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Izuku wasn’t quite sure what arrangement of flowers said, “I’m sorry for spilling punch on your experiment, which caused it to explode and sear off part of your eyebrows,” but he had to find something. He felt really bad about the accident. Mei had been devastated at first, considering how long she had been working on it, but when she’d caught sight of their reflections, she’d laughed for five minutes straight.
The whole place had looked like a bomb had gone off, perhaps because it sort of had. The fact that the sprinklers hadn’t gone off were a bit disconcerting and needed to be brought up to the principal. At least they hadn’t burned the school down. He still wasn’t sure what she’d been trying to build -- she was known for coming up with some strange machines for her class -- but apparently all it had taken was him bumping his hip into the table and spilling his fruit punch on it for the thing to blow up.
Still, he had to find something that would convey his apology, which was how Izuku found himself in the flower shop with only fifteen minutes before school started.
“Can I help you with anything?”
Bent over peering at flowers too closely, Izuku jerked upright and spun around so fast that he almost collided with the florist employee behind him. Luckily, she moved back just at the right time to avoid disaster. Izuku put a hand to the side of his head and let out a sigh of relief. That was a close one. He would’ve had to buy a whole other arrangement of flowers if he’d hit her. Really, he needed to start paying closer attention to what he was doing and where he was going. This whole clumsy deal was getting out of hand.
“Uh, yeah, I needed to buy some flowers for an apology,” Izuku said. The florist stared back at him strangely, her brown eyes wide and her mouth parted slightly. He glanced around, trying to see if anyone else was looking at him like he’d appeared out of thin air, but when he found no one else paying attention to them, he turned back to her. “Er, is everything okay?”
She was the one that was supposed to be helping him, but her silence and surprised expression caught him off guard. Maybe it was just early in the morning so she wasn’t quite awake yet or maybe she’d bumped her head on the glass display case when she’d jumped back to avoid getting hit by him. Either way, she looked out of sorts and out of words.
Izuku’s eyes flickered down to her nametag. “Ochako?”
“Yes?” Ochako blinked and then a pink blush crossed her cheeks. “Oh, right, sorry -- flowers! You need flowers… You came in here for flowers.”
“Yeah, I mean, this is a flower shop, right?” Izuku let out a nervous chuckle.
“For an apology,” Ochako continued.
Izuku nodded his head. “Yeah, nothing quite says ‘I am sorry for being an idiot’ like a nice bouquet. Well, besides money, but that seems a bit shallow.”
For some reason, that made her cheeks burn a little more and she ducked her head as she brushed past him to pick out a few flowers. “Man or woman?” Whatever was bothering her, she avoided the topic, choosing to focus on him and his problem.
He didn’t know what else to do, so he went with it, answering, “Woman.”
She nodded her head, but he noticed the way her shoulders tensed up. Wow, she must have been having an off week like him. He felt like he was still trying to nurse that massive hangover from last Saturday morning. That was the last time he went out drinking with Kacchan and Kirishima. Who knew chemistry and physical ed teachers could drink so much?
“Girlfriend, wife?”
“N-no!” Izuku was the one to blush this time. “She’s just a colleague.”
“She’s a teacher too?”
“Yes, she--” Izuku paused and furrowed his brow. “How did you know?”
Ochako tightened her grip on the flowers and gave him a nervous smile. “Oh, uh, your satchel -- you’ve got math books and papers sticking out.” Indeed, when she pointed at it and he looked down, he saw that the flap was open and half of his work was hanging out at the top. He really needed to stop overpacking, but he kept finding interesting books that he wanted to get into. Okay, maybe he was as big of a nerd as Kacchan said he was. “So...you came here for flowers to apologize to a colleague? That’s it?”
“Uh, yeah,” Izuku replied, not sure where she was going at. “Do you think I should get something else? I kind of ruined a project of hers on accident.”
“How so?”
“I spilled fruit punch on it and it exploded,” he said, completely straightforward. Ochako put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from giggling, but it didn’t quite work. Still, it confirmed his fears on how ridiculous the whole situation was. “So yes? No? What about chocolates?”
“Not unless you want to hint at romantic overtures,” Ochako told him.
Izuku shook his head. “Gods, no! I mean, don’t get me wrong. She’s brilliant, funny, and attractive -- but she’s also not interested in men.” He scratched the back of his head. “To be honest, I’m not sure if she’s interested in people in general. Robotics is kind of solely her thing. Ugh, it’s too early to be thinking about those implications.”
Ochako looked terribly amused as she grinned and replied, “I think I get the picture.” What a relief. He was bumbling through everything this week and it was only Tuesday. Hopefully by the time the school week came to an end, he’d be back on track and he definitely wasn’t going to let any of the other teachers convince him to go out. “Does this look okay?”
Seeing as how he knew nothing about flowers, the arrangement looked perfect to him. It would even match the colors of her classroom. “Looks great, but you’re the expert.” He went up front to pay for the flowers, taking note that he had about five minutes to book it to the school.
Before he walked out the door, Ochako called out, “Try not to spill anymore punch on things that react negatively to it!”
“You’ll see me again if I do,” Izuku responded, hurrying out the door. He ran to his car, jumping in and trying to set the flowers in the passenger seat with both speed and carefulness, and then started to pull out of the parking lot.
That woman in the flower shop had been a little odd, but she’d been really helpful. It was a shame that he’d been in such a rush. He hoped that he hadn’t come off as short or rude. Being a high school teacher while also working on getting his PhD, it didn’t leave Izuku a lot of time to do stuff or go out, much less date, hence why his coworkers hassled him on doing things with them. But she had been kind and pretty. Nice brown eyes, cute pink cheeks, a bright smile and laugh…
That laugh. The way her cheeks bunched up when she smiled.
Holy shit.
Izuku slammed on the breaks at a stop sign, causing the person behind him to honk their horn. He ignored them as he did a u-turn and drove back to the flower shop. How much of an idiot could he be? Seriously, what was wrong with him? Sure, he’d drank a lot that night, having been goaded by the others, but he shouldn’t have forgotten about her. She’d been there too, convinced to come out by her closest friends. They’d sang at least four karaoke songs together, split some food, and even danced -- all because he’d bumped into her and spilled her beer on her shirt.
She’d shyly tried to give him her phone number, but both their phones were dead, so she’d written it on a cocktail napkin. He felt around in his pants pocket and pulled out a wad of paper that had been destroyed in the wash. What. An. Idiot.
As soon as he parked, Izuku bolted out of his car and burst into the flower shop. “I remember!” Ochako gasped and nearly dropped a vase of flowers from being startled so bad and he rushed forward to put his hands under it. When he looked up, he found himself only inches away from her blushing face. “I remember now. We met last Friday at the karaoke bar. I spilled your beer on you. Why do I keep doing that? I told you I’d call, but I washed your number and I…”
“It’s okay,” Ochako told him in a quiet, embarrassed voice. “I didn’t expect you to call. I mean, not that you seemed like the kind that wouldn’t, but--”
“No, that’s not it,” Izuku interrupted. “I wanted to call you. Pretty sure I annoyed the hell out of my friends talking about you the entire cab ride home. I...can’t remember all the details. It’s kind of fuzzy, if I’m being honest, but I remember you.”
Ochako giggled again. “You didn’t drink that much.”
“Confirmed lightweight.” Izuku straightened up and so did she, but he didn’t make a move to let go of the vase. Dimly he was aware that he was very much going to be late for school, but they could forgive him this once. He’d never been late before and always volunteered to help out. “So, what flower arrangement says, ‘Sorry for being a forgetful idiot, but will you still go out to dinner with me this weekend’ ?”
A smile crossed Ochako’s face. “I don’t think you need flowers for that.”
How could he have ever forgotten her even for a second?