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“Hey, hey Ojiro!”
Ojiro turned to see an assortment of cute clothes rushing at him. Once Hagakure was by his side, his tail instinctively curved around her, ready to defend her at the drop of a pin. Nevertheless, his smile for her was soft and warm.
“Hello Hagakure, did you need something?”
“Yeah! Ojiro, guess what I love!” She was clutching her phone close to her chest, bouncing like she was about to burst from all the energy she was keeping in.
“I dunno, what do you love?”
“No, no, you have to guess!” She wore a skirt right now so he wasn’t exactly sure where her legs were, but from the sound of it she had let out an impatient little stomp.
“Er… okay.” He scratched his cheek. What would be the kind of thing Hagakure would say? “Erm… Me?” Saying that out loud made his cheeks dust with a light pink.
“Nope! Well, yes, I do love you too! But!” Ouch. Boy was he glad no one else was here to hear her blunt comment. He’d never hear the end of it if they did. “I also looooove shopping!” She thrust her phone in his face, and he had to move a little back to see the webpage on it. It had a bright pink background, so he had to squint a little to make out anything, but he gave up after a while because for some absurd reason the kanji and hiragana were in white with a thick and bubble-like font. He might as well have been reading another language.
“Uh huh…” He instead concentrated on the pictures instead as she scrolled through.
“It just opened last Sunday! Isn’t it cute? Aw, look at the keychains, they’re so fluffy! Wooah, that dress would really match my skin-”
“Then let’s go,” Ojiro stated simply. Honestly, he had no idea how Hagakure knew which colours suited her ‘skin’, but she seemed so… thrilled that he just couldn’t not take her.
“Yay! I knew you’d take me there! You’re the best, Ojiro!” She took him into an affectionately bouncy hug, with her face (he assumed?) buried into his chest. He returned the hug, giving her a light squeeze. While he stopped his blush from deepening, he couldn’t help that his tail was now wagging without abandon. Yeah, he was definitely happy none of their classmates were around. She really didn’t have much shame, he thought as she broke the hug and took his hand. He waited for her fingers to slide into his, before he gave her a familiar squish.
“C’mon, this way! Hurry, hurry!”
~0~
Ojiro did not know the first thing about fashion. He knew enough to keep himself from looking like a complete disaster, but he preferred clothes based on practicality. Fashioning clothes to suit his tail wasn’t a problem. As far as Mutation Quirks went, his was pretty easy to tailor to. Rather, if he had the sudden need to move quickly or climb something or jump high, he didn’t want to encumber himself or rip any fancy clothes. The downside was he tended to look plain. Well, more plain than usual.
Despite that, he knew enough about fashion and style to tell that everything in this store was very… Hagakure. It looked exactly like the webpage that advertised it- everything was in shades of overwhelming pastel colours, mainly pink and baby blue. There was a faint wafting aroma of perfume, sweet without crossing into the border of sickly. These shops weren’t his thing, but he guessed being here wasn’t unpleasant. It did take his eyes a little while to adjust to the lack of dark shades, though.
Well, whatever. He stood back, watching her do her thing. She flitted around, ooo-ing and aaa-ing at anything that caught her fancy. She would pick them up, make some decision on things that Ojiro didn’t really get, and then put it down to bounce somewhere else. She was like a sweet little bird, he thought leaning into a smile as he rested back against the wall. Honestly, half the things she picked up looked the same to him, but hey, this trip wasn’t for him.
He loved everything about what she was doing. The way her shoulders perked when she picked up something lovely, the sharp but short gasp she gave when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye, the way she would try little headpieces and bows and look into the mirror. He had no idea how she judged what looked good or not on her considering… well, you know, the whole invisibility thing. But it just made her more charming, more cute. Warmth welled up inside him. She only became dearer to him with every passing moment. He wondered, was it selfish to get so much enjoyment from her happiness? It felt criminal, feeling this way and having that feeling grow every day. It felt illegal to have this much love for one person.
His tail perked. Looks like he didn’t have much time to ponder over this; Hagakure came back much sooner than expected. And empty handed too.
He quirked an eyebrow. “Uh… nothing you liked?” Those words sounded absurd the moment he left his lips. Of course she liked the things here, he knew her well enough. So why-
“Ah no… it’s not that. It’s…” Her voice was drained of all its pep. She wandered to his side and hugged his arm. “This place is pretty expensive, huh?”
“Oh? I’ll get something for you then.” To be honest, everything was marked in that absurd bubbly font, so he didn’t really notice how much this place was.
“Ah! Nono, I’m not like, asking you to get me anything!” she pipped. He could feel her moving, and from the way her clothes were shifting he assumed she was waving her free hand frantically. “Like, it’s REALLY expensive Ojiro!”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind. You really seem happy here so-”
“I am! But…” She again did something that would have been expressive if he could see the bits of her that weren’t covered. Shaking her head, maybe? “... You know, it’s just nice window shopping too! Besides, I bet there will be sales here in a few months! We can just come back then!”
Without another chance to argue, she had began pulling him out of the store. He sighed. She would always get her way, he knew that. Or maybe he was kind of a doormat? Either way, although the pep was back in her voice he could still sense the disappointment radiating from her. He glanced at the shop sign as they passed it on their way out. Heh, he… kind of really selfish, huh? Having a thought like that… that he could make it back before the shop closed...
~0~
“Oooooh! You already visited the new store?”
Hagakure was slouching in an exaggerated fashion, as she walked with Uraraka to the classroom. “Yeaaaah, but everything was too expensive!”
“Eeeh? Even for you Tooru?”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” She pouted, but Uraraka couldn’t see her facial expressions anyway, so...
“Oh!” Uraraka waved her hands like she was literally trying to wave away the misunderstanding. “I didn’t mean anything bad, really! It’s just…” She slouched in defeat to match her friend. “If it’s expensive for you, then there’s no chance for me to get anything there…” They sighed in unison.
But Hagakure perked up, fist clenched in determination. “Let’s not give up yet, Ochako! We just have to be ready for the hunt!”
“The hunt? Huh?”
“Yeah! We’ll wait for the perfect time, when the store goes on sale, and then BAM! We’ll strike!”
“Oh! You mean like bargain hunting!”
“Mhm, we’re gonna be the best bargain huntresses!” Energy revitalized, they both giggled at how ridiculous they both sounded. But now they had something to look forward to!
Before they could make any real plans, they had entered the classroom. It was always in a perpetual state of chaos in there. This time Iida was reprimanding Bakugou over something, neither girl could make out exactly what it was Blasty had done this time. Midoriya was trying to deflate the situation, but his general involvement seemed to intensify the situation. Kirishima also partially tried to calm down Bakugou, but he was also half-taunting him with Sero, so the situation was pretty much getting nowhere. Uraraka immediately went over to figure out what was going on, but there was noooo way Hagakure was getting involved in that!
The rest of the class was either watching them, or minding their own business. The scene wasn’t unusual to anyone in 1A after all. Hagakure noticed that Ojiro was one of the party in the back of the room, minding his own business as he chatted with Satou and Shoji. She giggled. He wasn’t short, but boy did Ojiro look tiny standing next to those two! She was about to sneak up behind him, when she noticed an oddity on her desk.
It was a little brown paper bag. Huh. She was fairly sure she hadn’t left anything behind over the weekend. She wandered over to it, and reached for it. But she recoiled. Wait, what if it’s a prank? She looked around, but no one was suspiciously eyeing her or anything. The usual suspects were too absorbed in the scene being made.
Oh, what’s the worst that could happen? She reached into the bag and pulled out its contents. It was a very light box that- Wait. Waitwaitwait. Was that logo… It couldn’t be…!
It only took another minute before Ojiro felt arms wrap around him from behind, squeezing him tightly. He looked down and saw the sleeves and a floating box, but no hands. Even in front of his friends, he couldn’t hide his smile. “So… Do you like it, Hagakure?”
“Ojiiiirooooo…!”
Eh? He coaxed her to loosen her grip, and then turned around to face her. “Hey… Hey Hagakure, are you crying?” She didn’t respond, but instead buried her face into his chest. He may not be able to see her tears, but he sure felt his shirt get wet. His stomach dropped, and he held her close, gazing to where he guessed her eyes were. “What’s wrong? Did I get the right bow? Sorry, I-”
“Don’t apologize!” she finally cried. “You shouldn’t be sorry for anything, I’m not sad… I’m... I’m so happy…!” She sniffled and hiccuped, letting him go to rub her eyes with her sleeve. “I told you it was expensive, you didn’t have to-”
“Hagakure, shh. I wanted to. Here…” He took the box out of her hand, and opened it again, revealing the hairbow, a simple pastel blue thing with accented with white lace.
She softly gasped. “It even matches my hair…!”
… He wasn’t gonna question that. Instead her felt for her cheek, and slowly made his way, feeling up to her hair. He did his best to carefully pin in on her, before leaning back a bit. “Ah…”
“Does… does it look good on me?”
“It looks perfect on you,” he assured her. Behind him, he heard Shouji mutter to Satou about how it kind of just looked like a floating bow. Like… yeah guys, he knows that. But at those words, she became bouncy again, absolutely enthralled. He returned his hands to where he felt her waist was and pulled her in close. She rested her hands on his chest, giggling softly. Yeah... She was really beautiful…
Before they could utter another word, Aizawa-sensei entered the room. In a snap, everyone was in their seats and silent and at attention. Aizawa began the announcements, school was settling into its normal pattern. When it got to the less interesting parts of the announcements, Ojiro tried to discreetly glance at Hagakure. He made eye contact with Shouji. He leaned back a little so that he could have a better view of her. Ojiro gave him a grateful smile, which his friend returned with a slight nod.
There was was, hands under her chin (presumably) as she leaned forward. The bow was suspended atop her blazer collar, moving as she slightly bounced, brimming with so much emotion that she was practically radiating her joyous aura.
I truly am selfish, he thought. He had to be. For he had the heart of someone so cute, so bubbly, so downright wonderful. He must be a bad person for having this absolute cherub of a person all to himself, he must be bad for not wanting to share this feeling with anyone else but her. He may even be a villain for feeling this way, but…
She noticed him staring at her, and her entire being shook with a silent giggle. His heart melted, and his tail wagged again.
It if was bad, to feel this way, then he didn’t really mind. He could afford to be a little selfish.