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To be perfectly honest, when Kaminari had asked Uraraka if she wanted to go to the con with him, he hadn’t thought she would say yes. He figured she was either already planning on going with Midoriya, Tsuyu, or even Kirishima - if she went at all.. He knew she wanted to go because they’d all talked about it a few months ago when the guests were announced. Then they looked up the price of the tickets, and her level of excitement changed considerably.
The others had seen her face drop too but had been kind enough not to bring it up. Naturally, while the others continued to talk about it over the next few months, Uraraka went silent on the matter. She could save up money and potentially go, but then she would be stuck watching everyone buy merch or, even worse, deal with her friends offering to buy her something she really wanted. Kaminari would take free stuff any day, but it wounded Uraraka’s pride.
See, if they were dating, then he could buy her stuff for a reason, and she wouldn’t feel guilty over it. Of course, in order for them to be dating, he had to grow the balls to ask her out, something which he hadn’t done in over two years because of his miserable first attempt. Yeah, he’d faced a bunch of villains and fought through exam after exam and he’d even asked out other girls and been turned down.
But this was Uraraka . There was something about her that made him freeze up every time he thought he had it in him to ask her out again. Maybe it was because she’d obviously had a crush on Midoriya before or because Kaminari was fairly certain that there was at least one other guy interested in her that would stand out way more than him. His confidence was pretty high, all things considered, but getting rejected by her would genuinely hurt. He’d melt into a puddle.
Nonetheless, when he managed to score two free tickets to the con, he knew what he had to do. Maybe he was nervous as hell, but if anyone deserved to go, it was her. She couldn’t get upset with him spending money on her when he hadn’t. All he’d done was make the right call to Present Mic’s radio show at the right time at 4:42 in the morning, and he got the tickets free of charge.
So Kaminari grew a pair and he asked Uraraka if she wanted the second free ticket. To say that his heart nearly stopped when she squealed in delight and threw her arms around his neck would’ve been an understatement, but luckily his quirk seemingly jumpstarted it again when she pulled away. Her face was so flushed and her smile so big and eyes so bright that he could barely breathe.
Not that it meant anything, of course. This was a friends thing for sure. Back in the day, he might’ve got it in his head that this was a date, but he was wiser now at eighteen. At the very least, he wasn’t a complete dunce anymore. He had a little bit more emotional maturity now.
That newly developed maturity didn’t stop him from jumping around his dorm room when Uraraka had agreed to cosplay with him. They both liked old school video games, which they played in his room a lot. Mineta had nearly died when Kaminari told him that Uraraka was over the night before playing video games. He’d bombarded him with questions, only to walk off disappointed when Kaminari admitted that she had sat on the floor while he sat on his bed.
It was always innocent stuff like that. Despite both of them being pretty tactile people, they usually kept their distance when playing, maybe because they were in his room. He didn’t want to make her feel awkward because then she might not want to play again. The only exception was the night when he came up with the brilliant idea for them to cosplay as characters from one of their favorite video game series, Uncharted. It might’ve been an old one, but it was still super awesome and fun and one of the few games he didn’t mind watching over people play.
Compared to other video games, the clothes they needed to cosplay as Nathan Drake and Elena were simple. They were able to find decently passing clothes at a few thrift shops that looked pretty damn good. Look, Kaminari was comfortable enough with himself to admit that Nathan was a good-looking man, and in the clothes he’d picked out for the cosplay, he looked damn good himself. It turned out that all the training UA put him through had counted for something. Maybe he wasn’t as cut as Bakugou or muscley like Kirishima, but that didn’t matter. He brimmed with confidence.
Plus, Uraraka didn’t have to feel pressured to dress sexy or anything like that. Except that in the lowkey clothes she’d found for her Elena cosplay, she was undoubtedly hot. Kaminari didn’t know how he managed to get so lucky. Maybe he felt a little bad for ditching Mineta since he’d wanted to go to the con too, but honestly, he’d rather spend the day with a hot chick - and a really good friend. Uraraka was so eager and excited to walk into the con that she was practically bouncing. He’d probably have to keep her from floating away more than once.
He was a-okay with that.
“Let’s check out the artist alley!” Uraraka exclaimed, pointing in the direction of multiple rows of tables near the back. “They have the coolest stuff.”
“For real,” Kaminari agreed. “Their stuff is way better than the real merch half the time.”
Without a second to lose, she grabbed his hand and was pulling him toward the tables. It occurred to him around five minutes that she hadn’t let go of his hand even when they stopped to look at the first artist’s table. She flipped through a book curiously, engrossed in the person’s art, which was great and all, but he couldn’t stop focusing on the fact that they were holding hands. The pads of her fingertips were rough but not unpleasant, and she had a firm grip that made it impossible for him to pull away.
Unfortunately, his distraction finally caught her attention. Her eyes dropped down to their hands, and she quickly let go of him, muttering, “Sorry.” Blush tinted her cheeks, but before he could say anything, she averted her gaze and was moving on to the next table. He held in a sigh. She hadn’t actually wanted to hold his hand. She’d only been distracted and not thinking about it.
Her mood seemed off after that, so Kaminari did the one thing he always knew cheered people up: he made fun of himself.
“Look, Uraraka! Someone drew a portrait of me!”
Uraraka turned around and sputtered into laughter when she caught sight of him holding a picture of Pikachu next to his head. She had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from being too loud. Doing stuff like that never failed to make people laugh.
When she finally got a hold of herself, Uraraka searched the area and then pointed at something behind him. “And look, there’s me.”
Kaminari didn’t know what he was expecting when he turned around to see what she was pointing out, but a picture of Kirby with his mouth full and pink cheeks certainly wasn’t it. A bark of laughter so loud that the people around him startled caught him off guard. He was almost afraid of short-circuiting himself from laughing so hard. Uraraka beamed back at him, so full of giddiness and so cute that all he wanted to do was cup her round cheeks and kiss her.
You need to slow down there, buddy.
Right. They were here as friends, nothing more. Granted, they hadn’t talked about it, but he didn’t want to make any assumptions. He was smart enough now to know that making the wrong move could make their friendship awkward, which scared him more than never genuinely asking her out. Finding out that she meant more to him as a friend than his own desires was kind of a shock to the system.
Damn, he’d grown. Or was it really growing if he thought so himself?
“Oh hey! You two are from Uncharted, right?” one of the artists called out.
“Yup,” Kaminari declared, proudly striking a pose that made Uraraka snort and roll her eyes. Still, there was at least an amused smile on her face.
The artist gave them a thumbs up. “Perfectly in character too.” He held up his phone. “Can I get a picture? Uncharted is one of my favorite games.”
Kaminari glanced at Uraraka, not wanting to presume things, only for her to nod and say, “Sure thing!”
His heart did not beat frantically in his chest when she slid under his arm and let him hang it over her shoulder. She was snug against his side, warm and soft, and even wrapped her arm around him to hold him close. They both beamed for the picture, although Kamanari could tell that his cheeks were warmer than they should’ve been. Damnit, this guy was going to get a picture of him blushing like an idiot because Uraraka was hugging him.
Once he took the picture, he held it out for them to see. Uraraka pulled away from him so she could check it out and then asked if he could send it to her.
“Yeah, no problem.” He texted it to her after she gave him her number. “You two make a cute couple.”
The heat rose in Kaminari’s cheeks all over again. “Oh, um, we’re-”
“We do, don’t we?” Uraraka winked at him.
Forget melting into a puddle if he got rejected by her. He was going to melt into one now. Uraraka really was something special. This was going to be the best non-date ever.