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“Guess what day it is!” Ashido yelled, as she kicked the door to Yaoyorozu’s room fully open, making everyone inside jump as it banged against the wall.
“Uh, the eleventh?” Jirou frowned.
“It’s Pocky Day!” Ashido thrust forward two boxes of pocky, one matcha and one strawberry. “And you know what that means~”
“You bought pocky for us?” Uraraka gasped, eyes sparkling.
“Yep.” Ashido grinned, pulling open her purse to reveal a further variety of pocky boxes. “But, I’m not going to just give them out.” she grinned, kicking the door shut behind herself. “You’re gonna have to earn them.”
“How so?” Yaoyorozu frowned as Ashido all but skipped over, dropping to her knees opposite their loose semicircle of theoretical homework-doing.
“With this.” Ashido snatched up Yaoyorozu’s water bottle and shook it side to side briefly before setting it down on its side. “Deku and I went halfsies on the pocky, he’s getting all the guys together to play for their share right now.” she grinned, reaching into her bag and pulling out a silver foil-ish package of original flavour pocky. “So, who wants to play the Pocky Game?”
Tooru was only rarely glad of her invisibility, but right now was one of those moments. Nobody could see her blushing. “I’ll play.” she offered, the steadiness of her own voice surprising her. Her classmates agreed quickly, homework pushed aside as they pulled closer into some semblance of a circle.
“So, how do we know who wins the pocky?” Uraraka asked, eyeing Ashdio’s bag like she was considering trying to swipe a box outright.
“Easy.” Ashido pulled out the new spicy flavour and shook it teasingly. “Whoever pulls away first loses. If neither person pulls away, you both split the box.”
“Sounds fair.” Uraraka nodded, looking very serious.
“Also, spinner gets the chocolate end.” she declared, ripping open the package. “And we’ll go clockwise until we run out of pocky.” she leaned forward, grabbed Yaoyorozo’s water bottle, and gave it a spin. Tooru’s heart pounded in her chest as she watched it whirl, then slow, and she swallowed a sigh as it settled on Uraraka. She wasn’t sure if she was jealous, or relieved. Ashido pulled one of the pocky from the bag with a flourish, stuck the chocolate end in her mouth, and leaned forwards with what was probably meant to be a sultry smirk but really just looked kinda smug.
Uraraka hesitated, but only a little, taking the other end in her mouth and munching up the biscuit until, at the last second, Ashido bit down hard and reeled back, cheeks blazing. “Ha!” Uraraka cheered, grinning around the remainder of the stick. “Gimme the spicy one, gimme.” she leaned further forwards, swiping the box from where Ashido had set it next to herself, and sat back with a pleased little grin as she ripped open the top of the box.
“You really wanted those pocky, damn.” Ashido laughed.
“I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.” Uraraka huffed, clutching the box to her chest. “And you know how much I like spicy food.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ashido waved her hand dismissively and elbowed Tsuyu next to her. “You’re up.”
“Alright, kero.” Tsuyu leaned forwards and spun, the bottle coming to a stop pointed at Yaoyorozu. After they split the matcha pocky Jirou also spun Yaoyorozu, splitting the banana box. Yaoyorozu spun herself first, then Ashido, and won the berry flavoured box, then Uraraka spun Ashio again and won the strawberry ones, and Tooru felt a tiny bit bad for Ashido but not too much. After all, these were her own rules she was losing to. Uraraka was just as determined to win here as she was any other time things got competitive.
“Your turn, Hagakure.” Uraraka grinned, tapping her on the arm with her newly acquired box of strawberry pocky, and Tooru stared at the bottle as if it was going to bite her. What if she kissed weird? What if it turned out she didn’t like kissing at all? What if she backed out and the others poked fun at her?
“I can spin for you, if you want.” Ashido offered, and Tooru shook her head briskly.
“No, no, I got it.” she insisted, leaning forward. They’d not teased Ashido for chickening out twice, it was just a game after all. She grasped the bottle firmly and flicked her wrist, setting her heart pounding as it began to spin. It began to slow after a few agonizing moments, then slowed further, and further, until the cap was crawling past Uraraka, towards her, and then just barely past her to stop pointed between her and Ashido.
“Well, you can’t kiss yourself.” Jirou said with an easy grin. “Pucker up, Ashido.”
“We’re getting a new bottle, this one’s rigged.” Ashido huffed, but held the pouch out to Tooru for her to pick her pocky. She stuck the chocolate end in her mouth, and Ashido leaned forward to take the other end between her teeth with a smile of unmistakable challenge. She met Tooru’s eyes, or at least visibly tried to, and Tooru shut them as she nibbled down the length of the pocky. Ashido was so close she could smell her, the sharpness of her quirk’s acid and sweetness of her shampoo. Some sort of berry, Tooru was sure.
The dry press of lips against her own startled her so badly she nearly pulled away, but Ashido’s tongue tingled against her lower lip like salt and vinegar chips when she flicked it out to steal the last bite of pocky, and when Ashido pulled back Tooru didn’t move or open her eyes for a long couple of seconds. Ashido was smiling, when she mustered up the courage to look, cheeks flushed a deeper pink than usual but golden eyes bright. “You wanna pick the one we’re splitting?” she offered, and Tooru blushed again as Ashido held out her bag, showing off the boxes of pocky within.
“Uh, cookies and cream?” her voice squeaked a little, and she cleared her throat.
“Cookies and cream it is.” Ashido fished out the box and ripped it open, drawing one of the pouches out and handing it over to Tooru with a flourish. Tooru’s fingers brushed Ashido’s as she took the sweets, but Ashido’s blush darkened as well and Tooru’s heart fairly skipped a beat. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to work up the courage to ask Ashido to split the pocky they’d just divided with another round or few of the game. One played without the interference of Yaoyorozu’s water bottle.