Ashido Mina was in love. For the first time in her life she’d skipped having a crush and gone straight to love, like a fool. Head straight to jail, don't pass go, or however the saying went, she wasn’t sure. She just knew that she was extremely infatuated with one Yanagi Reiko.

 

She’d held a certain admiration for her ever since they first fought against each other in their first year, and respected her a lot as an opponent and friend, but it wasn’t until a few years after graduation that the love hit her straight in the gut.

 

Having been a girl of action most her life, she knew she had to confess. She’d already come out as a lesbian publicly about a year ago, back when Eraserhead and Present Mic’s marriage had been outed by a woman who had stalked Mic for what turned out to be ages, so no doubt Reiko knew Mina liked women. She didn’t know if Reiko did too though.

 

Currently being roommates with her former foster brother, Monoma Neito, as well as Sero Hanta, one of her closest friends, she had one clear starting point. And luckily, it was a day when her brother was home, as he was currently being forced to eat a healthy and hearty dinner by Hanta. Well, Hanta was in the middle of making dinner and having Neito help out with it when she walked into the kitchen and hopped onto the counter, much to Sero’s dismay, telling her ‘get your cute buttcheeks off there’ and poking her in the thigh with the handle of a wooden spoon until she jumped down again and started to take over chopping the onions that Neito so clearly didn’t like being in charge of, judging by the tears in his eyes and the grimace on his face every time the knife cut through the onion.

 

“Do either of you know if Yanagi-chan’s into women?” Sero had also gotten pretty close with the spooky woman as of late, they had run into each other at the gym and Sero had struck up a conversation. Since then they’d been going to yoga classes together at least once a week, and their friendship grew from there. Neito still knew her better, considering they were classmates and friends all the way through high school, but it was worth asking Hanta too, as they might talk about different things than her and Neito did.

 

“Oooh, are you into her?” Hanta looked excited, but followed up with the information that he did in fact not know her sexuality. They both looked over at Neito, who had gone from onions to washing his hands for an eternity, not feeling like the smell of them left his fingers. “She’s pan and ace.” he said as he sniffed his fingers again. “Why does onion taste good but smell so bad?” he mused out loud and started to wash his hands one more time. Mina shut off the water and smelled his hands too. “Neito, they don’t smell anymore, you’re just stuck in a loop cus your brain’s saying it’s not good enough.”

 

“Ah.” Neito made another grimace, glancing between the towel and the faucet. There were a lot of things his brain liked to tell him he wasn’t good enough at. Mina knew he was working on it, and she was glad that he was. Moving in with her and Sero after his apartment building exploded in a gas leak the year after graduation had done him good in the end.  She sighed and handed him the towel, Neito getting his focus back on the conversation at hand for the time being. “Anyway, so, you’ve got a shot, I guess? I know she already likes you, since you’re friends and all, but we don’t talk about our love lives that much.” Not that he had much of one at the moment.

 

“You can ask if you can join us when we go to the gym next time if you want?” Hanta offered as he started embrowning the onions Mina had finished chopping into little pieces. “We’re planning on trying the aerobics classes, you could probably join us for that.”

 

“Awesome!” She gave each man a kiss on the cheek, and stopped Neito from washing his hands yet again by smacking a dab of lotion onto his hands. “Okay boys, I’ll go ask and maybe just have a chat with her if she’s got time. Lemme know when dinner’s ready.” She bounced out the room, leaving Hanta to giggle at Neito’s disgruntled expression.

 

️

It was early saturday morning, and Mina didn’t bother to even try to stifle her yawn as she and Hanta jogged toward the Heroes/sidekick only gym a few blocks away from their apartment. She’d never been fond of mornings, unlike Hanta who had become quite the earlybird the last few years. The air was chilly in early october, nipping at her nose and making it go from pink to red. Honestly, the fact that her roommate and Reiko both were up and around so early was insane to her. It did remind her of Katsuki though, who had sometimes dragged her out of bed to work out early in the morning back when they had dated, so maybe she just had a thing for earlybirds or something. Thinking of Reiko made her grin from ear to ear, even though she was exhausted. When she’d called Reiko they had ended up talking until dinner was ready, and they had decided to go watch a movie together after they were done with their afternoon patrols the same day they were doing aerobics. Today was going to be so exciting!

 

Hanta grinned down at her as they came to a stop at the entrance to the large gym so they could swipe their cards and get inside. “You’ve never seen her in her workout clothes right? She’s pretty cute.”

 

“Back off tapebabe, I’m gonna court her first.” She jabbed him playfully in the side, making him cackle as he opened the door. They greeted a few familiar faces when they headed inside, soon going their own ways to change clothes.

 

Once Mina opened the door to the changing room, she came face to face (well, eyes to throat in Mina’s case, as Reiko was taller than her even to this day) with none other than the object of her infatuation. She let out an unintentionally loud “Oh!” Mina’s cheeks glowed a deep pink to rival the red remaining on her nose from when she was outside as she looked at the other woman. Her hair had been cut short at the neck, showing how long and slender it was. Only her bangs had remained long, so she could shield her face when she felt like she needed it. Reiko was wearing short purple and white striped shorts paired with a matching wide neck cropped t-shirt that revealed her toned stomach. God how cute. Mina didn’t stop staring until Reiko waved her hand in front of her face, making Mina burst out in embarrassed giggles. Reiko tilted her head to the side. “Are you okay, Ashido-san?”

 

Mina nodded, pulling herself together. “Sorry, Hanta warned me you were cute in workout clothes but he didn’t say how cute.”

 

For a second, Reiko looked confused, then she smiled. “Thank you.”

 

A well of emotion bubbled inside Mina’s chest.

 

️

The aerobics turned out to be fun and woke her up properly, and Mina chattered excitedly with Denki and their two sidekicks at their joint agency they had recently opened together while they finished the paperwork from yesterday’s cases. Soon enough they were off to patrol, and Mina went one way with one of their sidekicks while Denki went in the other. She had five hours of patrol and then she was meeting with Reiko to go to the movies. The first villain she managed to catch that afternoon was very confused by how happy she was when she apprehended him.

 

️

Once she got off the clock, she changed into one of the outfits she kept at the agency. It was a bit casual but fit for wearing when you wanted to impress someone. She was wearing a soft blouse that left her back bare, something that made Mina feel confident. Her skirt was layered, giving volume to make the outfit more playful. She topped it off with chunky boots for contrast and gold earrings dangling down. She debated for a while what to do with her hair that had gotten messed up by the windy afternoon, but settled for brushing it out. With how long it had gotten, anything complicated took a lot of time to do.

 

She touched up her makeup before heading out to give Denki a twirl. “You look super pretty. Go get her, girl!” She kissed her friend on the cheek with a loud smack, leaving a smudge of lipstick on his face.

 

“Thank you! Don’t wait up, mum!”

 

“Tell that to Hanta and Neito, not me!”

 

“Love you, byeeeee!”

 

“Bye, love you too!”

 

And she was off to meet her date.

 

️

When she stepped into the movie theatre she found that she had arrived first, so she sat down and waited. She didn’t have to wait for long until she spotted the gray haired woman, a fancy black coat with gold details thrown on over what seemed to be something dark red and velvety that reached down past her knees, though Mina couldn’t yet tell if it was a skirt or a dress. She covered her mouth and stifled a squeal at how pretty she looked. Damn. She stood up and hurried over, smiling from ear to ear when she came up to Reiko. “You look stunning, holy shit.”

 

“Thank you.” Reiko showed her small but warm smile as she looked her in the eye before looking her up and down. Mina had shrugged off her jacket and her full outfit was shown. “You look beautiful.”

 

The pink young woman felt her cheeks grow hot and she bit her lip. “Thank you.” She watched Reiko unbutton her coat, revealing an off the shoulder dress. Ugh, so pretty. Unbearably pretty.

 

With no interest in acting shy, she reached out and took Reiko’s hand. She was sure that if Reiko hadn’t caught on that this was a date, she wouldn’t have chosen that as her outfit. It was anything but casual. “So… do you like popcorn or crisps better?”

 

️

They watched a horror movie. Mina had known since early high school that Reiko loved horror movies, thanks to Neito, and she liked them too. Unlike Reiko, she did get scared while watching them, but it was a good kind of thrill, and it let her cling to Reiko’s arm as much as she wanted. She could feel the scent of Reiko’s perfume (that she later found out was a gift from Neito, because of course it was) when she pressed her nose into the skin of her arm, feeling the edge of a scar against the tip of her nose when she shifted. She turned her head to look up at her date, only to find Reiko looking back down at her with a pleased smile on her lips.

 

While the last survivor fled the house that was burning to the ground in flames rivalling those of Shouto’s, Reiko slid down in her seat, leaned forward and firmly pressed her lips to Mina’s. Butterflies fluttered in the pink hero’s stomach, filling her chest cavity with wings of bliss.

 

Being in love was amazing.

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