30

Damp Petals

Izuku and Mina were sitting next to each other on the swings, again.

Nightly clouds had crept over the sky like a blanket that didn't bring comfort, blocking out the stars and the moon. It was unusual, the lack of illumination from space seemed to give the city a lack of light, yet it wasn't dark either, there wasn't any natural brightness, hence there also weren't any shadows, giving a disappearance of contrast.

It was a simple breeze that flowed past them, ruffling their hair. She had a delicate grip on the chain links and kicked the sand beneath them with a lack of heart. The sweater was keeping her warm but because it was his, it had his scent, and it was something that she did not want to be enjoying at the moment. He had leaned forward on the swing, resting his elbows on his lap with his hands clasped together in front of his mouth as he incoherently mumbled.

Mina rolled her eyes, seeing that he was doing his inner ramblings. "Well, aren't you going to say something!"

He flinched before straightening out and turning to face her. "Oh, sorry Mina, you know I was just thinking about how to explain what happened."

"That's the problem, I don't even know what happened." She uttered as her lips pulled down. She rubbed her cheeks with the sleeves of his sweater, trying to keep her mouth straight.

"R-Right..." He took in a deep breath, letting out a shaky exhale. "Look, Mina, what happened between me and Momo, it was... it was stupid." He rubbed his hands together with a faraway stare as if recalling the memories he had pushed to the back of his mind. "It's a mistake I've been ashamed of, th-that's why I've never brought it up."

"Ashamed, really? You sure have a funny way of showing it, looking at how close you two are."

"Okay that's fair, but we've always been that close, and you never said anything before?"

"Well, it's different now. How do you expect me to feel knowing that you and Yao-momo were like that? You saw how she was acting."

Izuku bit back, thinking. "Mina, there's nothing between me and Momo anymore, I promise you."

Mina got up from her swing walking forward in a fit, throwing her hands up. "That's exactly it! You had something with her! And you still refuse to talk about it!"

Izuku stood up as well, looking at her back. "Because it's not important! Look, it was something that happened but it has nothing to do with us. I'm with you, not Momo."

She turned around and faced him with her hands on her hips. "Of course it has to do with this! See how defensive you're getting! If it's not important why don't you tell me what happened, huh?"

He gritted his teeth but said it. "Me and Momo slept together to get over Uraraka and Todoroki."

"What?"

Izuku sighed looking down. "It was winter break, Todoroki invited us on a vacation with his family... Momo thought it was his way of asking her out until she found out I was going too. That was when she realized Todoroki would never see her that way, I think that's why she acted out tonight, because of how he was with Yui... Anyways, she confided in me when we were alone at the hot springs... and I told her how I felt about Uraraka," He rubbed his elbow with his other hand, "And then before we knew it we got caught up in something we weren't prepared for..." Izuku squeezed his eyes shut refusing to let the emotional memories overwhelm him. "We decided that it was for the best, if we just pretended it never happened."

At first, Mina was speechless as she absorbed the information about her boyfriend's past. Her wide eyes grew narrow as if realizing. She pushed out her cheek with her tongue as she glanced away, rubbing a sniffle before crossing her arms. "So that's it... So what, now you're just with me to get over Yao-momo?" She couldn't meet his eyes no matter how hard she tried because she was scared of confronting that possibility.

Izuku caught an off-guard gasp. He gripped his fist tight. "You know that's not true."

"No, I don't Izuku! God, you're like a totally different person than the innocent classmate I thought I knew... Did-, did you sleep with Uraraka, too?"

"What, Mina?"

She quickly wiped her eyes with his sweater sleeves, before glaring at him with honey-puffed eyes. "Is there anyone else I should know about?"

He ruffled his hair. "I-, you already knew I wasn't virgin, so-,"

"Are you gonna answer or not?"

"But why is this so important to you? Our past shouldn't matter! I'm not beating myself up about the people you might've slept with it, it doesn't change who you-,"

"I've only slept with you! Idiot!"

"What?.. But you said-,"

"I know what I said! I was lying..."

"Oh..."

The quiet wind swept along with a fragile silence.

"Mina... I know I can come off as pretty innocent and that it misled your assumptions of me but I mean there's a reason I act the way that I do. I'm not comfortable talking about those other parts about me... But that doesn't change who I am or how I feel about you. I'm still that dense idiot that you tripped over because I got distracted reading a book, while I was waiting for you after school. And I want to keep being that idiot who waits for you."

Her orbs couldn't help but well up as he finished speaking. His words were too sincere. She covered her eyes with his sweater sleeves as the tears couldn't stop streaming. She wasn't looking where she was going and simply ran straight ahead, yet still crashed into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her, tightly embracing her. She smiled up at him. Her cheeks had a cherry blossom blush with glistening trails from the salty liquid. Her nose had a sniffling pinkness to it that bloomed in the empty night. Mina didn't express herself with a ramble of words like Izuku, she didn't need to. She simply did what she always did, reacted to her own emotions. She cupped his face and pressed her damp lips to his, before breaking away looking at him with those illuminated eyes.

"Oh, I-zu-ku!"