I'm so glad to see that so many people enjoyed my story! I put a new teaser at the end of the first chapter asking if another one is something that anyone is interested in. Now we're here and I'm excited to keep on writing. Also, for Mineta's height, I'll say that he is just as tall as Tokoyami (so 5'2). For comparison, Yaoyorozu is 5'7.
Chapter Two: Exams and Other Complications
Hearing the alarm clock going off in the morning would normally make Mineta groan. He always hated mornings, with the sun shining outside and having to accept the tasks for the day. He preferred the night, when he could finally cut loose with video games or risqué chatrooms about the female heroes. This morning was different however, as he was actually already up before the alarm went off. He was spuriously flipping through his notes and trying to absorb as much as he could before the exam in a few hours. When the alarm did go off, he let out a shout and threw a sticky ball at it, making it topple over and stick to the floor. Once the adrenaline surge wore off, he out an exasperated sigh and slowly walked over to turn it off. He already knew this was going to be a long day. As he looked around, he realized this would be a good time for a shower. Nah, everyone else will be there, I'll just keep on studying. However, his glance around his room made him think about last night. Seeing the multiple figurines of Mt. Lady, Midnight, and Ryukyu made him pause. Additionally the only posters he had were of those heroes, although these drawings were from independent illustrators, and much more peculiar. He sighed to himself as the words of Yaoyorozu echoed through his head. Maybe I'll give these to Kaminari later, hope he doesn't think I'm about to do something reckless.
He turned away and went back to his notes, not noticing the time slipping by. The study session yesterday was a big help; and he felt like all of the subjects were so much easier to grasp. He chuckled dryly as he thought about how much more he could learn if he didn't spend all his time thinking about girls. Once he was wrapping up the last section, he heard a surprising knock at the door. "Um, Mineta, I hope you're awake. The exam is going to start in 30 minutes," said Yaoyorozu in a soft, yet urgent voice. He practically knocked her over as he threw open the door and rushed to the communal showers, while yelling a thanks over his shoulder.
The shower was practically him putting hot water on his body but he would be clean enough to not turn any heads. The second he was done he grabbed a towel and sprinted back to his room. He would have blushed profusely seeing how Yaoyorozu was waiting outside of his room, still there to make sure he was coming. Please don't see any of the girls, please don't… He silently begged as he got back in his room and sloppily put his uniform on. He honestly looked like Bakugo with how crumpled his attire was. It didn't matter though as he grabbed his notes, stuffed them in his backpack, and ran out the door again. Despite the head start, she was easily able to catch back up with him. Unfortunately, his façade of determination to make it to class on time was slightly shattered by her warm smile aimed at him. He quickly looked back to the path he was on and kept running. Eventually they both made it to the classroom, panting loudly as they took their seats. A few suspicious glances were cast at the pair, but everyone eventually went back to looking at their notes or reviewing amongst themselves. He sighed in relief as he took his notes out for one last look. The test was going to start in seven minutes, but knowing Aizawa it would be closer to ten. Despite his best efforts, he would find his gaze slowly shift from his paper to his classmate. He used to think that having her sit next to him was a blessing, but now it felt like a curse.
He didn't know why she spent so much time studying, as she intensely looked at her notes. She was already the smartest person in the class but maybe it was that diligence that got her to that spot. Jeez, the brains and the looks, nobody holds a ca- Mineta immediately stopped this train of thought with a shake of his head. No, no, no, we don't think that way anymore. Despite this, it was hard to not think of her. After all, she's now closer to him than almost everyone else he knew here. Great, she has the personality too, just my luck. These nagging thoughts were distracting him from reading any of his notes. Even more unfortunately, she noticed this too, "Mineta, do you need to look at my notes?" She had seen his eyes occasionally shift to her, but didn't want to assume the worst. He was different today – quieter, more reserved, and almost fearful of looking at anyone.
Hearing her voice snapped him out of his trance, "S-Sure Yaoyorozu, thank you very much." He gingerly reached out to take her notes, moving somewhat faster than a snail. She let out a small chuckle at his expense. He was normally so bold around her, so seeing him so skittish was an enjoyable change of pace. Mineta looked at the notes awestruck. Everything was perfectly detailed, organized, and summarized. He could learn everything he needed to know about a topic by just the smallest of notes she made. No wonder why she's the smartest, this is incredible. Luckily, he was able to skim over all of it before Aizawa burst through the door, still in his sleeping bag.
He managed to throw the exams onto his desk, then exclaim, "Here's your stuff, don't cheat." Then he slumped over and promptly went back to sleep. The first to grab an exam was Bakugo, who somehow managed to be angry while grabbing a piece of paper. Iida was next, not wanting the ruffian to set a bad example for everyone else. Then everyone else trickled forward to get their paper. While waiting in line, Mineta noticed the glares from Mina and Jiro, which made him look at his shoes. He knew that, after the exam, there was going to be a long talk directed at him. He noticed that he was breezing through the exam. Thanks to the previous night, this morning, and Yaoyorozu's notes, this exam was a piece of cake. Again, his trip up to Aizawa's desk was met with daggers from most of the girls – even Hagakure was aimed as his direction, with arms seemingly folded. This is gonna be a nightmare. Even worse, he saw Yaoyorozu's smiling face as he went to sit back down, being oblivious to it all.
He decided to make it easier on everyone by simply waiting at his chair until everyone was finished. Once people started to trickle out, he could feel his stomach turning. He didn't know how this would all go down, but it was not going to be a simple affair. He sat and stared aimlessly until the chair in front of him was yanked out and Mina now appeared in in. Jiro, Tsuyu, and Hagakure were standing along the wall next to him, all while Yaoyorozu stayed in her seat, visibly confused.
Mina was the first to speak. "So what's the deal? Why are you and Yaomomo all buddy-buddy now?" she said with an unusually angry look. Those black eyes seemed even darker, with the gold making her look like a cat finding a mouse.
"We just, uh, got to know each other…" he replied while bumbling his words. These was two instances where being a bad liar is getting him in trouble.
Mina scoffed, "Bullshit, there's no way she'd be willingly hanging around you." She thought to herself that she was being a little too mean, but it felt good getting these feelings off her chest. She never got a chance to tell Mineta what she really thought of him.
However, Hagakure stepped forward. "That's a little harsh, maybe they really did have a nice talk," she said quietly. She had few warm feelings for the purple boy, but also didn't have the experiences with him that the other girls had.
Mineta was about to speak out but Yaoyorozu put a hand on his shoulder. "I know this is hard to believe but Mineta and I had a very informational talk. I believe he has something he wants to say to all of you too." She gave him another warm smile; and it was just the boost he needed to get the right words out.
"Look everyone, I know that I have treated you all horribly…" He looked around to each of the ones there, all victims to his perversions. "Tsuyu, I'm sorry for… touching you during the USJ incident, I'm glad you tried to drown me afterwards," he said with a humorless chuckle. "And for you all I'm sorry about the cheerleading trick I played on you, as well as the peephole I made in the locker room. I just… I thought the other guys would respect me more if I did things like that, maybe Kirishima would call me manly for it," he said this all with another dry chuckle. Hearing the words coming from his own mouth made him sound so utterly pathetic that he worried he would break down again. Surveying the room, he saw that everyone had a slightly softer face after his apology, but Mina and Jiro were fighting it.
Jiro, still having not said a word, walked over to Yaoyorozu and grabbed her arm – pulling her outside the classroom. Mina still had daggers coming from her eyes, but they were a bit duller now. "Do you really think some sob story is going to make things better? What you did should have gotten you kicked out. In fact, it was only Tsu who convinced us to keep you in." Mineta looked to the quiet frog girl, who was leaning against the wall and still observing everything.
"If you hadn't tried to stop those villains at the USJ then I would have wanted you gone. But you proved yourself to not be a total coward, so I figured you could stick around," she plainly said. She found it hard to hate him, because he was just so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, she had forgotten about his grabbing. Her near-death incident with Shigaraki made her repress most memories of that terrible day.
Mineta had a small smile after hearing that, but was also terrified knowing how close he was to being kicked out. Mina groaned at this sappy interaction. "If you actually are trying to be a better person then I'll be more than happy to help you," she surprisingly said. Then she reached out with her hand almost touching his face; and he could see the acid slowly beginning to form on her palm. "However, if you're lying and this is all an act to get us to lower our guards," she paused with an evil smile forming, "I'll melt your skull, then the rest of your body; and no one will ever find out, got it?"
He was as pale as a ghost hearing the death threat. The way she had her hand out was eerily similar to how Shigaraki used his own quirk. Nevertheless, the message was crystal clear to him, "Y-y-you g-got it M-Mina." He could barely speak after hearing such a terrifying message. Then the strangest thing happened as she grabbed his tie and pulled him close, and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
"Good! I'd hate to have to melt a fellow hero in training!" She then got up and went to leave the room with Hagakure following after her, "Take care Mineta! And remember, vat of acid!" Mina said while giving him a playful smirk as they then both left. Once the door closed, Mineta let out a massive sigh and gasped for air. He had be unintentionally holding his breath the entire time Mina was talking about killing him, and they sudden kiss left him even more breathless. Tsuyu giggled at his flabbergasted expression as he laid his head on his desk.
"I think that went better than expected, ribbit," she said while walking over to the seat Mina was just in. She held out her hand to rub his back, but paused for a bit, having it just hover over him. Mina's words of caution rang out in her head, but she figured she could just tongue smack him if he acted up. She placed the large hand on his back and moved in slow circles.
"Thanks Tsuyu, I didn't mean to bring up a painful memory," he murmured while his body was still face-down over the desk.
She smiled at this kind notion, wondering if it truly was possible for Mineta to become a better person. It surely had to be possible; and she wanted to be there to support him. She moved her hand to the back of his head and gently pulled him up to look at her. She noticed that his eyes weren't entirely black. There was a faint shade of purple mixed in there, just like how her own eyes had a dark, forest green mixed within. Someone would have to be very close to notice though, just like with him. She figured it was her time to be dramatic now. "Mineta, I think Mina missed a spot," and before he could even react, she leaned in quickly to put a kiss on the other cheek. At this point Mineta's brain was becoming fried. He was getting what he used to always want, but at this very moment all he felt was shock. She let out another giggle before walking to the door and, just like Mina, she had something to call out. "Mineta, you can call me Tsu." She then shut the door, leaving him in total disbelief.
Tsuyu skipped down the halls with a smile, glad to have known her classmate was hopefully on the right track after everything that just happened. She happened to see Jiro and Yaomomo in a particularly heated conversation, and started walking towards them. "Look, you've told me already that he's changed but this is Mineta we're talking about! You really think a guy like him changes overnight? You think one conversation makes him a completely different person?" Jiro exclaimed with fraying nerves. She figured her best friend was under some kind of brainwashing for how stalwart she was defending the perverted purple blob.
"I know that Mineta has troubled us all in the past but I believe his change is genuine, despite how hard that is to believe." She knew where Jiro was coming from, after all, she would never have believed she'd be defending him one day. She also knew these wouldn't be easy – trying to convince people that he's different not – but she never backed down from a challenge. She placed a calm hand on Jiro's shoulder and stated, "I'm not asking you to forgive him for everything that he's done to us, and I believe his actions will have to do that as well as his words. I just want you to keep an open mind about him changing. If he doesn't receive and positive support then he'll slip back into the old Mineta, and we don't want that, do we?"
Jiro shrugged and rolled her eyes. She knew Yaomomo was right, but being nice to Mineta was less preferable than a lot of other nasty things she could think of. However, if her best friend was willing to give him a second chance, despite having the most amount of awful encounters, then she figured she could too. She looked at Yaoyorozu with a hard stare, "If he does anything bad again then these jacks are going all the way through his eye next time." Yaoyorozu simply nodded, understanding that Mineta would need a severe punishment if this all turned out to be a ploy. With that, Jiro gave her a quick hug and caught up with Tsuyu as they both went back to the dorms. Yaoyorozu circled back to the classroom to find Mineta alone in the room, slowly getting his stuff in his backpack, clearly fazed by something.
She knocked on the open door to get his attention, "Those girls didn't give you too much of a hard time, did they?" She asked while entering. Upon closer inspection, she noticed he was trembling slightly. However, when he turned to face her his eyes were almost spinning.
"M-Mina said she'd melt my body, and then she kissed me. It's like Mt. Lady all over again…" Mineta stuttered out. He remembered how much he wanted to intern under Mt. Lady, only to discover she just made him do all the house chores. Yaoyorozu held a hand over her mouth as she began to laugh. Seeing Mineta in such a delirious state after a simple kiss was such delicious irony for her. She walked over and put an arm around his shoulder as she helped him stumble out of the classroom. It may have been stressful, but she believed this was all for the best.
Well there ya have it! A second chapter for a story that I had designed as only a one-shot. I'm still so glad that you all have enjoyed it this much and I can't wait to hear your feedback this time! Also, let me know how you felt about the girls. I had a blast writing Mina, as I figured she could totally be threatening if she wanted to!
