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The shadows are stretching long across the pavement as you make your way down the street after a successful first date. Your arm is occupied by another, your elbow resting in the crook of your companion’s. The leather of your jacket clashes with the pale, oversized cream of her knitted cardigan.
Beside you, Inko Midoriya takes two quick steps for each of your longer strides, her sensible heel boots clacking the pavement as your heavy boots scuff along. You glance down at her in the pink and lavender evening light, and she is radiant, mouth curved in a soft smile, eyes distant.
“What’re you thinking about?” She blinks, hazel stare drawing sharp as it flicks up to your face. After a moment, her smile returns, accompanied with a puff of bemused laughter.
“Oh. Sorry, was I zoning out?” You grin, nudging her side as you pull her to a gentle stop at a crosswalk.
“Sure was. Looked happy, though.” She giggles again, high and sweet, and tucks loose emerald hair behind her ear.
“I was thinking about dinner, and how good that ice cream was.” Your smile pulls wider as you step off the curb with her in front of a grey car. Pop music shakes the tinted windows, buzzes through the soles of your boots, and the feathers that ruffle against your back. As you pass the headlights, you can almost feel the heat from the bulbs on the black fabric of your jeans, and in the vanes of the outer feathers on your right wing.
The curb bumps the front of your shoe, and Inko grabs for you as you trip, dragging you against her to keep you upright. You catch her waist in your hands as your feet steady, and you exhale sharply against her shoulder, wings flared slightly from reflex as you stumbled.
“Jeez… thank you.” Inko hums, then laughs weakly.
“It’s a little soon, anyway, don’t you think?” You lean back to look at her face, confused.
“What?” She gestures with one hand to the curb you’d stumbled on, and the dusky light doesn’t quite hide the flush of red creeping into her skin the longer you look at her.
“You, um, falling… for… me?”
Your head whips back as you laugh, and she laughs with you, albeit quieter and sounding more relieved than amused.
“That was good!” You notice your hands still at her waist, and politely remove them as you talk. “And, thanks again. Kind of lame to end our date by getting hurt.” She smiles, expression soft as she looks up at you.
“I’d help clean you up.” Your eyes skip down to her mouth for a heartbeat, lips shiny with gloss, and your mouth moves before your brain can filter it.
“Would you kiss it better too, Inko?”
Her face flares bright red, and she lightly smacks at you, squeaking through a flustered scolding while you laugh, fending off her weak blows with your forearms.
“Sorry, sorry, I talked without thinking! Sorry!” A few passersby give you odd looks, but some laugh or smile to themselves as they walk past.
“You’re ridiculous!” Inko concludes her harassment, still scarlet in the face. You allow one last laugh, then take a deep breath, bending to her in a light bow.
“My apologies for being too forward, Midoriya-san. I will do my utmost to remain in your favor from now on.” You continue the apology through a few more flowery sentences about her approval and etiquette, and by the time she stops you, she’s still blushing, but she’s trying not to laugh as she grabs your shoulders to pull you out of what must be your seventh or eighth bow.
“ We are ridiculous,” she teases as you relent and let her grab your arm to continue walking. “All that for a little flirting. I just got nervous.”
“People don’t flirt with you often?” You’re half-joking, but she shakes her head a little.
“Not often. But I like it more when you do, anyway.” She sneaks a glance at you through her lashes, but you’re already looking at her, pace slowing to a crawl, then a stop.
The sun is behind a tower in the distance, casting the streets in blue shadows broken up by shop lights and street lamps. Inko’s hair is fluffy and sits in waves on her shoulders, teased out of the pin-straight style she’d had when you met her at her house. Her eyeshadow is a little smudged in the corners of her eyes, and her headband is a little crooked.
Inko is gorgeous, and a wildfire blooms in your chest as you stand next to her, watching her avoid your gaze as her cheeks glow red once again.
“Inko.” Her name tastes like strawberry lip balm in your mouth, and her smile is lined with the glow of the street when she shyly meets your eyes. “Inko, can I kiss you?”
She laughs, honey-rich, and obligingly lifts her chin. You kiss her glossy lips, seeking out her hands to lace her fingers with your own, and the world is yellow around you -a blur of joy and anticipation.
Your bird Quirk made you familiar with the stomach-lurch of freefalling in the air, but kissing Inko made you feel weightless, like your feet would slip out from under you, sending you up into the sky at exponential speeds. The feeling is addicting, and you chase it fervently.
“Woah.” It’s the only word you manage when Inko finally sinks back onto her heels, eyes peeling open to reveal that they’re star-studded.
“Woah,” she agrees quietly, blinking a few times. “Can we--”
“Do you--” You both laugh, offering the other to continue. She concedes, and clears her throat quietly.
“Um, did you want to, maybe, have another date soon?” Your smile unfolds, and your heart feels like it’s dancing in your chest, bumping giddily just at the sight of her.
“Did you maybe want to date me?” Your counteroffer stuns her into quiet, and then she’s beaming, strips of her hair losing gravity and floating around her head as she rapidly nods.
A dying leaf floats past, catching on her cardigan. Then another handful, sticking to her shoulders and sleeves.
“Inko? You’re making things float towards you.” She gasps, and her hands shoot out, grabbing at the leaves bumping her cardigan, then at her gravity-defying hair.
“Oh! Oh no!” Her scrambling makes you laugh again, and she pouts at you until you give in and have mercy on her.
From your wrist, you pull a hair tie kept for just such an occasion, and gather her hair up. You make quick work of braiding it, despite some of it floating, and when you’re done, the braid only looks a little wonky, but it holds her hair down just fine. You brush the rest of the leaves off as you work, and while they still skitter towards her across the pavement, she regains control of her Quirk, and they shiver to a halt entirely.
“I do want to date you,” she says when you’re done, and you pause as you’re tucking the last few strands of hair behind her ears. She’s red as a beet, and your own face feels warm, but you only hum softly, adjusting your shoulders.
A tug on the feathers of your left wing makes you jump, and Inko’s grinning playfully at you, her fingers smoothing the ruffled feathers down.
“Your feathers got puffy just then. Happy owl, huh?” You clear your throat, and reach back to grab her wrist, pausing her hand as you lean into her ear.
“We’ve circled back around to the topic of flirting. Wings have a lot of nerve endings.” Inko blinks, staring blankly at you, before comprehension dawns, and splits her face into a myriad of feelings, most prominently mortification and intrigue. Your eyebrows rise a little, and you dare to test the waters. “I’ll show you sometime, if you want.”
The scarlet is dark enough to nearly be purple as she turns and storms along the sidewalk, your hand clasped tightly in hers. You let her steam on a half-step ahead of you, raving about your manners, but the death grip she has your hand in makes you smile.
You’re barely listening to her, so you almost miss what she says in the middle of her ranting, and pull on her arm to slow her down to your speed.
“Wait wait wait, back up, did you just threaten to tie me up?” She stares at you, wide-eyed with shock.
“I wasn’t supposed to say that!” The words fall from her mouth like a brick, and you stare at her until she starts to fidget.
“Inko.” She blushes darker, but you wait for her to look you in the eye before you continue. “Do you think about tying me up?”
Music chimes in the air, coming from the pocket of her cardigan, and her eyes get impossibly bigger, blush vanishing as the tune grows louder, accompanied by a steady buzzing.
“Curfew in five minutes,” she blurts, and it feels like cold water over your head.
“Shit! We’ll talk about it later!” You wrap your arm around her without thinking, and your wings spread from your shoulders, briefly blocking the path of several other walkers, who stare bewildered at the brown and white feathery wall in front of them.
One powerful flex gets you airborne, gusts of wind blowing against the people around you as you soar upwards, Inko held tight to your chest.
“Flying?” She shrieks over the whistle of air. “We’re three blocks away!”
“Faster above traffic,” you yell back. Your wings are broad and built for gliding, allowing you to coast down the street, into the neighborhood with ease. You’re as careful as you can be when illegally using your Quirk to get your date home on time, but there aren't many witnesses, and in five short minutes, you’re landing on your feet at the porch of her parents’ house. Another alarm chimes from Inko’s pocket as she brushes her cardigan down, and smooths flyaway strands of hair.
The door creaks open, and there her mother stands, looking delighted to see the both of you.
“Inko! They brought you home safely!” Inko beams at her mom, and you smile pleasantly as they exchange a quick recap of the night, and then Inko is squeezing your arm and brushing past her mom to go into her house, a final goodbye called over her shoulder.
Her mom examines you for a moment, smiling, then reaches up to tap her mouth, expression impish, before she bids you goodnight and closes the door, leaving you a little bewildered.
You take your phone out to text your roommate, then pause, staring at your reflection on the dark screen. After a moment, you open the camera and spin it to face you, leaning in close to double-check what you’re seeing - the thing Inko’s mother was subtly telling you about. Your wings draw close around you, self-soothing as you laugh under your breath, embarrassed.
Your lips are lightly stained with a smear of pink, strawberry flavored gloss.