Work Text:
Friday, December 20th
First lecture
(07:58) Did you send Kyouka a picture of Eri?
(07:58) Because she just sneaked me cats' treats and grumbled, "I guess she's cute."
(08:02) Please tell me you did I don't want my best friend to be crazy.
(08:13) Luckily for you, I did. By accident, mind you - you happen to be the only person I regularly send Eri pictures to.
(08:13) Also, did we finally give up on saying good morning like normal people?
(08:19) A huge relief, I must admit.
(08:20) I didn't even know you texted Kyouka.
(08:20) A belated good morning to you there, Shouto.
(08:21) It's more like Jirou texted me. Something about Kaminari being impossible to shop for.
(08:21) Momo, you know ‘Good morning’ only makes sense as a conversation opener, right?
(08:22) Since when do you care for semantics?
(08:24) And I thought Kyouka was just going to buy vinyl discs for Kaminari-san? At least that's what she told me when I asked her if she bought the Christmas gifts already.
(08:24) Dating you has clearly affected my indifferent opinion on semantics.
(08:25) Jirou was saying you questioning her about Christmas gifts made her think she needs to step up her game.
(08:26) And that I shouldn't tell you any of this because she was clearly *not* panicking. Crap.
(08:27) You're sweet, Shouto.
(08:27) In a "I would never trust you with my secrets if I had a dark past and wasn't dating you" sort of way, but still. Sweet.
(08:27) I see rooming with Jirou is finally rubbing off you. The snark is quite a sight.
(08:28) I think it's actually because of all the Disney movie marathons we had.
(08:28) Touche.
(08:29) Iida is poking me in the back with a pen so I'd put my phone away.
(08:29) We don't want the volleyball star to get bruised with the nationals approaching, now do we?
(08:30) Pay attention in class, Volleyball Dork.
(08:30) You too, Not a Science Dork.
Second lecture
The Bakusquad (ft. Lit Queen)
Explodo McExplode: I wouldn’t let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!
Cellophane: Ohhhhh
ElectroBolt: HOME ALONE REFERENCE AYYYYYY!!!!!!
Cellophane: *sniff* they grow so much
Red Riot: Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows
ElectroBolt: SHAKESPEARE REF
MsIllusions: buuuurnnn
MsIllusion: i dunno what’s worse your iq or your hairline
Cellophane: CAMIE STRIKES!! AND IT’S INNNNNNN
Explodo McExplode: I still don’t know why the fuck she’s in this groupchat.
Red Riot: Now now, Bakugou, be nice to your girlfriend
ElectroBolt: hes just annoyed that she won the last three insult contests in a row
Explodo McExplode: You’re all just weak bitches.
Cellophane: Maybe we should make Camie our leader
MsIllusions: pls bro
MsIllusions: i’m already a queen
Cellophane: True, Your Highness
Explodo McExplode: What the fuck did you dipshits smoke?!
ElectroBolt: shush baku bow to the queen
Explodo McExplode: THE FUCK?!
MsIllusions: you heard em bakubae
MsIllusions: i made it through my first year of uni
MsIllusions: now bow to me
Explodo McExplode: I’m fucking out.
MsIllusions: awww he got shy <3
Cellophane: I dunno how to explain this but the power Camie wields over Bakugou is highkey terrifiying
ElectroBolt: sero my beloved idiot shut up
ElectroBolt: bakus probably still reading these messages and sending you the death glare
Cellophane: Pray for me bro
Red Riot: Bro
Red Riot: *praying*
Lunch break
(13:04) Is it too late to be reborn.
(13:07) That wasn’t a question, huh?
(13:08) I thought you liked this life.
(13:08) It’s the third lunch war in under ten days, Momo.
(13:09) My praiseworthy patience has reached a praiseworthy limit.
(13:09) Allow me to guess: “The Bakusquad”.
(13:09) The one and only.
(13:10) And before you ask, no, I do not know what got into them (again). Just that Bakugou screamed “It’s fucking on you fuckers” and threw the first plate of pasta. The rest is history. (More exactly, history happening in the very front of my own two eyes, despite me not asking to be a witness. A victim is not what I wanted to appear as in the textbooks.)
(13:11) I am sorry for your cafeteria. It looks like so much food is wasted there…
(13:11) It’s so bad that even Iida gave up on controlling them.
(13:12) Oh Lord.
(13:12) You know, I thought it was a phase. I got through high school solely by telling myself “They’ll grow out of it. You’re going to be able to enjoy cold soba in peace, Shouto, as you deserve.”
(13:13) Retrospectively, I wouldn’t tell my younger self how wrong I was because he’d be terrified.
(13:13) I’d offer to have lunch together except I’m in the lab until 6.
(13:14) I consider it a miracle that you replied this fast. That’s it, I used up my luck for today.
(13:14) Well, you are lucky. I’m just waiting for my rotavap to be done so I can weigh my sample and cry at the low yield.
(13:15) But I wouldn’t say you used up all of your luck because I wanted to ask if we can get dinner together.
(13:15) Is that even a question.
(13:16) I don’t know Shouto, some people get tired of my nerdiness.
(13:16) Am I some people to you?
(13:16) I am deeply offended.
(13:17) Which is precisely why I choose where we’re eating tonight.
(13:17) So we’re getting ramen?
(13:17) I feel called out.
(13:18) Which is why we’re getting ramen *and* you’ll let me pay.
(13:18) That’s a very curious way to take revenge.
(13:18) Maybe if you didn’t insist we split everytime I would attempt to wine and dine my lady more often.
(13:19) You say it as if you don’t like our library dates.
(13:19) As much as I love studying with you and communicating through post-its, I really enjoy hearing your actual voice and getting to kiss you without getting thrown out of the library for PDA, too.
(13:20) Charming.
(13:20) I can feel you blushing from three buildings over.
(13:20) Pick you up at 6?
(13:21) Ah, you know the way to my heart.
Fourth lecture
(16:20) why is this lecture so serious
(16:20) its the last lecture of the year and hes telling us he wants each of us to compose a beat over the holidays
(16:21) oh and now as a beautiful bonus hes giving us a lyric assignment too
(16:21) you’re telling me all of this as if we aren’t sitting in the same lecture
(16:22) youre two rows in front of me
(16:22) as far as im concerned were inhabiting parallel universes
(16:23) it’s your fault you ran late
(16:23) its literally not
(16:24) you SAW what i looked like after the lunch break fiasco
(16:24) i think i did the entire music department a favor by running home and taking a shower
(16:25) man it just HAD to be fucking wasabi on the day i was wearing my favourite jumper
(16:25) so you’re telling me you didn’t say anything that could have riled bakugou up and thus caused the whole incident in the first place?
(16:26) i am deeply hurt
(16:26) offended
(16:26) wounded
(16:26) i’ll take it that’s a yes
(16:27) i thought we had a bond
(16:27) a connection
(16:27) a soul link strengthened by physical touch
(16:27) never say that again. ever
(16:28) why??? i love cuddling you!!!
(16:28) because you’re an overgrown cat
(16:28) I AM A SENSITIVE SOUL IN NEED OF AFFECTION
(16:29) next time keep said affection for times when we aren’t in the middle of the campus and our professors are sipping their coffee a table away from us
(16:29) i knew you were still mad about it
(16:30) DO I NEED PERMISSION TO MAKE OUT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND?!!!
(16:30) WHAT DID THE WORLD COME TO?!!
(16:31) WHERE IS THE VENERATION OF THE HUMAN BODY THAT DA VINCI WAS SO KEEN ON?!!
(16:31) oh my god
(16:31) i hate you
(16:32) thats kind of kinky
(16:32) wait no don’t block me again
(16:33) then stop being a dumbass
(16:33) but you love me when im a dumbass
(16:33) tragically
(16:34) but i also love you when you get excited over music and create beats in the middle of the night and then record them as voice notes cause youre too tired to move and still have a paper to finish
(16:35) you know, something to think about
(16:35) is this true love???
(16:35) this is me being mad at you and telling you that you’re more than a dumbass
(16:36) sounds like true love
(16:36) you’re impossible
(16:52) hey
(16:52) were still going to that concert tonight right?
(16:52) yes you doofus
(16:53) and youre not still mad at me right?
(16:53) i can feel you giving me the puppy dog eyes
(16:53) riiiigght?
(16:54) no i’m not
(16:54) <333333333333
(16:55) yes pikachu, i love you too
The Bakusquad
Cellophane: I need someone to hear me out
Cellophane: I’ve been trying to convince my TA to call carbons with 5 covalent bonds texan carbons but he keeps telling me there’s no such thing as a carbon with 5 covalent bonds
Explodo McExplode: Because there isn’t.
Red Riot: Because there isn’t
Cellophane: NONSENSE!!
Cellophane: Everything exists as long as you have imagination!! The sky's the limit!!!
MsIllusions: i agree
MsIllusions: your ta’s stubborn and dull
MsIllusions: tell them to fight me
MsIllusions: if a carbon wants to be buff and have 5 cova-whatever it should have them
Cellophane: Exactly!! Who are we to tell the carbon not to work out?!
MsIllusions: maybe your ta’s frustrated cause he ain’t putting no muscle on
Red Riot : Uhm
Red Riot: Why are you both so worked up over this one carbon?
Cellophane: CARBONS DESERVE RIGHTS!!
Explodo McExplode: Also cause the dipshit got a 2/10 on his assignment and I used to tutor Camie in high school for Organic Chemistry.
MsIllusions: don’t say those words in my presence, bakubae, like, ever
Cellophane: Only because, as we have established, my TA’s unreasonable
Red Riot: Maybe you should start actually studying organic chemistry, dude
MsIllusions: or maybe you can ask your ta to join you at the gym so you can bond over texan carbons!!!
Cellophane: I like Camie’s idea
Cellophane: Let’s go with Camie’s idea
Cellophane: This is why you’re my one and only queen, Cams
ElectroBolt: tf did i miss and whats a texan carbon and where can i get one
Explodo McExplode: I really, really want to fucking kick all of you out of this chat.
After lab
“Sorry,” Momo pants as she runs up the stairs from the lockers, hair still pulled up in a ponytail and protection glasses forgotten on the bridge of her nose. Shouto chuckles as he pulls them off for her, and Momo’s mouth rounds adorably in amusement. “Force of habit.”
“Truly,” Shouto chuckles. “Tough day?”
“Lab day,” Momo shrugs. “We’re getting nowhere with this report because I can’t find a reliable source for the activation energy because no one is interested in trioxalate manganate and I don’t blame them, it’s a very boring compound.”
“Well if it’s any consolation, I’m still sitting through classes with that one professor that memes Schroedinger’s cat and his jokes aren’t getting any better,” Shouto offers, eliciting a small giggle out of Momo. “Today was his last lecture of the year and he felt like he had to go out with a bang, so he brought an actual cat to school.”
Momo laughs, hand shooting up to stiffle the chuckles. “You could say the situation got hairy.”
“Oh, most definitely,” Shouto grins, “because he is terribly allergic to cats.”
And then Momo loses it, stumbling a little into Shouto with the force of her laughter, head falling on his shoulder just long enough for him to press a kiss to her cheek. It’s getting colder by the day, and the air smells frosty, like it’s going to start snowing any minute now, but Momo has always called Shouto her walking furnace, so she just steps closer to him as they climb down the stairs and head for the ramen place.
They swing their linked hands like children, each time going for a wider swing, until they have to bend a little. It’s silly, but it’s also almost Christmas, so they can’t be blamed for acting like younger versions of themselves. All the faculty buildings are decorated - the biology department they pass by on their way has dressed up Ben the Skeleton in a Santa Claus costume, and Shouto knows for a fact that Tsuyu made a very solid point about the Nightmare Before Christmas and how Jack should have worn it at least once.
It makes him question his friends every now and then.
“You’re free on the 26th, aren’t you?” Momo muses by his side, most likely trying to devert his attention from the way the pillow peeks from behind the buttoned up red jacket of the Santa Skeleton (he’s pretty sure fat is supposed to desintegrate).
“Am I?” Shouto says. “I think I had an anniversary date. My gut tells me Disneyland,” he adds playfully, and Momo swings their arms into his chest.
“Our anniversary is the 24th.”
“You know how I feel about semantics,” Shouto shrugs.
“Are you equally indifferent to numbers?”
“Yes, when they don’t allign with my intentions.”
Momo snorts - it’s a small and really cute sound that Shouto still has a hard time wriggling out of her (something about it being impolite and unladylike), so he counts it a small victory. They swerve into the main road, bustling with students rushing home to pack before catching a late train back home or waiting on their friends to celebrate the upcoming holidays over drinks, and settle into something quieter.
The stars are fogged up by the polution in the city, but tonight the sky is clear enough to reveal them nonetheless. Momo squeezes his hand and tilts her head further back. “Are you thinking about constellations again?”
He just hums. “I’ve done enough thinking for today,” he settles for, relieved that he finally handed his presentation in before he came to pick up Momo. Neither him nor Midoriya were completely satisfied with it - they omitted a huge part of the intricacies of the Higgs Boson, but there was only so much that could be done within 10 pages. “I was just admiring.”
“They’re beautiful,” Momo sighs, and Shouto looks down. Her cheeks are rosy with the cold, muffler pulled over her chin. “For centuries, people have admired the stars without knowing anything about them, but they built stories around them, created astral signs and zodiacs, painted them - and it was all because we were yearning for something that seemed so incredibly beautiful when they’re really just collections of rocks and stelar dust.”
“Are you implying rocks aren’t beautiful?” Momo blinks and her eyes dart back to him. “I’m just saying, yes people were fascinated because stars were mysterious forms of light hanging from the skies, but the fact that we understand what they are now doesn’t make it any less incredible.”
Her lips pull into a smile. “That’s even more beautiful.”
Shouto pokes the crease between her brows with a thumb. “What brought this on? Don’t even try to deny it, you get philosophical when something’s worrying you.”
“It’s kind of stupid.”
“It’s never stupid.”
“Christmas,” Momo bursts all of a sudden, spitting out the word like it did something to offend her. “It’s just - every year, there’s this giddy atmosphere as we all wait for Christmas, and build up our expectations, and then when Christmas comes it’s just another ordinary day with a lot of food and presents, but it’s really just an ordinary day, and it’s like we’re always yearning for something that will never come.”
“Well, yeah?” Shouto isn’t sure what else to say, but the way Momo’s cheeks puff with a pout tells him that’s not it. “It’s just like with the stars - just because it’s an ordinary day doesn’t mean we can’t be excited for it.”
“It’s about expectations, Shouto. I have all these memories of Christmas being magical from when I was a kid but I can’t seem to be able to relive them and so I wonder if they’re even real or if I’ve just painted them as such in my memory.”
“I don’t think you’ll ever really find an answer to that,” he says truthfully. “But does it matter? Memories will always be distorted, but as long as they’re good memories, there’s nothing wrong with keeping them that way.”
“You don’t feel too strongly towards Christmas,” Momo says matter of factly.
“Well, no. But it did become an important day three years ago, so I can look forward to that.” Her cheeks color a deeper pink, and this time, it’s not from the cold. “You can raise your expectations, or you can choose to let yourself be surprised like on any other normal day.”
There’s a pause - Shouto grew used to them, and he lets Momo mull over whatever it is for as long as she needs. They’re different in a lot of ways - his impulsiveness versus the way she takes her time thinking over things, the way he sees the world without complications or overthinking his decisions, whereas Momo will always stop at a crack in the sidewalk to watch a dandellion sway.
Shouto thinks that’s why they work so well.
“Yeah,” Momo says eventually, just as they reach the ramenya. Shouto gives her a smile and holds the door open, hit by the smell of food and the warmth of the restaurant, and maybe these small moments of respite on an ordinary day are even better than one single magical day.
They talk about Christmas, chemistry and Santa Ben over Ramen and sake, and there’s something magical in how ordinary it all is, Momo points out at the end of the evening. Shouto leans down to kiss her, and thinks that’s magically ordinary, too.