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No one was weirded out more than Jirou by the situation. Kaminari and Yaomomo cuddled so closely they looked like kittens in a basket, both fast asleep and looking incredibly comfortable in one another’s presence. They were found like this after neither of them had shown up for breakfast, and Kaminari’s door was left open for everyone to learn of his absence. Mina was the one to suggest checking on Momo, the only other person to have missed breakfast, only to stumble upon the scene she and the other girls immediately began to assess.
“Do you think they’re dating?” Tooru asked quietly. Uraraka’s eyes went wide.
“You think Kaminari’s anywhere in Momo’s league?” Jirou snapped back.
“Well we can’t judge, Kyouka-chan,” Tsuyu put in.
“I guess,” heads turned as the sound of shuffling could be heard. Momo’s eyes opened just a tiny bit, clearly not enough to notice the other girls staring at her as she smiled and brought Kaminari closer, her nose pressed against the back of his neck as he twitched and sighed.
“Holy shit that’s adorable,” Mina said.
“Should we wake them up?” Uraraka asked. It was too late though, as Jirou had already walked over and jabbed Kaminari in the back with her earphone. He jolted awake.
“AH, Jirou what the hell?!”
“Morning asshole,” she deadpanned. Momo blinked awaked and yawned, prompting the other girls to leave the scene immediately.
“Oh dear, what time is it? Are we late to breakfast?”
“Yeah, you are.”
Momo sat up, “then I’ll go prepare us something, would you like some, Kyouka?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Okay,” Momo stood and called over her shoulder, “I’ll let you know when I’m done, Kaminari-San!”
“Right, thanks Yaomomo,” he was rubbing the back of his neck as he yawned. Jirou glared at him.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What were you doing in Yaomomo’s room??”
“Oh, she hasn’t told you?”
Jirou’s heart skipped a beat, “told me what?”
Kaminari started, then stopped, “I don’t know if I should tell you then, it’s kind of personal for her.”
She squinted and her lips tightened. An unusual rage filled Jirou’s chest up with resentment, though her rational brain had a hard time believing anything romantic would happen between Momo and Denki of all people. And yet, she still felt something was wrong.
“Jirou are you, jealous?”
“WHAT? Me!? Jealous?! The only thing I’m jealous of is Momo’s bougie bedroom.”
“Alright, whatever floats your boat,” he swung his legs over the bed and got up, yawning and stretching to wake himself. Jirou watched as his shirt rose up and let his chest peak out just a bit. Holy shit.
“Go fix your hair, loser,” Jirou reached out to smooth his unruly mop, and he let her do it with a grin.
“I kinda like you petting me,” he told her, to which her response was a deep blush. He laughed at her.
“You should go get breakfast,” she said, shoving her hands in her pocket as she left him behind. She turned and found herself trapped by Uraraka, Tooru, Tsuyu, and Mina.
“Well?” Mina said.
“Well what?”
“Why were they together then?” Tooru chirped.
Jirou shrugged, “he didn’t say.”
“That must mean they’re dating!!” Uraraka exclaimed.
“I doubt it,” Jirou looked at the ground and her hands pushed deeper into her pockets.
“Are you jealous?” Tsuyu asked.
“What gives you that impression?!”
“You seem unhappy with the whole scenario.”
“I don’t care about it!! Kaminari could marry her and have fifteen little idiot children for all I care!!” Jirou growled. Her chest and ears were warm with embarrassment. Their mouths gaped as, sure enough—
“Jirou-chan? Are you alright?” Momo’s soft voice asked. She whipped around to face her, and suddenly all her aggression drained from her body. Jirou immediately noticed her deep purple eyebags.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she murmured, brushing past the other girls to her own room. Momo blinked.
“Was it something I said?”
Jirou strummed her guitar gently, to get her mind off of how irrational she’d been behaving. She seethed in pain as she absentmindedly dragged her finger along the sharp E string. She took a moment to look at the red mark it’d left and frowned, “I should be used to this,” she told herself. she remembered her father’s deeply calloused fingertips, roughened by years of experience, and wished he was there to hold her hand the way he always did when she was upset. She didn’t even want to admit she was so upset, because if she did it’d open up to exactly what made her so upset, and that was going to remain untouched and buried deep with all the other emotions she repressed. Jirou let out a tortured sigh. “Why do I even care? I don’t care! And if I do I’m going to find the part that makes me care and beat it with a shovel,” she muttered to herself. bitterness wasn’t an emotion she repressed just yet.
“Are you just talking to yourself, Kyouka?” a voice said. She snapped back into reality and looked at her doorframe, taking a second to remember she had an invisible friend.
“Yeah, and that means for my ears only,” she replied. The door opened a little wider to reveal a floating tank top and pajama shorts.
“You really blew up back there, are you sure you don’t want to talk?” she could hear the heedfulness in Tooru’s voice.
“I’m fine, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night so I accidentally snapped,” Jirou could also hear how fake her lie sounded.
“Well,” Tooru came over and sat on the bed next to her, “I just hope you know you’re bad at lying,” her grin was even more snarky because Jirou couldn’t see it.
“Fine, you wanna know why I got so mad just now?”
“Mhm, that’s why I’m here. Oh, and I won’t tell Mina,” the last bit was reassuring, knowing Mina was a true fiend for gossip. Jirou set the guitar at her side and started twiddling her jacks, looking for the right words.
“I was……”
“You were what?”
“I was, jealous,” she muttered.
“Jealous?”
Jirou’s hands balled into fists as she tensed. She didn’t even know why she tried to deceive Tooru’s incredible perception a second time. “Yeah,” she replied through gritted teeth. Heat rose up into her cheeks and to her ears as she took hold of her jacks and clicked them together.
“Do you have a crush on Momo or something?”
“What? No, I got over that ages ago,” she bit the inside of her lip.
“So you’re having a hard time admitting you like Kaminari?”
It took nearly every fiber to resist jabbing Tooru with her jacks as she stuttered out sentence fragments.
“This is such a girly problem, Kyouka, it’s, what’s the word,” Tooru tapped her chin, “unbecoming! Unbecoming of you.”
“I’ll pretend that doesn’t sting for a minute; where’d you get that word from?”
“Iida was reading this book and I saw it over his shoulder, so I asked and he told me it means ‘unfitting of a person’s known and observed behavior!’” she gave her best Iida impression, including a strong hand gesture and pushing up invisible glasses. Jirou could only laugh at the seriousness of her voice. “How you feel isn’t a bad thing, jealousy is a normal emotion, especially if you see them cuddling without context.”
Jirou’s face grew warm again.
“You’re blushing! Look at you!”
“Shut up!!”
Tooru giggled as she lightly punched Jirou’s arm, “you know I’m only teasing, Kyouka. I bet if you just talked to Yaomomo she’d explain everything.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“You know I’m right.”
Jirou let out an exaggerated sigh of frustration. Tooru laughed at it and stood up, you’ll see, Kaminari knows he’s no where in Yaomomo’s league, he’s probably just being a good friend is all.”
“I guess,” Jirou felt her stomach grow cold at the thought of her two best friend’s dating without having said anything.
“And y’know? I don’t think Kaminari is all that into her, he’s been talking nonstop about this girl he knows and how she’s ‘totally rocking’ and ‘wicked cool’”
“He said that?” Jirou couldn’t hide the eagerness in her voice.
“Mhm. I got genuinely mad at him for saying ‘totally rocking’ how 90’s is that?”
She suppressed a smile, “he’s such an idiot.”
“And you’re totally into idiots,” Tooru said over her shoulder.
“Hey!”
Jirou spent the rest of the day out in the commons. She didn’t have anywhere to go and she didn’t mind the lull of the TV or the arguing between Sero and Kirishima over which Spider-Man was the best (Sero believed in Tom Holland while Kirishima pressed for Tobey Maguire) that went for way longer than any normal argument on the subject should. One look at Mina could determine she really wanted to mention Andrew Garfield just to start shit, but she kept her mouth shut so she wouldn’t be stuck there until the next morning. Tooru and Uraraka were begging Iida, who was this close to caving in, to order takeout for everyone, for which he’d be paid back for just so long as he makes the call. Jirou’s stomach growled as she remembered having only eaten breakfast, when Momo came in and called her over.
“I noticed you hadn’t eaten anything today,” she said, “and I had a recipe I wanted to try, do you mind?”
“Not at all,” drool pooled in Jirou’s mouth as she smelled the food. It was Bulgogi; she hadn’t ever had it, but knowing Momo’s cooking skills and how hungry she just now became, she dug in after a very quick thank you and enjoyed every bit. Momo ate beside her as delicately as a princess who eats incredible amounts of food incredibly quickly. The silence was comfortable.
“So how is it?” Momo asked when their plates were both clean.
“It was fantastic, Momo; how do you do it?”
“Well I just followed the recipe of course, it wasn’t too much trouble,” she cupped her cheek and smiled. Jirou glanced at Momo and noticed her eyebags again. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and bit the inside of her lip.
“Have you been alright, Momo?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
Jirou cringed at the thought of continuing, but she did it anyways, “have you been okay?”
Momo sighed, “is it that obvious?”
“Oh, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to—”
“I should tell you, it’s alright,” Momo’s gaze fell, “ever since Kamino ward I’ve, I’ve been having really bad nightmares. And I didn’t know what to do, or who to talk to, and I was afraid that if I,” she clutched her sleeve, “if I talked to anyone they wouldn’t really listen to me.”
Jirou felt a twinge of indignation in her chest, “I would’ve listened,” she muttered.
“No, I believe you would’ve, but—”
“How does Kaminari know how to listen better than I do, your best friend?” Jirou got more annoyed and couldn’t stop her mouth.
“Well he—”
“Do you not trust me?! Or do you like Kaminari too?!” Jirou blinked, and turned bright red. Momo’s tired eyes were watering.
“I’m sorry,” Jirou said quickly.
“No no, it’s okay,” she laughed a little as she wiped at her eyes, “if I had known you had feelings for him I would’ve explained everything earlier.” Momo put her hands together out of anxiety.
Jirou said nothing.
“I was in the kitchen one night and, I was crying my eyes out because I was terrified. I thought I was alone, but Kaminari-San found me and just, hugged me. He hugged me and hugged me and didn’t let go, and I felt, safe. Safe and warm, sand I asked him if he could stay. And he did,” she smiled into her hands, “and every night he comes to check on me, and if I’m not okay he stays.”
Jirou was slammed by a wall of guilt. How could she have such little faith in her friends? They had their own lives that she didn’t have to be a part of, and yet she couldn’t be satisfied with this. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “what I said was totally out of line.”
“I forgive you, after all it’s not every day you witness what you did and don’t assume it has romantic elements.”
“I—”
“You should tell him,” Momo said. Now words got caught in Jirou’s throat, “he really does like you.”
Her lips tightened, “maybe.”
“I could tell him for you if you—”
“No!” Jirou exclaimed, “I, I can do it myself.”
“Good luck then.”
“Hey, Kaminari,” her voice wavered as she stared at the floor. He looked at her and smiled, but he stopped when he noticed her uncomfortable disposition. He had only the faintest idea of why she’d dragged him out, but he knew any snappy comments now would only make the air tenser than it already was.
“You alright?” he decided to ask.
“Oh, yeah I’m fine! I’m not upset or anything, I’m just,” she bit the inside of her lip, “I’m sorry I got so upset this morning,” she said.
“It’s alright, no big deal,” his eyebrows knitted, “did Yaomomo tell you what’s going on?”
Jirou nodded, “I shouldn’t have been so annoyed with you and I shouldn’t have thought you couldn’t have a friendship without me involved.”
“Well, it’s alright. Even if I was into her she’s way out of my league, I’d have no shot.”
“None of do, she’s out of all of our leagues.”
Kaminari let out a laugh that made Jirou smile. Suddenly it became easier for her to say what she was about to say. The words took some time to collect themselves, but eventually,
“Do you want to, go out with me?”
Kaminari’s eyes went wide as her face flushed red. “Momo can come with if you want,” she said quickly.
“She doesn’t have to, if you want,” Kaminari replied just as quickly. She covered her face with her hands.
“That’d be nice…”
His lips tightened, then he got an idea. Jirou felt his hand pat the top of her head and stroke her hair, “since you petted me this morning,” he told her. The words wouldn’t come out. “Let’s head back to the mall tomorrow, around 1ish?” he felt her nod.
“Okay.”