Mina wasn't exactly a morning person even at the best of times. Sure, she could normally handle a morning alright before she'd had her usual intake of caffeine that she required before she was really ready to start the day, but after the trial by fire that had been the Yuuei Sports Festival that she'd been through yesterday, she felt perfectly justified in sleeping in the next morning. That was what the time off given to them had been for, right? To relax. To recharge. To replenish her normally unlimited energy. And also for the second and third years to have their days in the spotlight, but mostly for them to relax!
So when she woke up, opening only one eye groggily, getting a small glimpse of her walls and roof, heavily decorated with photographs and posters of all sorts of things, she immediately closed it once again, yawned, and shuffled to a more comfortable sleeping position.
Still, now she was awake, her thoughts began to come back to her.
Yesterday had certainly been intense, but it had also been incredibly fun, as far as she was concerned. Sure, she'd lost, but she'd shown what she was made of to all the professionals. That had to be worth something, didn't it? She'd made it the the final events, even finished in the top 8! Top 8! That had been far more than she'd ever expected to achieve, especially with a Quirk like hers. Granted, against Fumikage, her Quirk had basically been useless, but she'd at least managed to give him a good fight. When given a matchup as bad as that, she couldn't really have asked for much more.
And then there was Midori.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling when she thought about that nickname she had given him. Pleasantly surprised that he hadn't seemed too uncomfortable with it, Mina decided that that was now her name for him. Like how Uraraka called him Deku, she would call him Midori.
Mina had been perfectly aware as to how little they had spoken until yesterday. She was very much aware of that fact. She'd not made it a secret that she respected him as a classmate and a student, not even slightly hiding the admiration she had for his intellect and his attitude towards becoming a Hero. Anyone would be hard-pressed to find someone in their class who didn't, if you excluded Bakugou, of course.
But she really didn't know him all that well. In fact, she knew Todoroki better than she knew Midoriya, and she'd had perhaps one and a half conversations with the Half-Hot-Half-Cold Quirk user. He was the strongest in their class, even without his fire powers. She had honestly been rooting for him when the match began.
But how quickly her support had changed.
She had become engrossed by the sheer levels of determination and the remarkable, indomitable will that meek, shy Midoriya had shown. He'd burst out of his shell like a hand grenade, and given the biggest display of strength and power of anyone there that day. She didn't care who disagreed with her on that, or what their reasons were. The Sports Day Festival belonged to Midoriya and his fight with Todoroki.
But it was far more than that. They should have been fighting. But Midoriya had pushed their bi-hair-coloured classmate, pausing aside what held him back. He'd made him use his fire powers. All while breaking his bones just to use his Quirk, and even then, he kept using it on his shattered arms to carry on a fight he couldn't possibly have won.
How could she not have been inspired by that?
She'd had to talk to him after that. She just had to. There wasn't any way that she couldn't say something to him! Seeing him walking alone had been her chance, and she had taken it gladly and without any hesitation. She was a social creature, it was in her nature to converse with people whenever she could, and she'd discovered that Midori made for entertaining company. Sure he was a little awkward, and a massive nerd, but she'd come to expect those things from the boy whose curly green hair rivalled her own pink mess in terms of curliness and presumed difficulty to make behave. Not that Mina ever really tried to get hers under control, much to her mothers chagrin. If her mother thought she would be able to tame the jungle that was Mina Ashido's hair, she clearly had no idea who she was dealing with!
Another smile crept onto her face when she remembered the look of pure confusion that had taken over his face when she had swiped his phone and added her own details to it. He'd looked so confused, it was hilarious to think about.
Suddenly, she found herself wide awake. Just thinking about yesterday had given her a shot of her trademarked energy. Her eyes shot open, and she threw her duvet to the side. Checking her phone, she was a bit disappointed to not see a message or anything of the sort from Midori, but she didn't let it bother her. She had thrown out the prospect of hanging out at the weekend rather suddenly, so she didn't hold it against him. Making note that the time was a lot later than she normally would rise from her slumber - 11:30, she decided to let her family know she was up and about. She didn't bother changing out of her sleepwear, which consisted of a pair of cute purple short-shorts that only covered up half of her thighs, and a black t-shirt that had a pink inscription written on it in a fancy font that Mina didn't know the name of. It read, in bold capital, whatever the hell font this was, 'Pinky.' What a classy birthday gift her brother had gotten her.
Swinging the door open, Mina stepped barefooted out of her room in onto the landing, with a song in her heart and a smile on her face.
Only to instantly regret this decision a second later when she trod onto a piece of lego she hadn't seen. God damn it, Mika.
If her family hasn't figured out that she was awake before, the cry of pain had definitely given her away. Treading on lego barefoot was the single most painful experience that anyone could be subjected to, Mina thought as she hissed loudly. She wasn't sure what cosmic deity she had angered for this to be how her day started, but o-ho boy, was she going to give it a reason to be angry by the time she had finished with it!
"Mina?" Oh good, here was Mika now.
Shooting a glare at her younger sibling, Mina made note of how much of a grin her little sister had on her face right now. Like she had planned this. Or perhaps Micha had put the idea into her impressionable little head, who knew? Either way, Mina grabbed the small girls head in one hand in a claw-like motion, and began to apply pressure to her siblings temple very slowly. Not enough to cause serious pain, but enough to get a reaction. Mina had done this many times, and the rest of the family just tended to let it happen. Apparently it was now just how the pink girl solved family disputes.
"Mika, sis, could you please remind me how many times I've asked you not to leave your lego outside my door?" Mina asked with a pained and forced smile, her pink hair covering her pitch black eyes.
"Um, six?" Her sister phrased it more like a question than she did an answer. She didn't seem particularly bothered by her sisters grip around her skull. Perhaps she had developed some immunity to it.
"Six." Mina repeated, her pained smile still stuck to her face. "So... Why is there still lego outside my bedroom door?"
"I dunno!" Her sisters response was way too cheerful for Mina's liking. She was convinced Mika enjoyed pulling these pranks on her. She loved her little sister dearly, she did, but this was one of those times where she really felt like throwing her down a flight of stairs.
"Can you move them, sis?" Mina sighed, letting go of her sisters head. She needed caffeine.
"'Kay!" Mika started collecting the tiny plastic building blocks and carrying them away to her bedroom, far out of reach of the Acid Quirk user. Good job too, because Mina had been on the verge of dissolving them with the most corrosive acid that she could generate.
Another yawn escaped Mina's mouth, one she didn't even bother attempting to suppress. Small tears welled up in her eyes, which she rubbed away quickly before going to get her morning coffee. She made the trip downstairs and to the kitchen, the cold tiles on the floor sending a shiver right up her bare feet and up to the rest of her body. The fact her sleepwear left little to be desired didn't help the sudden chill she had. Not that that mattered at all. That part was just a psychedelic perception.
She only noticed her father saw on the sofa that the kept in their kitchen, with a newspaper in hand, when she reached the coffee machine, and hit the button to make herself a fresh cup. While a lot of people now got their news from the internet, her father claimed to prefer the more traditional methods, at least when he was stirring over his morning brew. Upon realising that his daughter was in the room, he peeked over the top of the paper. "Look who decided to join us from beyond the grave."
"Morning to you too, Dad." Mina smiled at her father. Like everyone else in her family, she shared a good, yet back-and-forth comedic relationship with her father. She was certain that he was where she got her sense of humour from, since they shared a similar taste in jokes, and in blunt humour. Glancing around the room, the pink girl questioned, "Where're Micha and Mara at?"
"Micha took them both to a new movie. That one Mara's been looking forward to."
How her older brother could stand those God awful films their younger sibling enjoyed was beyond Mina. She suspected that there was a bit more to it than that, since she knew Micha wasn't a huge fan of those films either. "Guy time?"
"Guy time." It basically translated to them going to the arcade afterwards, gorging themselves on fattening take-out foods, and spying on what women they thought looked attractive. Creeps.
Rolling her eyes, Mina heard the chime that indicated that the pot was ready. She reached for 'her' mug, covered in colourful scribbles and childish drawings she had done when she was younger, and filled it up to the brim. Thankfully, she didn't need to waste time with adding in her usual additions like milk and sugars, since the machine did it all for her. If she had the levels of sugar that she normally wanted by default, she would probably have ended up with type two diabetes by the time she was twelve.
Taking a sip, she felt the life and energy shoot right back into her like a lightning bolt. Still, that didn't stop it from scolding her tongue. She quickly used her hand like a fan to cool down her face, wafting it up and down as fast as one could possible see, and making a pained expression on her face that her father couldn't help but chuckle at. "Nice to see you enjoying my pain, Dad."
"It is amusing to watch you flail like a fish out of water, you human mess."
"I learned it from the best." Mina sighed and smiled. Her family really were the biggest bunch of jerks she knew, and she loved them for it. Her mother was normally out of the house for the majority of Thursdays, working at some job in the main city that Mina had never bothered to ask about. It was only a recent employment, and considering everything that had gone down at Yuuei, it hadn't been at the forefront of her thoughts.
Her father worked in medicine at a good establishment that could offer time off for their employees during the working week. Something about more productivity during working hours over total working hours. Whatever it was, Mina's father loved the job he did, so when he did have to go to work, he never was upset or ticked off about having to do so.
So that left her and her three siblings. Mika, Micha and Mara. And Mina.
Mina, Mika, Micha, Mara. The pink girl was convinced that her family had been trying to name them so they could start a barbershop quartet group with rhyming names. Mina was the second oldest in her family, Micha being just a year older than her. He didn't get into Yuuei, though he had tried, and failed the year before Mina had applied. He didn't seem too bitter about it though, so she shared a good relationship with him, even if he did like to tease her about anything he could think of. Her pink skin was one thing he liked to target. In turn, she made fun of his skinny demeanour - Seriously, Mina was packing more muscle than he was, and he was actively trying to get some meat on his bones. They always found something to make fun of about each other.
As for Mika and Mara, Mika being ten, while Mara was just a two years Mina's junior, while she loved them both, they did seem to take a particular pleasure in making Mina's life as painful as possible. The lego incident seemed to happen on average at least once a week. But that was just a small fragment of the stresses they brought. Taking her chargers, since they seemed to never know where their own went missing, messing with her school papers because they wanted to read them, playing with her phone when she left it unsupervised because she apparently had all the cool games on her device. She locked the damn device anyway, how did they even find out about the games she had?!
Still, that was the ragtag state of the Ashido family. Blunt and bickering, but continuously loving and joking.
Mina took another, this time a longer drink of her coffee. This time, she'd managed to chug the entire mug of her kick-starter liquid. She let out a satisfied sigh before leaving the mug on the counter and heading back up to her room to get changed. She kept a sharp eye out for any pain inducing pieces of plastic as she did so, not wanting to end up with another lego piece lodged inside her skin. 'Just one more time, Mika, and I'm throwing it in Hydrochloric Acid.'
Now that she was filled with caffeine, she contemplated that there was for her to do today. She was awake now, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot for her to do today. Debating her options, she supposed she could rummage through Micha's room and steal a few of his comics to read through. Not like she had anything better to do. There was also the games she and her siblings shared in the living room. She could probably spend a few hours on any game of her preference before her siblings came back and inevitably out-voted her on their choice of game which usually involved guns, cars and hookers. Again, creeps.
In the end though, the choice wound up being taken from her. Just as she had changed into her clothing for today and settled for clocking in a few hours with a gamepad and one of the many games she and her siblings had collected, her phone began to play the jingle it played whenever she received a text message. For a brief second, she thought it might have been Midoriya, or one of her schoolmates there to shatter her boredom. Instead, she found that it was a message from her mother, asking her if she could go into the city to pick up some supplies. Apparently her previous day of absolute exhaustion meant nothing to her mother. Good to know. While her mother could be as laid back as the rest of her family, she was a lot stricter at the same time, and Mina didn't feel like pissing her off too much.
Letting out a small sigh, Mina supposed that there could be something vaguely interesting going on in the city. She speed-typed a reply, grabbed a set of earphones, loaded up one of her favourite rock artists' tracks, threw on one of her many hoodies, and burst her way out of the house.
Waking up so late, Mina wasn't surprised to find that the city was bursting with life when she got there. Even with the various loud strums and guitar riffs that her earphones were conveying with her choice in music, she could still hear the incomprehensible chattering of about two thousand interchangeable conversations going on at once. Cars revving up engines at traffic lights, and skidding to a halt at the ones that denied them progress. The pavements were totally packed with people, some of them like her, boasting an inhumane appearance, all going to their various locations, work, school, friends, homes, shopping, not that Mina could differentiate who was going where.
Normally Mina loved the city. She loved being in the hustle and bustle of civilisation. She just enjoyed being around people and experiencing the noises and the rush of the city. It was exciting to her, something that was totally unlike where she lived. It was a, relatively speaking, quiet place, especially when compared to Tokyo's rush hour.
But today, she was here on a very simple mission. Gather things for her mother, and then go back home.
Maybe grab a milkshake. For personal consumption. Her mother was buying, after all. Her logic amusing her, Mina let out a small giggle. Once again, technicalities won the day!
This was what she'd be doing if Midori ever sent her a message, she remembered. It wasn't like they'd be going rock climbing or doing something extremely extravagant. They'd just be hanging out, like she'd claimed. She contemplated sending one first, to make sure that they each had the right number, and to provoke a response from the shy teenager, but decided against it, at least until she got home. Using her phone to send a text message while on this street was just asking to drop it and for it to shatter into about forty thousand pieces, and God damn it, she was not paying for another phone! She'd learned her lesson the last time.
Mina hummed along with her music as she dove into the nearest store that she saw that sold the things her mother was after. She wondered down the isles, occasionally glancing at her phone to double check the list. Various vegetables, random rices, and tasteless tins of instant food. The message very specifically asked for the kinds of instant food that tasted awful. Mina had to wonder if her mother hated her at that point, since she knew very well which kinds of instant foods her daughter absolutely adored. They weren't the same food, the brands were different! The good ones were like, a few Yen more expensive for a reason - Because they were actually good! Still, she resigned, and picked up the crappy knock-off garbage instant noodles, and threw them into the basket she had acquired.
"We're in for a party tonight." The girl muttered to herself. None of what she'd been bought looked particularly appetising. She knew that in middle school everyone complained about how awful the cafeteria food always was, but Mina never understood what they were talking about. The cafeteria food was awesome, especially compared to some of the awful recipes her mother tried to make! Yuuei's food was like a freakin' restaurant in comparison to whatever the hell required three capped containers of Wasabi sauce and half a shark's fin. Mina shuddered. She didn't think she'd be looking forward to going back to school more.
Mina loved her mother and all... But she couldn't stand her cooking. At least not after she decided that she wanted to try and be more, quote 'adventurous' with her meals.
She checked her phone once more, just making sure that she had gotten everything. Rice, soup, wasabi, a colourful collection of vegetables... Yep, that was everything. Every single worrying and disturbing item that was on the list...
Before she could put the device away, however, she felt her phone vibrate, and heard the small chime it gave once again. Another message. Absent-minded, she slid her finger across the touch screen to find her messages folder, expecting her father to be asking her to bring him back some sort of snack, or Micha, for God knew what.
Her surprise couldn't have been more apparent, nor pleasant, when she saw that it came from a contact marked in her phone as '~Midori~'. She couldn't help but smile. Halfway through the day, and he'd finally decided to message her? Took him long enough. Reading through his message, if it was possible to stutter via text, Mina was certain that the green haired boy had found it. As she read it, she put in the awkward pauses where he would put them in conversation almost automatically.
'H-Hi Ashido-San... This is your number, right? J-Just making certain.'
How did he even manage that? How was it even possible to be awkward via text? Mina just laughed aloud, and quickly sent a reply back.
'Yep! It's me, Midori! What took you so long?'
Quickly, she made her way to the checkout system, to pay for all of this food before someone could ask her to run an errand somewhere else in the city. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone else using the systems when she arrived, so she quickly threw her basket into the section reserved for them, tapped a few buttons on the touch screen, and scanned the items in with newfound vigour, tapping her foot in time with the new song that had just come up on her playlist, and humming happily again. Once she had deposited all the items into the bagging area, and paid for them, she felt her phone inform her of another message.
'I-I was sleeping... Recovery Girl told me to take it easy over the next few days, s-so I didn't want to over exert myself...' Sleeping in until well past noon. Not something that the pink girl would have expected from Midoriya.
That message made Mina pause for a second. Now that she thought about it, then it would actually make sense that he didn't want to injure himself any more than he already had done, and the best way to do that would be to avoid physical activity...
'Do you still want to hang out this weekend? It's fine if you don't want to, I'll understand.' She sent the text with a bit more of a somber feeling in her heart, and picked up the plastic bag filled with foods, making her way out of the store. Of course, she couldn't blame Midoriya for not wanting to break his bones again. If given the choice, she probably wouldn't want to either. But she wouldn't lie and say that she hadn't been looking forward to seeing him again come Saturday.
Making her way through the city, she was relieved to find that it seemed to have calmed down during the time she had been acquiring goods for her mother. The streets were still packed, but she could walk on the sidewalk without running into someone who was on their phone talking about their latest business rivals or whatever the heck they were on about.
She bit her lip lightly as she considered what to do next. Seeing as it looked like her mother was going to be making vomit soup for dinner tonight, she contemplated getting a quick snack or something now, to inevitably tide her over for the days meal. She decided against it though. She just wasn't hungry enough to justify it. Remembering that she had been eager for a milkshake not too long ago though, she decided that made a reasonable substitute, and made her way to the nearest location, which happened to be a personal favourite.
The place that she went to was a corner cafe-esq store that was run by only a small number of employees. The store was called Shake, and instead of giving their customers a small selection of drinks and beverages, along the wall behind the counter, were a huge variety of various sweets, chocolates, and the likes. They allowed their customers to choose a candy of some description, whereupon, using various bits of machinery, a few dollops of ice cream, and a blender, they would turn it into a milkshake for consumption. Perhaps aiding the fact that they sold so cheaply to boot, was the fact it was run by a tiny staff of college students.
Mina made her order, taking an adventurous dive into a flavour that she hadn't tried before. The person behind the counter, whom resembled a human crossed with an eagle of some description, took the order and passed it along to another store worker, whom began work on crafting the beverage immediately.
Crafting these drinks often took a few minutes, so Mina found herself a seat, many scattered around the room, thoughtfully provided by the staff there. Darting her eyes around the room with her trademark zeal, Mina found endless entertainment in what was plastered to the walls, from the posters of various specials the store was doing, to what she assumed was a personal favourite band of the group there, to ads and other such things that the store must have been hired to post, so she was certainly preoccupied while she waited. The interesting surroundings were just another reason why she enjoyed this store.
She'd only been sat down for a moment before her phone began to chime once again, and she knew it was Midoriya on the other end. Quicking scooping up her mobile device from her hoodie pocket, she did note that this message had come a lot later than the previous one had done.
What she read made her smile though. 'N-No... I'll be fine... I was actually thinking that maybe it would be a good idea for us to get to know one another a bit better. I- I mean, we're both trying to become Heroes, r-right? So it stands to reason that we might end up getting called to the same situation when we graduate and start answering calls around the place, so we'd need to be able to understand one another, right?'
"Way to make dealing with me sound like a chore, Midori." Mina chuckled to herself. did he really have a one track mind when it came to becoming a Hero? He made himself seem obsessed... Still, it was hard to argue with his dedication, if nothing else.
'Yay! You wanna meet outside Yuuei, main gate, about 1-ish? We could catch a subway or whatever and find something fun to do!'
'S-sounds good.' Still baffled by how he seemed to stutter even in text, Mina just smirked to herself. She'd have to make sure not to push him too much, but she could still see the two of them being able to have a lot of fun together. The social impulses of the Acid Quirk user bubbled up inside, leaving her looking forward to the weekend all the more. This was a good chance to get to know her classmate better. How couldn't she be excited?!
Her order was called up, and she raised her hand to take it, and managed to practically skip the way back home.
What I do wanna say to you guys is that the My Hero Academia fandom actually leaves some pretty damn solid feedback that I've been able to take into account. Me being comma heavy is kinda an OCD trait of mine, so I hope you can forgive that, sorry to those of you who it annoys. But this story got 350 reads at the time I'm updating this on FF. net, and while that's straight up pathetic in terms of the numbers you'd need to create a popular story, I'm having so much fun writing this, I simply don't care. This'll be a tight knit group of people who want to see this story for one of two reasons -1, You're like me, and want to see more of Mina, or 2, again, you're like me, and are genuinely interested in this ship. So, I'll do my best to create something you enjoy ^_^
Hope you all enjoyed, and I hope I'll see you all again soon ^_^