Mondo Oowada had been looking for Leon when he ran into Mikan Tsumiki.
She was cleaning something up off the floor – blood, Mondo guessed, but he couldn't be totally sure – and he didn't see her before he nearly tripped over her, landing hard on his elbows and knocking her over as well. He swore. She shrieked. Then they looked at each other, her eyes wide and his face growing hot.
She was a lot cuter than he'd ever noticed before. "S-sorry!" Mondo said, jumping up. She looked at him, a little confused, and he swallowed. Now that he was in this situation, he really didn't know what to do. She was still on the floor, her skirt riding up a little too high to keep him from looking and arms splayed out in front of her, a look of surprise on her face.
"I tripped you!" she said. Mondo opened his mouth, not sure if he could trust himself to say something without screaming at her or saying something weird and not sure if he could help himself from doing so even if he decided not to talk.
"Pull down your skirt!" was the only thing Mondo could think to say. It ended up coming out a little more command-like than he'd intended, but she just gasped and sat up, pulling down her skirt.
"Oh, no, I'm so sorry, this always happens it's so embarrassing, I'm sorry," she was blabbering.
"It's fine," Mondo said. He bared his teeth in what he hoped was a friendly grin, but with the way he was sweating and how stiff his face felt, it probably looked a lot more sinister than that. "I wasn't looking where I was going!"
And there was the yelling again.
She looked up at him, uncomprehending, mouth still open a little. He swallowed and glanced at the clock for lack of a better thing to do. They could go get some dinner. He could do that much for knocking into her, right? And there was the fact that she was one of those really cute girls, too.
Which would most definitely end up working against him, but if he didn't keep trying, he'd never get a girlfriend.
"Come get food – ah, fuck, let's go eat!" Mondo said, stuttering a little and trying to make it sound like he wasn't trying to force her to come eat with him. It didn't work very well, but 'let's go eat' sounded a hell of a lot better than 'come get food.'
She just sort of looked at him, and he wondered if he should help her up. He must have spent too long wondering about it, though, because she got up on her own. She was kind of crying a little bit. He should help her with that? He dug around in his pockets until he found a probably-not-used Kleenex and shoved it into her hands.
"To wipe off your face," he said, voice not as loud as it usually was but still gruff. He glanced to the side as his face grew hot, wondering if this was actually a good idea. Probably not, but it was happening anyway.
After a few moments, she was pushing the Kleenex back to him. "I don't need it back!" he snapped, then swallowed. Oops. She looked a bit shocked, but put the Kleenex in her pocket. "Sorry! Fuck, I mean, just - just throw it away or something!"
"It was a gift."
"It's a Kleenex."
It was silent the rest of the way to the cafeteria. There were a few people there for an early dinner – Leon was there, that bastard, he was trying and failing to impress Sayaka Maizono while Chihiro looked on, giggling a little.
"What do you want?" Mondo asked, and apparently this wasn't as rough, because she looked more nervous and less terrified this time.
"I'll get the food."
"No just- sit down," Mondo said. She sent him another one of those looks that might be nervous or terrified and sat down. She was a nurse, right? So, she'd like healthy food, right? He didn't know. He'd just grab whatever and then come back, and hopefully she wouldn't have left by then. "Stay here!"
That was a little bit louder than he'd intended, but those outbursts seemed to be slowing down. He'd go get the food now, and then he'd come back and they would have a nice dinner that wouldn't end in tears or someone storming away.
He still wasn't sure what she wanted, so he just got a bunch of vegetables and stuff. Girls liked salads, right? And… water? Salad and water? That seemed boring. He added some meat, hesitated, put it on his plate, and added some fruit. She was a nurse, and a girl, so… ah, fuck it, if she didn't want any meat, he'd just eat it. He'd put the meat back on her plate.
He focused all of his attention on not tripping and spilling everything over. He ignored Leon giving him a thumbs-up and a wink, no matter how much he wanted to go and smash his face into his plate and see how Maizono liked him then or at least flip him off, but he concentrated on getting back to the table.
Tsumiki was in the exact same position she'd been in when he'd left. He put her plate down in front of her and, suddenly embarrassed, tried to explain himself. "I, uh, didn't really know what you wanted…" he said, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his eyes. "So if you don't like something-"
"It looks good!" she said, then clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh no, I interrupted you, I'm so sorry!"
"No, it's fine!"
She reached out to him and caught off-balance, catching herself on his thigh. He went bright red. She started apologizing and backed up, shaking a little and tears squeezing their way out of her eyes. She pulled the Kleenex out of her pocket and dabbed at her eyes and her tears turned into giggles.
"What?" he asked, feeling a little defensive. Was she laughing at him? She had to be, right? What else was she laughing at? This was a bad idea.
"It's just a good thing I didn't throw away this, that's all!" she said. He stared at her for a few seconds, then snorted.
"Okay," he said, then glanced at his food. Maybe this wasn't going to turn out so horribly after all.
This was a request by someone on Tumblr, who wanted a Tsumondo! It's an entertaining ship to write, that's for sure!