A/N: Alright, guys. This is it. The final chapter. All that's left is an epilogue after this (the length undetermined) and that'll be it. I really quickly want to thank everyone for coming along on this ride with me and getting to the end of my book. It's been an incredible year-long journey. This now marks pretty much the end of my first novel, and I do plan on writing more stories after this. It is unknown to me whether it will still be fan fiction or my own original work, although I an leaning more toward the latter.
Either way, I just want you to know that I may not be where I am today if it weren't for you guys. Sometimes I'd feel bad about my chapters, and your reviews, whether good or bad, would cheer me up. I'm so sad to say that this is the ending; I wish it could go on longer. But I'd just like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, and enjoy this fluffy last chapter!- o - o - o - o -
Mina put together the final few pieces of her outfit—a beautiful metal hair clip, one a bit too blinding yet still pleasing to the eye, white pearls and angelicas and bits of silver and gold scattered scarcely throughout, all without wither. She clasped her earrings closed, a pair of showy hoops, and slipped on a few extra bracelets. She only needed a necklace to complete the look, Yaoyorozu throwing it on overhead.
Mina faced the mirror.
Jirou teased her hair a little, double-checking to make sure none of it would fall out. "There. Done. Girl, you look perfect."
Mina admired herself.
For once in her life she could honestly say she felt pretty.
The same went for the other girls, who had spent the last little while together getting dressed and getting ready. Mina had opted to go last, the only one to do so; she decided it on her own that, gladly, she'd repress her desires to look good and simply enjoy the process. Besides, how could she properly do everyone else's makeup in haphazardly high heels? (Well, not necessarily high high, but a good two or three inches or so, enough to make a difference, to be more of a hindrance than a God-given grace. She couldn't let herself get too tall, as then she'd be taller than Izuku.)
And even if she did decide, dumbly, to do makeup in such a disorderly state, it'd almost certainly turn out a mess.
Already tuckered out, she cut her losses, leaving Yaoyorozu, pampered and pumped up, to do her makeup.
"Just a little bit," she'd said. "I'll make it natural."
As always, Yaoyorozu didn't disappoint.
Mina turned around, smiled as soon as it set. "It looks great, Momo. Thanks."
Yaoyorozu tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, looking cheerfully down at her. "Anytime."
Mina sat up out of her chair, barely being able to bounce in her high heels. Her room was a mess, and all the girls could see, but she didn't really care. She didn't have the audacity to.
Besides, she was all the way up in seventh heaven.
Next to nothing would bring her down.
And this night certainly didn't make that list.
As today was the anticipated date of the dance, what they'd been waiting for all week, the last day of school the Saturday afterward, that very next day. It would be a week-long vacation and then they'd be back at it again, this time second years.
Hopefully that week would consist of a lot of kissing Izuku.
She'd been doing that a lot lately, yet it was still not enough. Only rarely would he kiss her neck, or do it the way they did that day in the karaoke booth. They'd only kissed a few times this week, mostly because school had gotten in the way, but, as they were still in the early stages, the early stages of love, the unable-to-get-enough-of-each-other stages of love, she savored each and every last one.
For just starting dating they were probably taking things too far. But it was okay, because it felt right.
"Mina?"
She turned toward a floating flowery dress, an invisible specimen, the one in which the voice had come from, coming to the conclusion that it was Hagakure. "Yes?"
"You okay there? You're kinda spacing out."
Mina slapped her cheeks. "Oh, yeah, just getting a little too deep in my thoughts, is all."
And although she didn't say it, Hagakure knew exactly why Mina was so muddled. And likely she wanted to ask, Over Izuku?
Yes, over Izuku.
"Hey, speaking of, anyone—well, besides Mina—have a date? Or are we all going solo?"
Everyone turned toward Jirou, shook their heads.
"How about thinking of asking someone to dance?"
A few nodded, primarily Yaoyorozu, and Jirou mentioned that she wasn't the only one—Earphone Jack was planning on asking someone as well. They all huddled up and had a short, to-the-point, sworn-to-secrecy kind of chat about their crushes, or, in the earlier stages, interests, and as Jirou revealed that the boy she was going to ask was none other than Kaminari, dence, dumb Denki Kaminari, Mina knew right then that this was going to be a good night. With the girls, with Izuku, with Kaminari and Kirishima and Sero and Bakugo—her positive spirit would prove it. And so she smiled and laughed and cracked a few jaunty jokes and held them all close, and all together they huddled, ready to tackle the twilight.
- o - o - o -
Izuku fixed his suit and tightened his tie. He stood in front of the mirror, clearing his throat, holding his breath. Still too loose, he thought, and he tightened it once more, going a little above and beyond and coming creepily close to cutting off his circulation, the silk now having a choke-hold around his neck.
He pulled it away until he was finally able to get air.
Never again, he thought.
He swallowed his pride, but not his nerves.
The least he could do was dance. Because after all that training that, ironically, Mina had given him, it was the one thing he could confidently say he could do. He may not have been good, but he could do it.
But he was fretting over other things. Was his suit the right color (stormy gray, to be exact)? Would it at all match hers? They'd dumbly decided not to co-coordinate.
He heard a knock at his door. Iida. And Todoroki.
Although they didn't show it, they were excited. Izuku could tell by at least the look on Iida's face, or, startlingly, the lack thereof, fog clouding up his glasses and clogging his vision. Usually that meant that whatever emotion he was feeling, it was strong. And by the light tap of his feet and slight shake of his arms, he seemed to not only be excited, but also a tad bit anxious.
Todoroki was, well, Todoroki. Stoic. Still. Say, uninterested. Or, at least, from the outside eye, that was what it looked like, the first rationality to come to mind. Todoroki didn't wear his heart on his sleeve, but Izuku could read him like a book.
All three of them were excited. Ill at ease, but excited.
And so they ventured off.
It wasn't until Todoroki first brought it up that Izuku realized he wasn't as sly as he thought.
"Izuku, you seem awfully nervous."
It was normal to be nervous. But Izuku was nervous in nuances, unprecedented amounts.
"W-Well, I mean, there's a lot to think about," he said, and suddenly he started pacing, the upswing of unsettling rattling noises coming from below the elevator floor the last thing on his mind. "Like, what if our outfits don't match? And she's prepared months for me and her to dance—what if I can't live up to her expectations? Will she be disappointed in me?"
After all, he definitely did not want to let her down. And to think that all that training she had done for him to dance with Uraraka would now work out in her favor. Would it all be a waste?
Iida looked at Izuku, terrified to give advice. Love wasn't his scene. "Izuku, you two are properly dating, correct?"
Izuku nodded.
"And, seeing as you two are clearly quite fond of each other, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she probably won't care."
Izuku thanked Iida, and then, rallied up by a tiny tap on his shoulder, turned toward Todoroki. "She seems to be very much in love with you. With a love like that, there is likely little room in her heart for pettiness."
Todoroki's words of wisdom—you didn't get to hear them every day.
But for Izuku, they were a beautiful blessing.
Head no longer spinning, face no longer flushed, Izuku let go of his inhibition. He bore the brightest smile.
There was no anxiety. No nervousness. Just excitement. Excitement to see her. Excitement to spin and sashay and sway from side to side—to make this not only their last, but their best night at U.A. yet.
And that excitement didn't die down when he actually did see her, smiling and laughing and making the most out of herself as she huddled up with all of the rest of the girls, completely unaware and unenlightened of their approach. She took his breath away. That dress—from the color to the literal laces to the style—it fit her so well. And from afar, he was pretty sure he saw something glistening in her hair, sparkling, sticking out like a sore thumb. What were they, flowers? Whatever they were they were beautiful.
With the boys eager to go up and greet, the two groups jumbled together as one. They mixed immediately, the girls together with the boys and the boys together with the girls. Mina and Izuku met up.
"I thought… Maybe my outfit was too flashy, but it looks like everyone went all out, huh?" Izuku said, taking her hand.
"Yeah," she sighed. Today, he looked like a whole different person. This was nothing compared to their first date. And luckily, to an extent, their outfits managed to match. She couldn't stop staring. With a smile, she said, "You look great."
"You too, Mina. You're beautiful."
And, after cracking a few jokes and sharing their staple stories of getting ready, it was time for pictures.
She took some with Jirou first. And then Hagakure. And then Yaoyorozu and Asui and most importantly Uraraka. She took some with the Bakusquad as well—she, being the only girl, was the star of the shot.
And when Izuku was up, she leaned into him a little, palm placed on the center of his chest. If they had taken this picture any earlier in the week, she was sure they'd look stiff, but after being together for a while and getting used to each other, that was no longer the case. Falling into his arms was just practice.
And for their last shot, she turned her head to the side and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
By this time, there was no point in hiding it. Everyone knew.
Mina, after setting her feet back down on the ground and regaining her balance, took a little look at Uraraka, who, luckily for her, had shot her a could-care-less kind of smile, one not full of hatred, one not full of lies. To Mina, it seemed okay, like she had given her the okay.
They sure were living in luxury. Despite the walk from the dorms to the school gym being a mere five minutes, they'd still bought buses, albeit cheap ones, but they were buses. What a shame it would be if someone had tripped and fell and ruined their shoes or shirt or dress.
The gym was decorated from stem to stern with stars. The ceiling especially, lights so bright they were blinding, giving it the look of a solar system, a supernova, a constellation of celestial bodies into later a larger galaxy, the Milky Way or maybe Andromeda. It was too hard to tell.
Mina could no longer tear her eyes away, and it wasn't until Izuku brought her back down to Earth that she once again realized what world she was living in—reality. This superficial, seemingly synthetic sky may have been beautiful, but it wasn't real.
It did bring back memories, though. Memories of nights on the beach, under spring trees. Memories of Izuku, those days she was first falling in love.
And now, somehow, she had ended up here—holding him close on the dance floor, divvying it up to the discotheque and having the time of their lives, and lately, seemingly, it'd become a lot less surreal. Hanging out with him after school, both loathing Aizawa's overload of homework (or at least she was—she wasn't so sure about him), getting to know one another's friends, eating dinner together downstairs, leaving late and going on moonlit walks—it all felt so natural, so real, not only to her but also to him. The one thing she wanted was to make sure she still spent time with her friends.
And she was achieving just that. And by the looks of it, so was he.
A beautiful balance between love and life.
She, her mind finally back on track, was beginning to slow, slur, slip up, grow a tinge too tired. They'd been dancing for only 30 minutes, and the dance would go on for another two and a half hours, but, at least, when it came to partying hard, she couldn't keep her stamina up for too long.
She and Izuku hopped off the dance floor and went over to grab a drink. "Man," she said, "I'm beat."
Izuku, no longer with her and now over by his friends, was nowhere to be found. Instead it was Jirou, paper cup in hand, who greeted her, filling it up with punch. "And I can't feel my feet."
Mina looked over at her, the rest of the band of girls quickly approaching behind, like a little flock of doves, ducks crossing the street. Hagakure, woefully, pretended to feel faint, only evident by her glove reaching up to her forehead in an attempt to make things ten times more melodramatic than needed be. "Oh, it must be so hard to actually have a date!"
Mina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You could land a date easily if you wanted to. All of you could."
And, as if right on queue, there was all of a sudden a boy, one cute, one nervously trying to get their attention. "Um, e-excuse me? Uraraka?"
Uraraka turned.
Now, Uraraka would be lying if she said she hadn't seen this boy. He looked familiar, a friend of Hatsume's, she thought, studying in the Department of Support. There wasn't any obvious evidence of a Quirk.
"Hm?" she said, holding the hem of her dress. Something about this encounter made her anxious, but a good kind of anxious, a giddy kind.
"I know this might be out of the blue, a-and you can say no, but—and I've been thinking about this for a while—would you… maybe want to dance with me?"
He suddenly shook his head side to side, looked surprised. "A-And I'm sorry! I never told you my name—"
Uraraka interrupted him. "No, it's okay. Ueda, right? Hatsume's friend."
"Oh, okay." He smiled, sighed. "You remember me. So—"
"Sure! I'll dance with you."
The girls had been watching from afar, staring mouths agape in awe. As Uraraka unreluctantly took his hand and walked off, she turned back around and smiled at them, Mina giving her a celebratory thumbs-up. She was with her at heart.
A little while later they were back with the DJ, the entirety of Class 1-A on the dance floor at the exact same time, moving to the beat of the disco. Each knowing the precise mannerisms of most songs, their choreography was near perfect despite having never even practiced. It put a smile on Mina's face, and as she turned toward Izuku, who was delightfully dancing next to her, she could see it put a smile on his as well.
Hagakure, to her left, tapped her shoulder, startling her out of her trance. "Hey," she said, "I never said I'm sorry for what happened during Truth or Dare."
They kept on dancing. "Oh, no, Toru, it's okay. Everything worked out in the end." She had to raise her voice a few notes higher over the music.
"But, I mean, I shouldn't have done what I did."
Mina turned toward her, smile more moving than magic. And although she couldn't see it, it lightened Hagakure up inside. "Hey, I'm the one who kissed him. I should've just gone the easy way out—with Kiri. At least now you know he isn't the one I like. So, I guess, next time, if there's anything to learn, just don't be so quick to judge."
And, Hagakure pleasantly surprised at how well that'd fared, nodded her head, facing frontward, grooving to the beat of the music. She took Mina's advice, and that last little bit of distance was shattered.
Class 1-A kept dancing with one another for a while, giggling and getting down and rowdy and having the time of their lives. There was a certain singularity in the way they moved—they were all of a sudden one, no dilemma, no drama about to stop them, nor would it hinder their night.
It was about half an hour later, with only an hour and a half left in the dance, when Present Mic stood up onstage. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen! I think it's about time, for all you couples out there, we start playing some slow songs!"
There was a crowd of cheers, from the stereotypical oohs and aahs to boos bouncing blatantly off the walls. Mina immediately ran toward Izuku. This was the part of the night she was waiting for.
"Guess those dance lessons are finally coming in handy, huh?"
He nodded, took her in his arms. One hand flew up by his face and the other down by her waist. "Yup. I just never expected it to be with you."
They slowly inched from the edge of the dance floor to the middle, a cluster of couples no longer nearby. It was nice to be alone.
Izuku didn't take his eyes off of her throughout the whole first song. And then the next. And the next. She was honestly quite surprised, watching him move like that, a certain nervousness in the way he stepped yet still unapologetically bold, and as she looked up into his eyes, she knew she'd made the right choice—she'd made the right choice by being with him, by being with this boy—and not an ounce of her would ever regret it.
He eventually got her in a compromising position, her back against his chest as she quite purposely looked up into his eyes. She gave him this loving look, letting her lashes flutter up like the wings of a butterfly as she did so. This was no accident.
She would kiss him, but this was the school gym.
"You're getting kinda cocky tonight, huh?"
That caught him off guard. All of a sudden he was knocked right out of his groove. "Maybe a little," he said, and suddenly he started stuttering, back to his old, usual, shy self. He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. Now that he mentioned it, it was getting kind of long. "But then again, after all that you taught me, whose fault is that?"
She raised her head and her hand. "Alright, I guess I give in. You got me."
He spun her back around, leaving each of their arms out extended for just a brief moment, only linked by the loose grasp they had held on each other before pulling her back in close. She was convinced that with a simple surrender, she had once again turned him courageous.
And with the brightest blush on both of their faces, they continued to dance, dance until they could no longer keep track of time, comprehend what was going on around them or anything else in the outside world. For what felt like forever, yet an instant at the same time, it was just him and her, bodies intertwined as they burned it up on the dance floor, both each other's scapegoat, each other's getaway. If they needed a moment off, even a few minutes, away from the chaotic catastrophe they called life, they ran straight to each other before anyone else. He was whom she found to be her "special someone."
It was about half an hour before the end of the dance when Mina, allegedly out of the blue, got an idea. She tapped his shoulder, grabbed hold of his attention. "Hey, Izuku," she said. "Let's get away."
And whatever idea she had, he knew for sure it was going to be a bad one. But, blind as a bat, he would inevitably follow her lead. "Um, sure? But how, and where?"
She began leading him out of the crowd, weaving through waves of people and a glistening sea of stars. Asteroids hung high overhead, planets left in their wake. But those didn't deter her. Nothing would.
She took him by the hand out into the vacant hallway and through U.A.'s front doors. Cold, the bitter breeze biting her soft skin, Izuku, without even a beat of evanescent delay, took off his suit and wrapped it around her. "Thank you," she said, craning her neck back, smiling. Now that they were away, he was so happy to finally be able to hug her.
"Of course."
"There's… a reason I wanted to take you out here, y'know." She talked into his arms, pulling him closer. He could feel her breath against his skin, his nerves tingling from the sweet sensation. He honestly found it quite arousing.
He remained with his head on her shoulder, unwilling to open his eyes. "Yeah? What's that?"
"I wanna take a walk."
Izuku pulled away. "A walk?"
"Yeah. Y'know, just one around U.A."
"Any special spots in mind?"
Mine looked lost in thought. "Oh!" she shrieked. "There is one place I wanna go." She took his hand. "If that's fine with you, that is."
"I mean, sure. Why not?"
And so, in sync, they walked out of the affluence of academic buildings and back toward the U.A. dorms. The usual walk to and from class in the morning and afternoon was typically about five, ten minutes, but today, she stopped short, only making it about two and a half. She led them into the forest.
On the side of the streets of U.A.'s campus, there had always been an abundance of trees. Many had not found the time to explore, too busy training and schooling and all, to take a trip into the unknown, adventure around and get to know the land they were living in, but Mina had. She had taken time out of her day to do so.
Sometimes that constituted sneaking out past curfew.
Aizawa was yet to catch her, and it gave her an adrenaline rush. Studying at the illustrious school of U.A., she spent most of her time stressed out, and it was her only means of escape. So why the hell not?
"M-Mina, my shoes—"
"It's okay. The leaves don't get deep, and the ground doesn't get damp."
"O-Okay, if you say so, but where are we going?"
"You'll see."
By now she was way far in front, leading the way, him lagging behind, holding on for dear life. She, reluctantly, forced herself to slow down so he could catch up. She may have been overexcited, but she wasn't inconsiderate.
Much to Izuku's relief, she came to a halting stop, as they must have finally arrived.
It took him a minute to finally figure out what he was looking at. A creek. Slowly, it slivered, sliced into smaller streams, until bridging back together into this beautifully bright pond, sparkling and steaming and fizzing like a lively little hot spring. It was as if it was set under an active volcano, one which could erupt at any minute.
A geyser bursted out a belt of hot water.
"Um, Mina, are you sure this is safe?" Izuku asked.
"Nope."
He went pale, a ghostly shade of white. She bent down, careful to keep her dress from touching the ground, and waved her hand against the water, leaving little lasting ripples that extended outward to the other side of the pond. "Sorry. We don't have to stay, if you don't want," she started. "I've always just thought this spot was very beautiful ever since I found it at the beginning of the year. I told myself when I found the right guy, I would bring him here."
And although she'd turned away and was incredibly unwilling to turn back, from the silence she could tell he was blushing. A small smile cracked from the corners of her lips.
"No, it's okay." He bent down by her side, rolling up his sleeves, waving his own hand in the deep blue sea. "I'm glad I'm that guy." He draped his head over her shoulder, staring out across the bay. The little red tint to his cheeks sent her heart soaring.
"Of course." She picked at the grass, and in a moment of peace, sweet serenity, she looked up, admiration in her eyes as she took in the beautiful night sky, littered with stars and clouds and a wondrously white moon, unbothered by bustling city lights and planes and contaminated carbon-filled air. It was incredible, seeing the sky from the outer side of the city, lights no longer in the way.
It was as if she were stricken by inspiration.
Inspiration to make the most out of this moment.
And so, trees whistling and water crystal clear from one end of the bank to the other, she leaned in and kissed him.
It was an ambitious decision, but one she wouldn't regret. Her lips were just a little bit chapped, the cold the cause, but she didn't mind. And judging by his unhesitant haste, neither did he. Besides, he, being a boy, had given in to the cold as well, cheeks no longer supple and soft but breezily bitter under her touch.
After a bit of bottom lip biting and slowing things down, Izuku pulled away. They touched the tips of their noses, resting their foreheads comfortably against each other, giving each a subtle smile.
He ran his hands through her hair. He hit something hard, taking a second to realize it was the metal hair clip. "That clip… It's really pretty. You should wear it more often. I-If you want, I mean."
"If I ever get the chance to dress up like this again I will."
One day when I marry you, he wanted to say. And although she would most likely not hesitate to agree, he knew in his heart that that would be taking things too far too fast. They were immature, young, no way of knowing where this love was going or where the hell the future was planning on taking them. It was a real love, but a puppy one nonetheless. But, he would admit, marrying her was something he'd like to do one day, something he'd like to dream.
He opted for this instead: "Well, I mean, you don't have to dress up to wear that clip."
She laughed. "Oh, Izu, trying to pretend you know fashion. I'd bet money on you not knowing the difference between a romper and a jumpsuit."
He had to be honest. She'd caught him up on that one.
They heard voices coming out from the clearing—the dance had come to an end. Early, they must have assumed, as students were beginning to walk out. Or, as there weren't many, maybe they were just leaving a little ahead of time.
"We should probably go," Izuku opted.
"Aw, now? C'mon. So there's people. So what? It's not like they can see us."
"Uh, Mina, from here they probably can—"
And so, to shut him up, she kissed him, her bones embedded with not a lick of hesitation. It was obvious, ostentatious, in order to prove her point—none of the boys or girls or anything in between (Quirks could do some funky stuff) out there could see them, nor did they care. And when they kept on walking, past the clearing, completely unaware of what was going on behind the bush just forty feet further into the forest—a whole lot of PDA, to say the least—Mina didn't have to say any more.
She rested her hand on his chin. "See?" she said when she pulled away. But Izuku wasn't done yet. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back in, hands on the side of her neck. Eyes wide with surprise and a hint of exhausted exhilaration, it took her a moment to process Izuku's unexpected display of alacrity, even longer for her to kiss back. She slyly snaked her hands over the suit on his shoulders and up past the nape of his neck, running them wildly through his untamed mane. His head of hair was a poofy one, one that vaguely resembled hers.
They pushed up against each other, almost borrowing each other's strength to stand up. Up overhead stood cherry blossom trees, some of the first few to bloom. She spun him around and pinned him up against one of the nearby tree trunks, a branch hanging not too many feet over their heads.
And with the pink leaves there, falling on each of their shoulders, she liked to imagine it was mistletoe.
And so they made out under that tree for minutes.
Of course, still being new to this and all, they went not much farther than kissing. She peppered his neck with pecks, unwilling to suckle the skin in her best attempt not to leave a mark, but still playful nonetheless. It wasn't until, as they intertwined their tongues, he tentatively rubbed around a little on the top of her head, feeling her horns as a means of exploration, them responding by twitching wildly in the palm of his hand, that their kiss would come to a halt.
She clamped down on the tip of his tongue, suddenly so squeamish.
"Hey," she said, bringing her hands to her horns. They were still twitching, and she needed to calm them down. "It's sensitive there."
Instinctively, he pulled away, a little downhearted to have done so. Something about seeing her in such a susceptible state got his heart racing, running circles around his chest. "M-Mina, I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't know. I'll be more careful next time."
"No, it's okay… It just took me by surprise, is all. Maybe you could… touch them more next time?"
And there came her cougar, her more assertive side.
His face flushed.
They heard footsteps once again coming from the clearing, this time many more than there were before, low voices and little laughs and giggles that could only mean one thing—the end of the night, and in turn, the end of their first-year dance.
Izuku was in fact more happy than he was sad. With this wonderful new girl in his life, his second year would bring better beginnings.
But instead of wallowing in his thoughts, he decided it'd be best if he were talking. "We should probably go." Finally, still with this big, bright red blush on his face, he watched intuitively as her hands fell from her horns atop her head, back by her side and no longer in their protective stance, and she was able to look him in the eye.
She smiled. "Before someone sees us and calls the cops."
Now that she mentioned it, they did look pretty peculiar. To the sensible eye they'd seem like suspicious figures.
She fixed herself up and unmatted her hair and wiped the lipstick off of his face and the corners of his lips. Carefully, quietly, sneakily, discreetly, they made their way out of the brush and through the clearing and back onto the main road, following the rest of the student crowd on their memorable march back toward the U.A. dorms. Oh, how she felt so devious.
"Midoriya! Ashido! Wait up!"
They looked back over their shoulders at the sight of the sound of the noise. There, barreling toward them, came Kirishima, Kaminari, Iida and Uraraka and another half of Class 1-A trailing behind them in their wake. They looked at each other, stopped.
Kirishima was the first to catch up, slowing down, and as he stopped standing his guard, he lackadaisically rested his rimy hands on his knees. "You guys wanna," he huffed, "walk back to the dorms together?"
After all, they would be packing up their things and leaving. Not tonight, but tomorrow. In celebration of a new year, they'd be moving into new dorms, their placement on the other side of campus. It was only customary. "Sure," she said.
And so they all formed a few lines, a fierce five in the front, a more fugitive five in the back. Next to Mina stood Uraraka. She would later have to inquire about how things went with her date. Kirishima separated the easily-set-off Bakugou from Izuku, and behind them were a number of other students from Class 1-A, walking, standing to the side of the sidewalk to let other potential people pass by. Mina looked to her left, not at all surprised to see Kirishima advancing toward Bakugo's hand and him popping off explosions and pulling away. She smiled.
Mina, Izuku by her side, grabbed hold of his hand. She sauntered and swayed and curled his fingers tightly toward hers, palms producing just a little bit of accidental acid. There was a lot of laughing, animosity, exhilaration and elation, as in less than one week, Class 1-A would become Class 2-A, and all would be well with the world.
Well, for the most part. They had their ups and downs.
And, as if moving into different dorms wasn't enough, he'd practically read her mind, as he tilted his head up and looked at her sideways and said, "You ready?"
Ready for what? To finally, even if it wasn't for long, head home? To step it up a notch, carry the weight of the burden of becoming second years? To dive head first into their relationship?
There was a lot she could've prepared for.
No, she thought. That wasn't what he meant. He meant the future. Just the future in general.
Because it was almost as unpredictable as their past.
"'Course," she said back, and as they kept on walking, she twisted him around, showing off a little in front of their friends as this was their one and only night to do so, dragging him a few feet forward and pulling him along with her. He let out a little squeal, and she—a slight skip in her step.
They eventually hopped back in line. She smiled, and he smiled too, and she held onto his hand like she'd never let go.
And with a grip like that, there was one thing he could say for certain—she definitely wasn't planning on it.
And, as the night sky shined so bright, he vowed that neither was he.
- o - o - o - o -
A/N: Alright, and up next is the epilogue. This coronacation thing has my schedule all messed up. It is currently 6:00 a.m. and I haven't slept yet and am instead posting this chapter. Anyway, I hope that was a fulfilling ending, and votes and comments / reviews would of course be greatly appreciated! Thank you all again!
