MHA: Lust Quirk

The pool was louder than any training exercise.

Kaminari hit the water from the diving board at an angle that sent a wave across the entire shallow end and Kirishima, who was standing waist-deep, took the splash full in the face and came up laughing. Sero had taped himself to the lane divider and was floating on his back like a dead man. Tokoyami was sitting in the shade at the far end because Dark Shadow was afraid of the pool. Or the pool was afraid of Dark Shadow. The relationship was unclear.

Exams were over. Results posted. Everybody passed the written, most passed the practical. Aizawa had announced the training camp would start next week and the class had earned exactly one afternoon of not thinking about anything. Pool access. Reward for surviving the first semester.

I was in the water up to my chest, leaning against the pool wall in the corner where the shallow end met the lane ropes. The sun was hot. The water was cold. Kaminari was doing another cannonball.

Mina was in a bikini. Pink. Because of course it was pink. The bikini was small and her body was athletic and her stomach was flat and her thighs were toned and she was standing at the pool edge with her hands on her hips and when she caught me looking she grinned with all her teeth and flexed both arms. A full pose. Her horns caught the sunlight. The gold eyes dared me to react.

I looked away. She laughed. The laugh carried across the pool and Kirishima gave me a thumbs-up from the water that I pretended not to see.

Ochaco was already in the water. Navy one-piece. Simple cut, high neckline, no extras. The kind of swimsuit someone bought because it was on sale, not because it looked good. It looked good anyway. She was diving off the edge and each time she went under the fabric pressed flat against her body and pulled tight across her chest and her hips and her back and the conservative choice stopped being conservative when it was wet. She surfaced and pushed her hair out of her face and the water ran down her shoulders.

Momo was on the pool deck adjusting the strap of her swimsuit. Her one-piece was cut open along the sides and the back, exposing skin from her ribs to her hips and across most of her back. Her Creation Quirk needed surface area. The swimsuit was technically modest from the front but from any other angle it was more skin than fabric. She'd applied sunscreen in careful even layers and was reading a book on poolside safety procedures. Nobody else was reading poolside safety procedures.

Toru's voice came from the water near the shallow end. "I'm wearing a swimsuit, I SWEAR!"

Kaminari, floating past on an inflatable he'd found somewhere: "How would we even know?"

"Because I'm TELLING you!" A splash from nowhere hit him in the face. He went under. Toru's laughter was visible only as ripples.

Bakugo was not in the pool. He was sitting on a bench near the entrance with his arms crossed and his school bag next to him and his expression communicating that he would rather fight every teacher at U.A. simultaneously than get in the water.

Kirishima walked up to him. Dripping.

"Come on, man."

"No."

"The water's great."

"No."

Kirishima grabbed Bakugo's arm and dragged him toward the pool. Bakugo's explosions popped and fizzled against the wet skin and Kirishima hardened his grip and they went in together, Bakugo yelling obscenities that echoed off the pool building's ceiling. The splash was enormous. Bakugo surfaced with murder in his eyes and water streaming off his hair. Kirishima was grinning. "See? Great, right?"

Bakugo grabbed Kirishima's head and shoved him under.

Mina appeared at the pool edge near me, arms folded on the concrete, chin resting on her forearms. Water dripped off her horns. "Enjoying the view?"

"I'm in the pool."

"You're in the pool looking at my bikini." She was grinning. "It's okay. That's what it's for."

She pushed off the wall and backstroke-kicked toward Ochaco and I watched her go because she told me to.

Normal afternoon.

Then Tsuyu came out of the changing room.

Green one-piece. Dark green, almost black. Her hair was down, the long dark-green strands loose past her shoulders instead of tied at the bottom. Without the bow her face was different. Her enormous round eyes looked larger and her wide mouth was relaxed and her skin was pale and faintly damp from the shower. She was small and slender and she walked to the pool edge without hesitating and dove in and disappeared.

No splash. No sound. She entered the water and became part of it.

She went under like she was made for it. Her body cut the water and she was gone. A dark shape moving along the bottom of the pool, faster than any of us could swim on the surface, her legs pressing together and her arms at her sides and her whole body moving in an undulation that was more aquatic than human. She did a full lap underwater without coming up. Two laps. On the third lap the shadow accelerated and she was faster than Iida was on land and nobody in the pool was watching because nobody noticed the shape beneath them. From the wall the shadow glided past the lane ropes, past Sero's taped body, past Kaminari's inflatable, and then it was next to me.

She surfaced six inches from my ear.

"Ribbit."

I flinched. Full-body. My elbow hit the pool wall and water splashed up my nose and she was right there, her dark-green eyes level with mine, the water dripping off her hair, her mouth in what might have been a smile if you knew what frog smiles looked like.

"You're slow in water, Hayami."

"And you're showing off, Tsu."

She went still. Her eyes, already large, went wider. The water around her was calm. Her body was perfectly motionless in the water, floating with a buoyancy that was effortless and specifically amphibian.

"Say it again."

"Tsu."

She stared at me. Her wide mouth pressed together. Her dark-green eyes held mine. The pool noise was everywhere, Kaminari yelling, Bakugo swearing, Kirishima laughing, but in the six inches between her face and mine the noise was background and Tsuyu Asui was very, very still.

"I like that," she said. Low.

Then she sank. Straight down, her eyes holding mine until the water covered them, and I was looking at the surface where she'd been. Ripples. Nothing.

Her tongue wrapped around my ankle.

I went under. Water up my nose, arms flailing, the pool bottom rushing up. I kicked and surfaced sputtering and coughing and she was already across the pool, sitting on the far edge with her legs in the water and her chin resting on one hand, watching me with flat eyes.

If a frog could look smug, she looked smug.

"What-" I coughed water. "What was that?"

"Ribbit," she said. And turned away. But her shoulders were shaking. Tsuyu laughing was silent, just her shoulders moving and her wide mouth pulling at the corners.

I pulled myself to the pool edge. Sat on the deck, legs in the water, dripping. The sun was warm on my shoulders. Midoriya was in the shallow end explaining something to Iida with hand gestures that involved underwater physics. Ojiro was doing laps with his tail providing propulsion that was technically cheating. Sato was floating near Sero's taped body, eating a granola bar.

Jiro was sitting three chairs down from the pool. Her swimsuit was a black surf-style top that covered her from neck to waist and board shorts that went to her knees. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Her earphone jacks were coiled tight against her neck, away from the water. She was watching Momo swim and her jaw was tight.

I sat down in the chair next to hers. Dripping on the concrete. She didn't look at me.

"You didn't get in."

"I don't like the water." Flat. Defensive.

"Your jacks short-circuit?"

"In chlorinated water, yeah. The current runs wrong and I get feedback. It's like hearing a microphone too close to a speaker. In my skull." She tucked one jack behind her ear. "So no."

"That's a reason."

She looked at me. Her triangular eyes were sharp. Her chin-length purple hair was dry while everyone else's was wet. She'd been sitting here the whole time.

"But that's not why you're sitting here."

Her jacks tightened against her neck. Her jaw set. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Kaminari short-circuits too. He's in the pool."

"Kaminari's an idiot."

"Yeah. But he's an idiot in the pool." I leaned back in the chair. The sun was warm and the concrete was hot under my palms. "You could wrap your jacks up. Waterproof tape. Mei could build you covers in ten minutes."

She stared at the pool. Momo was doing backstroke now, her arms cutting the water in clean arcs, her body long and lean. Jiro's eyes tracked her for a second and then moved to the concrete between her own feet. Her mouth was a thin line.

"You know too much about people, Hayami." Her voice was low.

She stood up. Walked away from me. Four chairs down. Sat. Her earphone jacks extended to their full length and settled on the armrest, pointed in my direction.

She was still within listening range.

I looked at the pool. Tsuyu was doing another lap, underwater, her shadow dark and fast against the blue tiles. Mina was trying to get Ochaco to race her and Ochaco was saying she'd use her Quirk to make herself weightless and Mina was saying that was cheating and Ochaco was saying it was tactical advantage and they were both laughing. Iida was swimming in the lane ropes with perfect form and counting his strokes out loud. Midoriya was treading water in the deep end and muttering about hydrodynamics.

The sun was hot. The water was cold. The afternoon was loud and normal and full of people who had passed their exams and had a week before the training camp started.

One week before the Forest Lodge. Before Muscular and Moonfish and Toga and the night that would change everything. One week of this.

I put my feet in the water. Tsuyu's shadow glided past below the surface and one of her large hands brushed my ankle as she passed. Brief. Deliberate. Her fingers were cool and smooth and then she was gone, the shadow moving toward the deep end.

Jiro's earphone jack twitched on the armrest four chairs down. She'd heard the spike in my heartrate. Her head turned a fraction toward me and then turned back to the pool.

The pool was loud and bright and full of teenagers who didn't know what was coming. I sat at the edge with my feet in the water and the sun on my back.