As Mina and Kuri were walking back to the dorms together, Mina was plotting ways of how she was going to get her new goal to work out. She glanced around and noticed Kiri walking with Sero and Denki. Sorry, Kuri, I'm gonna have to ditch you for a second…
"Kuri, I'm sorry, but I have to go talk to Kiri for a second, do you mind?" Mina asked. Kuri smiled.
"Ah, no problem. Go ahead, and good luck!" she said with a wink. Mina blushed slightly. She did have feelings for him, but first and foremost, they were friends. There was no way she could jeopardize their friendship by bringing complicated things like love into the mix. She walked over and tapped Kiri on the shoulder.
"Kiri, we need to talk," Mina said. He turned around, with a confused look on his face. Denki and Sero's eyes were wide as saucers. They probably thought that she was going to confess her feelings. After all, they knew how she felt about him, and they were rooting for her, but they all knew that Kiri didn't feel like that towards her. And… as much as she liked to ignore the thought, he probably would never see her as more than a friend.
"Hmm? Okay," Kiri said. Mina pulled him aside so they could talk without anyone hearing her plan. It was more likely that the plan would fail if too many people got involved.
"Kiri…" Mina said. She stopped, wondering if maybe she wanted to back up and not tell him her wish. She feared that he'd take it in a weird way, or try to stop her, and she really didn't want that. This plan of hers could mean the betterment of everyone's lives, so she really didn't need any obstacles like her crush opposing her ideas. "Hear me out on this, okay?"
"Of course," Kiri said. Mina let out a deep breath. Here goes nothing…
"I want to get Kuri and Bakugo together." Yes! I did it! Kiri blankly stared at her for a second, then leaned his head to the side. Please be supportive, please be supportive!
"Like… as a couple?" he asked. Mina nodded. "But, he just tried to fight her the other day. And this morning during breakfast he kept glaring at her. Are you sure that Bakugo even loves people like that? I can't imagine him ever having a crush."
He did make some good points, but Mina was confident that it could work out. "Well, Kuri is great, as far as I can tell, so I can see him crushing on her. Plus, it seems like she was able to tame Bakugo already," she said.
"Tame? He's not some wild animal," Kiri said.
"But he sure does act like some kind of angry dog all the time. Or maybe a grumpy old man… Anyway, from what Kuri told me, it seems like they're getting along pretty well, despite some bumps. And most importantly, I ship it!" Please be supportive, Kiri, please! He sighed. That didn't seem like a good sign.
"Well, I don't really get it," Kiri said. "But I do trust your judgment. You do seem to have some kind of magical matchmaking skills. Maybe it's your hidden quirk…" Hooray! Support! The thing he said about a hidden quirk was silly though.
"Yay! Thanks, Kiri! Now I have a plan to help them along just a bit. It'll just be this one little push, for now, to see where they'll go with it, but it depends a lot on Kuri, and also on Bakugo's attitude. We'll just have to hope that they'll be tired enough for this plan to work…"
A few hours later, after dinner, Mina and Kirishima were standing in the fourth-floor hallway, going over her plan to set up Kuri and Bakugo. Well, set them up more or less. It was more like they were putting them in a situation that had room for the two of them to develop a connection, though there was always the likely chance that nothing would happen at all. Mina hoped that this wouldn't be the case.
"Okay," Mina said. "Let's review what we need to do: first, you go get Bakugo and get him to go sit with you downstairs in front of the TV, and I'll bring Kuri down just a bit after you. Make sure that you sit on the end of the couch, and have Bakugo sit next to you so that there's room for me and Kuri to squeeze in. I'll make sure to be on the other end of the couch so that Kuri and Bakugo have to be next to each other. And if everything works out, one or both of them will fall asleep!"
Kiri still looked unsure. Mina was too, but she had a lot of hope.
"How exactly will this help them start dating?" Kiri asked. Oh, silly him. As if this one action would be the deciding moment in their relationship…
"Kiri," Mina said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "This is just step one. There is no way that just this would help them start dating, but it could help spark something in their relationship, and eventually, they can date." The gears seemed to spin in his head for a bit, then it was like something clicked.
"So this is just like a push, but they're the ones who have to do the rest?" he asked. Mina grinned.
"Exactly! Now, let's do this!"
Kirishima sighed. It wasn't like he was opposed to getting Kuri and Bakugo together, after all, he thought it'd help Bakugo soften up a bit if he had someone he loved. Maybe then he'd be a little less angry all the time.
He really wanted to support Mina and her little plan, but he doubted that Bakugo would want to leave his room just to go watch TV. Especially considering how tired he was. He'd been glaring all day, more than normal at least, but luckily he hadn't really gotten too violent. Except for in the morning with Kaminari, who probably shouldn't have been teasing Bakugo. But just because he had doubts, it didn't mean that he wouldn't try his best.
He knocked on Bakugo's dorm door. There was no response. He knocked again. Still no response. Kirishima sighed.
"Hey, Bakugo! Are you still up?" he asked. There was, surprisingly, still no response. Bakugo usually would shout something back, even if he'd been asleep. Kirishima got a bit worried that something had happened and opened the door to make sure Bakugo was okay.
As he stepped into the room, he saw that Bakugo was in his bed, and seemed to be asleep. Kirishima went over and tapped on him, and called out to him. He got more worried and shook him.
"Bakugo! Are you okay?!" Kirishima shouted. Bakugo's face twitched, and his eyes fluttered a bit.
"Shut up… Shitty Hair…" he heard Bakugo mutter. Kirishima let go and breathed a sigh of relief. He was definitely okay. Probably. He was most likely just still tired and was sleeping more heavily to make up for the night before. But how was he supposed to get Bakugo downstairs now… He left the room to go tell Mina that Bakugo was incapacitated.
She noticed him leave the room from the other hallway and came over to him.
"Where's Bakugo? Did he refuse to come down?" Mina asked. Kirishima scratched the back of his head.
"Well, um, it doesn't seem like he can go down," he said. "He's asleep and I don't think I'll be able to get him to wake up any time soon." Mina thought for a bit.
"Hmm, just take him down anyway," she said. "The plan will probably work out better that way. Let's just hope he doesn't wake up while you're taking him down…"
"I hope so too," Kirishima said. He went back into the room and looked at Bakugo's unconscious body. Good thing he'd been too lazy to change into pajamas. Or maybe he just wore his normal clothes to sleep… That seemed like a very in-character thing for him to do.
He grabbed Bakugo and hoisted him over his shoulder, then carried him to the elevator, giving Mina a thumbs up on the way. Now it was her turn.
Mina returned Kiri's thumbs-up and watched as he got into the elevator. As the doors closed, she turned to face Kuri's door. She really hoped that she wouldn't have to carry Kuri too. She'd feel really bad for dumping them out there if that were the case. She knocked on the door and waited. A couple seconds passed, then Mina heard footsteps approaching the door.
The door opened, and Mina was greeted by a bed-headed, bespectacled Kuri.
"Oh. Hi, Mina. What's up?" Kuri asked. Wait, was she asleep? Oh no! I must have woken her up. I guess I shouldn't have tried to do this plan when I should have just let Kuri and Bakugo get the sleep they need…
"I'm so sorry, Kuri. Did I wake you up?" Mina asked.
"Oh, no, don't worry. I was trying to sleep, but it wasn't really working, so I might as well be talking to you right now. So what did you need me for?" she asked.
"Well, I feel bad about it now, but do you want to go watch TV downstairs if you can't sleep? Maybe if we watch something boring it'll help you get tired." Kuri smiled.
"Sure. I don't mind. I don't have anything better to do anyway. Sleeping is boring." Kuri used the elastic on her wrist to pull back her hair, and the two of them went downstairs.
Mina sat down at the couch where Kirishima and Bakugo were, and Kuri sat down next to Bakugo, who was definitely still asleep. Luckily, it didn't seem like Kuri had noticed. Now they just had to wait for her to fall asleep.
Sitting next to Bakugo wasn't what Kuri pictured happening when she agreed to watch TV with Mina. Why was he here? And why'd she have to be the one next to him? Even though she'd had some sort of moment with him during class, it didn't make things any less awkward. They still had only met a few days ago, and he still didn't seem to like her.
But she was kind of too tired to care. Not only had she had to stay up the night before, but she was still experiencing jet lag from the plane ride she'd taken to get there the day before she started school. Plus, she felt like she had a cold or something. Maybe it was related to why she threw up on the plane… In the moment, Kuri had thought it was just turbulence since she'd always had problems with motion sickness, but now she was thinking that she was actually sick.
She wasn't really paying attention to the TV anymore, and her eyelids felt heavy. Well, Mina had taken her here to help her sleep, so Kuri thought Mina wouldn't mind if she fell asleep on her. She felt her head dip down towards Mina's shoulder as she dipped off into a deep slumber.
Mina was just starting to think about just giving up on the plan when Kuri's head landed on her shoulder. She froze. She's asleep! She slowly pushed Kuri's limp head towards Bakugo, so that she was leaning against his shoulder instead. She grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, grabbing Kirishima's attention.
"Kiri, our mission is accomplished. Let's go now," she said. He looked over at the two, who were sleeping peacefully. Bakugo's head fell to rest on top of Kuri's.
"That's it? What do we do when they wake up?" he asked. Mina looked at them. They really would make a cute couple, but it wasn't her place to force them together. She was only here to help them realize how perfect they'd be together.
"That's their problem," Mina said with a yawn. "Well, come on. We can ask them about it in the morning." He took one look back at them, then followed her back upstairs, leaving the two alone in the common room. Goodnight, you two. And good luck.
Kuri's eyes fluttered a bit, then closed again. She was still exhausted. Too exhausted to even open her eyes all the way. It took a second for her to register that she was still down in the common room, sitting on the couch. Looked like Mina had decided not to wake her up. Well, that was fine, since she didn't really mind too much.
There was also someone that she was using as her pillow. Her glasses were pressing into the side of her face which had made Kuri's cheek sore. She could feel their head resting on the top of hers. But who was it? She forced her eyes to open a bit. Hmm… black t-shirt and muscular arms… WAIT! Kuri's eyes widened in realization, and she turned her head up to look at her "pillow" and lo and behold, it was Bakugo, who had apparently also fallen asleep (and wasn't woken up either).
Kuri sat in shock for a second, not sure what she was supposed to think. What would you think when you woke up next to a hot guy who happens to hate you? At least she didn't have a crush on him or anything. That'd probably make things worse. Or better. Kuri didn't really know. What she did know was that she couldn't just leave Bakugo to sleep downstairs, but she also couldn't wake him up, because she feared that she'd get her butt kicked.
It was a bit of a dilemma, and Kuri actually considered just waking him up so that he could walk himself upstairs to his room. But somehow, in Kuri's sleep-deprived brain, she decided that the only sensible solution was to carry him up to his room. It wasn't really ideal, but somehow, to her, this was the right thing to do.
She got up, and tried to scoop Bakugo up so that she could carry him "princess-style". The thing was, she dropped him immediately (back on to the couch, luckily), since he was a bit big for her to carry like that, a bit heavy (even though Kuri should've been strong enough to pick him up), and Kuri had just woken up about a minute before, meaning that she was in no shape to be ready to pick up and entire sixteen-year-old, especially not with a "princess-style" lift.
She sighed, then pulled Bakugo's limp body close to her to try again. She lifted him up by his armpits and pulled him into a semi-hug so that she could grab him and hoist him up. She wrapped her arms around his legs, letting his arms and head rest on her shoulders.
Though Kuri was holding him as firmly as she could, he kept slipping down, so she kept having to hoist him back up again. Basically, Kuri's arms were repeatedly, and involuntarily, touching Bakugo's butt. It was making her blush like crazy. She didn't like him, but it didn't really feel right to be almost feeling someone up, especially while they were asleep. He's got cake though… OH MY GOD, KURI! Tell your perverted brain to chill out… I feel even worse now…
Kuri had luckily gotten to the elevator, and the ride to the fourth floor went relatively smoothly. She continued to carry Bakugo all the way to his room, and when she got in, she let him down onto his bed. Kuri sat down on his floor for a second to rest. She looked at Bakugo, who was resting over his covers since Kuri hadn't bothered to tuck him in. His head wasn't even on his pillow. Maybe she should actually make him comfortable…
She got up and put his sheets over him, and adjusted his body to that he was using his pillow. Kuri hoped that she hadn't positioned his neck weird or anything, or else he'd wake up the next day with pain.
She sighed. That had been way too much work. It didn't seem fair that Bakugo got to be pampered and carried up to his room while Kuri had to do the carrying, though she knew it was dumb to think this since she'd done this to herself. There was no way that she'd tell Bakugo that she was the one who carried him back to his room, but she did hope that her favor would be repaid one day. She stood back up to leave.
"Goodnight, Bakugo," Kuri said. "But since you can't stop me, I guess I'll say goodnight, Katsuki." She was headed towards the door, but then she heard Bakugo shift in his sleep a bit, so she hurried to the door a bit faster. Her hand was on the doorknob when she heard a faint whisper.
"Don't call me Katsuki." Her head whipped back around, but it didn't look like he was awake. His breathing was slow and steady. Definitely still asleep. Kuri giggled quietly.
So he talks in his sleep? I'll have to have some fun with that someday…
"Okay, Katsuki. Sleep well. I'll see you tomorrow."
