Text"Your mom really is super nice." Mina commented with a smile as the two of them re-entered Izuku's room after they had eaten the dinner his mother had made for them all. "Plus, she's gotta be ten thousand times better than mine at cooking."
Izuku couldn't help but let out a small laugh which he had attempted to hold back. He'd just spent the last fifteen minutes watching Mina shoveling food into her mouth like it was all about to be stolen from her. She acted like she hadn't eaten properly in weeks, which knowing her detest for her own mothers cooking, could well have been the case.
He sat back onto his bed in the position that he'd been in for the last few hours, with his back leaned to the wall, and surrounded by the various books they'd been using to study. Stretching his arms until he heard a click, Izuku took a deep inhale and smiled. "I'd guessed you'd enjoyed it. You seemed pretty hungry."
"I only really eat at the school or takeouts for the time being. Seriously, what you had was actually fairly good compared to some of the other stuff my mother's done." Shrugged Mina, rubbing one of her eyes sleepily.
"That - That sounds really expensive. H-Hasn't anyone in your family told her?.. Or can't anyone else in your family cook?"
"You think Micha's worth a damn in a kitchen?" The pink girl grinned. "Best I can make is soup, and the other two are way too young for us to even let them try. Dad tried once. He managed to make chicken taste like potatoes."
"So no then."
"Absolutely not." Stretching now herself, Mina yawned for a few seconds. "Don't worry 'bout it Izuku. Mom'll get over it eventually. She'll do new things, either do them really well or fail miserably, and go back to normal after a couple of months at most. Just unlucky for us she tried this new thing with her cooking."
"What did she even try?"
"I don't know, something to do with low carbs and a ton of herbs. I think I saw her using a blender with sprouts at some point. I really have no idea how she makes it so bad. Your mom is just a really freakin' amazing cook though!"
Smiling sheepishly and with a tint of red on them, Izuku scratched his right cheek. "I think she likes you. She's been wanting to meet you since I told her about you."
"Yeah, speaking of which," Mina turned and grinned at Izuku. "Is there anything that you didn't tell her about us? Aside from the obvious." Seeing the blush in his face grow darker, she kept teasing him with the information she had just received. "Seriously, do you just come back here and tell your mother about every time I've exhaled or something?"
It wasn't so much that Izuku had apparently gone into specifics like that, at all. What he had done, according to Inko, was tell her pretty much everything that the two of them did together, like dates or just regular days at Yuuei. Mentions of things about her family, right down to their Quirks, and how they acted with one another, and various other things. He didn't explain everything, just a brief overview whenever she asked him. Obviously he didn't include things that were completely taboo, like his Quirk and the fight they had been in with Overgrow, but everything else, his mother seemed to know about. It amused Mina that he was so embarrassed about this - She did pretty much the same thing with Micha, after all.
Now attempting to hide his flustered state by covering his face with his arms, Izuku stammered up a storm of explanations. "I - I was - I just - M-my m-mom, she, she - I don't -"
Giggling at her boyfriend's stuttering and inability to speak, the Acid Quirk user struggled to stay upright properly as she laughed, having to use the wall nearest to her to keep her upright. It never failed to give her a good laugh. She honestly would never get tired of Izuku's flustered embarrassment of himself. Perhaps it was a bit cruel, but it was so cute that Mina struggled to catch herself in the act, and she was already teasing him before she even knew what she was doing.
"Chill, Izuku, chill!" She managed to say through her own giggles. "Its - It's fine, man, it's cool, I - I just -" Another fit of hysterics caught Mina, making her burst into a fresh fit of laughter. "Y-You have no idea how freaking hilarious and adorable you are when you're flustered like this!"
"That - That's why you keep doing this?!"
A fresh round of laughter was the answer Izuku got, only further adding onto his already crimson face. Underneath that though, he did smile, for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was fairly simple, and that was that, through awkwardness or not, he was glad he could make Mina laugh like this. It made him feel good about himself, even if there was no real input on his part, even if it was just his embarrassed flailing.
Another one of those reasons was the fact that even though it made his cheeks burn, it felt kind of good. Whenever he was thrown into this state of red skin and inability to formulate words or coherent sentences, when it was because of Mina, his heart would flutter, kind of like it was being tickled. It was weird to describe it as such, but it was true, or as close to the truth as Izuku would be able to describe it.
The final reason, and the one that Izuku liked the most, was an even more simple reason - He loved her smile.
When he thought back on it, that smile was probably the one thing about Mina he loved the most. Wide and large, her grins and smiles were beautiful, they really were. It was in those moments that Mina's character really came out. That fun loving, social, energetic girl that contrasted Izuku in every possible way. He just loved how she smiled. He couldn't really define why.
"A-Anyway." He said through his stammer, the smile still there. "Sh-Should we keep going?" He held up one of the textbooks on Maths for Mina to see. "You were getting there before dinner. I want to make sure you've got it."
"A'ight." Mina chimed.
She didn't sit down in the seat she had previous been sat in though. Instead of doing that, she is spun right around on her heels and sat down exactly where Izuku was - Which translated to her sitting on his lap. Izuku hadn't been expecting it in the slightest, at no point had this occurrence even crossed his mind as being a possibility, and as such, he was drastically underprepared for the sudden weight of his girlfriend landing on him without warning.
What this led to was Mina sliding right through the split between Izuku's legs, lowering her height positioning dramatically. She wound up going further down until she found her head located on his chest, just under his chin. She was slightly leaning more laying down than she was sitting up, but she found herself in a rather comfortable position. As she nestled into her newfound seat, making sure her horns weren't going to catch his chin, she also threw her feet over Izuku's ankles, essentially locking him into place with her.
Mina just grinned. "Square Roots we were at, yeah?"
Unable to form words, Izuku just made some inaudible motions with his mouth. This was... This was dangerous. Every instinct he had screeched at him to try and get out of this situation, but any effort he would have made would only be countered by Mina's weight and how she'd managed to lock herself in place like this. How the hell was she even so calm about this?!
"M-Mina!"
"Hmm? 'Sup?"
"What - Wha - What're you d-doing?!"
"Sitting down. Why, you uncomfortable?" She asked with a sly smile, tilting her head carefully to look up at him. Every move she was making was deliberate at this point, and she wasn't even trying to hide it. "Oh, don't be so embarrassed. We've done more intimate things than this. We've kissed, haven't we?"
"Y-You've kissed me..."
"I ask again, you uncomfortable?"
"N-Not really..."
He wouldn't lie, this was really nice, but his fluttering heart had turned into a jackhammer, pounding away at his chest. At this point, his heart attacked his chest so much he was pretty sure one of these days he'd break a rib from his heart going this crazy. The hell with One For All, Ashido Mina was going to be the reason his bones broke now.
With that answer, Mina snuggled into her position, making herself comfortable. "There a problem then?" Asked the girl with a wide, victorious smirk
"Y-You're enjoying this."
"Big time."
Resigning himself to this predicament, Izuku tried relaxing his tense muscles, making more akin to a pillow than a concrete paving slab, which let Mina sort of sink further into him, in a manner of speaking. He knew he wasn't going to get out of this, short of pushing Mina right off of him, so instead he decided that he should just attempt to enjoy it while it lasted.
Holding the book just above her head so he could see it clearly, he read aloud, trying not to let his voice get caught in his already lumpy throat. "L-Let's see... Calculation the square root... This shouldn't be too difficult to understand... I-In order to find the Square root, y-you need to -"
"Okay, hang on." Mina said, peering up at the book with one of her black eyes narrowing, and her other one widening. "What're you doing, exactly?"
"Um... Reading out how to do mathematic summations and calculations?"
"I can't see the book!"
"You barely read it anyway!"
"Stop using specifics and observations." Mina giggled to herself. Reaching up, she placed a hand around each one of Izuku's, sweaty and shaky as they might have been, they were also warm and sort to the touch. She wrapped hers over him, and lowered both of them.
Luckily for what Mina had in mind, when she had slid down, her skirt had rolled up just a bit, sliding between her legs which would defend her modesty from anyone should they open the door, but from a more practical standpoint for this very moment, it exposed more of her toned thighs.
Bringing both her and his hands down, Mina made sure her hands were atop his, before lowering them both onto her pink skin. Her hands on top of his, so he wouldn't be able to just freely rocket his hands off like he was holding the pin of a grenade. She,' honestly expected it, but he barely even seemed to move. His palms weren't on her skin, but rather his knuckles were, but it was more than enough to get a reaction out of Izuku. The book was now in a readable location for Mina to see, not that she was gonna read a damned word of it.
"That's better!" She said in a sing-song voice, not even needing to look at Izuku to know she was making him blush like she wanted him to.
If Izuku went any more red, he was going to leave the spectrum visible to the human eye, and just turn into a pure white sheet. He had stopped sweating though, his glands having gone into overload and shutting down before he dehydrated himself into a dry husk of a person. Nor was he shaking, for the same reason, excusing his blood scarlet-red face, one could be forgiven for thinking that he was reasonably calm. Internally, he was screaming.
Mina was just trying to see what she could get away with now, wasn't she? Just seeing how far she'd be able to push Izuku before he'd snap and died of embarrassment, or All For One'd so hard he'd catapult off into the sky like a trebuchet had slung him at full force. She was messing with him, and she was enjoying herself a bit too much. Like she was testing the limits of what Izuku was prepared to accept, and at what point he's put his foot down and refuse.
That or she was just doing this to avoid work. One or the other.
Regardless, Izuku was sort of tempted to allow her to keep going, to see how far she was willing to go to try to break him, to play this little game she seemed to be going for. He had a reasonable tolerance to this sort of thing, he'd dealt with embarrassment his entire life. Being Quirkless did that to a person.
It wasn't until he realised that he had stopped breathing that he remembered that this wasn't like the embarrassment of humiliation. Being in love like this wasn't the same thing. That was why he decided against letting her see how far she was willing to take this - Mostly for his own blood pressure's sake.
He didn't move his hands though.
"R-Right!" He said through a loud whisper. "Okay! This is - Yep, okay!" Were his fingers not on Mina's thighs, they would have curled up tightly until he started bleeding from the nails as a method of handling his anxiety.
"You sound nervous." His girlfriend said in a flirty tone. "Want me to kiss you, make you feel better?"
Her skin was warm, and Izuku could smell her trademark fragrance - There was no way that was shampoo if he was noticing it this frequently - Only with a hint more strawberry - That was the shampoo - thrown into the mix. She was close and she was warm and she was doing everything she could to mess with him, and it was working. He knew she was doing this all on purpose, and it was still working.
"This is a hell of a lot more fun than studying, y'know."
"I-I-Is it now?"
"Aw c'mon, don't tell me you're not at least slightly enjoying this, Izu-kun."
"I-Izu-kun?!"
"That's my new nickname for you now. I'm'a call you that in public, so get ready for that."
"What - What the heck happened to 'Midori'?!"
"I'm still gonna use that. Midori Izu-kun. Keep you on your toes."
"Do you - Do you just spend time trying to find ways to m-make me blush?"
"What gave it away?" Her smile just stayed the same all the while, never feigning, never wavering, not once. "You want that kiss or noooooope?"
He really was a hopeless boy, and Izuku realised this just as much as Mina did. He was totally aware, at all times, when she was trying to get a reaction out of him, and she'd do it in whatever ways she could. She'd make his heart stampede and erratic when she wanted to, almost like at the flick of a switch. Part of it was that it really wasn't difficult to make him blush.
Another part was that Izuku also knew when her flirting was also acting as a sort of cover. Mina flirted a lot, and she knew just how to make his heart race... But it was things that she did, the way she said certain things, that gave away her real affection for him. How tender she spoke, and how careful she moved her horns. How she would make herself comfortable around him, and that smile, which she was using as a weapon now, she knew he adored.
And right now, her lips were only a few inches away, soft as they had been before, and still able to send a charge through Izuku like a lightning bolt.
"I... A-Are you going to... Get back to studying if we do?..." He timidly asked, trying to hide his pleasure. Without knowing it, he had lowered his head lightly, helping to close the gap between them.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Probably." The pink girl smiled and closed her eyes, tilting her head upwards and leaning in, pressing her coloured lips against his own still ones.
There wasn't ever really a way for Izuku to describe how it felt to be kissed by someone he genuinely had strong feelings for. Exciting was the best he could come up with, for lack of a better word. It tasted sweet to feel her lips against his, almost like she'd been chewing bubble-gum despite them having finished dinner not long ago. The act made him feel special in a certain way, like he never had felt beforehand. It didn't matter how many times Mina kissed him. It always felt like electricity.
With their lips against one another's, Izuku could feel Mina's curl up into a smile. Her lips remained against his for longer than usual too, and she made a hum of enjoyment noise with her throat. Briefly she ended the kiss, before returning into another one. She was enjoying this just as much as Izuku was.
When she finally separated from the second one, she just returned to her previous position, only now she took Izuku's left hand, that was fairly limp since he was still recovering from what had happened about five seconds ago, and then wrapped it around her waist, using his arm as a small blanket. His hand was warm, she noted, which she greatly appreciated.
"Read the book to me, please?" She asked nicely, sounding a lot more relaxed and content than she was five minutes prior. She almost seemed sleepy.
After a few seconds, Izuku nodded, agreeing to do so. "Just don't fall asleep, okay?"
"No promises. Maths is kinda boring... And you're really warm."
Sighing with a touch of humour, Izuku used his right hand to level the book so he could see and read from it comfortably. His hand was still on Mina's thigh, and he knew if he moved it, she'd just grab it and put it back. Plus, it was kind of hard to pull it away from her...
"Your kisses taste nice, by the way." She commented slyly, which nearly made Izuku drop the book altogether.
She was asleep within ten minutes, like Izuku knew she would be, without question. Why he was surprised, he honestly didn't know at this point. He'd gone over Square Roots, Area Surface, and was about to go over advanced Division before he could tell that his girlfriend had dozed off.
Her head had slopped over to the side, and she hadn't made any of her regular comments. A couple of times, he'd had to repeat himself before Mina would respond groggily. He'd ask if she wanted to have a drink, or if she wanted him to talk her to the train station and back home so she could go to sleep, but she'd insisted she was okay.
And now she was asleep.
The green haired boy had to sigh, and wonder what the hell he was supposed to do now. He supposed the most logical thing to do would be to just wake her up and take her home... But that was out of the question. She was so peacefully sleeping right now... He didn't want to wake her.
Then again, he also didn't feel like being accused of kidnapping her. Her family was probably already wondering where the hell she was, and the last thing he wanted was for someone to point out that Mina had been with him before she just disappeared for the night.
Looking around for something to help him get out of this situation, he saw Mina's bag, sitting not out of arms reach of him. He hissed audibly, really not liking where his thought process was taking him.
He could go into her bag and find her phone, let her family know the situation, ask them what they wanted him to do. That was one of the options that was available to him. He could even just grab one of their numbers and text them from his phone... If he had it on him. But no, that option was out of the question.
Unless he wanted to wake up Mina. Which he really didn't want to. He was in a case of damned if he did, and damned if he didn't.
Was Mina going to be the sort of person who would care about that sort of thing? Which would she prefer he do? What was more ethical?
Izuku sat there for a good five minutes thinking up the pros and cons to each one of his plans, and what he felt would be the better thing to do. He sat completely conflicted, debating what it was that he should do.
His internal debate was ended when he heard Mina's phone make a ringing noise, once, indicating that she had received a text message. For a second, he froze, thinking that he'd just been caught in the middle of doing something he shouldn't be by the watching eyes of some jerk deity. Mina made some sort of movement, but was still sleeping. When his heart rate returned, Izuku reached over for the bag, and dragged it over towards him.
'If it's not her family, ignore it. If it is her family, just explain. Avoid everything else. ' Izuku repeated to himself, over and over. He reached inside the heavily decorated bag, finding the phone easily, thanks to the light it was emitting. He held it lightly, like it was a fragile relic from a time long past. Like it was a precious object to be cherished.
That was how he discovered that the phone had a password. Really, he shouldn't have been surprised. He didn't know what he was expecting. They went to a high class school filled with students and classmates they hadn't known for more than a few months, anyone who didn't give their phone a password was asking for trouble.
Four digits. Thinking, Izuku tried to come up with something that might tell him what the password was. A four number digit that Mina would remember of hold close.
Blinking twice, he thought of a couple that might work. If they didn't, he'd give it up, because he couldn't think of anything else. He tried a couple, but didn't get anything. An idea came into his head which he initially dismissed, but seeing that he wasn't working with a whole lot of other options, he decided to give it a try.
3-3-5-8.
It unlocked. Izuku blushed.
Her password was 'Deku'.
Her home screen unlocked, showing her screensaver. It was a photo of her and all the girls in their class, posed in one giant photo alongside her. He recognised the photo fairly well - He was the one who had taken it, after all. She'd asked him to in passing. This had been before they had officially started dating, during their week of awkwardness around one another. Thinking back on it now, it seemed like it was a way to get to talking to him. Either way, it worked, since that had been their least awkward day that week.
He shuddered at what it was he was doing right now, the moral quagmire of it still messing with his head. As he went through the device, trying to not look at anything other than her message board, right at the top. He was peering through narrowly closed fingers, trying desperately to not see anything else.
The top message, with an orange notification next to it, was from her brother, Micha. Hesitatingly, Izuku pressed on the screen to access it. 'Mina, where the hell are you?' That was all that her brother asked.
Very quickly, Izuku typed up a response to the message, explaining the current situation that he was in, though he refrained from mentioning that Mina was currently asleep on him. He told Micha that she was asleep, and he wasn't sure if he should wake her up or not, and asked him for what he thought was best.
A response came exactly a minute later. As it turned out, Micha was a very fast typer.
'Yeah, maybe don't wake her up. Last time I tried that, she nearly drowned me in Acid – She likes her sleep. So long as you don't try and grope my sister in her sleep, I'm pretty sure its fine for her to stay there, if that's cool with you. I'll let mom and dad know.'
Blushing at what Micha had said, Izuku put the phone back into Mina's bag and pushed it out of his reach. He'd tell her that he'd used her phone the minute that she woke up, and ask her to forgive him. He did feel genuinely bad.
But still… Here she was, still sound asleep against his chest, peaceful and without a care in the world. Closer inspection showed that she was lightly smiling, with a soft blush colouring her cheeks. She looked so calm and content in this moment, Izuku just stared at her face for a short while…
There were a lot of things he still wanted to know about Mina, like why she came and spoke to him that day. Why she kissed him when she did…. And why she fell in love with someone like him, out of all their classmates. He did wonder about all this sort of thing, quite frequently. He wanted to know why this girl had fallen for him…
It didn't matter at the end of the day. An answer would sate curiosity… But Izuku was content with things being this way. He liked this. He liked having a girlfriend like Mina. She was fun to be around, and made his heart beat like no one else ever would be able to. Her being around made him feel good about everything around him. To put it simply, he treasured her.
He didn't really think when he leaned in and kissed her cheek lightly, out of affection for the Acid Quirk user. He wasn't even particularly aware of what he was doing, but he didn't fight it as he did so. Her cheek was soft and warm.
A very quiet, tired groan suddenly came from the girl's throat. "Mmm… Izuku?..."
"M-Mina! Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…"
"Mmm…" The girl's eyes were still closed while she readjusted herself. "How long I been sleeping?..."
"M-Maybe ten minutes…" Izuku said. ""I um… I-I used your phone…. M-Micha said you could stay if you wanted.."
"'Kay…."
"… You… Aren't gonna ask me how I knew your password?"
"Just a lucky guess…" Mina murmured happily. "Don't worry about it, Izuku… I know you'd worry about that sorta thing…. I'ma go… Sleep now, okay?... Love you…"
Izuku just blinked a few more times as he smiled at the half awake state Mina had been in just a few seconds ago. She was barley was able to even keep her eyes open throughout the conversation, and had been struggling to even form coherent sentences.
It was cute. So he smiled and kissed her head lightly.
"I love you too."