Shoot Your Shot - MHA College AU

Scene 5: A Dino Dilemma

 { Scene 5: A Dino Dilemma }

"Ah! Not there, it tickles!" Jiro squeaked, flinching away from the marker.

"But I've gotta do the spikes," you mumbled, the sharpie held between your teeth. There was a little smudge by the girl's ribcage. You smeared it with your thumb, causing Jiro to explode into frantic giggles.

"Quit tickling my girlfriend," Kaminari sneered, crouching down to peer at your work. "What are you even drawing – wait – is that ME?"

"Please get this over with," she begged through her tangled bangs. "I can't wait to see it."

The boy quirked a brow as you drew in the features of his face. "Hey! My nose is NOT that big."

You gently pushed him to the side to finish your work, shakily drawing in the dopey curve of his mouth and the waggly spikes of his hair.

"All done," you said, sending Jiro off to the basement bathroom.

Your artistic skills were far from Picasso, but you had to admit that it was one of your better doodles. This was a fun reward for you, and hopefully a fun punishment for the losers.

The faint sound of Jiro's laughter, drowned out by the music and the crowd, but loud enough from the hallway, brought a smile to your face. Hopefully your masterpiece would come off in the morning.

Kirishima was in the midst of giving Sero his "super manly badass dinosaur" arm tattoo. The boy was hunched over his arm in a forest of red spikes, tongue held between his teeth in focus. It was sweet, the amount of focus and attention he was giving to something so small.

You peered over his shoulder as he pulled away, revealing the finished product.

"It's so.... cute!" you giggled.

"Cute?" Sero contorted his shoulder to get a look at his tricep.

Kirishima sighed. "I tried to make it manly, but uh, it has dinky little arms..."

"I like it man, it's cute but he's got these wicked shark teeth," Sero said, checking out the freshly inked tattoo.

'Just like you', you wanted to say, watching Kirishima fist bump his tape-elbowed friend. There were little bits of Kirishima in the things he made, the words he shared, the energy he radiated. You just noticed these things, like they were gentle bird song or windchimes. Subtle but distinct.

You wondered if anyone did the same for you...

Was there someone out there that noticed these things in you? A secret admirer?

It's not like you spent much time with anyone outside of your tight-knit friend group: the house of UA boys (Sero, Kaminari, Kiri & Bakugo), your roommate Mina, and the house of UA girls. People would pass through your circle every now and then, people like Midoriya, but they had different groups, different circles.

This little circle of friends was your family away from home, the family who helped shared the burden of your struggles, the family you'd pull from the flames of their own battles. Between you all, there was this unspoken trust in one another.

But love?

Jiro and Kaminari eventually found something special in each other. For the rest of you, it had been plain as day, especially after all those years in high school together.

And Mina and Kirishima were a thing for a while. That had been sweet. You were happy for them, even with your early, frivolous crush on the boy. It was so long ago, those early feelings, over time, had evolved to something whole and heart aching.