*"Last Christmas I gave you my heart the very next day you threw it away"*
Kyoka wants to throw Eijiro Kirishima through a window, not an uncommon feeling for those who dealt with the 'manly' Red Riot's music choices for an extended periord of time. There was more to life then Toketsu remixes, that's all people told, and then he'd play the newest theme and challenge them to name anything manlier.
She takes a sip of her...mulled wine? Didn't matter booze was booze, at least he had gotten off that Pre Quirk power ballad thing he had in U.A. You would think that nothing could make you hate 'Eye of the Tiger' but some how Eijiro had managed.
Still his decision to use Pre-Quirk Christmas music as the soundtrack for the Class 1A and 1B Christmas party left mixed feelings in in Kyoka. Especially that fucking song. Despite herself she can't help but look across the room where Denki was chatting up Pony the American had decided to stay in Japan after graduation for some reason. The wide smile on her face did funny things to Kyoka.
Jealousy, anger, betrayal, and disappointment mixed with the wine to drive her into a corner where her fierce glare could scare off all comers. She shouldn't have come. Kyoka takes a sip, but Momo had begged her and even after all these years there was nothing she could deny her best friend, if only she was as gay as Momo was...things would be so much better.
Ugh it had been a year, why did seeing 'Jamming Whey' still feel so bad? They had dated, it hadn't worked out, the dumping had been mutual, mutual. Kyoka held on to that little truth like a lifeline, but it didn't really help. Probably because while mutual, the timing hadn't been. Denki had admitted what they both knew just before Christmas...and after she had started trying to win him back. That it had failed wasn't his fault, you can't make yourself love someone.
It didn't help that with a few exceptions (Most of the former Bakugo squad excepting Mina) Class 1A had all found someone. Even Mineta had date, another 'size challenged' person as he preferred to call it. Someone he had met up in Hokkaido on a rescue operation apparently. Kyoka almost wanted to cry, fucking Mineta the Grapist had managed to grow up and get a steady girlfriend, and here she was pining over someone who had clearly moved on. Yet, she knew that if Denki came over and reached up to brush her hair, she'd fall for him all over again.
Clearly the solution is more booze.
*"Well it's been a year, that doesn't surprise me."*
Izuku could say he had better years. Year after graduation had been amazing for example, the year his mom had fulfilled his secret dream to have Yagi as his real dad, that had been pretty great. He looks down at the cooler that Katsuki had thrust into his hand as soon as he walked in. Izuku wasn't much for drinking, drunken One For All shenanigans sounded fun but in practice were why he was banned from Switzerland for life. Taking a sip he lets the fruity alcohol settle in his mouth before swallowing. Then his eyes settled on _her_ the woman that had lead him to doing a world tour for a year.
Ochako Uraraka looked as beautiful as he remembered, even in her casual blouse and jeans she was laughing with Tenya and her fiance to be, a Jotaro Araki. The other man was built like a brick house and taller than Izuku by a good foot, strangely enough his quirk had nothing to do with his body, being a sort energy projection ability. Sometimes Izuku wanted to deck him in his smiling face.
Okay most times, it wasn't really Jotaro's fault, and as the symbol of hope, Izuku couldn't go decking people who happened to being marrying his long time crush.
The last Christmas came too easily to his mind. When he had finally worked up the courage to confess his feelings to Ochako, how her smile had turned to ash as she gently let him down. She had hated hurting him like that, but she wasn't the sort to cheat, no matter what, and she and Jotaro had just moved from casual dating to 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. According Mina's frantic texts, the younger man had popped the marriage question only a few weeks ago and Ochako had said yes.
Fuck he hated this, hated seeing her so happy, and not being able to be happy for her in turn. A year should have been enough time to heal, but it felt like he had only been running away. That instead of healing as he went from country to country, meeting so many cool heroes and seeing so many amazing quirks, he had just buried his pain. Now it was all back.
Maybe he shouldn't have come. Yeah, he should leave, everyone else was having fun, even Kyoka was...even Kyoka was draining that punch bowl like she needed to have veins be literally liquor. A frown from him as he moved over to the punk rock hero. This wasn't like her...
*"This year to save me from tears"*
Kyoka's head swam as emptied the last of the punch, smart? No? Something she'd regret in the morning? Probably. But now she couldn't see Denki and Pony making 'fuck me' eyes at each other so the hang over was Future Kyoka's problem, the poor dumb bitch. Ugh, she needed to get back to her corner. One foot in front of the other Kyoka, you can do this, don't fall down, that's Mina's job.
God she was such a mean drunk. Mina might have a reputation of being the class party girl, a reputation she guarded well, but Mina never got black out drunk and actually took good care of everyone who did. And that was a well muscled male chest in her face. Who the hell wears flannel to a Christmas party? Kyoka wonders as she looks up to see the worried face of one Izuku Midoriya.
"Jirou?" He asks quietly, almost too quietly to be heard over the goddamned music.
Who queued up ten repeats of Last Chrismas? Kyoka needed to strangle them with her jacks.
"Midira...Midotra ...Green" Kyoka says giving up on saying his name properly.
"You alright?" Izuku asks his green eyes full of care and pain.
Pain? That wasn't right, Izuku didn't understand pain, there was like a rule that he could just ignore it. That's how he always won, no matter how you hurt him, he got back up and then punched your smug face in for your trouble.
"Mmm fine...wanna drink with me?" Kyoka could feel herself slur.
"Maybe another time." Izuku offered.
That pain was still there, Kyoka's mind wasn't working well, but she was still a hero, and heroes helped people in pain, now how to solve this? Convince him to drink with her. That was how, and maybe those big green eyes would be happy. She liked his happy eyes, everyone did.
"Commme on...ain't like ya don't wanna" Kyoka whined.
"Jirou..." Izuku said
No, this wasn't good he was withdrawing, stop him! Kyoka's brain went to how she had convinced Momo to call her by her name.
"Kyoka...Kyoka!" Kyoka said poking his handsome face with her jacks.
"You're drunk" Izuku said.
The punk rock heroine rolled her eyes. Duh she was drunk, she knew that, why was he telling her things she already knew? Well two could play at that game. Wait wasn't she doing something again?
"And you're sexy" Kyoka said flippantly.
"Really drunk." Izuku amended.
"Nooo.." Kyoka said sarcastically.
"Let's get you home." Izuku decided.
Right that was what she was doing, getting him drunk so he didn't hurt anymore.
"Don't wanna, need you to drink with me." Kyoka said.
"If you let me take you home I'll share a drink with you" Izuku said.
Hmm on the one hand success, on the other Izuku in her home, that was like...something big. Kyoka couldn't quite remember why.
"Okay..." she slurred.
*"Me? I guess I was shoulder to cry on"*
Izuku wondered how the hell that song was following them, but as Kyoka hung on for dear life, he decided to push the question to the side.
Kyoka naturally had an apartment in a nice part of town, but getting to it had been a chore after the snows had turned the city partially to ice. The poor woman had fallen down three times befor Izuku had just decided to carry her.
Unfortunately that meant instead of focusing on not falling, she was focusing on him. And Kyoka was apparently a handsy drunk. Her fingers and jacks rubbing his arms and chest through the clothes. He couldn't say he hated a beautiful woman touching him. (And no matter what Mineta said, Kyoka was like every other woman in Class 1A beautiful in her own way) It was however distracting.
"Oh here we are" Kyoka slurred as she dug into her jacket and dug out a key.
Then dropped it as she fumbled to open the door.
Blackwhip came to the rescue as it had so many times before and Izuku shifted to open the door for them both. The dark apartment lights turned on as they walked in. Motion sensors, smart. The apartment was both like and not like what he expected. Plenty of posters of various musicians, a state of the art sound system, a few instruments laying around. That much was expected, but the small bookshelf of various comics and anime figurines and the posters of mangka along with art supplies were strange.
It was a bit of a struggle to get Kyoka off of him, but Izuku managed to put her on her couch.
"I'll get you some water and aspirin for the morning" he says leaving her behind.
Two jacks reach out and pull him back.
"Don't go..." Kyoka half whined.
Her black eyes are wide and filled with unshed tears.
"Kyoka?" He asked.
"Don't go...please..." she said again.
Izuku moved to sit on the couch beside her.
"What do you need Kyoka?" Izuku asked.
"You to stop hurting..." she said and splayed out on the couch like a cat.
"Me?" Izuku can't hide his surprise.
He'd been hiding it well, so he thought.
"Yeah, not allowed to be hurt, we decided" Kyoka said in a half slur.
"We..you mean the class...decided I couldn't be hurt." Izuku said in a slightly wondering tone of voice.
"Uh-huh, so who did it? Gotta get the girls together..." Kyoka said
Who hurt him? Izuku feels a bitter smile on his face form. There was no one to blame but himself, if he had confessed to Ochako when Yagi, Katsuki, Shoto and even Tenya had told him too, then he would have been with her, but instead he had been a coward and paid the price.
"I did it to myself." Izuku said.
"Nuh-uh..same hurt...someone you love left." Kyoka said.
Drunken Kyoka was also apparently a perceptive Kyoka, Izuku decided.
"I never had a claim on her in the first place. What do you mean same hurt?" Izuku asked.
Kyoka blinked a few times before wrapping her arms around him.
"Broke up with my boyfriend...and it still hurts."
Izuku found himself hugging her back. He guessed she was hiding her tears from him given the sudden wetness on his shirt.
"Never had a girlfriend in a first place. The one I confessed to, was involved with someone else. She had been trying to figure out how to break it to me gently" He said.
"Dumb bitch" Kyoka said into his chest.
"Hey now...she's not a dumb bitch." Izuku said on reflex.
"Nuh uh, picked someone else over you, that's dumb." Kyoka said.
Izuku felt himself laugh, because he knows that Ochako and Kyoka are friends and if she knew who, Kyoka would never say something like that.
"Then the guy who broke up with you was a stupid bastard" Izuku said.
"You swore...you're not allowed to swear!" Kyoka said.
"Another thing the class decided huh...England changes a man I guess." Izuku said. "Side's I'm right"
"Nah, we thought cause we both worked well together, that we'd be...we'd be all matching and shit, but I ain't into his weeb shit, and he ain't into my music shit...only thing in common was work. Wasn't enough" Kyoka said.
"Still a dumb bastard, Pro Heroine Beat Down? One of my top heroines personally." Izuku said.
"Stoooop." Kyoka. "Ain't Creati or Ace Queen...not even in the top fifty"
"But still one of my tops.." Izuku said.
Which was true, all of his former class mates except maybe Mineta were good heroes, better than most of the ones above them in his own opinion. How the hell Best Jeanist had held on so long he had no idea.
"One of my tops too...been me, woulda said yes" Kyoka said.
"Even when you had a boyfriend?" Izuku asked.
Kyoka paused for a moment.
"Guess not...still sexy, kind, strong, caring, I'd say yes now...you'd say yes to me?"
The woman wasn't serious, Izuku couldn't believe she was, just a drunken question nothing more than that. After all, who'd call him sexy? Still, he wouldn't have said no to Kyoka back in High School, and if he rejected her that would hurt her feelings. Which was not what heroes did.
"You're still drunk, but if I had a chance with you, I'd take it." Izuku answered.
"And you're not, you said you'd have a drink with me..." Kyoka complained.
Izuku felt his smile become more playful.
"I did say that, but never when."
"Meany" Kyoka said and poked him with her jacks.
"Just a bit." Izuku said. "Tomorrow okay?"
"...Ookay..." Kyoka said.
They held on to each other for a little while, before Izuku heard a tiny, adorable snore. He looked down to see Kyoka still hanging on to him. He thought for a moment about how to extricate himself from her grip, but she had tied her jacks around his arm again.
"Guess I'm staying here for the night." Izuku said.
"*So this year to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special*"
Kyoka woke slowly the feeling of her head trying to explode like Katsuki when he went down a rank, or worse when he heard rumors of being gay for Izuku. The light was too bright, her stomach was queasy. Ugh, that stupid bitch Past Kyoka had gotten her fucked up. This was the worst...only good thing was her pillow was self warming.
Wait she didn't have a self warming pillow. Hey eyes snapped open, which was a mistake as the sunlight reminded her why she hated the day star so much. Still after she recovered after that, she could see Izuku sitting straight up, a blanket hung over half of him, the other half uncovered where she had been laying. At some point he had gotten her a blanket too. He was sleeping too, but hadn't woken.
Hazy memories of last night filtered through Kyoka, she had gotten seriously drunk. Izuku being Izuku had come over to check on her...and then she asked him for drinks... and then things had got heavy... and he admitted to some stupid woman rejecting him..and she had said she would have said yes. Kyoka could fee her cheeks burn.
And because some asshole had done nothing but play that dumb Wham song for ten minutes, it was still in her head. Kyoka was definitely destroying Eijiro's music collection at some point. Because he needed to never play that song again.
Still, she looked up at Izuku, so peaceful, his strong if scarred hand rested on her shoulder protectively. Kyoka could admit to herself that she hadn't been exactly lying that she would have said yes, still would...yeah they had less in common than even she and Denki had...but somehow, she could feel the warm concern radiating from his body even now. It might not last, but he would love her...and that was nice.
God was she seriously considering going after Midoriya? Kyoka asked herself.
The man shifted his beautiful green eyes opened and looked down at her.
"Hey...I'll get you some water and aspirin, if you let me go"
Kyoka looked to see her jacks still wrapped tightly around his arm. With an *eep* she let him go and Izuku went to do as he said. And as she watched his sweet ass move through her apartment, and the care he took not to touch her instruments, the question of whether or not she was seriously considering going after Midoriya began to resolve itself.
Izuku returned and offered Kyoka a gentle caring smile along with the water and aspirin. As Kyoka looked up at him she had two thoughts. First was 'thank you' and the second was 'oh shit, yeah I am going to go after him.' She drunk the water and aspirin.
"Hey...Izuku?" Kyoka asked.
"Yes Kyoka?" Izuku answered.
Come on Kyoka, just keep it casual.
"Uh...if you're um...hungry, I know a decent brunch place near here...wanna go?" she asked.
"Aren't you hung over?" Izuku ased
"They have hang over food" Kyoka answered.
"Sure, whenever you're ready" Izuku said and smiled at her.
Once again Kyoka was going to make future her deal with how that smile made her heart flutter. The poor dumb bitch. For now, she stood slowly, and gave him a smile of her own. He blushed adorably though. Yes Future Kyoka was going to deal with all sorts of things.
Still as she and Izuku walked out of the apartment together, Kyoka found that she wasn't sad for the first time in a year.
