Chapter Text
Mina Ashido was the kind of person who always knew what she wanted. She wanted to protect others and make them feel safe. She wanted her Hero name to be Alien Queen. She also wanted to kiss her boyfriend, preferably before they had been dating for two months. That wasn't too much to ask, was it? Clearly, and unfortunately for her, it was.
She had been dropping hints for weeks now. How many times did she have to stare at Izuku Midoriya's lips as he rambled about heroes or mention that her new lip gloss tasted good before he got the hint? Apparently, making a conscious effort for over a week wasn't enough times, and it was frustrating.
At this point, she couldn't tell if he was absolutely clueless or avoiding the topic, and it was getting on her nerves. She recognized that she was always the one forced to progress their relationship, be it by asking Midoriya out, or by deciding where to go on a date. With that in mind, it made sense that she would need to be more open about how she was feeling.
Maybe that was why one evening, upon finding herself cuddled against him midway through a movie neither of them were actually interested in, Mina made a decision. She resolved to address the issue head on. Being a hero was sometimes about overcoming fears, anyways.
"Midori?" She asked softly, her voice barely louder than that of the film.
"Hm? What's up, Mina?" She smiled as her boyfriend used her given name - getting that to happen had been a difficult task in it's own right, but it was worth it.
She turned her body to face the boy, and allowed her eyes to glance at his lips before she made eye contact. "Is there a reason you won't kiss me?" Midoriya blinked once and then froze, his eyebrows pinched together as he squished his face towards his nose. Typically, this was something Mina found cute, but now it looked like he was trying to hide. As Midoriya remained immobile, Mina wondered if she had crossed some unspoken line. They had been dating for months; couples were supposed to have kissed by now, right? Were you not supposed to ask something like that? What if Midoriya still wasn't ready to kiss?
It felt like ages, but it took only a moment for her boyfriend's panicked expression to sink in. Her mind ran through all of the advice she had consumed, from girly magazines and online articles. Through it all, one piece of consistent advice jumped out at her: Be sure not to rush things. And that was just what her traitorous brain had decided to do, wasn't it? Stupid, stupid, stupid Mina, rushing things like that. She knew that the advice was for things far more risque than kissing, but the concept still held.
She really had gone too far. Worries and doubts and insecurities bubbled up inside her, and she forced her body to move. She moved to stand, and, fighting back tears, sprinted to the elevators. Finally, she made it back into her own room, where she threw herself onto the bed, and allowed tears to stream down her face.
Mina lost track of how long she laid there, her face pressed against a wet pillow as she wallowed in self-pity. Eventually, the pink-skinned girl's frustrations were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Hey, uh, Mina?" Midoriya asked softly. "Can I come in?"
Her mind was on autopilot, but at this point, it wasn't like the evening could get any worse, anyways. "Yea, give me a second," Mina replied. She wiped away her tears because fuck, he was supposed to be the crying one of the two of them, and stood slowly.
She shouldn't have been so surprised to see that Izuku had been crying too, come to think of it. The pair quickly wrapped each other in a hug, and Mina fought back a giggle as Midoriya sniffed away a few more tears.
Eventually, the pair pulled away, and Mina shut the door behind them. "We should, uh, probably talk, huh?" Midoriya asked gently. He stood still in the doorway, as if he had somehow screwed up.
Mina simply nodded, took a seat at the foot of the bed. "You can sit next to me, you know," she teased, tugging at her boyfriend's arms. He took a seat next to her cautiously, and she did her best to smile.
"I'm sorry," they both began. And then they laughed. "What do you have to be sorry for, Izu?" She grinned. Something about laughing with the boy she loved already made her feel better, and her gut told her things would be okay.
"I should be asking you that!" He protested, gently taking her hand in his own.
"I'm sorry for asking you to kiss me out of the blue like that. I understand if you don't want to, it's not a big deal," Mina tried. Crap. That probably made it sound like she didn't care about kissing him one way or another, which was the opposite of the truth. Might as well steer the conversation along either way, then, lest things get even more awkward. "What where you gonna apologize for?"
"Oh, it's kind of embarrassing, really. I'm sorry for clamming up like that, I was just a little bit overwhelmed." The green haired hero blushed, and mumbled something.
"Ah, okay. What was that last bit? I didn't catch it."
"Oh, uhh, kissing you sounded really nice. If you don't want to anymore, or something like that, it's okay too, but I would like to, and oh my god I probably sound really bad right now, don't I?" Mina could only laugh - her boyfriend was back.
"You're fine, Midori. I'm just glad I didn't scare you off." She slowly pulled herself into his lap, and, closing her eyes, gently pressed her lips against his. Or, tried to. Instead, her lips ended up a little too low on his own, and it was all she could do not to laugh at her epic failure.
Eventually, their lips did make contact, and they pulled away shortly thereafter.
"I don't think that was quite right," her boyfriend helpfully offered.
"Clearly!" Mina giggled. "I think we missed." Midoriya joined into the laughter, and Mina snuggled against his chest. The two stayed like that for a while, enjoying the closeness.
"You know, that wasn't a great first kiss," Midoriya spoke up. "Maybe we should... try again? And the second one can count, instead?"
It wasn't the worst idea in the world, Mina could admit. They could only get better, after the trainwreck of the last one. She looked up, and cupped Midoriya's cheeks in her hands. She took a moment, pretending to think about it. "Mm, sure. Hold still, mmkay?"
Her boyfriend simply nodded and closed his eyes, and they kissed again. As far as they were concerned, that one would count intead.