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It was a quiet Saturday night in Heights Alliance at U.A High. After multiple intense training sessions and grueling classes, no one really wanted to do anything in the dorms. Most of the kids were spending the night in their respective rooms, while the more excitable students spent the night in Ojiro’s room who, because Iida’s nagging, allowed the class to join him in watching old horror movies.
“It will be a great team-building exercise!” Iida had explained.
Jiro had been amongst the students that decided to retreat to their rooms, seeking out the much-needed peace and quiet after such a brutal school week. Mr. Aizawa really didn’t give them much of a break.
After hours of scrolling through her phone and practicing the same notes on her guitar, she decided she was way too bored in her room. And so, five minutes later, she found herself standing in front of Kaminari’s.
After a couple of knocks, Kaminari’s head popped out of the open door.
“Jiro?”
“Hi,” she finally managed under her breath.
“Hey!” He opened up the door, so he was no longer hiding behind it, “What’s up?”
She noticed the confusion in his voice. She couldn’t blame him; Jiro wasn’t exactly a frequent visitor and they both knew it. It wasn’t because she didn’t wanna see Kaminari, but rather, because she was scared about how she felt around him lately. The idiot made her giddy and nervous and nauseous and she hated it.
His megawatt grin was unwavering even with Jiro’s lack of response, and it made her stomach all warm and fluttery. She really hated it.
Jiro began to second think coming here at all.
She said nothing, simply opting to put up the clear Ziploc bag she had brought with her.
When Kaminari’s golden eyes caught sight of the contents of the bag, his sunny smile slid right off his face. “W–wait, seriously? Again?!” He spluttered, taking a step back. “But why?”
She shrugged. “Because you’re good at it.”
“B–but so is Yaomomo!”
Jiro shrugged again, “Yeah, she is. But you’re better,” she muttered.
Kaminari slunk against the doorway like a deflated balloon. “Aw, man! Of all the things to be better than Yaomomo at, this is it.”
“Look, if this is how you’re gonna be then just forget it.” She turned away from him and took a step towards the elevator. “I’ll go find Mo–” She froze as his hand grabbed her wrist, tugging gently.
“Wait.”
She turned back around and Kaminari released her wrist, looking away bashfully. It was a look she had never seen on the guy before and it made the fluttering in her stomach intensify.
“It’s fine, I’ll do it. You just… surprised me.”
Jiro huffed, rolling her eyes. “It’s just nail polish, Kaminari.”
“Easy for you to say,” he shot back, stepping aside to let her into his room. “Bakugo and Sero didn’t make fun of you last time we did this!”
Jiro snorted. “Bakugo’s an asshole and Sero kinda is too. So, forget them.” She said, sitting down on his bed. “Who cares what they think anyway? I bet they’re just jealous of how freaky good you are.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He conceded with a sigh, sitting down next to her. “So…” he rubbed his hands together, “What color are we doing today?”
“I dunno,” she pulled her legs to her chest. “You pick.”
“You want me to pick?” Kaminari gaped, probably stunned by the amount of trust Jiro had just placed on him.
“Yeah sure, I don’t really care.”
“Then why’d you wanna paint them in the first place if you don’t care ?” He asked, exaggerating the last part of his question, as he fished through her the Ziploc bag tossing aside the colors that he found to dull.
Because it gives me an excuse to come here, Jiro thought. But before she had a chance to think of an answer that wouldn’t be so obvious, Kaminari had already forgotten about it and asked her something else.
“Why don’t you have any brighter colors here? Ew, this one’s hideous.” He grabbed a small snot-colored bottle.
“It’s glow in the dark,” Jiro responded, her knees still resting on her chest.
At this, Kaminari’s eyes widened. He looked at the bottle again and, with a slight nod of approval, set aside it for later.
“Let’s do this one!” He said, holding up a white color.
“You wanna do white?” Jiro scrunched up her face and sat upright, letting her legs drop down onto the floor.
Kaminari put aside the bag. “It’s the only color you have that’s not a shade of black.”
Jiro took offense to this and scoffed. She held up her hand and wiggled her red nails, “I have this red one.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been using that same color for a week.”
“That’s fine though.”
“You said you didn’t care, so we’re doing white.” He insisted, opening the bottle so he can get to work.
Jiro looked at her chipped red nails and defensively held her hand close to her chest. “No! You have to take it off first.”
“What?” He looked up at her incredulously. “We didn’t have to do that last time!”
“Because you used the same color I already had on last time,” Jiro explained, grabbing at the bag and taking out the little nail polish remover pads she brought. “You have to take off the color with these first.” She gave him a handful.
Kaminari relented and accepted the pads. “Fine.” He said pouting.
The second he opened one up, he pulled it away from him immediately. “Woah! This smells terrible.”
“It’s acid.”
“Is it?”
She shrugged, knowing full well she just lied to him, “I dunno.”
“Fine, whatever!” He held out his hand for her and she grabbed it, letting him pull her closer to him as he furiously held his breath while removing the color.
Jiro giggled at this, “You’re gonna pass out.”
“No, I’m not,” he quickly added, taking in a quick breath.
Once he removed all traces of red from her nails, he threw away the pads and exaggeratedly breathed out, making Jiro laugh and feel that warm feeling in her gut again. It quickly became a burning when he gently grabbed her hand and rested it on his inner thigh, pulling at her fingers to get a good angle at them.
Go away , she internally yelled at the searing sensation spreading through her body . It’s just his thigh. His muscular inner thigh. This is totally not weird, and my hand is totally not twitching right now.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Kaminari interrupted her inner reprimands, giddily smiling as he finished painting her ring finger.
Does he know? There’s no way he knows. Right?
“I’m thinking…” she started pulling on one of her ears nervously as she desperately looked around for an excuse, something she could tell him. “We need some music,” she finally said, noticing how his computer is open to a playlist of songs.
“You’re right.” He finished her left hand and then quickly ran over to his computer where he put on some electronic music. “Hope you don’t hate it,” he said as he gestured to her to rest her right hand on his thigh.
“It’s not bad,” Jiro reassured him, relaxing at the sound of something other than her thoughts. After a breath, she finally took the chance to take in the boy that was now painting her nails. He was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt that was way too big for him; his fingertips poked out from the ends of the sleeves. His baggy sky blue sweatpants were rolled up to right below his knees, and he was barefoot.
He’s super cute. Jiro couldn’t fight off the thought. Stop it, she reprimanded herself again.
In an effort to distract herself from the cute way his tongue darted in and out of his mouth in concentration, she decided to ask him some questions.
“So,” she began slowly shifting her body, so she was facing him instead of the wall. “Dweeb. How’d you get so good at this, anyway?”
“My mom.” He answered with absolutely no shame. “She used to paint my nails when I was little, so when I got old enough, I returned the favor. Ta-da!” He waved his hands triumphantly, and Jiro – reluctantly – removed her hand from his thigh.
“Thank you,” she beamed, blowing air at her wet nails and shaking her hands to dry them out. She tried not to notice the way Kaminari looked up at her like he had something to say, sitting with his legs crossed on the bedroom floor.
“Do you…” Kaminari hesitated a bit, his cheeks flushing. “Want me to do your toes too?” He asked, pointing at her shoes.
Now it was her turn to blush.
“Yeah, sure,” she told him, taking off her slippers and setting her feet in front of him.
Kaminari’s face was still beet red, “Okay!” He squeaked out. “Same color?”
“Sure.”
He reached out his hand and waited for her to give him her foot. “Don’t do anything weird.” Jiro teased him, trying to fight back the heat building up in her cheeks.
“I won’t!” He quickly set her foot between his legs in an effort to get a better angle. “Just… don’t kick me or anything.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
A silence settled between them as he started painting her toenails, his face still red as a tomato, Jiro twirling one of her jacks with her hand. Jiro hoped that the redness meant that he felt the same way about her than he did him. She wasn’t the prettiest girl there, that much she was aware of, and she was never included in Kaminari’s tirades about how gorgeous the girls in 1-A are.
She decided the latter was impossible.
“There!” He finished his final stroke and lifted his head. “All done!”
Jiro wiggled her toes in front of his face, prompting a giggle from her pedicurist. She scrutinized his work and once she decided she was satisfied, she said, “Well done. They look good.”
“Good! So… are you gonna go now?” Kaminari asked, a frown appearing on his face. Jiro decided not to read too much into it. She didn’t want to get her hopes up.
“Well, they have to dry first.”
“Oh,” Kaminari dropped his head, the red flush returning to his cheeks.
They sat in silence again. This time the awkwardness became apparent.
Jiro looked over to where Kaminari had been sitting next to her and noticed the glow in the dark nail polish he had discarded. She picked it up and noticed how Kaminari’s face lit up.
“Do you want me to paint yours?” She asked him, “Y’know like your mom used to, while my nails dry.”
“Yes!” He answered a little too quickly. “I didn’t really know how to ask.” He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.
Is that why he was so nervous? He just didn’t know how to ask her to paint his nails for him?
Figures.
“Sure,” Jiro did her best to hide her disappointment and waved her hand in front of him, prompting him to scoot back to give her space to sit down. She mirrored his position and held out her hands for him to grab.
Kaminari shyly put his hands over hers, maintaining the deep red flush in his cheeks. Jiro placed his hands over her legs and got to work.
“It’s invisible.” Kaminari pointed out, leaning in.
Jiro flushed again as she realized just how close he’d gotten. His face was mere inches from hers she could feel his breath on her hair.
“It’s just a coating of sorts. Once you turn off the lights, it’ll start glowing.”
“That’s neat!” Kaminari was awestruck, staring intently at what Jiro’s hands were doing. She noticed his tone was different, softer.
“Alright.” She finished his final stroke and lifted his head. “Just let it get some light and it’ll glow– oh” Her nose brushed his as she brought her head up and both of them blushed at the contact.
“Sorry!” They chirped in unison, both of them touching their own noses. Jiro could still feel her nose tingling from where they made contact; though she wasn’t sure if it was Kaminari’s electricity or something else.
Even with that, they both remained as close as they were before. Kaminari’s eyes glued on her, staring with a really dumb smile.
“What’s that for?” Jiro asked him.
“What?”
“You’re making a dumb face right now.”
“S’just my face.”
Was he leaning in? No, that must be my imagination, Jiro convinced herself.
She stared at her the ground, desperately trying to avoid looking at his adorable face. “Well, Mr. Dumb face, I have to go to bed. It’s getting late and-”
“Can I kiss you?” Kaminari cut her off.
“What?” Jiro looked up, disbelieving. She had heard him right, right? Because there was no way on Earth Kaminari had just asked that .
“What?” He quickly retorted.
Kaminari was the reddest she’s ever seen. They had now put more distance between them, and the same awkward silence they had basked on before returned.
Eventually, Kaminari decided to break the silence. “Um… you can go now… if you want.” He rubbed the back of his neck again. Man, it was cute when he did that . “You're right, it’s getting late.”
“What if… I don’t… want?” Jiro countered.
“I dunno.” He was trembling now; he must’ve been really nervous. “You can stay, I guess.”
“What if… I do want you to kiss me?” She went beet red.
Kaminari’s eyes went so wide that she could swear they were about to pop out of their sockets. “We… could do that, I guess.” He mumbled.
Jiro scooted closer to him, “Go ahead then.” She ordered him, placing her face right in front of his so he wouldn’t have to do much other than lean in.
“You want me to do it?!”
“You asked me!”
“Well yeah but-” Kaminari leaned back and erratically waved his hands in front of her, “You know what? That was stupid I shouldn’t have asked.”
Jiro felt her stomach dropped, and her heart was aching now more than ever. “It’s stupid to want to kiss me?” She asked, visibly dejected, as she focused her attention back to the floor.
“No! Wait, yeah.” Kaminari was desperate now when she saw Jiro tense up at that. “No, of course not! You’re- I mean. Ugh!” He couldn’t seem to form any coherent thought and dug his face in his hands.
“I get it,” she began to stand up, pulling on her ears. “It’s fine, I wouldn’t really wanna kiss me either. I’ll just…” She pointed at his door. “Go. Before people start asking you why I spent so much time here.”
“Wait,” He grabbed her wrist before she fully stood up, he was serious now, no more stumbling over his words. “It’s not stupid, and I do wanna kiss you.”
Jiro flared. “Stop doing that!”
“Doing what?” Kaminari’s hold on her wrist softened but remained.
“Confusing me!” Although she was angry, she couldn’t bring herself to wrestle out of his hold. “If this is some kind of joke you and the boys are playing-”
She was interrupted by Kaminari pulling her down and awkwardly pressing his lips against hers. Despite basically slamming against him, it was soft. Softer than she’d imagined. It’s over just as soon as it started, she didn’t even get a chance to kiss him back.
Jiro’s face felt like a hot potato and her thoughts were really fuzzy. She felt a tingle all over and she couldn’t decide where that was his quirk at work, or she just liked him that much. Or both.
Her gaze went to the ground again. “Um… that was-”
Jiro was cut off again by Kaminari placing his hands on her cheeks and pulling her in for another one. He kissed her deeper this time, with surprising urgency.
Meanwhile, Jiro had no idea what to do with her hands. She’d balled them up into fists, fingers curling and uncurling nervously.
Wait it out, wait it out. She thought, trying to comfort herself. He’s gotta get tired eventually.
But after a couple of seconds, Kaminari didn’t seem to be budging and it felt so nice. So, she closed her eyes, rested her hands on his arms and melted into it.
The buzzing feeling all over her face came back stronger than ever. Her skin felt like a static TV screen, and it spread from where he touched her on her cheeks and lips. It was definitely him, but she didn’t mind it at all. It’s how she felt anyway.
He did pull away eventually, though reluctantly. He kept his eyes glued to the floor, and when he did speak, it was almost a whisper. "Sorry…" he said, "I interrupted you."
Jiro blinked. "What?"
"You were saying something."
"Oh," Jiro gulped, "Uhm… I, uh… It- That, it was nice."
"You… liked it?"
"Y-yeah. I did. A lot."
Kaminari whirled to her, eyes wide, "A lot?"
Suddenly, she was embarrassed despite herself. He just kissed you, what are you embarrassed about? Liking it? "Yeah," she nodded, and when his face twisted into another dumb smile, her face burned. "Uhm… Uh, did you… were you shocking me?"
"I was?" His smile dropped.
"I dunno. My face tingled."
"Ommagod I was. I'm sorry."
"No, don't, don't be sorry. I, uh, kinda… It felt kinda nice."
He blinked, and for the look he gave her, she might as well have slapped him across the face. "It did?"
"Yeah," she murmured, thumping her ear jacks together. "I liked it a lot, too."
He blinked at her for a few seconds, like he had to process what she'd just said. Then he grinned, and Jiro's stomach dropped at how insidious his grin was, the way it was when he got away something. And then he leaned in, and his hands were on her face again, and he closed his eyes, and Jiro felt like she was going to scream, not because she didn't want him to kiss her again but because she felt like she was going to die if he did…
And the door to Kaminari’s room burst open.
“Hey, Kaminari, my man!”
Kaminari yelped and shoved Jiro away from him, hands still cupping her cheeks. They turned to the door, where Kirishima stood with a wide smile on his face, his hair disheveled. “There’s this scene in the movie you gotta watch, there’s blood everywhere…” His words trailed off, and he frowned at Kaminari, then at Jiro, realization slowly dawning on him. “Oh,” he blinked, then his jaw fell open, “Oh! Oh, crap!”
“Dude, what hell?!” Kaminari yelled at him, letting go of Jiro and abruptly standing up, throwing his pillow straight at Kirishima’s face.
Kirishima caught the pillow and hugged it, flustered. “Sorry, dude! You’re usually here by yourself so I thought-”
“Get out!” Kaminari threw another pillow at him, this one hitting square in the face.
Jiro elected to stay seated, trying very hard to fight back the panicked laughter building up in her throat.
“But don’t you wanna watch the scene? It’s rad, dude. Jiro can come, too.” Kirishima offered, looking down at Jiro with a derpy smile.
Kaminari walked over to him and started to wrestle him out of the room. “I don’t wanna watch anything! Get out of my room!”
Kaminari kept trying to push him out of the room, to no avail. Kirishima was impossible to move, and Kaminari wasn’t exactly an unstoppable force. So Kirishima stood in the doorway still, clutching the pillows Kaminari threw at him and addressing Jiro. “How you doing, Jiro?”
“I’m great.” She managed, the nervousness leaving her body when she sees how relaxed Kirishima is.
Kirishima turned his attention back to Kaminari, who was still fruitlessly trying to push him out. “If you wanted privacy you should’ve locked the door, man!” He said giggling at Kaminari.
“I didn’t –” Kaminari sputtered, “I– I… we –”
“Ooooh. So, this was a spur of the moment kinda thing?”
"I- it-"
"Did he shock you?" Kirishima turned to Jiro, "' Cause he told us he was afraid if he touched you or anything he'd bzzt !"
"Dude!"
"Oh my God, you did ! Did it hurt?" Kirishima took a step towards Jiro, eyes wide and curious, but Kaminari let out an indignant squawk and tore the pillow from Kirishima's hands. The red-head stopped, laughing again, but was cut short when Kaminari grabbed him hard by the shoulders and turned him around towards the door. Yellow lightning crackled from Kaminari's fingers, and Kirishima yelped as it snapped against his skin.
“Shut up and get out of my room!" Kaminari shouted, finally shoving Kirishima past the threshold of his door and slamming it closed behind him.
"Dude, that hurt!" Kirishima's muffled voice came from behind the door.
"Then knock next time!"
"Alright, alright." A silence, then, "Get it Kaminari!”
“Oh shuddup!” Kaminari squeaked, kicking the door. Jiro could still hear Kirishima's giggles as he went back to his friends in the living room. She had a feeling she’d had a lot of explaining to do to those classmates in the morning.
Kaminari sighed in frustration and slumped down on the floor next to her, the red blush once again returning to his cheeks. “Sorry about that.”
Jiro started laughing, feeling more comfortable than ever with Kaminari. “It’s okay.” She said, wiping a fake tear from her eye. “Seeing you wrestling Kirishima out of the room was the best thing that’s happened to me this entire night.”
“Really?” Kaminari looked hurt, and Jiro realized what she’d said.
She nudged him with his foot. “Second best thing.”
His dumb smile returned, and for a couple of seconds, it was just them staring fondly at one another until Kaminari decided to break the silence once more.
“Can we kiss again?”