Bouncy, hyperactive, and upbeat music filled up just about every corner of Mina's room. The beat was fast, and the rhythm spontaneous. All the lyrics rapidly came after one another from all the various members of the band, though Mina couldn't make heads or tails of what was actually being said.
K-Pop was a genre of music that Mina usually enjoyed – Though admittedly, when it came to music, she wasn't all that particular. Dance, techno, rock, English, Japanese, or in this case, Korean. It was always the beat and the tune that suckered her in and had her jumping and dancing around the room.
She moved her body along with the music as best she could, making the absolute most of all the space she had in this enormous, new room. There wasn't any particular dance she had in mind – This was just freestyle. Moving her body in whatever and whichever way she felt like, and letting her lose herself in the moment.
It served as a great distraction.
The room was bigger, and that let her do more than she would have been able to do at home. If she wanted to try out her break-dancing at home, she'd need to go into the living room, and no doubt she'd end up with her brothers mocking her, her moves, and her taste in music – In good nature, as all barbs shot between the Ashido family were, though they did tend to shut up when Mina challenged them to step up and do better. It was nice to not have to worry about other people watching her, or having to worry about breaking something that someone would end up getting mad at her for. That had happened too many times to her. Far too many for her to be proud of.
Of her many hobbies, dancing was probably one of the ones that Mina enjoyed the most. She loved the energy that it needed, and that the music made her feel. It threw all her worries and concerns out the window – There was just her, the beat, and about a thousand ways to break-dance that stood between her and a fantastic performance. It was generally a fun way of keeping fit on top of that, which had ended up helping her out a lot in her pursuit of becoming a good Hero.
Always, things felt better once she'd busted out a few moves.
Except for today.
Right now, she was just breathing heavily, and feeling sweat run down her face, stick to her hair, and then that wet, sticky, and now cold hair resting on her forehead. Her limbs felt sore. She had opted to do this after a long day of Quirk training, which she didn't often do, for obvious reasons. Her body needed time to recuperate from the exercise, and it wasn't getting it.
Mina didn't care too much though. She wanted the distraction. But dancing wasn't working.
She couldn't blame the music either. It wasn't like it was tracks she had heard a hundred times before. This was a new album, directly from Korea. It was brand new, with songs she hadn't even heard before. A gift.
The horned girl sighed. She was irritated, and conflicted, and she didn't know what to do, or what to think about it.
As her breathing managed to calm down, she heard that outside her room, someone was banging against the door, probably as hard as they could. "Yikes." She muttered to herself, realizing that the music was probably on slightly loud, and that whoever it was had come to tell her to shut it up, or turn it down.
Quickly, she hit the pause button on her computer, made her way to the door, and opened it up.
"You uh… Enjoying yourself?"
"Oh, Izu, it's you." Mina said with a small sigh of relief.
Izuku tilted his head slightly. "Were you expecting someone else?"
"To be honest, I half thought Uraraka was coming to tell me to shut off my music."
"What was that, anyway? I don't think I've ever heard it before."
"TFG. They're that K-Pop band I showed you."
"…I thought they didn't have albums outside of Korea?"
"Not released yet. My cousins sent them over for me. I just got it in the post this morning."
For a moment, Izuku paused. "Cousins…" Then he remembered, and snapped his fingers as he did so. "Oh, right. Your mom is from United Korea, isn't she?"
"Yeah. Guess aunt Nari and aunt Gyuri are a bit behind. They sent them back home, and mom had to send them here. Speaking of here, you know you're allowed to just walk in, right?" The pink girl offered him a smile, and opened the door wide for him to walk though. "C'mon in. You brought the stuff?"
The Quirk Inheritor walked into the room, pulled the rucksack off of his back, and placed it on the bed. "Soda's, candy's, snacks… More… Substantial and nutritional food. Everything you asked for."
"Awesome. Operation night-in is a-go!"
Lessons had been difficult over the last few days, and between the pair of them, Izuku and Mina had decided that in order to relax a bit, they would have a lazy evening together, which would be filled up with video games and movies and TV shows and who knew whatever the felt like. Izuku even offered to finally watch some of the horror films Mina had been just dying to show him ever since they first got together.
He had gone out to buy the supplies. Mina had been in charge of setting up all the entertainment devices that they were going to need. The game system Micha had gotten her, and all the games that came with it, plus a couple she bought out of her own pocket, were all hooked up to the TV and were ready to go. On the bed, what could only be described as Fort Pillow had been constructed by Lady Mina, and was prime warm snuggling architectural mastery.
…It really was such a shame that Mina could just feel her bad mood was going to end up taking president over their ability to have a good time tonight.
"I got a bunch of cherryade and orangeade… And I bought a few energy drink cans. I thought you'd like them… And if you lost in the games, you'd blame not having enough caffeine."
After everything that had been revealed, and everything that they had all gone through to rescue Izuku and Bakugou…
"Sour candies, sweet stuff… I also got… These."
She could just not understand why, at the very first hint, or the first nice words said about the guy…
"Uh… Mina?"
Why would Kirishima just go right back to Bakugou?
"Mina?"
"Huh?" Mina blinked and looked up at Izuku. She realized suddenly that she hadn't been paying attention to what Izuku had been talking about. Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth, and her hands had balled up into fists. She hadn't even noticed that she had been doing any of it either.
It just sort of… Happened.
Both of them looked at one another for a few moments, unblinking and pausing at their eyes glanced over one another. Izuku had unloaded most of what he'd bought, and he had some piece of confectionery in his hand, covered up mostly by his fingers and thumb. His expression didn't make any attempt to hide that he was curious as to what was had caught her attention.
"Are you okay?" He asked, tilting his head slightly.
His question made Mina pause for a moment. Before, she would have said that it was fine, and that it wasn't anything to worry about. That it was just a silly little thing that had entered her head and that she had just thought about for too long. She would have dismissed it, and insisted that Izuku do the same.
That, of course, was before the kidnapping.
Everything built up before then, due to the simple fact that the pair of them didn't know how to talk to one another. They struggled to fully explain their feelings, their thoughts, and what was bothering them, and it led to so much emotional strife, worry and concern, that it all boiled over into something it didn't need to. She remembered seeing Izuku in the hospital, and thinking that if she had done better, and talked with him more, she might have been able to do something.
…Hiding how she felt wasn't going to solve anything. Even if it brought the mood down a bit… Izuku wold want to know.
"…It's Kirishima." She said, letting out a small sigh.
"Kirishima?"
"Yeah."
"What about him?"
"I'm…. Really angry with him." A pause. "I think. Irritated might be better? Maybe? I… I'm not sure."
Izuku paused for a moment, before throwing the candy in his hands onto the bed, and sitting down on the edge of it himself. He looked at Mina, and made a gesture with his head to motion her to sit down by him. Mina did so, and felt Izuku's hand rest on her shoulder.
"Go on." He gently encouraged.
"…You know I went to middle school with Kirishima, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I say we went together – We just went to the same one. I barley even knew he existed. I've told you about that whole thing with the Villain and Kirishima talking to me and my friends the next day, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well that was… Virtually our entire relationship. The guy wanted to be a Hero and I was interested in how he was gonna do that. Obviously, he did get in, and, well, here we both are." Mina paused, and looked back on her middle school days. They were fun, and less stressful that a single year at Yuuei, that was for sure. "The thing is, I was pretty sure he was gonna be a good Hero. He put the effort in, and tried to do this whole new image… Thing. I mean, it was obvious he was trying to leave behind an image of himself he didn't like, but after a while in Yuuei, I thought he might've been getting somewhere. We both went to rescue you. I treated him like crap and he was still willing to help me… "
She sighed.
"…And then this whole Bakugou thing happened."
"Bakugou?"
"Everyone finally saw what kind of person he is. They finally got it – If one good thing happened from that entire mess, it was that shape-shifting girl exposing his crap. Kirishima did too… But, the first – the first chance he got, he went straight back to him."
It didn't take a genius to figure out that Mina was referring to the pair of them training together again today.
"You say one half decent thing about Bakugou, and Kirishima acts like he's just been waiting for the excuse to hang out with the guy again. And this is someone who tried to take on bullies in our middle school for God's sake – I just don't – I don't get it. I thought I knew the guy, and it's just turned out that he'll only follow principles when it suits him, but if someone he's friends with turned out to be like that, he'll make exceptions?"
"They only trained together today, Mina."
"How much d'you wanna bet that they'll be hanging out again by the end of the week?" She grumbled. "The guy's a hypocrite."
She wasn't wrong. Izuku had a feeling that they would be. But that didn't -
"…You wanna know something kinda scummy too?" Mina asked, a bit quieter, and seeming to be a bit smaller than a moment before.
Izuku didn't answer. He just let her talk as she needed to.
"…I'm almost glad that they are."
Mina's hands intertwined, and she sighed.
"…I actually feel bad for Bakugou. The guy tormented you for years and years, and… And I really do hate him. I really do. The guy doesn't even have the decency to thank you for trying to save him and getting yourself kidnapped in the process, and… Just… Everything. You know what he's like…. But I… I felt bad for him.
I felt bad because he was so alone after he got back. The guy barley leaves his room anymore, and people look at him like he's a monster. I wanted that. I really wanted him to just be some… Monster that people knew, instead of being praised for being oh-so good at absolutely everything. I wanted people to see him for what he actually was. To actually… Know what he was. And now they do, and they turn their backs on him, and…
….You know he's not a social person. And I don't think he'd ever admit it… But… How lonely has that got to be? Everyone just turning their backs on you, and it's not even for something you admit yourself. And… The fact I feel like this… What's that say about me?..."
Having even the slightest bit of sympathy for her boyfriends bully - What on Earth kind of person was she?
"…I'm… Really glad you told me this."
The pink girl looked at her boyfriend. Those… Weren't necessarily the first words that she had expected to hear.
Nor was a smile the thing she expected to see.
"I'll… Be honest with you Mina. I do have… Some anger towards Kacchan. Of course I do. I had to deal with everything he threw at me for years… But I've never wanted him to have his life ruined. All I wanted… Was for him to just… Acknowledge I was a person. That's all. I still do want to think of him as someone I could… Get along with. But of course I'm angry with him. It'd be weird if I wasn't."
He smiled, and looked ahead.
"…Part of why I said what I did to Kirishima was because I… Kind of hoped that he'd go and talk to Kacchan."
"Y-You did?"
"Yeah. Leaving him on his own, he'll just get angrier and angrier… That wouldn't help anything. Especially not after what happened to us… And… To be honest?"
Holding up his hand, like he was holding something within it, he said,
"…I sympathized with him too."
His hand fell to his knees, and he drummed his fingers against the joint.
"It's… Kind of similar to what happened when I learned that I didn't have a Quirk. Something beyond my control suddenly meant that I was looked at differently than everyone else. Like everyone thought they were… Above me? Better than me? Like I was beneath them, and there wasn't anything that I could do about it. Something… Similar happened to Kacchan. And its not something I wanted to happen to him. Not like the way it has. I wanted Kirishima to talk to him… Cause… I didn't want him to have to deal with that." A laugh. "Although if I told him, that, he'd probably kill me."
He looked at Mina, and smiled.
"You asked what not liking seeing someone be alone said about you. I think it means you're just a kind person. And I'm really... Really glad that you are.
Mina couldn't help but smile slightly. If there were any limits to the altruism that Izuku had in him, and the kind, forgiving nature that he exhibited, Mina doubted that she'd ever live to see it. He seemed like he could forgive just about anything. Or at the very least, he wouldn't ever wish harm on someone for the things that they did against him. He was just… A good person.
Able to sympathize with his bully, and it not being due to him doing so out of fear or conditioning… Izuku really did have an empathetic heart. Still…
"…I dunno if I'm that willing to forgive. But if you're fine with it…"
"…How do you feel about it?"
"….I don't know." She admitted. "I still am annoyed with Kirishima, cause being so willing to go back to how things were still says something about him, but…" She paused, and then found her words. "… I guess I'll just… Have to see what happens."
"…If you're happy with that."
"I wouldn't say happy, but, it seems like it's the best I can do."
"…You alright?"
"…Better. Sorry, for, y'know. Bringing it up now of all times."
"Don't be. I'm really glad that you did."
Letting her head fall against his shoulder, Mina closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh. It hadn't exactly been a light conversation, and certainly not the way that she had intended for the first few minutes of Operation Night-In to go. But she was glad. Glad that she had spoken up.
They had learned from the mistakes they had made, she felt. And that made her feel better.
She allowed her hands to rest on the bed for her to lean on, when she felt something hard against her bed-sheet. Mina wrapped her hands around it, and brought it in front of her. And then laughed.
The candy Izuku had been holding onto. "You're the biggest dork in the universe, y'know?"
"H-Huh?"
Mina grinned and showed what she had found – The candy that Izuku had thrown onto the bed before they spoke. A hard sugar candy which was branded 'Love hearts.'
It was truly baffling. Jaw unhingingly, eye openingly, word failingly baffling.
By all measures of comprehension, Mina still could not understand it.
How?!
How the hell was Izuku better at games than she was?!
She'd ended up playing them for most of her life thanks to her brothers. Between her and Micha, the pair of them being the best gamers in the house, she had about a fifty-fifty win ratio with him at the best of times. And Micha was the kind of person who spent just about all his free time playing games – She knew how to tangle with the best of them, especially on the games.
So how was Izuku, someone who barely touched games, so universally better than her at them?
"How?!" She asked aloud, flabbergasted at the 'You lose' text on her half of the screen.
"Mina, I – I really don't know what to tell you – "
"I will literally pay you anything if you tell me how you're doing this, Izu."
"I honestly do not know."
He really didn't seem to know either. He looked just as confused as the pink girl herself was, blinking at the screen, then his hands, and then the controller.
"A-Are you using the combinations?"
"It's a fighting game, Izu. You could throw the controller down a flight of stairs and get the same result."
"…Then, how am I winning?"
"Because shut up."
Izuku laughed. Mina had a competitive streak when it came to her games. He knew that she wasn't serious.
The young couple had spent the last hour having rounds against one another on the fighting game that came with the console Micha gave his sister. It was a roster of about forty Heroes from abroad, with names and Quirks neither of them had seen or heard of before. Mina had been able to hear the cogs in her boyfriend's head as he stored the information for note-taking later. She had positioned herself with her back against his chest, and her head tucked underneath his chin – Though that did mean she was more laying down that she was sitting up. Izuku's arms were around her waist, and he rested his head on top of Mina's.
Around them, the built-up pillow fort, and around them, blankets, keeping the pair of them nice and warm. Around them, candy wrappers and food containers.
Games weren't the first thing that they had gotten into. First, the pair of them had decided to watch a movie. Horror related so, as Mina claimed, it would be out of the way and neither of them would go to sleep with that on their minds. She knew for a fact Izuku had hidden behind her head at least once, but for the most part, he'd been a good sport and soldiered through it as best he could. He even managed to get to the end of the film, though he'd needed many hugs afterwards. Mina set up the fighting game afterwards, and it seemed to have taken his mind off of the Abnormal Occurrences movie.
Only now he was kicking her ass without even fully understanding how.
"…Maybe we should play something else." Izuku suggested, still laughing gently.
"You beat me at DDR, arcade shooters, and now, fighting games. I'm starting to think that you're gonna beat me no matter what we play. I thought I had good reflexes."
"I-If you keep practicing…"
"Izu, are you seriously about to tell me that playing video games and improving my reflexes is going to help me become a better Hero, and becoming a better Hero with better reflexes will make me better at video games?" Mina smirked and looked up at him. He had been about to suggest that – Mina knew him well enough to know what had been going through his mind.
He blushed. "W-Well…"
Mina laughed. "I mean, you're not wrong, but that has to be the nerdiest way I've ever heard anyone suggest training for Heroism. Open up." She quickly found one of the 'love heart' candies, and popped one into Izuku's mouth, before he even had a chance to ask her what she was doing. "You earned that one, you dope."
While he blushed again and started to chew, she relaxed and rested against his chest again, and snuggling up between him, and the covers. It was warm, and comforting, just being able to do silly things like this. It was like their date earlier on in the week. Just something… Silly, and fun to do. Even if she was slightly annoyed by the fact Izuku seemed capable of beating her in one of her favourite pastimes. Just some dumb fun, that made her feel like she was in school, and not constantly in a race against time to save someone's life.
She just got to have fun with the person she loved. She couldn't really ask for more than that.
"Another round?" She asked, looking up and grinning.
"Y-You sure?"
"I'm gonna beat you this time, Izu. Your streak of victory ends tonight."
It didn't.
By the time the pair of them got tired enough to stop playing games, and to put on something a lot more relaxed than a horror film, it was eleven at night. They wound up watching some anime that came from America. Something to do with four nations, that was all Mina knew about it when she suggested it to Izuku, and she somehow doubted that either of them were going to remember anything about it when they woke up.
She could already tell that they were both drifting in and out of consciousness, and that it wasn't going to be much longer before they eventually just blacked out and were done with it. Izuku was still holding her by her waist, and she still had her back against his chest. Now though, they were laid down on the bed, surrounded by pillows and blankets on top of that, watching a screen with less and less consciousness as the minutes passed by.
It had been a fun night. Movies, games, jokes and fun. It was everything that a date or a night in should be. After all the training… Mina was glad.
Glad that they had put the time aside to do this. Tomorrow was going to be a hectic day, after all. They both needed this. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and she was glad that they would approach it from a relaxed standing.
Mina allowed her eyes to close.
"…Mina?..." Izuku muttered something against her neck, where his head seemed to have snuggled into and made its place there.
"Mmm?..."
"…Love you."
A smile emerged on Mina's lips. Her hands reached down to her waist, and placed themselves on top of Izuku's gently.
"…Love you too, Izu…"
Both of them fell asleep shortly thereafter, both with smiles on their faces.