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He is in a girl‘s apartment. A real girl‘s real apartment. He wasn’t in her bedroom yet, but he was sitting in her kitchen, and that has to count for something. Girls didn’t show just anyone their kitchen, right?
Better yet, Denji isn’t just in any girls‘ kitchen, not that he had been in any girls’ kitchen before, (he and Power shared one, and she didn’t count,) he is in Mitaka Asa‘s kitchen. It is, quite frankly, a gazillion times better.
Asa, he just called her that, even though she had explicitly introduced herself as Mitaka Asa, had invited him inside, all shy and stammering, because it was raining like crazy outside. It was pure coincidence, really, that he was near her apartment after work and not because no other girl made his weird heart thump like that.
Not that irregular thumping was new to him, but normally it hurt or itched or brought along a deep feeling of doom. Never before had it felt nice and made his stomach tingle. Unfortunately, the amount of people he could ask about it was so small even Denji could count them. And that wasn’t good when you needed an experienced opinion.
In the end, he decided to ponder it. And by ponder, Denji meant to inconspicuously lounge around near her apartment (that he stumbled across accidentally!!!) and impress her more with his cool and grown-up job of keeping Japan safe from evil devils with epic weapons. He had a whole speech planned that he practised the entire way, about how he just got done murderizing this powerful devil that would have killed hundreds- no THOUSANDS of innocent citizens. And he beat it all alone and saved the day, and it wasn’t even that difficult, which is really impressive, right? and surely that would make Asa fall deeply in love with him, and he could ask her on a date. All cool like a shonen protagonist.
But then it started pouring rain, and he didn’t have money for an umbrella, so by the time Asa saw him, he was soaked in a probably uncool way. And then she thanked him for saving her from tripping, which was definitely the least cool thing Denji did. He couldn’t even brag about it, not when the thought of it made him blush so uncontrollably even his senior noticed.
And of course, as soon as Asa opened her mouth and looked at him through her long eyelashes and entrancing brown eyes, his beautifully practised speech just fucked off.
Denji couldn’t really blame the rain, though, because after walking her home all gentleman-like, she invited him inside to dry off and warm up.
Which is how he now finds himself sitting in her kitchen, a towel draped over his head. Asa had left to put on something that wasn’t wet, which had made Denji snort unapologetically. Asa only grunted disapprovingly, and Denji was a hundred percent certain he saw her blush, which made his already thumping heart start pounding and fluttering.
Asa is intelligent, he had deduced. He thought so before, because she was at school and apparently really good at it. He was even more certain when he found out she often went to intelligent-people-places such as the aquarium. Denji wondered if maybe she would take him there. Maybe he should ask her about heart-thumping-disease…
Before he can give this any more thought, Asa trudges into the kitchen, in a loose white shirt, a towel draped around her shoulders. Denji‘s eyesight isn’t the best anymore, ever since he sold his right eye, which was a stupid fucking decision in hindsight. On account of the worse eyesight. But even with only one eyeball, he can see a hint of softly formed curves and tits. Asa definitely has tits; he had felt them right against his chest when he caught her. As if in response, his heart thumps harder.
Sure, she doesn’t look like the women in Bejean or Video Boy. But those women also hadn’t thanked him like Asa did or invited him into their home. So really, honestly, Asa is better.
His stomach tingles again, and Denji rips his head forcefully to the side. So much for his plan of being the aloof and cool hero of Japan.
„Are you okay?“ Asa asks, less in concern and more in confusion.
Denji scratches the back of his neck, still refusing to look at her. He had known that Asa had tits, as most girls did, in fact, so why is this suddenly an impossible hurdle to acknowledge?
„Yea, yeah, I‘m fine, uh, everything‘s a-okay. I‘m just heating u- uh, warming up. Thanks.“ If it wouldn’t make him seem even more weird, he‘d slap himself right about now. Get a grip.
Asa blinks. „Good, uhm. I‘m gonna make some tea. What flavor do you like? I have a lot, my mother loves- loved tea, so every time I see a new flavor I buy it, though I probably shouldn’t do that so often. I‘m a student after all, and money is tight, I mean, it is for most people, I‘m not special in that regard, but…“ She visibly clamps her mouth shut, taking a breath before continuing, „What tea do you want?
Denji can probably count the amount of tea he has drunk on one hand, or one finger to be exact. „Oh, ya know, I‘ve drunk loads of tea, I‘m basically a tea expert, but I like all of ‘em equally.“
A tea-lover like Asa would think a tea-noob like him to be uncultured, probably. Even worse if it wouldn’t make her think he has bad taste, even if that might be true, at least according to Aki, his senior. Girls didn’t like guys with bad taste.
„Just, uh, gimme what yer making too.“
Asa nods, still visibly chewing her lip. „Okay, sure. I‘ll make green tea. Green tea is nice, isn’t it?“
Green tea. Good. He knows what that is.
But then Asa turns around to start preparing their tea and picks out two mugs, and surely she doesn’t have mugs just for guests, so basically she must have drank from them before, which basically means their lips will touch the same place, and that’s basically an indirect kiss, right?
Denji just barely stifles a sound he definitely didn’t mean to make out loud, and the tingling of his stomach sinks a bit deeper. Fuck. How is he supposed to be normal under these circumstances?!
Before he can drop his already failing attempt at being cool entirely, or get caught staring at her ass, which girls definitely don’t like, Denji searches the kitchen for something —anything— to stare at instead, and lands on a fruit bowl placed neatly in the middle of the counter.
Good, again. A fruit bowl is a normal thing to look at. With multiple things to study intently. Like the green batch of bananas Asa evidently got. Most of the bananas Denji had gotten close to in his life were more brown with a hint of yellow if he was particularly lucky. And next to it was…
What was that actually?
He stares at the fruit. It looks like if a big bean was an apple. Except it is none of that and just an honestly embarrassing sign of Denji‘s lack of fruit knowledge. How did other people know all their fruits anyway? There wasn’t, like, a class in school about it, was there? For all he knows, it could be a vegetable, except it didn’t look vegetably at all.
But it is next to a fruit in a fruit bowl. Therefore, it must be fruit.
Before any sensible part of him can object, Denji leans forward and grabs the bean-apple-fruit. Despite the green skin, it feels softish to the touch. So definitely not an apple. He holds it up to his nose and sniffs. Nah, that doesn’t make it any clearer what thing he is holding.
At that moment, Asa turns around, two steaming mugs of tea in her hands. „D-Denji, why are you sniffing my mango?“ She stutters, her brows furrowed.
Denji jumps up, undeterred, holding the fruit towards her. „That shit‘s a mango?? That‘s what’a mango looks like?! I thought this shit was supposed to be orange and not this… this… apple colored bean?“
„Whuh- what do you- Apple colored bean?“
Her brows shoot into the sky, and she presses her lips together again, though Denji swears he can see the corners of her mouth tilt upwards. Which is impressive considering the Asa he knows has a near constant frown.
She puts down the mugs and grabs the mango from his grasp. „First of all, it’s not a bean. It’s a fruit, a mango, I just told you. Second of all, it is orange, just on the inside. Like how apples are more yellow inside.“
Denji considers this for a second. „Well then why‘s mango known for its inside color and apples are known for their outside color? That doesn’t make any sense!“
„That’s because-“ Asa stops, tapping a finger against her chin in thought. „Actually, I’m not sure. Maybe because you can eat the apple skin, but probably shouldn’t eat the mango skin. So what you’re eating is orange and tasty, and that stays in the mind longer. It’s more memorable that way.“
Denji nods wisely. „Huh, you‘re so smart. So… can I eat it? Everyone wants their stuff to be mango flavored so it must slap.“ He eyes the mango, then leans forward to grab at it. Asa just barely takes a step back and jolts her mango-holding arm upwards and out of his reach, standing on her tiptoes.
„You can’t just come into a girl’s home and eat her mango? Do you have any idea how expensive fruit is? I was gonna savor it, alone.“
Denji whines, low in his throat. „What’s so awful about sharin‘ some fruit. I walked you home, so the least you can do to thank me is gimme your mango!”
„I- I didn’t ask you to walk me home, there’s no way I’m paying you in mango for it!“
„I‘m not letting go of my one chance in life to eat a mango! My first mango! Don’t you have a heart!“
He isn’t even fully serious, not about the heart thing at least. Asa definitely has a heart. Denji might be serious about the mango thing, though. It‘s everywhere; in mochi, in drinks, in ice cream… and sure, he’d like to kiss a girl or pet a dog, but right now, both of those seem more unlikely compared to his chance at eating a mango.
For whatever reason, it works. Asa stops trying to stretch herself as high as possible and lowers the mango. „You’ve never eaten a mango before? Ever?“
Denji puts his hand over his weirdly thumping heart. Even with skin and clothes as layers, he can feel it bumping awkwardly against his rip cage beneath his palm. „I swear, like for real. Never in my life has a mango touched my mouth.“
Asa stares, first at him, then at the mango „Ugh, okay. But I‘m only doing this because I‘m nice, not as payment.“
„Hell yeah!“ Denji shouts, jumping up from his seat to put his face as close to the mango as possible, regarding it like a scholar. „So, how do we peel this thing?“
„You don’t peel it! You cut it up into nice and neat squares and then eat those.“
„Uh-huh, uh-huh. Cut ‘em then! I wanna watch!“
For a moment, it looks like Asa is deliberating whether she should give in to his demands. But then the promise of fresh fruit after a shitty, rainy day wins her over.
„Okay, well, don‘t touch anything while I prepare them. Don’t touch my knives. Or my other food, for that matter. It’s mine!“
Eagerly, Denji nods. As Asa turns around, grabbing a wooden cutting board and a knife, he sneaks closer and closer, his head nearly over her shoulder. Maybe Asa will be so busy she won’t see the flush burning across his face.
„I wanna see!“
Asa sighs again, but starts preparing the mango without another word.
It’s like magic watching Asa handle the mango, how professionally she cuts off two big slices, leaving only the middle, and cuts off as much fruit flesh as she can. The middle of a mango apparently contains a giant seed! Denji hadn’t even tried that many snacks with mango flavor but none of them mentioned that like half the mango was just seed! Then she takes the two slices and cuts a crisscross pattern across them. With a smirk, she turns towards him and folds one of the slices outward. It makes perfectly square pieces of mango pop out.
„Waow! Gimme!“ Denji grabs the mango slice from Asa‘s hand, marvelling at its shapes. „That’s so cool, you are magic! I didn’t know there were secret fruit techniques! Do ya cut apples fancily, too? Or bananas?“
„Would you stop stealing my fruits? Who even does that when they’re a guest?!“ Asa tries snatching it back, but Denji takes full advantage of his height and just barely holds it out of reach for her.
„Nah, no one’s taking my mango away from me!“ It doesn’t occur to him that this might be a questionable tactic to get closer to girls.
„You’re impossible!“ She groans, but doesn’t even try to fight the mango theft and goes back to slicing her own mango into neat squares.
She‘s taking wayyy too long. He opens his mouth, oddly sharp teeth and all, and bites down, ripping a mango-square off and letting it melt on his tongue.
Holy shit.
Denji slaps a hand over his mouth before a moan can escape his lips. He can feel tears collecting in his good eye. This is heaven, this is totally what heaven feels like. He never wants it to end. Sure, he’s never had sex before, but this is definitely what sex feels like. He might become religious after all.
He chomps down on even more mango.
About a mango slice later, which might have taken a second or a year, Asa turns around with a bowl filled with her mango squares.
„Whuh, D-Denji, you’re supposed to separate them from the skin first!“ She stares at him and chews on her lip. „Oh, you- you‘re-“ Before she can get through the sentence, her lip starts quivering, and suddenly laughter bursts out of her, and she doubles over, giggling. „You have mango everywhere! It looks like you mauled it to death with your sharp teeth!“
Self-consciously, Denji wipes his sleeve over his mouth, and sure enough, it comes back sticky with mango juice. „It looked perfectly edible to me,“ Denji grumbles.
It takes Asa a moment to compose herself again. „S-sorry, I just- when I was younger, that’s how I used to eat mango too. It’s probably superior to just eating the pieces like this.“ She picks out chopsticks from a drawer. „So how did you like it?“
„‘Twas fucking amazing!“ He grins at her. „You’re, like, mega smart for cutting them like this! I bet you know all sorts of things!“
The rosy blush that dusts Asa‘s cheeks at that is almost as nice as the mango. Shyly, she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and stares devoutly at her bowl of mango. „I, I guess. My mom taught me how to cut it like this; I guess you’d have her to thank. But I know a lot about the ocean. I could give a better tour of the aquarium than the employees, I bet. I’ve been there so often, too!“
Denji nods along. „You’re definitely the smartest girl I know! Well, maybe Nayuta would say she’s smarter, but she’s also like what? Eight years old? That’s basically a toddler, and yet she’s my superior? So I guess she must be super-mega smart. But I dunno if that counts.“ He rubs his chin. „Hey, wait, I bet you know medical stuff too!“
„I guess? A bit, maybe. But I‘m not a doctor, I don’t want to be to blame if my advice made things worse. I‘ll try, but I‘m not a professional.“
This is it, the perfect chance to solve the mystery that started ever since he caught her.
„Have ya ever heard of heart-thump disease? Like when your heart thumps really weirdly and loudly and you can feel it in your chest?“
Suddenly, Asa looks up, directly at him. „You mean like a heart defect? That’s really concerning, you gotta ask that question to a doctor!“
Denji does a dismissive wave. „Nah, I‘m still kicking, ya know. And I haven’t even coughed up blood in ages, and that’s not what I meant anyway. But do you think people can make heart-thumping disease worse?“
„What do you mean? Like if someone smokes near you? That can be bad.“
He shakes his head. „No, I meant like… You see, when I caught you, my heart did this really weird beat like it was fluttering. I could feel it in my chest the entire day. It got better after I slept, but now I‘m here, and my heart’s doin’ it again. You’re smart, so you tell me what that means.“
Her chopsticks clatter against the table as Asa suddenly stands up straight, baulking at him, face flushed. „Wh- You can’t ask just a girl that! I- I can’t tell you, you must figure that out yourself. Oh, look, it‘s already late, you should go home now before it gets too dark and weird people start going out.“
Bewildered, Denji lets himself be pushed out of her apartment and is handed his jacket. Asa must have put it somewhere warm because it’s dry again and holding its warmth.
„But I wanna eat more mango!“ He weakly protests.
„Fruits are expensive, and I‘m not made of money! Between you and me, you’re the one with a job, so next time you buy a fruit.“
With that, Asa closes the door behind him. Denji remains for a moment, staring at the wood before suddenly his brain clicks.
He jumps.
Next time! She said next time! There’s gonna be a next time!!!
He bounces down the staircase to the front yard of her apartment building, pumping his fist into the air, shouting into the darkened evening sky. „A girl wants to see me again! A girl likes me for real! I did it!“
When he looks down, he is still holding the green skin-part of the mango. Of Asa‘s mango. No way in hell will he throw that away! Not just any girl would share fruit with a weird-eypatched guy, he thinks. Therefore, it’s a special mango.
As he walks through the late evening, under lantern light, he tears into the mango peel. Huh. Maybe he was right about the apple-ness, though he can’t deny it’s quite chewy.
If Power knew he shared a fruit with a girl, she’d be so jealous, Denji bets.