Work Text:
Momo isn’t entirely sure how she ended up here, but she finds herself hard-pressed to complain when faced with Hatsume’s endless enthusiasm about her projects. There’s something truly endearing about watching her work with so much passion and light in her eyes, and the speed with which she can assemble even highly complicated parts is mesmerizing.
“Aaaand done!” she announces, stepping back from her work table with a wide grin on her face. She wears pride well, and she is every bit deserving of it as she believes herself to be. Truly, her work is incredible!
Momo leans closer, peering at Hatsume’s newest contraption, for which Momo herself provided a few very hard-to-get chemicals and expensive metals. “Would you like to test it out now?”
Hatsume hesitates. “Eh… How are you feeling? I said I’d take you out for dinner to replenish all those lipids you burned for me, and I can’t have you passing out in the worksop!” She slumps. “Last time I worked someone to the point of exhaustion, Power Loader was not happy.”
Momo decides not to question that.
“If you’re certain you’re okay taking a break…” she starts.
Hatsume shrugs. “Yeah, it’ll still be here when I get back. At least it BETTER!” She shoots a pointed glare to the one other person currently in the lab, and he squeaks and cowers at the attention. Hatsume doesn’t wait for a response, though—she just grabs Momo by the wrist and pulls her out of the room, raving about this amazing all-you-cat-eat Korean barbeque place she knows about. And Momo has to admit, it does sound good, so she happily follows as Hatsume pulls her along.
—
Finally stopping outside the restaurant, Momo is panting a bit. She's impressed by how much stamina Hatsume has considering how fast they had been walking.
“Here we go! This is my absolute FAVORITE place! It's a little more expensive than I usually go to, but it's always worth the treat!”
Momo frowns a little bit.
“Well, I don't want you to spend too much. I was happy to help you out and it does take a lot for me to refuel.”
“Don’t worry, look!” Hatsume points at a sign nearby. “They have a two-for-one deal.”
Momo looks over at the sign which proudly declares, ‘Couple’s challenge. Eat 30 or more plates between the two of you and you get 50% off!’ with a small drawing of two people eating with hearts around them at the bottom.
“Um Hatsume…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know if this is the best idea. I think that the challenge is only for—“
“If you don’t want Korean Barbeque, we can go somewhere else…”
Momo looks over, hearing the change in Hatsume’s voice. Seeing how disappointed the other girl looks, she sighs.
“It's not that…”
“PERFECT! Let’s go then.”
Before Momo can continue her sentence, she once again finds herself getting dragged along into the restaurant.
“Two please! We’re here for the couple’s challenge.”
The waiter looks at them skeptically.
“You two?”
Momo blushes a bit.
“Yes please.”
Hatsume grabs Momo’s arm and leans in. Momo freezes, feeling her face turn even more red and placing her hand on top of Hatsume’s.
“I know we can do it!”
Momo is becoming rapidly convinced that she is actively going to implode if Hatsume continues on like she is. The other girl is nearly hanging off her at this point, beaming up at Momo as she waits for her answer. How can Momo refuse that face? Would she even want to?
The answer to that is absolutely not. If Hatsume wants to win a contest of eating, Momo shall in fact oblige her.
“Let’s do it,” Momo agrees with a small smile. Hatsume bounces in place with a wide grin.
“Yay! You won’t regret it, my little toolbox,” Hatsume coos before starting to drag Momo after their server.
Momo chokes, mind whirling as she struggles to understand exactly what Hatsume had just said. Tool box? Perhaps correct but…it is far too close to a pet name for Momo’s comfort. She lets Hatsume drag her along, the blush returning to her face as Hatsume slides into the booth next to her instead of sitting across from her.
Leaning into her, Hatsume looks over the menu they’d been given for a few moments before looking up at Momo with wide, innocent eyes.
“What do you want to try first? We can start with anything you’d like,” she says, resting her head on Momo’s shoulder.
Momo can’t help but feel she is going a little far in the fake dating aspect of this. The server isn’t even present anymore, they’d bustled off to get their drinks shortly after they’d sat down. Hatsume can’t be doing this for anything except for her own enjoyment at this point.
“Uh—um,” Momo stammers, valiantly trying to shove aside any speculation as to why Hatsume might enjoy acting like this with her. “I suppose we could start with the bulgogi?” It’s the most common pick at a place like this, and perhaps Momo could afford to be a bit more adventurous with someone like Hatsume at her side, but she is having trouble focusing at the moment, given her…current circumstances.
Hatsume grins. “That sounds great!” She lets out a dreamy sigh, practically melting against Momo’s side. Which is something Momo feels very normal about. “The beef here is to die for, obviously, but we’ll have to get chicken too. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!”
“Right,” Momo agrees, voice strained. Hatsume doesn’t seem to notice the tension running through her, but she never has been the most observant when it comes to subjects outside of her babies. She doesn’t even take note of her own needs sometimes—there have been nights where Momo found her working terribly late and had to physically drag her away from the lab.
“Anyway!” She straightens up, leaving Momo cold in her absence. “We should chit-chat while we wait, right? I’ve never done the whole ‘dating’ thing before, but I’ve heard my classmates talk about it sometimes. It’s kinda interesting, actually! But I never thought I’d have such a great opportunity to put all my observations to use.”
Momo swallows thickly. Does that mean this is just another experiment to Hatsume?
“Um. Hello?” Hatsume waves her hand in front of Momo’s face, grabbing her attention back. “Earth to my genius supercomputer—are you in there?”
“Y-yes I am. I don’t have much experience with dating either. My family has always had strict rules about what I can and can’t do.”
“Well, I am happy to share my observations! For example, did you know that couples do and say different things depending on how long they’ve been together? For example, if this was our first date, I might do something like compliment how pretty you are when you smile or how nicely the outfit you’re wearing complements your eyes.”
Momo stares back blankly.
Hatsume continues, “I don’t understand the point of stating facts like that. I mean, shouldn’t I try to aim for something less obvious than things everyone can see? Although I guess from my research that’s more of a girlfriend-boyfriend thing. Or I guess girlfriend-girlfriend in our case.”
Momo lets out a bit of a strangled noise before collecting herself.
“I think the idea is to show what you notice at first and then as you get closer, you can show that you’re listening.” Her voice softens, “I could tell you that the gleam in your eye when you invent something new makes me want to give you anything you ask for, but I think that might be a bit much for a first date.”
Hatsume stares back at Momo for a moment before breaking into a big smile.
“EXACTLY! You’re completely correct. Something like that would be an excellent compliment, since whoever would say that would have to have been around me for a long time. Plus, it shows that they value what I value and understand what makes me happy.”
Momo screams inwardly at how far the point had just gone over Hatsume’s head. Then Hatsume has to open her mouth and make it oh so much worse:
“Just as I could tell you that I love watching you work your way through a problem, the way your forehead scrunches up and you look so intent and focused. I could tell you that your quirk in action is a thing of beauty to almost rival my babies, though nothing quite rivals my babies. But you make me question that.” Hatsume places her hand over Momo’s, continuing to smile happily at her. “I could tell you so many things, but I think you are right, these are a lot for a first date. Maybe there is something to just telling someone they outshine the sun instead.”
Momo swears her heart stops dead in her chest as her face flares bright red again. Maybe Hatsume is less oblivious than Momo thought, because none of that sounded like someone who was just going through the motions. Hatsume would never consider comparing someone to her babies without being of the utmost seriousness.
“I am honored to be thought of so highly as to be compared to your babies,” Momo finally says, smiling softly at her before reaching over with her free hand to pat Hatsume’s.
“What a cute couple,” a server gushes as they come towards the table with the first of their deluge of food, yanking Momo’s attention back to the world around them. “It will be fun to see how far you get in the challenge.”
“Oh we came to win it,” Hatsume fires back with a grin. Momo nods in agreement, if Hatsume wants to defeat this challenge, Momo will help her see that dream through.
Then maybe later, they can see about building other dreams together.
Maybe forever.