Chapter Text
“I have a proposition for you. If I flip the bottle and succeed, that means I won’t have to kiss anyone, but if it fails, then I have to kiss whoever it landed on,” said Kaminari, already prepping for a bottle flip.
“It doesn’t matter either way because you’re bound to fuck this up,” retorted Bakugou, rolling his eyes at Kaminari’s shenanigans. Ochako swallowed and watched as Kaminari threw the water bottle up into the air. Her eyes were locked on, tracing its descent back down to the ground, trying to predict which way it would land. Please don’t be me .
“Aw sick, Yaomomo!” cheered Kaminari as the bottle landed on her, almost literally. Ochako watched as Momo’s cheeks flushed a bit red before she leaned into the circle to receive her kiss from Kaminari. While they only kissed for a brief moment, it felt like ages for Ochako. She studied the motion intently, watching to see how their faces meshed together, trying to learn exactly how people kissed. Her fingers began to shake so she put them deep into her pockets.
Ochako hadn’t had her first kiss yet. It wasn’t as if she was averse to it, more of the fact that she’d never been in a relationship before and thus never had a chance to kiss someone. For a while, Ochako used to dream about what her first kiss would be like, always with whoever her current crush was at the time.
Maybe it would be the two of us walking home from school in the rain. One of us forgot our umbrella, so we’d share, our hands would touch as we both went to hold onto the umbrella in the middle. We’d huddle together closely to stay dry, and when we’d get to the crossroads, we’d stop and stare at each other, perhaps we’d confess our secret crushes and then kiss before departing.
Maybe we’d take the same elevator, and it’d suddenly stop, and we’d be trapped in there for an hour or two with no one but each other to talk to. Eventually, we’d come to terms and confess our feelings, and then make out before our imminent rescue.
Or perhaps we’d been dating for a while, and we went to a festival together. We’d spent the whole day having fun anyways, but when we go up onto a hill and look down at the festival, and up at the fireworks, that’s when decide to embrace in a kiss. It would be the perfect ending to the perfect day.
A game of spin the bottle was not how Ochako thought she’d have her first kiss. It wasn’t romantic, or memorable, and it could be with literally anyone in the room. Anyone in the entirety of class 1-A could be her first kiss. It wasn’t that she hated the concept of spin the bottle or kissing people she wasn’t into, it was more that she didn’t want this to be her very first instance of kissing. She almost wished that she could have had her first kiss already so she wouldn’t feel guilty about playing the game.
“Alright, who’s next,” said Kaminari, causing Ochako to snap out of her stare. She rubbed her eyes to make sure they weren’t all glossed over, then promptly opened them to see Kaminari staring at her. “Do you want to go next?” He rocked the bottle back between his fingers, waiting for her reply. Ochako felt her cheeks heating up and her bottom lip quivering a bit before breaking eye contact with him and looking away, feeling a bit too awkward to properly answer him.
“Not yet,” she said, shifting around uncomfortably in her seat, desperately hoping that no one would make a big deal about this. Why did I have to stare at him kissing Momo! He probably thinks that I want to go next, that’s why he asked me. And I just turned him down! If someone doesn’t volunteer quickly, people are going to start teasing me and then I’m going to have to spin. This is such a mess, I don’t know how they even convinced me to play in the first place. Probably peer pressure . Mina tensed up as she felt a warm hand resting on her shoulder. She slowly exhaled the breath she had been holding.
“I’ll go,” said Mina, giving Ochako a little pat on the shoulder. She took the bottle from Kaminari’s hands and spun it. Again, Ochako watched as it went around and around, trying to gauge who it would stop on. Mina is so cool, I wish I could be as chill as she is. She didn’t even hesitate! She’s so good at parties. Ochako watched her pink friend’s eyes widen as the bottle stopped on Sero.
“Nice,” said Sero, giving Mina a smirk. Mina smirked back, and leaned into the circle, waiting for Sero to close the gap between their lips. Ochako stared, watching as Mina leaned a bit more forwards. From her point of view, she couldn’t see the two of them touching lips, but she could see the way Mina’s fingers dug into the carpet and how her horns twitched ever so slightly. She could see the arc in her back slowly caving in more, before she moved backwards and resumed her seat. She’s so lively and bubbly, she’d probably be a good kisser. And from Sero’s wide eyes, she definitely knows what she’s doing. I’d like to think I’d be a good kisser, but I’ve never kissed anyone before. Maybe it’s just something that comes naturally, though. I’d hate for my lack of skill to hamper my first experience.
Mina wiped her mouth off with her arm, and looked over back at Ochako, her black eyes glistening in the light. Ochako could see a layer of gloss coating the top of her lips still before Mina resorted to simply licking them. She then shut her eyes and gave Ochako a dorky smile. So pure!
“Alright, was that enough time for you?” joked Kaminari, handing her the bottle. Ochako looked around the room at all of her classmates watching her. Her arms felt weak as she reached out and took the bottle from Kaminari’s hands.
What am I going to do? I don’t want to have my first kiss like this. Should I run? No, people will come after me and ask me what’s wrong, and I don’t want to have to admit that the reason I’ve been so weird is because I’m stressed out that I haven’t kissed anyone before. That’s definitely not normal. We’re in high school, everyone else has probably had their first kiss, or at least they wouldn’t mind if their first was from this game. Perhaps I can do what Kaminari did, and propose a bottle flip? I could stack it in my favor by floating the bottle a bit…
“I’m also going to bottle flip,” said Ochako boldly, making sure to enunciate all of her words to get people to pay attention to her. Please work . Pressing all five of her fingers onto the bottle, she felt it slip out of her hands as she threw it upwards. Her eyes linked to the bottle, making sure it did the correct amount of falls as it flipped in the air. She watched as it fell downwards, almost in slow motion, as she tweaked its trajectory a bit, causing it to land softly against the ground. Yes!
“Even round face can flip a bottle better than you can,” said Bakugou, giving the side eyes to his friend.
“Oh cut him some slack, I’d like to see you try to do better,” said Kirishima, standing up for his bro. Bakugou tsked. Ochako sighed with relief that people weren’t focusing on her own bottle flip. However, that relief was short lived.
“Oh my gosh, you messed up yourself!” exclaimed Kaminari as he and Kirishima high fived. Ochako looked down into the circle, and then felt her face drain of all color. While stacking her own bottle flip was easy enough, she hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of other people landing their bottles on her. Oh no. Oh no no no.
“I, uh,” said Ochako, nervously flapping her hands in front of her as if to signal “NOPE”. She looked panicked at Tooru who was on the other side of her, who just shrugged. My first kiss? In spin the bottle? With Bakugou ? I….
“I just uh, I realized that, uh, um.” Ochako’s hand movements matched her erratic speech movement as she tried to look anywhere except at Bakugou. I don’t hate Bakugou, in fact, he’s actually kinda cool. I just, I never expected that my first kiss….it’s my first. I want it to mean something. I guess this could make a funny story, I’m sure he hasn’t kissed many people, but…. Ochako ran her fingers through her hair. This was not going as planned.
“Oh my gosh you’re burning up,” said Mina, placing her hand on Ochako’s forehead. She held it there softly before continuing. “It’s a good thing you didn’t kiss anyone, who knows how this sickness would spread. Want me to help you get back to your room?” Ochako couldn’t thank her enough. She nodded twice before Mina stood up, offering her hand to Ochako to help her up. Ochako placed her hand in Mina’s, and Mina gave her a little squeeze before yanking her up to her feet. The two girls bumped into each other, and Ochako could feel Mina’s warm body pressing up on her as the two of them looked a bit startled, flustered, and then let go of each other’s hand. I need to make sure to thank her for getting me out of this game later. She’ll probably think I’m really lame for not wanting to play, or maybe she’ll think I’m lame for “not wanting to kiss Bakugou” or whatever she assumes about that. She’s friends with Bakugou, right? I hope she doesn’t take it the wrong way. I need to clear that up with her.
“Mina?” said Ochako once they had left the common area. Mina turned around and looked at her, her big black eyes soft. She placed her hand on Ochako’s forehead, then grinned.
“You don’t really have a fever, don’t worry. I saw you panicking and I knew we had to get you out of there,” said Mina. Ochako rubbed the side of her arm nervously with her hand. Mina is such a good friend. I wonder if I’d be able to pick up on cues like that.
“Oh, right,” said Ochako, awkwardly. She brushed the side of her arm against Mina’s shoulder and felt a blush creeping up onto her face. “Mina, d-do you mind if maybe we could talk, in my room, about tonight?”
“Duh, I’m not going to leave you there and return to the party. You shouldn’t be deprived of some fun just because you were uncomfortable,” said Mina, leaning on the wall right next to Ochako’s room. “We can have fun without the rest of them, I’m sure of it.”
“I mean, you can go back to the party if you really want to,” said Ochako, feeling a bit guilty about dragging Mina away from her friends. Mina crossed her arms.
“No, I want to hang out with you.”
“Alright,” said Ochako, trying to appear cool while her heart was going a million miles an hour. She said she wants to hang out with me. With me specifically. I can’t believe it. Don’t freak out, don’t freak out .