Summary: After the movie, the others begin to get a bit too loud in the lounge. Wanting to find a quiet place, Tokoyami offers to lead Tsuyu away from the others in order to have some solace.
The night continues.
"Dammit, Kirishima! Who the FUCK told you it was a good idea to pour soda into the popcorn?!"
"It was a mistake! An honest to god mistake! Come on, Katsuki, you wouldn't harm me, would ya?"
"Like hell I wouldn't!"
Tokoyami sighed, nursing his growing headache with the tip of his fingers. Ever since the movie had ended, the scene had only grown chaotic. It'd be bad enough with just Bakugo around, but Hatsume was here as well and she clearly wasn't above instigating conflict.
"I heard him talking about whether coke or orange soda was better!"
"H-hey, that is completely unrelated!"
"And you CLEARLY went with coke! I'm gonna fucking kill you!"
"W-wait, Katsuki, calm down!"
Tsuyu croaked from her spot next to him, watching the scene unfold. Her eyes jumped to him and she tilted her head.
"You don't look very comfortable, Fumikage-chan." She pointed out and the bird-headed boy had to sigh in agreement.
"I'm feeling the onset of a headache if I'm honest," He told her, turning away from his classmates to give her his full attention. "I would advise we go to either of our rooms, but I fear we'd still be able to hear the noise from upstairs."
The frog girl nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. Do you have any other ideas?"
Tokoyami hummed in thought and cupped his chin with his free hand; The other still holding onto his girlfriend's. Somewhere in between Iida chewing out the other three and Bakugo literally flinging the bowl of soda-soaked popcorn at his boyfriend, Tokoyami snapped his fingers.
"Ah, I know," He said, turning to her again before continuing. "I was out exploring the campus a few days when I came across something just at the borders of the school. There's a calm pond nearby in the forest. Would you care to join me, Tsu?"
Croaking happily, she stood up and Tokoyami followed her to his feet.
"Of course, ribbit," She told him, tightening her hold on his hand slightly. "You don't even have to ask. Lead me there?"
He smiled and turned toward the door, bringing her with him. "Of course. It's not far, I promise."
Their own Iida, so distracted with yelling at Bakugo and Kirishima and at his own girlfriend, didn't notice as Tokoyami and Tsuyu, while hand-in-hand, dashed out of the front door and shut it quietly behind them. The two of them had gotten a fair distance from the dorms before Tsuyu reached forward and stopped Tokoyami with a hand on his arm.
"Hold on, Fumi," She told him, sputtering to a stop with her boyfriend following suit. "How big is the pond?"
"How big?" He asked for confirmation. She nodded and Tokoyami cupped his chin once more, shutting his eyes to think. "As big as the lounge, I would say. It's a wonder that no one else has found it. Why do you ask?"
Tsuyu smiled. "Do you think we could stop by my room before we head off? I want to grab something, ribbit." She told him. He nodded, agreeing immediately before he tilted his head, curiosity clear in his eyes.
"Am I allowed to ask why?" He commented as she pulled him back toward the dorm building. Asui shook her head and he sighed. "Very well. If we're stopping at your room, though, maybe we shouldn't go back through the front door. The others will assume the worst."
She slowed down and jabbed her finger into her lip. "Oh. You're right. Do you think we could get back behind the girls' side of the dorms, then? I keep the door to my balcony unlocked."
Tokoyami nodded and began to walk back in the other direction, pulling her with him. "I don't see why not. Maybe we should be quick about it, though. It's the weekend, sure, but Aizawa-sensei likes to show up at unprecedented times."
Tsuyu smiled and caught up with him. "I was going to say the same thing, ribbit. Come on, let's go. I feel like you'll like the surprise."
In the end, it was more much work finding Tsu's room than it should have been. None of the girls left much of anything on their balcony's, which made it much harder to pinpoint which room was hers. They tried to find it by the floor, but there was little to no distinction between any of them which was an entirely new task all in itself. Tsuyu could have jumped high enough to reach the first-floor balcony's, but jumping from those to the next ones proposed a much more difficult task. Instead, Tokoyami simply used Dark Shadow to lift her into the air and run her across each balcony to find her room. By looking through the balcony windows, it shortened how long it took to find her room. By the time they had found it, only about ten minutes or so had gone by. Standing all the way at ground level, though, Tokoyami was left with only Dark Shadow as his company, something that proved to be worse than one would think.
"What if she's grabbing a bathing suit?" Dark asked, cupping his chin like Fumi usually did.
Tokoyami raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed over his chest. Dark held his hands out in mock surrender.
"Now hold on, just think about it!" He whined. "You're taking her to a pond, right? Her quirk makes her frog-like, right? We already know how much she likes to swim, right? It makes sense!"
The bird-headed boy squinted at him, trying to find some way to break through his logic, but found that he couldn't. In the end, he sighed and rubbed his temples.
"You've said something that makes even a semblance of sense," Tokoyami complained, his eyes closed. "I fear the end of the world is upon us if that's the case."
Dark Shadow grinned and cheered, to which Tokoyami turned to him and shushed him angrily.
"Have you forgotten that we aren't supposed to be out right now?" He questioned. Dark seemed to shrink in on himself slightly and shrugged.
"Eheheh, whoops?" He ventured. When Fumikage's glare didn't lessen, he clasped his hands together. "Oh look! Tsu-chan is coming back down, I guess we'd better get moving, huh?"
"You'd better not-!" Fumi started, only for Dark Shadow to slip back into his body as soon as he was finished talking. He heard the sound of a door closing and turned around just in time to see Tsuyu leap over the railing of her balcony, landing gracefully on the ground next to him. She held a plastic bag in one hand, too dark for Tokoyami to see what was in it. Now that the thought was in his head, he couldn't help but think about what the potential bathing suit could look like.
"You two talk loud," She stated bluntly as she stood up, sweeping her hand down her legs. "I could only hear you because I left the balcony door open, though. Let's hope everyone shuts their windows."
"You ah...you heard all of that?" Tokoyami asked meekly. When Tsu turned to him and nodded, he covered his beak and averted his eyes. "H-How trivial. Dark seems to have a problem keeping his mouth shut most of the time. I apologize, Tsu."
"Don't worry about it," She replied easily, slipping her free hand into his. "At the very least, Dark Shadow was right. I just wanted to swim, ribbit."
Fumikage cringed as Dark cheered again, only this time louder and in his head.
"Well...good for him. It'll be my headache, but I suppose he deserves to be right sometimes."
Tsuyu croaked, laughing, and the slight pain in his head vanished in an instant. He gripped her hand and smiled, starting forward.
"That aside, let's get going. I'm sure you'll enjoy the pond." He told her. Tsu smiled in response and they walked off, quickly melting into the shadows that the trees provided.
"Now, if I remember correctly...," Tokoyami started, pushing branches out of his way as he walked onward. "...It should be just ahead of this bit here."
He held the branches to the side as Tsuyu followed after him. Once she was clear, he let go and kept onward, his hand still held tightly in hers. The walk was mostly silent, save for Tokoyami trying to pry a little more information out of his girlfriend about the bathing suit she'd brought with her. She refused to answer any questions, though, and constantly assured him that it was a surprise that she was sure he'd like. While it made some part of him a bit uneasy, the majority of him was excited to see it. In his opinion, Tsuyu looked great in everything she wore.
They pushed through another set of branches and finally came upon the pond. Surrounded by bushes and trees that conveniently didn't extend over the lake's surface, keeping it's water pristine, the pond was a clear blue that seemed to shine in the moonlight. Standing in it, it only came up to his knees, meaning it'd come close to Tsuyu's waist since she was shorter than him.
Off to their right was the small clearing that Tokoyami frequented. The grass was pressed close to the ground because of how often he sat there, be it in thought or in meditation, and it was bordered by small rocks that he'd stacked up in an effort to keep the bugs away. It worked, for the most part, but only for the bugs that didn't have wings. For the ones that did, though, Tokoyami had found a solution.
"Wait a moment, Tsu," He said before walking around the outskirts of the pond toward the clearing. Once he got there, he had to stop to think and try and remember. It took only a moment since he'd come back to the pond almost every other week or so, and once he remembered, he snapped his fingers, pleased with himself. Reaching up and behind one of the many trees behind his clearing, he strained for a moment before coming back down with a small bundle of cloth in his hands. Tsuyu, standing a bit away with her back against a tree, tilted her head and jabbed her thumb against her lip.
"What's that, Fumikage-chan?" She asked, leaning up to try and get a better look. Tokoyami turned to face her as he unraveled the cloth, revealing just simple black blankets inside of it.
"A couple of blankets. I like to lay one over the ground and hang the other one over it," He told her, unfolding the blankets themselves. Just as he said, he immediately laid one on the ground and kept the other underneath his arm. "It's more of a personal comfort than anything if I'm honest."
Tsuyu nodded. "That sounds like something you'd do, Fumi," Walking closer to him, she dropped her bag on the blanket and smiled. "It's a good idea if you wanna avoid the bugs. Is that why you put it up?"
Tokoyami finished slinging the second blanket over the branches and, once he was pleased with it, sat down and sighed.
"You read me so easily," He chuckled and let himself lie back, relaxing into the blanket. "They're alright, I suppose. When you're trying to relax, though, you'd really rather not have bugs crawling about you the entire time."
Giggling, Tsuyu kicked her shoes off and stepped into the pond. Instinctively, she croaked. "That's fair. The water's a little colder than I thought it'd be."
"Is that a problem?" He opened one eye, watching as she turned back around and knelt down to open the bag.
"No. Just surprised, is all," She responded before catching his eyes. "No peaking, Fumikage-chan."
He closed his eyes again, his dark cheeks beginning to burn with a blush.
"O-Of course not. That'd be inappropriate," He deemed, to which his girlfriend giggled again. "T-take your time, if you need it."
"I won't," She replied quickly and Tokoyami could hear the rustling of clothes from somewhere. Dark Shadow's incessant cry of Open your eyes! made it that much harder to ignore. "It's a one-piece. They're easy to put on."
"S-so it would seem," Fumikage held his arm over his eyes, sighing. "You know...I wish I had known a little earlier. I could've gotten in the water with you, Tsu."
There was a bit more rustling of clothes before Tsu replied. "I know you don't like to swim that often. I didn't want it to be a hassle for you," He heard her jacket hit the ground. "I'm done now, ribbit."
Sitting up, his eyes met her face before he noticed anything else.
"It wouldn't have been a hassle," He told her, holding his head upon his knee. "I'm happy to spend time with you, no matter what we're doing."
She croaked and knelt down in front of him, their faces mere inches apart.
"You say that, but I can't help but feel that you don't enjoy a lot of the stuff I like doing," She admitted meekly. "I don't know. A lot of the things I like are somewhat water related, but you don't really like it in your feathers. It clashes."
Reaching forward, he let his hands rest on her shoulders and closed a bit of the distance between them.
"Maybe it used to be like that," He shut his eyes, thinking before he continued. "But it's not anymore. I've actually taken a liking to more of those things now. The rain is a joy to me and, thanks to your little lessons, swimming is a lot of fun as well. I'll admit, the feeling of it weighing down my feathers is a bit of a pain...,"
Tsu averted her eyes, but Tokoyami reached up, delicately placing his hands over her cheeks to pull her head back so he could see her again. In the moonlight, her dark eyes were truly beautiful.
"...But that's a problem I'm willing to deal with if it means making you happy. I can't bear the sight of you looking sad at all, Tsu. I would...greatly prefer it if you would smile."
He couldn't hold her eyes anymore and she looked down but made no effort to move his hands at all. Instead, though, her own hands ghosted over his for a moment before falling against them and staying there.
In Fumikage's head, Dark Shadow was silent. Maybe the shadowbeast had gone off to sleep, though it was possible that the moment had stunned him into silence. Tokoyami wouldn't blame him though, as seemingly all the words left him after he'd shut his mouth. The small contact they were making—just his hands on her cheeks and her own hands over his—was enough to burn through his skin and it kept him grounded.
"Fumi," Tsuyu whispered after what felt like a lifetime. Tokoyami perked up, leaning in a bit closer and straining to hear her. "Can I kiss you?"
Dark cheeks turning red, he hesitated before nodding. It had, admittedly, been a fickle topic between them. What with his beak, he was afraid it would be an awkward thing to do and wanted to save Tsuyu the embarrassment of dealing with it. Save from kisses on the cheek or very chaste kisses that she would place just at the edge of his beak, neither of them had legitimately kissed the other.
"You shouldn't have to ask." He muttered in response, which brought a small smile to Asui's face. Despite what he said, though, his heart definitely skipped a beat when she began to lean in and, deciding to just go along with it, he followed suit and lean in as well.
The kiss didn't last long but, in both their opinions, it really didn't have to. Contrary to what Tokoyami had thought before, the kiss was only pleasant the entire way through and, if the pleased sigh that slipped through Asui's lips was any indicator, she thought so as well.
"Your beak...," She commented after a while, her finger prodding at her lip. Tokoyami tilted his head, looking at her questioningly. "It's...a lot different than I thought it'd be."
"Hm? Well, it's not exactly the same as a bird's beak," He grabbed his own beak to accentuate. "It's kind of...softer and a bit easier to get around. It's only that hard by appearance."
"That makes sense, ribbit," Tsuyu touched her own lips lightly. His beak was definitely soft. A lot softer than she'd expected. It was really nice. "...Kiss me again."
"A-Again?" He asked, almost incredulously. That didn't stop him from leaning forward to comply, though. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't wanted to do it again, anyway.
It didn't dawn on him at all that Tsu was still wearing the bathing suit that she'd brought with her—a simple dark green piece with frills around the waist and a black back. It hugged her nicely and, once he noticed, he found that he couldn't focus on trying to kiss her anymore; Not while his embarrassment flared up that hard.
"I-It appears we've forgotten that we came to a pond, Tsu." He pulled his shoes off, setting them to the side alongside hers. "I might not be able to swim with you, but I can at least get my legs wet to be closer."
"You're right." Tsu pulled herself away from him and walked slowly into the water. With the moonlight hitting her, Tokoyami could see the slight blush on her cheeks. He felt a sense of pride, knowing that he could do that to her. "Roll your pants legs up. I'll try to keep close, okay?"
He did as she said, rolling the legs of his pants up to his knees before following her and sitting by the water's edge with his legs in the water. It was definitely a lot colder than he'd expected and it sent a shiver up his spine.
"You don't have to do that for me. You can have fun however you wish, Tsu." Tokoyami watched as she let herself fall into the water and then dunk herself into it. When she came back out, her hair was glistening wet and her eyes were wide. "I'll be over here watching."
She smiled, Fumikage's heart fluttering as she did, and then dove back into the water. With his hand holding up his head, the bird-headed boy watched his girlfriend as she gleefully swam around the pond, the light from the moon illuminating her movements and making sure he didn't stop watching for even a moment. Even without, he doubted he'd take her eyes off of her. After all, how could he? She was far too beautiful.
Just an added note, I graduated high school today. I'm finally getting tossed into the real world and i'm ready to suffer so goddamn much.
Hopefully that means I'll have a lot more time to write, provided I can stay motivated.
Thanks for reading, Dantikat out.