Notes: Happy holidays! I wrote this fic for healing-hanyou on tumblr as part of the NDRV3 Winter Exchange! (This isn't V3-related though haha.) The prompts I used were Togahina and "something autumny."

Many thanks to my brother and his college friend for betaing this in a pinch haha.

Enjoy!

The Cornerstone of a Japanese Autumn

It all began for an admittedly juvenile reason. But it really wasn't her fault; Togami started it!

It was early September, and Class 78's first practical exams at Hope's Peak Academy were quickly approaching. For athletes like Asahina, the process would be incredibly straight-forward; just go out there and show those proctors what you do best! For others, though, displaying their talents would take a little more thought and preparation, so their homeroom teacher had given them several free periods each week to get ready. With their class quickly growing as close as it was, they naturally gathered together to brainstorm, which quickly devolved into gossip and speculation about other classes' presentations.

"Man, I wish we had culinary students in this class so we could taste what they're making for exams," Asahina groused, beginning to salivate at the mere thought of it. "Isn't there one in Class 77? So lucky..."

"Um, the Ultimate Cook, right?" Maizono fidgeted a bit in her seat. "I think I've met him. I, uh... wouldn't consider it luck to be in the same class as him..."

"Besides, who says he won't make enough for the whole school to try?" Kuwata grinned as he leaned back in his chair, feet propped up on his desk.

"Because it's against school regulations!" Ishimaru slammed a hand on a desk and stood up, pointing at Kuwata accusingly. "And sit properly!"

Grumbling, Kuwata returned his feet to the floor.

"What do you mean, against school regulations?" Enoshima asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Doesn't that perv make lunch for the whole school every day anyway? No one's had a problem with that before."

Kirigiri sighed. "The practical exams are a different story. After last year's incident, anything prepared for the proctors is being closely inspected. It would be a logistical nightmare to enact those precautions for all the students, too."

"Still...!" Asahina kicked her feet petulantly. "I wish I could taste what he's making! And it's almost autumn, too...!"

Togami peered over the book he was reading. "What does autumn have to do with anything?"

"Well, duh." Asahina rolled her eyes. "All the tastiest ingredients are in season this time of year. Autumn's the season of eating!"

"Ridiculous." Togami returned his attention back to his dumb super-intellectual book. "Such a plebeian manner of thinking. Autumn is the season for reading, not eating."

Asahina paused her feet mid-kick before lowering them back down to the floor. "What? No way. Autumn is for filling up on good foods!"

Togami scoffed. "Hardly. Reading is the cornerstone of a Japanese autumn. Fukawa, you tell her."

"R-reading is the cornerstone of a J-Japanese autumn!"

Now that just wasn't fair! One, because of course Fukawa would readily agree with him—she was a literary girl, and she had a huge crush on Togami. And two, because Asahina didn't even know what "cornerstone" meant! Using complicated words like that was just playing dirty! She was determined not to back down, though. "Nuh-uh, eating is the cornerstone of a Japanese autumn! And I can prove it, too!"

"Enlighten me."

Asahina pointed dramatically at the heir, grinning smugly. "It's 'cause autumn is also the season for sports, and how are you gonna get all those burned calories back by reading? You can't!"

"Stop arguing, you two!" Ishimaru commanded. "Eating, reading, and sports are all traditionally considered to be important facets of autumn in Japan! There's no reason to declare one to be more true than the other!"

"Bro, shush," Owada said, pulling the hall monitor back into his seat. "Let them duke it out. You gotta admit it's kinda funny!"

"Do you have no shame, brother?!"

Togami snapped his book shut with finality and stood up. "This is foolish. I'll be going elsewhere to prepare my presentation."

Asahina quickly moved to stand in his way. "Oh, yeah right! You weren't even doing that in the first place. You're just trying to run away because you know that you're wrong!"

Togami's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm wrong, you say?"

"Guys, stop this," Naegi spoke up, trying to defuse the situation. "Like Ishimaru-kun said, neither of you are wrong, so this argument is just—"

"Shut up Naegi!" the two shouted in unison.

"Asahina..." A heavy hand was placed on the swimmer's shoulder, and she looked up to see Sakura gazing down at her, gentle but stern. "Don't you think you're taking this a bit far? At the very least, there's no reason to snap at Naegi."

"Oh..." She looked over at the luckster guiltily—that really hadn't been fair of her, now that Sakura mentioned it. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, I guess that was getting kind of childish... right, Togami?" She turned her attention back to the heir—only to realize that he had disappeared. "Hey, where'd he go?!"

"He left," Ikusaba deadpanned.

"Ugh, that sore loser!" Asahina stamped her foot in annoyance. "Whatever! I'm definitely going to prove him wrong the next time I see him!"

The argument, however, took a backseat as the pressure of their looming practical exams continued to build; Asahina focused her energy on training with Sakura to make sure they were in top physical shape, and Togami was presumably off doing whatever stupid affluent progeny stuff he needed to do.

Eventually, the exams came and went, September melted into October, and by that point their disagreement had completely slipped from Asahina's mind.

That is, it slipped her mind until one afternoon in late October, when Asahina decided to burn off some excess energy by jogging around campus. After running a few laps between the eastern corner of campus and the Reserve Course gates, she looped through the central plaza one last time before heading south towards the student dormitories. As she jogged that last stretch, though, she caught sight of someone sitting on one of the benches lining the path: Byakuya Togami, the antisocial butthole, calmly relaxing with his nose stuck in a book.

Seeing the Ultimate Affluent Progeny reading a book, framed by the rusty autumn leaves, prompted the memory of their argument to come rushing back and Asahina slowed to a stop in front of him. "Hey," she said, trying to catch his attention.

He didn't respond, and simply turned a page in his book.

"I said hey!" she repeated, leaning in closer to make her point clear.

Sighing, Togami shot a withering look at her over the top of his glasses. "What do you want?" he asked, as if doing so pained him more than anything else in the world.

Asahina crossed her arms. "You're still convinced that reading is the ideal autumn activity, huh?"

"This again?" Togami rolled his eyes and returned his gaze to the book. "I don't have time for your foolishness. Leave me alone."

Not one to drop the subject, Asahina leaned over further to catch a glimpse of the book her classmate was so engrossed in. "Whoa, are you reading something in English?"

"It's Russian. How did you mistake Cyrillic for— never mind." With a sigh, Togami snapped the book shut. "Do you have no intention of leaving me alone?"

"Not really." Without bothering to ask permission, Asahina plopped herself down on the bench next to him. "Gosh, I can't even read something in Japanese if I'm feeling a little bit hungry. How can you concentrate on reading in another language without a belly full of food?"

"Don't make me out to be like that half-baked imitation of myself that enrolled last year," Togami huffed.

Well, at least there was some sort of baking going on with the other guy! she thought. "I just don't get how you can say that reading is more of an autumn activity than eating."

"Eating exorbitant amounts of food is a vulgar pastime, regardless of the season."

"Hey, you better apologize to all the hardworking farmers of Japan for what you just said!"

"Reading, on the other hand," Togami continued, ignoring her completely, "is a worthy intellectual pursuit. And there's nothing quite like indulging in a good book while sitting in the crisp autumn air, the colorful foliage offering an aesthetically pleasing backdrop."

Asahina felt like she was about to vomit from the long string of words that took too much brain power to understand. "Yeah, well... food tastes really good in autumn." Even as she said it, she knew it was far from a convincing argument, so she thought for another moment before perking up. "Hey, I have an idea!"

"I want no part of it."

"Oh, come on!" She grabbed Togami by the wrist, causing him to nearly lose his grip on his book. "It'll be fun, just come with me for a sec!"

Togami jerked his hand away, glaring darkly at her. "What in the world do you think you're doing?"

"It's a surprise!" Asahina grinned.

"Not interested."

"Oh come on, Togami!" She grabbed his arm again, this time making sure to use the best holding techniques Sakura had taught her so that he couldn't shake free. "Come on, we're just going to the edge of campus! It's not far!"

Sighing in defeat, Togami got to his feet and only barely managed to pack his book safely inside his bag before he was dragged down the path. "And where are we going, exactly?"

"Like I said, it's not far!"

"That's hardly specific."

"Oh, just chill out for a moment!" They passed the dormitories, coming in sight of the southern gates, and Asahina grinned when she spotted exactly what she was hoping to see. "There it is! Come on, Togami, you're gonna love this!"

She pushed open the gates to reveal food stalls and carts lining the street, hoping to attract the patronage of hungry Ultimates. She honed in on one stall in particular and pulled Togami over to where the savory smell of grilled sweet potatoes enveloped the street. "Here we are! Let's eat some sweet potatoes!"

Having finally been let free of Asahina's grip, Togami straightened his cuff indignantly. "Here? It hardly seems like a sanitary eating environment."

"That's part of the charm! Just give me a sec!" She pranced over to the stall and placed an order for two sweet potatoes, waiting impatiently as her stomach began to growl; she hadn't realized just how starved she was after her jog! As soon as the sweet potatoes were in her hands, she returned, pleased to see that Togami hadn't tried to escape in the meantime. "Okay, here you go!" she announced, handing him a foil-wrapped potato. "Enjoy!"

He glared in disgust at the foil, charred and darkened from the grill. "I'm meant to eat this?"

"No, that's foil." She unraveled the foil on her own potato as way of demonstration. "The food is inside of there."

"I'm fully aware of the function of aluminum foil."

"Good! Now let's eat!" Unable to bear the grumbling of her stomach anymore, Asahina peeled aside the purple skin and bit eagerly into her sweet potato, relishing the way its sweet flesh seemed to melt on her tongue. She hungrily took another bite, then another, then another…. Yeah, there was really nothing like eating a grilled sweet potato on a brisk autumn day!

She looked over at Togami, who seemed to have taken just a few tiny bites of his potato. "Wew?" she prodded. "Whayyou fink?"

"I think you should swallow your food before talking like a dignified human being."

"Ugh, you jerg!" Asahina swallowed her mouthful of potato and tried again. "So how does it taste?"

"I fail to see the allure."

"Oh, come on!"

He gave a long-suffering sigh. "I suppose it's somewhat decent."

"See?" she gloated. "And this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are soooo many good things to eat in autumn! It's definitely the season for eating!"

"I'm sorry to tell you that this isn't exactly the most convincing argument for your position." Togami shifted the potato in his hand boredly. "I require a more sophisticated dining experience, and this falls dreadfully short."

"Yeah, well not all of us are made of money like you," Asahina pouted. "You can't really expect me to do much better than food stalls, you know."

"I suppose you'll remain unable to convince me, then." He shrugged and handed his sweet potato back to Asahina. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have better things to be doing than stuffing my face with garbage."

As she watched Togami walk back to campus, Asahina continued chewing her potato, thoroughly miffed. If that stupid heir thought that was enough to make her give up, then he had another thing coming! She'd just have to be a little smarter about her approach the next time.

But hey, at least she got two potatoes out of it.

Asahina spent the rest of the night brainstorming, and by the next day, she had come up with another idea to get Togami to see things her way.

The only problem was that she couldn't seem to find him.

He hadn't shown up for class—though that wasn't so uncommon. Togami would often declare his own self-studies to be more beneficial than sitting through lectures tailored for the rest of his classmates. Once class was dismissed, Asahina checked various locations inside the school before moving outside to search the benches around campus, to no avail.

It seemed like he was nowhere to be found... but Asahina wasn't to be deterred. He was just trying to hide from the inevitable! And that was all the more reason to locate him!

Then she checked the library, and she felt a bit silly, because of course that would be where he was.

"Found you!" she exclaimed, jumping out at him from around a shelf.

"Do you mind?" he hissed under his breath, while trying to pretend that he hadn't started in surprise—but he did; Asahina saw it with her own two eyes! "This is a library."

"Yeah, obviously."

His glare hardened. "So be quiet."

Ohhh yeah... she was talking a bit loud. "I was looking all over for you!" she continued in a whisper. "You're so afraid of being proven wrong that you felt the need to hide from me, huh?"

"If I had been trying to hide, I assure you I would have chosen a less obvious place," Togami deadpanned, pulling a book from the shelf and inspecting it with muted interest. "I'd hardly consider the library to be an unexpected place to find me."

Asahina chose not to mention that she had actually checked the pool, the training room, the rec room, and a dozen other places more in line with her own interests before even thinking of the library.

"Well, whatever, at least I found you now!" She grabbed on to the sleeve of his blazer and pulled, prompting him to roll his eyes and return the book to the shelf. "Come on! I found a place that will definitely change your mind about the true autumn pastime!"

"Let go," Togami said, jerking his sleeve from her grasp. "I have no obligation, nor desire, to accompany you."

"Aha, I knew it! You're trying to run!"

"Why would I run from such an inane argument—" He cut himself off, turning his focus somewhere over Asahina's shoulder. Curious, she turned and followed his gaze to see a figure idling around the corner of the far shelf, and she could just barely make out the hem of a skirt and a long, dark braid.

Togami pulled his mouth into a hard, thin line. "I'm getting out of here," he said, turning and heading quickly but quietly towards the door.

"Oh, hey!" Asahina jogged after him. "Come with me then! I found a coupon, so I'll treat you to some pumpkin croquettes."

Togami breathed a deep, agonizing sigh. "Fine. I don't care. Just as long as we're out of here."

Grinning, Asahina grabbed his arm again and all but dragged him down the flights of stairs, through the school gates, and into town.

Crisp, golden-brown panko bread crumbs coated the croquettes, almost seeming to glitter in the restaurant lighting. Fresh out of the fryer, the hot oil still crackled slightly between the tiny nooks and crannies. Asahina felt herself begin to salivate as soon as the server set the plate in front of them, and her fingers itched to grab her chopsticks and dig in immediately. But no, it would be best to let Togami take the first taste—after all, Asahina wasn't the one that needed convincing!

Unfortunately, Togami's response wasn't to start eating, but to glare down at the croquettes with open distaste. "What are these?" he demanded.

"Like I said, pumpkin croquettes!" Asahina pointed at them with her chopsticks, eager to start eating. "Go ahead! They're really good!"

Togami arched an eyebrow. "Aren't croquettes those fried amalgamations of whatever low-quality ingredients commoners can cobble together? And you thought to feed them to me?"

Rude! Rude rude rude! Asahina gripped her chopsticks tightly, trying to keep her cool. "These are pumpkin croquettes, though," she explained through gritted teeth. "They're different. They're... they're made of pumpkin."

A pause. "I see."

Nailed it.

"W-well, come on," Asahina said. "Just try one. They're gonna get cold!"

"Help yourself," Togami responded. "I, however, will pass."

"But I'm treating you! This is my money going to waste here!"

"Exactly—I have no financial stake in the matter, so I lose nothing by refraining from consuming deep-fried garbage."

The chopsticks were beginning to splinter in Asahina's grip, so she instead channeled her frustration into grabbing a croquette and taking a big bite. "Fine then!" she countered after swallowing, not even taking the time to relish in the nutty, slightly sweet flavor of the pumpkin. "I'm just gonna enjoy these by myself!"

Togami nodded decisively. "Next time, you'd do well to choose a dish more suited to my palate."

Asahina peered at him curiously as she chewed another croquette. "'Next time,' huh?"

The heir said nothing and, save for a slight downturn of his lips, gave no indication that he felt he had slipped up.

"Well, okay," she relented. "Next time, I'll choose something that even Mr. High-and-Mighty Togami will want to eat. Except maybe he'll have to chip in some cash, too, if he's gonna be so picky about eating only the best of the best, yeah?"

He scoffed. "You've chosen to take on this ridiculous challenge on your own dime. I'm nothing but an unwilling participant."

"I think you know by now that I hate to lose." Asahina grinned. "If you're so sure you'll be so hard to break, the least you could do is make sure your dear classmate doesn't drive herself to bankruptcy over it."

Togami gave a huff of derisive laughter. "Your negotiation methods are far from impressive, you realize."

She shrugged. "Yup, I'm fully aware that my brain's just pure muscle at this point. Can't fault a girl for trying, though."

They fell into a long silence, Asahina steadily making her way through the plate of croquettes as Togami watched, arms folded across his chest.

When there was just one croquette left on the plate, though, she was surprised to see Togami take up his own chopsticks and snatch the last piece, begrudgingly placing it in his mouth and slowly chewing, as if nothing could inconvenience him more.

In the end, he even paid half the tab.

Over the following weeks, somehow, they fell into a routine of sampling various seasonal cuisines every other day or so. Asahina would scour food blogs and imageboard threads for the best places to go, then drag Togami to pig out on shinmai, or salt-grilled saury, or matsutake mushroom soup. Or the limited edition chestnut doughnuts at Asahina's favorite bakery—they made that trip several times. He would complain about it at any given opportunity but, to his credit, he wordlessly took on the financial burden of their outings.

Asahina hadn't given the arrangement much thought beyond "hanging out with Togami until he admits defeat," because that's really all it ever was. Seriously.

That's what she thought, at least, until she parted ways with Togami one day outside a sweets bar boasting a special autumn selection of apple, pear, and persimmon-flavored pastries.

"Aoi-chan!"

After waving off the heir, Asahina turned around to see she was being flagged down by some girls across the street—Yuka, Sana, and Kazumi, classmates from her old high school. "Oh, hey!" she greeted back cheerfully, dashing across the crosswalk as soon as the light turned. "Long time no see, guys! What's going on with you?"

"Nothing really," said her friend Yuka absently, her gaze focused over Asahina's shoulder for a moment before returning to the conversation. "I mean, I'm sure nothing going on at Asunaro could compare to Hope's Peak, you know?"

"Come on," Asahina laughed. "It's not really that big of a deal..."

"Oh, let's quit beating around the bush!" Kazumi cut in forcefully. "Aoi-chan, was that your boyfriend just now?"

Asahina was genuinely puzzled. "Boyfriend? Who are you talk—" She put the pieces together a bit too slowly than she should have, and burst out laughing. "Him, my boyfriend? Oh no way! Togami's such a jerk, not dateable at all!"

To her surprise, that sent the girls into even more of a titter. "Togami? You mean Byakuya Togami?"

"The Ultimate Affluent Progeny? That's him?!"

"Aoi-chan, you're dating him?! He must be such a gentleman, you're so lucky...!"

"No, wait," Asahina tried to quiet them down. "I just said I'm not dating him, didn't I? As if I'd even want to! He's got the worst personality. Definitely not a gentleman."

"Really?" Yuka leaned around Asahina's shoulder again to catch a last glimpse of Togami's retreating back. "That's a bummer. He looked pretty hot to me."

"Hot?" Asahina's scrunched her nose up. "No way. With his dumb blond hair and dumb blue eyes and dumb height..." Wait, those were all considered attractive traits, weren't they? She felt her cheeks grow warm. "...Okay, maybe he's a little cute," she conceded.

"See?" her friends chorused.

Sana poked her shoulder playfully. "You're spending time alone with such a cute guy, and you say you don't even want it to be a date?"

"Really guys, it's not like that," she assured them. "We're just trying to settle an argument, so we're going out and eating a bunch of food together. There's nothing date-y about it."

Her friends were silent as they took in that information.

Finally, Kazumi broke the spell. "Sounds like a date to me," she said.

"It's not!" Asahina sighed. "But anyway, forget about that! I wanna hear what's going on at Asunaro!"

The girls mercifully went along with the change in subject, and they spent a good fifteen minutes chatting as they walked before they finally had to part ways at the Hope Peak's gates.

But left to her own thoughts again, Asahina felt her heart beating hard against her ribcage and a quick glance in the central fountain on campus confirmed that her face was growing awfully red.

Because now that she thought about it, her outings with Togami did pretty much fit the definition of a date.

On their next trip for lunch, Asahina was a nervous wreck.

But could anyone really blame her?! She'd never been on a date before, so how was she supposed to know if that's what it was or not? If it was a date, how was she supposed to act?

Did she even want it to be date? After all, Togami was... Togami. He was a total jerk! It wasn't even any fun to hang out with him!

Well, okay, maybe it was kind of fun... but still.

She managed to fumble through lunch in a haze, and after stopping off at a coffeehouse for some warm drinks, they made their way back to campus for afternoon classes.

As they walked along the path lined with benches, Asahina was reminded of the first time she had forced Togami to partake in the tastes of autumn. "Hey," she said finally. "Did I manage to convince you at all?"

Togami scoffed. "About autumn being a season for exorbitant eating? No, I can't say I find the idea any more appealing now than I did before."

"Yeah, I figured!" she laughed, then took a sip of her maple latte, pondering. "But you haven't tried to convince me that reading is the preferred autumn activity, either."

"That's because it makes no difference to me that you're wrong."

"Man, that's harsh!" Asahina finished off her latte before stopping in her tracks, right in front of a bench. "But hey, I'm willing to give it a try. Wanna read here for a bit?"

Togami turned towards her, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Read? You?"

"I'm not illiterate, you know!" She sat herself down on the bench with a huff, then held out a hand. "So come on, gimme a book to read. You keep going on about how it's so much better than attending classes anyway, right?"

Rolling his eyes, Togami sat down beside her. "Do you really expect that I'd be carrying around a selection of books?"

"Are you?"

Togami frowned, then opened his bookbag and dug around inside, quickly extracting a small paperback. "This is probably the only one that comes close to your reading level."

"Thanks!" Finding herself to be strangely excited, Asahina accepted the book, cracked it open, and flipped to the first page.

She was immediately bored.

What in the world was Togami even reading? All the words were so long... but she had resolved to try, so she powered on, even though she didn't understand most of what was written on the page. It was pretty nice to be sitting there in the open autumn air though—Togami was at least right about that—and with her belly full and her body warm from good food, she was quite content. Even as the text seemed to swim in front of her eyes, she slowly made her way to the second page.

Asahina blinked, and suddenly the sunlight had turned from the bright gray of midday to a honey-gold glow. Her hands that had been holding the book just moments before were empty, and Togami was gone from her side.

...Whoops. She must have fallen asleep while trying to read. And Togami had just up and left her there, the butt.

But at least she could say with certainty that reading was not the cornerstone of a Japanese autumn.

Sighing in irritation, she stood up to stretch her limbs, but the soft fwump of something hitting the ground caught her attention, and upon looking down at her feet, she saw a crumpled pile of brown fabric.

She picked it up and recognized it instantly as a Hope's Peak Academy blazer. Not only that, it smelled distinctly of Togami's cologne—a scent that she hadn't even known she'd be able to identify.

Asahina flushed. Come to think of it, she didn't feel as cold as she should have after being left asleep in the chilly November air...

Huh. Well, maybe Togami was kind of a gentleman sometimes, after all.