Mineta sat in class swinging his feet from his chair and chewing the eraser of his pencil. He stared narrowly at the boy who sat a few chairs in front of him.
Todoroki sat studiously in his seat, unaware that he was being watched. Mineta's malicious aura was lost on his half n half'd friend, probably swallowed entirely by bakugo's ever present attitude.
Mineta glanced over to another classmate that sat studiously in her seat as she always did. Momo Yaoyorozu also chewed on the edge of her pencil which was not something she often did. It was a new habit and quite uncharacteristic of the poised and intelligent young lady that'd always seemed to carry herself with an elegant nobility. It however wasn't the only new characteristic the vice class rep had acquired recently.
Mineta kept a sort of mental log on the women in his life, more importantly, the women in his class that had become his dorm-mates. He cared about his classmates greatly so of course he'd keep note of plenty of things: Favorite foods and colors, personality types, exact bust and waist measurements. Yknow, normal things friends would notice.
So when the usually poise and proper Momo began stumbling over her words and fidgeting with her hair during lunch hours, he'd noticed. To top it off she'd almost fallen down the stairs once, not watching where she was walking. Something in her persona had definitely shifted and he had set a goal to find out why.
Out of concern for a friend of course.
It hadn't been difficult to stick a walkie-talkie inconspicuously in her room. Her large gaudy furniture covered in layers of fabric and frills left plenty of hiding spots. All he'd had to do was wait patiently in his own room until she began her study sessions with Mina.
Mina was a purple-skinned blessing. She was always blunt and straightforward in conversation. Being as obnoxiously lax as a few of the boys, she was the easiest to relate to. She wouldn't bashfully beat around the bush with her words like Uraraka or approach a situation with a mature consideration like Tsu. So when Mina hopped onto Momos bed and blatantly asked her if a boy had caught her eye, Mineta clenched a victorious fist from his spot on his bedroom floor.
"Wha-what? What?! A b-boy? What do you mean?" Momo's voice came through his walkie clearly, with only the slight crisp of static in the background.
"Yes a boy!" Mina laughed, careful to keep their voices down in a futile effort to be discreet as they gossiped. "You've been acting distracted lately and that's sooo not like you. So it has to be a boy!...unless...has something bad happened to you?"
Mineta's face grew stern. He hadn't considered that his classmate might be facing difficulty, but his concerns were quickly quelled.
"No, no. I'm fine Mina. Nothing terrible has happened in my life. Despite everything happening around us I'm really okay." Momo reassured.
"So then it has to be a boy!" Mina exclaimed.
"So then it has to be a boy" Mineta agreed in a stern mumble.
"What has to be a boy?" A new closer voice asked, causing the small purple balled boy to jump and shriek in place.
Tsu stood in his doorway with her toothbrush in her hand and Mineta quickly hid his muted walkie behind his back.
"Tsu!!! You scared the balls off of me!" He cried in offense.
"Well I didn't mean to; your door is wide open. I could've sworn you were talking to someone in here." She explained.
He'd left his own door open while eavesdropping? Did he want to die? "Ah no, nope just me talkin to me...but uhhh I'd be more that accepting of your company if you wanted to join me—" he struck a suggestive pose, laying on his side and propping his head up on his elbow.
"Good night, Mineta" Tsu rejected, swiftly walking away and shutting the door behind her with her tongue.
Mineta flinched at the slam, but sighed in relief before scurrying to lock his door.
He turned his walkie back on.
"Todoroki!! Really?" Mina exclaimed
Todoroki? What about him? What had Tsu made him miss?
"A-AH! Mina-Chan please lower your voice!" Momo fretted from the other end of the walkie. "I-it's not really a big deal, and besides most of the first year girls have glanced his way at one point or another".
"But you're different!" Mina argued. "You got in on recommendation just like him and you're like super studious and stuff! I didn't think his boyish good looks would catch your eye too."
Mineta nodded in agreement, brows knitted together in concentration. Would the sophisticated and mature Yaoyorozu really fall for the same mediocre default emotionless face as every other childish girl in his grade?
"I-I'm not so different from everyone else." Momo denied.
Yes. The answer is yes.
"And...I mean he's always looked the same, but I just recently started,um, paying extra attention to him. So, it's not his looks. Not that he's not attractive or anything! Ah! I mean in general! Not just to me!" Momo elaborated in a flutter of words.
Mina laughed as Momo released a quiet string of embarrassed sounds and Mineta stood from his spot on the floor and began to pace around his room. So, it had been a crush? It had made sense when he thought about it. When she had almost nose dived down the steps, todoroki was also coming up them. In fact, he'd caught her and she'd reacted like he was a ghost and ran off apologizing. Had he also been around every time he'd noticed her other strange behaviors?
"So then, what suddenly caught your attention? Was it when he kicked your butt at the sports festival?" Mina asked oblivious to her crude choice of words. Her lack of etiquette was a splash of charisma on their classes group of mature and focused girls. "I didn't know Mrs.Class rep-runner-up was a masochist!! You're kinda like Midnight Sensei."
Mineta clenched his fists and steamed at the nose. He took a mental note to appreciate Mina more as he imagined Momo wearing a cross between her and their erotic sensi's hero costumes.
"M-m-m-masochist!??! No it's not like that! If prefer—'" She exclaimed as a knock came at Mineta's door.
He jumped, tossing the walkie in the air and fumbling with it a few times before successfully muting it and tossing it under his bed. What was up with tonight?! No one ever came to his room, and now suddenly he'd been disturbed twice.
"Mineta, are you in there? I'm here to collect any trash you have." Midoriya's voice called from the other side of the door.
That's right. He hadn't brought his trash down this week. He looked to the accumulating pile of food boxes and frowned.
"No. I'm fine! Thanks."
"Are you sure? You didn't have any yesterday either so-"
"No! Go away! I'm busy with very important matters!" He shouted desperately, missing the apparent "sexual preference" conversation.
"Oh. Uh, okay?" Midoriya responded quizzically, and walked away from the door to resume his rounds.
Mineta dived to his bed and retrieved the walkie to flick it on. He curled around it beneath the bed.
"Wow. Really? He voted for you to be class rep?" Mina asked, voice full of awe.
"Yes, that's what he told me. He believes I'm talented and capable." Momo responded sheepishly.
"Wow" Mina repeated. "I'm kinda jealous! That's great praise coming from the son of the number 2 hero! I've never heard him speak much at all, much less, give someone a compliment."
There was a shuffling of fabric and then Momo spoke "I was flattered. I'm still flattered, but they were just words of encouragement because we were partnered up at the time. I'm just being silly getting hung up on something like that."
"I don't think he's that type." Mina disagreed and Mineta nodded. Todoroki was serious when trying to find means to an end but he definitely wasn't the manipulative type or a cheap flatterer. He spoke little, and when he did, it was short and to the point. He wouldn't compliment Yaoyorozu just to pass a test.
"If he said that about you, it's because he felt you deserved to know." Mina asserted.
"Hm. I suppose. Well I still feel that I'm reading too much into it."
"Bah! Maybe you're not reading enough into it! What if he likes you too?" Mina enthused. "You'll be the most envied girl on campus."
"Wha! He dosnt! I don't! I never confirmed that I liked him!"
"Oh c'mon it's so obvious that you think of him in that way." Mina accused.
Mineta gasped as a new topic was born.
"That way?" He whispered shakily.
"That way?" Momo asked sheepishly.
"That way." Mina conformed. "You should see your daydreaming face at lunch. What are you imaging Ms. Recommendation?"
"What are you doing? G-get back!" Momo squealed suddenly and a lot of movement was heard.
Mina chuckled teasingly. "Do you imagine him kissing you? Or maybe mooore?"
"MORE?" Mineta steamed.
"K-kiss? I-what are you doing?? Stop that!" Momo squeaked higher, sounding nervous. "Don'tthouchthere!"
"DONT TOUCH WHERE?!" Mineta fumed pushing the walkie as close to his face as he could. Why hadn't he stuck a camera in there?!
"ALRIGHT THATS ENOUGH OF THAT" a surprisingly loud new voice boomed through Mineta's walkie. The booming volume felt like a punch to the eardrum, strong enough to knock him backwards from under his bed. He landed squarely on the back of his head and lay there in shock and a spinning confusion.
What the hell was that? Those tiny walkies did NOT get that loud.
He watched through spinning vision as his door opened and an irritated Jiro stomped into his room.
She'd somehow managed to use her quirk on him through his walkie. "Some people would like to sleep without listening to your extra radio waves!" She grabbed the stunned boy by his collar and dragged him down the hall to Momo's room.
"Seems like purple is the color of perverts" Jiro asserted, suddenly opening the door and tossing the dazed Mineta across the room at a surprised Mina. They collided with an "ahk!" and plummeted off of the high bed.
Jiro walked and lifted the skirt of Momo's bed and revealed a little purple ball effectively gluing a walkie talkie to the side of her bedpost.
Momo paled.
Now, the next morning, Mineta sat in class, shunned by his female classmates as EraserHead wrote their next assignments on the board. He glared daggers at the back of Todoroki's dual colored head.
If he hadn't been all smooth with Yaoyorozu during finals, none of this would have happened in the first place. It was completely his fault. Not only was Mineta now in the dog house when it came to the girls; Todoroki had managed to swoon another girl into his fan base and she'd thought about "kissing and more".
"Keeping in mind how hectic things have been since the training camp abductions, we'll be implementing a buddy system on top of stricter security changes on campus." EraserHead put his chalk down and turned to face his students after writing lists on the chalkboard. "Since this is a safety precaution and not a test, you'll be paired with someone you've worked well with before."
The class murmured in excitement as they all searched the board to find their partners. There were groups of twos and threes sprawled about the board.
"I see. They've based this decision off of our finals" tokoyami commented nodding at his pairing with Tsu and Midoriya.
"The sports festival too." Shoji commented through one of his tentacles. His pairing with mineta had seemed wise during the festival's chariot competition.
Across the room Momo sat frozen in her seat as she stared wide eyed at her name. Shoto Todoroki's name occupied the space next to hers.
"Uh oh." Jiro whispered watching the ponytailed girl turn into a statue. Jiro was now, unfortunately, all too aware of her friend's private feelings. She raised her hand quickly. "Sensei what exactly does our partnership entail?"
"I was getting to that." He sighed. "Your schedules won't change much from usual. The partnership is moldable to each individual group. We're giving you the freedom to decide what to do with it and how to make it beneficial to yourselves. There will be a status check at the end of each week however and at least one mandatory meet up with your partners per week. I suggest you use that time to get to know your team more intimately and strengthen your relationship. Your classmates are the people you'll have to rely on in an crisis, as I'm sure you all remember."
The class nodded quietly and remembered the unexpected attacks that they had to face as first-Years.
'Intimate!' Mineta glared in a fit of jealousy at Shoto and his fellow classmates that'd been paired with girls.
'Relationship…' Jiro looked warily at momo who stared down at clenched fists.
With that, EraserHead dismissed his class to lunch.
It wasn't long before most of the students had gathered their meals and found their places at lunch tables.
"Stop letting her fluster you, Momo Chan. You're her tutor. She's just trying to get out of studying" Jiro asserted. Her, momo and Mina had sat alongside eachother.
"I am not." Mina whined beside her. "I was just excited."
Momo sighed. "It's no ones fault but my own. I volunteered to help everyone pull their grades up. I should keep us focused. It's not her fault I've been easily ... distracted, as you unfortunately overheard."
The three girls sitting together at the lunch table sent venomous gazes towards the other end of the lunch table. Mineta shuddered in place feeling the murderous aura seep into his spine without even having to look in the girl's direction to know where it was radiating from. He swallowed his food audibly.
"Jeeze. What did you do this time?" Seto laughed across from him. Across the cafeteria Shoto todoroki scanned the room with his tray in hand until he found what he was searching for.
"Be prepared Yaoyorozu. Here comes your partner." Jiro warned and momo stiffened immensely.
"Here? Now? Why?" She stammered. She had never had a problem being in close proximity with him before. Even after their exchange during finals, she'd begun to become more aware of his presence, but she hadn't been uncomfortable.
No, it hadn't been until Mina put ideas into her head and...
she'd had a dream last night.
"I have to go to the lady's room!" She announced before jumping up from the table and scampering away just as her partner had set his tray in front of her.
"Smooth" Mina chuckles.
Jiro palmed her face. "Hush. It's your fault."
Shoto looked quizikally at the girls in front of him and Mina laughed loudly. "Momos trying out a new laxative from recovery girl. Don't expect to see her for a while." She lied for her friend. Jiro put her face deeper into both hands.
In the bathroom, momo leaned in front of the mirror staring at the running sink. What was she doing? Running from her partner? Why? She hadn't expected him to seek her out so immediately but she shouldn't have been that surprised. Most of her class were eating lunch with their new assigned buddies and discussing ideas. It wasn't strange that he'd also want to get a good start. He was a top student for a reason and she admired his calm but straight foward approach to things.
She was being ridiculous. Momo had entered UA to become a hero. Succumbing to her emotions wasn't heroic. She'd done it in the final, and now again. This was a flaw she was going to have to face. A newly discovered challenge she should be grateful hadn't appeared on the battlefield. She clenched her fists in her resolve. And looked in the mirror. The world of hero's was changing and she didn't have time to be whimsical.
She exited the bathroom and looked down the cafeteria to see Mina chatting up Shoto and Jiro. She took a step and paused as images from her dream flashed back into her head.
Momo had fallen down the stairs. He'd caught her off guard. She hadn't expected to see him coming up the stairs. She tripped. How had that happened? But he'd been there to catch her. Quick reflexes sent his arms out around her waist. It'd just been a simple memory till that part.
The rest was different. Extra information added in by a Mina tainted imagination.
The feel of him surrounding her as he pulled her against him. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. His head rested on her shoulder and she could feel his breath on her shoulder. She could feel his extreme temperatures though her clothes. A chilled arm across her waist, and another with a feverish heat right beneath her breast. She gasped at the contrast as he pulled her closer than needed to steady her fall. He breathed her name softly and her head spun. She could hear Mina somewhere nearby in a suggestive tone whispering "maybe more?"
Momo warily repeated the phrase aloud to herself, only to have the smoldering Shoto raise his mouth to her ear and respond "If you'd like."
Momo returned to the bathroom and cold water immediately. She'd try again after lunch