"Why are we doing this, Ashido?" Kirishima complained, shifting himself into a crisscrossed position on the floor.
Mina sat down in the circle, her eyes twinkling. "Because it's fun!"
"But on a school night…" Shoji muttered. Tokoyami sat to his left, Koda to his right. The three of them had shown up somewhat to Doko's surprise. Then again, he didn't really know what he was doing here either.
"Oh come on, we've played king's games before!" said the pink girl. Toru sat down next to her, and the two of them were organizing the sticks, writing on them with a black Sharpie marker.
"Yeah, but this one feels really…random…" said Kaminari, sitting down next to Kirishima.
"Fuck you, Sero! I don't want to play!" Bakugo's voice spat from the staircase.
Sero's laugh rang out. "Come on, man. You should know by now that it doesn't matter what you want."
The two of them appeared, the tape user dragging Bakugo behind him. Ochaco and Tsuyu soon followed, both seeming somewhat afraid.
"Hello, Dokkun, ribbit," said Tsuyu, sitting down next to him. The brunette girl sat on her other side, giving Doko a side-eye. Randomly, Doko remembered something that Momo had told him: Uraraka is slightly scared of me sometimes.
"Hey, Tsu. Hello, Uraraka." He gave her a wave.
"H-hi." The brunette smiled weakly. "Do you know what this is about?"
"Even to her friends, the machinations of Mina's mind are unknown."
"That's basically what I told her, ribbit," Tsu said with a vacant blink. "But Ochaco-chan wanted a second opinion, I guess."
"Did you invite the whole class?" Kirishima asked Mina.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
"Well, where's…oh."
Midoriya and Iida had appeared. Aoyama was following behind them, wearing an enigmatic smile.
Uraraka's eyes seemed to brighten, as Midoriya sat down next to her, and Iida sat down next to him. Aoyama looked put out for a moment, and moved to a different part of the circle.
"Ashido-san!" Iida demanded. "What is the meaning of holding this event on a school night!?"
"It'll only take an hour at most, class rep! Lighten up a tad!"
"Yes, but some of us have work to complete…"
"Do you?" Toru inquired, leaning forward and sounding genuine.
Iida blushed. "W-well, I do…"
"And you showed up anyway?"
"W-well, yes, b-but…just to figure out your reasoning!"
"But you've sat down in the circle, clearly intending to stay awhile." Mina's lips curled up into a victory smirk. "Come on, Iida. Where's the other half of our student representation? Anyone seen Yaomomo?"
Doko's eye twitched. Yes…where is she?
"Why do you ask?" Sero asked, sitting down with a seething Bakugo. "You need Yaomomo for this game?"
Mina, surprisingly, lost her composure for a moment. "W-well, no…why would I?"
Sero's eyes narrowed. "It just seems like this is too random for you to not have an ulterior motive. It must be related to someone."
Mina smiled. "Whatever you say, Sero. If you figure it out, I'll be proud of you."
Doko squirmed in place. He was suddenly unsure of this king's game now.
Ojiro showed up and sat down next to Toru, seeming excited. Then, Momo appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Doko saw her, and his heart leapt. He couldn't help it. When I'm ready to tell you, will you listen?
Of course.
Momo smiled at him…and sat down on his right, the side Tsu was not occupying. "Good evening, Katayama. Do you know what this is about?"
"Not really." I have a guess, but you're not really one of the people I can confide in with it.
"Yaoyorozu!" Iida called. "Speak some sense into Ashido here!" He chopped his hand in her direction.
Momo only continued to smile. "It seems like most of the class is here though, Iida. We may as well have some fun. It'll be good to do on a school night."
Kaminari and Toru cheered, whistling. Iida sighed in defeat. Bakugo tried to get up and leave, but both Kirishima and Sero grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him back down.
Mina winked at Momo, and her eyes danced between her and Doko. He did not miss this. "You're not going to regret this, Yao-momo. I promise!" the pink girl declared. "Now, we just wait on the last two…of course they'd be the ones to not show up…"
Todoroki and Jiro appeared, and both moved to occupy the opening in the circle beside Momo. They bumped shoulders at the spot, pausing. Jiro gasped lightly.
Doko blinked. For a moment, fear struck his heart. Was Todoroki going to sit next to her?
Jiro's eyes danced to the other opening in the circle, between Ojiro and Aoyama. She gulped, clearly not wanting to go sit there.
Todoroki rolled his eyes and moved off. "Whatever," he mumbled. "This better not take long."
Jiro sighed and sat down next to Momo. Doko couldn't help but feel relieved. Jiro was close with Momo, but she was decidedly not competition.
Unless she is. With renewed suspicion, he gave the punk rocker girl another glance. Her motives had seemed like usual Jiro: not wanting to sit by Aoyama. Standard. Besides, Momo had taken the initiative to sit by him in the first place.
Going from Doko clockwise, the full circle of Class 1A went like this: Tsuyu, Ochaco, Izuku, Tenya, Denki, Eijirou, Katsuki, Hanta, Yuga, Shoto, Mashirao, Toru, Mina, Koji, Mezo, Fumikage, Kyoka, Momo.
Randomly, he noticed that he was two girls deep on both sides. He smirked to himself. Not usually a thing he'd take note of, but his recent feelings had made his brain go down stranger paths. Eat your heart out, Kaminari.
"So," said Mina. "Now it's time to begin."
Toru picked up the cup and shuffled the sticks around by shaking it. "A brief reminder of the rules to any of you who don't remember," the invisible girl said with an impression of extreme seriousness. "We will pass out these sticks to all of you. They are numbered one through nineteen and the twentieth is marked as the king. The king can order numbers at random to do things. Nothing too extreme, obviously. Don't share your number with anyone else. The king obviously has to announce themselves. Got it?"
"Got it," Kirishima sighed wearily.
"Just hurry up!" Bakugo barked.
The sticks were passed out. Everyone received one. Doko grabbed his and passed the cup on to Tsuyu. Before he turned it over, he thought, wouldn't it be funny if I got the king on my first try? But no, his stick had the number 13 on it. Unlucky.
His eyes briefly flicked over to Momo next to him, to see what she had gotten. He'd glimpsed too fast, and hadn't been able to tell. Look too long and someone else in the circle might call him out, so he did not try again.
"I'm the king," said Kaminari, puffing his chest out.
At least half the class groaned.
"Oi, show some respect like loyal subjects!"
"Just give the order, dimwit," Jiro complained.
"Fine. Erm…number eight…say something mean about number twelve!"
"Are you serious…" the rocker girl muttered. She turned her stick over, showing the number eight.
For some reason, Doko found himself recklessly speaking up. "What's the problem, Jiro? You shouldn't have an issue saying something mean about someone."
Mina whistled. "OOOOOH," Toru called.
Jiro's eyes widened in surprise at Doko's callout. She seemed sheepish all of a sudden. "I m-mean, I…"
Momo sighed loudly. "Just get on with it. Who's number twelve?"
Nervously, Midoriya raised his hand.
For a moment, the class was silent, and then Sero, Kirishima, and surprisingly Bakugo all burst out laughing.
Jiro deadpanned. "Are you kidding me?"
"What?" Midoriya blinked. "Just do it. I'm sure you can think of something…" The green-haired boy looked down at the floor in a depressed kind of way. Doko saw Ochaco reach her hand up out of the corner of his eye, as if she meant to put it on Izuku's shoulder, but then she retracted it.
"I mean…it's…" Jiro stammered. "You're…I mean, you're Midoriya…you're too innocent! I CAN'T DO IT!" She covered her face with her hands.
Mina was cackling like a madwoman. "King's orders, Jiro!"
"Ugh! Fine! Erm…" Jiro squirmed, unable to meet Midoriya's eyes. "Back at the start of school, you were kinda lame…I guess…"
"Booooo," said Toru. "Is that the best you can do? You're always so creative when you insult Kaminari!"
"Hey!"
"Just move on…" Jiro muttered, throwing her stick back into the cup. They all returned their sticks and shuffled them again.
Doko saw Jiro meet his eye again, and then look down, embarrassed.
"You shouldn't have said that," Momo mumbled into his ear. "You threw her off."
"You're right," he mumbled back. "I'll apologize afterward. I don't know what came over me."
He felt something rub against his arm. Surprised, he looked to see that it was Momo's hand. He looked further up and saw a reassuring, warm smile on her face. "Being honest with your feelings about others is good, at least," she told him. "Just remember not to be too honest." She winked and lowered her hand, turning away.
Doko blushed and focused on grabbing a stick. Luckily, the rest of the class had been doing the same, and they had not noticed their little exchange…at least, he didn't think any of them had.
Unknown to him, Mina's eyes were practically burning lasers into the top of his head as he leaned forward to grab a stick.
…
The game continued in a manner similar to most king's games. The orders grew more ridiculous and elaborate as people ran out of ideas. Todoroki had to wear Iida's glasses for three rounds straight, causing both of them to be unable to see. Kaminari had to stand up and do the chicken dance, much to Jiro and Bakugo's joy. Shoji had to say something nice about Tsuyu, which he did quite honestly, citing her reliability as both a friend and a partner in battle. The frog girl had blushed at this, and Mina and Toru had both squealed with excitement. Clearly, romantic escalation was what they were after, but whose specifically?
Doko had miraculously escaped both being the king and being ordered by them. He kept getting numbers that they wouldn't call. On one hand, he was relieved, but…
"Number six!" Toru, who was the king, called out. "Say something embarrassing in English!"
Doko's eyes widened. He was number six.
"That's a bad order," complained Kirishima. "What if the person doesn't know English?"
"It's alright, I'm sure I can think of something," Doko called, showing his stick to the rest of the class.
A few "ooooohs" went around the circle. Clearly, they'd realized that he was someone who hadn't been ordered yet. Plus, Doko was perfectly aware of how little most of them knew about him.
"Ahem," he coughed. He became very aware that Momo, who was very good at English and was in fact tutoring him in it, would be able to perfectly comprehend whatever he said, regardless of whether the others could.
He tried his best. "I couldn't name the top five heroes until I was thirteen," he said.
Momo's eyes widened.
"Really?" Midoriya asked, leaning forward.
"Wait, what did he say?" Ojiro asked.
"He said…"
"I caught the word heroes for sure…"
"He said he couldn't name the top five heroes until he was thirteen," Midoriya reported. "Really, Katayama?" He seemed genuinely shocked.
"Well, we can't all be fanboys like you," Doko muttered. Bakugo snorted.
"What do you think, your majesty?" Mina asked Toru in a fake posh accent. "Was that a sufficiently embarrassing thing to say?"
Doko felt that if he could see Toru, she would be staring daggers of suspicion at him. "I'll allow it for now," she announced.
"That's surprising," Momo whispered to him as they re-shuffled the sticks. "Why didn't you know?"
"Well, I knew All Might and Endeavor," he whispered back to her. "But, I guess I just didn't…I didn't care about the others, really." Was it worth mentioning that he didn't even think of the hero path as an option until he was thirteen? How he'd doubted himself so much thanks to his family that he'd never dreamed of being able to use his powers to help people?
Obviously not in this setting, it's not worth saying. As he gave the number six stick away, Doko noticed something random.
On the back of the wood, there was a darker streak that wrapped down the length of the stick. He knew that was a random thing that would happen to processed wood, especially in popsicle sticks like this. But still, wasn't that a tell? If anyone associated that streak with the number six…
I'm sure no one would notice anyway. I bet you can't even see it from across the circle. If he became king, he would ignore it.
As it happened, he became king in the very next round.
"Center of attention two rounds in a row!" Mina hooted. "Sure you can handle it, Katayama?"
"As well as you can handle NOT being the center of attention," he called back good-naturedly. He had not thought of what he would order someone to do, so he had to pull something out of his ass.
"Erm…number nine. Scoot closer to the person to your left until your sides are touching, and stay sitting like that for the next three rounds." Secretly, he hoped Momo was ninth, since she was to his right. But it was a shot in the dark.
Mina and Toru both whistled. "A spicy order, huh? Didn't know you had it in you, Katayama-kun!"
"Always the element of surprise," he muttered.
The rest of the class was looking around wildly to see who was ninth.
Ochaco's face had gone very, very red. Slowly, she lifted her stick to show the rest of them. Written on it was the number 9.
All eyes immediately went to the person to her left. It was, of course, Izuku.
Mina howled with laughter. So did several of the boys, too. Both Uraraka and Midoriya were blushing furiously, unable to look at each other.
"It's f-fine, Uraraka-san…it's j-just for three r-rounds…"
"Are you s-sure you don't m-mind, Deku…"
"I m-mean, uhmmm…"
Doko had not expected such perfect results, and he almost felt like laughing, too. The way those two danced around each other was adorable. Although, is that not how me and Momo act around each other, too?
Slowly, Uraraka scooted her butt to the left until she and Midoriya were touching, both of them red as tomatoes. Midoriya seemed stiff as a board, afraid to move at all.
Mina's eyes glowed deviously. "Perfect, Katayama. A stroke of genius."
They reshuffled the sticks.
"Can we end the game soon?" complained Todoroki.
"We've got to go for three more rounds at least," Sero chuckled. "Can't deny those two their precious time together."
Midoriya and Uraraka, still touching, both blushed even deeper, if that was possible.
Jiro mumbled something under her breath. Bakugo snatched a stick from the cup and then pointed at Izuku with it. "DEKU! Snap out of it! How're you gonna compete with me if you're so focused on girls, dammit!"
"K-KACchan, I…"
"No, just shut up! Pull yourself together! It's just a little bit of skin, for fuck's sake!"
Doko picked up the next stick. It had the number 1 on it. For some reason, a chill went up his spine. He hadn't gotten the first number before.
Momo picked hers up, and the cup went on until it went back to Mina. Mina pulled out the last stick, and she pumped her fist into the other. "YES! I'm the Queen!"
"King," Tokoyami corrected.
"No, in my case it's Queen, bird boy. The Alien Queen!"
"Midnight made you ditch that name, though," Kaminari pointed out.
"You're gonna regret your words, Jamming-yay."
"Fine then." The electric user straightened himself up. "Go ahead and try to guess my number, Ashido. Do your worst!"
"Well…" Mina's eyes danced around the circle. She leaned forward, as if pulling the rest of them into the game with her. There was a tension in the air. "Since Katayama escalated things, I can't help but escalate them further."
"You said nothing extreme, remember!" Iida protested.
"Yes, but I'm the one making the rules, hon."
The class rep opened his mouth to say something else, but seemed so taken aback at being called "hon" that he could not conjure a response.
Mina was looking at all their faces in turn, as if looking for some kind of tell. Her mischievous gaze passed over Doko, and then moved to Momo…and flicked downward, to Momo's stick.
Something fired in Doko's brain. In an instant, he understood. His eyes followed Mina's, down to Momo's stick…and he saw a dark streak in the wood, and a clear number six written in Sharpie marker.
"Number six," Mina declared, puffing up her chest with a deep, victorious breath. "Kiss the cutest person in the room."
A stunned silence passed over them all.
For a moment, Doko considered calling her out for cheating. But…something told him to hold. A panicked fear was flooding through him now, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
Momo was shaking. "I h-have to d-do it…on the lips?" she stammered.
The class gasped, comments crackling around the circle.
"It's Yao-momo?"
"She hasn't had to do anything yet!"
"She has to kiss someone?"
Kaminari whistled, only to receive a kick from Sero.
"I wonder who it's gonna be…"
"Probably one of the girls…"
"Hey, that has its own set of benefits."
Kaminari was kicked again, this time by Iida. The class rep then turned to Mina and said, "Ashido, that is completely uncalled for! Yaoyorozu, you don't have to do this. Together, you and I have the authority to call off this game at once…"
"No," said Momo.
Doko had remained silent, trying to figure out what he was panicking about, and now he knew. What if she picks someone else? His eyes flashed toward Todoroki. And then, unbidden, to Jiro, on Momo's other side.
"I'll do it," the raven-haired girl said, straightening herself up.
Toru hooted. "That's the spirit!"
"Now, once again I ask you…Queen Mina. Does it have to be on the lips?" Momo asked.
Mina grinned. "I like how you addressed me as Queen, so I'll be lenient. You can kiss them on the cheek if you like."
"Alright." Momo closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Then, quick as a hummingbird, she leaned over and pecked Doko on the cheek. It was like a flash of soft warmth, leaving an afterglow that spread across his face like wildfire.
The entire class erupted into chaos.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry about the wait. As much as I'd like to wring this thing out for all it's worth, the story will probably arrive at a conclusion within the next three or four chapters.
Fluff is fun, isn't it?