"Oh, hey, this way! This one looks fun!"
Emi pulled him towards yet another attraction, her long teal hair was free from her usual bandana. A long jean skirt that covered her ankles and a simple button-up blouse that made up her outfit was far from what she usually wears. But, it did serve to bring out her most important feature; her smile.
It was contagious, despite the butterflies in his stomach, and the pounding of his heart, her smile was able to make him forget about all that. The only downside was that they'd only been on a date for an hour and his cheeks already hurt from how much he was smiling. But as far as first dates were going this was probably going pretty good.
The pier was the right choice - he really needed to thank All Might for the free passes -
"Here, here!" They stopped in front of a pitching stall for trying to knock over bottles with a baseball. Countless prizes hung in the canopy, many of them were stuffed animals of All Might and other top heroes. Emi pointed towards one of them, moving her eyebrow up and down. "Hey, you have that one in your room."
His whole body felt hot, he really did need to update his room ever so slightly. But without all of his All Might stuff his room would end up looking like Mashirao's - plain and incredibly boring. "I just look up to him and,"
Emi snorted rubbing her nose. "Don't be so embarrassed Izuku, I think nerdy dudes are super cute!"
Plus Ultra blush.
"Now come on! Let's have a contest," She spun gesturing to all the games around them. There was a strength contest, a shooting gallery, a basketball game, dart throwing, and numerous others. "Oh wait, what should be the prize?"
"There doesn't have to be a prize," He mumbled, still trying to recover from his embarrassment. "We could just have fun."
"No, wait! Oh! I know! Whoever wins the most games gets to make the other person do exactly one thing! No matter how embarrassing it is! Like running through the dorm in your underwear!" Emi had her hands on her hips and gave a loud laugh. She leaned in close, her chest bumping against his arm. "Yea! That sounds like a great idea! What do you say Izuku? Wanna try and get one free request from me. You can even ask me to become your girlfriend. You're welcome for the great idea."
Her smile turned small for just a moment and her cheeks were slightly flushed, it might be the first time he'd ever seen her blush. Adorable. "Well, I mean officially that is."
"Sure?" His brain must have still been trying to process everything because he did not tell his mouth to say that at all. What would happen if he won? Emi was expecting him to ask her to become his girlfriend, he could barely ask her out! Wasn't girlfriend much higher than that? Like on a different level or something? What was the difference between a girlfriend and dating anyways?
What would happen if he lost? Would that mean he couldn't ask her to become his girlfriend? And what would she ask him to do? Run through the dorm in just his underwear, he'd probably die of embarrassment or something.
"Haha, I knew you'd see it my way," She rubbed her nose, before spinning on her feet and pushing him forward. "Alright first up pitching! You can take the first shot."
The pier worker, an elderly woman with thick black hair barely contained in a baseball cap and pale eyes gave him a knowing smile and a wink. "First date deary?"
"How'd you know?" He handed her their pass and she punched a hole on it.
"Just a hunch is all, besides, you look like you're still not sure how to handle yourself around her, much less her. A word of advice, she's having fun worry less, and smile more." She handed him back the card and produced a racket of balls. Then her personality did a one-eighty when she twisted the cap. "Alright punk! Let's see what you got! Three balls! Three pins and you win! Three strikes and you're going home empty-handed and a sad girlfriend! Now let it loose!"
Where'd that nice old lady go? He'd like her back!
"You can do it Izuku! Plus Ultra!" Emi pumped her arm and jumped.
"Come on kid, I want to see a pitcher, not a belly itcher!" The woman had one leg up on the counter now and was glaring daggers at him.
"Bah! Good one!" Emi tried to hold in her laughter but that was like a fish trying to stop a flood. Whose side was she one?
He threw the first one and missed the stack.
"Strike one!"
"Hey! Which baseball player holds the water?" Emi slapped her knee, walking over to the old woman like they were old friends.
"I don't know. Which one?"
"The pitcher!"
While the two of them were dying of laughter he threw the second one, hitting the top bottle and making it fall, leaving the two that made up the base.
"Oh! We got a single! Let's see if our champion can hit a double or will he be seeing double!"
His third throw hit the one on the left knocking it back but not down. Damn, he didn't throw hard enough. It was a lot harder than it looked too. Still he needed to be brave.
"Ohhh! Strike Three!" What happened to strike two? "The mean green missing machine is out! Sadly there's no prize for losing." The woman sat back down, and she was back to her regular personality. "Sorry kid, wanna give it another go?"
"No," He motioned to Emi, who was still enjoying her own joke. "It's her turn. Emi, you're up!"
"Oh right!" She hopped over, bumping into him again. Why'd she keep doing that? Was it on accident maybe there was some other reason. "Alright Izuku, watch and learn!"
Emi tossed up all the balls into the air catching them one by one with a single hand before juggling them. The odds were stacked against him. He should have realized that she'd be good at these kinds of games before he even accepted the challenge. No! It wasn't too late! He'd win at… something! Just one victory!
"Alright!" The woman shouted her cap twisted backward again. "Don't take this player camping because she couldn't even pitch a-"
Two pins down with a single pitch, He got a glimpse of Emi's green eyes as she came out of her pitching stance to catch the other two balls and begin juggling them again. It was intense and sent a chill up his spine as he felt his impending loss sink in. He should start preparing to die of embarrassment later.
"Tent." The woman finished, all the bravado of her character was gone. "You aren't using a quirk are you?"
"Nah," Emi flicked a ball with her wrist sending it crashing into the bottle and knocking it over. "My quirk makes people laugh, I just used to work at carnival games like this."
Without any hesitation, she picked the biggest stuffed animal of All Might from the prizes. "Here you go Izuku! Now we can cuddle on your hero!"
This felt reversed!
It was the same story for every game, darts: she popped all of her balloons and then his, free throw: she got nothing but net, ring toss, and ball bounce: she tossed them all with one-handed and didn't miss a single one.
At least an employee offered to take all of her prizes to the front.
"Why do I get the feeling that you tricked me?" At least she was still happy beating him into the ground, it was okay though the only fatality was his pride that was replaced with a mushy feeling. How could she be so good at these games? He didn't think anybody could be good at these games!
Emi smiled bumping into him again, she hooked around his arm and pointed forward. "Oh come on you beefy cinnamon roll! There's still one last contest, I'll even go easy on you!"
That was right! The strength machine! There was no way that he could lose that! Not with all the training he'd been doing! Not that Emi was weak, but when it came to raw physical strength he had a clear advantage! "Wait, cinnamon roll?"
"Yea, cause you're so sweet!" Her face was exactly like the overly excited emoji that acted as her punctuation or as her whole conversation in texts. It was a wonderful smile that no one else could compete with, drawing him in with the white of her teeth and the spark of her eyes. It made his heart skip a beat. "And beefy because you're a hunk!"
She squeezed his bicep and waggled her eyebrows, "Now show me what you got Mr. Punchline."
"Right!"
The mallet was red, white, and blue with a large white star on the bashing bit, the game itself was based on an old list of top heroes with All Might flexing on top representing the one hundred percent. At ninety percent was a very grumpy Endeavour. He could do this. All he had to do was swing the hammer down with all of his normal strength.
"Let's go Izuku! Let's go!" Emi cheered behind him while the worker looked on with a bored expression.
Breath. He had already lost, but there was no way that he was going to let this be a blowout. Just one victory, that was all he needed to regain his pride. With the hammer behind his head, he focused on his target, a red cushion that rested on a steel rod and held up by a large spring. Legs, core, arms, his whole body needed to act like one to get every last ounce of strength out of him.
It was just like his One for All training in a way.
"Get on with it." The worked moaned from behind his phone.
With all his might he brought the hammer down.
Ping!
Victory! He did it!
"Congratulations," The man sighed. "Your strength is plus ultra, take a plus ultra prize. Or not."
"Nice one Izuku!" Emi hopped over to him. He didn't trust her smile for a moment, especially not when she picked up the hammer and began to twirl it like it was nothing. "I guess I don't have to go easy on you after all!"
At least he couldn't lose, just tie. But there was no way that was going to happen. Right? Right?
Emi walked to the very edge of the area, still twirling the hammer around her like it was a baton. She closed her eyes, her smile vanishing for a moment. A different beauty overtook her then, one that left him breathless. A smile exploded onto her face and her into action. She jumped once, landing hard on the boardwalk then again, flipping in the air and slamming down the hammer with all of her body weight.
Ping!
"Woah," The man blinked at her. "That was cool."
Dammit. She technically won this one too.
"Haha! Sorry, Izuku!" She spun around to him holding her prize of an inflatable hammer. "I guess it's not a lot of fun losing, oh hey! I know lets-"
"Ms. Joke?"
They both turned towards the voice. A boy, he was tall, with a wild mess of black hair. He looked so familiar, same with the blond haired girl next to him. "Woah, so it is true you did get turned into a teenager, and a hot one too."
His companion elbowed him in the side glaring at him with a pout.
"Uhh," Emi blinked at him. "Do I know you?"
"What you forgot? I'm your student, Yo Shindo," He shook his hair trying to get it out of his eyes. Oh, that's where he knew him from, the provisional license exam. "And we're going to take you back to Ketsubutsu Academy."
"Yea Sensei!" The girl, uhh what was her name again? Tatami? Perked up next to Yo. "You don't belong at U.A. you're our teacher! You should be with us."
"Uhh, no." Emi blinked. "I like U.A. I have lots of friends and they have dorms that I don't have to pay for. I'm staying there."
"What? Come on Joke-sensei, you shouldn't let these U.A. kids brainwash you. Ketsubutsu academy is a lot better than them, come on, I'll show you." Yo reached out for Emi.
Izuku stopped him, grabbing him by the wrist and keeping it away from his body. He doubted that Yo would risk a fight in public. But it was better to be safe than sorry. "Emi said no."
Yo's eyes turned sharp, it reminded him of when they fought at the exam, a peek at the cold calculating man beneath a warm persona. "What's she to you huh squirt?"
"Look," Emi took a step forward holding the inflatable hammer on her shoulder like it was an actual weapon. "I'm happy that you guys like me enough as a teacher to want me back, but I don't remember any of that. Not a thing. I don't even know where Tsubututu"
"Ketsubutsu" Tatami corrected.
"Yea that place is," Emi continued. "But, I'm not the person that you remember, I mean let's face it, I don't even know who you guys are. So, I'm sorry I'm just some girl that randomly traveled thirteen years into the future."
She reached down and grabbed his free hand, putting on a smile that was anything but apologetic. It melted the fight from his body and he let go of Yo's hand to feel the suppleness of Emi's hand. "And as for who I am to him, I'm the girl he's lucky enough to be dating."
Yo's shoulders slumped and his snarl left. "But you belong with us."
"I'm not the Emi you know. Like, I bet my jokes are a thousand times better!"
"Fine," They turned, Yo grabbing Tatami's hand. "Izuku, if you make her cry I'm going to rattle your brain! And Ms. Joke, when you get your memories back you better be ready to beg to be our teacher again."
They left without much of a fight. Hopefully, everything else could be settled that easily.
"Pfft, the only one that's going to cry is you if I keep winning at everything." Emi hummed to herself and squirmed next to him. "Oh, my bad did I say that out loud?"
"You're terrible."
"The only thing tearable about me are my clothes." She leaned in so that he could feel her breath tickle his ears. "But only in the bedroom."
Izuku . exe has crashed.
AN: This was a fun chapter to write. Also, next chapter has some drama in it. And I think there's like three more chapters left in this? Depends on how things play out. (Also I kind of like this fic without a lemon, can we skip it?)