Chapter Text
Sero ran through his plan for the nth time before approaching Aoyama. Ask him to hang out, find the right time and place to confess, give gift, and confess. Simple right. He will confess his feelings and then if all goes right, these pesky flowers will stop showing up at the worse time.
“Hey Aoyama!” Sero called out waving one arm in the air. “Want to go to the arcade? I heard they have a new dancing game.”
“That should be lovely.” Step one complete. A bit of confidence grew in Sero’s chest.
“Yeah! We should all go to the arcade.” And Kirishima just kicked his confidence to the ground. He didn’t want or need an audience, this was going to be hard enough without the peanut gallery.
“OI” yelled Bakugou, smacking the hard-head with is bag. “We are sparing today. You can play stupid games on your own time!” Grabbing his collar he dragged the redhead towards the gyms.Giving the briefest of nobs to Sero.
“I guess it will just be the two of us.” Aoyama said, brushing his hair out of his face.
The walk to and from the arcade filled Sero with dread. Was now the right time, no, laughing about something that happened in class wasn’t the right time. When he had beaten the high score on DDR, no, Sero was a sweaty mess just trying to keep up with the boy that always sparkled, his hair was barely out of place.
Finally the right moment came. They were walking back to campus and passed a small park. It had swings, a domed climbing rig, a slide that seemed too high and narrow to be considered safe, and a simple merry-go-round. Bingo this was the spot, the perfect place. Even the heavens seemed to agree, the once overcast sky parted to reveal the moon and stars shining bright.
Aoyama already had his eyes turned to the sky, the twinkling of the star reflected in them. “Hey want stargaze?” the words left Sero in a mess of worry and awkwardness. But either Aoyama didn’t notice or didn’t care, Sero couldn’t tell which one. And at this point, he didn’t care. They laid on the merry-go-round with their backs on the cold metal.
Aoyama started telling a story but for the life of him, Sero couldn’t hear a word he said. It was like all the blood rushed to his head, all he could hear was the faint beating of his own heart being drowned out by the rushing waves of blood. He wanted to panic. He wanted to give up and just run back to his dorm and try again on another day or just silent. He wanted to hold the hand of the boy next to him.
Sero took a deep breath, cold air filling his lungs. Holding on to the breath till his heart reached the seventh beat, and he slowly released the now warm air. He was alright. Everyone felt like this. After he says the words, this weight will be gone. But he wanted to hold this boy’s hand, he wanted to hold Aoyama’s hand. So he did. He closed the distance between the two and his clammy hand softly grasped a cold one.
Aoyama didn’t say anything. He just turned his hand over so that their fingers intertwined. They laid like this for a few minutes. But for Sero it felt like hours. “I...I...wait.” He sat up like a bolt and started digging in his bag, till his hands landed on the small silver box wrapped with a purple bow. “Here.” He put the box in the space between them. “I made these. The filling is Camembert.” Sero didn’t look his way when Aoyama lifted the box and looked inside.
“I like you” he blurted out. And once those three words lift him, other began to spill as well. “I think you are funny and you have this air about you that I can’t quite place, like I can’t tell if you are being serious or joking. Your hair has so much volume and even though your quirk tends to mess you up still try to hold yourself with this level of purpose that I’m sure I can’t reach. But you are here and my heart pounds when you look my way and this whole outing has had me in knots, and you held my hand. You held my hand.”
Sero didn’t mean to say all of that, or a fraction of that. He had a plan. Ask him to hang out, find a time and place to confess, give gift, and finally confess. The confession was meant to be short, sweet and to the point. Not this word vomit that he just unload like a dump truck at a construction site.
And when the words finally stopped rushing out, and the deafening silence rang between them. Aoyama’s voice broke through, “I’m sorry, I not really in the place for a relationship. There is still so much that I need to improve to become the hero that I want to be.” Sero’s eyes saw that his lips were moving but once again the sound from that night was overpowered by the beating of his head, his heart. From his expression, he could tell that he wasn’t pretending or trying to sugarcoat the response, he face showed someone who wanted to be better. And that he didn’t think he could become that with Sero.
Sero was left alone at the the park. Aoyama choosing to walk back to the dorms alone. The night was cold, and dark. And Sero laid on the old metal merry-go-round, till the stars dimmed and the warmth of the sun began to creep back to the world. He didn’t sleep that, he just tried to burn the memory of holding hands of the blond boy that sparkled like the night sky into his soul. There to kept till other bittersweet moment overwrites it.
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Midnight’s favorite part of the week took place every Friday evening, where she met with confused students working through their feelings. And here they were, to the invite only meeting, in the empty classroom. “Hagakure could you please read the notes from the past week.” Midnight said closing the classroom door, walking towards the semicircle of chairs for this week session.
The seemly empty uniform jumped out of her seat as Hagakure pulled out a notebook from her bag.”Last week, Kouda joined us after being recommended by Principal Nodzu.”
“It was more like ordered” Sero laughed, as Kouda tired to hid his blush by pulling up his sweater to cover his face. “By the fourth flower delivery of the day, you could tell he was done.” Sero clapped the back of the blushing child while Midnight tried to set the meeting back on course.
“Hagakure, would you please continue.” Midnight took out her own notebook and pen has the Hagakure started again.
“So with the addition of Kouda we have a total of five students for Flower Therapy.” she sang, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“WE ARE NOT CALLING OURSELVES THAT!” roared Bakugou, holding out his hand as if to set off his normal array of tiny explosions, only to be met with orange chrysanthemums blooming from his hand. A loud groan escaped him as he threw the blossoms in towards the trash bin in the center of the ring.
“I agree with Bakugou, we did not settle on that name.” Yaoyorozu said placing her joined hands in her lap. “There is no need for a name, we are just here for group counseling with Midnight.”
“Naming things is fun.” Hagakure whispers has she flips the pages in her notebook. “So for goals we have: Sero pledged to confess, Bakugou was to come up with ways to interact with...Person B” even though you couldn’t see, her voice clearly held an eyeroll. “And I was on flower hiding duty this week.” She place a clear hand on Kouda’s shoulder. “Sorry I wasn’t able to help you when we were in the English. I was blindsided when Nodzu walked in.”
“Let’s start with you Bakugou.” the normally brash boy, sunk down in his chair as Midnight sights landed on him. “How did your planning go?”
“Well you said I need to you interact with h-...them... in a way that shows romantic interest .” The last part he mumbles out in a hurry. “So I starting calling them by their name.”
“There given name? That’s pretty bold!” Midnight squealed. Jotting down this new piece of information.
“No, it’s still their family name.” Sero barks, leaning back in his chair. “He just doesn’t call them by some silly nickname.”
“YOU WANNA GO, SOY SAUCE!” This time when he sets of his quirk he gets an explosion, knocking Sero out of his chair. The flowers that bloomed begin to catch on fire and rain down on the students.
“Honestly, Bakugou.” Yaoyorozu scolds has she pulls a spray bottle with a floral print out of her knee. “You really need to control your temper.” Spraying the flaming petals with mist of water.
Hagakure giggled to herself while scribbling something in her notebook. “That narrows it down.” Suddenly she raised her arm “I’m not cleaning up this mess!” She cheered. “This week flower disposal is your chore, new guy. ” an empty sleeve pointed at Kouda.
“Can we please focus?” Midnight called, despite seeming to enjoy the spectacle. She turned her eye back again to Bakugou. “So have did they say anything about the use of their name?”
“I haven’t actually talked to them this week.” he mumbled.
“Are you sure you even want to confess?” Midnight asked. “We can start you on a different path.”
“Hey, I might be bad at this whole,” he gestured wildly towards the flowers on scattered about the floor. “But I know that having a strong support at home will help me advance in the long run. It’s one of the few things I learned from watching my Old Folks.”
“That’s really sweet. Maybe try asking your parents for advice.” His face turned into absolute disgust. “They can give you some insight. If I remember right from the last Parent-Teacher meeting you and your mother share the same level of… passion.”
“Kouda,” Midnights glasses shined towards the blushing boy. “Have you decided whether or not you are want to work on confessing or getting over you crush.” No words like came from the deep red face. Instead a slight tapping on the window catches the group's attention.
Outside there are several bird tapping on the glass while carrying small bundles of wildflowers.
“I think they are here for you Kouda.” Sero opens the window and the birds burst into the room flying over to Kouda dropping their load into his lap. As quickly as they came one by one the birds, flew back out as if nothing happened.
“I don’t know yet.” Kouda whispered, gathering the plants in his arms. “I would like some more time to think on it.”
“Okay, okay…. Sero,” Midnight turned her attention to the boy, “last week you pledged to confess. How did it go?” All the groups eyes turned to him. No one has yet to confront the person of their affection. Hagakure and Yaoyorozu both have their pens at the ready, hoping to gain some ideas on how to approach their crushes. Kouda looks frighten and Bakugou, well Bakugou looks like he just tasted something bitter.
“Well I followed the plan we made out.” Sero pulled out his own notebook, looking to occupy his hands and flipped through the pages. “Based on the intel that Hagakure collected. I asked Sato if he would help me make some macarons. I went through several attempts, but finally I had enough decent looking ones to make a gift out of. I even found wrapping to match his hero costume.” A sheepish smile graced his face before being replace with a shadow.
“So I wrapped up the macarons and after class last Wednesday I asked Aoyama if he wouldn’t mind hanging out with me.” A collective deep breath was taken by everyone. “We ended up walking to the park just off campus. We chatted for a bit about how we couldn’t even understand WildDog’s after he lost it when Nedzu crashed the class to,” Sero turned to ever embarrassed Kouda “sorry dude, hand you a flower.”
“And then I just blanked.” His words began to rush. “ I couldn’t remember any of the scripts I ran through the night before.” Sero bend forward grabbing his head between his hands while he rocked back and forth. “I just handed him the box. ….and…. no words came out.” Sero stopped moving and leaned back into his chair. “Well that’s not complete true. I think I yelled. ‘You have nice hair.’ like a complete idiot.”
“You’re not and idiot. He does have nice hair.” Midnight just stared at the space where her head should be with her mouth open. “What he does.” Hagakure mumbled wrapping herself around him. “You were just nervous.” She grabbed the flower shaped blanket that Yaoyorozu pulled from her arm and began to turn him into a cocoon. “It’s okay you can let it out.”
A wet ugly sob left Sero as he tried to continue. “He was really,... nice about the whole thing. Said something about how he…. enjoys my company…. but that he didn’t feel like he was in the….” A wave of sobs spilled out, “the right place for a relationship right now.” He took a moment to try to collect himself. Breathing slowly through his hands, with Hagakure rubbing small circles on his back. “So I guess I need to switch over to the getting over stage .” He said with air quotes around the last bit.
Midnight makes a note in her notebook, studying the students. Hagakure and Yaoyorozu both had tears in their eyes, while they tried to calm down Sero who was folded over again with tears hitting the ground quietly. Kouda, looked terrified as another flock of birds pecked at the window. And Bakugou, he was just staring blankly at the wall, his mind miles away. This has been a big setback for the group, no doubt about it.
“I think we should call it a day.” Midnight closed her book.
No one answers, but slowly the group gathers their things. Faint snuffles can be heard as they exit the room. Surprisingly its Bakugou who breaks the silence first “Come on Soy Sauce, we can get you the extra spicy pork bowl, from the shop just off campus. My treat.”
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“It’s Saturday! Why are we here so early?” protested Ashido as she and the rest of the sleep deprived students painful greeted their teachers. “The sun isn’t even up.”
“Okay, for this combined class, you are going to be practicing for a multi-school dodgeball tournament. We need you to divide into two teams. Do try to mix and not just work with your classmates. You have ten minutes.” Aizawa explained. “Expect for Uraraka and Monoma, please come to the front.
A slow rumble began to grow in the students as they matched up with the other class. Half wondering who they should work with and the other half happily buzzing about what other school they get to play with. “Hey, Uraraka.” Monoma strolled over to the heavy lidded girl. She could barely keep her eyes open, while she leaned on Iida. “It looks like we’ve been chosen for-”
“Shhh, it’s to early for your loudness” Uraraka lightly smacking him in the face. “Let me enjoy the peace before it’s all ruined.” Slouched over and dragging her feet she slowly made her way to Aizawa and Vlad.
“We are going to need you two to take away both classes gravity.” Vlad said while Aizawa sipped on a juice box.
“Why no gravity.” Uraraka mumbled as she glanced at her teacher, rather uncomfortable around the loud boasting Vlad.
“The arena it takes place in has the ability to turn off gravity.” Deadpanned Aizawa, passing Uraraka a bag of saltines. “So forgive us, but we will be using you to practice for the event.”
“With your quirk, we will have a great advantage over the other schools! Vlad clapped Uraraka’s back cause her to crumble a bit. “And with my great Monoma,” he grabbed Monoma in a tight grip, lifting he off the the ground. “He can lessen the strain on your quirk!”
Knowing that someone else will be helping float the half the students didn’t really set her at ease watching the student and teacher pair praise each other. Apparently the spectacle didn’t fill Aizawa with confidence either has he approached her. “Have you had anything to eat?” when she moved her head in the negative he continued. “Well I made sure to bring snacks, and I’m fairly sure some of you classmates might have brought some extras for you anyway. Eat those crackers to start and later have something with a little more weight.”
“Thank you sir.” Uraraka sat down on the grass munching on her crackers. Watching the other students get ready, her eye caught a certain boy in particular, a slow blush began to grow and a small hiccup escaped her. With a single honeysuckle floating up into the air.
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“Okay! So they need us to divvy up into to teams!” Iida stood tall in front of the mass of students. He glass reflecting the confused stares from class B and the exhausted with his boundless energy from class A. “I suggest that we choose two team captions! Any nominations?”
A small hand from the back raised above the students heads. “I would like to nominate you, Iida” On Yaoyorozu’s cheek a small red pattern began to spiral. At first it looked like just the folds on a brain, tight and and wiggly, but as she kept talking the pattern became to be solid object. “You have been an excellent class president and I’m sure you will be a great leader at this exercise.” In the end, a red cockscomb flower full phased from her face. She was quick to snatch the crushed velvet textured flower before anyone one had the chance to spot her affection.
“Why thank you Yaoyorozu.” Iida adjusted his glasses. His demeter was a bit more cheerful and is gestures became just a bit more wild. He turned back to the mass of tired students. “Now any other nominates”
And the rest of the of the prep time when about as smooth as this bunch of kids could produce. Bakugou argued that he should should be a caption, yelling “I’M THE BEST OUT OF ALL YOU FOOLS”, and was quickly hushed by a sling of tape to the mouth and a set of rock arms holding him back from charging. In the end the classes choose Iida and Ibara for the leaders, with the teams being a nice mix from both classes.
“It looks like the teams are ready.” Aizawa pulled a large bag of balls out of his yellow sleeping-bag. “ So for the first three rounds your gravity will be taken away by Uraraka and Monoma.” Vlad pushed the pair up towards the groups.”They will be joining us a referees in the air while we say on the ground.”
“Now everyone please put on your harness” a small robot began handing out the equipment to the students. “These are to work with powerful magnets to keep you from float out to far.” Aizawa glaced at some of the more spirited students. “But please don’t try to push them to far. I really don’t feel like writing letters to your parents explaining how we lost you to space.”
“Now with all the formalities out of the way let's began! Vlad boomed, causing his class to cheer. The teams formed a line, one to Uraraka and the other to Monoma.
“Good luck out up there.” Uraraka said to each student she shook the hands of, “try not to freak out if you lose control. Just ride it out and don’t be ashamed if you throw up.” Her cheerful attitude about the prospect of her classmates losing their lunch, made the other students a little nervous. But when the hand next hand that came to her was connected to the human grenade with a loose pin, she was the one to turn have her nerves turn on her.
Instead of shaking his hand like the rest she tried to high-five the boy. And of course, right at the time their hands were to make contact she gets a fit of the hiccups. Being the ever silly child that she was and not wanting to further embarrass herself she didn’t let any flowers escape her mouth. Deciding to chew up the honeysuckles and destroying the evidence by dry swallowing the plants, slightly choking in the process.
“Are you okay?” A red-face Bakugou stammered, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone in the area, and most definitely trying to not to lock eyes with the girl in front of him. A fluff of orange dropped out of the hand he was still lamely holding up, thankful he spotted it before it could fall to the ground had he snatched it from the air with his other hand.
“Yeah, I’m good.” She choked out. “Good luck” A nice clean slap could be heard by all the students after she smacked Bakugou in the face, she was trying for his hand again without looking, failing. Her quirk took to effect immediately has he was sent flying up to the sky in flash. He barely had time to register the pain before he was sent up with orange chrysanthemums trialing under him.
“Well I guess that answers one question.” Hagakure whispered to Sero,who was bend over slapping his knee at the spectacle, tears falling from his eyes. The only reply he could muster through the laughs being, “that it does” repeatedly. As a flock of birds swooped the sky collecting the flowers before bring them to Kouta.
Kouta tried in vain to tell the birds to send the flowers to nearby field, but they kept circling him overhead like the rings on Saturn. With each rotation his blush grew darker in color, that by the time the birds had left him, his face was the same shade as Kirishima’s hair.
“Alright!” Vlad called from the ground to the unstable children above. “On the count of three the match will begin. Freely use your quirks at will!”
“Remember, the goal of is to gain stability and control in this environment.” Aizawa counseled. “One...Two...Three!” Using his capture cloth, Aizawa send several of the green dodgeballs in the air.
Sero and Ibara were the first to get their hands, well tape or vines, on a few of the balls that sailed past them, gently tossing them to their teammates. Yaoyorozu had made a wicker basket to wear on her back to help store balls so that she didn’t have to figure out how to get down to the ground to gain more ammo.
Uraraka could be seen trying to demonstrate how to propel through the air, using the smallest of movements to change her course. “Remember that, you want to start slow, otherwise-” She was cut off by a loud crash as both Bakugou and Iida tried to use their quirks to dodge a ball sent flying from Yaoyorozu’s handheld cannon. They ended up colliding together and begin spinning around at high speeds. “Otherwise, that will happen.” After Uraraka managed to separate them, the tell-tell sound of a gag filled the air as vomit dripped down from the spinning duo.
“And this is way I wanted to hold the session outside.” Aizawa deadpanned has he sidestepped a puddle of vomit.
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After being in the air for roughly four hours, the nauseated students were taking a slow march to the cafeteria. After the first thirty minutes of them being a complete clusterfuck, in trying to get their bearings, the group of students were able to come make develop a strategy to successfully play a full game. They took advantage of each other quirks to score point after point. Not to say that some still ended up emptying their stomachs. It is safe to say that the meal that Lunch Rush created would have happy mouths to fill.
“I don’t want to go back out there.” Hagakure whined to Ojiro, waving her chopstick in the air. “I know Aizawa said we won’t be doing the same thing.” the shoulders on her suit began to hunch over, as she tries to imitate Vlad “But I don’t trust Vlad. He seems to enjoy putting us through the ringer.”
“Well you seemed quick to get your footing”. Ojiro chuckled. “And besides we have been through worse.” Ojiro patted her shoulder sending a warm flush straight from where his hand laid to the root of her head. A familiar prickly feeling that, begin over a month ago, returned to her left hand. She could feel the small blossom beginning to sprout from her palm. And while she couldn’t see the flower, she had stumbled across many of these invisible tulips. When Ojiro turned his attention back to his lunch. She felt for the base of the stem of the flower and firmly pulled it out, she winced in pain as if have been stung by a bee. “Are you okay?” Ojiro unknowingly locked eyes with her, once again causing a flower to grow on another part of her body.
“Ye-yea-yeah, I’m fine” she stuttered. Waving her hand as proof, fulling believing that her secret was safe. “I think I might have bruised my hand trying to catch that throw from Bakugou earlier.” Before she could return to her food. Ojiro grabbed her hand without any problem, as if he could sense where it was. His slightly dry fingers messaged her hand, in an attempt to ease the non-existing bruise causing what felt like a whole bouquet’s worth of flower to appear on her legs.
“Oh,” His fingers found the spot where her affection had blossomed. “It's like a knot…or bite” he trailed off still rubbing the spot. “How can a ball do this?” Once again, he managed to lock eyes with Hagakure once again, sending her heart into a tailspin. She hurriedly pulled her hand out of his grasp as she made your way from the table. The flowers on her legs brushing the boys.
“Totally weird, right?!” She was panicking. Her whole body felt hot, and the butterflies in her stomach would not stop fluttering around, not to mention the new buds trying to sprout all over her body, sitting uncomfortably under her clothes. “I need to talk Momo real quick.” She yelled grabbing the attention of half the room, before running out. Ojiro barely had time to respond and just stared at her retreating clothes, with Yaoyorozu flowing behind.
“I’m so sorry.” Hagakure began. The two had found an empty classroom so that Yaoyorozu could help pluck the numerous amount of tulips that now covered her body. “I didn’t know what to do. There is way to many of them.” The panic still in her voice.
“Don’t worry about it.” she stated as she pulled two pairs of heat vision goggles. “This is the whole point of the group.” They both put on a pair of goggles and begin the long process of removing the flowers. With each pull a wave of tears began to swell, threatening to break. “You should talk to Aizawa about sitting out the next round and head to Recovery Girl.”
“Yeah, it’s like I’m covered in hives.” A slight chill ran down her spine as the last flower was picked from her back. She gingerly put back on her clothes, wincing everytime the fabric brushed against her skin. “I think I’m going to need some ointment this time.” she mumbled.
Yaoyorozu tied closed the bag filled to the brim with nothing. “This is quite a lot. Do you know what happened?”
“He looked me in my eyes...twice.” she whispered, hugging herself in an attempt to calm down. “I know it silly, but it’s like he can see right through me.” Momo giggled at her phrasing. “You know I mean. It’s like he truly sees me. And he probably doesn’t even realize.” To take her mind off of Ojiro she, studied the goggles that she took off her face. Ever present on one of Yaoyorozu’s creations was a the delicate design of the cockscomb flower. “I guess you're still struggling with your feelings too.”
Yaoyorozu took off her pair as well to study the design. “I think it's getting worse.” She replied, “earlier an actual flower dropped from my face.” He faced turned a bright shade of red. “I don’t think anyone saw, but I doubt they don’t know something is off. This has been going on for weeks now.” She fidgeted with the goggles, constantly turning them over in her hand. “I know that we can’t keep this hidden forever, but I figured we had more time before we had to confront our feelings.”
“Momo,” Hagakure place a hand on the girls shoulder. “I think we just have to bite the bullet and…”
“You’re right, but look at…” The image of Sero twisted in sadness crossed both of their minds. What if the boys didn’t return their feels. They would still have to deal with these flowers. And then the embarrassment of them knowing on top of that. Sure some of the class might suspect and create rumors to fulfill their curiosity. But surely having it all out in the open was worse. It could ruin their friendships, and neither of the girls were ready to give up the small moments they shared.
“Right.” Hagakure whispered.