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Ochako knew from the second she saw Mina hang up the small bundle of green and white that it would only cause them trouble.
She sat across the room from the cursed plant as it loomed over them all on its perch above the kitchen counters. Its pearly white berries caught her attention every now and then while she talked to the girls in the common room. The two classes had decided to throw a joint Christmas party this year and Ochako supposed it would be less embarrassing to cross paths with one of the Class B kids than someone from her own class. She wasn’t too close to any of the students from Class B, but she was a friendly person and got along well enough with most of them. They were a lot more down to earth than she had thought in her first year. Though in retrospect, her perception of them being stuck up was likely due to one student in particular.
“So.... Momo,” Mina began, “How was it?” She batted her eyelashes at the taller girl, waiting not so patiently for an answer.
Momo blushed and gave her friend a polite smile.
“Well?!” Mina pressed on, not letting Momo get away with ignoring her.
“It was...very pleasant.” Momo said. She took a small sip of her tea, bringing it up to block Mina’s quizzical eyes. Her posture was straighter than usual and her ankles were tucked neatly, one over the other. She did a good job of concealing her emotions and maintaining an aura of calm in even the most dire situations. Momo had certainly trained well and come far from her anxiety in their first year. Ochako knew from their nearly three years of friendship, however, that Momo was flustered. She also knew that Mina knew this as well.
“Oh c’mon, Momo! You can’t expect me to believe that a kiss with Bakugou is ‘pleasant’!” Mina exclaimed. Momo quickly set her teacup on the coffee table and grasped Mina’s pink wrists to bring them back down from the air. She looked around, her ponytail swaying with the momentum before leaning in close to Mina with a frantic expression.
“Mina! Please do not speak so loudly! The last thing I want is for you to announce… what happened earlier in the evening.” Momo said. Mina held her friends hands and apologized, but it was too late.
“You what?!” The two girls turned to face Kendou, who had been walking by the couch when Mina had made her exclamation.
By this point Momo’s face was bright red. She hadn’t wanted everyone to know, partly because it had happened so suddenly and she was still processing it herself, and also because...well… she had kissed Bakugou.
He wasn’t exactly the most inviting or approachable person. Yet, when she collided with him under the mistletoe, hard enough to knock herself onto her backside, he had caught her hand and pulled her close to himself. Close enough to see the specks of crimson and scarlet in his vermillion eyes. Her breath hitched and she became hyper aware of their position. Him angled slightly above her, their hands locked together, his other hand around her waist. They stayed in that position for a beat longer than necessary. Her eyes shifted from his own to the space behind his head, and widened. Whether Bakugou knew what she saw or not, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. That little bit of contact had her head spinning and her face burning up hotter than the sun. She had no idea what to feel. It wasn’t her first kiss but something about it felt special nonetheless. Bakugou quickly straightened them and cleared his throat before picking something up from the ground.
“You dropped this, Ponytail.” He said. He didn’t meet her eyes, but Momo thought the pink tint creeping onto his cheeks was a good look on him. It was something that, in the back of her mind, she hoped to see again.
“Thank you, Bakugou-kun. Though, I would appreciate it if you called me Yaomomo like everyone else.” A small smile graced her lips. She took the clump of tinsel from his hands and resisted the urge to giggle when she noticed him twitch as their hands touched.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll call you what I want ...Yaomomo…” Bakugou said. His eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere but at her, his hands both stuffed into the pockets of his baggy pants. “Well, uh, bye.”
He stepped past her and went into the kitchen area where he began preparing some food for the party. To his annoyance, Satou had already been in the kitchen and witnessed their entire… uh… interaction. However, the baker was smart enough to not comment on it or speak to Bakugou. Instead, he gave Momo a quick, albeit nervous, smile and continued whisking his meringue.
“Hello, earth to Yaomomo!” Mina said as she waved a hand in front of the raven haired girls face.
“He must be one helluva kisser if Yaomomo is spacing out like this.” Kendou teased. The two girls had bonded over their internships and their duties as class representatives, so Momo knew the teasing came from a good place. Kendou cocked one hip out and rested the tray of snack bowls on it as she gave Momo a knowing glance. “Well? How’d it happen?”
Momo chuckled as she felt the blush creep back onto her cheeks. "This is embarrassing."
"Aww Momo! Do you have a crush?!" Mina couldn't sit still, she was bouncing giddily in her seat, her pink curls bobbing around her head with her every movement.
"One question at a time, Ashido. Let's not overwhelm her." Kendou said, ever the big sister. Though that big sister attitude didn't stop her from wanting to know about Momo's liplock from earlier.
"Well," Momo fiddled with the hem of her skirt as she thought of the right words, "I was on my way out of the kitchen when I bumped into Bakugou-kun under the mistletoe… and well, it sort of happened."
“Nuh uh, that’s not what Satou told me!” Mina said. The pink haired girl raised one hand in the air, as if she were testifying before a courtroom, “I heard that Momo walked into Bakugou so hard she would have fallen right on her butt had he not caught her. And, and! He caught her like the love interests in the movies do,” Mina smiled giddily as she shook her arms in excitement, “They stood like that for a full minute, just gazing into each other’s eyes. Satou said that Bakugou had been on his phone so he couldn’t have seen the mistletoe, and that means he kissed Yaomomo because he likes her.” Mina was practically swooning at this point, her hands clasped together and tucked under her chin.
“Mina, please, I’m sure he only did it because he was aware of the mistletoe.” Momo reasoned.
“No, no, no! Don’t try to convince me otherwise, Yaomomo. Bakugou isn’t exactly the nicest person, if he didn’t want to kiss you he would have just walked away!”
“She’s right, Bakugou's not the type to just follow tradition.” Ochako said. The brunette had been anxious about possibly getting caught beneath the little bundle of leaves herself, but hearing about her friend's experience made her happy for Momo. The class representative seemed embarrassed, yes, but she also seemed very happy about her kiss with Bakugou. Ochako thought it was adorable to see Momo this way, blushing about kissing a boy she liked. It wasn’t often that they got opportunities to just be normal high school kids.
“I suppose that is true…” Momo said, trying to hide her blush behind her empty tea cup.
“Ha! I’m gonna go get some water. You want some too, Momo?” Ochako offered. Momo nodded politely, peeking at her friend from behind the tea cup. Ochako giggled and rose from her seat as Mina continued to pester their friend about her kiss. There wasn’t a detail she wouldn’t know by the end of the night.
Ochako made her way past the dining tables, where her classmates were playing various board games, to the kitchen area. As she stepped under the support beam which separates the kitchen from the rest of the room, she felt the urge to look up. Right above her was the thing she had been dreading all night. However, with no one nearby, she was confident she dodged a bullet. Ochako grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and set them on the counter. After filling the pitcher that someone forgot to refill after emptying, she went to fill up both glasses. Ochako took a sip from one and turned to go back to her seat. Instead of turning around to find an empty space, she found herself face to face with Shoto Todoroki, UA’s resident pretty boy.
In hindsight she shouldn’t have positioned herself near the edge of the counter, almost exactly under the mistletoe. It was too late to do anything about that at this point, though. Ochako hoped Todoroki hadn’t noticed the devilish plant hanging above them, taunting her with its very existence. And for a moment, she thought he hadn’t, that he was just waiting for her to move so he could get some water.
She was, however, very wrong.
Todoroki looked at Ochako, blinked, and then leaned down to plant a quick kiss on her lips.
The little squeak she let out was hopefully only audible to her.
Ochako felt her face heat up to an inhuman temperature. A tingle ran through her spine, making her straighten up and step back. Her eyes widened and she sucked in her lips, unsure of how to react. Her mind ran a mile a minute, trying desperately to process what happened. Todoroki waved a hand in front of her face.
“Uraraka? Are you alright?” He asked. If she had been able to look at him, she would have noticed the tinge of pink staining his cheeks. Ochako was too busy looking at anything but Todoroki, however.
“Yep, fine, absolutely dandy hah!” Ochako said before running to where her friends had been sitting, hoping desperately Mina had been too busy with Momo to see what had just happened.
Ochako sat down on the couch next to Momo, back turned to the rest of their class socializing around them. Momo had calmed down somewhat, judging by the shade of pink coloring her face. She turned to Ochako and frowned when she saw the cups in the other girls hands, “Ochako-chan, the cups are empty….”
Oh.
“Uraraka.” A voice rang out from over Ochako’s shoulder. “You, uh...forgot your water…”
Ochako kept her eyes fixed on the wall ahead of her as Todoroki came into her line of vision. The boy placed the filled pitcher of water on the coffee table in front of the girls. He stood there for a moment, hands at his sides, unsure of what more to say.
“...Thanks.” Ochako squeaked.
Sensing the tension in the air, Mina eyed the two suspiciously, “Hm… what’s up with you two? And Todoroki-kun, why is your shirt wet?”
Neither responded.
Kendou chuckled. Oh no , Ochako thought. The redhead had taken a seat, her snack tray resting on the table. She looked at Todoroki and then at Ochako, studied them for a second and then turned to Mina. Kendou nodded at the kitchen. Mina turned around, getting the hint from the other girl to look but she didn’t seem to understand.
“Notice anything?” Kendou asked, a smirk stretching across her face.
“No?” Mina said, confused and slightly annoyed.
“Take a closer look.”
Mina turned and squinted, looking around for any hint of what Kendou was referencing. Momo let out a small gasp followed by a giggle as she understood what Kendou meant. Ochako sat there, unable to meet anyone’s gaze as she turned beet red. Finally, Mina’s eyes widened as she found the missing link. She looked from Todoroki to Ochako then back to Todoroki and finally, back to Ochako before squealing giddily. Mina practically jumped out of her seat, bouncy up and down with glee.
“YOU KISSED?!?!” She shouted.
“wHAT? NO!” Ochako said, shaking her head as Todoroki simply nodded and said, “Yes.”
Ochako’s panicked gaze finally met Todoroki’s nonchalant one. He gave her a small smile and shrugged. She bit her lip but smiled back.
Mina was not gonna let this go any time soon.