Shoot Your Shot - MHA College AU

Scene 6: Trading Passes

{ Scene 6: Trading Passes }

After all your successes with Kirishima, your unstoppable teamwork and victorious path thus far, it seemed like you had possibly met your final match.  The pink-grey duo was an even greater force to be reckoned with.

"It's not looking too great for you guys," Tetsu Tetsu warned, aiming his next shot. "What're you gonna do when I land this one? Get your stomach ready bro."

"Don't jinx it, we're still in this," Kirishima groaned, his willpower and drive starting to fade with each missed cup.

This was a tough match.  And playing against your pink-haired soulmate didn't make things easier. It was like battling an offset reflection of the other: Mina and you, Testu Testsu and Kirishima. Parallels of friends.

Chewing your lip, you stared holes through the mocking red cups across the table, the triangle of 5 on their side leagues behind the single cup that remained on your end.

Even with the odds stacked against you, something inside you tugged at your heart. Something selfish and hidden.  Because even with the possibility of letting Kirishima down, of shrinking and dulling that light and fullness in his eyes, something hurt you even worse. It motivated you to keep going, to keep winning for as long as you could.

You tugged gently at his wrist, the tape that bound you together.

The moment you lost this game, you'd be separated from him. Kirishima needed you, and you needed him. You were a team. A duo. And as silly as it was (this was just a pong tournament thrown together in a basement by a bunch of college guys) you didn't want it to end. 

But that reality was soon approaching. The sticky brown pitcher was practically calling your name.

"Before you go," you interrupted the steel-faced boy. "Kaminari, what's actually in that awful mix over there? Why's it so brown?"

His tousled head of blonde poked out from behind his partner. "Oh, the pitcher? Yeah, um, it's got like... coolers...tequila...vodka....wine...pink drink – "

"Kaminari! You wasted our precious pink drink? That's off limits!" Mina cried.

"...some leftover liquors..." he continued, ignoring the small meltdown of his pink haired friend. "...Oh! We filled the rest with beer."

Silence.

It couldn't be.

You looked at Mina. She looked back.  A moment of dread.

"It's not... it can't be..." she muttered, a hoarseness in her voice.

"Is it THAT beer? The one you guys had last homecoming?" you bravely asked.

Kaminari shrugged. "I mean, yeah, I think so," he said. "Why're you guys freaking out?"

You'd never expressed your feelings to the boys regarding how awful and disgusting their favorite beer truly was.  That nasty concoction.  You really weren't lying when you'd told Mina on the walk here that it tasted better on the way out.

The memory of it resurfaced on your tongue.  The sour, fermented taste, mixed with the acidic burn of vomit.

And it was sitting in that pitcher.  In fact, from the way Kaminari had put it, a large portion of that pitcher was their awful beer. It was certain to be a night-ruiner. A trip to the bathroom at minimum, an extended stay outside in the bushes on the other end.