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Eijirou was anxious. He knew Mina wouldn't make fun of him, but he didn't know what she would say to his request. Almost ten minutes of overthinking later, he took a deep breath and pressed the button to make the call. One, two, three rings... and he exhaled, relieved.
"Hello?" Mina's voice came through the phone, and her sleepy tone told him she just woke up.
"Hum, hi?" he took a deep breath again, balling his free, shaking hand in a fist "Sorry I woke you up."
"Hmm..." he could hear the sheets moving, then the soft sounds of Mina walking around her bedroom, "It's okay, I overslept anyway. Do you need anything, Kiri?"
"I was wondering if you would go with me to the mall? There's something I want to do, but I need your help, and I'm not really sure if I'll go through with it and you’ll probably think it's silly, but-"
"I'll meet you there and you can tell me what it is then, ok?" Mina cut off his anxious rambling, and Eijirou let out a sigh.
"Yeah! Cool, that sounds cool to me!" his voice picked up a little at the end, but he focused again, "Can we meet in front of the fountain?"
"Sure," he could hear that she was opening her closet, "is an hour enough time? I'll have to shower first, but we can eat something there if you want."
"Yeah!" Eijirou didn't want to say he was already ready, so he tried to calm down a little so his voice didn't betray him again, "An hour sounds good. See you there!"
He didn't wait for an answer, ending the call as soon as he finished speaking. Now to not have an anxiety attack before meeting Mina. He could do it, right? Yeah, he could. With shaking hands, he chose his favorite bomber red jacket and went downstairs to wait until he had to go so he wouldn't be late. After half an hour of playing games on his phone, Kirishima got up from the couch and went to his mom's office.
"Hey, Mom," he said while knocking lightly on the door, but not opening it "I'm going out for a bit, okay?"
"Sure, honey," he heard back, then a few seconds later, "Who are you meeting?"
"Mina, Mom," he heard his mom chuckling from behind the door, and felt his cheeks warming up.
"Have fun, honey! Don't come back too late, okay?"
"Sure! Thanks, Mom!" was yelled while the black-haired boy rushed towards the front door and put on his sneakers.
Almost an hour after the call, Mina found her friend sitting on a bench near the fountain with his leg bouncing up and down. She chuckled softly, looking over his light blue jeans, black sneakers, a black t-shirt and his favorite red bomber jacket. He had his shoulder length black hair tied up in a messy bun and his phone on hand, backpack in the middle of his legs.
"Hey, Kiri!" she called out when she was a foot away, and felt her chest warm up at the sight of his wide smile directed at her.
"Mina!" he got up, stumbling over his backpack and almost falling over "Oh, shit, sorry!" he cursed, and she laughed, steadying him by holding his arms.
"You should reconsider my offer, you know," Mina said, starting to walk by his side after he picked his backpack up "dance classes help a lot with balance, and it's a way to stay fit too!"
"For as much as I like to watch you dancing, Mina," he shook his head because this was the ninth time they discussed this, but his smile never dropped, "I need to bulk up because of my quirk, and dancing doesn't help me do it," he laughed when she slapped his arm without any force behind it.
"Well, it would help with your balance and it's fun," she hooked her arm around his "Anyway, what did you want my help with?" she eyed him, noticing that she needed to look up to stare at his eyes now.
"Well," Eijirou blushed, anxiety eating his insides once again, "don't make fun of me, okay?"
"Of course not, Ei," Mina said, squeezing his arm "I promise, ok?"
"Okay," he took a deep breath and said, "you know how I love Crimson Riot, right?"
"Hard not to know, Kiri, but go on," the girl chuckled softly, thinking about all the posters and memorabilia in the boy's bedroom.
"I was thinking about what my hero name could be, the other day," he started, staring forward, not meeting his friend's eyes, "Since the entrance exam just happened and I think I got enough points to get in, so..." he trailed off, a little insecure about what he would say next.
"So?" Mina prompted, stopping and pulling the boy with her to the side so people wouldn't bump in them.
"I thought about the name Red Riot, and how it would be a nice way to both honor and look up to him," he finally took courage to stare into her eyes, "but I want to change some stuff to create an image, you know? So that when people think about the hero Red Riot, they think about me, and I know that the image we project to the public is a huge part of being a pro, and since my quirk isn't the flashy type this could help me with it!"
"Okay, first of you quirk is awesome," Mina blinked at him, curious about what he wanted to change, "and what is it that you wanna change?"
"My hair."
"What?" she was confused now, he wanted a haircut and asked for her help?
"I want to dye my hair," he answered her, cheeks burning up, "red, I want to dye my hair red."
"Oh," she blinked at him again, and when the words sunk in, she grinned "OH! That's so cool, Kiri, oh my god, and you're going to look gorgeous with red hair!"
"Do you really think so?" his voice came out small, face entirely red by now, the compliment making his heart flutter in his chest.
"Yeah!" she bounced in place, hands gesturing wildly between them, "Oh my god! This is going to be so much fun! Let's go, Ei," she took one of his hands on hers and pulled him along, making a beeline to the nearest beauty store, "I can't wait! You're gonna look amazing!"
Kirishima let himself be dragged to the store and followed dutifully behind Mina until she stated they had everything needed to dye his hair, then he paid and they took the train back to the boy's house.
"We forgot the gloves, Kiri," Mina groaned, viewing the display on the boy's bathroom countertop.
"Is it important enough to go back to the store?" he eyed the products warily, anxiety eating him up.
"Not really, we will just have to deal with the stains for a day or two," she shrugged it off and pointed a finger at the boy, "You! Put on clothes that you don't mind possibly staining a little and come back, ok?"
"Yes, ma’am!" he laughed, making a mock salute and going into his closet to put on an old pair of sweats and a t-shirt.
When he came back, Mina had her phone playing music and she gestured to the edge of his tub. She started by applying lotion in the boy's face, hairline, and ears. Then she opened the packages and read all the instructions, mixing everything up and using a clip to part Kirishima's hair in half, applying the dye carefully with the little brush they bought.
After a while, all of his hair was colored and Mina put on the plastic cap to avoid it from staining everything in the house. They went back to his bedroom and powered up the console to play games while waiting to rinse his hair.
After a few rounds of a fighting game, the alarm blared through the room signaling that it was time to rinse his hair. So Kirishima got up and went back to the bathroom, along with a change of clothes. Not long after, he was coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his head and another set of old clothes.
"Hey, come here! Let me style your new hair!" Mina squealed, tugging Eijirou so he would sit down on his desk chair, "I'll do it with spikes, so it's similar to Crimson Riot, okay?"
"Yeah!" Kirishima beamed at his friend, "I didn’t think about this part, only that I wanted to dye it red... what would I do without you, Mina?"
"You would probably be a sad, sad person, babe," she giggled when he pouted at her, but then hugged him before starting the hairdryer and combing her fingers through his hair.
The styling part of the transformation took a while, and because of the hairdryer, they couldn't speak much, so when it was time to use the hair gel, they took a few minutes.
"Let me go and pick a few snacks for us. It's been a few hours since we ate and we have to figure out how to do this," Kirishima stretched out, picking up some stuff and putting it back on the counter before going downstairs.
After eating and doing the last step, both friends were standing in front of Kirishima's full body mirror, staring at his reflection. Mina, for the first time, felt a pull in her heart while staring at her best friend. She didn't understand what the feeling was, but she knew he was beautiful with red hair. And she was proud of being a part of this, of helping him do this. She could tell he was feeling more confident now, with his hair dyed and styled, and she hugged him.
"You're looking amazing, Ei!" she squealed in joy, and smiled when he hugged her back.
"Thank you for doing this with me, Mina," he murmured against the girl's head, tightening up his hold around her, "It means a lot to me that you helped me, and that you thought it was a good idea too."
"You're amazing as you are, Ei, but your confidence is a little low, so hopefully now you’ll feel obligated to be more confident, you know, because you’ll be honoring Crimson Riot,” she peered up at him, a grin on her lips and her eyes almost sparkling with joy, "And now you need me every month, you know? No way you're getting away from me, now we just have to get into UA together. There's no other option!"
"There was another option before?" he chuckled, resting his chin on her mess of pink curls again, "We're stuck with each other, Mina, and we're gonna beat villain ass and be manly together!"
"I can't wait, Kiri," she nuzzled her cheek against Kirishima's chest, sighing with happiness.
They would get into UA, train hard, become heroes, and beat villains' asses together. Maybe get a few new friends over there, too, and she couldn't be more grateful for when she annoyed little Kirishima in school until he accepted her friendship.
Eijirou was having similar thoughts, grateful for the annoying pink-skinned girl that didn't leave him alone until they were playing and eating lunch together every day. There was no one else he was so comfortable around, and if his feelings were changing as he was getting older, that was his business to deal with. He knew Mina would be by his side no matter what, and he couldn't ask for a best friend more manly than she was.