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Izuku’s hands shook as he reached for the dice. His palms were so clammy that he was worried they’d slip right from his grasp, but he clenched his fingers as tight as he could as he started shaking the keys to either his triumph or utter defeat.
The rest of the common room was silent around him, the class watching with bated breath. He swears he’s never heard them so quiet, at the very least someone doing something, but nobody, not even Kaminari or Ashido, utter a single noise. Uraraka was curled in the corner of the couch behind Izuku, hugging a pillow to her chest. Kacchan was somewhere off to his right, but Izuku could feel his piercing gaze on his hand.
Across the coffee table, Yaoyorozu was perched on a pillow, calmly sipping from her cup of tea. She looked completely relaxed, but Izuku could see the calculated look in her dark eyes, how they scanned the board and watched Izuku’s every move like a predator stalking their prey.
He almost choked up on the spot, but he forced himself to remain calm. He was a hero. He’s fought some of the strongest villains in Japan. He could handle this.
He threw the dice down onto the board, their clattering across the cheap cardboard echoing in the large space as they rolled to a stop over Mr. Monopoly’s face.
Eleven.
Izuku’s eyes darted to his rabbit piece, counting the spaces. Skipped right over jail, missed the community chest and railroad and luxury tax and-
Shit.
The serene smile on Yaoyorozu’s face grew, and Izuku swore if she had shown her teeth they would’ve been fangs to rival Kirishima’s. “It appears that you’ve landed on my Boardwalk, Midoriya,” she says pleasantly, like they’re discussing the weather and not his imminent demise.
“No,” a strangled whisper comes from somewhere off to the side.
“Fuck,” Kacchan says emphatically under his breath.
Yeah, fuck.
Izuku moves the metal bunny one agonizing square at a time, hoping against hope that his math was wrong for once and he miscounted, that Yaoyorozu is somehow wrong, but by the time he mentally reaches eleven the rabbit has stopped on the blue square, a single hotel towering over the piece that was so damn close to the pay day he needed to win.
Yaoyorozu’s grin curled impossibly higher. “I believe the taxes are ¥295,000. Do you have the funds to pay?”
A pained wheeze is heard somewhere in the room.
Izuku glances down at the measly fake notes spread in front of him. She knows he doesn’t have enough. His gaze sweeps the handful of properties he has left, but even mortgaging them wouldn’t be enough.
He looks back up to their class vice president—she’s watching him expectantly—and he sighs, his shoulders sagging. “I don’t.” His voice is barely above a whisper but it may as well have been a shout, how it resonated around him.
“Bro, no…!” Kirishima gasps, close to tears.
Yaoyorozu clasps her hands together on the table. “Then I assume you will be filing for bankruptcy?”
Izuku could only nod, unable to speak.
She claps her hands once, her face absolutely glowing at his defeat. “Then it looks like I win again!”
“Son of a bitch!” Kacchan finally explodes—literally, Izuku has to push the board game away to keep the blond from setting it on fire as he jumps to his feet—and the rest of the room erupts into noise.
“It was so close!” Uraraka squealed, her pillow now floating somewhere near the ceiling.
“You were our last hope, man!” Kaminari shouted.
Tokoyami only shook his head. “Truly a mad banquet of darkness,” he muttered, Dark Shadow openly sobbing next to him.
The cheer had dimmed somewhat from Yaoyorozu’s face, and she held her hand across the coffee table to Izuku. “Well played, Midoriya. We should play again sometime.”
Izuku would rather go upstairs and curl up on his bed with his limited edition All Might plush as he licked the wounds of his fifteenth Monopoly loss to Yaoyorozu in a row, but he still took her hand in a weak shake. “Yeah…”
They really needed to find other games to play during game night.