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Aizawa Shouta has never been as angry as she is right now.
She's absolutly seething with barely contained rage.
She wishes she could overlook this and go on with her life, but she cannot. And that fact is pissing her off with the raw frustration of a dog trying to bite its own flee-infested back. What could have possibly happened to put her in such great misery? Well here's the gist of things.
She cannot tell if her friends are dating or not, and doesn't want to directly ask them because it makes her uncomfortable.
And exams are coming.
That's it.
Or, like, not entirely.
Aizawa Shouta is actually studying in the hero department for her second year at U.A Academy, a famous school renown throughout the entire country for not only bringing about some of the most popular heroes around, but also for how incredibly elitist it is. Most young students do not pass the entry selection, and even less manage to endure the crushing load of work thrust onto them from the very first year onward.
It may be said that if someone manages to enter this absolute entity of a school and stay for more than a year, they're quite the model of hard work and perseverance.
That, at least, is the speech Shouta's mother gives whenever she goads about her daughter to her colleagues and neighbours. A stark contrast to the more boring reality where Shouta has to put in two times more work to achieve the absolute bare minimum, and more often than not feels like a fish out of water next to her classmates' more flashy capabilities.
And that leads us to the ongoing issue.
The final exams of the first school term are in three weeks, and they'll be covering all of the materials from the last few months in History, Mathematics, Science, Social studies, Japanese, and English. Shouta's weak point so far is, to her great dismay, English. Her grades in that subject could be described in the thoughtful language of her teacher as "so disappointing you might as well actually sleep during class".
If she wants to get passing grades, not just in the usual subjects, but particularly in english, she has to work hard. Really hard.
Making a beeline for her house right after classes to study all evening and only pause for a quick bath and supper before falling asleep exhausted at 2 A.M rince-and-repeat hard. And yet all she's been able to focus on for the past three hours is a search online for what the common signs that your friends might be dating are.
With no convincing results so far.
She is seething, froathing at the mouth, consumed with anger at her stupid stick-in-the-mud need for things to be rational and tidy, for neat little drawers with clear labels in a big metalic mental cabinet. Drawers that are, at present, gutted on her brain's floor in an absolute moutain of messy papers that she's been desperately digging through for the past several hours.
How is it possible for her to come back from a bathroom break, see her two overly-affectionate idiots of friends kissing, and for the life of her not be able to tell if they mean it seriously or not. It has gnawed at her ever since it happened earlier today, her brain slowly descending into insanity as it keeps trying to find an answer into her multitude of carefuly kept drawers only to come up empty.
She sighs and passes a hand on her increasing dark circles, glaring at her computer. She's been reading rows upon rows of articles and random blog posts and they all talk about shy people, the secretive and quiet kind. People that would have a reason to keep a relationship on the low, people from whom it would be hard to get that kind of information from, people like Shouta.
The direct opposite of her extroverted, teasing, and blunt friends. The kind that talk in your face and sit so close you can feel the warmth of their body seep into your own. Loud in every sense of the word, both physically and in the expression of their feelings, genuine in a way that radiates into their casual touches and shouts of encouragement. People that can't even try to hide a relationship if they want to, because it would be the first visible thing on their faces.
People who, for some reason, like to slap each-other's butts at random during the day rugby-style because it's "fun".
Well, if the internet doesn't want to give her a straight answer, she'll just have to go find one herself.
She cracks her knuckles and gets to work. Keywords are changed, websites are brought up in quick succession, and sentences are highlighted to be copied and pasted into a new word document. Her fingers move in a fast rhythmn as she writes, the clicks and clacks of the keyboard her only company in the small dark room, and once she's finally done she glides a hand over to the mouse and clicks on an icon.
A wiring sound comes to life beside her and several sheets of paper slide one after the other into the exit tray of her printer. She gathers them all and reviews their contents with a brief glance of her bloodshot eyes, before stacking them in a neat pile and putting a clip on top.
On the front page a title reads in big, red letters : "Aizawa Shouta's plan of action".
She throws it in her school bag in between notebooks, stands up from her chair in a chorus of complaints from every joints in her body, and all but collapses on her bed with a long-suffering groan.
The clock by her bedside reads 3:30 am, the alarm is set up at 6. She can already feel the absolute pain that waking up will be, but she goes to sleep feeling a little relieved anyway, because she knows that tomorrow she'll figure this whole thing out, tidy up her mental drawers, and finally, finally, study.
Jun twenty-nine begins bad and gets worse.
She wakes up late (of course) and scrambles to take a very quick shower, passes by the breakfast table without eating, and leaves the house with her hair still wet. She sweats a bucket as she runs to school in the summer breeze and when she finally arrives at UA their first morning class has already started.
She apologizes profusely and goes to her seat under everyone's curious eyes. She chances a peek at the desks and catches two heads of blue and yellow looking back at her, and gives them a discreet greeting that they reciprocate with big smiles. She sits down and goes through her usual morning, feeling sticky and tired.
When lunch finally rolls around she's already feeling exhausted. Her hair has dried fast thanks to the warm weather, but it feels heavy and uncomfortable around her head. She tries to comb through them with her fingers but somehow make things worse and gets herself tangled into the absolute mess of black strands.
She is grumbling up a storm when she is startled by two solid hands coming down on her shoulders.
"Girl your hair's a MESS!" Yamada exclaims, her shrill voice reverberating through Shouta's skull. "Want some help with that?"
Shouta hesitates.
Yamada - one of her two closest friends - has what could be called a "unique" hairdo, her jaw-lenght blond hair gelled up into a gravity defying toupet that'd make any sixties american rock idol jealous. Shouta knows for a fact that Yamada would love to have the opportunity to style her friends' hair in a similar fashion.
And she also always has a ton of salon-quality hair products in her bag.
"Sure," Shouta says, because better taking the risk of having the equivalent of a parakeet's feathers on her head than the hassle of detangling whatever's happening up there.
She's in the middle of having a capricious strand of hair being brushed out by Yamada when Shirakumo's laugh foretells her presence, her tall figure following through a second later and plopping down on Shouta's desk.
She is wearing her summer school uniform in the "casual" style, her tie lose on her hastily tucked white shirt, and light blue tights covering the entirety of her legs under an over-the-knee skirt. Yamada and her both like to wear it in a similar manner, the former favoring shorter under-the-knee white socks.
"At this point you might as well rent the space as a nest," Shirakumo says, her voice light and teasing as she points at Shouta's head. "Make some profit you know!"
"If Yamada keeps ripping my scalp off I might use what's left of it for that."
"Hey! Be nice will you, this feels like untangling a wire fence!"
Shirakumo's bright and contagious laugh surrounds them, its warmth spreading inside Shouta's chest as softly as her friend's short wispy blue hair floating idly around her face.
She ends up joining the efforts of Yamada into detangling Shouta's hair - which by now had devolved into an epic over-arching final fight - and after what is by no means a short ordeal, they eventually manage to make it look decent enough, and decide to call it a day and get some well-deserved lunch.
Shouta almost forgets it but grabs her bag at the very last second, throwing it over her shoulder and catching up with her friends in the hallway. Lunch is one of her best opportunities to kick-start her plan and learn more about that whole situation, and no hair disaster nor tiredness will stop her now (not when her grades and sanity are both on the line).
As it turns out step one of her plan is a total dudd.
Or more accurately, the carefully crafted (read : sleep deprived and delusional) innocuous questions she has copied and pasted to ask during her break are utter crap. The more she reads them - the sheets hidden behind her propped up knees as she sits against the wall of their rooftop spot - the less sense they make.
Some are heavily context oriented, others are just completely disrespectful, and a few are so private that simply reading them makes Shouta's face heat up. On top of that she cannot at all try the most reasonable ones either, because the moment she'll say something along the lines of "are you interested in anyone lately?" she'd have set herself up for weeks of endless teasing.
So really, as her friends are talking besides her, she wonders what was even the point of that first step at all.
"And I'm telling you," Shirakumo says with a serious expression, "if you want to gain muscle mass you have to change your meal habits!"
"Yeah yeah I get that, but I'm still not doing that stupid program."
"It was created by a dietary coach for professional athletes! All Might himself vouches for it!"
"I don't want to look like All Might!"
"Hizashi," Shirakumo tuts and shakes her head with a sigh, "your ambitions are too low, you need to believe in yourself."
"I can believe in myself as much as I want, no protein meal will ever make me into a 7 feet 600 lbs war machine!"
"You need to aim high! Otherwise you'll stay a shrimp for the rest of your life."
Shirakumo looks away for a second to put a piece of simmered fish in her mouth and almost chokes on it when she catches a glance of the appalled expression on Yamada's face. Shouta also tries to hide an amused smile.
"Anyways," Shirakumo continues after a few coughs, pointedly ignoring Yamada's pout, "Shouta, do you have some time this week for a study session?"
Shouta looks up with a slice of fried zucchini hanging from her mouth. "Me?"
"Yup! I'm having a horrible time with written Japanese for the finals and I know you're pretty good at it, so if it's okay with you maybe we could study together?"
"Well... yeah sure." Maybe that way she'll be able to put some actual studying down, along with the added bonus of spending some time in Shirakumo's company.
"If you need help in English you know I'm here too!" Yamada adds.
"No not you," Shirakumo says, pointing accusatory chopsticks at her. "You're a horrible teacher."
"Excuse me?!"
"Your way of teaching is just to literally get good! You're like," Shirakumo puts her bento on the floor with the chopsticks on top, and proceeds to make a quite faithful imitation of Yamada. "Hey hey heeey people!! English is sooo eaaaasy, look at all these conjugations yo!! You just need to learn them by heart and... VOILÃ!!"
Yamada sputters in indignation.
"Are you SERIOUS?! You have NO room to talk lady, remember when I asked you to teach me how to use a bo? You were like," Yamada clears her throat and changes the tone of her voice to match Shirakumo's own. "You go BLAM, AND ZIIIM AND BABAM!! You have to feel it through your body, trust your instincts, go with the flow!!"
"Yeah and? That's true."
"I hit myself in the face six times!!"
"But you did make progress right?"
"NOT AT ALL!!"
"Okay okay I can't let you say that-"
"THE HELL I WILL-"
"Just c'm'here let me show you again-"
They stand up and move a little pace away still arguing good-naturedly, and Shouta watches them with a passive interest. Their playful banter is a nice background noise while she eats her egg roll.
She's cleaning the last crumbs in her plastic container when a giggle reaches her ears and she looks up to see Yamada standing with her arms outstretched in front of her, Shirakumo pressed against her back and guiding her hands with her own as the both of them move in what looks like an awkward and uncoordinated dance.
Yet the mood suddenly feels quite different. Their faces are close to each-other, their voices are softer, and it feels like she's witnessing something more personal, something more... intimate, maybe? Shouta's eyes widden.
But then Yamada trips and headbutts Shirakumo's nose with a loud bump and the spell is broken.
The rest of lunch break passes fast and uneventful, and soon the three girls are back in class for practical training and mock matches as if nothing happened. Yet the scene keeps replaying in the back of Shouta's mind, every minute detail of the memory carefully examined : from Shirakumo and Yamada's soft voices and quiet words, to their faces only a breath away from each other and their tender movements.
Once school is over they all go their separate ways, unknowing of the future plan Shouta has in store for them and of her re-ignited conviction.
Time for step two.
Jun thirty sees Shouta follow through with her plan as she tries to gather more solid evidence of her friend's relationship; A.K.A catching another moment like the one yesterday on the rooftop. And at first it seems like a pretty reasonable goal, what with her friends inability to stay away from each-other for more than five minutes, but in what is a typically unlucky turn of events for her it sure did not happen that way.
To be exact, nothing happened at all, because Shirakumo immediately comes down with a bad stomach flu and stays home for three days.
Three. Entire. Days. Where Shouta (very patiently in her defense) takes notes to bring to Shirakumo's doorstep after class, tolerates Yamada's increasingly unhinged behavior as now all her energy is directed at her alone, and watches the clock turn with urgency every new night she ruminates like a freaking cow instead of studying.
And when Shirakumo finally comes back from her leave, as if someone out there is laughing down at Shouta specifically, Yamada also catches the flu and stays bedridden for three more days.
...
On July sixth Aizawa Shouta admits that she is not a patient person, and that she'll have plenty enough time later to learn how to be one.
Her first term's finals loom over her with the severity of a fine blade coming down to slice all her efforts along with it, and the only thing she is able to focus on is her stupid mind being slighty thrown-off by a trivial and moronic kiss, so this cannot keep going.
This has to end today or else she might end up punching someone (and probably regret it).
So what she's planning to do, as Yamada asks their teacher if she can go to the restroom during their last morning period and Shouta stands up to do the same, she is not proud of. Ashamed even. But what must be done must be done.
She follows her friend into the empty glass hallway and her eyes burn a hole into the back of her disheveled blond head, even though Yamada seems none the wiser as she keeps chatting about something or another idly.
They move away from class 1-A, pass in front of 1-B, and are well on their way to the restroom when Shouta's last remnants of sanity finally snaps. She grabs Yamada by her shirt and slams her against the wall.
"ARE YOU AND SHIRAKUMO TOGETHER?!"
She's really not proud of this. Weirdly exhilarated by violence, yes, but not proud. Yamada is in such a state of shock that for a second no sound comes out of her open mouth, her glasses sliding partway down her nose to give way to her wide and confused eyes.
"What-"
Shouta shakes her and Yamada's back hits the wall again with a loud thump. "TELL ME NOW!"
"What are you talking about?!"
"Are you going out with Shirakumo?!"
"...am I wh-"
"ARE YOU?!"
"NO?!"
"Okay."
Shouta drops her and Yamada - who had been on the tip of her toes until now - stumbles a bit on her feet.
"...okay," Shouta draws a deep breath and exhales slowly. "Right, sorry about tha-"
Yamada punches her so hard that Shouta only manage to steady her stance thanks to hours of fighting practice.
"What the fuck was that?!"
"You're asking me??!" Yamade yells back. "What the FUCK was THAT?!"
Shouta recoils from the sheer volume and has the decency to look a little apologetic, but she really didn't like that punch. And she's still very frustrated by this whole mess.
"...It's your fault."
"MY fault??"
"Yes."
"What have I done to you?!"
"You're... you're weird."
Yamada chokes on air.
"I'M WEIRD?? I'm not the one assaulting my friend in the hallway!"
"If you didn't play with people so much we wouldn't be here!"
"Pl- What are you even talking about?!"
"I SAW YOU AND SHIRAKUMO KISS OKAY?!"
Shouta's voice echoes along the entire lenght of the hallway, disappearing into the far corner with a faint ghost of "kiss, kiss, kiss...". The two girls stare each other dead in the eye in the following silence.
Someone clears their throat and they both turn towards the sound at the same time.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but if you young ladies would be so kind as to have your relationship quarrels somewhere else I would be very much obliged."
The teacher of 1-B is looking at them from the entryway of his class, arms crossed while a bunch of students peek from behind him and talk in low voices.
"Shouldn't you be in class, anyway?"
They find themselves in the restroom after running away like cowards. Yamada is crouching on the tiled floor and Shouta uses the sink to splash some water on a rapidly growing blue and purple bruise on her temple. What a day already.
"How long have you said that you've not studied already?" Yamada asks, the incredulity in her voice bouncing off the walls of the large and empty bathroom space.
"I have studied, I just... stopped. Temporarily."
"O~kay, and you cannot study anymore because – correct me if I'm wrong - you are too busy obsessing over me and Shirakumo potentially dating?"
"No. Because you two keep being all over each-other and it's annoying."
"Annoying how?"
"It makes it impossible to know if what you do is romantic or platonic anymore, even when it's something like kissing, and it's completely illogical."
"And that keeps you awake at night, restless and incapable of any rational thought?"
"...Yes? I guess."
Shouta hears a snort, then the building of a sound that reminds her suspiciously of a delighted giggle.
"Oooooh Ai-chan!!" Yamada purrs. "You should have just told me sooner you silly, I always listen to my listeners' feelings with an open heart~!"
"Ai-chan?" Shouta frowns, "What are you-"
She turns around to the sight of Yamada wiggling her obnoxiously small eyebrows, a shark smile stretching all the way to her ears and her hands in the shape of a heart.
"Uh? ...Wait, no! NO!! THAT'S NOT WHAT I- NO!"
Shouta tries to push her down with her foot and Yamada laughs until she falls over by herself. They grapple for a few minutes and by the end of it they sit together on the cold bathroom floor, the silence surrounding them now suprisingly comfortable and only disturbed by a faulty neon light.
"...You know,"Yamada says after a while. "It was just for fun."
"Hm?"
"The kiss."
Shouta refocuses her attention on Yamada, who takes it as an invitation to continue.
"You saw us on the roof the other day right? Well, basically, I told Oboro that her lipbalm smelled like citrus fruits, and she said 'wanna try it?', and I winked and said 'only if it's on you baby'! And for some reason we kissed."
Shouta blinks.
"...That's it?"
"Yep."
"Seriously?"
"Uh uh."
"And neither of you meant anything by it?"
"Nope, not that I know of at least!"
Shouta stares blankly at a cracked tile by her feet. Well. That's awkward.
She was so sure that she'd caught a glimpse of romance when she saw them kiss, and then later when they held each-other on the roof, but apparently not. The concept feels just as strange and foreign to her as when she first caught them in the act a week or so ago.
In the end, maybe it was just her mental rigidity grasping at strings to find a reasoning into a situation that really didn't have any. Just... friends, platonically kissing for the thrill of it. A strange idea, at least for Shouta, but she'll probably get used to it one way or another (as long as it's not directed at her).
She sighs.
"But you knooow," Yamada drawls, "I have been wondering if Oboro may have feelings for me, actually."
Shouta perks up like a puppy hearing a squeeky toy. "How so?"
"You know how Oboro looks at girls sometimes?"
Does she know?
Shirakumo is, at the absolute bare minimum, the gayest girl Shouta has ever met.
She'd seen her smile at the female students when passing them in the hallways, follow the ones she likes with her eyes during class, and always go out of her way to help any girl in need. And if that wasn't enough, whenever a cute classmate talks to her, her face splits into a goofy grin and she becomes so red you'd think she's having a heat stroke.
It's always respectful, always sweet, but not subtle.
(She also has posters of that one idol plastered all over her bedroom walls like a maniac. Who has a towel with a print of a real life person's face on it? Her, apparently).
"Yes, what about it?"
"Well I'm not sure, but sometimes I think I can catch her looking at me like that."
Surprising, Shouta thinks idly, as she's pretty sure she would have already seen it by now if that was the case.
"When for exemple?"
"Well, when we go to the seven eleven and laugh at stupid magazines, or when we're at her house and read comics or play video games on her bed... Oh! And that time I got that atrocious hero costume from the support department, remember that?"
"Ugh the one with the skin-tight leather pants and high heel boots, with that stupid bra-top?"
"Yes that one! She kinda looked at me like that, right?"
"Hm hmm."
Shouta takes a long moment to ponder the situation. Just when it seemed like she had finally come to a resolution - not one she's particularly convinced with but one she'd learn to accept nonetheless - a new variable is added to the equation.
It seems like her impromptu investigation isn't quite done yet.
They talk for the next twenty minutes and only remember that they're supposed to be in class when the ringing of the bell startles them. They get chewed out by their teacher and Shirakumo complains about leaving her out of what seemed like a fun outing.
Yamada becomes Shouta's new ally.
And for some reason, she is very adamant about not asking Shirakumo about her feelings directly. Which - aside from being pretty uncharacteristic - is also quite frustrating for Shouta, who has already reached her limit of social miscommunication for the foreseeable future (although given her recent record of decisions she really doesn't have any ground to stand on here).
That evening they exchange messages until way too late in the night, and both decide that for the time being they're going to observe Shirakumo in the hopes of catching her special "look" directed at Yamada.
Shouta finds herself having more fun than she cares to admit.
On July seven she meets Yamada on her way to school and they go through the specifics of step four (yes, just for the record, step three was basically beating the shit out of Yamada).
They arrive for the first morning class and greet Shirakumo like they do everyday, the girl immediately noticing their presence and ditching whatever she's doing to run to them and embrace them both. She's already talking a mile a minute about several things, like what she ate at dinner the night before, the sweets in that new grocery store across the street, or the stray cat that she petted on her way to school. Yamada is smiling and leaning into the touch, adding her own thoughts to every new words coming out of Shirakumo's mouth.
Nothing unusual so far.
The first period begins and Shouta tries to steal glances at Shirakumo during its entire duration. Their desk settings make it so that Yamada is in the back (where she often yells across the room), Shirakumo somewhere in the middle, and Shouta in front. Least to say this isn't an easy place to look behind oneself discreetly.
Everytime she turns around she meets the gaze of Shirakumo, who at first seems amused, but is becoming visibly more confused by the second. After a few rounds of that game Shouta is startled out of her bones by her teacher's hand slamming on her desk, and she decides that she'll cut on the peeking until further notice.
After what feels like an eternity they finally leave for lunch and some much-needed fresh air. When they cross the threshold of the rooftop's door they're immediately met with a faceful of confetti and party-poppers.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" A familiar voice sing-songs, soon to be revealed as their favorite senior student, Kayama Nemuri. She's sporting her summer uniform and regular red-rimmed glasses and has the biggest smile on her face.
A chorus of similar birthday wishes erupt around a confused Yamada, and for once she struggles to string together a coherent sentence for a good thirty seconds (due in large part to of a couple of confetti having found their way into her mouth).
The center of the rooftop offers a charming view of what appears to be a pic-nic; a decent-sized napkin having been laid on the ground with four sets of plastic dishes and cutlery arranged around a big cake. A few plastic bags - their contents very gift-shaped - are waiting beside it.
Yamada tries to play it cool, but a wobbly smile pushes at the edges of her shiny eyes.
They all sit and celebrate as their friend blows a thematic sixteen candle under enthusiastic applause, whistles, and wishes for all the happiness in her future.
Then she opens her gifts.
Shirakumo's has been wrapped by hand (the clue being the unholy amout of tape) in a light blue gift-paper patterned with cotton white clouds. Inside is a shoebox containing a pair of ink-black sneakers with thick and golden soles.
She explains that she chose them after hearing Yamada complain about regular pain in her knees post-training, and that apparently these have special cushions on the heels that help absorb the shocks of jumps and sudden movements (on top of looking "really super cool" in her own words). Yamada is thrilled and gives Shirakumo a big kiss on the cheek as thanks.
Shouta's gift is a c.d that she has been told Yamada wanted. It's from an independant group that has disbanded 10 years ago and has only ever published one mostly lost album, so it wasn't an easy find by any means, but she lucked out after the fifth unsuccessful music shop in a row and has sworn to never do this again. Yamada is so happy that Shouta doesn't complain about being hugged.
Kayama's gift is... well.
"L-Lingerie?!"
Very Kayama indeed.
"You're still a baby so it's not for now of course," she winks, "but you'll have time to think about it later!"
"Ah ah... ah... okay! Thank youuu!"
Yamada leans towards Shouta with the offending things held between the tips of her fingers and whispers, "Do you think I can give these to my mom?".
They spend the remaining time chatting between bites of the birthday cake and a few carbonated drinks. Yamada tries to jump over Shirakumo's shoulders with her new sneakers on and - to the absolute delight of a cackling Kayama - brings them both down in a tumble of limbs.
"Ah the passion of youth!" She says, from the top of her one single year over them.
Ten minutes before the bell rings they hurry and pack everything up, put it all in a plastic bag Kayama has brought up with her, and have one last thanks from Yamada in the form of an enthusiastic embrace.
Shouta notes offhandedly that Shirakumo hasn't looked at Yamada "that way" in the entirety of their lunchtime.
In contrast the afternoon promises to be brutal, with a little over four hours of combat training, and beginning with physical reinforcement.
They all gather outside on the field after having changed into their sports outfits and begin stretching in little groups. Shouta finds herself sitting on the ground trying to touch her toes with her fingers while Shirakumo does ostensibly the same thing next to her, albeit with Yamada's help.
"Hey Shouta," Shirakumo says, a strain in her voice as Yamada pushes on her back, "Wanna do that study session we talked about after school?"
"Today?" She glances at Yamada but gets a non-commital shrug in response. "Uh yeah sure, why not."
"Great!! My mom has been on my case lately about the finals and my future and stuff, and it's honestly beginning to make me a little nervous..."
"Given the state of your grades," Yamada interjects, "I'd be nervous too."
"Hush you, you're not invited anyway."
"What?! Oh my god... are you still hung up on that?!"
"Listen Hizashi, never in my life do I want to hear the word 'easy' come out of your mouth ever again."
"Oh come on!!"
"It's not because something is easy for you that it is for everyone! You've got the energy and enthusiasm alright but you seriously lack any form of pedagogy."
"Hey, I spent two hours trying to explain the past tense to you!"
"Two HELLISH hours! I was crying by the end of it!"
"I already apologized profusely about calling you dumb-"
"NEVER AGAIN!!"
Shouta watches them argue back and forth for a little while, until Yamada decides to put an end to it by sitting her full weight on Shirakumo's back.
Afterward they practice for an hour and do a series of convoluted training exercices aiming to build their stamina, muscle mass, and rapidity. All it feels like however is a torture-level obstacle course where every mistake leads to a punition of a hundred push-ups of death.
They come out of it washed-up and drenched in sweat, and barely have time to take a quick shower before putting on their hero costumes for mock battles.
The rest of the afternoon passes by a flash of fights and eating the dust. To her credit Shouta tries to keep up with observing Shirakumo despite consistently being matched against an heteromorph kid who wipes the floor with her, but the only substantial result she gets is an instance of the cloud hero-in-training skillfully dodging one of Yamada's pumped-up yells and stuffing her mouth with a cloud.
When they finally leave school Shirakumo is nothing short of exhilarated.
"Freedom!!" She cries, moving around and jumping and doing a cartwheel.
"And right back to studying~!" Yamada points out, effectively deflating Shirakumo's bubble of elation into a crumpled old balloon on the grass. A faint wail of "nooooo" can be heard from her remains. Shouta wants to say that she asked for it, but it feels a bit too much like a deathblow.
They collectively decide to go to Shirakumo's house, Shouta and Yamada each living in appartments and thus not having as much space to accommodate guests. It's a nice place, situated in a pretty calm neighborhood, and it has a small front yard full of flowers and charming decorations.
When they enter there's a pair of brown loafers neatly placed before the threshold, right next to a shelf packed to the brim with a variety of blue and orange sneakers and crocs. They greet Shirakumo's father as they pass through the living room (her mother being busy with her office job until late in the night) and after a quick chat with him go to study in her bedroom.
It's a quaint little space with a single blue bed in one corner and a spacious desk in the other, both covered in miscelaneous things among the likes of rumpled clothes, comic books and hero magazines, an old plush that looks less like the cute sun its supposed to be and more like a deflated sunny-side egg, a video game console, and one or two half-open snack boxes.
A simple standard closet stands next to the only window, it's doors slightly ajar, and an already filled basket of laundry rests besides it.
The floor is made in some sort of gray linoleum, soft and smooth, and has one single fluffy sky carpet placed at the foot of the bed.
And all of it is basking in the blinding glory of the idol posters covering every inch of the walls.
Shirakumo's overbearing crush on a girl she'll probably never talk to let alone meet is far beyond Shouta's understanding, but she has long learned not to breach that subject - lest she wants to open the gates to an unending monologue about how kind and pretty and selfless and blablabla that girl is.
They drop their bags in a corner and place themselves around the room, Shirakumo sitting at her desk, Shouta on the bed, and Yamada leaning against the closet. They decide to begin with written Japanese - Shouta's strong point - and pass the next hour working on Kanji. It is harduous but they manage to get positive results thanks to a few tips Shouta had thought up for them.
As for english it surprisingly goes well, thanks to Yamada listening to Shirakumo's advice, and between her loud enthusiasm and Shirakumo's teaching approach they finally learn something. What Shouta learns is that no matter how fun you try to make it english still sucks.
Afterward they take a break, and Shirakumo leaves the room to come back five minutes later with her arms full of bags of a large variety of chips and soda cans.
"Wanna play video games?" She asks with a grin as she drops her stash on the bed. "The loser has to do a hundred push-ups!"
And so they prop Shirakumo's hand-held console on her desk and play one of her racing kart game. Yamada loses by a landslide (which is absolutly not to blame on a concerted effort to target her with banana peels), Shouta is only a place above her thanks to a well-timed shell, and Shirakumo wins first at every race.
"Push~ups! Push~ups!" They chant with matching claps of their hands.
"Okayyyy okay I hear you dear listeners, take a good look at these sick muscles!"
Yamada gets down on the floor and begins doing push-ups under the watchful count of the other two girls. She gets so bolstered by the attention that she tries on one hand and her arm immediately buckles under her.
She continues with the added challenge of Shirakumo sitting on her back, and despite some impressive tremors, she's able to surprisingly go through several reps. Shouta cheers them on from her slumping position on the bed and munches on a chip (probably seaweed from the aftertaste), feeling comfortable and sleepy.
And maybe it's the buzzing of her friends' happy voices, the slumber her brain is already sagging into, or their recent plans with Yamada, but that list of innocuous questions she made at the beginning of the week crosses her mind again.
She considers not saying anything, as she does not want to spoil the fun, but it keeps nagging at a corner of her mind.
"Shirakumo, are you interested in anyone lately?"
One single second of silence is all she gets before an audible crack and a cacophony of surprised and pained complaints. She's immediately pulled out of her lethargy and sits up, only to be met with the sight of Yamada collapsed on the floor under an hysterical Shirakumo.
"You broke that poor Hizashi!" Shirakumo manages to say between her fits of laughter, Yamada laying flat as a tire underneath her and looking very much like a cartoon character with her glasses all askew.
"Sorry," Shouta mumbles, feeling a bit guilty. "... I'm serious though."
"Are you?" Shirakumo wipes a few tears from her eyes and tries to regain her breathing. She scrapes herself off of Yamada - helping her up in the meantime - and sits up criss-cross on the floor with an excited wiggle. "In the mood for some girl talk~?"
"Uhm... yeah, kinda?"
"Well I like the idea!! Let me think for a sec'," she puts a hand on her chin and ponders the question.
For a second a look of genuine distress crosses Yamada's face, but Shirakumo finds her answer before she can say anything.
"I think I'm not especially interested in anyone lately, actually."
They both stare at her.
"...uh, really? Not even Kayama?"
"I mean of course Kayama, I do picture myself eloping with her on my cloud at least once a day, but I'm pretty sure she's not interested."
"And no crushes or anything?"
"Hmmm, I do think that Amira in 1-B and Fuuka in general studies are reaaally really cute! But it's nothing that serious."
A stiff kind of stillness befalls the trio.
"And what about you two?" She continues, oblivious to the sudden change of mood. "Anyone you like lately?"
Shouta shakes her head so hard she almost gets a whiplash from it. "Not interested".
"Yeah sounds like you alright! What about you Hizashi?"
"Uh," it takes her a moment to compose herself. "I don't know, maybe...? I haven't really thought about it."
"Seriously? So you mean to tell me we're teenagers at the height of our youth and there isn't one of us with some juicy gossip? If Kayama was here she'd kick our asses."
"Good thing she's not then," Shouta adds, and thankfully it's enough to change topics from uncomfortable to some easy teasing at the expense of their senior for a while.
But Yamada feels weirdly out of it. She's uncharacteristically subdued, listening quietly and only participating with an occasional laugh. When Shirakumo eventually notices she throws an arm around her shoulders and does what she always do when Yamada's down : she offers a Karaoke competition.
And of course it works without fail, so much so that Shirakumo's father has to knock on her bedroom door half an hour later with a plea for them to stop after he'd received several complaints from the neighbors. They try to study again but between the snacks, the video games, and the atmosphere having gone silly and fun, they only do half an hour and call it a day.
Shirakumo's father offers for them to stay for dinner but it's getting late and Shouta and Yamada politely refuse. Their friend still decides to walk with them part of the way back and ends up staying more than halfway, right up until the path goes into different directions and they have to split up.
Shouta doesn't think she'll ever get used to the surprise of Shirakumo's hugs, the feeling of her friend's embrace warm and comforting against her until the pressure relents and the comparatively chill air takes its place. In a different style Yamada settles for a hearty slap on the shoulder and a strident proclamation of "see you later gloomy girl!".
When Shirakumo goes to hug a running and laughing Yamada it takes a betrayal from Shouta and a tackle to finally succeed.
That night Shouta comes back home thinking that this is finally it, case closed. Any "illogical" behaviors surrounding her friends have finally been entirely cleared up, and she can relax a little and study again.
Or at least that's the conclusion she had come up with, until the multiple messages she sends to Yamada are left on read.
Which in and of itself isn't really a bad thing per se (she's regularly guilty of it herself after all), but for as long as she's known Yamada she's never seen that girl leave a message alone for more than 10 minutes. So, just in case, she re-reads their last conversation.
And aside from her initial comment of : "that's it now we know, it's only friendship, congrats" she left on the way home, there's nothing of much importance there. It doesn't sound any more sarcastic or dry than what she usually writes too, but maybe Shouta's missing something? After all Yamada did seem a little out-of-it earlier.
By the time Shouta's laying down in her bed and her last message has been ignored for more than three hours, the unease born of that supposedly trivial thing has grown from dismissable to a worrying presence.
When she enters class on the morning of July eighth, everything seems normal.
The other students are seated or in the process of doing so, getting a few last minutes of chat with their friends or taking out their school supplies, and a head of blue hair is trying to see how many desks she can jump in less than one minute under the faithful count of a familiar thundering voice.
Shouta makes eye contact with Shirakumo and it almost sends the girl flying head first into a nearby chair (that she avoids thanks to her fast reflexes). The second her feet touch the ground she rushes to Shouta's side and gives her a side hug, followed closely by a friendly quip from Yamada at the state of her messy black hair.
It's so normal that it makes Shouta doubt her own judgement. After all, maybe Yamada was just tired after their study session last night and went to sleep early? That could always happen, right? Their homeroom teacher enters the class and they all get to their respective seats, but right before Shouta settles down Yamada quickly taps her shoulder and whispers into her ear.
"Sorry for yesterday, I was so tired I crashed right after my bath. We'll talk later."
Just as Shouta thought. And yet something still doesn't sit right with her.
How can a girl who messages her while brushing her teeth and drying her hair, one who is capable of sending her trivia about a Hokkaido radio celebrity in the wee-hours of the morning, and has a record of several phones dropped mid-call into the bath, forget to answer?
She tries not to think too hard about it and give her the benefit of the doubt. One hard lesson she's learned this week (beyond the fact that she can forget ever going into an english-speaking country) is that she shouldn't theorize about her friends lives.
And Yamada does act like any other day for the rest of the morning : she cuts the teacher mid-sentence, yells across the classroom at the drop of a hat, and makes grand gestures to embellish a story she's recounting.
But Shouta notices small discrepancies and otherwise pointless details unraveling from that carefully maintained exterior. Some smiles a notch too unnerved, a bunch of little blunders on her volume control, and a careful space maintained between her and Shirakumo's legs as they sit next to each other.
When they're freed from their last period and sent to eat lunch, Shouta asks Shirakumo if she could heat up some water for instant noodles in the home economic's room for them. Their friend glances between the two of them curiously, but agrees nonetheless, and Shouta is left alone with Yamada as they climb the stairs leading to the rooftop.
She can hear the blond's footsteps a few paces behind her, and mulls over the formulation of her words.
"Say Yamada," she begins, cringing at the reverb of her voice in the huge stairwell, "is everything uh... okay?"
There's a silent beat before she gets an answer.
"...Is this about yesterday? Yeah sorry for not answering, I was completely busted."
"Ah no that's okay, it's fine. I just... how to say that," she scratches at her chin and sigh. "You've been kind of weird today?"
"Weird?"
"Yes. Not the crazy-radio-dj weird, more like not being your usual self? If that makes sense."
"...Really?"
"Yeah," Shouta arrives at the top of the stairs and pushes the small metal door open with a creak, stepping onto the concrete floor of the rooftop.
"I don't know how to explain it but you've been feeling pretty off since yesterday night. It might just be me though, so I wanted to ask you first just in case-"
She turns back to the figure of Yamada standing completely still a little further down the stairs.
Shouta frowns. "Uh, are you okay?"
No answer. She descends the few steps leading to her and notices that she's clenching her fists around her skirt. She looks up to check her expression and the noise Shouta produces cannot be defined as anything other than a wild animal's panicked gurgle.
Yamada's crying.
And she's visibly trying to reign it in too. Her breathing is wet and trembling under gritted teeth, her brows furrowed, and a couple of stubborn tears roll under her orange-tinted glasses.
"Oh shit," is all Shouta can say. "Oh shit oh no, oh no I'm sorry! I'm sorry don't cry, Yamada don't cry it's okay-"
Shouta panicks. It's something she's regularly being critized about in her hero studies, but she's notoriously bad at comforting people. Some say it's the creepiness of her smile, others that her words are too rough, but to be honest she simply has difficulties processing other peoples emotions.
She attempts an awkward pat on the shoulder, but it's so underwhelming that the idea of throwing herself down the stairs seems like a reasonable alternative. A rythmn of footsteps echoes off the walls, and Shouta looks down from the railway to see a distant tuft of blue hair climbing up towards them. For all the relief that the sight brings her it could just as well have been All Might.
"SHIRAKUMO!" She yells, "there's a problem! Come here!"
"What?" Her voice sounds faraway. "You two are still there?"
"COME HERE FAST!"
"Oh, okay okay I'm here!"
There's a sound of her dropping something metallic on the ground and she takes flight on a cloud, jumping down on their level less than a minute later.
"What's happening?"
"It's Yamada, she's crying and I don't know what to do!"
"She's crying?!"
Shirakumo climbs the few steps separating her from Yamada and leans forward.
"Oh shit she is, what's going on? What's wrong buddy?"
She starts rubbing circles on Yamada's back and Shouta can't help but admire the immediate shift in her whole body language. How Shirakumo naturally establishes a respectful distance between her and Yamada, keeps her worried yet soft gaze solely on her, and how calming the ever-grounding presence of her voice is.
Little-by-little Yamada's tense features relax, her white-knuckles grip loosening around the wrinkled fabric of her skirt, and whatever pride or facade she's trying so hard to hold onto finally cracks into an ugly sob.
Without a moment's hesitation Shirakumo pulls her into a tight hug and Shouta watches from a small distance, not knowing where to stand or what to do, but infinitely grateful for Shirakumo's intervention nonetheless.
Yamada eventually gets a hold of herself, and her sobs cool down into the occasional sniffling. Shirakumo stands back a little.
"Are you feeling a bit better?"
She nods.
"Great! Then what do you say we go up on the rooftop to get some fresh air? We could talk if you feel up to it."
Yamada agrees silently.
They end up sitting outside on the roof. Yamada is curled up against the wall of the stairwell building, one hand around her legs and the other wiping under her glasses. Shouta sits nearby, and Shirakumo is cross-legged right in front of them.
They haven't said a word in five minutes.
"So..." Shirakumo begins hesitantly, "do you feel like talking about this?"
Shouta looks expectantly at Yamada, but the girl's busy fiddling with an unraveling thread on the rim of her school shoes, so she turns her attention back to Shirakumo. All things considered their cloudy friend has been very patient here, her usual attitude of charging in being put aside on behalf of Yamada's well-being, but her bouncing leg and pinched lips make it obvious that she wants to say something.
And when the dam breaks is it nowhere near what they could have imagined.
"Okay, is this about that rumor saying that you're a player?"
Both Shouta and Yamada's heads snap up. "The what?"
"Isn't it? There's a rumor circulating that you play around with people's feelings and ruin friendships or whatever. I knew it was a load of crap so I didn't pay it any mind but..."
The noise Yamada makes is closer to a tire-screech than anything remotely human. Shouta thinks back to the 1-B kids murmuring among themselves after that fallout in the hallway.
"Listen," Shirakumo continues, "we can talk about it with Tensei. He's the class president he'll find a solution-"
"No no no! Don't tell Iida!" Yamada waves her hands frantically.
"But if people are bullying you-"
"NO it's not-" She slaps her forehead and sighs. "I wasn't crying because of that, I didn't even know about that rumor! I'll just deal with all of that later myself it's fine, I promise!"
Shirakumo's brows draw low. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"If you need help you'll ask me, we're clear on that?"
"Yes, of course."
They lock eyes for a minute, neither of them willing to give up any ground, but Shirakumo relents after a while.
"Okay," she breathes in relief. "Okay cool. Then what is this all about? Why were you crying?"
Yamada lets out a frustrated groan and drops her forehead on her knees. It takes such a long time for her to say anything again that they begin to worry she's crying, but a barely audible mumble eventually draws their attention.
"...What was it?" Shirakumo asks, bending forward in tandem with Shouta.
"..."
"I'm sorry I can't hear you Hizashi, what are you saying?"
"I have feelings for you."
"...I genuinely can't hear a single thing you say."
"I HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOU."
A flock of birds take flight from the nearby trees and the ambiant noise in the courtyard comes to an abrupt halt. The declaration isn't even that loud in-and-of itself, far from the worst Yamada has ever done, but it stuns everyone present into a daze.
A blush slowly creeps on Shirakumo's ears, and a pretty shade of brown and red begins to cover the area over her cheeks and nose until none of her usual tan skin is left visible.
"It's okay," Yamada dismisses with a hand, her face still stubbornly stuck to her knees. "Don't worry, I'm not asking for anything. I just realized it myself like yesterday anyway, so I simply have to get over it. I just hope that we can stay friends, maybe?"
"Yesterday?" Shouta asks. "Is that why you didn't answer my messages?"
Yamada raises her head to reveal an unimpressed look. "...Are you seriously bringing that up now?"
"Yes, because I was worried like a dumbass for nothing!"
"What?!"
"Yeah, did you know I lost sleep because of you asshole?! I thought I hurt your feelings or something."
"And how is this my fault?!"
"You should have known by now that you had a big fat crush on Shirakumo, it's so obvious!"
"So obvious that you lost sleep over wondering if it was the case or not!"
"Who cares about me, I'm dumb about feelings! But YOU should have noticed miss I-kiss-people-willy-nilly!"
"Oh my god you talk like a grandma."
"I'm gonna punch you."
"Just try it."
"YOU-"
"What makes you think I want you to get over it?" Shirakumo interrupts, and their bickering immediately comes to a stop. She's staring directly at Yamada, eyes expectant, her cheeks still burning like it's a hot summer day.
"Uh..." Yamada falters. "Well, uh, you know, you said you weren't interested in anyone lately and-"
"And what? At least give me a chance to tell you how I feel before you write me off!"
Yamada clamps her mouth shut in the face of one of Shirakumo's rare display of genuine frustration, and she takes it as an invitation to continue.
"I'm going to be honest," Shirakumo says, her voice still steady but her gaze unsure. "I've never really thought of you that way until... well, until now I guess. Or at least not seriously anyway. But..."
She scratches at her still furiously blushing cheeks and her eyes begin to roam the sky, the blue irises seemingly searching for an answer over there as they move along the rhythm of her rapid thoughts. After a moment of reflexion she raises a careful hand and reaches for Yamada's own, the movement a little unsteady but soft as she absently-mindedly brushes her fingertips against some old black nail polish.
"I think... Hm, how to say it. You know, I think it could work actually. Ah sorry wait, I didn't say it right, don't look at me like that!"
Yamada sure does look confused right now, or frowning if anything, so Shirakumo urges forward.
"I mean I really like you as a friend, but uh... maybe, also, as a potential... girlfriend?" Her voice chooses the very last word to break in pure teenager fashion, and the snorts and giggles it elicits from her friends make her groan. "Okay listen, I haven't thought about it for long, but what I do know already is that I really like the sound of your voice when you laugh, for example! And I also really like your warmth against me when we lay down on my bed and we tangle our legs, and how cute you are - in a very shrimp kind of way!"
"Hey!"
"I also really like that you listened to my advice for english lessons, and that for someone so flamboyant and eccentric you don't actually have that big of an ego. I love holding your hand when we go to the convenience store together and share snacks and read stupid magazines. I love when you take stuff from my bag only for me to find them later scattered in your room. I love when you use my lipbalm, and when you take hours to braid my hair carefully, and when I sit on your lap during breaks and you hug me. And I really love that you're too damn proud to cry for anything, but today you still cried for me anyway. Although I'd really like for that last part to not happen again, ideally!"
Shirakumo chuckles and Yamada's face flushes a bright and deep red.
"So yeah, as long as we can stay friends like we've always been, I think that I'd be super SUPER happy to also be your girlfriend Hizashi! That's if you still want me to, of course."
Shirakumo squeezes Yamada's hand so tightly that her fingers lose all colors, but Yamada doesn't seem to mind in the slightest, too busy staring at her with intense and glassy eyes.
"I want to."
"Hm?"
"I want to be your girlfriend."
"Really?!"
"OF COURSE," Shouta wants to say, because these two are the definition of kindergarteners asking each-other out right now. But she doesn't because Shirakumo's huge smile taking half of her face and Yamada's tightening hold on their intertwined hands warms her heart somehow, still.
"Oh by the way," Shirakumo keeps going, unfaltered. "I also really liked when we kissed!"
"You did?"
"Yeah!"
"Wanna do it again?"
"OH YEAH!"
Shouta clears her throat not-so-discreetly and finally seems to grab their attention, reminding them that she is, in fact, right here.
"I'm happy for you guys and all but I don't really need to see you two kiss twice, so if you could do that another time-"
A hint of confusion crosses Shirakumo's features. "What do you mean twice?"
Shirakumo hears the whole story and finds it absolutely hilarious. But they don't have time to dwell further on it as the bell signaling the beginning of afternoon classes rings loudly in their ears, and if their stomachs have anything to say about their lack of food intake during lunch, it's made abundantly clear by several low rumbles.
The five minutes or so they have left before their first class are thus passed retrieving their lunches at lightning speed and downing them on the way there without dying in the process. No mentions are made of what just happened on the roof, but the new development still lingers in timid glances and awkward smiles.
At some point they pass by the kettle of - now cold - water that Shirakumo had gone to retrieve earlier, and its pitiful apppearance waiting all alone at the base of the stairs suceeds in dissolving the last remaining bits of tension into easy laughter.
The rest of the afternoon goes peacefully, aside from Yamada now being fully aware and extremely pissed at what people have been saying behind her back.
Several things happen in the following days.
First, Yamada puts a stop to the rumors about her in a way that screams her name both figuratively and literally.
She locks herself up on the rooftop one afternoon when everyone's in class, clings to the metal railing, and activates her quirk to broadcast a message that goes something like : "I'm Yamada Hizashi, you thought you could pull one over me with rumors of all things? Let me show you how bad of a mistake that was".
Then, loud enough for the entirety of the campus and the adjacent areas to hear, she proceeds to disclose all - and it means all - the gossip about the students and teachers of UA. She's always had an excellent memory for these things, and that day marks a turn in people's fear of her knowledge (and her revenge).
It lasts thirty minutes, during which a very displeased formation of both teachers and students alike try to dislodge her from there unsucessfully. Ultimately they have to require the assistance of a noise cancelling quirk, and even then they still have to manhandle her out of there like a very petty sack of potatoes.
And despite her three days of expulsion and the seizing of her phone and visitation rights for the duration of her school-mandated punishment, Yamada is still very proud of herself.
It goes without saying that when she shows her face on the morning of july thirteenth after half a week of radio-silence the general reaction is both of awe and careful avoidment, in stark contrast to a very excited Shirakumo who all but jumps on her the moment she walks into the classroom.
Their reunion is a big show of hugs, loud exclamations of happiness, and a lot of boucing around that Shouta is more than happy to watch from afar. But then, before an astounded audience, Shirakumo cups Yamada's face in her hands and kisses her.
"I missed you so much!" She declares against a muffled laughter, unaware (or uncaring) of all the eyes fixed on them.
From then on their relationship mostly stays the same, an unabashed display of their friendship in front of every willing passerby through casual hands seeking the warmth of a solid back, legs resting on an inviting lap, and teasing words overflowing with mutual care.
But a few novelties have made their appearances here and there in the form of spontaneous kisses, fingers interlacing, and bumbling attempts at pet names. Each passing day sees Shirakumo a little more delighted for every instance of the word "girlfriend" leaving Yamada's mouth.
In turn, Yamada has begun claiming emphatically to come rescue her "beloved" from harm during training ("rescue" being a well-placed insult and "harm" that one laser teen from 1-B who keeps bugging them), and has even purposefuly let herself be protected for the sole reason of swooning into her "wife's" safe and comforting arms, as she says.
Which always manages to fluster Shirakumo so much she loses sight of what's happening in the fight and causes her to get swept by whichever opponent she has at that moment.
Lunchtime also gets a little upgrade as Shirakumo has now taken the habit of laying her head on her girlfriend's lap to take a nap, sighing contentedly as Yamada weaves through her wispy hair and braids them into neat blue rows.
All in all Shouta feels like the firstborn of a newlywed young couple, caught between awkward flirting and a dedicated wish to include her into anything they do despite her clear assessment that "no, it's fine, you can stay by yourselves sometimes I do not mind".
On July seventeenth their week of final exams finally begins.
And as expected it is grueling and stressful, the fact that they have to pass them in a stuffy and sweaty classroom in the middle of summer certainly not helping.
But in the end, and thanks to several more study sessions at Shirakumo's house and a lot of last minute catch-up, it goes surprisingly well for Shouta.
To celebrate the end of that particular - and in some ways unexpected - ordeal, Kayama surprises them with a dinner at the family restaurant close to the school. The prospect of a free meal means that they gorge themselves silly with food and drinks at the expense of their senpai who, to her credit, is mostly amused by it.
They also use that time to talk about their future summer internships and work studies (the trio still short of any proposal in that aspect) and projects for the oncoming holidays. They collectively decide to go to the beach together and excitedly talk about the ocean and buying a big watermelon to eat (and swimsuits of course, which jumpstarts Kayama into the idea of a shopping spree later).
But Shouta feels the need to remind a very eager Shirakumo that she'd better not have any failing grades if she doesn't want to spend that time in remedial classes instead. She waves it off with a laugh and says that "everything'll be fiiine", but every single one of them can see the drop of sweat forming on her newly creased brow.
Two weeks later, on July thirty, Shouta is standing in front of a board displaying their finals results.
Her and her friends are squished against each-other in anguish, their eyes sweeping the long list of names pinned to the wall of their classroom with batted breath. Yamada is the first to find hers and she throws her arms up with a whooping cheer.
"YEAAAAH I'M PASSING WITH FLYING COLORS BABYYY!!!"
She runs a short victory lap around the group of gathering students who do not even flinch at her antics anymore, and comes back around to ruffle Shouta's hair affectionately, earning her a vaguely annoyed grunt.
"What about you guys?" She flings herself on Shirakumo's back and tilts her head to observe her girlfriend lopsidedly. "You look worse for the wear here my love."
Indeed, Shirakumo looks like she's about to faint and puke both at the same time.
"Ah! Here you are!" Shouta thrusts her finger on the cloud kanji and they all focus on the numbers right next to it.
The corners of Shirakumo's lips slowly but surely quirk up, and she releases all of her pent-up stress into a roar of elation.
"I PASSED!! I'm going to the beach this summer!!"
She turns around and throws herself at her friends with tears of relief. Shouta smiles, pats her back gently, and refocuses on the list.
Now that the other two are in the clear its all down to her. She is quite confident but stays cautious just in case. It's easier to find her name when she can go off of Shirakumo's and Yamada's, and her eyes fall upon it in less than a minute.
But it's nowhere near as high in the rankings as she hoped it would.
Aizawa Shouta
Math : 85 on 100
History : 78 on 100
Japanese : 100 on 100
English : ...
Shirakumo draws in a breath between her teeth and Yamada winces.
English, of course.
Her arch-nemesis.
English : 15 on 100
Wonderful. Absolutly phenomenal. All that fuss and for what?!