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Hitoshi was incredibly surprised to find that class 1-A was not full of pompous jerks. With his transfer into their class on the horizon, he’d been spending more time with them, and not once had someone sent him a hostile glance or refused to speak to him.
Still, that didn’t mean he planned to open up to any of them any time soon. He didn’t want to transfer to the hero course to make friends, but to get the training and experience he needed to become a hero.
This sentiment did not stop Mina from bounding up to him as he walked to his class.
“Hey Shinso!” she greeted with a smile that radiated sheer extroversion, falling in step next to him . “How’re you doing on this bright and shiny new morning?”
“It’s too early for talking to people,” Hitoshi grumbled in response, edging away from the peppy girl. Her smile only widened.
She leaned forward, placing her face directly in his field of vision. “Aw, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”
He gave her a slow, tired blink that should’ve communicated just how exhausted he was. But Mina was not deterred in the slightest, as she seemed perfectly content to carry the conversation on her own if Hitoshi failed to respond. Much to his annoyance.
“You know, energy drinks exist for a reason!”
Hitoshi cringed, appalled at the mention of such monstrosities. “Coffee is better.”
It took him a couple seconds to realize he’d actually responded. A wide grin of triumph spread across Mina’s face at getting him to talk. “Bleh, coffee’s too bitter for me. I like the overwhelming taste of sweetness and sugar that comes with energy drinks!”
Hitoshi gave her the most horrified look he could manage with his sleep-deprived brain, and by her snicker, he wasn’t sure if he succeeded in conveying his dismay at her words.
“Do you even have taste buds?” he asked incredulously.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Thure do!”
Not knowing how to respond, he shook his head in disappointment and looked away. He was thankful he arrived at the door of his class at that moment, because now that the conversation had started, it would be very awkward for it to die.
But as she continued walking, Mina shouted out, “This feud shall be continued!”
Hitoshi’s face crumpled with fatigue at the thought of being pestered further by the outspoken girl. But as the day continued, he came to realize, he hadn’t hated that conversation.
It felt kind of nice to be pestered. Because being pestered meant she cared enough to annoy him.
Mina cackled as Kaminari lit another one of his marshmallows on fire. The day of rigorous quirk-strengthening had left her skin itching and her mind dragging, but at least she had fun moments like these to help her forget.
As Kaminari went on to make a burnt marshmallow smore out of spite, Mina looked out around at her friends, sighing in contentment. But her eyes widened a tad when she saw Hitoshi sitting as far away from people as possible. It looked like he’d stolen a chocolate bar and was eating that by himself.
She hardly had to think for a second before she decided to go annoy him. When he saw her skipping up to him, he sent her the most deadpan glare she’d ever seen, but that only made her grin spread.
“Hey!” she exclaimed as she plopped down right next to him. To her mild surprise, he didn’t inch away from her, instead giving her an annoyed side eye. “What’re you doing over here, all alone?”
“Avoiding people.”
“Really? You don’t seem to be doing a very good job at that, if I’m here,” she smirked.
He groaned, but didn’t ask her to leave or make any motion to leave himself. He just went back to eating his chocolate bar.
“How’re you liking 1-A?” she asked in an attempt at real conversation.
A bit of the irritation left his face. “You people aren’t at all like I expected.”
She tilted her head. “What did you expect?”
“A bunch of antagonistic, judgmental, conceited brats.”
“Like you?” she asked, and he inhaled sharply, his eyes snapping to her face. She laughed lightly and continued with, “Well, you’re not very friendly at all, and you did judge all of us really quickly, almost like you thought you were better than us. That fits what you said pretty well!”
Hitoshi didn’t respond, instead turning his eyes to the ground as he frowned in thought. After a long moment, he let out a single “huh.”
She smiled. “Did I just flip your whole perception of yourself upside down?”
He puffed out a small breath of laughter. “I guess… I just got so used to other people making quick assumptions about me, I didn’t realize I had started doing the same thing.”
“See, this is the part where you apologize for being a jerk,” she giggled.
He sighed, before looking her in the eye. “Sorry, Ashido.”
“Hey, my friends call me Mina!”
He blinked. “Alright. Then sorry, Mina.”
“Apology accepted.” She beamed at him, before grabbing his arm and yanking him towards the bonfire. “Now let’s get you some marshmallows and graham crackers to go with that lonely chocolate bar!!”
“They are so infuriating.” Hitoshi ran his hands through his hair in frustration, sitting on his bed.
“I know right!” Mina agreed, pacing back and forth Hitoshi’s room, hand raised to her chin in thought. “They’re literally perfect for each other, and they just can’t see it!”
“They’re so fricking blind. They cuddled the whole night after falling asleep on the couch together, and Midoriya still doesn’t know if she likes him or not.”
“And Ochako doesn’t know if Midoriya likes her either,” Mina added, “despite him gravitating towards her in any social environment. It couldn’t be more obvious she makes him feel safe!”
“Yeah well obvious and oblivious are pretty similar words, aren’t they?” Hitoshi rubbed his hands down his face. “If they don’t open their eyes soon, I’m going to die.”
Mina snorted. “I thought I was the drama queen.”
He looked at her pointedly. “Don’t act like their blindness is any more bearable for you!”
“True true, we’re both gonna be roasted alive in the slow burn if things continue as they are… so the question is, how do we get them together without being invasive or forceful?”
Hitoshi hummed. “Directly telling each of them that the other cares for them hasn’t worked, so we need to get one of them to admit it themselves to the other…”
Mina gasped loudly, halting in her pacing. “What about the School Festival coming up!?”
He raised an eyebrow, “...what about it?”
“Our performance, it’s only gonna be a few minutes long, if we only do one song! If we can get more people to sing, specifically Midoriya or Ochako, then convince one of them to confess through song…” she looked towards Hitoshi expectantly.
“Honestly, I was just thinking of locking them in a room together until they talk, but that works too.”
Mina cheered. “I’ll bring it up tonight!”
Hitoshi closed the door to the backstage room, catching a glimpse of Izuku and Ochako staring at each other in a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. The second the door clicked closed, he turned towards Mina and gave her a high five.
“Fricking finally,” he sighed.
Mina bounced up and down. “I can’t wait to hear how it goes!!”
The pink girl was quickly distracted by the fact she didn’t have enough money to pay for ice cream for everyone - which she’d promised in order to get them all out of the backstage room. Hitoshi smirked and shook his head at her trying to defend herself from her classmates.
Izuku and Ochako were going to be a lot happier now, after getting their doubt and nervousness out of the way to take their relationship to a deeper level. He smiled at the thought of seeing his friends happy.
And while Mina was currently running away from a Kaminari who had really wanted ice cream, Hitoshi knew that she felt the same way. It’d be wonderful, seeing their friends finally embrace their feelings, and enjoying a relationship they should’ve established months ago.
“You know, there have been a few times where I doubted if I would survive to see this day,” Mina said, gazing up at UA, its windows glittering in the sunrise.
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow from next to her. “You mean, our second year of school?”
“Yeah! You know the crap we’ve all had to go through to get here?!”
“Yes, I lived through it too.” The pair walked forward through the front doors, before taking a left to head towards their second year class. Hitoshi sighed, voice dropping. “Honestly, it’s kinda surprising no one died.”
Mina’s usual cheery expression slipped off her face, a small shudder shaking her body. “Yeah.”
Hitoshi noticed the drop in her demeanor, and he frowned slightly, looking to remedy the distress his words had caused.
“But if I’m being real, the closest I came to death that entire year, was when I heard Midoriya and Uraraka’s stuttery conversations before they confessed. Their flustered interactions were some of the most agonizing things I ever went through.”
Mina snickered, and Hitoshi couldn’t recall a time he’d been happier to hear her laugh. “You know what, yup, that was the most unbearable aspect of last year. Surviving their slow burn.”
“At least we won’t have to go through that this year.”
Mina cheered, and they continued to discuss their relief over Izuku and Ochako being together.
A few paces behind them, Izuku and Ochako listened in a stunned and bewildered silence.
“We weren’t actually that bad, were we?” Izuku whispered in her ear.
Ochako’s mouth hung open for a few seconds, before she closed it, unable to respond. So they continued to watch the conversation in front of them, Mina gesturing wildly and laughing, while Hitoshi had one of his rare smiles on his face.
“They look pretty happy together, don’t they?” Ochako responded, opting to not answer his question.
Izuku blinked. “Shinso and Mina? Yeah, I guess they do. Despite Mina’s talkativeness, Shinso doesn’t seem to mind being around her. I’d even go so far as to guess he likes the attention.”
“And Mina enjoys teasing quiet people like him too,” Ochako added. “She really likes it when she gets Shinso to talk to her.”
“Huh, they do work well together,” Izuku nodded.
A beat of silence passed, before Ochako asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“...probably not?” He smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.
“We should do to them what they did to us!”
Izuku’s eyes widened. “You mean, find a way to get them together?”
“Yeah!”
“I don’t know, shouldn’t we let them figure that out on their own?” he asked, a light frown coming over his face. “It’s their lives, their relationships, not ours.”
“It wouldn’t be anything drastic,” Ochako reassured. “Right now, neither of them have even considered they might like each other. A small nudge might be just the thing they need!”
Izuku didn’t look fully convinced.
“It’s what they did to us, and it worked out great! Besides, they’re both the type to tell us to knock it off if we’re bothering them too much. Nothing to worry about.”
At last, Izuku gave in and smiled. “You’re right, this might help them see they like each other. They each deserve a fulfilling relationship, so having each other to care for and love would only be a good thing.”
“Exactly, we’d be giving them a chance to explore something deeper,” Ochako agreed.
He raised his hand to his chin in thought. “Now, what would we do to get them to see that they might like each other…”
“Is it just me, or does something feel off about this mall outing?” Mina whispered to Hitoshi next to her, on the way to the mall on the metro.
“It’s not just you,” he answered.
Izuku and Ochako had invited the two of them on a trip to the mall, which was odd, since usually their entire friend group went together, or the pair went alone as a date. Still, Mina and Hitoshi had rolled with it. It was just an outing with friends, afterall.
Or at least, they had thought it was an outing with friends, but they were proven very wrong when the pair tried to abandon them.
Ochako’s palm flew to her forehead with an abrupt smack. “I forgot, Izuku and I promised to visit Eri today!”
“Oh, right!” Izuku said, the surprise in his voice sounding a little forced.
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow. “Just… visit her later today? It’s still early.”
“Yeah, right now is shopping time!” Mina exclaimed.
“But, we uh, promised to visit her in the morning!” Ochako countered, already backing away with Izuku, who was just nodding along with what she was saying. “We can’t break our promise, or else she’d be so disappointed! And you know how sad a disappointed Eri is, right?”
“It’s really unfortunate we forgot, huh,” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “But you two should both stay!”
Mina and Hitoshi both narrowed their eyes at the pair.
“Yes! Stay!” Ochako agreed. “Enjoy your time, maybe get some coffee together, have some good conversation… see ya!” She grabbed Izuku’s hand and bolted.
“Wait-” Mina tried, but they were already gone.
The two stood there in the middle of the mall, frozen by the sudden escape of their best friends. Then Hitoshi turned to face Mina and asked, “You see what they’re doing too, right?”
“Oh definitely.”
“That was terrible.”
“I know right! So awkward!”
“Hope they never try this again.”
“Same.”
Hitoshi pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do they really think we have feelings for each other.”
Mina threw up her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “Apparently? If they’re trying to do to us what we did to them, then… yup.”
“I can’t believe they just abandoned us in a mall together in an attempt to get us to realize our feelings or whatever.”
“It was very poorly executed, I agree. Three out of ten for the acting.” Mina shook her head.
After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “We weren’t that obvious with our tactics, were we?”
Mina pursed her lips. “I think we were, they were just too oblivious to notice.”
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “This is sad.”
“I mean, we don’t even like each other like that!” Mina added.
Hitoshi was quick to agree. “I know right! Neither of us have ever expressed any interest in anyone.”
“Exactly.” Mina gave a sharp nod. “There’s no way we have feelings for each other.”
There was a pause in conversation, in which they just blinked at each other. Then Hitoshi let out a quick, short laugh. “We sound exactly like they did, don’t we?”
A sheepish grin crept across Mina’s face. “Possibly maybe?”
Hitoshi shook his head. “Well, if we’re already out here, we might as well enjoy ourselves.”
Mina responded with an enthusiastic nod, before grabbing Hitoshi’s wrist and tugging him to a clothing store.
Maybe it was a little more than an outing with friends.
Mina narrowed her eyes at her shipping board. The faces of all her friends and a few teachers were scattered across the board, pinned together with strings connecting some of them in a huge spider web of potential ships.
The only face without a string was Hitoshi’s, which was down in the corner, the furthest possible distance from everyone else’s pictures.
She had never placed her own face on the board either.
But now, in her hand, was a picture of herself.
Scrunching up her face, she reluctantly moved forward and pinned her picture to the board. Then her eyes flicked down to Hitoshi’s picture.
Slowly, with hesitance, she unpinned his picture from the corner, before lifting it up and placing it in proximity to hers. She connected the two pictures with a singular red string.
Mina released the breath she’d been holding. The fact she was even changing her board like this was wild to her; she was normally pretty good at predicting who worked well together, but had failed to predict her own life.
She finished the addition to her board with a sticky note that had a huge question mark on it.
Placing her hands on her hips, she decided she needed to talk to Hitoshi about this.
“You wanted to talk to me?” Hitoshi asked as he walked up to Mina, who was looking out over the beach, watching the waves dance up and down the shore.
She looked over at him and smiled when he stopped next to her. It was a softer, more tender smile than what she usually gave him. “Yeah, I wanted to talk about what happened in the mall a couple days ago. I figured a nice quiet spot like this would work.”
She searched his face for any signs of disapproval or annoyance, but he only tilted his head, showing he was listening. Mina took a deep breath.
“I think Midoriya and Ochako might’ve been less clueless than we thought, in trying to get us together.”
Hitoshi’s eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t speak up in objection, simply intent on listening.
“‘Cause, I mean, I’ve never really felt attracted to anyone?” Mina looked back out to the ocean to focus on what she was saying. “I’ve always been more interested in helping other people realize they have feelings, and then helping them confess! But I never really saw that happening with me, which has never bothered me before… until now.”
Her eyes crept back to Hitoshi’s face, anxious of what his reaction would be, but his gaze was fixed on the waves of the beach, his brow furrowed with thought. It looked like he was deeply contemplating something, choosing to sort out his own feelings before speaking.
Mina waited patiently for as long as she could, before she cringed and burst out with, “Sorry, was that weird of me to say?!”
Hitoshi’s eyes zipped back to her face. “What? No, it wasn’t weird - it was honest. I…” he took a moment to rub his hands down his face, muttering something about the difficulty of words, before dropping his hands and looking her in the eyes. “I don’t like it when people fake or lie, or when someone pretends to be something they’re not. So I also hate it when someone pretends to not have feelings that they clearly have, which is why Midoriya and Uraraka skirting around each other bothered me so much. So I’m glad you chose to be open with me.”
Mina breathed a sigh of relief, while Hitoshi paused to think over what he was saying next.
“I’m the same as you, where I’ve never felt attracted to anyone. I’ve always been more of a loner. That changed when I met Class A though, which you played a big part in.” He smiled when he heard her snicker. “I never admitted it, but you pestering me or dragging me into things… meant a lot. It showed you cared. Even with me acting cold and disinterested, you still tried to get to know me. So… thank you.”
Mina felt her heart swell at his words, and she edged closer to him, feeling more comfortable now to say what she wanted to say.
“I’ve always been one of the more popular girls, you know? I can get along with everyone I talk to! In middle school, I could’ve closed my eyes and pointed out across the cafeteria, and whoever my finger landed on would’ve said yes to me asking them out. Because of that, I guess no one has ever felt special enough for me to seriously consider dating.”
“So you decided to torture the one person who wouldn’t say yes,” Hitoshi smirked.
“Exactly!” Mina beamed. “It’s so strange to meet someone like you, who doesn’t automatically like me, who I actually have to put effort into becoming friends with! It… makes you that special kind of person I’ve been waiting for.”
She leaned in closer, so that their shoulders were touching. Hitoshi tensed slightly at the contact, and when he looked over at her, her face was inches away.
Her eyes flicked up from his lips up to his eyes, asking permission. He took a deep breath.
“I just figured out the whole friendship thing less than a year ago. I’m not sure I’m ready for this yet.”
Mina’s face fell a little, before she smiled sweetly. She withdrew from his side, but not before leaving a light kiss on his cheek. Though his expression didn’t change, the tips of his ears reddened.
“I’m willing to wait until you’re ready, or until I annoy you to death,” she promised, and Hitoshi snorted at her completely innocent tone.
“Thank you,” he mumbled.
“Of course, I’m not about to scare away the only guy I’ve ever fallen for!” she said, as she elbowed his side playfully. “But now that we’ve gotten all this out, we should probably be heading back now.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed, but a contemplative frown had fallen over his face again.
Mina blinked at him curiously for a couple seconds, and then she turned around to leave, figuring he’d follow when he finished pondering whatever he was pondering.
She got a few paces away, before Hitoshi called out, “Mina, wait.”
When she turned back around, he was quickly walking up to her. “Yeah? What is-”
Her sentence was cut short by his mouth crashing into hers.
Now, Mina knew how a kiss was supposed to go. She’d read countless novels and seen dozens of movies, where the entire plot was just two people trying to get together. So she’d read through several different versions of the same action, and watched several different actors tangle themselves together in the same way.
But all of that fiction didn’t compare to the reality of what it was like.
She looped her arms behind his neck, greedy to be closer to him, as their lips worked against each other, slow at first, but picking up speed. She never expected she’d experience this for herself, much less that it’d be with Hitoshi.
Of all the people to end up together, the two who thought they’d be eternally single.
He drew away much too soon, and when she opened her eyes again, the red had spread from his ears to his face. The corner of his mouth turned upwards, and he said, “I don’t want to do what Izuku and Ochako did. I don’t want to take forever, when it’s already clear we like each other.”
“I’m just glad I only had to wait a minute for you!” Mina laughed.
That evening, Izuku and Ochako stared awe-struck at how Hitoshi wrapped his arm around Mina’s shoulder as they sat together on the couch.
“What do you mean you’re dating?” Ochako asked incredulously.
“This morning you were both still single!” Izuku added.
Mina shrugged with a wide, smug grin. “We talked about it earlier today and decided to try it out!”
“We didn’t take forever to admit how we felt, or waste a ton of time denying our feelings.” Hitoshi sent them a pointed glare. “Unlike some people.”
Izuku and Ochako laughed sheepishly, before Izuku said, “Well, I’m happy you two talked about it and decided to spend more time together.”
“Yeah, congratulations!” Ochako exclaimed, as she and Izuku plopped down on the couch beside their friends.
Izuku and Ochako exchanged smiles, glad that their questionable plan had worked.
Hitoshi felt the ground shaking beneath him, as cracks split the walls on either side of him. The building was about to collapse.
He darted down a hallway towards the sound of screaming, cursing his luck. Of course the first day returning to his work study at Gentle Hero’s agency had him risking his life.
He kicked down the door at the end of the hallway and found a pair of young siblings, huddled together, crying as their apartment crumbled around them. He whipped out his capture weapon and pulled them towards him, just in time to save them from getting crushed by falling debris.
“C’mon you two,” he said, voice strained as he wrapped his arms around them and carried them out of their home. A massive rumbling told him he had seconds before they were all squashed, so he turned to the window at the end of the hall. Not having any other choice, he leapt out the window back-first, holding the children in front of him to protect them from the shattered glass.
The kids screamed as they fell to the ground. Hitoshi tensed, ready for the impact, hoping that a three story fall wouldn’t screw him up too bad, with the protection his hero costume provided.
But instead of a harsh, bone-breaking impact, he hit something soft that gave way as they fell. A mount of semi-solid glop that made his skin itch slightly coated his back, slowing his descent until he reached the ground.
Hitoshi breathed a sigh of relief, and the siblings sniffled as they realized they weren’t about to die.
“Are you three okay?!” Mina exclaimed from the edge of the pile of slush. The sludge covered her body, weighing down her hair and making her skin sticky.
Hitoshi looked over the two kids, seeing that they didn’t have any disfigured limbs or glaring injuries. They appeared cognizant of their surroundings, blinking up at Mina.
“Yeah, we’re alright,” Hitoshi answered, rising to his feet and surveying the collapsed building behind them.
Mina crouched down in front of the children, grinning wide. “And what are your guys’ names?”
The two relayed their names. While their crying had stopped and their tears had been replaced with nontoxic acid, they were glancing around anxiously, looking as if they could break down again any moment.
Mina was determined to not let that happen.
“Do you know where your parents are?” she asked, keeping up a bright smile that promised everything would be okay.
Hitoshi smiled as he watched out of the corner of his eye. Mina was incredible at that type of comforting tiny people stuff. Much better than him, anyway.
While Mina consoled the children and got some basic information from them, Hitoshi noticed Gentle bouncing through the air towards them. The hero had been at the other side of the building, creating trampolines so people could safely jump from their apartments.
“Why, thank goodness you two are safe!” Gentle exclaimed as he landed in front of Hitoshi, who made a mental note of where the ground had been elasticized so he wouldn’t trip and fall on it later.
“I was able to help those two kids, the ones the mother in the crowd kept crying about,” Hitoshi reported, tilting his head to where Mina was talking with them.
“Fine work, young lad,” Gentle nodded in approval, quickly assessing the situation.
“Were you able to figure out who caused the building to collapse? Was it a villain with a vibration quirk?” Hitoshi asked.
“Not quite,” Gentle answered lowly. “A young boy lost control of his quirk. Accidentally caused an earthquake that brought this whole apartment complex down! ‘Twas a very unfortunate circumstance.”
Hitoshi frowned. “Yeah, that’s not good. Is anyone getting him quirk counseling or anything?”
“His parents whisked him away before we had the chance to ask them about it!” Gentle shook his head. “I hope the young fellow will be given the console he needs.”
“Hey Gentle, can you take these kids to their mom?” Mina’s voice broke into the conversation. She had a hand resting on each of the kid’s shoulders, whose faces were much less distraught. “She should be in the crowd that was outside as the building started to collapse. Neither kid has any injuries, though I still need to give Hitoshi a check up.”
“But of course!” Gentle flashed the children a blinding grin. While he began to lead the kids away, Shinso absentmindedly wondered how he always winded up in the company of the most outrageous extroverts.
Mina sidled up to him, and he quirked an eyebrow at her. “A check up, huh?”
She giggled, before diving in to give his cheek a peck, while her face was still coated in slime. Hitoshi gagged and ducked away, shooing away a string of slimy acid that had connected her mouth and his cheek.
“You know I think it’s so gross when you do that!” he said, wiping away the remaining goo on his face.
“Oh come on!” she responded, stepping up to him. “You’re already covered in my acid, a little more won’t hurt!”
As she tried to approach him again, her foot fell on the spot Gentle had used his quirk on. The sudden lack of solid ground caused her to stumble. She toppled over, hitting Hitoshi on the way down, falling on top of him.
Once they were both on the ground together, Hitoshi smirked at her sheepish smile. “Very graceful.”
She broke out into a laugh, which Hitoshi soon joined her in.
Mina started to cackle the second she heard someone thundering over from the bathrooms to the living area.
“Mina!”
She looked over the back of the couch to see Hitoshi stomping over to her, and she didn’t even try to contain her laughter. He came to a halt in front of her and pointed a finger at his hair, which was wet from his shower.
“Can you explain this?”
“Sure can!” Mina answered with pride.
Every hair on his head, except for the tips, had been turned from purple to pink, courtesy of Mina’s shampoo. It looked like he had a pink pom pom atop his head.
“Wow Shinso, I love the new look!” Ochako called from the kitchen tables, and Hitoshi sent her a glare. Izuku, who was across from Ochako, sent his friend an apologetic - though amused - smile.
“You said you were running out of your shampoo, but didn’t have time to go to the store!” Mina explained. “So I decided to help you out and refill your bottle with my shampoo!”
“That’s why it was pink,” Hitoshi grumbled to himself, before lifting his voice. “You could’ve told me.”
“But then I never would’ve been able to see you like this!”
Hitoshi buried his face in his hands and muttered to himself. “How have I survived a year and a half of this.”
“I can dye my hair purple if that helps!” Mina offered enthusiastically.
“It doesn’t help,” he answered, his voice muffled by his hands.
Mina sprang over the back of the couch and latched onto Hitoshi, before pressing a kiss to his lips. After drawing away, she asked, “Does that help?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, and he grudgingly admitted, “...yes. You owe me a trip to the store now though.”
She rolled her eyes playfully with a smile. “Fiiine.”
Everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen, their bodies tense as the characters in the movie began to panic.
The class had decided the best way to celebrate graduating UA alive was to watch a pre-quirk horror movie. After a period of intense debate, they settled on Bird Box.
Denki hugged his knees to his chest tighter as the car the characters were in began to rock violently, and he let out a small squeak of fear when all the car’s proximity alarms went off at once.
That small squeak turned into a high-pitched scream of terror when something grabbed him from behind and shrilled in his ear, and he flinched so bad he fell off the couch.
Mina broke into laughter from behind him. “Got you!”
The class descended into giggles as Denki caught his breath, the blond looking at Mina like she’d drowned his fish. “That wasn’t nice!!”
“It was funny though!” Mina countered as she wandered back to her spot next to Hitoshi, causing Denki to grumble about how everyone always teased him.
After a few more bouts of laughter, the movie caught a hold of the class’ attention again, and soon all their minds were enthralled as the characters explored an abandoned supermarket.
There came another tense scene, where someone was groaning to be let in from the forbidden outdoors. The moment the characters opened the door, a scream tore through the room again.
This time it was from Mina.
Hitoshi had poked her sides and shouted in her ear at the highest moment of tension, doing to her what she had done to Denki, and the room was enveloped in laughter again.
“Yes yes, very funny,” Mina said as she side-eyed Hitoshi with a pursed-lipped grin.
He smirked at her, very satisfied with her reaction. She was the one who teased him most of the time, so whenever he saw the opportunity to return the favor, he took it.
“Are you ready?!” Ochako asked, holding a bouquet and wearing a white dress with stars embroidered at the hem. Behind her stood all the girls from the former Class A, who were wearing flowing, pale pink bridesmaid dresses - except for Mina, whose dress was hot pink, due to her skin tone and being the maid of honor.
They were in a secluded, quiet location, with huge trees towering over them, their leaves dappling the ground with sunlight. The soft trickling of a river and the chirping of the birds gave the air an authentic, gentle quality. The perfect place for a tender and cheerful wedding.
That soft quality to the air was then broken by Mina shouting out, “I’ve got it!!”
She pushed herself off Momo’s shoulders, flipping up into the air to grab the bouquet before any of the other girls had the slightest chance of touching it. She landed back on the ground with an ecstatic grin, hugging the bouquet to her chest.
“Mina!” Toru whined. “I was really hoping to catch that!”
“Well I hoped harder!” the pink girl shot back. Her friends shook their heads at her with good-natured smiles. They were well used to Mina’s antics at this point.
The girls headed back to a small pavilion, where there was a small crowd of onlooking people, which consisted of Izuku and Ochako’s family and close friends. Ochako’s mother approached Mina with a warm smile and congratulations on catching the bouquet.
“You know what this means,” she told Mina. “You’re going to be the next one to walk down the aisle!”
Mina’s eyes picked out Hitoshi among the group of people under the pavilion, and a genuine smile spread across her face. “I sure hope so.”
Ochako’s mother followed her line of sight and recognized Hitoshi. She turned back to Mina with a look of understanding and said, “You should go talk to him about it.”
Mina agreed with a nod and thanked the woman for her congratulations, before heading over to her boyfriend. She held up the bouquet as she approached, and he raised his eyebrows at the sight of it.
“Look what I got~” she said in a singsong voice.
“You caught the bouquet. Hope you didn’t kill anyone in the process.”
“Of course not!” she said with a playful pout. “I’d only be willing to severely injure someone for this, not kill! Anyway, it got me thinking… why the heck aren’t we married yet?”
He blinked at her. The thought of getting married obviously hadn’t occurred to him, and his eyes widened, “...how did Izuku and Ochako end up getting married before us.”
Mina snickered. “So… wanna get married?”
The kiss he gave her was all the answer she needed.
“How about we invite everyone who’s ever interacted with us!!” Mina exclaimed, looking over their wedding plans on the kitchen table.
Hitoshi looked appalled at the idea. “How about we don’t.”
“This is gonna be the biggest, most fun party - I mean, wedding - that anyone’s ever gone to!”
Hitoshi pinched the bridge of his nose, looking just about ready to die. “Or, we could just invite our closest friends and family, keeping the guest list under twenty.”
“But what if I have hundreds of close friends!?”
He could tell from the goofy smile on her face, she was only trying to get on his nerves at this point. He pursed his lips in a small smile. “Then I’m going to die from the overwhelming amount of social interaction, which would ruin the wedding, and then there’d be no party at all,” he countered.
Mina gasped dramatically, flinging herself at him in a hug. “Well I can’t have you dying on me! Alright, guess I’ll have to narrow that friend list down to… fifteen people? Is that survivable?”
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Yes, thank you.”
Just a month after Izuku and Ochako’s wedding, Mina was walking down the aisle towards Hitoshi, the seats on either side filled with smiling people.
Her sweeping dress was speckled with pink dots, but the outfit was nothing more than a small enhancement compared to the beaming grin on her face - the sight stole the breath from Hitoshi’s lungs. As Mina approached him, she thought he looked stunning in his suit, especially considering he rarely ever put on formal wear. She made a mental note to tease him about how good he looked later.
The two both impatiently waited through the officiant’s spiel about what made marriage so special and how strong their bond was and how the people around them so obviously cared for them blah blah blah. They just wanted to kiss already!
One part of his speech did catch their attention though.
“Your previous relationship is coming to an end, and it is now growing into something deeper, more rooted in each of your lives. While your old relationship passes away, this newer, stronger relationship sprouts up in its place. I, as well as everyone in this room, trust that you’ll cherish this new relationship born out of marriage, that you’ll nurture it for the rest of your lives.”
As the two gazed at each other, they felt confident this was really the person they’d enjoy growing this new relationship with.
Finally, the moment came, and they were allowed to embrace as they pressed their lips together in a kiss that sealed their union.
Starting out in high school, neither one of them had ever planned on being in this situation. Neither had expected to find someone they cared so deeply for, or someone they enjoyed being around so much.
But here they were, their relationship changing into something deeper and more special, and they couldn’t be happier.