quite your boyfriend yet?"
Mina shook her head solemnly. "Nu-uh... I mean... We've hung out, and we're close and all... He lets me call him by his first name... But we've only really known each other for a few weeks..."
"Do you love him?"
Another wave of embarrassment made its way throughout Mina. It was so embarrassing to admit it, but she felt like she did. She felt like she had really fallen hard for Izuku. Even if it started out as just admiration and respect, it had quickly grown into something far deeper than that. Something a lot more close to her heart.
But to answer the question outright was nearly impossible for the young girl to do. Instead, she tried to answer it without answering. "I... May have kissed him on the cheek..."
"You work fast." Micha grinned. He could clearly sense the questionable stability of Mina's state of mind right now, filled with both doubt and confidence cancelling one another out, until she remained an unsure mess. She was second guessing herself, because of the kiss she'd just confessed to gifting her crush. An impulsive move that she made in the heat of the moment that she didn't know what to think of now. He sympathised with her, remembering when he'd done something similar with his current girlfriend. Resting his hand on her pink shoulder, he reassured her through physical contact. "Mind if I make a suggestion, sis?"
"Go ahead." Mina nodded.
"If you love the guy, let him know. Get it out there. If he's close enough to let you use his first name, he must like you back." Mina's eyes could have watered there and then if she didn't already know her brother was such a sap. But his genuine advice made her smile. He suddenly reached into his pocket and produced several wads of cash, which he handed to her. "My sister has a good taste in guys, I'm sure of it, so go out, have fun, come back tonight and tell me all about the new boyfriend, 'kay, Pinky?"
Punching her brother's chest lightly as punishment for his nickname for her, and then bumping fists with him, Mina smiled. Truly, her brother might be a perverse game junkie who drove her up the wall at times, but she wouldn't trade him for the world. "'Kay!"
"So, you want me to tell Mom you're gonna be out munching on some dude or something?"
If Mina's face hadn't been lilac before, it was now, more than ever. Her entire body began to erupt in the dark colour at the implication. Truly, the Ashido bloodline was the bluntest there was in all of Japan! "M-Micha!"
Izuku was practically shaking in his shoes while he waited for Mina to arrive. He had been seriously tempted to make up some sort of excuse not to come, to avoid this date in whatever ways he could manage to come up with. This date had been messing with his head all week, making him too flustered to think straight. This date had been all he could think about, and how he could only dread and anticipate it simultaneously! This date, this date!
His body went to high temperatures when he remembered that word. Date. This was a date. His first date. And it was with Mina. Mina!
His clothes once again were casual sorts. This time, instead of sporting the colour green, he was now dressed in the colour blue, his jacket matching the scheme he was going for, dark navy coloured. Underneath said jackets zipper was his favourite shirt, a white one that had the kanji for 'Hero' on it, across his well-built chest. His jeans were a lighter navy shade than his jacket was, leaning more towards neutral blue than any darker shade.
Suddenly, he found himself wondering, and throwing himself into paranoid hysterics. Was he underdressed? Was he overdressed? Would his choice in clothing interfere with what Mina had planned? Or was he supposed to be the one coming up with the plan? Did he have enough money on him? In fact, scratch that, did he even have any money on him?! He patted his jean pockets to remember that yes, he had brought money. How much? About ¥5,500. Would that be enough?
The prospect that he was going on a date with Mina far outshone any insecurities he might have had when standing outside these same gates a few weeks ago regarding his position at Yuuei. That was the last thing that he was thinking about right now. The second thing being what the hell he was going to do if he messed up on this date and made him and Mina look like total idiots.
The first was on that kiss Mina had given him.
He had thought about it a lot. A whole lot. He hadn't even come close to considering the possibility that she would have done such a thing throughout the entirety of their interactions together...
But he would be lying to say he didn't like it. Just the opposite in fact.
Throughout their journey that day, the two had been closer than they had ever been before. Not only physically, but emotionally too. She'd told him how glad she was to have met him... And he was glad that he'd met her too. His heart had never beaten so hard in all his life, and it hadn't stopped until the next day. When she rested on his shoulder, and he'd wrapped his arm around her to hold her closer, he'd been able to feel the wonderful warmth from her body, and the beautiful scent from her hair. It had been impossible for him to not smile. Being around Mina made him feel good. Happy. Better than ever before.
Had he fallen for her without realising it?
When he was confronted with that prospect... He couldn't say he disliked it. After all, Mina was kind, she was funny. She was fun to be around, and she was cute. Her skin was bizarre, yes, but it wasn't enough to bother him. That, her eyes, and her horns all accessories to her uniqueness. But above all that was the energetic and compassionate personality that made Mina herself.
And Mina was an amazing person...
And she'd kissed him... And he'd... Liked that. He had liked being kissed by Mina. And in spite of never, ever being able to ask for such a thing, he wanted it to happen again. He wanted Mina to kiss him again... Or God forbid, let him kiss her.
Did that mean that he liked her?... He supposed that it did.
He liked Mina.
The thought made him blush. He liked Mina. And he was going on a date with her today! He was going on a date with the girl he liked! Could he be anymore lucky?! Such a prospect made him more excited than when he first acquired One For All, and wasn't that a weird thought? A few hours with this girl excited him more than the prospect of acquiring his own Quirk, of following his childhood dream! Though he would never have been able to do either of those things without One For All. It all came full circle, all because of his passed down Quirk. He sent another mental thank you note to All Might, number five-hundred-and-fifty-two.
"Midori."
Once again, he'd been too wrapped up in his thinking to even notice that he was being approached by someone. He recognised the voice instantly, its sudden appearance sent him shooting upright to face her.
"M-Mina-san."
The Acidic girl smiled right at him, that cute smile Izuku had identified made his heart race, as well as the fact that between them, there was maybe a meters worth of space. Mina really did hold little to no concept of personal space didn't she?
Izuku was frozen in place for a few seconds, with a look that couldn't quite decide if it was a smile or a cry for help, instead achieving neither, and making him look wobbly with his half lopsided up, and half lopsided down grin. He couldn't have looked more like an idiot if someone paid him to try.
Both of the Yuuei students kept their respective expressions and stared at one another for a few seconds, making it look like the daftest version of a staring contest ever devised to any passers-by. After a few second, Mina couldn't help herself anymore, and burst out into hysterics, clutching her sides, unable to suppress her amusement at the face Izuku was making right now. In turn, her laughter infected Izuku, making him follow suite, laughing at the awkward situation both of them had found themselves in. Barely a minute since she'd arrived, and already Izuku couldn't stop himself from grinning and laughing!
"I, I'm sorry!" Mina cried, trying her best to stop herself giggling. "B-But, what was that? Pffft!" She flew onto another round of chortles. That face! She couldn't help it!
"I have no idea!" Under any other circumstance, Izuku would be hiding his face in sheer humiliation, but with Mina, he couldn't stop himself from laughing alongside her. Her laughter really was like a virus - Put it in the right conditions, and it would spread like a wildfire.
Their mutual awkwardness laughed off after a solid minute of therapeutic chuckling, both of them felt any anxiety and nervousness they had melt away into the waste side. The ice had been utterly obliterated, leaving both of them to face the other without a sense of dread or fear.
"Oh-ho... Ha ha, okay, alright." The pink girl breathed, finding herself leaning on Izuku's shoulder, who was in turn leaning on her, fluster for their closeness non-existent. She took a few deep breaths, through which a few chuckles escaped, but she managed to compose herself. "W-Well, that was the stupidest thing ever."
The green haired boy smiled. It had been stupid. A very dumb thing to laugh like that over, but he couldn't give a damn about that. He was happy. About two minutes ago, if you'd asked him how he was feeling about the day, he would have responded with absolute terror, stress, and an abnormal mixture of excitement. Now he was just excited, enthusiastic and looking forward for the next few hours ahead of him. "It's good to see you, Mina."
"Aw, how sweet." She responded with a tease, pulling away from him so she could see his smile, and show her hers. The young girl bounced up on her toes until she was level with his height, and showed him her rows of white teeth as she gave him the traditional Ashido grin. "It's good to see you too, Izuku."
Formalities dispensed with, both of them began making their way towards the city, their day beginning in earnest. They engaged in conversation like they would have done every other day, had the awkwardness not been hanging over them for the past week. It was nice to just get back to the usual way they spoke. Izuku even managed to get rid of most of his stutter, that's how good he was feeling about today.
"So... What's the... Plan?" Izuku asked eventually, breaking a small lull in the conversation. They still had a short while to go before they wound up in Tokyo, to the location where Mina had suggested that they head to first, and what they were going to do for the whole day hadn't really been established.
"Well, first I thought we could go to this cool little store called 'Shake' and get some milkshakes from there." From the raised eyebrow Izuku gave her, Mina figured that he'd never even heard of the store before. That made her smile. She'd get to be the one to introduce him to its wonders. "You'll like it, trust me. After that... I... I dunno." Mina blinked rapidly, realising she had absolutely no idea what there was to do. "I've uh... Never really been on a date before."
That word again... "S-So... This really is a d-date?" Izuku asked, sweating lightly from his forehead, as he averted his eyes to the side, so he didn't have to look directly at Mina.
"Well... Yeah. I mean... Unless you don't want it to be." The energetic girl responded in uncharacteristic reservation, her hands falling to her side rigidly, so they wouldn't sway at all from her thighs.
"That - That's not it! I was just - "
"Great!" Mina practically did a little jump into the air, without waiting for Izuku to finish his sentence. Not waiting to really consider the possible backlash, Mina reached out and clasped hold of Izuku's hand and intertwined her fingers with his, holding onto his warm palm and firmly joining it with hers, zeal taking over her thinking. "Well, I guess we'll figure out what we'll do on the way! It'll be fun!"
Izuku blushed, watching the pink and pale hands touch and hang on to one another. He was tempted to pull away in embarrassment, if it wasn't for two key facts.
The first fact was it was her hand. It was Mina's hand he was holding now, and he didn't mind that at all. Just the fact it was her hand, her fingers, and that it was just her that he was holding, meant that he liked it. The second fact was that, for the first time, he was experiencing real, genuine skin contact with Mina. Even the train ride on Monday hadn't been close to this. That had all been through clothing, but right now, he was being given the simply joy of feeling Mina's skin in his hands.
And her skin was warm and soft.
Izuku hadn't ever been to a place like Shake before. It was a small cafe-like shop, with a rustic feel to it, ran by college students. It gave more of an air to a collage dorm room than a store, with its fliers, posters, and haphazard seating arrangements throughout the store, not to mention its small size. Mina appeared to be on first person terms with the staff, in part, she claimed, was because of her constant visits here. She told Izuku that this was probably her favourite place to get refreshments in the middle of the summer. The staff beamed with pride at her from behind the counter upon hearing this.
Milkshakes was what this place apparently was well known for, allowing its customers to select a large variety of candies to be made into a cool summers drink. Mina ordered one that was made from a chocolate bar called a Bueno, which she said was her absolute favourite. Since he had no reference of what to choose, Izuku ordered one of the same. The creation of said milkshakes involved taking four of the chosen chocolate bars, breaking them up, throwing them into a blender, alongside a carton of milk and two dollops of ice cream. The next step was to blend it all up and serve it, cold enough to give you brain-freeze.
Around the fifth stage of this creative process, Izuku began to regret his choices in ordering. Quite frankly, anything involving ice cream, milk, and a candy bar that had some sort of thick cream filling mixed into one, there was no way in hell that this wasn't going to upset his stomach. If this was how traditional milkshakes were made, he was glad he'd not seen it happen before, but here, you could see the vendors preparing everything very clearly.
Mina was able to tuck into hers without even the slightest care in the world, already having gotten a quarter of it down her neck before Izuku's even arrived. When his did get delivered too him, he stopped to take a proper look at it. It was a mostly white, but slightly grey semi solid, thick goo type sort of thing, with a thousand tiny dots, all dark brown, scattered around the mass of it. It looked like some sort of infected desert.
Which is why it surprised Izuku that the concoction was actually immensely tasty. He'd never even tried something remotely similar, but it tickled his throat, bursting with flavour in spite of the coldness it had. He had to stop for a second to actually comprehend how something that looked like thrown up paint actually was as delicious as it was. "This is... Actually really nice."
"Told ya." Mina cheerfully sipped on her own drink. "This place is the best! I must come here once a week at least."
"I can see why." Izuku smiled. Mina had good taste. Somehow that knowledge made him feel a lot calmer about the date. He felt his heart skip a beat, for no particular reason, other than just being here with this girl.
With a small sigh, Mina stopped guzzling down her milkshake for a second, taking the straw from her mouth and putting the transparent plastic cup on the table. She then clapped her fingertips together and smirked. "So! Here's a fun game! What d'you thinks the weirdest thing about me?"
"W-Wait, what?"
"I've spent a ton of time going over why you're weird." Mina grinned. "Now I know about your Quirk and all, you make a lotta sense to me. You're a bit too polite to bring it up, but know I don't exactly look like the most typical person around, so you must have noticed something about me you think is odd. Doesn't seem too fair that I've got to remind you over and over how bizarre you are and you're so quiet about me. So, go ahead, fire away."
For the most part, Izuku never really even considered her to look inhumane. Unique, yes, but not inhumane. Quirks affected every single person differently, so he never really took any physical alterations into consideration, especially not since he was in Class 1-A, where the only typical looking people there were himself, Bakugou and Yaoyorozu. Everyone else had some sort of physical ailment that made them look unique compared to everyone else, from Kaminari's natural black highlights, Uraraka's finger pads, Kirishama's sharp teeth, and so on.
Aside from being impolite, Izuku had just never even really thought to ask. There were things he wanted to know, things he would pry into when his curiosity over rid his brain, but he never really thought about the outward look of Mina as something he wanted to know more about. On further inspection of Mina though, he did have one question he wanted to ask about her appearance. "Y-You're sure its okay to ask?"
"Go ahead, Midori."
"The uh... Your horns." He said. "I uh, I get the skin colour being pink, and your eyes being black. That's because of your Quirk. That all makes sense to me... But why the horns? How did - How did you get those?" Having a Quirk like Acid, there shouldn't be a reason for her to have horns as a part of her anatomy, yet here she was with them, for no explained reason. If Izuku wanted to know one thing, it was why she had those.
"These?" Mina grabbed her left horn with the corresponding hand and tugged on it. "Oh, these're just from my dad's Quirk. He can grow horns out of the top of his head and then retract them. They're a lot sharper than mine though. Guess I inherited them, only blunter. And can't get rid of them. They make conditioning my hair a pain." She smiled. "You wanna feel 'em?"
Izuku blushed. "Wh - Wha?!"
"I asked if you wanna feel 'em." Mina repeated, leaning a bit over the table and tilting her head so her extremities pointed towards him. "Go for it. So long as you don't yank them out, it's fine."
The green haired boy suddenly felt like he was being asked to do something very, very weird, but he couldn't deny the curiosity he felt. And Mina was offering, right? It would be rude to decline, wouldn't it? Right? That made sense, didn't it?
Hesitantly, he reached his right hand out towards the girls head, lightly tapping the right horn on her head. The yellow addition to her skull felt smooth at the touch, and Mina didn't make any sort of resistance to his actions, he gently ran his fingers along the length, and along the curve at the top. On closer inspection, he was able to feel hundreds of tiny dips, rings more accurately, that ran along her horns. They were small indentations though, not enough to notice if you weren't looking for them, still being smooth all the while.
In spite of any reservations he might have had in engaging in this sort of action, Izuku wouldn't deny, he did find the affect Quirks had on human anatomy to be weirdly fascinating. Being totally human with no obvious visual traits was becoming a minority as time went along, and being born Quirkless, he had none himself. It made this sort of thing -
"C-Careful, I-Izuku... Th-those are sensitive..."
Izuku stopped, his eyes shot wide open, and he pulled his hand back from Mina's head like he'd just pulled the pin off a grenade and had about three seconds to run for his life. What had he just done?! Holy crap, his face was burning, scorching hot! "I-I'm s-s-s-sorry, M-M-Mina, I-I-I-I didn't - !"
Suddenly, Mina was in complete hysterics again, barely even making any sort of effort to hide her loud laughter despite being in public. The staff workers were chuckling to themselves as well, while Mina was just clutching her sides with laughter. "Y-You dork, Izuku!"
"Wh - What?"
"My horns are made of bone, dummy!" Mina laughed again, flicking the horn Izuku had been running his hands along, and hard enough for Izuku to hear a hollow echo come from them. "I can't feel anything like your hands touching them. I thought you were smart!" She burst into another fit of giggles.
Part of Izuku almost wanted to feel offended, while he took an embarrassed sip of his milkshake to cool him down. That had been a bit uncalled for, hadn't it? Had there really been a need to trick him like that? But he couldn't help but laugh at the situation himself. Mina probably had been planning on this from the second she asked him to name one oddity about her, of which she had a great many.
The two of them made their way out of the store later on, Mina apologising for her little prank, still unable to suppress the smile on her lips as she did so. Izuku took it in good nature, and told her not to worry about it, that it was okay. He still felt a little embarrassed by it, but the joke hadn't hurt anyone, had it? It wasn't a big deal.
In apology, Mina slipped her hand into Izuku's once again, and began to drag him through the streets again, having another place she wanted to show him in mind.
One thing that Mina lacked was patience, it seemed. Whenever she wanted to go somewhere, or show Izuku something, she'd lead him there at mac speed, and nearly wound up just tugging him from along the ground in doing so. She didn't want to waste any time, since her gap was limited to just today to have as much fun as physically possible with him before she wound up dropping the bombshell that she liked him. Of course, if he didn't know she liked him by now, he'd have to be an absolute idiot.
Which was why she had something a bit different in mind this time. Not much different, but it could make all the difference.
Dismally though, the road - The main one, that would take the least amount of time to get to where she wanted to go, was blocked off because of yet another Villain attack. Further down the road, she could see three, maybe four figures battling it out, but as for where she was, there was a huge crowd of people trying to get information from the police and Villain custody squad about when the roads would be open, what alternatives they could take, and statements from the officers that they could give to their bosses. People were all around on their mobile devices, sending text messages or having actual phone conversations to loved ones or workmates, explaining why they were going to be late yet again.
Mina groaned and tugged at her hair. "Oh come ooooooon! How many Villains even live in this freakin' city?"
Unlike her, Izuku was actually enjoying the scene play out in front of him. With his pretty good eyesight, he was able to make out the identities of the Heroes who were fighting the Villains just a bit further down the street. Longitude, the Distance Hero, and Exorcist, the Exorcising Hero. He'd made notes on them in his 'Preparation for my future' notepads, numbers five and eleven respectively, but seeing them in actual action was certainly a step up from seeing them on the internet.
"This is awesome!" He was almost drooling. That fanboy that still resided in him whenever he saw a Hero he'd only ever seen behind a screen before came to surface, evidenced when his eyes began to sparkle and his hands became tight fists underneath his chin. While he was doing all of this however, he was still trying to reclaim his lost breath from the run he'd been dragged on by Mina, who seemed to be totally fine. That energy she had certainly seemed to come in handy.
"Gaaah, this isn't what I had in mind though..." The Pink girl sighed in frustration, kicking the tarmac beneath her lightly, so that a single pebble darted along the sealed off road. "Why are there Villains every time we try and do something?..."
"Well... Technically this is only the second time we've hung out..." Izuku muttered to himself, mentally admitting that yes, that did actually constitute a one-hundred percent Villain rate, before he looked over at Mina, who he could tell was actually rather upset by this development. "H-Hey Mina? What's wrong?" He squeezed her shoulder gently with his left hand, his right still being grabbed by Mina's left, letting her know her was still there.
"Nothin'... I forgot you liked this sorta stuff." She tried to sound cheerful, but she wasn't fooling Izuku. He'd already engaged his 'Prying into someone else's business so he could help them feel better' mode.
"Don't you?"
"I do... It's just..." Mina sighed, figuring that Izuku wouldn't let this drop until she told him. He respected that about him, of course... But she hadn't wanted a situation to arise where he'd have to do that today. Especially not for her. We've only got so long today, y'know? I... I wanted it to be non-stop fun-time... And it's already gotten cut down thanks to those jerks down there." She pointed vaguely down the street, not sure if she was pointing at the police, the Villain Custody service, the Heroes, or the Villains.
There was something about the genuine remorse of her voice that made Izuku smile without even meaning to. He had a... Fairly good idea on how Mina felt, even if the concept was simply too boggling to the mind for him to fully even accept, acknowledge, or even consider the possibility of it being true. Like he wasn't physically capable of considering it a viable explanation... But if it were true...
"Mina..." He quietly said, holding onto her hand tighter. "You make it sound like I'm upset that this sort of thing happens when I'm with you."
"It upsets me..."
"It shouldn't though." He rested his head on the shorter girls shoulder. A bold action, given his personality. It seemed to catch Mina off guard too, since her head snapped to face him like she'd broken free from her chains. "It's only because of you that we're even hanging out like this... And... And just being around you makes me happy, Mina..."
Lightly blushing, Mina couldn't stop the smile she had been determined to keep as a frown from forming. Izuku might be an awkward nerd who had the weirdest Quirk known to the history of the human race, but no one had ever made Mina smile as much in her whole life.
"So you're a sweet-talker too?" She joked, resting her head atop his head lightly, their roles reversed from when they were on the train together. Neither had any intention of moving anytime soon, so she made herself comfortable. His hair was surprisingly soft and fluffy, rivalling her own.
"You don't need to keep running around like you do. I... I want to enjoy today too... But if it's just a huge blur... Then there isn't a point, is there... I want to remember today... A-and it's not like... We won't get to do this again..." Suddenly, Izuku went scarlet. Had he just basically confessed to not wanting to be the only date that the two of them had? His heart stopped as he awaited Mina's response, praying he hadn't screwed this up.
She didn't move, or say anything for a few moments, before she seemed to bury her head more into his long, curly hair. When she did speak, her voice seemed to be a lot calmer, a lot happier. If Izuku could have seen her face in that moment, he would have seen the single prettiest smile he had ever seen in his entire life. "...I guess you're right."
"Damn, Midori, you really are a bit of an expert at arcade games aren't you?" Mina laughed, helping him out of the brightly lit building by supporting his weight, his arm around her neck and her hand on his chest to prevent him from falling flat on his face.
"My... My legs... Feel... Like they're on fire, Mina." Izuku gasped for breath, his throat dryer than sand, every muscle that he used to walk felt like it had swollen to insane levels. Of course, they hadn't. They were just insanely exhausted, but damned if he was thinking logically at this point.
As the two of them had waited for the Heroes to finish dealing with the Villains at the blockade, police had informed the growing group of commuters that a route around the fight had been declared a safe zone, and travel could begin heading down there immediately. In contrast to everyone around them, and indeed themselves just a half hour ago, Izuku and Mina walked at a regular pace, taking their time to get to their destination. There was no rush. No need to hurry along. Izuku's words reminded Mina that there wasn't a need to hurry along.
When they reached an arcade again, Izuku had to wonder if Mina wasn't just looking for revenge for the last time he beat her at a game, until he realised that this was a different store, and it didn't have the game they had played last time.
Instead, Mina had pulled him over to the Dance Dance Revolution set, pushed him onto one of the stands, and it was only then that Izuku pieced together just what it was she was expecting him to do. As one would have expected from him, he'd never even touched this game in his entire life, never as much as watched someone else play it, and he had absolutely no clue what the hell he was supposed to do here. He managed to figure out that the game would send up arrows for him to give direction, and on the floor surrounding him, were arrows of the same kind. He pieced together that when the command came up on the screen, he was supposed to hit the corresponding arrow with his feet, by 'Dancing' to the beat of the music.
Mina had stood on the other stand, and they seemed to have gathered a bit of a crowd around them while the smirking girl inserted some coins, wishing Izuku the best of luck with a flirtatious wink, and a thumbs up. He could have sworn that the only reason this girl enjoyed arcades was because they made the perfect place for her to make him look like an idiot.
He had been slow to get the hang of it, having to take a few bad scores before he memorised where all of the arrow pads on the floor were, before to the shock of Mina, he was tearing the floor the hell up. He was actually keeping ahead of Mina's score, and Mina had to have logged in well over a hundred hours of this game in her lifetime. He was either a quick learner, talented dancer, or he had a competitive streak when it came to games. Or to Mina. Either way, the adrenaline was pumping, the music playing, and Izuku was getting more and more into the game the more he played! For being so reserved, he was swaying his arms in time with the beat alongside Mina, the pair looking like a set of synchronised dancers as they copied the silhouette of the dancer on the black screen. It was exhausting, and exhilarating all at once! Izuku couldn't help but laugh as he and his date tore up the dance floor to a cheering crowd and a high beat dance track!
Unlike Mina, however, his thighs were not as well built, and as such, he'd managed to feel like he'd doused his lower half in gasoline. By the time the dance finished, and Izuku had claimed victory from Mina in another one of her favourite arcade machine games - Not that Mina was bitter, of course not - he collapsed on the spot, covered in sweat and barely able to move anymore. Mina had helped him up with an amused smile, and wrapped his arm around her neck to keep him upright.
This marked the second time Izuku had beaten her at arcade games she had thought she was pretty good at. She was starting to develop an inferiority complex, she joked inside her head.
"Come on, you." She smiled, leading him outside. "Let's get you something to drink before you pass out." He wasn't designed for that sort of stuff, but he seemed to have enjoyed it. Though she couldn't think of a situation where she thought she saw someone in more dire need of a drink in her entire life.
"You're really pretty, Mina..." The green haired boy suddenly said, almost slurred. He was still pretty clearly conscious, and wasn't on the verge of slipping out of it, but he wasn't thinking as clearly as he might normally do, given the adrenaline that had just coursed throughout his veins.
"Did you just become delirious, Midori?"
"A little, I think..." He joked. It didn't surprise Mina. It had happened to her a few times when she first tried it. A few dances in front of that machine and you felt like you could take on the whole God damn world with one arm tied behind your back, and a ball and chain fastened to the throat.
But she did like the idea that Izuku thought she was pretty. The concept that someone found her to be pretty, despite every single physical imperfection that she had, was a heart-warming one. She never really put too much stock in her appearance, since she was a bundle of energy that zoomed from one activity to the other, she rarely had time, nor felt the need to try and doll herself up. It made her smile and giggle lightly at his half-lucid state.
Eventually finding a free bench, Mina placed Izuku down, and using the money her brother had given her, purchased a couple of soda cans. One for herself, and one for the very clearly desperate boy. She opened up the can for him, and passed it over, which he took and guzzled down his neck nearly in one go. Caffeine and refreshments now in his system, he looked a whole lot livelier than he previously did. His eyes even seemed to burst open wide after he nearly finished his can in one go, like he'd just come back to life. He took a few deep breaths, and looked up at Mina, who was quietly sipping on her own drink, amused by the state he was in. "Thanks... I - I needed that..."
"No problem, Dance Dance king."
In between gasps for breath, Izuku managed to smile somewhat. "I... I didn't... I don't even know how I did that. I've never even played... That sort of thing before."
"Maybe you've got a hidden dancer in you." Mina suggested, sitting next to him.
"I - I guess..."
Since Izuku was beyond done when it came to any sort of physical activity at this point, Mina asked if he wanted to try and find a less physically demanding thing to do, for his benefit, which he readily agreed to. He wound up suggesting a bookstore or something a bit more calming. Mina accepted this idea. She was thankful, because honestly, she hadn't expected Izuku to go as full speed ahead with his attempt at the classical dancing game and wound up with legs that were one step away from turning into lava. She'd come up with a few more ideas during the travel time, but they were gone now that Izuku didn't seem up to any strained activity. While he was fine with walking now, he sure wasn't going to be able to break into a sprint anytime soon.
He apologized for it again and again, but Mina assured him it was no worry, actually finding it really amusing that he was this continuously good at one - upping her. Perhaps he had a hidden competitive streak, especially when it came to her. She vowed that she'd find something she could beat him at someday.
They eventually found a large bookstore not too far away from the arcade they had just gone to. And it was large indeed, with two whole floors to it, and shelves and shelves lined with books of all sorts, from novels, to textbooks, to autobiographies, to manga, light novels and comics. Literally thousands upon thousands of books inhabited this store of all kinds. Anyone who knew how to read would find something that appealed to them in this establishment
Mina wasn't even in the slightest bit of shock when Izuku found himself in the section that held all the comics. Somehow she'd managed to guess that on top of generally being obsessed with everything to do with Heroes, he'd be a huge comic fan to boot. She'd just managed to get that impression from him without him ever having to say a word about it.
What did cause Izuku some surprise though was to learn Mina had a particular fondness for light novels and Manga. Since both sections were basically next to one another, neither of them could attempt to hide their interest in their preferred literature, no matter how loose that definition might be to some.
"Huh… I didn't know you liked this sort of thing, Mina." Izuku pondered aloud, leaning slightly over her shoulder to get a better look at the cover and the pages. From what he could gather, it seemed to be a story set in a world where people used magic as opposed to Quirks, and how small groups of wizards would form guilds in order to do jobs in exchange for money, sort of like Heroes for hire.
"Yeah." The pink girl smiled, skimming through a few more pages of the book. "My older brother buys a lot of this sort of thing, so I sometimes borrow some of his collection and read through what he has. I've kind of got a little soft spot for them by now, y'know?" She grinned and nodded towards the comics that Izuku had in his hands. "Somehow, I'm not too shocked to see you buying comics though, Midori."
"I uh… I used to read them a whole lot when I was younger… I haven't really had a whole lot of time to just sit down and read some since I started attending Yuuei." He admitted with a sheepish grin of his own, like he was embarrassed to admit it.
Craning her head to get a better look, the acidic girl recognized the covers that Izuku was holding. "Those're the ones that were set when the world was first getting Quirks, right? The ones where the public really hate the people who had Quirks, and the first people who became Heroes to try and change the people's minds about them, yeah? My brother has a few issues of that series."
Clearly, Izuku was taken aback by her surprising amount of knowledge regarding the kinds of reading materials that he liked. He didn't really have much to say, since she was completely spot on with her deductions. "Y-Yeah… I'm surprised that you know about this sort of stuff…"
"I'm full of surprises, Midori." Mina winked. "We're both kinda nerds about this sort of stuff, huh?"
Izuku offered to pay for the books, since Mina had been paying for basically everything up until this point. It ended up eating into a large amount of his money, but he didn't really care. With both of them each armed with a bag filled with their newly purchased belongings, they both made their way out of the store, and back onto the streets. This time, they had no location to go to. Nowhere that they wanted to really visit. No where they could think of going or anything that they could think of doing. So they just wondered around the city, doing anything that managed to catch their eye.
Ending up in a game store at one point, they tried out the free demonstration of one of the new games Mina's brother had inevitably pre-ordered. This time, Mina clobbered Izuku's score into the absolute dirt and then some, and she cheered a bit too loudly at her victory. A few sets of eyes focused in on them, which caused the green haired boy some distress, not that Mina particularly cared for the looks they were receiving.
At another point, they wound up in a record store, Mina insisting that Izuku come over and listen to one of her favourite tracks that she had found. An old pop-rock record from a Korean group, and although he couldn't understand a word of what was being said, Izuku couldn't help but tap his foot to the rhythm of the song and the lyrics of the language he didn't speak.
They wound up getting small bites to eat here and there as they explored and enjoyed one another's company. At no point throughout the day did they ever stop enjoying themselves. Eventually, however, they found themselves in a park on the edge of the city, watching the sunset go down. The park was empty, no one around, the kids all having been called home by their parents and guardians, and the area around them mostly deserted.
On his lap, Izuku was just glancing over some of the comics he'd purchased, wondering just what sorts of adventures the Heroes of these issues would be getting into throughout the next set of pages. He saw that Mina was going the same, rereading the blurbs of the books he'd purchased for her for maybe the fifth time.
There seemed to be some sort of worry in Mina's expression, a weak curl on her lips, and only half of her focus seemed to actually be on reading the words on her book. Izuku couldn't see her iris moving whatsoever, rather they were just stationary, like she had zoned out. Further inspection showed that she wasn't holding onto her books with much of a firm grip, rather, they were loose in her hands.
Was something bothering her?
"Hey, Mina." Izuku said, lightly tapping her shoulder, getting her attention. She tore her eyes away from the back of the book to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Thanks. For today… I've really had a lot of fun hanging out with you. More fun than I ever thought I could have doing something like this. So thank you."
Mina smiled shyly and looked at her own lap, a faint blush on her face. "I'm glad… I'm honestly still sort of surprised that you agreed to do this after… What I did."
"O-oh…"
Conversation abruptly dropped then, as the kiss came back into their memories. It had barely just slipped Izuku's mind before Mina had brought it back up again. He didn't know why she brought it up now though. It seemed… Like an odd thing to do. Was it… Guilt?
"M-Mina?... Could – Could I ask you something?" He asked, a waver in his voice easily detectable. He hadn't been too nervous all day with her, but now that he was, it became oh so much more obvious that it was painful.
Mina nodded softly, without looking at him. "Sure. Ask away."
"…Why did you do it?" He felt like he could already predict the answer, egotistical as it may sound… But he couldn't think of another reason as to why… Why she would do that… But… He wanted to be sure. He just…. He wanted to know if this was for real.
Violet made its way onto Mina's cheeks. Her brother had told her that it was best to just get it out in the open, to confess and be done with it, and she'd agreed with him. She'd planned to do this right from the start of the date.
All it would take was one push from her. One good, final push. Just a few words to express her feelings for Izuku, right now, and it would all be over. She wanted him to know. If only to get it off her chest.
She wanted to. It was because…
"…Because… I…"
She wanted to… But why was it so hard?
How? How was it possible? How could it be that she could basically cuddle with him on a train, kiss his cheek, spend this whole day with him… And only now get cold feet? How was it possible to even manage that?... This day… If there was one thing she'd had planned out from the start, it was that she was going to confess to Izuku that she felt this way about him! That had been the plan from the very beginning! So why now?!
…Fear. That's what it was. Fear or rejection. Fear that Izuku didn't feel like this about her. That he liked someone else. Uraraka maybe. Or just… Anyone else. That he'd only come out of a sense of obligation… That… That…
Suddenly, her hand felt warm. Izuku's hand had wrapped itself around hers. She let out an involuntary gasp at this. Usually, her hand found its way into his, not the other way around… But with pink tinting his own cheeks, he'd done it himself.
He'd seen her. He'd seen the worry she had. The anxiety. The fear of telling him something that she didn't know how he would react to. Something that she could never know how he would react to. Boundless energy, reckless attitude, carefree personality. It all evaporated in the face of a certain kind of uncertainty. And for Mina, it was this kind.
"Mina…" He said softly, wanting to soothe her worries, but no words came. He didn't know what to say. Even now, he didn't know what he himself would say in this situation, were their roles reversed.
He took a deep breath. If this was what he thought it was, then this was going to be the thing that helped Mina find her voice. If not… Then it was going to be a very dumb mistake.
"It's because I…" Mina tried again, feeling the words get stuck in her throat, when she was cut off.
She was cut off by Izuku planting a warm, gentle kiss on her cheek, like she had given him previously. Mina had to take a second to process what was happening, before her face exploded into dark lilac. Izuku was kissing her!
It didn't last as long as the one that she had given him, and it was nowhere near as impulsive or as forceful as hers had been… But somehow, it felt deeper all the same. Like there was just as much, if not somehow more feeling than Mina had put into hers. Like he'd been sitting on this, for just as long as she had, and had wanted to do this just as much.
"You can talk to me, Mina." He quietly informed her, and while his cheeks were still a raging red inferno, his smile was warm, soft, and sweet enough that Mina thought her heart was going to melt.
"It… It's because…. I… I did it because I… Like you." The words just came out, tumbling out before Mina knew that they had even managed to force their way out of the lump in her throat. By the time she realized what she was saying, she had gone too far to stop herself. "I… I look at you, and I see… The most incredible person I've ever met in my entire life… You're just…. I… I don't even have the words to describe it. You're an amazing person, Izuku, and I… I think I fell for you a while ago… I…" She swallowed. "I – I know that it's… dumb. We've… We've only known each other for a short amount of time, haven't we? Just under a month… And I feel like this about you… Ahaha… I just…" She gripped onto Izuku's hand tightly. "I don't want this day to end…"
Izuku couldn't blush anymore. It was insane. He felt… Calm. He felt good. He felt… He felt like everything in the world was as it should be. He knew how she felt. She liked him too. He could tell her now… "Mina… I… That day… I'm… I'm glad my bandages were thrown on so poorly after my fight with Todoroki. I'm… Glad I missed that train… Because if I didn't… I may never have gotten to speak to you… To know you… To… Fall for you like I have…"
"You… You like me too?"
"…I do, Mina. I really do."
It wasn't possible for their hands to be held any tighter than they were right now. Both of their blushes died down a bit, leaving only a bit of colour on their faces now. They had done it. They had confessed their feelings for one another. It was mutual. Both of them softly smiled, watching the sun set for a few moments. Nothing needed to be said. It just didn't need to happen. They just needed to be there, in that moment, with one another.
Their hands together. They didn't need anything else. They didn't have to say anything else to one another.
"So… What happens now?" Izuku asked after a few moments of silence, turning to look at the girl he'd just poured his heart out to, still unable to get the smile off his face.
"I dunno." Mina replied. "I've never really been in this kind of situation before. I don't know what the standard procedure is… But… I do know that I want to do this again… And again… And… Again."
"…Does that mean… You want to be my… G-Girlfriend?"
Mina tapped her foot and hummed lightly, pretending that she was taking a serious moment of consideration to her answer. She already knew the answer, and it took a lot of willpower for her to not scream it and throw herself into his arms right there and then. "…Eh, I guess so." She responded with a smirk.
Both of them managed to enjoy a good laugh at Mina's joke. The day couldn't have ended better, they thought to themselves. Suddenly, they weren't alone anymore. They weren't facing this world on their own. They didn't have to stand up on their own. They could lean on each other, support one another. It was a feeling of joy that both of them couldn't even begin to thank to other for blessing them with feeling.
They remained there for just over another half hour, before they decided that they had to go now, before it ended up becoming too dark. Their hands didn't leave one another's as they stood up, and they didn't separate when Mina took a step towards Izuku.
And they didn't separate when Mina pressed her body against Izuku's and hugged him as tightly as she could.
They didn't separate when Izuku's face went blood red, and they didn't separate when Izuku nearly passed out from heatstroke right then and there, nor when Mina began to fret that she'd actually killed the guy.
They didn't separate on the train ride how, during which they held onto one another again, just like they did on Monday. They didn't separate when they got off the train at Izuku's stop, and when he walked Mina to her station.
They only separated when Mina had to get on to her train to be whisked away back home, but they did so with the promise that they'd join their hands again soon.
And throughout it all, Mina just smiled, nonstop. Bad omen be damned. This day had been nothing but a dream come true.
"So, how'd it go?" Micha questioned her sister the moment he passed by his bedroom door when she finally got back into the house. He stepped to the side of his door, inviting his sister inside his room, characteristically scattered with games and books and all sorts that he collected. Their two younger siblings were downstairs playing on the family shared game system, and their parents were in the kitchen, apparently somehow able to keep the gruel that had been served for dinner down in their stomachs, so there was no chance on being interrupted by external sources.
Quickly, Mina entered the room, throwing her bag of books down on the floor next to her where she sat opposite her older brother once he shut the door. She couldn't hide the smile on her face, nor the slight tint of purple that was covering her cheeks.
"Its good news, isn't it?" Micha grinned from ear to ear. He sat down and waited for his sister to spill her guts. "Come on, Mina, don't hold out on me."
Giggling lightly, Mina told him, "I did it! I told him how I felt about him, and he said he likes me too, and now we're dating!" She ended with a squeal to her voice, her chest bubbling with excitement and blissful joy.
Micha gave her a high five and a laugh. "Way to go, sis!" Once their hands clapped together, he leaned back slightly and rested his hands on his knees. "So, what'd you do? What's he like? Oooh, oooh, did you kiss him? Or did he kiss you? Tell me everything, M."
Mina just smiled. "What do you want to know first?"