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“Okay, Kyouka,” Mina says, pointing an accusing finger at Kyouka, who lies on her bed with an open bag of chips at her side.
She presses her index finger to her sternum, raising her eyebrows at Mina.
“It’s time for you to get out of your bed,” Mina says as she lowers her hand. Kyouka, humoring her, pulls out one of her earbuds. “How long’s it been since you’ve gotten up? Like, a day?”
“It’s the weekend,” Kyouka deadpans in response, sticking her hand back into the chip bag and producing a handful.
Mina stomps over and angrily takes the bag of chips from Kyouka, though she stuffs her own hand in it as soon as she has it. “I got invited out tonight,” she says around a mouthful of chips, and Kyouka grimaces. “By, uh… I think his full name is Midoriya Izuku? Anyway, he’s in one of my classes and he’s like throwing a party to celebrate his boyfriend’s birthday or something. I don’t know them all that well so…”
Kyouka blinks at her, slow. “I’m not going,” she states, lifting her hand to put her earbud back in.
“Kyouka,” Mina groans, throwing her head back. “I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
She lets out a sigh, her hand freezing just a little ways from her ear. Mina takes the opportunity to elaborate.
“See, Midoriya’s boyfriend is like… childhood friends with Yaomomo, so she’ll for sure be there,” Mina says, a certain look in her eyes. She raises her eyebrows at Kyouka repeatedly, and Kyouka flushes red.
Yaomomo—Yaoyorozu Momo, that is, is a biological engineering major that Kyouka has the blessing of sharing a music theory class with. Mina has a bunch of classes with Yaoyorozu, since she’s majoring in chemical engineering, and unfortunately, Mina caught wind of Kyouka’s giant, high school-esque crush on her. It’s hard to hide something like that from a college roommate, especially when she’s also your best friend.
“I figured you’d wanna go if Yaomomo were there, and Midoriya said I could bring you, sooo…” Mina’s mouth pulls into a wide grin, and she presses her palms together, pleading. “Please, Kyouka? Maybe you can even talk to her.”
“I’ve talked to her before,” Kyouka defends herself, despite the pink tint on her cheeks, “I actually have her phone number. Did you know that?”
Mina lets her arms drop to her sides, and she raises an incredulous eyebrow at Kyouka. “Have you ever… used it?”
Kyouka’s silence is enough of an answer, and Mina snorts at her. Kyouka feigns offense, casting Mina a scowl, but she just laughs.
“Then it’s decided,” Mina exclaims, hands on her hips.
After she blinks, Kyouka says, “It is not.”
“It is.”
“Not.”
“Is.”
Kyouka lets out a deep sigh. “You have to do all the laundry for the week.”
Mina hesitates for just a moment, and then she says, “Deal. Even though this is a favor for you.”
—
As it turns out, Mina knows more people at the party than she thought she would. She gets involved in a conversation with her friends Kirishima and Sero about… dogs? Kyouka thinks they’re talking about dogs, but they’re speaking far too intensely for Kyouka’s liking.
She meanders off from Mina’s side in attempts to find a drink, but on the way she spots Yaoyorozu sitting on the couch next to the birthday boy. Kyouka freezes upon sight, but Yaoyorozu sees her, too, and waves her over.
Taking a deep breath and plastering on a smile, Kyouka approaches them. Kyouka had already met Todoroki earlier, along with Midoriya, when she first arrived.
“I didn’t know you would be here, Jirou-san,” Yaoyorozu greets with a smile, patting the couch beside her.
“Mina—er, Ashido brought me along,” Kyouka replies, lifting a hand to scratch the back of her neck after she slumps onto the couch.
“Well, it’s great to see you!” Yaoyorozu says, and then she nods to Todoroki. “I was just talking to him about you.”
Kyouka’s eyes widen, and she looks back and forth between Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. “You were?”
“She was telling me about your project for music theory,” Todoroki responds, and Kyouka squirms under his gaze. It’s not that it’s… scary, per se, but it’s intense.
“I really loved it, Jirou-san,” Yaoyorozu says, and Kyouka tries not to blush.
“You can… just Jirou is fine,” she stammers, averting her gaze down to her hands, which fiddle with her hoodie strings.
Yaoyorozu offers Kyouka a soft smile, “Jirou it is, then. You can call me Momo? I know Yaoyorozu can be a mouthful.”
Kyouka’s heart promptly gets stuck in her throat, but she manages to nod. There’s no way her face isn’t as red as a tomato right about now.
It’s hard for Kyouka to pinpoint what exactly about Yaoyorozu—no, Momo—makes her so nervous, but once she thinks about it for a moment, she figures out that it’s everything put together. Momo is gorgeous, with her long black hair and pretty deep brown eyes, and she’s articulate and poised where Kyouka is bumbling. She gets this cute look on her face when she knows the answer to a question the professor’s asked, and she gets an even cuter look on her face when Kyouka asks her for help with anything.
And now, as she’s detailing what she’d liked so much about Kyouka’s project, she has a cute look, too. (Okay, so she looks cute all the time. It’s no wonder Kyouka has it so bad, really!)
It’s a few more minutes with Momo and Todoroki before Midoriya comes and whisks Todoroki off somewhere, leaving Momo and Kyouka alone on the couch. Other people mill about the room, laughing and chatting, and when Momo looks over to Kyouka, she panics. Being alone with Momo… is too daunting.
“I have to—go to the bathroom,” she states, pushing off of the couch and leaving Momo behind without so much as another word.
She actually does head over to the restroom in case Momo’s watching, and it’s luckily open when she gets there. She steps inside and closes the door behind her, walking over to look at herself in the mirror. As she pats herself on the cheeks, there’s a knock on the door.
“I’m in here!” she calls, and promptly reaches over to flush the toilet to keep up her facade.
“Kyouka?” the person behind the door, which Kyouka easily identifies as Mina, asks.
“Oh, Mina. Thank god,” Kyouka sighs, and she opens the restroom door before pulling Mina inside by the wrist.
Mina stares at Kyouka, bewildered. “Why’d you… do that?” she questions, one eyebrow hiked up.
“Listen,” Kyouka says, wringing her hands in front of her. “I—I was just with Yaoy—Momo, and we were with Todoroki, and Momo was being really cute and stuff but then Todoroki left and—”
“Woah,” Mina holds her hands out in front of her, palms facing Kyouka. “Calm down, princess.”
Kyouka blinks at her, and then takes a deep breath. “I panicked when I was left alone with Momo and came here. I’m still…”
Mina gives Kyouka a disbelieving look. “You mean to tell me that you had Yaomomo to yourself, and you ran away?”
“Yes, Mina!” Kyouka exclaims, exasperated. “I’m… I don’t want to be alone with her. What if she realizes what a fuckin’ loser I am? And never wants to speak to me again? Somehow, she thinks I’m kinda cool right now, and I can’t… ruin that.”
“You’re an idiot,” Mina responds, which causes Kyouka to groan. She sets her hands on Kyouka’s shoulders and looks her in the face. “You’re an idiot, but you’re my idiot, and we’re gonna get you a girlfriend. Okay?”
Kyouka lets out a sigh. “Okay,” she says, “but no weird shit, Mina. None.”
Mina blinks at her, feigning innocence. “‘Weird shit’?”
“You’ve told me that story on how you got Kirishima together with his boyfriend, like, a million times. Two cans of shaving cream, a stuffed bear, and eight boiled eggs—”
“Fine,” Mina groans, cutting her off. “No weird shit. I promise. But get out, I really have to pee.”
—
Kyouka and Mina rendezvous in the kitchen after Mina’s bladder has been sufficiently emptied and Kyouka has the alcoholic drink that she’d wanted in the first place.
Upon seeing the red cup in Kyouka’s hand, Mina’s apparently struck with an idea.
“Hey! Just grab Yaomomo a drink, and then it won’t be weird that you left at all,” she says, grinning. “Well, it’ll still be a little weird, but forget that.”
Kyouka looks down at the cup, swirling the alcohol around in it. “I don’t know if she drinks,” she says.
“Then there’s more for you,” Mina replies instantly, accompanied by a shrug.
“Will you come with me?” Kyouka asks, then. “At least, help ease me into it? And what should I talk about? God, I’m dying—”
“I’ll come with you,” Mina answers, filling a cup for Momo. “But just know that it’ll push back the Pocky game I planned to start.” She produces a box of Pocky from her back pocket, and Kyouka furrows her eyebrows at her.
“You’ve just been carrying that around?”
Mina scowls, pushing the cup for Momo into Kyouka’s free hand. “You can’t judge me, Kyouka. You never know when you’ll need an excuse to kiss someone.”
Kyouka makes a mental note to ask more about that later, but for now, she has to focus on not doing anything else stupid in front of Momo.
Fortunately, Momo hasn’t left the couch yet. She’s just on her phone, her legs crossed in front of her as she leans against the armrest. Mina sweeps in and flops onto the couch, taking up all the space except a sliver between herself and Momo. She pats this space, beckoning Kyouka to sit there.
“Heyyy, Yaomomo,” Mina greets, “I made you a drink but Kyouka’s giving it to you, ‘cause… she wanted to.”
Kyouka coughs and shoots Mina a glare that’s meant to say what the hell and fuck? Mina merely smiles back at her, and Kyouka levels her shoulders before offering Momo the drink.
“Hello, Mina,” Momo greets, wrapping her hands around the red cup and squishing further up against the armrest to give Kyouka room to sit. “Jirou, I thought you had run away from me,” she says after, a light chuckle attached to the end.
Kyouka feels her face heat as she slots herself between Mina and Momo. “I—I just had to go to the bathroom, suddenly. It’s… I, uh…”
So much for not acting like a fucking idiot, Kyouka thinks, sighing inwardly.
“Kyouka has a tiny bladder,” Mina comments, nonchalant. Suddenly, Kyouka has doubts that Mina’s even here to help her out at all. “Going on long trips with her is hell, ‘cause you have to stop—”
“That’s enough,” Kyouka interrupts, shrinking in on herself.
Beside her, Momo laughs.
“She’s lying, you know,” Kyouka defends, and Mina clicks her tongue to the top of her mouth. Momo laughs harder, and Kyouka loses her breath just looking at her.
There’s a few beats of comfortable silence before someone new that Kyouka doesn’t know walks into the room, but at the sight of this new person, Mina perks up. “Well,” she says, standing from the couch, “I’ll be off. There’s a cute girl and a Pocky stick calling my name.” She salutes as her farewell and beelines across the room to the brunette girl with rosy cheeks.
“Mina sure is something,” Momo comments, lifting her cup to her mouth to take a drink.
“You can say that again,” Kyouka agrees. “I love her, though. Don’t know what I’d do without her.”
Momo smiles. “That’s very sweet,” she says, and Kyouka suddenly remembers that she’s smushed up against Momo’s side when, now, the entire couch is free. She attempts to subtly scoot away, but ends up spilling her drink on herself.
“Oh, fuck,” she mutters, and fleetingly, she wonders if there’s any way she could leave a worse impression on Momo.
“Oh,” Momo breathes, reaching forward to set her cup on the table. “Let me…”
“It’s okay. I’ll just…” Kyouka trails off, not wanting to say she’s going to the bathroom again and leaving Momo here alone again. Then, she remembers: “It’s a sweatshirt. I can—I’ll take it off.”
After she slips the sweatshirt off over her head, she sets it next to her on the couch. She hadn’t remembered that underneath, she’s wearing her shirt that just has GIRLS emblazoned on it in thick lettering, but now that fact becomes apparent. Kyouka’s face manages to tint deeper red as Momo regards it.
“I like your shirt,” she says, smile pulling at her lips.
Kyouka’s heart pounds so hard in her chest that she can feel it in her ears, and she channels her inner Mina before she says, “I know I’ve made myself look pretty stupid tonight, and I haven’t texted you yet—that’s because I’m nervous—but I think you’re really cool and pretty, so I…” she trails off, running out of steam halfway through. Horrified with herself, she looks to Momo with wide eyes.
Momo blinks at her. “I don’t think you look stupid,” she says, and Kyouka could melt here and now. “Actually, I think you’re really cool and pretty, too, and I want to get to know you.” A blush steadily creeps onto Momo’s face, and Kyouka’s heart feels like it’s about to explode out of her chest and start beating on Midoriya’s floor.
“You—we—it’s—” Kyouka stammers, but then cuts herself off to try again. “Would you… want to go out, sometime?”
A pretty smile spreads across Momo’s face, reaching her eyes. “I’d love that.”
—
[9:37 AM] momo:
You forgot your sweatshirt at Midoriya’s last night, but I grabbed it for you. I swear that I didn’t take it as an excuse to see you sooner.
[10:24 AM] kyouka:
how does lunch sound? i really miss my sweatshirt, and i swear this isn’t an excuse to see you as soon as possible
Mina snaps in Kyouka’s face, where she sits smiling at her phone over a bowl of cereal. They hadn’t seen much of each other at the party after Mina left Kyouka alone with Momo, and Mina fell asleep on Kyouka’s shoulder in the taxi back to their apartment.
“I have a date,” Kyouka says as soon as Mina gets her attention.
“No ‘Good morning, Mina!’?” she inquires, plopping herself down into the chair next to Kyouka’s.
“With Momo,” Kyouka responds, mostly ignoring her statement, “For lunch. Aren’t you proud of me?”
“Ah, my little Kyouka is finally blooming,” she croons playfully, and Kyouka shoots her a glare.
“Never say that again,” she deadpans, and then she sets down her phone and takes a bite of her cereal. “Anyway, how was your night?” she asks, and Mina claps her hands together.
“I thought you’d never ask.” The grin that spreads across Mina’s face is mischievous and it almost sends shivers down Kyouka’s spine. “It starts with three Pocky sticks, one of Kirishima’s stray hairs, and two tubs of petroleum jelly…”