Kaminari had watched a lot of people fall in love. He was a naturally nosy person but, despite his best efforts sometimes, he wasn't very popular. People weren't falling in love with him, but that didn't make him any less curious. He'd seen a lot of Valentine's day confessions, letters stuffed in lockers, friends convinced to ask on their friends behalf, secret meeting behind the school. He was a pretty friendly guy and that meant he was often the person that was asked to help in these situations.
He didn't mind so much anymore. It was kinda interesting to watch. Some people would probably think that was pretty strange. But hey, Midoriya had his hero obsession, and Kaminari had an interest in people falling in love. At least he didn't talk notes on it or anything.
When the first of February rolled around, he knew what to look for. There were six girls in the glass and he was friends with half of them. If they had a crush on someone, this would be the time he'd find out.
So when Ashido approached him with the telling smile that meant she was about to ask a favor, he wasn't too surprised. "Hey, Kaminari?" Mina asked with a bright smile. "Come shopping with me?"
"Sure, Ashido." He didn't ask what they were shopping for, like he usually would. He was looking forward to seeing how she would be attacking this challenge. Ashido was the kind of girl that he expected to have a crush on someone in class, but she'd never talked about in anyone beyond who was cute. So yeah, Kaminari was curious to see where this would lead.
He wasn't expecting to be dragged off to a crafts store. He spent a few minutes blinking up at the store in surprise before Ashido's laughter pulled him out of it. "Where you expecting something else?" she asked.
"Kinda," he answered. "Don't know what, but definitely something else."
She giggled again, taking his arm and pulling him forward. "I have a project I need to work on and arts and crafts are my specialty."
That statement didn't surprise him, but thinking about Ashido's taste, he wondered if she was as good at it as she thought she was. "Why did you bring me?"
"You're my taste consultant," she told him. "I need to know what type of things Momo and Jirou like."
He got his answer faster than he was expecting.
"Wait! Momo and Jirou?" he asked.
Mina nodded. "What? Something wrong with that? Does one of them not like me?" Her eyebrows furrowed in worry and he quickly shook his head.
"Not that I know of, I was just surprised," he answered. "I shouldn't have been, because this is exactly the type of thing that I should have expected from you. You always seem to run speed at whatever you want."
She grinned widely at him. "Yep, that's me. Now come on, I have a lot of things that I want to get."
Ashido had not been exaggerating when she said that she wanted to get a lot of things. Once they'd returned to the dorms, she poured the bags contents onto her bag to look over her bounty. There was construction paper, glitter glue, beads, markers, specialty scissors with design teeth, stickers, stencils, he didn't even remember seeing her pick up half the things that he saw on the bed.
"I wonder if I have enough," she wondered, hand on her chin.
"What more could you have gotten?" he asked her incredulously.
"Stationary, color pencils, stamps," she began listing things off, counting on her fingers. Kaminari took her hand and pressed her hand into a fist.
"You don't really need to tell me," he said. "This is already a lot."
"I guess," she said. "Maybe I'll go back anyway."
"What are you planning to make?" he questioned.
Ashido shrugged. "I haven't completely decided yet. Maybe I should have gotten envelopes as well."
Kaminari shrugged. "Well, I'll leave you to it. If you need me to go shopping with you again, let me know."
She pounced on him, giving him a tight hug. "Thanks Kaminari! You're a great friend."
"No problem," he told her.
Kaminari spent the rest of the afternoon in the common room. A lot of people were in and out for a while, but eventually it was just him and Yaoyorozu. He noticed her fidgeting nervously for a while and decided to go ahead and ask her about it rather than waiting for her to come out with it.
"Something wrong, Yaomomo?"
She jumped a tiny bit in her seat and her head snapped up to look at him. Her shoulders were stiff, hands clasped tightly in her lap, and until a moment ago her eyes had been trained on the ground. He couldn't imagine what had her so nervous, since she wasn't usually this tightly wound in his presence.
"Um, Kaminari, can I... request your assistance?" she asked him. She looked around, as if to confirm that they were alone, before her eyes returned to his.
He tossed his arms over the back of the couch and gave her his full attention. "Sure, what do you need?"
"I'm... trying to bake something," she admitted. There was a light dusting of red covering her cheeks. It was cute. It was way too cute. He felt jealous of Ashido already, even though he didn't know if her feelings would be returned.
"Sato would be better at that sort of thing, don't you think?" he asked.
"Well, I'm not asking for baking tips," she said quickly. "I, um," she paused before rushing out her next words. "Will you be my taste tester?"
"I'd love to!" he answered immediately. He couldn't imagine that she would be anything less than great at cooking, as great as she was at everything else, so he really was looking forward to this.
She looked relieved and he saw the tension fall out of her posture as she relaxed. "Thank you so much. I'll be right back!"
She rushed off and a few minutes later returned with a small tray of sweets. There were a few different types of chocolate, a brownie, and small cakes. "You don't have to eat them all," she told him. "Just tell me what you think? I'm trying to get the taste just right, but I can't decide what combination of flavors I like."
He made his way slowly through the tray of sweets. Somewhere along the way she'd made him tea and brought him a glass of milk to choose from between pastries. He pointed those that he thought were the sweetest, casually dropping hints that Ashido liked things so sweet they could rot your teeth just thinking bout them, in case Ashido's crush was returned; but he also pointed out the things that were bitter, and strongly flavored, that Jirou might like. Maybe it was because they Yaoyorozu and Jirou were close friends, or maybe Ashido just had him rooting for her to get her way, but he dropped the hints all the same.
Yaoyorozu blushed at both statements, but didn't admit to anything about her motives.
"Would you mind being my taste tester again later?" she asked. "Once I can try out some other things? I want to get this just right."
"I would love to," he told her. "You're really good at this."
"Thank you, Kaminari."
It was a few days later that Jirou approached him.
He'd spent a lot of time being pulled into Ashido's room and shown various different cards and valentine's, being asked about favorite colors and what he thought of design combinations, and having her frown at his opinions when they differed too much from her own. He'd seen her covered in glitter, with glue on her fingertips and stray marker marks on her skin.
He'd had Yaoyorozu meeting him in the kitchen once the others had gone to share sweets with him, taking notes on his opinion and promising she'd make something just for him as a thank you.
It had been a fairly busy week, all things considered, so he wasn't surprised that it took Jirou so long to talk to him. If she'd wanted to catch him alone, she hadn't had as much of a chance to do so.
"Yo, Kaminari," she said, standing over his desk. "Come to my room later."
He nodded and she left without really waiting for a response.
Kirishima and Sero tried speculating on what she may have wanted. He just tried to figure out who she might like. At this rate, he felt that Ashido was probably going to get what she wanted, but there was a chance that Jirou had a crush on someone else. He didn't have any idea of who that someone else could be, but the possibility was there.
He didn't go to Jirou's room right away. He spent some with Kirishima and Sero first, talking about the excitement of Valentine's Day, wondering if they'd get any chocolate, hanging out ad wasting time. It was fun, distracting, and left him in a good mood by the time he was knocking on Jirou's door.
She let him in, directed him to sit on the bed. "I want you to listen to something," she said.
He leaned back on his arms, getting comfortable. "Listen to what?"
"I wrote a song."
"For Valentine's day?" he asked.
She blushed and tossed a pillow at his face. "Shut up!"
"So that's a yes?" He'd barely removed the pillow before the second one came hurdling toward him as well. He laughed, assuming that it was indeed a yes. "Alright, I'm all ears."
Jirou had a good singing voice and she was good with a guitar. She looked nervous the entire time, avoided looking at him, and only barely managed to meet his gaze afterwards. "Well? What do you think?"
"Your song sucked."
Predictably, he got another pillow to the fact for comment.
"Don't just come out ad say that you jerk!" she scolded.
He couldn't help but laugh as he tossed the pillow back at her. "Your playing is great and your voice is amazing," he went on. "The lyrics are terrible, though. Everything sounded kinda... flat."
She made a frustrated noise and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not good at this romantic crap."
"Then don't be romantic," he told her.
"But what if she doesn't-" she stopped abruptly, biting her lip.
"If you tell me which she you're writing for, I might be able to tell you if she'll like it," he said
"Forget you heard that," she told him.
"I'll find out eventually anyway, if things go right."
"Get out. I have a song to write."
He laughed as he was pushed out the door.
It was ridiculous that he had homework to do for someone else's Valentine's Day. He spent the next few days looking over revisions of song lyrics and giving his opinions, while leaving little notes and demands of compensation.
'Name your first born after me.'
'What are you a witch?'
It was actually pretty fun. Maybe he should play match maker for the rest of the class, too.
'Can I be there when you perform?'
'What are you a stalker?'
He gave her a time and place.
It was interesting to watch things come together. Kaminari showed up early to give her a helpful pep talk, then moved out of sight while they waited for Momo and Mina to arrive. He smirked at the fact that he'd been right.
He watched her nervously play her song and watch for the reactions, watched Momo hesitating presenting her baked treats, then watched as Mina launched herself at them, wrapping them in a hug and jumping up and down repeatedly before remembering to hand them her own Valentine's Day tribute. They could generously be called cards, but they were elaborate enough that the words art project seemed more fitting.
Then Ashido caught sight of him and beamed widely, waving wildly. "Thank you, Kaminari!"
Jirou smiled, still wrapped in Mina embraced, and nodded her head in thanks.
Momo actually came over to him and handed him a box of handmand chocolates with the words, "Thank You" written in elaborate script. "Thank you so much for your helping us, Kaminari."
"No problem, Yaomomo. You guys deserve to be happy," he told her.
She smiled. "Maybe next time we can help you."
He blushed, blinking in surprise. "Y-you don't have to that!"
She laughed. "Well, if you change your Mina, I bet Ashido would be willing to help."
He silently agreed with her assessment. She went back to join the others and Kaminari left them alone. Even if he didn't have a Valentine, he was pretty happy with how this Valentine's Day had turned out.