Hands Down
The realization comes to her one February afternoon while finishing her homework with Todoroki Shouto in the library.
"Todoroki-san," she says, freezing in the middle of copying a reference. "I… like Awase-san, don't I?"
Todoroki stares at her, face impassive, and nods.
She moans and hides her face in her arms, cheeks burning and red. "And it's obvious?"
"Yes," she hears her dual-toned classmate say, with just the slightest hint of amusement that would easily go unnoticed to anyone unused to him. "Took you long enough to notice, Yaoyorozu."
It is a little odd that it's only now that she is able to put a name to the brightness she feels every time Awase says hello. Is this why she smiles a little wider, why her voice tends to rise when they exchange a little more words than that? Why she feels oddly optimistic every time they part ways, like her battery has been recharged?
She's only able to wrap her head around it after Awase and Tsuburaba passed by their table for a chat a few minutes ago. As is his habit since that time in the forest, Todoroki asks Tsuburaba how he's doing. This leaves her and Awase to talk by themselves.
"Is that the research paper for Midnight-sensei's class?" he had asked her. Momo is hyperaware of dark eyes under his headband, always intense like everything he does is purposeful.
"Yes. Todoroki-san and I are doing an analysis on how popularity mechanisms determined the demarcation between heroes and illegals in the first years of quirk emergence, and its implications on the structure of modern hero hierarchies."
"Wow." Dark thick eyebrows raise in mild interest as he speaks. Or is it disinterest? Did she appear too over excited over homework again? Did Awase understand anything in the overly complicated sentence she just said? Momo isn't sure. Why couldn't she simplify her terms? Why are her sentences so cluttered?
Trying hard not to be self-conscious is recently a common occurrence when she spoke to Awase. He doesn't look fazed, however. He points to Tsuburaba, who somehow has Todoroki roped in on a one-sided conversation about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "We're writing about hero movies."
"Hero movies," she had repeated, with interest.
"Yep. Hero movies," Awase repeats without a trace of irony in his voice. "Mostly Japanese films like the Tokusatsu ones, but we might do a comparison versus American superhero franchises… check out the differences in values, and all that."
"That sounds fascinating, Awase-san," she tells him honestly.
Awase gives her an amused smirk. "You're judging us, aren't you?"
"Oh, of course not!" Momo shakes her head vigorously, ponytail swishing in all directions. "I do understand that how heroes are portrayed in movies have an impact on civilian expectations on pros, and not to mention the effect it has on hero recruitment statistics…"
"I guess? But Tsuburaba picked the topic so he has an excuse to watch them," he says with a shrug. "He likes explosions."
"You got that right!" Tsuburaba says, a little louder than the library's threshold. Someone goes sshh behind them. Unfazed, he goes back to the quietly listening Todoroki and continues. "So when he goes, Mr. Stark I don't feel so good, Peter-"
"That's enough spoiling, man." Awase turns to pull his mildly protesting wide-eyed companion away from Todoroki. With a wave of one hand, he leaves the two recommended students in their table, leaving Momo waving back dumbly with a hint of a sense of loss.
So this is how it is to like someone?
She's always been a fan of good and thoughtful conversation about things like hero politics and current events and science. She didn't think that such a short exchange of words about American movies would leave her wanting. And she'd never looked after a person as they left, wishing that they'd stayed a few minutes longer and enjoyed each other's company a little more.
But now that she thinks about it, it feels a little more than that. A little deeper. When she listens to him talk, she wishes that the tone of his voice is just for her. When he listens, she wonders what he thinks of her, if she's speaking too haughtily or too simply or if she was in any way unimpressive.
She really doesn't want to be unimpressive, at least not to him. Far beyond their time in the forest, Momo has quietly watched him as much as she can from the other class and saw how genuine he is, every chance she got. Not that there are a lot of chances to see him since he's from the other class (frustratingly so), but she does what she can.
Dropping back to reality, she sees the still amused Todoroki waiting quietly for her reply. She peeks from behind her arms with a pout. "I've never liked someone like this before, Todoroki-san."
He hums.
"Am I supposed to do something about this?"
Todoroki blinks, and Momo realizes that maybe he isn't the best person to ask this. "I'm not the best person to ask this," he confirms, as expected, but to her surprise he follows up with, "But with you, I can guess that this will only bother you exponentially if you ignore it."
She sighs and straightens up her posture. "And why would you come to that conclusion?"
He shrugs. "You do like him very much, Yaoyorozu."
"I do?"
He looks slightly miffed at how very obvious that fact is. "I can give you a list of people from both classes just waiting for you to realize. I bet the only person who hasn't noticed yet apart from you is Awase himself."
Her jaw drops in both surprise and offense. "Well I never-have people been placing bets? Are they doing the same thing to me as they do to you?"
He huffs. "Ashido and Kaminari will place betting pools on anyone and everyone."
She'd been aware of members of their class betting on Todoroki's dating preferences and who he will confess to eventually. She'd spoken in defense of her friend a number of times, although she had her own private ideas on who he'll eventually ask. (In her opinion, it's a toss-up between a certain hot-headed blonde and a cute brunette with the features of a cherub).
But that's beside the point-people are waiting on her to realize that she liked Awase? How embarrassing! That makes her hesitate on her feelings even more!
"It's no big deal," Todoroki says, interrupting her mental rant. "It's one thing to know about your feelings and a different thing to act on them. When it comes to deciding, nothing else matters but what you want to do. So ignore what everyone else thinks."
She sighs. Who knew that Todoroki Shouto, of all people, would be so talented in giving advice when it comes to… liking someone. "Thank you for your advice."
He nods. Much like a cat who arbitrarily decides that he's done enough meowing, he ducks his head down and continues to work on their paper. Momo does the same thing and objectively accomplishes a lot of their required work, but admittedly more distracted than she'd ever been.
When they leave for the dorms and Momo reaches her room, drops herself unceremoniously on her four-poster bed and stares at the pure white lace trimmings, she finds herself thinking of dark hair and zigzags, an unassuming voice, the feel of strong arms lifting her that one time that she hasn't quite got over yet.
And she wonders to herself how her uncomplicated ways have come to this.
"Tsk. How distasteful, Awase-kun."
Awase blinks and finds himself staring at a plate of Chinese fried rice and dumplings and wondering why he picked this lunch set. In front of him, Monoma Neito is wrinkling his nose in distaste, as he usually does, but this time it's directed at him.
Is there something wrong with eating Chinese food that he doesn't remember ordering? In any case, it doesn't give their school-issued snarky blonde the right to look at him like he's trash. "What's wrong with you? We're supposed to be eating."
Next to him, an amused Rin stares at him. He's eating the same exact lunch set, and Awase finally vaguely remembers telling Lunch Rush that he'll have what the person next to him is having, while he looked over his shoulder to a certain table at the other end of the cafeteria-
"Exactly," Monoma quips with a haughty sniff as he swirls his grape-juice-in-a-pretentious-wine-glass at him accusingly. "Yet here you are, staring at the enemies' table with that disgusting look on your face. You filthy traitor."
He rolls his eyes and takes a mouthful of rice. It wasn't the curry he had hoped to order but he tries not to look miserable as he chews. "Can you maybe take it easy on the shit spray? We aren't required to hate their guts just because we're in 1-B, you tool."
"That's right, Monoma. I think at this point it's just you spreading that black propaganda around," Tsuburaba says with a grin. He and Kaibara ordered the chicken cutlet curry and dammit it looks great. Awase tries not to feel too sour about it as he eats another dumpling.
"I disagree! I'm just sitting in the wrong table, is all!" the blonde persists with a sly twinkle in his eye. "I'm willing to bet that most if not all of you are smitten with someone on the ugly side of the cafeteria-"
"Watch it," Awase warns with a glare.
"Ah, but it's true, isn't it, Awase-kun?" Monoma says with a grin. "I'm worried for Miss Yaoyorozu at this point. Any more staring at her back and I'm afraid you'll burn holes at the back of her uniform."
He isn't staring that long -he isn't staring, period, just… looking. Yaoyorozu has always been eye-catching, but things are different now. After that one time in the forest, he feels sort of responsible for her. Can't relax at all unless he sees that she's alive and breathing and not bleeding, even though the campus is safe and there's no logical reason for her to be at the brink of death these days.
Also… okay, so he likes her, a little more than he would admit out loud. Sue him.
Sound the alarm, boy out of a hundred other boys and girls gets a big hopeless crush on Yaoyorozu Momo, renowned 1-A genius-slash-beauty and one of the school idols. It's frustrating to know that apart from one fucked-up near death experience, there's really no other common ground between them.
It's even more frustrating to know that the most sensible thing to do is to ignore said hopeless crush, but to consistently fail at that.
"Come on man, don't tease Awase," Tsuburaba says with a light nudge at his shoulder. "He's still reeling from chickening out of asking her out at the library. After I gave him lotsa space too."
He directs his glare at Tsuburaba, who only challenges him with an I'm-not-wrong stare. And he really isn't wrong. How many times has he walked up to her to engage in stupid small talk that leads to nowhere and then turn tail and run?
"You're one to talk, Tsuburaba-kun," Monoma says with a scoff, "when you act so daft when you're around that little frog girl."
Tsuburaba sputters and turns as crimson, just as Rin laughs out loud. "He's got you there, Tsuburaba. You do look extra googly-eyed and smitten when you're around her."
Said googly eyes go even wider as he looks around the table like everyone else have betrayed him. "Damn! I do?! Why would you just let me look like a damn fool around her?!"
"I'm sorry! But when we point it out, it gets worse, so we just let it happen-"
"Rinnnn that's not funny, you're now morally obligated to take my ass to China, dammit I can't face her now-"
As Tsuburaba continues to whine to Rin, Monoma targets Kaibara next. "And you unfortunately have the poorest taste of all," he says with a quirk of a pale eyebrow. "Really. The way you consistently glare at that wild animal should be illegal."
Kaibara regards him with a dull look and tilts his head noncommittally.
"You aren't even denying it," Monoma points out in annoyance.
He shrugs. "Yeah, I like Bakugou," he replies in a dull monotone. "... like to kick his smug ass to the dirt one day, that is. At least he looks like he'll fight back until one of us is dead."
The table falls silent at the surprisingly violent turn of conversation.
"... you serious man?" Tsuburaba asks with a twitch of one eye.
The dark-haired boy shrugs and takes another spoonful of curry.
Monoma wrinkles his nose. "While I'd like to commend you for championing my cause to bring down 1-A, I'm not sure what to say about your rather belligerent ways, Kaibara-kun."
"Don't take me too seriously, Neito. I'm kidding. Well... half-kidding," Kaibara replies with a lopsided grin that fails to be convincing. He looks at Awase and directs his perpetually surly gaze at him. "He's right about you, though. You might wanna take it easy on the staring."
From behind Kaibara's resting bitch face, Awase notes that Yaoyorozu ordered the Chaliapin steak, a cut of salmon, three cups of rice and a salad. She's also staring at Jirou's half-finished bowl of ramen with interest; the other girl lets her have it and she practically glows at the prospect of more food and isn't that just fucking cute, Kaibara could probably drill him in the forehead and he wouldn't care if it meant watching Yaoyorozu look like that for a few more blessed moments-
"This is what we mean. You are absolutely hopeless, Awase-kun," Monoma says. When he comes to, Kaibara's finger-drill is only inches from his headband, and Tsuburaba and Rin are losing their shit over the demonstration.
Awase grumbles into his rice. "Whatever dude. You're one to talk when you're the most hopeless one of us out here."
The blonde narrows his eyes at him in pure offense. "Excuse you. Unlike you, who has done very little apart from letting your silly feelings fester in your little head-band wrapped head for more than a year and staring at your crush like a depraved stalker, I know how to manage my-"
"Hey Shinsou, what's up?" Kaibara deadpans, looking at a spot behind Monoma's head.
Monoma almost drops his pretentious glass of grape juice and turns his head so fast he gets whiplash. When he's met with empty air, Tsuburaba guffaws so hard he almost falls off his seat. "Har har, very funny Kaibara! Are you boys seriously still insisting that I am obsessed with Shinsou Hitoshi to the point of having a very hopeless crush on him? Because for your information, I am not -"
"Hey Shinsou, what's up?" Rin says, at a different spot behind Monoma's head.
Monoma is about to retort angrily when a deep voice awkwardly replies, "Uh. Yeah, hi."
The blonde pales and slowly, slowly turns his body to meet Shinsou Hitoshi's puzzled face, after which he abruptly turns crimson. "Oh-Shinsou-kun! H-hah, here you are-"
"Yup. Here I am," the purple-haired guy answers. It isn't clear if he overheard Monoma's ramblings or Tsuburaba's valiant attempts not to die from laughing, because he has that same sleep-deprived look of disinterest on his face. "So, Monoma, I was gonna ask if you and Eri-chan are-"
"Yeah! About that, let's talk over there!" Monoma is on his feet the next millisecond and pulling Shinsou by the arm, desperately getting him away from the rest of the table who are all prepared to shit on him should he stay. He's out of sight in a flash, but not before giving them very generous death glares and rude gestures.
"And there goes our boy. Makes you proud of him, kind of," says Rin in amusement. "Don't you wish you were as brave as Monoma, Awase?"
Awase replicates the death glare given to the rest of them. "Are you seriously telling me to do what Monoma is doing? Did you guys forget that his decision making is mainly influenced by his rabies?"
Rin shrugs. "But among us in this table, he's the only one holding someone else's arm and smiling like an idiot."
And smile like an idiot he does-he's doing that very Monoma thing with his hands and mouth, while Shinsou looks on, not annoyed at all but strangely at ease and engaged. Seems to be content having a conversation with him, even though there's a 3 meter radius of people avoiding getting slapped by Monoma's hyper hand-swings. Huh, wouldn't you know it, there's a market for everything these days.
"Dude, not like we're pressuring you or anything, but the point is you're gonna go exactly nowhere if you settle with what you're doing now. Like Kosei," Kaibara says with a shrug. "I mean, look at him. Kinda sad to watch from up close."
Tsuburaba puffs his cheeks in annoyance. "You're not wrong, but I resent that."
Awake huffs. "What if I'm okay with going nowhere? Nowhere's a better place than the opposite direction."
Tsuburaba sighs so deeply he breathes a plate of solid air into existence. "Dude, I know you think you got no chance or whatever but you won't really know until you try. I don't know how long I can keep watching ya suffer like this!"
Because in what universe does a guy like him have a chance with a girl like Yaoyorozu? He knows he's not a bad guy by any means, but he's no Bakugou or Todoroki or any of those other memorable guys from his year. The only reason why she knows he exists is because they happened to be chased by the same horror-movie grade anomaly that night.
Besides, even if he asked her out and she rejected him and he managed to survive the aftermath, there would be no reason for them to 'talk' like they do now-a maximum of five sentences along a busy hallway, beginning with a hi and ending with him making an awkward face and not asking her out. It's not much to hold on to, and he really wished there was more, but it's definitely better than nothing.
Rin's voice snaps him back to reality. "Don't worry about it too much, man. I mean if you're not ready, you're not ready. As your friend I will keep supporting you and your creepy staring sessions during lunch break and beyond."
"Gee, thanks Rin. You're a true friend," he deadpans with distaste.
"No problem," the Chinese boy says with a crease of his eyes. "I'm doing the same for the other two anyways. No big deal."
This earns him a teary complaint from Tsuburaba and absolutely nothing from Kaibara. Thankfully after that, the interrogation is dropped for more favorable topics like sports and anime and how Fukidashi's YouTube channel got a million subscribers recently. It's interesting enough so he can will his eyes away from the other side of the cafeteria for most of their remaining time, and before anyone knows it it's time to go back to the classrooms.
Just as they stand up to leave, Yaoyorozu and her group pass by them. Unfortunately for him she flashes him a brilliant smile and gives him the most graceful wave of her fingers in a way that only she is able to do. Ever suave, all he is able to do is to reflexively grimace back. Helping him conclude once again that he is exactly the hopeless smitten piece of shit that Monoma has proclaimed him to be.
With a smile like that, what can he do anyway?
Two or maybe three weeks pass by after her realization with absolutely nothing happening between them. Momo concentrates on a lot of things, important things. Studying for her exams, governing their rowdy class, developing her quirk and strengthening exercises. It keeps her mind busy and her body tired and stops her from feeling disappointed at the lack of color in her life lately.
Coincidentally, it's been two, maybe three weeks since she last exchanged words with Awase in the library. After that it's just an exchange of quiet smiles between them-a silly one from her, she's sure, and a polite, charming one he returns each time. She never did know what happened to his research work with Tsuburaba-san, and she can only hope that their paper did well. It's hard to tell how they're doing from her vantage point in the cafeteria, or through the gaps through the door in 1-B when she passes by to make her way in and out of her own classroom.
She doesn't know how he's doing, in general, and for some reason that gives her sleepless nights and a feeling in her chest akin to heartburn that only arises in her most private moments. Maybe she can blame it on a lack of effort on her part, because suddenly it's harder to catch his eye and suddenly it's harder to think up of an order of words that Awase might find useful or interesting for him to respond. Goodness, it wasn't difficult at all before to speak with him before she realized her silly feelings in the library! The art of conversation wasn't at as anxiety-ridden before she put a name to this silly phenomenon! What use does anyone have for feelings like this!
Feelings are silly and illogical, is what she concludes from all of this. She hates having feelings.
And so she ignores all the silliness, and forges onward.
Aizawa-sensei had advised her to improve her physicality. Apart from making sure she has an ample amount of lipids in her body, he assigns her to learn close combat and have any of her classmates train with her. Today it's Uraraka Ochako who agreed to help her-the petite girl, despite her sweet demeanor, is one of the deadliest in close-ranged attacks thanks to her constant training in Gunhead Martial Arts. She promised Momo that she would teach her more grappling and throwing techniques that'll make any big man cry. Momo is excited for it.
She comes to one of the smaller gyms open to all students, preparing herself to wait for her classmate. Ochako had texted her about being late for maybe half an hour for an errand. Momo planned to do some warm-up exercises on her own, do some yoga to try to empty her mind of all her clumsy thoughts for once, but one look at the gym and she instantly knows that it's impossible.
Because the gym isn't empty. And of all the people in this school who could be using it at the same time…
"Oh. Yaoyorozu."
Awase Yosetsu stops his assault against a heavy bag as soon as he sees her reflection on the mirrors.
She tries a smile, praying that it's not awkward. "Awase-san! Hello."
It's a simple string of words she's said maybe a hundred times before, but it feels clumsy spilling out of her mouth while she's staring at him and the cuts of his muscles on his bare arms and the frame of his lean body outlined by the soak of sweat and the bright lights of the gym. The entire visual unexpectedly takes her breath away and she catches herself staring a tad too long before forcing her eyes away from all of that, to focus on his face.
(Momo, a proper lady wouldn't stare! A proper hero wouldn't look overwhelmed at the sight of one of her peers working hard! And to think you haven't started working out yet!)
His face is flushed when he faces her. A different bandanna pushes his sweat-soaked, slightly disheveled hair away from his face. How many of those does he have? "So, you're here to work out too?" He cuts himself off with a laugh. "Doi, of course you did, why else would you be here? Stupid question."
She giggles. "No, not at all! It's all right, you got it correctly. I am also here to train."
"Oh," Awase says, with a concerned look. "Did you reserve this place? Sorry, I'm just about finished anyway, so I can leave-"
It's true that she went through all the trouble to have the place to herself, because it's proper to have a permission slip first to use any of the gyms and also it's embarrassing to risk anyone see her fumble during training. But for some reason, she's raising her hands in front of her and shaking her head and telling him that it's okay to stay. "It'll be awhile before Uraraka-san gets here anyway," she reasons, "so please! Do as you will."
"You sure? I mean technically I shouldn't be here in the first place, so..." He looks a little uneasy to accept at first, perhaps because he knows that she's a class officer and a known stickler for rules-is he worried that she's going to snitch on him?
She shakes her head again. "It's all right, Awase-san. If anyone asks, you're working out with me."
"Well… okay, if you insist," he says with a grin. "So… let's work out? I won't get in your way, promise."
"Don't worry about that. I'll focus on warm-up exercises while waiting for Uraraka-san." If anything, she's more worried about getting in his way-he seems to know his way around the gym better than she does, at least.
She shrugs off her tracksuit jacket, leaving her with just a tank top and her pants, and begins stretching in front of the mirror. She tries to focus on her figure, her stance, her breathing, her complexion which turns pinker and pinker by the second. Tries not to lose count, even though she feels Awase's eyes glancing at her every now and then in between the dull thuds of his fists against the heavy bag. Needless to say, it's one of the more challenging warm-ups she's done in a long time, and not due to extra exertion.
Ten minutes later, her body's more limber and her heart rate is up. But it'll be awhile before Uraraka arrives, and she really doesn't know what to do next. She hates wasting time though, so she decides to peruse the equipment available in the gym one-by-one and figure out what she can do by herself from there on.
She's frowning at the sets of weights on the other side of the gym when she hears him come closer. "You are gonna work out, aren't you?"
There's a teasing smile on his face when she turns to him. She tries to look annoyed-hopes she does, even when he takes a huge swig from his sports drink after and she catches herself appreciating how his neck look as he does. "I am, I'm just analyzing the best way to go about this by myself, that's all."
He hums, looking unconvinced. "So have you figured it out yet?"
She feels her cheeks warm in embarrassment. "To be honest… I've never worked out at a gym without a trainer before, so…"
She hates having to admit to anyone that she's had hired assistance for most of her activities before, like cooking and cleaning and laundry. And yes, even working out-she's always had a personal trainer who plans all her activities, resting periods, and diets based on a set of data provided by state-of-the-art equipment available in her home. Most of which aren't available in most other homes, a fact that she's learning just recently.
(Oh, if Awase were to find out the reasoning of her ignorance, he'd realize she's nothing but a spoiled little rich girl and she'd be so embarrassed that she could die. )
He chuckles in amusement. "I kinda figured. Well, I'm done with mine, so if you want, I can help you work out and stuff."
"You will? That'll be wonderful!" she says, beaming a little too brightly. She forces herself to tone her face down and adds, "Oh, but only if it's not too much, Awase-san, I understand if you're too tired and-"
He blinks once and clears his throat after a beat of silence. "Oh. No, I'm good," he says, even though his face is still pink from all the exercise he has done. Is this really okay? "So what sorts of exercises were you going to do with Uraraka, anyway?"
"Close combat," she answers with a nervous laugh. "It's a strength of hers and a weakness of mine. She was planning to teach me Gunhead Martial Arts. I'm admittedly a little nervous about that."
"Oh, so that's what it's called. Yeah, that's totally a good idea. She did a serious number on Monoma and Yanagi during the joint training exercise." He taps his long fingers against his chin thoughtfully and hums some more. "Did she teach you the basics already?"
Momo nods enthusiastically. "She told me that she'd teach me some new moves, and then spend the rest of the time sparring to see if I can fight with at least just the basics."
Awase listens to her thoughtfully, after which he gives her a playful smile that makes something flutter in her chest. "So we should do that, I guess."
"... That?" she asks incredulously.
"Sparring."
"Oh, but-" she stammers, as he walks to an open area for sparring, gesturing for her to follow. "Awase-san, I haven't ever, with you… Is this really okay? Because-"
He shrugs. "I mean, we're gonna have other joint exercises and the sports festival and all of that, so we're gonna fight each other eventually. Might as well see what you got, right?"
She should be reluctant about this-this is a boy she likes very much, and if she made a fool of herself being her usual clumsy self it'll be a disaster. But the look in his eyes, although charming, tells her that he'd only be disappointed if she were to refuse. Besides…
Despite herself, she smiles at him challengingly. "So… quirks or no quirks?"
He shrugs. "Up to you."
She hums. "Quirks, then. Best of three." She steps into the area, swinging her arms as she does. "And you are not to go easy on me."
Strangely enough, she starts to feel excited over this.
"Wouldn't dream of it. Just don't make a gun or anything like that, huh?" He starts stepping backwards and placing himself in a fighting stance. Arms at his side, fingers twitching, dark eyes glinting and raring to go.
She smiles, steps forward, and strikes.
The first attempt at grabbing Awase misses completely. It only takes a few moves for her to learn that he's faster and stronger than she is. Two attempts at a grapple later and he manages to fuse his hand on her right arm, her legs are kicked out underneath her, and she falls with her back to the cushions and her eyes straight into his.
"One-zero," he says with a chuckle. She's so close she sees the slight dryness of his lips as they move.
Don't focus on the wrong things, she thinks as she allows herself to be helped up off the mats while keeping her face blush-free. Awase doesn't even look that winded in the first round, and as adorable as he looks being smug, she cannot allow him to smile like that anymore.
The thing about the first fight though, is that she also learns other things-that his dominant side is his right, his stances are less stable and more agile, and his left ankle might be sore from training earlier. So she takes advantage of this as she weaves away from his attempts to weld his hand to hers again, attacks his left and manages to do the pinning technique that Uraraka had her do over and over last time they trained together.
It's so that she finds herself straddling his back and holding his head down, her muscles singing with effort and adrenaline rushing through her blood. Awase makes a sound of surprise, as if not realizing what happened, and groans, "Nice one, Yaoyorozu. Ah, do you mind-"
"Ahh! Sorry," she stammers, rolling off of him and helping him up. Oh no, now even his ears are red, maybe she's pushing him too far? But she has so much energy left, it'll be a shame if they stopped now.
Thankfully despite his redness, he doesn't seem to be ready to back down yet. "You haven't used your quirk yet, Yaoyorozu. Are you taking it easy on me?"
Her mouth can't help but break into an excited grin. "Of course not, Awase-san! I'm just getting started."
Without further ado, the third round begins. As Awase leaps forward to try and grab her, she avoids him, but just barely. Weaving and dodging against his attacks become harder and harder as his attacks become faster and faster somehow. Try as she might to find an opening to counter, she fails with each new attempt he makes.
She can't let him grab her, not even once. Once he welds them together, he'll use his strength advantage to throw her or pin her down again and it'll be over.
And he almost does-she sees the split second where his hand is centimeters away from her arm-but at the last moment she decides to make a weapon out of it, so that he grabs this instead of her bare skin.
He ends up with half a kali stick fused to his hand. "Giving your enemy a weapon during a fight? That's a strange strategy you have there, Yaoyorozu."
"An incomplete one," she says, forming two complete sticks from her back. She moves her hands in position and waves her fingers playfully towards him.
He smirks and charges forward with his weapon.
Momo has only trained with these weapons once, and it was with Ojiro-san a couple of weeks ago. In hindsight it may have been ill-advised to attempt to fight in a style that she isn't too familiar with, but to her surprise she manages to hold against Awase for longer than she expected.
In the end, though, her grip on the weapons weakens. One misstep later and Awase finally pins her down in a hold that she can't immediately pull herself out of.
His hands are really strong, even without the welding component to it, and his hold on her his really tight. But she struggles all the same, not conceding defeat even though her lungs feel knocked out of all its wind.
"Give up, Yaoyorozu, I got this," he tells her directly at her ear, through gritted teeth.
In response, she wriggles a little more, causing him to tighten his hold on her even more. "No-it hasn't been… twenty seconds, so-"
"Okay then-keep going, but I'm not letting you go-"
She struggles a little more, and the more she does he pins her down stronger, more roughly. Eventually twenty seconds or so must have passed, and as reluctant as she is to tap out, she has to before she suffocates. As soon as she does, Awase loosens his hold on her and lets her collapse onto the floor below him.
"Oh shit," he curses, lifting himself above her. "Yaoyorozu, you okay? Did I go too far?"
She tries to control her too-rapid breathing and blinks all the black spots away from her vision. "Y-yes, don't worry. I'm not too hurt."
"Not too hurt?! " He continues to hover above her, staring her up and down looking for injuries. He puts a hand up her face, pushing the loose strands of hair that has removed themselves from her ponytail and stuck onto her flushed skin. "Can you stand? Should I bring you to Recover Girl? Or-"
Slowly but surely she realizes that she's on the floor, on her back, Awase Yosetsu is on top of her, breathing close to her, speaking close to her, touching her face in an intimate way that she imagined in an entirely different scenario. For an instant, all these realizations knock the wind out of her again and paralyze her like the silly, clumsy girl that she is, and when that happens Awase panics again above her.
Momo, you're causing Awase-san undue stress! Do not swoon like a helpless Victorian woman! You are a proper hero-in-training! She turns her face to the side, curses it for being so warm, and manages to say, "No, I'm fine, Awase-san, please… I need just a moment to sit up."
"You sure? I can carry you if you're feeling woozy, so-"
She did feel a little light-headed then, but a familiar voice clearing her throat some distance away clears her mind like no other.
The two of them turn their heads in unison to the newcomer in the gym. Uraraka Ochako stares at them, already dressed in her gym clothes, duffel bag already placed on the bench next to her and both hands covering her mouth in a show of modesty.
"Oh-Uraraka-san!" Using some leftover upper body strength that she didn't know she had, Momo sits up, narrowly avoiding hitting Awase's forehead with her own as she does. "Have you been there for…"
"Ah, don't worry about it, Yaomomo! Sorry again for being late~" she says, with her usual bright smile and pink glowing cheeks. She makes her way towards them in a gait that looks too cautious for the setting and waves to Awase as she does. "Hey, Awase-kun. Thanks for keeping her company while I wasn't here!"
Awase's face is redder than it's ever been. "Ah, sure. Nah, don't mention it, I wasn't supposed to be here anyway, so…"
He's suddenly on his feet, pulling Momo up along with him as he does. There's an awkward pause in between them, with the two of them at a loss for words for a while and Uraraka looking at them in interest, waiting for either of them to say anything. "So, she's here, and you can train with her," Awase finally manages to say, stepping backwards and pointing at the two of them in succession. "So… I should go?"
Momo tries another polite smile, wills all of her charm school training onto her person even though she's been under him in the most disheveled state she'd been in a while. "Oh... yes, Awase-san, thank you for… for the lesson. I truly appreciated it."
"Yeah, it's no problem," he says with a wave. There's a beat of silence where his mouth remains open, trying to find the words to say, and she can't stop looking at him with expectation. "So… next time?"
He wants to do it again? Her heart changes tempo for a beat. He wants to do it again.
"... yes. Yes! Next time," she says. "Let's fight each other again, Awase-san."
He stares at her for a stunned half-seconds that has her fretting for saying something so silly, but then he smiles in that really handsome way she imagines frequently and her head feels like floating. "Yeah. It's a date then."
With another wave of the hand he's out the door, and Momo finds herself staring at the empty spot where he stood and said it's a date while wondering why her heart is beating so fast.
When she blinks, Uraraka is staring at her with a knowing smile on her face and a wiggle of her short brows.
"So… a date, huh?" the girl says with a mischievous grin.
Momo feels her face turn redder. "Oh-it's… I'm sure it's just a figure of speech," she stammers unconvincingly.
Uraraka hums. "If you say so," she says, her smile a little too self-satisfied for witnessing what had just happened. " Cha-ching, mama's gonna get some Korean barbecue tonight-"
"What was that?"
"Nothing," the brunette says with a wink. "Okay, I'm warming up. Take a water break first, and we'll pick up where you left off, okay?"
Momo does as she's told, sits down and drinks her sports drink. She paces her breathing, wills her heart to stop beating so hard, wills her chest and her guts to stop swirling in that way, wills that tickle in her nose and her toes that makes her want to squeal and jump around happily for many illogical reasons that she can't quite comprehend yet.
When she makes it through training with Uraraka, with more energy than she knows what to do with, she comes home to the dorm with a skip in her step and a happy swish of her ponytail that left others staring. She should care about being more subtle, but she can't help it, she's too happy, too excited, too bubbly and bouncy that she can't keep it all in.
It's a date then.
an: this thing decided to write itself in the middle of me struggling with my other stories. i hope you like!
So technically this is a one-shot but the ending doesn't make it sound like a one-shot so,,, im gonna think about continuing this if I get any other ideas (part of me thinks, ahhh bitch you got too many multichapters on your plate already. the other part says, do it for Awase!)