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“Kaminari!” Uraraka leaped down the last few steps to the ground, arms pinwheeling.
The blond boy stopped and half-turned to look back at her with an eyebrow raised. “Hey.”
Uraraka ran up and leaned forward to catch her breath. “Sorry. Sprinting...glad I caught up to you.” She straightened and grinned up at him. “So, you were saying something earlier and I got distracted and ran off. That was rude. I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
“Uh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out somewhere, like this weekend,” Kaminari said, grinning.
“I’d love to!” said Uraraka. “What did you have in mind?”
“Anywhere’s good with me.”
“Oh, hey in that case, there’s this cat cafe not far from here I’d like to try out. How’s that sound?”
“Sure, sounds cool!”
“Oh!” Uraraka pulled off her backpack and rummaged inside for a second, then came up with an old cellphone. “I’ll give you my number, okay?”
“Yeah, here’s mine,” said Kaminari, pulling out his own phone.
They took a couple of seconds to enter each other's contacts, then Uraraka said, “Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow!” She waved, then took off towards the UA gates.
Kaminari grinned and waved back and said, “See you!” Only once she was out of sight did he fist pump and say, “Yes!”
~~~
Uraraka sprinted along the last block to the cat cafe. Stopping at the door, she caught her breath and looked around for Kaminari, but he was nowhere to be seen. She checked her phone, which showed no new messages and a time of 11.13. Her most recent text had said, “c u at 11:15”.
“Guess I didn’t need to worry about being late,” she said.
A bell above the door tinkled when she entered the cafe. She smiled up at it, then looked around the narrow dining area. It was well lit, with a long counter along one side and chairs and tables on the other, under a series of cat-shaped windows. But as far as she could see, there were no real cats.
Not noticing the worker watching her expectantly from behind the counter, she walked the length of the cafe, following a trail of painted paw prints to a frosted glass door with the words, “CAT ROOM. PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY.”
“I need to buy something to see the cats?” she whispered, frowning. She turned around and finally spotted the remarkably bored-looking barista, who was resting her elbows on the counter and slumping forward at a dangerous angle.
“Hi!” Uraraka said, grinning as she approached the counter.
The barista straightened as if she’d been shocked and smiled back. “Good morning! What can I get for you?”
“Uh…” Uraraka scanned the menu posted along the wall behind the counter. She made a few squeaky noises in response to some of the prices, but finally said, “I’ll have the strawberry milk tea, thanks!”
“Sure,” the barista said, entering the order into the register.
While Uraraka paid, the door opened with another ring from the bell. She looked up to see a boy wearing a backwards ballcap and aviator shades, and after taking a moment to recognize him said, “Hey, you made it!”
Kaminari took the sunglasses off and tucked them into the collar of his tye-dye print hoodie, sleeves bunched up to reveal arms covering in wristbands. “Hey! You been here long?”
“No,” Uraraka said. “Excited to meet some kitties?”
“Yeah!” he said, grinning. He looked back at the menu and rocked on his heels. “What did you get?”
“Milk tea!” Uraraka said. “I really wanted the mochi, but I think I’ll wait until after we see the cats.”
The barista looked up from where she was preparing Uraraka’s order and said, “If you’re going in now, I can hold this until you come out.”
“Really? Thank you!”
“You want something?” the barista asked Kaminari.
“Yeah,” he said, leaning onto the counter as he did.
“I’ll meet you in there!” Uraraka said.
Through the door, she found a tiny room equipped with sinks and a chalkboard listing all the cafe rules. An employee was overseeing the departure of a small family. The visitors all bustled out past Uraraka, leaving her alone in the room.
“Hey, welcome to the Cat Room!” the employee said. “Have you been here before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Cool. Just so you’re aware, we have a few rules: Wash your hands before and after going in, don’t tease or annoy any cats, don’t pick up any cats, don’t feed them, no loud noises and listen to any instructions given by employees. It’s pretty straight-forward, really.”
“Cool, thanks!” Uraraka said. She washed her hands, left her bag on a shelf where the employee promised to watch over it, then entered the room. It was about twice as big as the cafe and filled with built-in climbing trees and cube shelves for the cats to hide in. There were also chairs and scratching posts and floating shelves that let the cats peek out onto the street or into the cafe. There were three other people dangling toys or stroking cats who purred at the attention.
Uraraka looked around and spotted a big calico watching her intently. “Hi,” she said, walking over to where the cat lounged on top of a shelf. She reached out to rub behind the cat’s ears. It closed its eyes, leaned into her touch, flicked its tail and purred in an endless, low rumble. “You’re super cute, huh?” The cat meowed. “And you know it,” she said with a giggle.
Kaminari was just a minute behind her and came up to Uraraka rather quickly. “Hey!”
“Hi!” Uraraka said back.
The cat, however, raised her hackles, jumped to her feet and fled to the top of a climbing tree at the end of the shelf.
“Oh, crap, I’m sorry!” Kaminari said, raising his hands apologetically.
“It’s okay. I think you just startled her,” Uraraka said, tilting her head and laughing. “Hey, let’s try getting to know this one!”
She walked up to a siamese seated on a chair and let it sniff her fingers. It meowed loudly, then began rubbing its face along her arm. Uraraka knelt down to get closer to its level and turned to Kaminari, “Here, come try!”
“Sure,” He came up and mimicked her, reaching out to let the cat sniff him first. The cat did so, then bared its teeth and hissed. With a flick of its tail, it jumped to its feet and over the back of the chair, vanishing before Uraraka could stand and see where it went.
Kaminari sighed and stood up beside her.
“Maybe they can sense your quirk or something and it makes them nervous.”
Kaminari frowned and said, “But this has never happened to me before. Most cats-”
“Excuse me,” a young woman wearing a shirt with “Cat Keeper” printed on it said. “Try removing your hat. Lots of cats are freaking out by them.”
“That’s weird,” said Uraraka. “Why?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe they just know that’s not your regular hair,” she said with a chuckle.
Kaminari tucked his hat into his sweater pocket and they found another cat, with a reddish coat and two different eye colours.
“Wow, this one looks like Todoroki!” Uraraka said, reaching up to stroke the cat where it perched on a cubicle shelf.
“It kind of does,” said Kaminari. When he tried to pet it, though, it made a grab for one of his wristbands, startling both teens into stepping back.
Uraraka giggled. “At least it didn’t run away this time.”
“I guess she was right about the hat,” he said, spinning slowly around. There was an almost-white cat sleeping on a tree at waist level, its fur sticking up in all directions. Kaminari grinned and said, “Hey look, it’s Todokitty’s friend Bakucat!”
“Oh, wait, Deku calls him Kacchan, right? So how about ‘Catchan’?”
“This guy looks a lot nicer than Bakugo, though,” Kaminari said, looking back at Uraraka as he reached forward to pet the cat. He didn’t see its eyes open suddenly.
“Look out!” Uraraka said.
It was too late, and the cat swatted at Kaminari’s hand. They both stared in shock for a moment. Then four red lines appeared on the skin between his thumb and forefinger.
“Apparently not…” Uraraka said numbly.
The cat keeper let them into the handicapped bathroom along with a first aid kit. Kaminari ran his hand under warm water, flinching at its touch. He brushed the hair out of his eyes with his good hand and said, “Sorry about that. I can deal with this if you want to go back.”
“No way!” Uraraka said, emphatically shaking her head and grinning as brightly as normal, though she wasn’t looking at him as she said it. Instead, she was digging through the first aid kit for everything they might need.
“If you’re sure…”
“Of course! What are friends for? Here, let me clean it up.”
She tore open a package and pulled out an antibacterial wipe. Kaminari awkwardly twisted to grab a paper towel from a cat-shaped basket beside the sink, dried his hand, and held it out to her. Even though she was careful, he still winced when the alcohol touched the wound and looked to the side.
“Hold that there for a sec,” Uraraka said.
Kaminari took his hand back and pressed down on the wipe. Red blood seeped onto the damp cotton, spreading quickly.
“Ugh. That was dumb of me.”
“What, in there? That cat was just startled is all. It could have been anybody.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Uraraka peeled an adhesive bandage from its wrapping and held it out. Kaminari lifted the wipe, which was more pink then white at that point, and let her apply the bandage. She pressed it gently onto his skin, which caused a small blush to blossom on his face. For her part, Uraraka was entirely focused on the task at hand, even biting her lip in concentration. She didn’t even look up.
“That’ll do it,” she said after a moment.
“Thanks!” said Kaminari.
Both of them washed their hands and left the bathroom.
“Are you going back to the cat room?” asked Kaminari.
Uraraka considered it for a second, then said, “Not if you aren’t. Let’s get our tea!”
The barista helpfully took the first aid kit and delivered their drinks.
“Let’s sit over here!” Uraraka said, pointing out a sunlit table in the corner between the front window and cat enclosure. A cat-shaped window showed a large brown cat sleeping on the inside ledge. “Aww, look at that guy! He looks so happy, just sunning and all!”
Uraraka went to make sure they didn’t lose the table, not noticing that Kaminari wasn’t behind her until after he caught up and held out a paper box to her.
“What?”
“Thanks for taking care of my hand,” he said, waving his arm slightly.
“No problem!” Uraraka said. After taking the box, she carefully opened it. “Mochi!” she squealed when she saw what was inside.
“You mentioned it earlier.”
“Thanks! It’s my favourite!”
Uraraka took a bite of the treat while there was a break in the conversation. “Wow, this is good,” she said quietly.
“So’s this,” Kaminari said of the milk tea he was holding. “So, hey, anything you want to do after this? Like, uh-” he paused, eyes widening and stammered on, “Whatever girls do, um, shopping or something.”
Uraraka raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, ‘whatever girls do’?”
Kaminari straightened and looked to the side, “That’s not what I meant, I just, uh, sorry, it was dumb.”
Uraraka still hadn’t stopped smiling and said, “It’s okay, I get it! Everyone slips up sometimes, right? Besides, you’re kind of right. All the girls at my old school were always talking about going to the mall, makeup, boyfriends. I just never was that interested. So I hung out with the boys, mostly.”
“Really? The girls at my old school wanted nothing to do with us guys.”
“Aww, that’s too bad. I never really understood that. Why can’t we all just be friends without needing to be, like, dating or whatever?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Kaminari relaxed back into his seat, one arm draped over the back. “Um, have you ever been on a date before?”
“Oh, no I haven’t!” Uraraka said.
“So this is your first?” said Kaminari, his face lighting up.
Uraraka looked like she had been frozen for a moment. Then, her face still stuck midway into a giggle, she stiffly asked, “This is a date?”
A squeaky sound escaped Kaminari’s throat and he raised both hands, waving them around as he said, “I mean, it doesn’t have to be, I just assumed...when I asked you...then you…”
“No, no,” said Uraraka, mimicking his actions and panicked expression. “I should have realized, I mean, duh, Ochaco! Sorry, aw, I can’t believe I didn’t-”
The cat in the window lifted its head and regarded the teens through narrowed eyes. Its tail switched but neither of them noticed as they stared at each other, eyes wide and mouths open. Then the corner of Kaminari’s mouth lifted slightly and he chuckled. Uraraka, already turning bright red, started to laugh herself. In a couple of seconds, both of them were laughing raucously, Uraraka raising both hands to her mouth and trembling as she tried not to spit out her last gulp of milk tea.
Kaminari placed his arms on the table and leaned into them, gasping for breath as his shoulders shook. Just when it seemed like he had laughed himself out, he looked up, saw Uraraka’s blush and was set off again. That caused Uraraka’s laugher to resume.
The window cat opened its eyes fully and seemed to furrow its brow at the two. Then it flicked its tail and leaped up and away from the window. A couple of minutes later, Uraraka finally gasped, “I think I won the dumbest move of the day award.”
Kaminari couldn’t even get his breath for a response and just banged the table with his fist as he continued to laugh into his other arm. Uraraka snorted, gasped and covered her mouth again. Tears welled up in her eyes as she laughed on soundlessly.
When Kaminari came up for air at last, he said, “I think I needed that.”
“Me too,” said Uraraka, wiping her eyes. “Crazy how much a laugh can do, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“I really am sorry. I guess it’s kind of a let down for you.”
“No way!” said Kaminari. I mean, we’re here, so we can just hang out.”
“Yeah. It’s kind of nice to be out and about, anyway.”
“Totally!”
“Hey, maybe we could explore the city after this!”
“Sounds good to me! We’ll be spending a lot of time around here, anyways.”
“We can give our classmates tours!”
“We’ll be invaluable to them!”
In the next pause, Uraraka turned to the window. “Aw, the cat left.”
“It couldn’t handle being in the presence of so much greatness,” Kaminari said as he leaned forward and rested his chin on one hand.
Uraraka chuckled, took another long sip of her tea, then, eyes on Kaminari’s arm, asked, “What’re all those wristbands for?”
The boy leaned back and tilted his forearm. “These? They’re just, from concerts and places I’ve been. Like this one’s from Disneyland.” He pulled off a red and black band and twirled it around his index finger.
“Wow, Disneyland! I always wanted to go when I was little, but we never could, uh, find time. So, they’re not for absorbing electricity or anything?”
“Disney?” Kaminari raised an eyebrow and frowned. Then he inhaled sharply and said, “Oh, these, no. I mean, I guess they could be. I hadn’t thought about it. Hey, I can do this with them, too.”
Turning in his chair, Kaminari arranged the wristband around the thumb of his left hand and pinched the other end with his right fingers. He closed one eye and stuck out his tongue. Uraraka’s gaze followed his motion as he tilted to band upwards and pulled back on it. For a second, she glanced at the space he was apparently aiming at, on the opposite wall near the front door. Then, the band whipped across her field of view and hit the doorbell, causing it to jangle loudly.
Until that moment the barista had been leaning on the display cooler with her eyes closed, but then she jumped up and said, “He-” She looked at the door, eyebrows furrowed, then shook her head and sank back to the cooler.
Uraraka and Kaminari both stifled a laugh, then he got up to retrieve the wristband.
“Nice aim!”
“Thanks!” Kaminari said, pointing a finger gun at her.
“Could you show me how to do that?”
“Sure!”
They spent the next several minutes shooting the bands at the bell, the front window and each other. The corner where they were was quiet, and no one seemed to notice. Feeling bold, Kaminari fired a white wristband at one of the cat windows. It hit with a bang, causing the barista to suddenly wake up again and the cat in the window to take a flying leap away from the noise.
“Bullseye!” said Uraraka, turning and leaning back over her chair.
Kaminari stood to retrieve the projectile.
“Hey!” They both looked up to see the employee who’d told them the cat rules. “You can’t do that in here!” He didn’t look mad, but serious, and his voice was no longer friendly.
“Oops, I didn’t even notice!” said the barista.
“Sorry!” Uraraka said, waving over the back of her chair. It caused the furniture to suddenly overbalance and she grabbed at it automatically. Then it floated a few feet off the ground.
“Whoa, hey!” said both employees.
“Uraraka!” said Kaminari, making a grab for, and missing, one of the chair legs.
“Oh no, release!” Uraraka said, pressing her hands together. Kaminari was forced to move back as the chair fell with a bang. Before it landed, Uraraka caused herself to float and settled back into it without injury.
They still got kicked out of the cafe.
“Well, guess we can start exploring now!” Uraraka said.
“As just friends?” said Kaminari.
“Sure thing, ‘just friend’!” said Uraraka with another laugh.
The End