When Izuku woke up the next day... It was probably one of the most hectic awakenings he'd had in a long time. The only other times he'd been in a similar rush or blind panic was when he was first starting to attend Yuuei and was completely paranoid about getting there on time before he adjusted to the schedule, and back in his many middle school days. The night Mina had accidentally fallen asleep while they were studying was calmer compared to this one. And a significant portion less painful.
He went through a couple of brief moments of waking up, followed by the most basic lucidity falling back to sleep again for another hour or so before the next moment he woke up. The very first time he awoke to was a pale pink colour. There wasn't even a second of confusion at that point. It was pink, so it was Mina, without even a shadow of a doubt. Literally nothing else in his room was even remotely that shade of light red. While that alone was enough to tell him that Mina had crawled into his bed while he was asleep... He found himself far too tired to even care. At this point, he embraced it, letting himself hold onto her closer, and resting his head on her skin. Confident that he hadn't woken her up, he allowed the soft warmth of her skin to pour over him. He quickly fell asleep again, with a weak, shaky, but bright smile on his face. Mina made a good pillow.
He would have honestly liked to have fallen asleep like this the previous night, close to Mina and holding her close. Mina always felt warm and soft, her skin almost like a calming drug, or like one that felt like the physical manifestation of adrenaline whenever Izuku felt it against his own. It usually depended on the feel, the mood they were both in. If Mina wanted to embarrass him, even the smallest amount of physical contact would send him into crimson fits, but when they were being kinder to one another, and their affection towards one another was clear, it felt like something he could hold onto forever. After yesterday... In his utterly shattered state, and how softly she treated him, there wasn't any doubt in Izuku's head as to her affections.
Were it not for his own shyness, he would have asked her if she would be willing to cuddle with him for the night, but the mere idea of asking that set his heart racing.
So this... This felt nice. That was how he felt as he drifted back to sleep.
The second time he woke up, he'd almost entirely forgotten everything that he'd learned in his previous lapse of lucidity until he noticed the pink skin of Mina again, and he quickly remembered. This time, he had a bit more of a typical reaction, going red in the face, but he stopped himself from making any sort of noises, as he didn't want to wake up his presumably still sleeping girlfriend. He quickly calmed himself and forced his heartbeat to calm. As he recalled everything from his last few moments of being awake, he quickly returned to that dreamy state, resting himself against her.
After a short while though, it became of note to him that his hand had trailed up and was now resting palm down on her skin, like it normally did when he slept. He blushed, wondering how long his hand had been against her like that, and if Mina had noticed at all. Knowing her, if he was awake and she had noticed, she'd be teasing him about it hours later, before flirting that she didn't mind.
It took Izuku a second to notice, but as he traced his gaze down his arm, he noticed that there was a cut-off point, where Mina's skin ended and clothing started again...
He blinked. Hard. Where exactly was he?
Only then did he actually realise - He was resting with his front facing towards the pull of gravity... And he didn't remember calling asleep face-down.
As he rapidly became slightly uncomfortable as to where he was resting his head in, praying to whatever hypothetical Gods did exist that what was happening wasn't actually happening, his hands, along with the rest of his body, became rigid out of sheer habit. As nervousness struck, his body became tense, which was exactly what was happening right now.
"Ah!"
Izuku's eyes shot wide open, and he found himself totally terrified of looking up right now, or tearing himself away from Mina's skin. At the same time, it was like he was being magnetically repelled from her, and he couldn't stop himself from doing so, the same terror forcing him away from her.
When he looking up at Mina, she seemed to be slightly uneasy herself, but had recovered very quickly. If anything, she had been caught off guard by what had just happened, but not upset at all. Her smile looked a lot shakier than it normally did, and her cheeks were a lilac shade, a colour Izuku hadn't seen in her face for quite a while.
Taking a quarter of a second to realise why she was just a blushing wreck as he was at this moment, Izuku just stared back at her, his body simply refusing to react to what he'd just figured out.
Evidentially, at some point in the night, Izuku had rolled over onto his front...
And had wound up resting his head on Mina's chest.
Given the height difference between the two of them, this did imply that Mina had gone to sleep while holding Izuku closer towards her chest than her head, almost like she was holding a newborn baby, protecting him from the rest of the planet. Be that as it may though...
His entire body tensed up again, this time before he even realised that it was doing so good... And this included his hand, which was still located on the left side of her chest, his body far too paranoid from about ten seconds ago to do even dare move. Now an action that he was seriously regretting at this point.
As he did so, Mina went a darker shade of lilac, though she did manage to put on both a flirty voice and a shaky smile. "M-Man, you're frisky, huh Izuku?"
This time, Izuku really did One For All straight out of his bed. On pure instinct, he activated his Quirk and tried to make as much distance between Mina, her body and himself as physically possible. In doing so, he pushed himself away from her, neglecting to use the hand that was currently groping her, not wanting to hurt her in doing so, which meant that all he had to push himself away was his left hand, his non-dominant hand. This resulted in his push being lopsided, leaning towards the right by a dramatic margin.
Launching him right into the wall with a serious amount of force. Not enough to break the wall down, or even crack it, but it was certainly enough to make the impact audible, and plenty strong enough to make Izuku feel it. "Gaakk!" Followed by him bouncing off the solid surface, and back into the floor thanks to the assistance of gravity. He narrowly missed hitting the futon Mina was supposed to have been sleeping in, like it was some sort of insult directly by the laws of the universe. "Ooof!... Oww..."
Looking at the immeasurably awkward boy now sprawled out on the floor, unsure if she was going to burst out into laughter, or if she needed to leap up to check that he wasn't suffering a serious concussion.
She wound up doing both.
"Pfft!" She tried, she really did try, to hold back her laughter from spilling out, but she couldn't help herself in the end. Endless amusement was always found in Izuku acting like an overly awkward dope. She loved the boy, she did, but he was seriously hilarious when he was this embarrassed and awkward. "A-Are you okay?" She asked, sliding out of the bed and kneeling next to him, trying to stop her chuckles as much as she could, feeling a bit bad that she found his pain amusing.
Managing to crawl onto his knees while pressing a hand against the exact spot of impact, Izuku found himself face to face with Mina, who had her beautiful smile still etched onto her lips. At this point, he was certain that she was just smiling by default, that if she wasn't smiling, then there was something else that had acquired her direct attention.
Although right now, as pretty as her smile was, and no matter how much he could gladly just watch her smile for hours in end.. It was doing him absolutely no favours.
"M-Mina, I-I-I am so s-sorry!" He blurted out, bowing his head to not look her in the face... Though all this did was make him able to see her well-toned legs, and his mind was totally in the gutter at this point. He threw his gaze over to the left, so he couldn't see an inch of pink. "That was a-a c-complete accident! I-I didn't mean t-to do a-any of that! I must've rolled over in my s-sleep and wound up l-like that! I-I wouldn't even think about d-doing something like that! I-I-I don't mean that I-I don't think you're not a-attractive or a-anything! I-I do, but - No I what I mean to s-say is that -"
"Dude, chill." Mina simply said, though she was quickly starting to wonder if her teasing was starting to affect her boyfriend's mental abilities at this point. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Two things, one, I'm the one who put you like that."
"H-Huh?!"
"Yeah, you looked like you were really having a bad dream about an hour after you knocked out. Didn't know what was wrong, but I didn't wanna wake you, so I just moved you onto my chest, and you calmed right down. Thought you might sleep better if you were someplace warm."
"P-Please don't phrase it like that!" Izuku went dark red at the mention of
"Huh? You keep saying that you think my skin's warm and soft."
"I-I never said that!"
"Well you do a bad job at hiding that you think that then" Mina then smirked. "Also, I did actually mean what you thought too. Though now I know you do think my skins warm." She giggled at Izuku's dumbfounded response. Frankly, he couldn't even tell if Mina did truly know why her phrasing had made him flustered or not, but it was clear he already knew that Mina was going to use this newfound information to her advantage when it came to teasing him. Deciding that, for his sanity, she needed to explain further she moved his head onto her chest, she added on, "Really, it just made it easier to keep an eye on you. You're a really cute sleeper... And I thought it might be funny to see what would happen when you woke up. So far it's like the best comedy sketch in the world."
Red like his blood was, Izuku dared ask a question that was nagging at his head like crazy. "A-A-And my h-hand?..."
"Nah, that was all you." Grinned the pink skinned girl. In spite of her initial blush, which had mostly faded, though tints of lilac remained, Mina seemed relaxed about the whole affair. She had brushed off the incident, writing it off without much fanfare to be made. She almost seemed flattered in a certain sense.
"I-I'm so sorry -"
"Again, stop with the sorrying."
"S-sor-" An amused grin from Mina reminded Izuku of what he had been told literally five seconds ago. He caught his words before they exited his mouth, before he wound up entering an endless loophole of apologising for apologising. "R-Right..."
Every inclination that he'd ever seen from anything ever dictated that if someone did what he'd just done, accidentally or not to a girl's chest, they were in for either a punch to the face, kick to the face, or they'd be subjected to heavy barrage from the girls Quirk... In the face. His limited knowledge on what it meant to have a girlfriend and to be a boyfriend did still leave gaps in his ability to understand exactly...
What the hell they were supposed to do now. If anything at all.
"And point two... It's not like I didn't, y'know, like it."
At that point, Izuku's blush nearly totally eradicated itself, leaving his face slightly pale in comparison. He finally dared another look towards his girlfriend, who was still highlighted in her darker pigments around her face. It was one of the rare times where she was blushing just as much as he was. Far more relaxed and open about this kind of thing, it was honestly surprising to see her like this, Izuku just couldn't stop thinking.
There was a part of him that found Mina blushing to be one of the cutest things he'd ever seen. Shyness wasn't a personality trait that Mina particularly had, being far more open and blunt about things. Bar their first date, and their confession towards one another at the end, seeing her like this was rare, and it normally made his heart skip multiple beats.
Though right now, he was right back to being dark crimson, because that same lilac blush meant that she was being a hundred percent genuine.
"Wha-Wha-What t-the?..." His blush burnt his face with how hot it was, almost threatening to leave him what something that resembled sunburn.
"Well, we are dating, aren't we?" Mina asked, though still blushing, she managed to find her words and enunciate them far clearer than Izuku. "I mean... I am your girlfriend. So... I don't really mind if you do that. If you want to..." Her blush increased. "I-it was kind of... Nice."
Steam could virtually be seen rising from Izuku's scolding body, his brain on the verge of an overload. This wasn't even remotely close to what he'd been expecting from this insane scenario, not to mention first thing in the morning.
Were they skipping a few steps in doing this?
Of course the green haired boy knew that being in a relationship meant that, eventually, they would become more intimate. He wasn't oblivious to the secrets of life, and the additional changes people underwent around this point in their lives. That being said, he and Mina had only been dating for a short few months! Was this going too fast, or were they just slow?
In brutal honesty, his awkward, timid and shy personality was having a huge sway in his thinking here. While he was totally aware that being in a relationship meant that they'd do that kind of thing eventually, his extreme reluctance in doing so was mostly due to his shyness and the likes. That was really all there was to it.
"Are you embarrassed? Or do you just not like the idea of it?" Mina spoke with genuine curiosity, without offence or upset. She actually wanted to know.
"E-Embarrassed." Izuku rapidly admitted. He'd openly admit that in this situation, especially since he didn't want Mina to think for even a second that he didn't like the idea of it. Because deep down, he did.
Mina was a very attractive girl, and she was the kindest person he'd ever met. That was really all he needed to know about her. That she was nice. That she was genuine. That she did actually love him. They were things that he had absolutely no doubt about whatsoever. Her looks were subjective, but good God, they were there... Even before Izuku had fallen in love with her, she had been notably cute... Again, they were subjective, but they to that same desire to be close to her all the more.
"So you do like the idea of it?"
Damn it.
"I-I-I..." Before he could dig his own grave any deeper, Izuku decided it wisest to shut himself up. He was unable to look at her again, his total awkwardness grabbing hold of every inch of his being, preventing him from even having the capability to look his girlfriend in the eye.
As much as Mina found this awkwardness to amusing and endearing as per norm... Part of her felt more daring, more willing to go down this path, mainly to see what sort of reaction she'd get from Izuku. Curious herself to see what he'd do... And what encouraging him could lead towards. With everything that had happened the previous day... If nothing else, if he was focused on being cripplingly flustered, he wasn't thinking about the run-in with the league.
The last thing he needed to do right now was be thinking about the league. And the worst case scenario was him becoming Sir Blush-lord McFlounder. So this couldn't go too badly.
Besides, she loved Izuku with everything she had. So she didn't mind any of this.
With her right hand, she reached over and gently held onto Izuku's right hand, with as tender a touch as she could manage, and shuffled closer to him, though he couldn't tell since he couldn't bring himself to look at her.
"Izuku." Mina gently spoke, practically whispering his name, yet was loud enough to be heard clearly by the young boy. Lowering her head and leaning in to try to get at least into his line of sight slightly, he showed off a soft smile that she knew Izuku liked. "Look at me?"
Though hesitant, Izuku did so, and was greeted by the softest and sweetest kiss to the lips he'd felt in a long time, it was one where he could tell there wasn't some kind of trick she had planned designed to make him blush, or because she was trying to convince him of something. Her lips were gentle when they met with his own, and tasted just as sweet. This kiss was one filled with nothing but a genuine love. It was something about how she kissed him when she did it like this, but Izuku would happily kiss her like this all day if the option was available.
Quite easily, he returned the kiss, feeling his eyelids grow heavy as he did so. Kissing Mina was like a drug that made keeping his eyes open a difficult and arduous task, one which he gave up on altogether when he began to return her kisses. He loved these kisses... He loved Mina...
He loved her so, so much.
The next few seconds on the other hand totally changed the feel of the room, and left Izuku in an absolute blushing mess for hours to come. With one quick pull at his hand, Mina pulled his palm over towards her body.
Resting it on her right breast, kept there by her hand atop it.
Out of pure instinct, Izuku's eyes shot wide open again and he attempted to pull away from Mina due to surprise and unease, but found himself unable to get far from her, almost like she was magnetic. Her lips remains locked onto his gently and softly, following him when he tried to pull away from her, and keeping his hand exactly where it was.
His heart was going at two thousand beats a minute. As it turned out, and contrary to what Izuku had been expecting, or rather, hoped in this specific scenario, Mina didn't wear any sort of sleeping bar - Again, Izuku didn't know exactly what he was expecting. He still barely knew a damn thing about girls in these respects - Meaning that he could essentially feel her breast as though it were bare. He probably could have before, but he hadn't been as aware of it then. With his eyes open, Izuku was able to look back at the very slightly open eyes of his girlfriend, and in return was greeted by a pair of beautiful yellow irises that conveyed virtually every emotion Mina had in her right now.
Love. Longing. Joy and enjoyment. Desire...
...Fear? Concern? Anxiety and insecurity?...
Hope...
Izuku really had no clue that it was possible to be so internally torn. One part of him was screaming to break away and apologise by smashing his head into the ground, even though he was aware that this wasn't exactly something that he had control over. He almost felt like he was being tested to an extent, that this was some kind of elaborate scheme that she had planned to see if Izuku was some kind of creep.
But... Her lips were warm, and they felt nice against his. They tasted sweet, like sugar, and he didn't ever like separating from them. On top of that...
Though every single of Izuku's instincts was telling him to pull away, and he knew for a fact he was going to berate himself for even thinking this later on... Her breast was soft, and warm. Like a pillow. It felt... Nice, and he sort of didn't want to move his hand away at all.
So... Was he a creep?
He didn't know... What he did know was that he loved Mina dearly, and he didn't want to stop kissing her... Or move his hand from where she had placed it. He might regret doing so in the future... But this was the very same person who had taught him that he needed to live for the present as well as the future.
Already he knew he'd struggle to look at her after this, he kissed her back again, allowing himself to have this moment.
A second later, Mina made an admittedly clumsy attempt to open it up into French kissing, virtually giving the already nervous boy a panic attack.
Shock was the appropriate word, not dislike or disapproval. Her sudden attempt had caught him off guard, and for a moment, he forgot how breathe. When this happened, he did what he always did in this situation, regardless of if he wanted to or not.
His body tensed, and this time, it wasn't as gentle or measured. This included his hands.
Whenever they kissed, Mina admittedly did hum with enjoyment.. But this time, it was particularly loud. Frankly, it wasn't a hum anymore.
And when Izuku figured this out, he returned right back to reality and bluntly took in what was happening - Mina was attempting to slide her tongue into his mouth, and he was basically groping her.
His brain fried, as did his cheeks. He tore himself away, hand and lips, and looked at Mina with a growing sense of dread, awaiting the reaction that she was going to give. He was expecting half of his body to get dissolved in acid at this point.
Aside from a look of surprise herself, and perhaps disappointment, she was fine. She was blushing a huge amount herself, her entire face virtually lilac, a rare sight indeed, and she was equal amounts breathless, needing a few seconds to reclaim oxygen. When she finally spoke, it was uncharacteristically shaky. "A-Are you alright, Izuku?"
"I-I-I'll m-make us s-some b-b-breakfast!" He announced by practically yelling, before bolting out his room with such force he nearly tore off the door, without the help of One For All.
Leaving Mina sat on her own, blinking for a seconds or two, and re-going over what the heck they'd just done. Had they just basically made out? Was that was that was? She was genuinely curious, because she had no legitimate idea.
Though she did manage to smirk to herself, and rested her hand on top of her chest. "So that's the limit he's willing to go to, huh..."
Izuku swiftly realised that Mina had changed his alarm clock so that he'd wind up sleeping in. It was already eleven, and there was no way in hell that he was going to be able to make it to Yuuei in time for even the final lesson. Truth be told, after the morning he'd just had, he wasn't even upset about it.
He'd be unable to focus anyway.
The entire time he made breakfast, he was hyper-sensitive as to where Mina was at all times. His mother had left for work long ago, and had prepared something for the two of them before she'd left. Had she been in on this little scheme of Mina's? Nothing could surprise Izuku at this point when it came to his girlfriend.
All he had to do was prepare and serve the food. A simple task... Were his head not permanently stuck in the ditches, making him lack concentration on the most basic of tasks. He was more focused on keeping a respectable distance from Mina than he was on not scolding himself with boiling water.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the taste of Mina's lips or tongue - A word he was blushing at having to use - From his mind. And the phantom feeling of Mina's chest from his hand. Every single time he so much as made a twitch with his finger, he froze for a quarter of a second, thinking that this would have some effect on Mina, even though he wasn't anywhere near her.
He kept his distance because he wasn't sure on what they were even supposed to do at this point. Were they supposed to have some sort of talk about it, or just keep on acting like nothing had happened? Was there even a procedure?
Was there a procedure on what you're supposed to do after basically making out with your girlfriend. Admittedly, that sounded extremely stupid to Izuku.
Still, it changed nothing about the fact that he was totally unsure on what he was supposed to say or do anymore. He did feel that perhaps Mina was rushing towards things, a lot sooner than he was personally comfortable with. That wasn't to say he didn't like it...
…Every single thing he was thinking was contradictory wasn't it?
...Why were relationships so complicated and confusing? The worldwide phenomenon of Quirks, random superpowers that activated from person to person with absolutely no rhyme or reason to them, which occurred randomly one day with absolutely no explanation, and still no explanation generations later, was far easier to understand than being in a relationship.
They were almost the same thing. Quirks appeared out of nowhere, just like Mina had, and his feelings for her had. It was harder to understand why he'd fallen in love with her of all people, but it had happened. And to further that particular point further, he couldn't point at a specific moment when he fell in love with her. When he knew he had fallen in love with her, sure, he could do that, but he couldn't tell when he had actually fallen for her along the way. And he still couldn't explain why.
But Quirks were easier to understand.
"You alright, Izuku?" Mina's voice was still soft and sweet as it always was, but to Izuku, it felt like fire.
"Y-Yeah! I-I'm okay!" He said, punching the timer on the microwave after checking that it needed to heat the food another thirty seconds before it was ready to go.
The two of them ate their food in total silence, the only sounds being those of them using their cutlery, and of them chewing. To put it into two words, it was immeasurably awkward, for both of them, neither sure on what to say. Izuku knew exactly why he was keeping his mouth shut - It was so he didn't accidentally blurt something stupid and ridiculous... Though Mina...
Normally able to talk right through these awkward moments with such persistence and frequency that an aspect of her personality could almost be called tactless, but that was one of the things Izuku did love about her. Her uncanny ability to turn any uncomfortable situation and make it feel warm and comfortable, like it was never even a problem.
If she was silent...
Had he upset her? Izuku chewed slower than before, and looked over to Mina, whom was just placing some of the food into her mouth. Was she upset with him? Had she taken him pulling away from her and darting off like that offended or depressed her in some way? That had never been the intention, just cause and effect. Either way, that made him the direct cause of why she was so ominously silent right now.
"M-Mina…" He whispered, almost hoping that she didn't hear him. When she did, he bit the bullet and force out a question. "Are you… Upset with me?"
"Hmm? Nah, not really." Assured the pink girl, though she did look pretty uncomfortable. "Just… Sorry, I guess."
"S-Sorry?"
"For kind of… Y'know, forcing myself on you?... Forcing you on me?... Whatever the hell you'd call what we just did." She blinked a few times towards the left, before shifting her eyes to look at Izuku. "I uh… I dunno. Guess I wanted to see how far you'd be comfortable going with me."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean… Well, we are dating, right? I mean, the last few months haven't just been some fever dream I had from an infection I got 'cause Mika still doesn't know how to tidy up her God damn Lego, right?"
Suddenly unable to stop himself from letting out a small laugh, Izuku smiled at Mina, who was returning that same smile back at him. It was obvious she was trying to lighten the mood between them, and she succeeded very well in doing so. "Yeah, we are."
"Right, and you're supposed to eventually do stuff like that with someone you're dating, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Well… I guess I did sort of just… Go ahead with that without even checking if you wanted to. And you seemed sort of uncomfortable after, and you're being way more awkward than usual now… Because of what we did, I'm guessing." Mina could already feel her cheeks burning up a little bit t the reminder. Usual energy and her hyper personality weren't going to serve as a good enough excuse for this, and her impulsive ways had finally caught up to her, making her feel embarrassed about herself. "So… Sorry, about that."
It was so very easy for Izuku to feel empathy for Mina, for reasons beyond his affection for her. He was able to understand how she felt right now, and how she must feel about herself. It was part of their lives, after all. Growing up how he did, Izuku was used to making himself feel like an idiot. He did it virtually every single day of his life back then, making himself utterly incapable of holding a grudge towards anyone who did the same. He didn't hold a thing against Mina for what she'd done.
He had liked it… but he just wasn't sure if he was ready to go down that path.
"Y-You don't need to apologise, Mina." He said quickly, reaching his hand over to her and smiling at her. "I-I didn't mind it… I-It… Was k-kind of n-nice… But… I-I don't think we should be doing that sort of thing yet. I-I mean we're both way too young… A-And we've still got Yuuei classes to think about if we wanna become Heroes."
"You're right, I know…" Mina returned her smile to him with the same warmth his did. "Just don't keep me waiting too long for that, yeah? It's not like we have to be careful about every little thing."
"O-Okay…" Izuku blushed lightly, before he took his hand from hers. "So, we're good, okay? Don't worry about it anymore."
"Say's the guy who's spent the last ten minutes keeping his distance like I've got him at sword point."
"W-Who's fault was that?!"
"The guy who didn't resist at all."
While the two had a small back and forth banter, Izuku and Mina both couldn't help but think that eventually, in some way, things were going to work out for them. Though they hadn't been dating for very long at all, they still had a lot to look forward to, and plenty of time to explore those feelings.
And they still had the rest of the day to figure out something they could do before they had to face the music for essentially bailing out on classes.