7
Mall melody
"So? What did she say?" Kaminari bugged Momo.
Kirishima sighed at the electric kid's enthusiasm. "I got a bad feeling man."
"Hey, don't jinx it!" Kaminari whined.
"Eto, she didn't give me a direct answer, but we're all invited to the mall this weekend. J-Jirou will be there too..." Momo tried to sound upbeat. 'I can't mention her relationship with Midoriya.'
"Really?" Kaminari sparked up. "Dude, that's my chance! I'll definitely play my cards and ask her out." Kaminari was rocking out to his idea.
Kirishima had an uneasy grin. "Yeah, I guess I'll go too. Someone needs to be there when you get shot down."
"Oh come on man." Kaminari begged. Kirishima gave him a pat on the shoulder.
Momo flinched with calculating eyes. 'Did Kirishima find out about Midoriya and Jirou? No, relax Momo. Kirishima is just a good judge of character. He must know Jirou only sees Kaminari as a friend.'
"It will be fun!" Momo was trying really hard to be upbeat, and not reveal that she knew the truth.
"K-Kacchan too?!" Deku's eyes bulged out. Midoriya was the last one they picked up from the limo. Momo was waiting outside for him and informed him of all who were inside.
"Are you sure we will all fit?" Midoriya had an unsure expression. It was a handful of people.
Momo nodded triumphantly. "Of course we do! Once I enrolled into U.A. I made sure my personal limo had enough room for all my classmates!" Sounding enthusiastically motherly.
"P-Personal limo..." 'Yaoyorozu is amazing... Must. Protect.' Izuku was falling under her rich girl spell again. He shook those thoughts away.
He entered the limo, but before he could, "You still remember your promise right?" She asked with eyes staring off.
He stopped for a moment, looking back at her. He smiled. "Yeah, thanks for your blessing, Yaoyorozu." He whispered, opening the door, and joining everyone inside.
Momo was outside, alone. She placed a fist over her chest. "It wasn't a blessing..."
Midoriya balled his fist over his pants.
In the limo, he was sitting in between Uraraka and Iida.
Jirou was sitting in between Yaoyorozu and Kaminari.
Not important, but Kirishima and Kacchan were sitting in the back, side by side, both with crossed arms. Them and Momo were the only ones aware of Kaminari's plan.
Midoriya was doing his best to ignore how Kaminari was flirting with Jirou. 'Our relationship isn't out in the open, so it would only be natural for us to sit beside our closest friends, but still...'
Bakugou had rolled his eyes and had his lower lip out, grinding his teeth. Deku and Jirou were trying not to show it, but they were constantly flashing their eyes to eachother with worried affection. It pissed him.
"Hey Deku, we should go rock-climbing, the mall has awesome features like that!" Uraraka cheered, pretending to rock-climb.
"Jirou, I heard there's a vintage music room also, wanna check it out?" Kaminari smiled at her.
"Huh? O-Oh sure." She forced a smile. She was distracted by Uraraka's big personality. 'Does Izuku prefer those energetic people?' She was wallowing in insecurity.
"Everyone, we have arrived." Yaoyorozu used her hand to present the view out her window.
"Hm, where should we go first?" Midoriya was staring up at the absent ceiling, towards the sky. They had entered the mall and were bunched up as a group of teens.
"Get your ass over here, Deku." Kacchan dragged him by the shirt.
"Eh? K-Kacchan?" He was almost chocked by the collar pressing against his neck. Everyone else could only sweatdrop.
Kirishima sighed. 'But, this will give Kaminari a chance at least, sorry Midoriya.' He glanced at her. She looked the most depressed with Izuku's absent presence. 'Who am I kidding, Kaminari just get it over with.' He glared at Kaminari to get him moving with his plan. Kaminari nodded with a dense smirk.
"Y-Yo, Jirou, like I said let's check out that store, right?" He didn't notice her worry over Izuku.
She snapped out of it. "Um, yeah." She dropped her anxiety. 'It's not a big deal. Bakugou and Izuku have a special relationship we can't hope to understand. They were childhood friends.' She subconsciously smiled. Midoriya was open to her about everything. (Almost everything, she doesn't know about his connection to All-Might and one for all.) Izuku has told her about Kacchan and how he was quirkless for most of his life. 'Izuku still applied to U.A. being quirkless and everything, and I'm really glad he never gave up. I would have never met him if he did.' She twirled her finger around one of her earphone jacks, bushing bashfully. 'That adorable dork.' They entered the store Kaminari was talking about, but her mind was elsewhere. 'I hope I at least get to spend time with him, today...'
Gulp. "K-Kacchan, um w-why did you bring me here?" They were in one of the many restrooms in the mall. 'It's always difficult between us.'
"That damn earphone girl!" He barked.
"Hiee!" Izuku stepped back with his arms up in defense and bumped on the sink. "Nani? What about Kyouka?"
"Fried-brains is going to ask her out." He mumbled in an out of character sincere concern. His hands were in his pockets.
Deku grew emerald orbs of worry. Kacchan expected as much. "K-kaminari is?" He dropped his arms and clenched his fists, his hair shadowed his eyes. He released his grip with a deep breath. He was scared of losing Kyouka, 'but I can't mention our relationship. I need to trust her.' He rose his eyes to Kacchan with a forced smile. "W-Why are you telling me?"
Kacchan's calm half-lidded eyes didn't change. "I guess if you're fine with it." He grumbled without a much of a care and left the restroom.
Before he left he heard a whisper. "Thank you for telling me, Kacchan."
Bakugou heard the anxious worry in his voice. His glared eyes did not glance at Deku. He kept walking out, swinging open the door. "Shut it Deku. Heroes should do the right thing, even for trivial shit like this." And left. "I could care less about your relationship with her."
Deku had flabbergasted eyes. 'Kacchan is crude, but his morality is amazing.' Then his thoughts traveled to Jirou and Kaminari. 'Th-They actually look like a good pair together, better than me and her.' His eyes were liquid. 'What if she says yes?' He sucked in a determined breath. "No! Stop beating yourself up about this." He wiped one eye with his thumb. He turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face before slapping his cheeks. "She's you're girlfriend!" He told the mirror version of himself and they both nodded. He left the bathroom with his usual quirky bounce.
The spilled water dripped off the sink and splashed on the tile floor like raindrops.
Raindrops were they shared their first kiss.
"I-I should look for that shop Kaminari was talking about." Deku was walking at a brisk pace. "Even if our relationship is private, it doesn't mean I can just sit around and do nothing."
"Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed, clasping his hand with her hyper attitude, but made sure not to use her pinky. "C'mon let's go rock-climbing, right Iida?" She turned her head to Iida, except he wasn't there. "Huh? But he was here a moment ago? Weird."
Deku swore he heard Iida's evil laugh in the distance and the smell of exhaust pipes. 'D-Did he use his recipo burst? Why?'
"Hey how about we just go, Deku?" She began dragging him to the play zone.
Deku tried to hesitate, "B-But-," He stopped his words. 'I don't even know where Kyouka is, blowing off Uraraka would be selfish.' He calmed himself. 'Trust Kyouka.' "Sure. Let's go have some fun." He smiled. He pulled his hand away from hers, walking beside her. Uraraka didn't show the slight dejection she felt from the loss of his warm palm.
'I wonder if Jirou has held it?'
"Hey, this is a cool vinyl!" Jirou carefully lifted the large disk. "It's so vintage!"
Kaminari admired her cool squeal. "I knew you'd like this place."
"Yeah, it's awesome." She agreed, staring enthusiastically at the item in her possession.
He glanced around. It was a pretty empty store, with only the cashier and a few music fanatics. 'This is the perfect place.' He had one hand in his pocket and raised the other one halfway up his torso, in a questioning manner. "Hey, um, Jirou?"
She finally peeled her eyes away from it and made eye contact with him. "What's up?" Her smile had lingered from the joy of music and it distracted Kaminari.
He scratched his hair, breaking the contact, looking down, nervously. "I was wondering, do you want to go out tomorrow?" He gave her an uneasy grin, meeting her eyes.
Her amethyst eyes grew and her fingers slipped, almost dropping the record. She caught it before it fell from her hands. "What? Like a date?"
"Yeah, I mean, don't you think we go good together?" Nudging his head for some hope that she agreed.
She slowly placed the record back in its place, making sure it was fine. She sighed but faced him. "Look, Kaminari, you're great and all, I even think it's hysterical when you go brain dead. But I only see you as a friend. I'm sorry."
His smile slowly faded and a frown emerged. He hid it with a forced laugh. "Hey, don't worry about it, I just thought I would take a chance before Izuku made a move."
She felt a little guilty. Izuku had already snuck his way into her heart. 'It's not like we intended for it to happen, but... Should I tell him? I owe him that much don't I?' She rubbed her arm with a delay. 'No, how would telling him help. I would just be hurting him more.' "We can still be friends, right?"
Kaminari shrugged, but his heart wasn't in it. "That's cliché dude." He had a toothy grin. "Of course we still are. Being positive is more my style, anyways."
She could hear the crack in his voice lie and see the hesitation in his grin. She played along because acknowledging it would be painful on both sides. "Y-Yeah, glad to here."
"Maaan, I'm hungry. I'm going get some grub at the food court, wanna come?"
"You go on ahead, I'm a go look for Momo, she probably went shopping for some new clothes." She could tell he was only being polite. They would just be bad company together.
A light-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, she would. I don't get why she just doesn't make clothes. Whatever, see ya." He waved off and left.
Outside of the outlet, Jirou scanned left and right. "I wonder where Izuku is?" She began to go look for him.
"This is fun, huh?" Uraraka was higher up the rock-climbing wall.
Izuku was only a few feet up. He was shaking. "Y-Yeah, U-Uraraka." Gulp.
Uraraka giggled. How was he a scaredy-cat during simple activities like this, but brave and heroic during a crisis. "Here, let me help." She crawled back down and placed her hand on his arm.
"Eh, I'm-I'm floating!"
"Come on Deku!"
He nodded and rushed to the top. They were both breathing hard but with a smile. "Thank you, Uraraka."
"No problem!" She cheered. "Wanna go again?"
"Eto, one is enough for me, but you go ahead, I'll watch."
"Aww, man, but that's no fun. We can do something else if you want?"
He rubbed his chin, thinking. "How about we go look for the others. We should all grab a bite to eat." In truth, he wanted to spend time with Kyouka.
"S-Sure!" Forcing out her preppy attitude. She wanted this time to be alone with Deku.
The left the play zone and were walking through the second story platform, alongside the outlets.
"Hey Deku?" Uraraka had stopped walking.
"Hm, what is it?" He turned his head back to her, but then his body completely faced her, noticing her expression. "Is something wrong?"
Her eyes were shadowed by her bangs, she had a determined aura. "What..." She clenched her fist shut for strength and released it. "What do you think of me?"
Deku had a dense, closed eye, smile plastered on his face. "What do you mean?" He ruffled his green hair. "I think you're quirk is amazing. You have a pretty noble reason to be a hero, even if you acted like it wasn't at first." He was rambling again, without giving a direct answer. "You and Iida are my best friends, so-"
Uraraka bit her bottom lip. "That's not what I meant."
Deku stopped his words with a confused expression. "Huh, Uraraka?"
"I meant this!" She took a skip step forward and grabbed his collar, pressing him against her.
His red shoes squeaked with surprise, and she affectionately rose one foot back, off the ground during their kiss.
His eyes were wide at Uraraka's action. But then they shattered like glass reflecting a broken trust in her voice. She whispered the saddest melody ever told.
"I-Izuku..?"