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“How do I look, kero?”
Tsu steps carefully out of the dressing room and Ochako claps from her place on the small, red couch just outside it.
“It looks great!”
Tsuyu runs her hands down the side of the baby blue sundress she’s wearing, mouth twisting uncertainly.
“You’ve said that about everything I’ve tried on so far.”
“Well, they’ve all looked nice.”
“That’s so lesbian of you,” Jirou says, walking over to the small couch and leaning over Ochako’s shoulder to plant a kiss on her reddening face. Bakugou and Sero trail after her, poking curiously at the racks of pastel clothing on display, occasionally making faces at the price tags- Sero with wide eyes and Bakugou with silent, sneering judgement.
“Was not,” Ochako protests, tilting her head back for a proper kiss. “Where did you guys come from anyway?”
“Vinyl store,” Bakugou answers, plopping onto the couch beside Ochako and crossing his arms. “It was even more of a bust than this place.”
“Oh hush,” Ochako chides. “Momo recommended it.”
“He’s just mad they didn’t have any of those All Might Christmas Carol things to get Deku. In September,” Jirou adds pointedly.
“Stupid nerd probably pre-ordered that shit anyway. I hate shopping for him.”
Jirou laughs, draping her arms over Ochako’s shoulders. “It’s not even close to his birthday or any other gift-giving holiday, Captain Lovestruck.”
Tsuyu watches Ochako shift her head to drink from Jirou’s boba tea while remaining comfortably within the cross of her arms and she idly wonders how long it will take Jirou to notice.
“The fuck did you just call me?!” Bakugou shouts.
Tsuyu turns slightly to the left and catches Sero’s gaze where he’s leaning up against the closest wall, a square-shaped bag tucked under his arm and a shit-eating grin on his face. The bickering on the couch only gets louder.
Blink twice if you need help, Sero mouths.
Tsuyu starts blinking rapidly and Sero tosses a fist over his mouth to smother his snickering.
“Oh- Tsuyu! I’ve got a great idea,” Ochako calls brightly. “Why don’t you go shopping with Sero? You guys have kind of the same style, right?”
Tsuyu places a thoughtful finger on her chin. “I guess that’s true,” she agrees, “but wouldn’t it be rude to ignore Yaomomo’s suggestion?”
Jirou waves her hand. “Nah, she won’t mind.”
“You’re stiff as fuck in that Easter bunny dress, Frogger,” Bakugou says. “Just fuck off and shop where you actually want to.”
Ochako’s brows furrow in confusion. Easter bunny? she mouths.
“That’s…surprisingly sound advice, Bakugou,” Tsuyu says, reaching for the dressing room curtain with one hand.
Bakugou frowns.
"Thank-"
“The fuck do you mean surprising?” he interrupts, indignant.
Tsuyu merely shrugs. “I said what I said.”
Bakugou suddenly rises with his hands curled into claws. Tsuyu suspects he’s trying to be intimidating.
“Oi, listen here you little-!”
“O-kay,” Ochako interrupts, brushing past Tsuyu to grab the other things she’d tried on. “You get changed and I’ll go put these back for you.”
Jirou sighs dramatically from her place now draped over Bakugou’s shoulders- who’s settled grumply back onto the couch- her phone angled towards his face, probably showing the Days Since Bakugou Last Baku-Blew counter Kaminari made. Tsuyu’s pretty sure today makes twelve.
“So you’ll put her clothes away like a gentleman but you drink all my boba like a thief?” Jirou asks, lips curling into a smirk despite the way she’s trying to play at lovelorn rejection. “Who is this dastardly woman I’ve married?”
“Sorry,” Ochako says, laughing. She places an apologetic kiss on Jirou’s cheek, then after a silent, wiggling eyebrows meet smirk kind of conversation, smacks one onto Bakugou’s as well, laughing at the way Bakugou cringes and swats her away with his teeth bared.
Tsuyu can’t help but be reminded of an angry cat.
Smiling indulgently, Tsuyu looks at Sero and blinks twice. Then she swipes the dressing room curtain closed and says goodbye to the baby blue dress. It was pretty- flattering even- and surprisingly within her price range, but it’s not the sort of thing Tsu could see herself choosing to wear. Maybe to one of Momo’s monthly tea parties, but the invitations always clearly state to wear what you’re most comfortable in. It’s sweet, really, though they keep losing track of Hagakure when she shows up nude.
Sero is sitting sheepishly on the little red couch when Tsu pulls back the curtain in her own clothes, no one else in sight.
“They, uh…went on without us,” he explains.
Tsuyu moves to put the blue dress back on the rack. “That’s fine. We can always-”
“Did you still wanna go shopping?” Sero asks. “I mean- sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
The desire to smile bubbles up from Tsuyu’s stomach.
“That’s fine, kero,” she says again, more earnestly. It seems to set Sero at ease. “Did you have someplace in mind?”
Sero brightens. “Yeah, there’s this store here I love to go to. Only if you wanna shop, like, boho grunge though. But if you’re looking for a different aesthetic I’ll still go with you! You know, if you want. Or I could call Ochako back and-”
“Are you nervous, kero?”
Sero’s eyes dart around the store like he’s looking for an escape route before settling somewhere behind Tsu’s left shoulder.
“No?” he says.
Tsuyu doesn’t believe him. Still, she says, “Okay. Let’s go visit this store you like. I’m excited to see it.”
“Oh, it’s great,” Sero tells her genuinely. “I think you’ll really like it. A lot more earth-toned than this place.”
Tsuyu tilts her head. “You noticed that I like earth tones?”
Sero smiles sheepishly. “Well, it’s kind of hard not to when it’s your whole thing.”
“I thought being a frog was my whole thing.”
“That too.”
They exit and Tsuyu quickly realizes that the rest of the group hadn’t migrated far- all of them standing in line at the pop up boba stand just opposite the boutique Momo recommended. Ochako catches Tsuyu’s eye from where she’s standing, arms linked with Jirou, and waggles her eyebrows suggestively. Mortified, Tsuyu darts a quick glance to check that Sero hasn’t noticed, but he’s too busy trying to weave a path for them through the afternoon bustle. Tucked slightly behind his tall frame, Tsuyu finds it much easier to navigate through the busy walkways. Even so, she’s tempted to reach out and link her fingers into the fabric of his t-shirt. Or his belt loop. Or his warm-looking hand.
She resists, but only barely.
“How come you didn’t go with the others?” Tsuyu asks, half a distraction from her own wayward desires and half an investigation because she isn’t stupid and neither is Sero so he’s bound to have picked up on Ochako’s match-making intentions by now even if he missed the eyebrows. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you turn down boba.”
“Because,” Sero starts, drawing out the syllable while he skips ahead to open the door of a little hole-in-the-wall shop Tsuyu might have otherwise walked past, “I wanted to stay with you. And this place is seriously the best. Look!” Sero follows her through the door and reaches toward a tiered display near the front register, holding out a glittering pink rock. “Crystals!”
A glittering pink crystal, Tsuyu corrects.
“Do you believe in that stuff?”
Sero’s face warms. “Uh, maybe a little bit,” he admits, “but c’mon, that’s not what we’re here for.”
Sero abandons the crystal and reaches for Tsuyu’s wrist, leading her on a serpentine path through the cozy little store of trinkets and candles until they reach a wider section in the back dotted with circular clothing racks. She can feel the warmth of his hand even after he lets go and has to bite down a smile at the way he can't quite meet her eye anymore.
Tsuyu turns to look over the racks, attention drawn to a few different items before asking, “Where’s…the women’s section?”
Sero smiles like he’d been waiting for the question. “That’s the best part. It’s all gender-neutral. Sorted by size. Small is gonna be on the left, though.”
Tsuyu blinks, then eyes the racks with renewed interest.
“Cool,” she murmurs.
It’s easier here to rifle through the racks and find items that appeal to her, and exciting to see so many options housed on each one. Tsuyu opts for a long, quilted skirt first, the patches all in shades of green and brown, the fabric soft. She tosses it over her arm with ease. Then a baby tee with a cartoon frog, an overlarge black muscle shirt with moss green butterfly graphics, and a pair of brown overalls not unlike the ones Deku was wearing when he was on the run in Otheon. Once out of iminent danger, a harried video call asking after his safety had not seemed like an ideal time to ask him where he’d gotten it, but Tsu’s carried the ensemble in the back of her mind for some time. And the overalls feel…nice, this dressing room less daunting than the first. Tsu’s never worn anything like them before- the green baby tee form-fitting and feminine while the pants are wide and loose. She likes the dichotomy of it. It feels like her.
When she steps out of the dressing room Sero whistles, impressed.
“How does it feel?” he asks before Tsu gets the chance to ask, "How do I look?"
“Good,” Tsu answers honestly.
Sero grins and it’s all teeth.
Tsuyu feels her heart thud against her chest. She nods at the handful of clothes hanging on Sero’s arm.
“Your turn.”
Sero looks surprised for a moment and then his cheek is dimpling in a pleased, shy sort of way that Tsuyu’s never seen from him before. In a way that she might like to see a lot more of, actually.
Tsuyu fans her face while Sero changes, laughing internally at herself when he emerges and she feels it go up in flames once more.
“How’s it look?” he asks, spinning and posing enough that Tsu can tell he's gotten nervous again.
“How’s it feel?” Tsu asks back. The words taste heavy and important in her mouth.
Sero stands there in a pair of loose, dark pants that could be mistaken for a skirt and a tight brown crop top not unlike Tsuyu’s own, dainty silver rings dotting his fingers. In a bold, pink script, the crop reads, Babygirl.
“Good,” Sero says, smoothing his hands down the sides of his pants. “Really good, actually.”
Tsuyu smiles.
“Good,” she tells him.
They end up with a few more items after that, giggling quietly at the register like they’re getting away with something. And maybe they are. Maybe they’re playing a trick on the whole, wide universe, telling it to take back its pinks and blues and rigid borders to make room for something that’s just them. Sero and Tsu. Babygirl tops and boy shorts and whatever else they feel like wearing.
It’s liberating in a way Tsuyu didn’t know she needed.
The blush doesn’t leave Tsuyu’s face until they make it back to the bus meant to ferry them safely to UA and Ochako is smug about it the whole ride. Tsuyu can’t even blame her, really. The back of Sero’s ears are just as red.
“I’m setting my sights on Deku-kun and Bakugou next,” Ochako tells her conspiratorially, splaying her hands like she’s imagining the movies they’ll dedicate in her match-making honor one day. “A fated romance between men.”
Tsuyu places a hand on Ochako’s arm.
“I think the power is going to your head, kero.”
“So you admit I’m powerful.”
Tsuyu laughs softly and allows her temple to rest against the window, her new bag of clothes held protectively in her lap and her mind tip-toeing back to the expression of joy on Sero’s face when he had shoved a pink crystal towards Tsu’s.
It’s exciting in a way Tsu wasn’t expecting.
Slowly, her gaze drifts back toward Ochako and in a low voice she asks, “How do you know if someone likes you?”
She’s pretty sure, all things considered, and when the backs of Sero’s ears grow even hotter one row ahead she knows. Ochako’s pleased, bubbly laughter rings brightly in her ears the rest of the way home.