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She remembers touching her lips faintly after Spin The Bottle, of all games.
And it should have been harmless, really. The girl she’d been dared to kiss had been well liked by everyone and their mother. Tsukiko was a saint, a real walking angel, so her head and her heart really shouldn’t be at fault here.
But the way dark locs had framed her face, dark smooth skin reflecting the strobe lights, gaze trained on her own lips as she leaned forwards—could you blame thirteen year old Mina? Could you blame the way she’d fallen, not hard, but devastatingly so, enough to spark a year long crisis and crying into the arms of her best friend?
She remembers her eyes. Onyx colored and so deep, identical cesspools of a lightless night sky. Enough to dip her fingertips in and end up drowning still, nonetheless. And drown she did.
Eijirou knew. They weren’t as close as they are now, worlds apart in the first of their junior year, but one look at her conflicted and scared form crouched behind the wall of the girl’s bathroom on the third floor, he’d sat with her and held her hand as she cried her heart out. Confused and shaken but seen , finally.
“I understand what you mean,” he’d said, drawing patterns over her knuckles. “It's… kind of the same for me, but the opposite.
She had been so shocked she’d forgotten to cry.
“You like…” and he nodded, red eyes full of as much emotion as hers, beginning to tear up himself.
“But everyone said you liked–”
“Rumor.” She can still hear the way his voice had dipped with bitterness even now, forced to follow through with something he had no wish to be a part of. “But anything to keep attention off me, right? She’s okay, honestly.” But it’s not me.
Now they’re second years in high school, and Ei is happily living his truth out with his demon spawn of a boyfriend. Mina loves her best friend, really. They’ve seen each other at their worst and best, were each other’s junior high prom date, and have thrown up in each other’s lap at least twice.
Ei was too good for anyone, honestly. Had too much of a big heart and loved too loud. At least Bakugou was self aware and treated him right. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s used her acid for pure reasons.
Sometimes she wished she had his perseverance. Sure, she was outgoing and as much of an extrovert the same way he was–quite possibly more, if she was being honest–but she’d never been able to click and make lasting relationships the way he did. Was it bad to be jealous of the way he seemed to click with Bakugou almost instantly? She didn’t even swing that way.
Mina grumbles into her hands and groans. Just great. Another crisis for the books.
Much to her dismay and to the Universe’s obvious delight, the girl she’d managed to get her heart in a painful twist for saunters right into the kitchen just as Mina slowly begins to bang her head against the island’s polished marble. Ochako yelps, Mina’s blood runs cold, and Izuku follows her in not too long after.
“ Mina! ” Sweet Jesus who laid in a manger. “Are you okay?”
She doesn’t dare look up from her pitying position and into her eyes, knowing she’d fall right in the same way she’d done all those years ago. “Fine,” she manages to croak, and then physically feels her concern heighten tenfold.
“Are you sick? Do you… need to go to Recovery Girl?” Bless Izuku’s heart, honestly. In a way, she guesses they’re perfect for each other. Caring, selfless, and unhesitant to put themselves in danger for anyone. Mina isn’t blind. She sees the way they look at each other when they think no one else is, and it’s so sickeningly pure. Makes her want to puke rainbows and have the Earth swallow her whole at the same time.
“I’m fine,” Mina tries again, and tries to put energy into her voice so they can see that she’s not dying externally, at least. “Do you two want the kitchen? I was just finishing up.”
And then she breaks the one rule she’d set for herself, turns around, and immediately deflates like a sad balloon toy.
Ochako’s eyes convey more emotion than her entire expression could ever hold. Warm and so inviting, that Mina’s barely put together resolve crumbles as tears fill her waterline instantly and cascade down her cheeks. Unintelligible and garbled words string themselves into incoherent half sentences when Ochako immediately jumps to comfort her, leaving Izuku to awkwardly hover.
“Please don’t cry–should I get Kirishima? Would that be–”
“ No! ” They both jump, and now Mina would really like to cash in that Earth-swallowing favor right about now. Get a hold of yourself! “He’s probably sleeping. Wouldn’t want to wake him up.”
It’s then that something clicks for the girl beside her (and very much in her personal space bubble… so much, so that she can smell the shampoo she used this morning, and, hello , vanilla and fucking cherry blossoms) because she turns to stare Izuku down until he gets the hint that this was to be between just the two of them. The freckled boy trips over his own feet as if suddenly animated, bids the two of them goodnight, and disappears up the stairs.
It’s so quiet she can hear her own breathing now. Ochako sits in the empty seat next to her and props her head up with an arm and Mina really, really tries not to zone in on her muscles.
“You can talk whenever you feel like it,” she begins. “There’s no rush. Do you want some tea…? There’s a really nice tea blend Momo brought back after visiting her family.”
“No, thank you…” Mina sniffs and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, which prompts Ochako to take her free one and squeeze reassuringly and effectively lodge her heart in her throat. “I just. Um.” Really like you, but everyone knows you like him and it’s killing me. “Handling a lot right now.”
“I could probably say the same.” The brunette laughs softly, and Mina’s brain can’t decide whether or not to focus on that or on the way she’s drawing miscellaneous patterns against her knuckles.
Coincidence… right?
“I was actually just talking with Deku-kun about his crush. I’m not really supposed to be telling anyone–but I figured it would ease your mind off of what’s bothering you.
There it was. She was going to get dumped without her ever revealing her feelings, and she would end up alone with thirteen cats, and die alone, and–
In a staged whisper, oblivious to Mina’s mental spiral, Ochako continues on. “He was asking for advice on how to ask Todoroki-kun out! I was just advising him to ask someone like Kirishima about that kind of thing… because I really wouldn’t know the first thing about that.”
And the world draws to a slow stop.
Mina turns to stare at her with wide eyes, her hand going slack in Ochako’s. “You don’t…?”
“Rumor,” she laughs, and Mina is going to fling herself out of her dorm window. “We’ve just been really good friends. Besides! I, um. I like someone else. She’s a really good friend of mine, but I’m kind of hoping we could be… something more, you know?"
Mina then suddenly decides to be real bold, because what does she have to lose at this point? She turns in her seat to face her, prompting Ochako to look up, and squashes down two years worth of frayed nerves and just kisses her.
The first thought that registers in her brain after eons of static and white nose is, Soft.
Ochako pulls away first, shocked into silence, and Mina doesn’t dare to open her eyes just yet. Shaking hands still cradling her face, her voice shakes when she musters what she’d been dying to say since the moment she’d laid her eyes on her.
“You make me nervous ,” she breathes out, “and scared and I’ve liked your face and your drive and your kindness since the first day of school.” Please. Please. “I don’t… you make my chest hurt, and I don’t know what to do with myself because once the thought of you crosses my mind I can’t focus on anything else– mmph! ”
Mina is probably dying, she reasons, or in heaven already and someone is fulfilling her deepest wish or something–because Ochako is kissing her again and she tastes like strawberries and everything good in the world.
“I like you, too!” A pause, and then that pretty laugh again. “Please open your eyes.”
She shakes her head, hands dropped to her lap, and fuck , she’s crying again. Ochako quickly pulls her into her arms and rocks her back and forth, and Mina’s heart bangs the drumline of a death metal song against her ribcage.
“You really like me? This isn’t a dream?” Mina sniffles, then promptly buries her face into her shoulder. Ochako lets her, and it’s a whole other experience she can’t get over.
“Of course it fucking isn’t. Finally .”
Mina’s heart falls out of her ass , Ochako screams , and Bakugou fucking Katsuki peeks over at them from behind a wall, unblinking and unimpressed. She also hears Eijirou sigh before he rounds the corner as well, offering an apologetic smile at the two of them before whacking his boyfriend’s arm.
“Not cool, man. They were having a moment!”
“In my fucking kitchen! It’s disgusting!”
Ochako has murder in her eyes when Mina pulls back a bit to see her face and it is decidedly the hottest thing she’s ever seen in her entire life.
“I’m going to put acid in your shampoo and expensive hair gel.” Katsuki’s eye twitches minutely, Ochako squeezes her hand in support, and Mina is riding this high for as long as she can. “And I am going to kill you in your sleep.”
“Aw, that's what he tells me when I do something that makes him happy! You two should hang out more, I think it would be good for you.”
Eijirou smiles, Ochako has a weird look on her face that suspiciously look like the one she gets seconds away from laughing again, Katsuki now looks like committing several murders, and Mina is tired. She bids Ei goodnight and tugs her new girlfriend– girlfriend!!! –out of the kitchen and up the stairs while he keeps Katsuki at bay.
Wait. “Does this mean we’re dating now…?”
She cringes at how small her voice sounds, but she can’t help but still be nervous. Sure, she said she liked her back down there, but what if she changed her mind? What if she found someone better than her? What if–
“ Mina .” Ochako cradles her face in her hands, and the universe boils down to just her and those big brown eyes. “Will you be my girlfriend?”
Mina just nods, not trusting her voice to speak for her. The other girl smiles, super wide, and if not for her touch grounding her, she’s sure her knees would have buckled and given out.
“Goodnight,” she murmurs, kissing her cheek before flitting off to her room. Mina simply waves, gaze following her form as she disappears inside with a faint smile.
Goodnight.
(They totally hold hands the whole day tomorrow, by the way. And the day after that, and the day after that, and so on. Izuku is ecstatic, Katsuki is not, and a little surprise may or may not be waiting for him when he gets into the shower. Love wins.)