Chapter Text
Mina’s second year at UA had just begun when she spat out the first petal.
It happened during English class; she felt something tickle the back of her throat and immediately broke into a coughing fit. She tried suppressing it, but that didn't work for long. The itch in her throat was getting unbearable: it felt like a foreign body was caught there. The reflex to get it out was stronger than her will. Mina covered her mouth with her hand before hawking violently. Something hit the inside of her hand. Gross.
She hesitantly unclenched her fist and looked at it. Wet and shiny, a pink flower petal lied on her hand.
"What the fuck."
"What's wrong, Mina-chan?" a croak sounded behind her back. Ashido turned around and saw matching worried expressions on the faces of Asui and Uraraka. And she started coughing again.
"E- hah- excuse me", she waved her hand in the air to attract the teacher's attention, "ca- can I go to the restroom?"
Present Mic allowed her to go and she ran off, desperately trying to stifle her wheezing. She barged into the girls' bathroom, making some first-year by the sinks jump, and locked herself in a stall. The petal she had been holding fell to the floor. Unfortunately, it wasn't the last; as Mina kept coughing, several followed suit. Some of them ended up in the toilet, some speckled the tile flooring with pink.
Mina's legs eventually gave up and she sat down, trembling. Not only did her throat ache; she was also scared. She certainly hadn't eaten any flower petals, so why were they coming out of her mouth?
The bell rang eventually, announcing the end of the lesson, and she heard footsteps. Someone had walked into the bathroom.
"Mina-chan?"
"Ashido-san, are you still there?"
Hearing familiar voices actually calmed her down a little bit. She swallowed and stood up shakily.
"Yeah... still here."
After unlocking the door, she saw Tsuyu holding two backpacks- her own and Mina's. Ochako, whose hands were empty, walked up to her and gently grabbed her by the shoulders.
"What's happening? Do you need to see Recovery Girl?" she asked with concern.
"No, c'mon ladies, it's nothing serious. I must've caught a weird cold." Mina attempted to laugh it off, but it came out raspy and soon turned into another coughing fit. That, and the fact that Mina absolutely sucked at hiding her feelings, allowed Tsuyu to see right through her.
"Really, Mina-chan with the strong immune system caught a cold in April?"
"Ugh, okay." Ashido gave up. It's not like she had anything to hide anyway. "I'll show you, but promise not to laugh."
She opened the stall door again and gestured to where the petals were scattered.
"These were caught in my throat for some reason... weird, right?"
She expected the other two to be surprised, maybe to start questioning her about it, but certainly not to share the worried, knowing looks that they did.
“But, uh, they’re not causing any real damage! I guess Kaminari put them in my food or something. I’ll make sure to take revenge, haha!...”
Unfortunately, Mina’s facade wasn’t cheering anyone up, not even herself.
“Ashido-san”, Ochako started hesitantly, “how about washing your hands and face and coming with us? Physics class is about to start.”
Mina, while confused by the sudden change of topic, decided to go along with it. If she had no explanation for what had happened, it'd be foolish to expect one from the other girls. Besides, her coughing wasn't that bad at the moment. Maybe it truly had been a harmless prank?
While she had to clear her throat several times, no more petals escaped it for the rest of the school day. Almost completely reassured, Mina returned to her dorm room and put on some music. She was supposed to hang out with Kirishima, Bakugou, Kaminari and Sero in the common room in half an hour, but as the area was still empty at the moment, she saw no point in waiting there.
Roughly ten minutes had passed before another unexpected, violent coughing attack. She could clearly feel the petals piling up in her throat. If this doesn't stop in a minute, I'll actually go see Recovery Girl, she promised herself. One second. Two seconds. Three. Four.
Barely fifteen seconds in, someone knocked on her door.