MHA: Lust Quirk

Mina was sitting on my desk when I walked in.

Not at my desk. On it. Her legs crossed, her bag on the floor next to my chair, her phone in her hand. She was in her school uniform but the blazer was unbuttoned and the tie was loose and she'd rolled the sleeves of her shirt up past her elbows. Everybody was looking.

"Morning," she said. Like she was in her own kitchen.

"You're on my desk."

"I'm warming it up for you." She slid off and dropped into the chair next to mine. Sero's chair. Sero was standing two rows back with his bag in his hand and a look on his face that said he'd already decided this wasn't his problem.

I sat down. She leaned across and grabbed my collar. Adjusted it. The top button was done wrong and she fixed it with her fingers on my throat, close, her nail catching the fabric, and she smoothed the collar flat against my neck.

In front of the whole class. In front of Aizawa, who was standing at the podium with a coffee thermos in his bandaged hand and the expression of a man who'd already decided this wasn't his problem either.

"Your collar's always crooked," Mina said. "Do you get dressed in the dark?"

"Usually."

She sat back. Her hand lingered on my shoulder for a second longer than adjusting a collar required. She said something to Kaminari about the math homework and she used my first name.

"Ryo said the formula for question six was wrong in the textbook."

The classroom went quiet. Half a second.

Kaminari's head came up from his phone. His eyes went from Mina to me and back to Mina. "Wait wait wait." He leaned forward. "Are you two...?"

Mina grinned. The full one. Too many teeth. Gold eyes bright.

"Yep."

Kirishima, from across the aisle, gave me a slow thumbs-up.

Bakugo didn't look up from his notebook. His pen hadn't changed speed.

Tokoyami, in the back row, said "Bold" to no one in particular. Dark Shadow fluttered on his shoulder.

"I KNEW IT!" Toru's voice came from her desk. Her desk, where nothing visible was sitting but where the chair was pushed back and the air had the faint shimmer of someone bouncing in place. "I knew it since the Sports Festival. I told Momo. I TOLD you!"

Momo was in her seat. Her pen was in her hand and her notebook was open. She glanced at me. Quick, less than a second, and then she looked at her notebook and her pen moved and she started writing.

Jiro was at her desk. Her earphone jacks were coiled against her neck, tight, pressed flat against her skin. She was looking at the whiteboard. Her jaw was set. When Kaminari turned to say something to her about the news, she plugged both jacks into the desk surface and didn't answer.

Aizawa started talking about the end-of-term practical. Mina took notes in pink pen. She drew a small smiley face in the margin of my notebook when she thought I wasn't looking. I was looking.

The morning settled. A few whispered conversations, a Snapchat equivalent that buzzed through four phones simultaneously, and then Aizawa was assigning practical exam partners and that was more immediately concerning. Midoriya started muttering about strategy and Bakugo's explosions at a speed that made Todoroki lean away from him. Sero had reclaimed his chair at some point when nobody was watching. The world kept moving.

Ochaco was two rows ahead.

She was smiling. Her hands were folded on her desk and her posture was good and she was paying attention to Aizawa and the smile was steady and even and her knuckles were white under her desk where nobody could see them except me because I was looking.

Three days since the gym floor. Three days since she'd held my wrists above my head and kissed me and the bell hadn't rung because nobody else was in the building. She hadn't texted. She hadn't come to training. She'd walked into class this morning with her bag on her shoulder and sat down and smiled.

Lunch. I went to the cafeteria instead of the roof because Tsuyu had claimed the roof as our spot and I wasn't ready for another rooftop conversation about my life choices. The cafeteria was loud and Lunch Rush was doing a curry special and the steam from the serving line fogged the windows. I got the katsudon because it was there and sat at the end of a long table. Kirishima dropped across from me with a tray that had three servings of rice and a protein shake. He talked about the practical exam and whether they'd be fighting robots or teachers and whether Bakugo would actually cooperate with a partner if paired with someone. "He won't," Kirishima said cheerfully. "He'll try to solo it. It'll be incredible."

Kaminari joined and immediately asked if Mina was "like, your girlfriend-girlfriend or your friend-who's-a-girl" and Kirishima hit him in the shoulder and said "dude, she said yep" and Kaminari said "yeah but WHICH yep" and the conversation looped for four minutes until Sero told them both to shut up and eat.

Ochaco was across the cafeteria with Tsuyu and Iida. She was eating. She was laughing at something Tsuyu said. Her chopsticks moved and her mouth smiled and from here, across fifty feet of noise and steam, she looked fine.

The hallway after fifth period was crowded. Students moving between classrooms, the lights buzzing, someone from 1-B carrying a potted plant that had vines growing in directions plants shouldn't grow.

Ochaco caught my sleeve.

I stopped. She was standing next to the water fountain alcove between the main corridor and the east stairwell. Her bag was on her shoulder and her face was composed. The smile was gone. Her hand on my sleeve was firm, all five fingertip pads pressed flat against the fabric, and she wasn't using her Quirk but the grip had intent.

"You and Ashido."

Flat. Looking at me. Her brown eyes were steady and her mouth was a line.

"Yeah." I looked at her. "For a while now."

She nodded. Small and controlled. She let go of my sleeve and her hand went to her bag strap.

"Before or after the entrance exam?"

"After. During the USJ break."

She nodded again. Two students walked past behind her, talking about something loud and unrelated. The water fountain gurgled. The fluorescent light above the alcove was buzzing at a higher pitch than the ones in the corridor. Her thumb was running back and forth on her bag strap.

"And me?" she said.

The hallway moved around us. Students and bags and voices.

"You're not a consolation prize, Ochaco."

She flinched. Small. Her mouth opened a fraction and closed. The first name. In a hallway. From the guy who'd said it on his apartment floor while she was underneath him. She'd heard it there first. Hearing it again here, with overhead lights and passing students and the Mina announcement two hours old, landed different.

"You kissed me," she said. Lower. "On the floor. After the onigiri."

"Yes."

"And then you kissed me in the gym."

"You kissed me in the gym."

Her mouth pulled sideways. "You didn't stop me."

"No."

"And you were with her the whole time."

"Yes."

The water fountain gurgled again. A first-year walked past and glanced at us and kept going. Ochaco's hands were at her sides and her fingers were pressing together, pad to pad, the release gesture.

"I need to think," she said.

"Okay."

"Don't-" She stopped. Started again. "Don't text me for a couple days. I'll text you when I'm ready."

"Okay."

She looked at me for two more seconds. Her mouth opened. She turned and walked toward the east stairwell and her footsteps were even and controlled and she didn't look back.

I stood in the alcove. The water fountain gurgled. The buzzing light buzzed. A second-year with an extra pair of arms was carrying four textbooks simultaneously and complaining about the weight. The plant from 1-B had grown another vine since I'd seen it in the corridor and it was reaching toward the window.

I'd been honest. The honesty was what hurt her.

She needed time. I could give her that.

I went back to class. The hallway was thinner now, most students in their rooms. The 1-B plant had definitely grown. Its vine was touching the windowsill and a leaf was pressing against the glass. Nobody from 1-B seemed concerned about this.

The afternoon was long. Ectoplasm's clones. Cementoss's walls. Present Mic ran an English vocabulary drill where the penalty for wrong answers was having to repeat the word at Mic's volume and Kaminari's voice cracked twice on "perseverance." The practical exam discussion continued and Aizawa paired Bakugo with Midoriya and the class went silent. Midoriya's face went green. Bakugo's pen snapped.

I was paired with Tokoyami. Dark Shadow and Enhancement in the dark. I could work with that. Tokoyami looked at me from across the room and nodded. A single precise nod. He was economical with his gestures the same way he was economical with words.

Ochaco's seat was empty after lunch. She'd gone somewhere. The practical exam partner announcements happened without her. She was paired with Aoyama. Nobody knew where she was and Iida was about to go look for her when she walked in during sixth period, sat down, and opened her notebook. Her face was calm. Her pen moved. She didn't look at me. Her knuckles were normal color. She'd had time. She'd decided what her face was going to do and it was doing it. Aoyama, her practical exam partner, glanced at her from two seats over and adjusted his sparkly belt and didn't say anything.

Mina caught my hand in the hallway after the final bell. Laced her fingers through mine. Pink against pale. Her acid chemistry smell under the school soap. She swung our hands between us and hummed something I didn't recognize.

"You okay?" she said. "You've been quiet since lunch."

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

"The practical."

She looked at me. Her gold eyes were steady. She didn't buy it. But Mina knew when to leave something alone.

"Okay," she said. She squeezed my hand. Her fingers were warm. "Walk me to the station?"

"Yeah."

We walked. The campus was busy with students heading home. Kirishima waved from the gate. A stray cat was sitting on the low wall near the convenience store, the same spot, different cat. The sky was clear and the afternoon was warm and Mina's horn caught the sunlight when she turned her head.

I squeezed Mina's hand. She bumped her shoulder against my arm. Her horn caught my sleeve.

"Hey," she said.

"Yeah."

"I like being your girlfriend in public. For the record."

"Noted."

She grinned. The full one. We walked to the station and her hand was warm in mine and the cat watched us pass. Ochaco hadn't texted. She wasn't going to. She'd said she needed days and she meant it.

Mina leaned her head against my arm on the platform. The train was three minutes away. Her hair smelled like strawberry shampoo. Her horn pressed into my shoulder.

The train came. We got on. She took the window seat and I stood because the car was full and she looked up at me from the seat with gold eyes and the grin was still there, smaller now, private, and she hooked one finger through my belt loop and held on for the whole ride.