Word Count: 9,509
Camie thought boys were pretty fun. They were dumb and rough and oftentimes pretty dang stupid, but she liked them well enough anyway. In the same sort of way she liked puppies, you could say.
Sometimes, she hit on them, if she thought they looked fun enough. Ask them who's a good boy. Is it them? Is it them? More often than not, they'd flush and they'd fluster, embarrassed by how close their faces were, and stammer out some awkward reply before she laughed at them and asked for their number. She didn't usually call them— she wasn't that kind of girl— but even when she did, nothing ever really happened.
Meeting Bakugou was different. Like, wonderfully and delightfully different. He never even blinked at her antics and stupid flirtatious jokes. Heck, unless she was making fun of someone else— Todoroki, Inasa, some random villain or whatever passing by— he didn't even care what she did, as long as she wasn't breaking any laws. He was refreshing, in a sense, and a lot of fun as a result. She kept hitting on him every time they met or talked (as a joke, of course) until one day, he gave her his signature irritated look and said four words she never thought would ever come from his filthy, little, teenage boy mouth:
"I have a boyfriend."
Camie, certified Dumbass Supreme™ that she was, took a second to pick her jaw up off the ground to ask, "Really?"
And then, immediately after:
"When can I meet him?"
Bakugou's regular resting bitch face didn't even twitch. Instead, he said, "And since when do you consider yourself to be important enough to need to meet him? Who do you take yourself for? That bitching hag of a mom of mine?"
"Uhm, ever since I became your greatest, most awesome, and important senpai of all time?" Camie retorted, crossing her arms and leaning way into his personal bubble in a way that she knew would piss him off.
Bakugou scowled a bit, but otherwise held his ground. "No," he said.
Camie dropped the posture after about a minute of futile eyebrow waggling and flounced and floundered for a minute. "Oh, come on, Katsudon!" she whined. "I wanna meet the lad who not only enchanted your mind and ensnared your soul—"
Bakugou made a face of unfiltered disgust and displeasure, presumably at her sappy word choice, but possibly also at her overdramatic swaying and gesticulating.
"—but also is willing to kiss your ugly mug and call that a good time."
Bakugou put his palm in her face, and for a second, she thought he was gonna tell her to talk to the hand like this was the mid-2000s (which was, frankly speaking, absolutely acceptable, especially considering his aesthetic), but instead, he detonated a tiny explosion just shy of her nose.
A warning shot. She'd better shut up now, or else he'd start ignoring her senpai status and get serious with telling her off.
She ignored it, of course, because Bakugou became the most fun to hang out with when he started ignoring her senpai status. She blew her bangs out of her eyes (making a little glamour illusion of a blooming rose as she did so) and said, "Okay, so, then what if you, like, brought him to my graduation ceremony next week? You know, just as my—" she put a hand to her bosom and made this kind of sarcastic ho-ho~ kind of sound "—final request before I move on to better things in life?"
"What if you moved on to the fucking afterlife?" Bakugou snipped, immune to her womanly charms.
Oooookay, and now Camie was starting to get a little desperate. She wanted to meet this little man; he sounded like fun. Anyone who could bounce off Bakugou Fuckface Katsuki well enough to be his lover just had to be more fun than, like… literally anything she could think of. "I'm going to start barking at you," she said, sounding half like she was threatening him, half like she was a whiny kid threatening to tattle to mom.
"What the fuck?" Bakugou gestured incredulously at her. "Why?"
"Because obviously I need to speak in a language a bitch would understand." Camie kissed her fingertips and blew out a tiny illusion of a fluffy, little dog, which ran circles around Bakugou's pissy, little head.
Bakugou made a noise that was exactly midway between a growl, a bark, and some sort of sneezy choke.
(It sounded exactly as funny as she described it, and Camie did not bother to hide her laughter.)
"Fuck you," Bakugou spat, his eyebrows so furrowed they looked like they were kissing.
Camie couldn't help but to waggle her eyebrows and say, "Not my job."
"I'm going to puke."
"But, you could bring—"
"Fine. I'll bring him to your stupid high school graduation," Bakugou snapped, the tips of his ears a hilariously bright shade of red. "What day is it?"
"Two weeks, March tenth," Camie replied, brighter than a white girl talking to another white girl she secretly despised. She grinned and leaned into his personal bubble again. "I'll see you there, Baku-boi~" She even threw in an ostentatious wink at the end.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Camie met a pretty girl that was pink all over one afternoon. Just a glimpse from across the street as she familiarized herself with what would become her patrol route in about a week, after she graduated and became one of Majestic's official sidekicks, but it was enough to stop her in her tracks.
She was pretty, beautiful, even, to Camie's well-trained eyes. A showstopper, a ten outta ten, dancing down the sidewalk like the world was her stage. (If it was, then she was shaping up to be Camie's favorite actress.) She was just ahead of some other girls, all of them dressed in different school uniforms— middle school friends having a reunion, maybe? Camie wasn't all too sure; her last brain cell imploded from all the gay pressure put on it. No more thoughts. Head empty. Society (Camie) had progressed past the need for coherent thought.
She caught the pink girl's eye, and if her heart was beating before, well. It wasn't anymore.
Pink Girl flashed a grin, bounced up and down, and waved at her all in a frenzy before skipping off with her friends.
How friendly. And romantic, perhaps? Smiling at strangers didn't usually go that far. They were not usually that intimate.
Camie shook her head mechanically, still out of it from the experience. No, just friendly. Girls were just friendly like that with other girls. Complimenting other girls in bathrooms just because they could.
Camie fell back against a building wall, a hand to her chest, where she found her heart pounding still.
"God, I'm gay," she breathed.
Pink Girl lived rent-free in Camie's head after that. Not that Camie minded, not at all— work didn't start for real until after graduation, and she didn't have classes anymore to, quote, "focus on settling into their new jobs," so she had basically a week to hang around and be gay.
And then, March tenth arrived.
Camie stood before her uniform one last time, the fact that it was the last time not fully sinking in just yet.
She took her hat down from its hook and ran her fingers across the soft, inner lining. Most Shiketsu students stopped wearing them with their hero costumes the second they graduated, as the only reason they'd done so in the first place was the school's uniform policy, but a few kept it around for the first few years of their professional lives, just for various reasons.
Camie wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it. It matched her costume pretty damn spankin' well, and how else would she flirt with pretty girls across the street via hat tipping? Whistle at them? Like a heathen? Absolutely not.
Camie settled the hat on her head and strutted around the room in just it and her pajamas. All Shiketsu cared about was the hat, really. Some girls rolled their skirts up crazy high, and as long as they wore their hats properly, admin considered them to be in proper uniform.
Where did Pink Girl go to high school, she wondered. The uniform looked familiar, but Camie, she was bad at matchups. She knew the uniform— she swore she saw it everywhere— she just couldn't remember what school it came from.
She sighed, resigning herself to the long, slow process of getting over her mysterious love over the course of the next five to ten years. She changed out of her pajamas and into her school uniform for the last time, and before she left her room, she checked herself out in the mirror. Adjusted her hat, one last time.
And just before she stepped out of her room, the name of Pink Girl's school fell into her head:
"UA!"
Kirishima Eijirou was a very sweet boy, as it turned out, and very fun to be around. Gay guys often were, Camie noticed, though she often found twinks to be the funnest, and Kirishima wasn't twink-ish at all. Too beefy. He offered to bench press her after she got her diploma.
Well, it was a whatever sort of thing, since as a himbo, he was an absolute riot (pun absolutely intended after she found out his hero name).
"Oh, dude, dude, dude," he said, pulling out his phone, "check out this thing we did the other day as a squad. We all just kind of got on top of everyone's shoulders and started running around the dorms; it was pretty great, a lot of fun. I feel like you'd get along really well with the rest of our friends, actually, now that I think about it, but…"
He handed Camie his phone, and the first thing she noticed was, holy shit, he knew Pink Girl.
Camie let out an awed, little breath (mistakenly letting out a little glimmer in the shape of a heart as she did so), staring at the picture of Pink Girl.
Though, technically, it wasn't of Pink Girl; there were five others in the picture with her. She just sat atop a stack made up of herself up top, some guy who looked like he pretended to smoke weed for clout for so long everyone stopped taking it as a joke in the middle, and Kirishima the grinning Meatman Supreme™ himself holding them both up on his shoulders. The other stack also had a girl at the top, with dark hair and headphone jack ears, and she was pretty, too— but she was kissing the head of the blond boy whose shoulders she sat atop. They appeared to be a fairly happy couple anyway, the blond boy clearly laughing in the picture despite what also appeared to be Bakugou's best attempts to shake him and the girl off his shoulders.
Camie zoomed in on Pink Girl and flashed the screen back at Kirishima. "Who is she?" she asked, hoping she sounded merely casually interested and not like she was going to pass out. Hopefully, she didn't sound super thirsty or anything. That would be bad.
Kirishima blinked at the phone screen. "Who, Mina?" he asked.
"Is that the pink girl's name?" Camie asked.
"I think so," Kirishima replied.
"You think so?" While she and Kirishima had been talking, Bakugou appeared to have gotten bored by the lack of attention paid to him— he was, after all, the type of guy who needed spectators, even if he usually spent his time ignoring them— and was now butting into their conversation. "You've known her for five years, and you think her name is Mina?"
"Well, what do you think her name is, Katsuki?" Kirishima asked, turning around to face his boyfriend and crossing his arms. "It's not Raccoon Eyes."
Bakugou ignored that. "Anyway, why're you so interested, Little Miss Phone Addict?"
Wow. It was almost kind of cute how worked up and protective Bakugou got over his friends. Key word here being almost, because it was actually mostly funny. "I'm a lesbian, Katsudon," she said. And I'm in love with her, so if you could just kindly tell me more about her…
"What the fuck?" (Oh? Had she never mentioned that particular detail to him? She could have sworn she'd been extremely clear about the matter.) "Then why the fuck were you always hitting on me?"
Camie handed Kirishima's phone back to him so that she could cross her arms at Bakugou. "I dunno," she said, feigning innocence. "Maybe because it was funny."
Bakugou looked like he was about to start barking at her (or at least bite her), but fortunately for the general public, Kirishima stepped between them and said, "Ladies, ladies, please stop fighting. You're both pretty."
Camie howled with laughter, doubling over even. "I'm prettier, though, riiight?" she asked.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but unfortunately for you, I'm not very beholden to women, m'lady," Kirishima said, then turned to face Bakugou. "I do like manly men, though."
That seemed to satiate Bakugou at least. "Fuck yeah," he said, more quietly now, a bit more to himself.
"Anyway," Camie said, hoping to get the conversation back on track, which was, of course, meant back to Miss Mina(?) the Pink Girl, and if she was single. "About Mina. Can I…" Camie batted her lashes and waggled her eyebrows. "…get her number? Mayhaps? Pwetty Pwease uwu?"
"I will duct tape your mouth shut one of these days," Bakugou grunted.
"Would Sero be willing to help out with that?" Kirishima said, tapping his chin. "I'm gonna text him."
"H-hewwo?" Camie desperately pleaded. "Pwetty girw nyumbew? Pwease?"
"Give me a minute," Kirishima said, texting away on his phone, evidently not giving a shit about her uwu voice. "I need to get her approval first."
Camie started vibrating with excitement. "Wait, for real? Bro, like, dude. Sis. Fam. Oh my god, are you? Are you serious?"
Kirishima didn't say anything; he just pointed his phone at her for a second. Camie shrieked and instinctively covered her face with her hands, realizing that, while sheknew she looked the bomb dot com at the moment, she hadn't been adequately prepared to have a candid picture taken of her to be sent to her love like that!
"Don't send that!" she cried, grabbing the redhead by the shoulders and shaking him with all her might. "You didn't get my good side!"
"You have a good side?" Bakugou grumbled.
"Better than whatever you try to pass off as your 'good side'," Camie snipped. She let go of Kirishima and scrambled to set up an illusion of herself looking extra cute for him to photograph. "Send her this instead! Please, I'm begging youuuuu!"
"Too late," Kirishima said.
Camie collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated, and the illusion exploded into a mass of sparkles and glitter along with her. Her life was over. She graduated high school at least, but at what cost? "I'm dead," she mumbled into the dirt. "You've killed me. You killed a civilian. You need to hand in your provisional hero license right now, mister."
"Oh, well, that sucks," Kirishima said, and Camie felt something tap her skull, "because she just told me to give you her number. Oh well. I'll be sure to write it down and put it on your funeral pyre."
Camie jumped up and brushed the dirt off her uniform so quickly, she was pretty sure her brain knocked up against her skull and started working even better than before. (Definitive proof that percussive maintenance worked, heh.) "Really?" she shouted, not even bothering to hide her rising, puppyish excitement. Who gave a shit if she disturbed other people? What were they gonna do? Expel her? Take away her degree? Pfft. PSHHHHT.
Kirishima shoved his phone screen into her face, and Camie took it into her shaking hands like it was the holy goddamn grail.
[KiriGay]:
[10:54] | hey this girl wants ur number
[10:54] | [file attached: lesbibaebmess .jpg]
[Alien Queen]:
[10:55] | [file attached: hmmmmm .png]
[10:56] | yeh sure lol
Camie looked up at Kirishima's smiling face (and also Bakugou's chronic RBF just behind him), down at the message from Pink Girl, and back up at Kirishima and his sourpuss boyfriend, the reality sinking in as a smile formed on her face all on its own.
"I will officiate your wedding," she declared, as slowly, solemnly, and genuinely as she could muster.
Before either of them could reply, she tossed Kirishima's phone back to him (having already memorized Pink Girl Mina's phone number, of course), and whooped for joy. She kissed the palm of her hand and tossed up a glamour of big, white, feathery wings for herself and a set of wedding bells over the boys' heads.
"WHERE'S INASA?!" she shouted, breaking into a run. "I'M GONNA MAKE THAT BITCH MAKE ME FLY!"
[Utsushimi Camie]: hewwo?
[Utsushimi Camie]: this is the girl kirishima gave ur number to
[Ashido Mina]: hey! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
[Ashido Mina]: c:
[Ashido Mina]: ny names ashido mina
[Ashido Mina]: but my friends call me mina c;
[Utsushimi Camie]: im camie‼️
[Utsushimi Camie]: *cool spy voice* utsushimi camie
It was on one of the quieter patrol days that she caught sight of Bakugou sitting quietly at a café table, his fist tucked under his chin as he seemingly stared off, lost in thought.
Oh? Camie thought. Oh-woah, what's this?
Well, it was a pretty quiet day today, so she had a bit of time. Besides, part of being a hero was having stakeouts.
(That was her justification for literally just hanging out to spy on Bakugou.)
And, well, it wasn't exactly for nothing. Kirishima popped out of the café itself a minute later, a mile-wide, shark-toothed grin on his face and two shakes (likely of the protein variety) in his hands. "Oi, Katsuki!" She could hear his voice from all the way across the street.
Camie snorted softly as she leaned against a wall, still staying out of sight. So it was a date, huh? That checked out. That was cute. She crossed her arms and brought a foot up to the wall, so that she'd look like one of those cool biker chicks in case a—
Across the street, she saw a familiar flash of pink duck into an alleyway. Camie felt like a shock of lightning hit her, striking her heart and then sending electricity all through her bones. She thumped a fist to her chest, having forgotten to breathe, then a couple times more in an attempt to clear her dizzied head.
—pretty girl showed up.
(You know?)
She cleared her throat and shook out her head. What was Mina doing here? Camie damn near snuck across the street to catch her (really meet her for the first time in real life), but an imaginary leash labelled "PATROL DUTY" snapped taut and held her back.
Ah, the age-old question. Duty or love? Fealty or passion? Camie manifested a coin and tossed it up and down a couple times, contemplating. Like, sure, she had to take an ethics test to get her hero license and stuff, but, like, all the k-dramas made it very clear that love was the most powerful force of all and that she should, like, go after it regardless of the personal consequences.
She grabbed the coin out of midair, and it disintegrated into sparkly dust before she could see what side it landed on. Hmm. Well, it was just for the Aesthetique™ anyway.
She bit her lip.
It was a slow day.
Her eyes flicked between the alleyway where Mina was hiding, the boys on their date, and the rest of her patrol route.
But, she did have a time to be back. And, she couldn't exactly text her boss, "hey, out on a quest to woo a pretty girl; I'll finish up patrol later." While she was pretty sure he'd get it (Majestic had this pretty chill and lax vibe with newbies), he also took personal responsibility pretty dang seriously. Camie knew she'd be getting an earful if she decided to just abandon the rest of her route, so with a sigh, she got back to work.
And then a minute later, her phone vibrated in her butt pocket, and, already forgotten the Shiketsu standard of ignoring personal calls when on-duty, she picked it out and checked her notifications.
[Mon A-Mina]: pmg r u on patrol?
[Mon A-Mina]: [file attached: caughtonduty .jpg]
Camie bit her lip in an attempt to keep from smiling. "Oh, my fucking god," she said, tapping her foot from all the excited, happy energy she had.
[Cam-Cam Bam]: yes i ammmm?
[Mon A-Mina]: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
[Mon A-Mina]: wood u like…..✨
[Mon A-Mina]: 2 hang out ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Camie looked up to the sky and let out a silent scream.
[Cam-Cam Bam]: cant T_T
[Cam-Cam Bam]: i must finish my rounds? D: D:
[Cam-Cam Bam]: *perishessss*
[Mon A-Mina]: ok wait a second
Camie stared at her phone screen expectantly, wondering what the hell was about to happen when suddenly, she felt someone slam both their hands onto her shoulders.
"GAAUGH!" she cried, whipping around to find Mina standing in front of her, in the giggling flesh.
(Her cheeks suddenly started burning.)
"Hey!" Mina chirruped, her voice higher, more pitchy than Camie had imagined.
The blonde girl's hands fell limply down to her sides as Mina rocked back and forth, her belly full of laughs.
"I gotcha good, didn't I?" Mina asked, her black eyes bright and misting at the corners from mirth. She hopped up and did a little spin before lurching forward, leaning straight into Camie's personal space and stopping just shy of their noses touching. She grinned. "Bet'cha didn't see that coming, huh, Cam-Cam?"
Camie counted nineteen dark freckles smattered across Mina's nose and cheeks before the latter pulled away, the curls of her bubblegum hair bouncing distractingly as she did another excited little dance. "Uhm," said the former, searching desperately for something to look at that wouldn't make her blush before settling on the pale yellow monster horns poking out of Mina's curly mop. "N-no, you got me there."
(Ugh, WHY was she so bad at this? It was so easy with men! Probably because she wasn't attracted to them, but also, it should be homophobic that that even mattered.)
"C'mon!" sang Mina, taking a few steps forward and linking her arm with Camie's like it was the easiest thing in the world. "I've got a date in progress to catch, so let's get this patrol of yours done so you can come, too!"
Camie was yanked along for a second before she realized she could move her own two feet in order to progress forward. "Uhh," she said, letting out a little nervous chuckle. Her feet felt like they were walking on air— highly unusual, since her pumps usually killed her heels towards the end of her patrols (should she update her hero costume to be more practical? That was a thought for another day)— and her legs seemed to want to dance down the street to the aimless, little tune Mina was humming. "What was that?" A date?
Was she taken?
Or were the two of them dating already, and Camie had just never realized it because all their dates happened once upon a dream in their dreams. What was Mina's quirk again? Could she walk dreams? It would make perfect sense for a dream girl, but—
Mina tugged on her arm, forcing Camie to look at her, with her puffed-out cheeks and exaggerated pout. (Camie suddenly noticed that Mina wasn't all that much shorter than she.) "Usually, I rope Sero into spying on KiriBaku's dates with me, but I think that they coordinated with Denki and Kyouka this time, because they have a date on the other side of the city, so I've sent him off to tell me how their date goes while I keep tabs on Kiri'n'Baku."
Ah. She meant spying on the boys' date.
"Isn't that kind of, like, weird, though?" Camie asked, completely ignoring the fact that she had also been considering spending her patrol doing the exact same thing.
Mina hummed, and she shifted her walk style so that she looked like a little tin soldier, marching down the street. "Maybe," she admitted, then paused. "Maybe. But I've known Ei-chan since middle school. Not very well until we got into UA, but even so, I can't help but feel personally invested in his well-being and love life. I mean, Bakugou's kind of a massive tsundere, and Ei-chan's a bit of a sensitive soul sometimes. I just wanna make sure they get their happily ever after, love-conquers-all type of ending."
Sensitive soul? That's not exactly the language Camie would use to describe Kirishima, but then again, she only knew him from like, an hour at her graduation ceremony. "Yeah, Katsudon's, like, the biggest tsundere I've ever known," she said, focusing on the part that she knew to be true. (Well, if Mina was right about that, mayhaps she should trust her judgement of Kirishima, too.) "I can totally understand why you'd wanna make sure he didn't, like, reflexively say shit like, 'it— it's not like I likeyou or anything, b-b-b-baka!' when he's on, like, an actual date with someone he liked."
"Katsudon?" Mina's eyes went wide with excitement, and she started bouncing around and around again, kind of like a little bunny. "Omigod, that's such a cute nickname! I can't believe I never thought of something like that for Bakugou!" She laughed, and Camie felt like there was an ache in her chest that cried out when she heard it.
But before she could figure out whether it was a nice feeling or not, she heard the walkie-talkie at her hip crackle to life.
"Breaker, breaker, Maboromicamie, this is Majestic. You there? Over."
Ah, the boss was calling. Unfortunate, but honestly, probably what she needed to shift back into work mode.
She grabbed her walkie talkie (flashed a grin and a wink to an awed and excited-looking Mina) and said, "Loud and clear, my dude. This is Maboromicamie here to ask, what's up, Magic Man? Over."
"Anonymous tip-off tells us there's a class two villain down the street from your patrol route. Quirk-assisted bank robbery. You think you can handle it by yourself? Over."
Camie felt a solid hand on her shoulder, and she glanced up to see Mina giving her a wink and a thumbs up. Camie felt her heart start to soar with joy and confidence as she couldn't help the grin forming on her face.
"Yeah, I think I got this on my own, Magic Man," she said into the walkie talkie. "Over."
"Best of luck to you, rookie. Majestic out."
"Copy," Camie said, quietly, no longer into the walkie talkie. She looked at Mina and said, "You got your license, right?"
Mina whipped out a little heroic ID card and shoved it into Camie's face with a proud little, "Hee! Hee! Hee~~!"
Camie turned her Shiketsu cap around on her head, nearly giddy with excitement. "Then let's get this party started, Pinkie Pie!"
Mina whooped as they took off together.
Magic Man Majestic gave Camie the rest of the day off when she finished dispatching the villain, praising her for her quick action. He even thanked Mina for her contributions (and for working so well with "his headstrong newest sidekick"— whatever he meant by that), inviting her over for an internship when she had an opening.
So, that was nice.
"That was fun," Camie said as she and Mina sat themselves down outside the café where they had last seen Kirishima and Bakugou.
"Oodles," Mina agreed, her legs swinging back and forth as she bounced around in her chair. "Mmm, I might take your boss up on his internship offer, too. We make a pretty good team! Right now, I work at the same agency as Sero, so we do some pretty good work together like that, too. He swings me around with the greatest of ease, like, pa-cha! Ka-chow! Schoom! And it feels like flying, and I have to be really good with aiming my acid, so that I don't hit any civilians and stuff, but luckily for everyone, I'm already a pretty good shot." She shot some finger guns at Camie with a wink.
Camie's heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks flushed.
But something writhed in her gut, a question she wanted to ignore, that tainted the moment. (Tainted love, oh, tainted love) She had to know, before she just set her up for heartbreak.
"What's with you and this Sero guy?" she blurted out. "Are you, like…" She made an awkward gesture.
Mina stared at her, confused.
"...a thing?" Camie finally said, continuing to make her awkward little hand gestures.
Mina looked relieved. "Oh! No," she said. "We're just friends."
The weight of the world rolled off Camie's shoulder like water off a duck's back.
"Oh!" she said, a little flustered, mostly just excited. "Sorry for assuming. I guess I just…"
She hesitated. Was worried, she supposed? It wasn't like it was uncommon for straight girls to act kind of flirtatious with their friends. She did it, too. It was just kind of fun. It was far, far from impossible for Mina to have just been being friendly with her. ~*Gal Pals*~, ya know?
Mina sighed, in this wistful, dreamy sort of way that drew Camie out of her own anxious ruminations. "It's all right," she said. "I get that a lot." She looked directly at Camie and smiled, and there was something sad and painful about it that tugged at Camie. "He told me he liked me last year, but…" She sighed again, stretched out her arm, and laid her head on it.
Camie held her breath. Mina's hand was right by her elbow, palm up, and Camie was tempted to hold it.
"I dunno," Mina continued, fidgeting around. "I don't really fall in love like normal people do."
She… huh.
Camie didn't know how to feel about that.
"What do you mean?" she ventured.
"It's like, you know how in manga, people have that kind of love-at-first-sight stuff?" Mina asked, bringing her head up again to meet Camie's gaze.
The corner of Camie's mouth twitched as she remembered her own love-at-first-sight experience with the girl sitting before her at that very moment. "Yeah," she said. "What about it?"
"I thought that was fake," Mina said, very deliberately drawing out and emphasizing the word fake. "I thought it was just that kind of trope you only see in stories, but no; I remember when Denki came to me for advice on how to confess to Kyouka, and he rattled on and on about how she's been this beautiful, goddess-like figure in his life that he's been in love with since he first laid eyes on her, and I was like, 'lol, you're exaggerating, right?'"
Their milkshakes came right then, and for the moment, the atmosphere was almost like a dream, in the way that it lightly slips by before you even realize what was going on, forgetting whatever happened even moments before like it was nothing.
Camie popped the straw into her mouth and stared intently at Mina as she fussed over her own drink for a moment, then sort of… deflated, for lack of a better word.
"He looked at me kind of funny, and he laughed, and said, 'Yeah, kind of,' but apparently, the first sight thing was not," the pink girl continued. She took a sip of her strawberry milkshake, stirred it around, then showed Camie her teeth, like a child that still didn't know quite how to smile yet but was happy all the same. "Anyway, I don't think I've fallen in love before, not really. I think maybe I could, or maybe I have, but only with people I know, like, really well."
Camie continued slurping away at her milkshake, expecting Mina to continue. After all, it was rude to interrupt an emotional monologue. But, it appeared that the other girl was done.
"That's rough, dawg," Camie said, the words just popping out of her perfectly glossed lips of their own accord. She regretted it once she realized she spoke, of course (WHY didn't she say 'buddy'? It would have completed the quote and just aAAAAAUUUGHHHHHH), but then Mina giggled.
"Yeah, kind of," she said. "But it's all right. Not everyone has to fall in love right away, and being demi's not a curse or anything. It's better to see that slow burn, strangers to friends to lovers, 500k fic that you can stay up all night reading than some quick one-and-done oneshot, you know? It's more fun that way, and I mean, it's like I always say. A good romance should be built on nothing less than a good romance."
Camie leaned forward, almost hunching over her drink as she propped up her chin with her elbows. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes so that she could better see Mina's face as she gazed out into the street, lost in some maelstrom of emotions Camie couldn't even begin to identify.
"I thought I was straight until the day before I graduated middle school," Camie blurted out suddenly, feeling like it was a good idea.
The words hung in the air, and Mina slowly turned to face her, expression a thirty-seventy split between confusion and curious delight.
"This guy I knew confessed to me, and we were friends, right?" Camie continued, her confidence boosted by Mina's reaction. "And I thought, 'yeah, I kinda like this guy,' and so I accepted, right? And then we kissed."
Some of Mina's usual zing returned to her as she started vibrating in her seat.
Camie grinned, trying to hide the absolute cringe she was feeling at the particular middle school memory she was talking about. The regret was starting to sink in, but she staved it off, desperate to cheer up the puffball in front of her. "And I don't think he was that bad a kisser. I could be wrong, since I haven't, like, kissed any boys since him, but bro, I felt nothing; I could have kissed a dead fish and had more emotion, and afterwards, I was like, 'huh.'"
Mina barked with laughter, and Camie's smile turned genuine.
"Yeah," she said. "And I told him, 'you know, you're cute and all, but I think I'm a lesbian. Sorry, bro.' And I just kinda like—" she kissed her fingertips and tossed up a glamour of a rainbow over her head, shifting its colors slowly to that of the lesbian pride flag as she made jazz hands at Mina "—yeah. And that's the story of my twenty-minute boyfriend."
Mina laughed and she laughed.
(A tiny, happy fluttering formed in the space between Camie's heart and her lungs.)
"You wanna do this again sometime?" she asked, bouncing up and down in her seat.
"You mean spy on Baku-bro's dates?" Camie replied. She turned around to check on him (suavely, because she finally figured out how to be that again), only to realize that the table they'd been at was empty, already cleared out by the wait staff.
Mina giggled. "They left, like, two minutes into us arriving. Katsudon doesn't like it when people he knows are around for his and Ei-chan's study dates."
"Oh," said Camie, a little flustered now. What did she mean, then? "So, then, you mean, uhh, us. Hanging out together."
"Yeah!" Mina said, half shouting as she flapped her hands in excitement. She laughed, rocking so far back in her chair Camie was afraid she'd fall over, but tipping right back onto four legs and pushing her face into Camie's personal space yet again. She giggled (Camie felt her breath tickling up against her cheeks), then gave the tip of Camie's nose a quick smooch before falling back onto her butt in the chair. "'Cause hanging out with you is a lot of fun!"
Camie's nose tingled pleasantly for hours afterwards.
Sometimes, Camie wondered if she really knew what it meant to fall in love. Was it really all about noticing the fine details of beauty in your lover? About the soft caresses, the whisperings of sweet nothings in the hours of night when only the stars were shining? About the deep, almost painful yearning locked deep in your chest, at the bottom of your heart, and underneath even all the hideous secrets you swore to take to your grave?
Perhaps it was about the journey, through all the cracks and crevices of your lover's heart, digging up the gems and persevering through the jagged edges and raw, painful wounds still left behind by the past, and touching gently, ever so gently, the emotions long held hidden. Perhaps it was there, mingling within the fear and uncertainty and insecurities that made up your lover's innermost thoughts, and you had to fight the thrashing beast with the one you kept inside as well, fight to make the intentions of your bleeding heart known. Perhaps it was the comfort found in solidarity that made love bloom.
Because really, Camie didn't have much else to think about. Mina's face was inches from her own, her pretty brow scrunched up and furrowed in concentration as she swept a makeup brush all over Camie's face, light and sweet, almost tickling, as though a tiny fairy princess was dancing on her cheeks. She had Camie pinned down, as even the slightest of movements would ruin her perfect makeup masterpiece.
Camie didn't mind, obviously, except for maybe the bit where her hands started doing that pins and needles thing from Mina's weight and all. But even then, she was taken in by the other girl's appearance— her long, delicate pink eyelashes; the thin, orange ring of her irises floating in a pool of pure, inky black; all the dark, magenta freckles scattered like stars, tiny sun kisses, all over her face and neck and arms.
She was in love, she was pretty sure, with the pout of Mina's lips as she picked out the perfect shade of eyeshadow. With the little cloth headband she wore to keep her curly hair out of her eyes, and the soft, little wisps that escaped anyway, tickling her face when Mina hunched over just right. With the crook of her neck, and the mottled reddish-brown birthmark that looked almost like a heart, if a potato grew just right, that sat there, waiting to be kissed, to be showered with love.
Camie let out a little puff of air, and suddenly, Mina was framed in shoujo roses and pink sparkles.
"Heyyy," Mina whined, laughing all the same. She pawed at the sparkles as they floated all around, framed her face, made her look like she was made of stardust and magic. "Cut it out; I'm trying to make you look pretty!"
Camie could feel her heart beating against her chest, but strangely, she was not afraid. There were no nerves, no butterflies, no silly loop-de-loops in her belly. Just being with Mina, alone in her room in her shitty one-bedroom apartment.
She slipped on a smile, a smirk, you could almost say. "Oh, so you're saying I'm not usually pretty? Well, I hate to break it to you, babe, but this pretty lady's gonna be on the cover of Hero's Weekly next month," she retorted.
Mina laughed. "I know," she said. She crawled off of Camie's chest and grabbed the mirror on her dresser. "See?"
Camie touched her face delicately, in awe, then whipped her head to look at Mina. "It looks the same," she said, confused.
"Eeeexactly." Mina crossed her arms and puffed her chest out with pride.
The shoujo glamour all fell away, and it turned into just the two of them, alone on a summer night in Camie's shitty one-bedroom apartment, sitting together on her cheap twin bed in their pajamas.
There was a silence. It was the kind that didn't usually fall between them, but the fun atmosphere had simply dissipated with the roses and sparkles, replaced by heavy, unspoken words.
Mina looked away, scratching the back of her neck, and the blood in Camie's stomach curdled from fear and guilt.
She swallowed, pretending to put all the fun and the magic and everything that gave her courage into a little pill that would make it down to her stomach, fight off the crappy feelings, and make her brave. Her words fought inside her throat. Would she keep them in?
"I like you," she said.
There. She set the words free.
So then why was there still something left to be said?
Mina didn't say anything. Camie saw her picking at her nails, hands pressed into the thin blanket on the bed.
"Do you… like me back?"
The silence in the room was enough to strangle a lamb. Camie regretted buying an analogue clock, as every tick of the clock (and the tick of the clock) felt like it took three eternities to arrive.
Eventually, Mina turned to look at Camie, sniffling softly as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Would you believe me if I asked if you meant as a friend?"
A lump formed in Camie's throat. She shook her head almost mechanically, and she said, softly, "Sorry, love."
Mina wailed, and Camie felt tiny, stinging pinpricks in the corners of her own eyes.
"It's okay," Camie said, holding back that last, sweet epithet in exchange for the tears. "You don't have to like me back." She was used to it, expected it, almost. She wished it was different this time, but…
"It's not that," Mina said, sniffling so hard she hiccoughed. "It's just, it's just, it's just that—" she hiccuped again "—I don't? I don't know what it is I'm feeling right now."
Camie took those feelings of hope rising in her chest, and she stamped them down best she could. They couldn't get too high up; she'd just end up disappointed. It was hard, though, and it hurt, it hurt, it hurt like no tomorrow.
Mina sniffled, once, twice—
Camie reached over to her bedside table and took up the tissue box, buried amongst the makeup supplies, and offered it to Mina, who uprooted about five handfuls of tissue to dry her tears and blow her nose.
"Thank you," she said, all nasally and wet. She coughed, more tears rolling down her cheeks.
And Camie ached, her feelings bleeding straight out of her bosom, but she continued holding out the tissue box at arm's length, for as long as the other girl needed it.
"I don't know how I feel about you," Mina said after another gap. "Sometimes I feel like, like I'm gonna drown, and it's overwhelming, and scary, and, and, and—" hiccup "—I don't, I don't know what to do with it all."
Camie's head was buzzing. Her cheeks had cold streaks down them, and it felt like her lips and nose were vibrating from the crying.
"And I don't wanna say I love you or anything," Mina continued, sniffling, hyperventilating a little. "Not because I think I don't like you or anything, 'cause I do. I really do like you. And if I could say that I loved you without meaning it romantically, I would, but I can't. Because I don't know if that would be the truth, if I can really mean it that way."
Camie scooted closer to Mina, tossing aside the tissue box in favor of clutching Mina instead. "Shh, shh, shh." She stroked Mina's hair. "Shh, shh, shh. It's okay. It's okay. You don't have to know. It's okay. Just breathe for me, baby, just breathe. You don't have to know. It's okay. You're going to be okay."
Mina hugged her so tightly, Camie nearly forgot how to breathe, and she sobbed, and she sobbed, and Camie's shoulder turned kind of damp and gross, but it didn't matter.
Mina said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She hiccuped yet again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm sorry."
Camie switched from stroking her hair to stroking her back, and she said, "It's okay. It's okay. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." She patted Mina's back and held her tightly. "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. It's okay. You don't have to know everything right now. It's okay."
"Can I tell you when I have it figured out?" Mina asked, her breathing steadying at last. She still clung to Camie for dear life, but the tears were drying at least.
"Of course," replied Camie. "It's okay if you don't like me, you know."
"I know."
Slowly, they parted, and Camie felt cold once she let go.
Mina took in a long breath, then let it out in a drawn-out sigh. She met Camie's gaze, and she said, "I need you to give me a deadline."
Camie blinked, the last of her critical thinking skills hopping out of her brain and shouting geronimo. "Uhh, for what?"
Mina laughed, the sound rather bittersweet now. "For me to figure out my feelings for you. I'm kind of a master procrastinator, you know. If you don't give me a hard deadline, it ain't ever getting done."
Camie looked out the window, at the rising moon as it shone into her bedroom, and at the few tiny, white pinpricks in the sky that were the stars. A deadline, she thought.
She didn't want to make it too soon, as badly as she wanted an answer. She could wait forever, probably, but she doubted Mina would want her to say that. It was easy to feel guilty about never responding to someone, after all.
"Graduation," she said at last, shifting so that she faced Mina again. "Tell me by your graduation."
"High school or college?" Mina cracked a smile.
Camie snorted. "Have you been studying for some college entrance exams behind my back?"
"No," Mina admitted. She sighed, but it wasn't exactly sad, it seemed. "Six months, then, huh? 'Cause March."
"Yup," Camie said, popping the p.
She reached out a hand towards Mina, palm up, so that the other girl would know to take it, and she did. They played patty cake for a moment in total silence before they both broke into giggles at the same time.
"It's all right if you decide you don't like me back romantically," Camie said. "I'm not gonna die. I mean, it's probs gonna feel like it to an extent, but, like, you can tell me no. I won't get mad or upset with you, I promise."
"I'm not gonna hold back, then," Mina said.
"That's fine," Camie said, and they started playing patty cake again. "As long as you tell me the truth."
November
"Oh, Camieee~?"
"What is up, boss Magic Man Majestic?"
"Whatever happened to that lovely pink lady that helped you foil that bank heist a few months ago?"
"She's been gucci, my dude boss man. Why do you ask?"
"Mm, just wondering, just wondering. You guys seemed to get along so well when she came in; it's a bit of a shame I haven't seen her recently. You could have made for such a stellar duo."
"She's been busy, but we're still friends."
"Friends?"
"Yessir."
"Mm, I see, I see. Well, remind her that she's always welcome at our agency next time you see her."
"Aight cool beans."
January
[Mon A-Mina]: hey camie
[Mon A-Mina]: u wanna go see a movie w me next saturday
[Mon A-Mina]: the class outing got cancelled bc shinsou started hoarding cats in the dorm again
[Mon A-Mina]: n since he got midoriya ei-chan n todoroki to help him with it aizawas not letting anyone in the class meet up unsupervised
[Mon A-Mina]: n hide n seek in the mall is like
[Mon A-Mina]: 8273742x less fun when ur kinda dad like
[Mon A-Mina]: u know
[Mon A-Mina]: stumbles upon his students making out in some forbidden corner of the strip mall bc SOMEONE decided to ask him 4 help in seeking
[Cam-Cam Bam]: can i have some fucking context on that last bit
[Mon A-Mina]: blame todoroki
[Mon A-Mina]: anyway movie
[Mon A-Mina]: cheesy romcom
[Mon A-Mina]: u down
[Cam-Cam Bam]: already calling in a day off
March
Camie lay in bed, wide awake as the clock struck three a.m. The light of the moon was streaming into the room, but she was focused on the light of her phone screen. It was another slow burn, strangers to friends to lovers, mutual pining, 500k word fic. As usual when she couldn't sleep.
Mina had recommended this one to her, and it was very typical of her. She had good taste, though, so why complain?
Camie yawned, and her phone screen fell asleep on her. She should sleep. Even if the pink girl liked her back, she would not like her running on five seconds of sleep.
Well, maybe she would. Those eye bags were gucci, after all.
"Oh, hey, Katsudon, how have you been? Nice campus you've got here. Would be a shame if something were to… happen to it."
Bakugou pivoted around, signature scowl upon his face, which made Camie grin in turn. "Oh. It's you," he flatly said.
"It's me~~~!" Camie sang back as she gave Kirishima a high-five. "Heard you were graduating today~~"
"Not from me, that's for sure," Bakugou grumbled.
Camie ignored that, putting a hand up to her forehead and looking all around. "Where are the rest of your little friends, Katsudon? Aren't you guys usually all together?"
"Sero's taking a leak," Kirishima replied, counting off on his fingers. "Kaminari's, uhh, around here, I think. Jirou's been tailing Yaomomo all day, and Mina's in the classroom, working on the chalkboard."
The chalkboard goodbyes. Of course; that fit the pep and step of Mina perfectly, to want to leave a saccharine little goodbye message on the chalkboard for all the people she spent three years shedding blood, sweat, and tears training with. Would she be waiting there? Camie wondered.
"Thanks for the info," she said. She blew them a kiss, and a pair of white doves flew out of her hand. "Congrats on graduating, Katsudon. Red Riot."
"Hey! Thanks!" Kirishima beamed.
At the same time, Bakugou scowled. "How many times do I need to tell you, my hero name is—"
"And don't you forget," Camie said, cutting him off, "that I'm the one who's gonna officiate your wedding."
She winked at them, and suddenly, the doves had little, golden bells around their necks, and they rang for them as she waved goodbye and walked off.
"The QUEEN has ARRIVED!" Camie declared as she threw open the door labelled 3-A.
Two heads, one she'd only seen in pictures and the other one she knew all too well, turned to look at her.
Shit. There were two people in here. Camie took a step back and swiped for the door (to close it in front of her), but the dude stood up and smiled at her while the girl just looked away.
"Heeeey!" he said, waving at her with his whole arm. He stood up and started walking towards her, which honestly made Camie panic even more than the fact that he kept talking. "You must be Camie! You know, I've heard so much about you from Bakugou, and Kirishima that one time, and of course from Mina, and you know what? I think I'm third wheeling, so I think I'll just—" he waltzed right past Camie, shot the girls a set of finger guns and a smug, little grin, and shut the door behind him.
And they were alone.
The sunlight was streaming into the classroom, the shadow of the tree outside dappling the floor and playing with the light in a way that made it easy to romanticize the moment. The room was quiet, but not silent: the laughter and chatter from the outside atmosphere flitted in from the open window. There was something heavy about the room, a question posed six months ago rising again between them.
Mina finally turned to look at Camie, her expression some mix of excitement, relief, and nervousness. "Hey," said she, tucking her feet in to sit cross legged on top of a desk.
Camie touched the rim of her hat, smiled, and said, "Whassup." She even threw up a peace sign with her free hand.
Mina laughed, rocking back and forth. The sunlight caught in the frizz of her hair and her polished, yellow horns, an image Camie wished she could capture and print out and keep in a photo album forever.
"So. Graduation," Camie continued, gesturing vaguely to the window, where all the festivities were taking place.
Mina flashed a card and a grin at Camie. "Yup," she said, popping the p in the exact same way Camie liked to do.
Camie swallowed the lump forming in her throat as she crossed the room to sit on a desk across from Mina. She put a hand to her neck (pretending it was to look ~*suave*~ and cooool, but really, it was to measure her racing pulse) and said, "I'm assuming that was Mr. Tapeman Sero Hanta that just left?"
"Yeah," Mina answered, the word coming out like a sigh. There seemed to be some regret, some fear, but still some hope left in there. "I asked him to stay with me until you came." She laughed, hollow and afraid and a touch bittersweet. "I'm scared."
"You can tell me no," Camie said, even though every part of her desperately wished she didn't anyway.
"It's not that," Mina said. She rocked back and forth, laughing, just a little at first, then harder and harder until she was full on cackling.
The wind blew a cherry blossom petal into the room, then another, and another, and before either of them knew it, there was a whirlwind of pink inside the room. Camie's heart began to soar as Mina reached a hand out to her, tears streaming down her smiling face, and nodding.
"I love you," she said, and Camie felt like her heart was going to burst right out of her chest. "I love, love, love you. And I want to kiss you so bad because you mean so much to me, and when we're together, it's just always so much fun all the time, and I—" She started choking on her tears.
Without missing a beat, Camie stepped forward, pulled Mina into an embrace, and kissed her. Mina kissed her back, and it was good and sweet.
The shoujo flowers were just so much better when they were real.
author's note: i would like to thank my dearest stardust-make-a-wish on tumblr for not only encouraging my minacamie habits, but also for adding the emojis to the texting sequences. the emoji only show up on ao3 but it's okay. also i'd like to thank my roommate for answering all my questions abt wlw behaviors. i know you said that usually there's five years of pining MINIMUM in wlw romances irl but alas.
i thought this fic was only going to be ~2-3k. obviously that didn't happen and this is now my longest bnha oneshot. it's okay bc there are zero (0) minacamie fics on this site and it MUST be remedied. they're a good ship and i'm not just saying that bc i'm spiteful that they're a rarepair.
anyway yeah if any of you who happened to stumble upon this enjoyed it, idk leave a review ideally. maybe a favorite. follow me on tumblr (a-piece-of-shipping-trash) where star and i are starting our minacamie empire, and stay safe out there