Mina was used to doing whatever she wanted. She acted however she wanted, said how she felt, teased anyone within a shouting range, and never let anyone get her down. She couldn't cook to save her life, left her clothes all over the place, lost anything that she set down for longer than ten minutes, and wasn't afraid to shove all her junk into a closet and call it cleaning. Mina wasn't good at taking care of herself, in a certain sense. She wasn't convinced that she needed to, at least not in any way that significantly differed to her normal habits.
That was not, strictly speaking, the truth. Cooking could be useful when you didn't burn down everything you touched, cleaning really did improve the room you had to move around and skyrocketed the chances of actually finding the things you were looking for. There were merits to conforming to societies standards of living. Just like there were merits to being lazy and comfortable in your own home.
Momo was entirely the opposite of her. She was neat and tidy, absolutely organized, and cooked like a god of competence had blessed her with a basic set of skills that Mina woefully lacked. (Such as effective measuring and following directions as they were written.)
Anytime Momo walked through the door she was working. The girl just couldn't seem to help it. Over the course of a visit she would end up tidying Mina's place, seemingly by accident! She pick up things and moved them out of the way or to a more appropriate location if she happened to pass by. She took dishes to the kitchen, put Mina's house keys in the same place, and subtly pushed clothes loser to her bedroom.
Sometimes Momo would make tea. That could subtly ease into her making dinner, which could sometimes transitioned to cleaning up the kitchen as a whole. Mina had learned to go shopping a lot more often if Momo was coming over to visit, since it was easier to get a meal if there were actually things that could be cooked in her kitchen. Mina didn't sit back and let Momo do all the cleaning either. She helped with the dishes and whatever else if she saw Momo starting on them.
Mina was no longer certain that she would ever clean up if it wasn't for Momo's visits prompting her to do so.
Mina was not used to taking care of herself and even when she did, she couldn't take care of herself as well as Momo took care of her. In her attempts to return the favor, Mina learned that Momo was really not used to being taken care of.
Mina wasn't good at domestic stuff. It was boring and she had exactly no interest in improving in those areas, if she were being honest. What she did like, and was pretty good at, was hero work, shopping, chatting, going out; doing fun stuff essentially. She dragged Momo out to have fun as often or more than Momo came over to save Mina from herself, dancing or drinking or shopping or hanging with their friends, ideally as many of those things at once as could be arranged.
Momo was terrible at accepting gifts without saying that "she shouldn't have" half a dozen times beforehand, and you had to ask her questions like "how was your day?" or "how are you?" just as often if you wanted to get an answer that didn't mean "don't worry about me" in triple the necessary words. Momo was stressed out a lot and she wasn't very good at relaxing, which was why Mina did her best to try and make her relax.
"You're running yourself into the ground, Momo," Mina told her one day. It was one of those days where she'd done absolutely everything. She did hero work in the morning, did a favor for one of her colleagues, and then had the nerve to cook and clean at Mina's place in the evening. It was a little impossible to make her stop once she got going, even when she looked like she would actually fall over.
"I don't know how to stop," Momo admitted. "When there's work to be done, I just end up doing it."
"It's not your work," Mina told her.
"Someone has to do it."
"It doesn't have to be you." Mina sighed, hands resting on her hips as she looked the other woman over. Momo had a light shadows under her eyes, she looked exhausted and pale, she'd definitely been working herself way too much. "You have to relax."
"I don't... know how to relax," Momo said. Her hands were in her lap, moving restlessly, and her eyes were on the floor.
"What if," Mina paused as the thought began forming in her mind, only continuing aloud when Momo's expectant gaze fell on her, "What if I helped you?"
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Helped how?"
"I could blindfold you," Mina said. "Then you wouldn't have to see all the things that you want to do. You could just sit and relax. We could talk."
"Do you really think something like that could work?" Momo asked her.
"It could." Such a thing would never work on Mina, who was hyper as a default and hated sitting still for too long. Momo was a different case though. "You won't know unless you try."
Momo seemed to think it over for a moment. "I guess we can try."
Momo used her quirk to create a thick blindfold and handed it off to Mina. Mina placed it over Momo's eyes and tied it around the back of her head. She stepped back and checked her over. "How do you feel?"
"I'm not sure," Momo answered slowly. "I can't see what I should be doing, but I feel... restless?"
Mina could tell. Momo's hand were still fidgeting in her lap, clenching and unclenching, fingers twining with one another. It was obvious she was having a hard time sitting still.
"Should we stop you from moving?"
Momo paused, but Mina couldn't tell if it was from thought or trepidation. Mina found that it made her pay more attention to Momo's body language. She took note of the woman's stiffness, her rigid posture, and wondered if this was how Momo always sat. She suddenly felt very unobservant.
"How so?" She questioned.
"I could tie your hands?" Mina offered. It was partially a joke, but only partially. Part of Mina thought that it really would help.
"Alright," Momo agreed. She created a similar tie to her blindfold, thick but soft, easy to handle and tie. Mina wondered what type of material it was, but she didn't ask. The last thing Momo needed was a prompt to start thinking if she'd finally found reason to stop. It was silent for a while. Momo bit her lip. "Um..."
"Yes?"
"You said we would... talk?"
"Oh! Right!" Mina exclaimed. This wouldn't be a very good plan if she didn't say something to distract her. "Let me tell you about what happened at the agency today."
They ended up talking for an hour. Mina watched Momo as she slowly relaxed. Her posture slacked slightly, she added more of her own thoughts and opinions to the conversation, and Mina was surprised to see how well her plan was working out. Before she left
Momo asked her, "Could we... do this again? The... blindfolding?"
"Sure. If it helps," Mina replied.
Momo smiled. "It really does."
That was how they ended up where they were now. Momo standing over a table creating rope and soft ties while Mina created a small nest of pillows on the floor. Mina wasn't used to taking care of people and Momo wasn't used to being taken care, but they had slowly slipped into these roles and found themselves surprising comfortable in them. They didn't do this all the time and they didn't have a scheduel, just whenever Momo needed it (or Mina thought that Momo needed it and she agreed) and Mina had the time to spare, they would end up falling into their roles.
"Are you ready?" Mina asked.
"Yeah," Momo answered. She moved to the center of the pillow nest and made herself comfortable. Mina brought the necessary supplies over to her.
The blindfold was first. They had found, through a loose process of trial and error, that routine could help in calming Momo's mind. Block out sight first so that she couldn't see everything that needed to be done or things that could make her think of something that she could be doing. Mina tied it comfortable, but tight.
"Good?" Mina asked.
"Good," Momo answered.
The rope came next. It had been an embarrassing conversation on Momo's part and an intriguing one for Mina, when the idea of more restriction had come up. Something to make Momo feel like she couldn't move so that she stopped feeling like she had to. It took the idea off the table if she was too physically restricted to do so. It took control away from her, which was something that helped her actually relax. At least, that was how she had explained it to Mina. It seemed reasonable enough. As reasonable as Mina feeling warm and happy at the idea of tying someone up and taking responsibility for another person, even if only for a few hours.
Mina had spent hours looking up different ways to tie someone up, sometimes with Momo and sometimes alone. It was a little embarrassing, but not quite as embarrassing as it was to try these out and find one that was the right type of comfortable for Momo. After all the trial and error it took to get to this point, Mina was pretty good at arranging the ropes around Momo's body, crisscrossing them around Momo's body until she was completely bound.
Mina slipped a finger under the rope at various places, checking that there was enough room for movement and breathing. "Comfortable?" Mina asked softly. Speaking softly could help to ease the tension out of Momo, making her feel more ready to relax.
"Yes," Momo sighed softly in return.
"Good." Mina gently laid Momo down on the pillow nest, watching as Momo wiggled a bit to get comfortable. The silence would make her restless after a while, so Mina put on soft background music.
It was weird. She was doing this for Momo, but it made her relax a bit too. It made her focus. A smile came to her lips as she watched Momo sinking into the relation of her position. Mina knew that that could never be her. She could never find something like that to be soothing, but there was something very enchanting about the other side of. In these moments, Mina thought she understood why Momo did so much for other people all the time, if it made her feel like this. Taking care of Momo was something that she found herself liking and she wondered if that was why Momo always took care of her.
