Work Text:
Another night at the bar.
Mic scrunched his nose up and squeezed his eyes closed tighter. Groaned a little. Tried to. Far be it from him to complain about anyone on earth being loud, but--
“Please,” he mumbled, his voice wet and thick and quiet, “stop yelling. I don’t want to--” he cleared his throat, opening one eye to look up at Midnight, “--eugh, throw up in public again.”
Midnight’s laugh was piercing. “You’re such a baby! You had a few drinks and you’re a mess. As usual.”
“A few,” Mic repeated, turning his face away and remembering he was laying halfway across the table where he had been seated with Midnight and Eraser. And All Might, that was right. Ah. Well, it was only a matter of time until All Might saw him like this.
“All Might, don’t look,” he groaned, squinting both eyes open and looking up at the former Number One Hero.
All Might only smiled back at him. “I won’t tell anyone you can’t hold your liquor.”
Midnight cackled and Mic thought maybe even Eraser made some kind of noise, and then Mic moaned and tried to push himself upright, but actually, nope. Nope.
He settled for using Midnight’s lap as a pillow. This was fine. This was her fault anyway. Like always.
“Aw, Mic!” she giggled, pushing her fingers into his hair, messing it all up, but whatever, whatever , her hands felt good. “You can’t tap out this early. Didn’t you want to go to heaven ? Isn’t that what you said?”
“Your English is so awful,” he grinned against her stomach, and then he regretted it when she slapped him against the side of his head. “Ow.”
“Shut up. I changed my mind. Go back to whimpering quietly or I’ll make you another cocktail.”
“Please, you know I love when you’re mean to me,” he mumbled into her skirt, and maybe he said it a bit loud, he didn’t know, he was too drunk, which was her fault --
“You’re bold tonight,” she said back quietly. And he realized Eraser had gone back to talking at All Might. (Like he tended to do. Which was funny. Eraser wasn’t much for long conversations, but when he got the chance, he’d grill All Might over pedagogy and heroism and whatever other bullshit.) (And All Might was such a good sport about it.) (Hah.)
And that meant that Mic was still managing to speak quietly, and they hadn’t heard him maybe openly flirt at Midnight. Good. Not that Eraser understood the concept. And not that Mic would ever openly flirt at one of his closest friends. On purpose. In a premeditated sort of way.
He peeked up at her. “Not bold. Hammered.”
“Well, that’s why you came to this bar, remember. I was just being a good friend--”
“You’re always a good friend,” he smiled at her.
She blinked down at him. “You’re being awfully nice.”
“I just said I’m hammered, why don’t you ever listen to me?”
She flicked her finger against his temple, and he didn’t bother reacting to that. He’d expected it, almost.
“You’re a good friend,” he repeated, and he and wrapped his arms around her waist and got more comfortable without thinking much of it. Realized belatedly that his glasses were missing. “Even when I don’t like it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means. I think.”
“You mean my cocktails? Those are works of art.”
“No. The other stuff. You know.”
He maybe felt her breath catch when he hugged tighter around her middle. Funny. She was a pretty funny girl. Woman. They were getting old.
“You’re ridiculous, Mic.”
“I know.”
Neither Eraser nor All Might paid them any attention. And the bartender was used to him being a trainwreck. And Midnight wasn’t shoving him off her. Actually, her fingers went back to doing that thing they were doing in his hair while she started saying something to Eraser.
This wasn’t so bad.
He closed his eyes again and breathed in her perfume. Maybe it was perfume. Maybe it was her quirk. Because he was probably about to pass out, actually.
“ Mic!”
“What!”
“Get up.”
“No!”
He heard Midnight groan and felt her rattle his shoulder. “You’re so bony. Get up, Eraser went chasing after All Might and I’m not paying their tab by myself.”
“They left?” Mic blinked up at her blurry face. “I fell asleep?”
“More like passed out.”
“Where are my glasses?”
“I put them in my purse so you wouldn’t lose them. Or break them again. And yes, those two left. Because All Might’s a tired old man and because Eraser is hopeless , it’d be sad if it wasn’t so funny--”
“He loves All Might,” Mic grinned, making no move to move.
“Yes he does and he’ll never admit it -- and you still need to get up.”
“Just order another drink. Tank. Let me sleep. Five minutes.”
“No! I would like very much to sleep sometime tonight. In my actual home. Do you know how late it is?”
Mic groaned. “We don’t have bedtimes.”
“Maybe you don’t. When’s the last time you slept in your own bed?”
Mic didn’t answer. Instead, he twisted and dug into his pocket, which was way too tight, and he yanked his wallet free. Slapped it onto the table without getting off her lap.
“There. Five minutes.”
“Five minutes with me will cost you more than that.”
Mic snorted. “No discounts for friends?”
“Nope.”
“Harsh. My queen is so damn harsh. No mercy. I’m made to suffer every day. This is my fate--”
She slapped the side of his head much like earlier, and he groaned very loudly and pushed himself upright. And then he wobbled. He was not going to throw up.
He turned his head at the sound of her laughing. At him. A very recognizable sound.
“What.”
“Your hair,” she said through little giggles, opening the front camera on her phone and showing him. He grimaced at his own image.
“Why would you show this to me.”
His hair was. Uh. It looked more like a tornado than the usual shape he styled it in for his hero getup.
“Here, I have a hair tie--”
“I do too -- you did this to me earlier, didn’t you,” he grumbled while he started pulling his hair into a bun.
“You blame everything on me!”
“You’re often directly at fault!” he snapped back, and he caught her rolling her eyes at him.
“Oh, come on. You’d be so bored without me,” she smiled. Mic snorted.
“You’re right about that, at least, beautiful listener.”
“When am I not right? I’m right about everything. What’re you trying to say?”
Mic huffed and didn’t answer until she was hanging off him, shaking him a little and calling him a jerk and demanding to know when she’d ever led him astray, and it really wasn’t helping how floaty his head was or how spinny the room was.
“Okay! Okay, you’re right about everything so please-- look, I’ll pay, just stop shaking me --”
“Aw, thanks Mic! Always such a gentleman.”
“Always such a lady .”
She slapped his shoulder as soon as she slid off it.
“Did we really spend this much?” Mic asked after a second of squinting at the bill. “Lemme have my glasses--”
“We did order a lot of food.”
“Whatever. It’s fine. I don’t care,” Mic grumbled, sliding from his seat and going to square up the bill. Put it all on his card. Didn’t matter. He made more than Midnight and Eraser, anyway. It was fine.
He wouldn’t admit that he stumbled back to the table after he finished paying, but it probably looked a lot like that. Especially with the expression on Midnight’s face.
She stood up next to him without a word. The silence hung between them.
“Let me come over.”
Midnight rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever go home?”
Mic grinned. “Why would I wanna do that when there’s a way better prize behind door number two?”
“You really are bold tonight.”
“So that’s a yes?”
She turned away and started walking, and he wobbled after her, smile still on his face.
Midnight lived close enough that they could walk without calling a cab. The trains had all stopped running an hour ago. And his apartment was so far. That was usually the excuse he gave.
He had no intention of ever admitting that maybe he wasn’t a huge fan of being alone in his empty apartment. Or that he wasn’t much for being stuck in his own company for very long. Or that he preferred her company to just about everyone else’s.
“Mic.”
She snapped him out of his thoughts and yanked on the sleeve of his jacket.
“Sorry,” he said, shuffling along faster to match her pace. “You walk like those old ladies who exercise. Power walking, you know. You see them in the parks in the mornings. With their sweatbands.”
“Your legs are longer than mine, you have no excuse for not keeping up.”
“I can’t see straight? Is that an excuse? Power walker?”
“Learn to hold your liquor!”
He could hear the laugh in her voice. And he smiled as they walked together in the dark.
She didn’t let go of his sleeve. And he was happy to let her lead him along and keep him steady.
At her apartment, she fumbled with her keys, and he leaned over her shoulder. Rested his chin on it. “Need help?”
“No! Get off, you’re making this harder than it needs to be--”
“So cold! Like that isn’t my special talent!”
“Mic--”
He grabbed her hand just as she started to turn around, and he grinned out of surprise more than anything when her face was much closer to his than he anticipated with the way he was still standing hunched over and. She was right there. So close. Wow.
“Nemuri.”
She blinked at him with her giant blue eyes. Deer in headlights. Probably because he’d never once called her that. Ever. But he just--
He leaned forward just a little. That was all it took. And he kissed her, smile still on his face.
He was still holding her hand. He could feel her grip tighten in his.
Her lips were warm and plush as hell, and he knew, like it was instant, that whole go to heaven thing, this was it, this was definitely it, he could feel it in his chest, in his bones--
She pulled away from him and reached forward to make a fist in the front of his shirt. Holding him in place. He let go of her hand.
“What the hell was that?”
“I kissed you.”
“I know that, stupid!”
“Well you just asked--”
“Why would you do that? I can’t believe you just--”
He started laughing. And he couldn’t say why, exactly. Maybe it was her blunt reaction. It was so her. Maybe he was just drunk and happy. He didn’t care that she was looking at him like he grew two heads. He kind of felt like he had. This was one of his very best friends of sixteen years. And he’d maybe just screwed that all up.
“But you kissed me back, didn’t you?”
He could hear the little huff she made. “No!”
“You absolutely did.”
“Out of surprise!”
“Midnight, the X-rated, sexiest pro hero on the roster, flustered by a kiss--”
“Flustered isn’t what I’d call it!”
Mic started laughing again. And then, a second later, he heard her laughing along with him. They both cracked up a bit into the middle of the night, maybe waking her neighbors, he really didn’t care.
“You’re an idiot. Let’s go inside.”
“Lead the way, queen!”
“Stop calling me weird names!”
She pushed her front door open and led him inside, and he kicked off his boots and wobbled to her bathroom while he continued to ramble.
“Ruler of my life! Empress of my heart! Commander of my dick!”
“Mic!”
“ What! ”
She didn’t answer. He was very drunk. This was fine. They wouldn’t speak of this in the morning. Or ever again. He knew that much. He finished pissing and stumbled to her bedroom.
When he got there, her bed was empty. Which was also fine. He pulled his jacket off and left it on the floor and collapsed across her mattress like he had a hundred times before.
She appeared a few minutes later with water and made him drink an entire glass, and he complained and did it anyway, and then she changed into a t-shirt and some soft sleeping pants and looked very domestic, really, he liked her when she looked like this, too--
“Stop staring.”
“But you love when people stare!”
She threw something at him. He didn’t know what it was. She missed, anyway. He held one arm out towards her. “Come to bed.”
“Fine.”
She crawled across the mattress and dropped next to him.
Wrapping around her and burying his face in her neck and sighing like he had so many times in the past, whether he’d been drunk or just. Struggling. Whatever. It always felt… incredible. Now that he thought about it. Better than just familiar.
He didn’t know if it was her quirk or not. But he always fell asleep so quickly like this.