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It was a cool autumn evening in mid October. The air was crisp and cool, the last bits of summer slowly being left behind and winter starting to creep in. The sakura trees surrounding the UA grounds, the pink blossoms long gone by now, started to turn from an emerald green to a deep red. The sun was starting to set, leaving the sky a palette of yellow and orange and the clouds the color of bubblegum.
The two teens were sitting in Kirishima’s room, the once obnoxious decor of it all now warm and homey. There was a faint smell of pumpkin coming from downstairs; Satou was probably baking something for dessert. Kirishima was sitting with her back against the bed, leaning her head back onto the mattress and letting her bright red hair spread out over Katsuki’s lap. Katsuki was sitting criss-crossed on the edge of the bed, slowly weaving the other girl’s hair into long braids. The little horns Kirishima had carefully sculpted this morning were long gone, the only remnants of them being the slightly rougher sections of hair from the gel.
Days like this, moments like this, always made Katsuki think about how she and Kirishima had only met a bit over a year ago, and they had only started dating a few weeks or so ago. It was weird to think how she had acted so aggressive and dismissive to Kirishima at first, and now here she was, braiding her shitty hair. Guess time flies when you have a girlfriend, Katsuki thought, and was immediately appalled by such a Kirishima-ish sentence coming to her own mind.
Katsuki’s back was starting to get sore from sitting criss-crossed for so long, so she uncrossed her legs and let them fall over the edge of the bed. She then suddenly became aware of how they were both positioned, and immediately started searching the room for something interesting to look at. Unfortunately, Katsuki could only get her eyes to focus back on Kirishima’s hair, where her natural black hair had started to creep through her roots. Katsuki slowly picked up the braid she had been making, letting it fall apart and spread out into individual strands once again.
“Your roots are starting to grow out,” Katsuki pointed out.
“Hm?” Kirishima moved her head up to look at Katsuki. She looked like a damn cat. “Oh, yeah, I guess they are. I should probably redye them soon, huh?”
Katsuki gave her a soft smile before even realising how sickeningly sweet the words she was about to say were. “Nah, I like it better like this.”
Kirishima smiled, her cheeks pink and her obnoxious teeth pointy as ever, and turned her head down to fiddle with her fingernails.
The two sat in silence for another minute, and Katsuki glanced at the calendar on the wall. On each page there was a different photo of a cute dog or cat, and the current one was a puppy and a kitten asleep together, all snuggled up. Katsuki began to run her fingers through her girlfriend’s hair again when she realized something.
“Hey,” She started softly, and a slight turn of Kirishima’s head was all she needed to know the redhead was listening. “Your birthday is coming up.”
“Yeap,” Kirishima replied, picking her phone up from where it was laying face down and turning it on. Her wallpaper was a picture of the two of them from a couple months ago, where Kirishima is grinning toothily and Katsuki looks like she’s about to murder someone. “Don’t know what to get me yet?”
Katsuki huffed. “Just haven’t thought about it much. Anything specific you want?”
Kirishima put her index finger to her chin, pretending to be deeper in thought than she was. “I want you to kiss me,” she finally said.
Katsuki felt her cheeks heat up. “We’ve kissed before,” she protested. That was true, although it was only ever really a sweet cheek or forehead kiss. Katsuki was sort of new to this whole ‘dating’ thing, so they had taken it slow up until now. How long do people usually wait to kiss after they date anyway? Do people even date without really kissing each other? These were questions that had kept Katsuki awake one too many times.
Unfortunately, Kirishima said exactly what Katsuki was thinking. “Yeah, but not actually kissing. I-I mean, if you’re not comfortable with it, then-”
“It’s fine,” Katsuki interjected, the thought of kissing, actually kissing, Kirishima making her want to ease out of this topic. God, she was such a baby. Sixteen years old and still getting all hot and bothered about kissing her own girlfriend.
“Okay,” Kirishima replied quietly. After a moment of silence, one leaning on the edge of awkward this time, Kirishima spoke again. “Here, let’s switch.” She scooched herself out of the little shelter they had created and stood up. Katsuki obliged, moving down to the foot of the bed and sitting on the wooden floor. She normally wouldn’t be one to let somebody else poke around in her hair, but it seemed Kirishima had made her softer, somehow. Kirishima had tamed the angry girl who yelled about everything, essentially domesticating her into nothing but a kitten. Katsuki couldn't say that she disliked this fact, however.
Kirishima hung her legs down on either side of Katsuki and plunged her hands into the mop of Katsuki’s hair, to which the blonde closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. Sometimes she wished she had longer hair like she did when she was little, but it was always so annoying. Her dad would always nag about brushing it, even though brushing it took forever because it was so thick. A few years ago Katsuki had gotten fed up with it and cut it into a pixie cut. By now her hair had grown into a spiky bob, like what her mom had.
“Woah, how much time has gone by?”
Katsuki opened her eyes slowly and glanced at the window. The sun had fallen below the horizon line, the only trace of it being there being a slight glow from above the horizon. The pink and orange skies had changed into a blueish gray, and the glowing moon had started to rise into the sky. Katsuki had to admit it looked beautiful.
There was a ding, and two pairs of red eyes immediately shot to Kirishima’s phone, which was still laying on the ground. The lock screen was partially obscured by a message from Kaminari, the glow from the phone lighting up the whole now darkened room.
The message read, ‘yo kiri satou finished her pie do you and blasty wanna come have some’, and as Katsuki picked up the phone and handed it to Kirishima so she could read it, the redhead began to type aggressively. Katsuki thought about standing up to turn on a light so they could see better, but didn’t really feel like she wanted to leave.
“You want some pie? It’s pumpkin,” Kirishima asked. Katsuki didn’t exactly like hanging out with her classmates, but they weren’t too bad and Satou made some good pumpkin pie. God, she really had grown soft, hadn’t she?
“Yeah,” Katsuki replied, to which Kirishima jumped off the bed and over Katsuki, landing facing away from the blonde on the ground. Katsuki said nothing, only huffed and stood up too.
The two teens walked down the hallway in silence. It was mostly dark save for the single light at the end of the hall, and everything was quiet. Besides Shoji, they were the only two on the girls' side of this floor, and Shoji was probably downstairs. If Katsuki was alone, the silent and dark hall would have felt creepy, but with Kirishima it felt more calm and soft. Everything seemed to feel more calm and soft with her. Not focusing on how gross and sweet her thoughts were, Katsuki walked mostly alongside Kirishima, but partially behind her, towards the elevator.
Kirishima wasn’t looking at Katsuki, instead texting on her phone, and Katsuki got a chance to really look at her. Sure, they had seen each other all day, but Katsuki never really got to look, really look, at her. Kirishima was wearing an oversized hoodie that was just a few shades deeper than her hair that had shark teeth around the hood. Sometimes Kirishima would pull the hood over her head and say ‘I’m a shark!’ and it always got Katsuki to laugh for some reason. It was such a dumb and childish thing to do, but the fact she was dumb and childish was one of the things Katsuki loved most about Kirishima.
As a contrast to her oversized hoodie, Kirishima was wearing simple black leggings and her horrible red crocs. They had various charms sticking out of them, including but not limited to, a Crimson Riot logo, the muscle arm emoji, an orange heart, and an R on each one. Kirishima had pulled her hair out of it’s regular high ponytail when Katsuki had begun braiding it earlier, leaving it to fall just below the middle of her back. How did she manage with all that hair? Katsuki had enough trouble with hers, and Kirishima was an inch or two taller than Katsuki.
Katsuki hadn’t noticed that they were already halfway through the elevator ride until she tore her eyes off of Kirishima, who was looking at her now. Katsuki felt her cheeks heat up and turned away, rubbing her neck. Why was looking at your own girlfriend embarrassing?
The elevator came to a stop with a ding, and the doors slid open. Kirishima took Katsuki’s hand as they stepped out and started to walk into the kitchen. Even before they started dating, ever since Kamino, really, holding hands became just a regular thing for Katsuki and Kirishima. Their hands just seemed to fit so well together. Now that they were dating, it didn’t feel very different, only that it would happen even more often.
The rest of class 1A were sitting at the long table, most of them eating a piece of pumpkin pie, about half accompanied with whipped cream. Kaminari noticed them first, her shoulder-length hair seeming to almost perk up when she waved towards the two girls.
“Hey girlies! Pie’s in the kitchen, go get some before it’s gone!” Kaminari exclaimed. Bakugou rolled her eyes. Ever since Kirishima had let it slip to their friend group that she and Bakugou were dating, Kaminari had said ‘Hey girlies’ every time she saw them together. It was exceedingly annoying, but it had soon caught on with Sero and Ashido as well, making hanging out with them even more annoying.
Kirishima seemed to notice that Katsuki was about to snap at Kaminari, so she gave the blonde’s hand a little squeeze and started leading her into the kitchen. On the counter were a few plates and forks, a knife, and a large pumpkin pie with only enough for three or so pieces.
“Great, there’s still some left!” Kirishima grinned and began cutting herself a piece and putting it onto a plate. “How big do you want yours, Kat?”
“Just give me a small one,” Katsuki replied nonchalantly, trying to dismiss the nickname. Kirishima had started using it as of late, and Katsuki kept forgetting to protest against it.
Kirshima chuckled and cut a second piece of pie, about half the size of the first one, carefully placing it onto a plate. Katsuki picked up the plate along with a fork as Kirishima grabbed her own. They didn’t need words, this was one of their comfortable silences.
As they walked back towards the table, Katsuki picked up bits of a conversation she hadn’t heard the start of.
“...I thought I recalled you saying ‘It’s too early for pumpkin pie’?” Kaminari teased. Kirishima pulled out two chairs across from the group, gesturing toward it like a butler. Katsuki placed her plate on the table and sat down in one, Kirishima following her directly after.
“Well, it’s true, ” Ashido protested. “But just because it’s too early doesn’t mean I don’t want it!” He playfully punched Kaminari in the arm, to which she responded with a slightly harder punch. Ashido punched Kaminari back even harder, and it soon turned into an increasingly violent punch out.
Katsuki rolled her eyes and took a bite of the pie. Her first thought was, Damn, Satou can fucking cook. She didn’t even normally like super sweet things, but this was something else. The pie was creamy and sweet and just a bit spicy from what was probably cinnamon. She glanced over at Kirishima, who was applying amounts of whipped cream to her half-eaten slice that shouldn’t be legal with a huge grin on her face.
Dumbass, Katsuki thought as she took another bite of pie.
The rest of class 1A did not have the most riveting evening conversation topics, to say the least. Todoroki asked Sero if she could pull her tape back into her elbows, Ashido and Kaminari argued over the stupid internet shit, and soon Iida started yelling at everybody to get to bed. Kirishima listened to her friends and laughed along with them, but it wasn’t anything compared to the way she glanced at Katsuki every now and then. To be honest, Katsuki didn’t really mind being all mushy.
Soon, Katsuki and Kirishima were back in the redheads room. The sun was long gone and the sky was a dark deep grey, sprinkled with stars with the glowing moon right in the middle. Kirishima had changed into her sleepwear and was now sporting some baggy sweatpants and one of her many Crimson Riot t-shirts. Katsuki was wearing the same black pants that she was wearing before, but had changed into a tank top for the night.
The room was dark and quiet, the moonlight casting unfamiliar shadows onto the familiar objects that decorated it, but Katsuki felt safe. She and Kirishima were cuddled together in bed, something that they had started doing a few days ago when Katsuki couldn’t sleep that night. Kirishima was lying on her side with her legs and arms wrapped around Katsuki. Katsuki’s position was more like clinging to Kirishima like some sort of fungus. The only sounds in the room were the two girls’ breathing, Kirishima’s heartbeat, and Katsuki’s own thoughts.
Often she was kept awake by confusing thoughts, troublesome thoughts, worrisome thoughts, about Kirishima, about her family, about her future. Tonight, however, she was only thinking about how nice this was. How nice it was to have someone to hold like this, to have someone hold her like this. Katsuki was reminded of the puppy and kitten on the calendar, unlikely friends cozy and sleeping together. Her heart felt warm.
The last thing Katsuki remembered before drifting off was the faint, soft touch of lips to her forehead.
She couldn’t wait for Kirishima’s birthday.