Burning Bright | Keigo Takami x Male Reader

Chapter 19

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Present Day.

Okay, I'll admit slamming the door in their faces was a bit of an overreaction.

"Mina," Izuku made the words come out calm and easy, but he could feel his palms go sweaty in the oven mitts he was still wearing. Can't forget about dinner. He kept his white-knuckle grip on the front door handle. Mina stopped her absent-minded twirl in the hallway, coming up to stand next to Izuku. He took one more breath in and out before turning towards her. "Do you know why Keigo's teammates are standing on the porch?"

"Yep," she said, nodding her head. She stood up a little taller. "You said, 'This is a man-da-tory Star Guardian meeting.'"

Just my luck, Izuku thought. He instinctively released the door handle, as he heard Mina do an extra bubbly - but very stern - impression of what he had said earlier.

Izuku definitely said that.

To Katsuki.

Who still wasn't there yet.

Mina reached for the handle, the smile on her face positively beaming. "They're Star Guardians, right?"

Izuku nodded dumbly.

"Super," she said as she opened the door wide.

The three of them were still standing on the porch where Izuku left them, although in decidedly different positions. Eijiro looked like he was mid-sentence trying to calm down a much more annoyed Nemuri.

No, not 'Nemuri', Izuku reminded himself. Nemuri's for friends. He learned that all too well from last summer's outdoor adventure.

Midnight's usual smirk was now an angry grimace as she furiously texted something on her phone. Behind her, the quiet girl with green hair - Tsuyu - was carrying a bakery box. They looked at Izuku intently, probably wondering if he was going to slam the door again. He could actually hear crickets in the bushes.

Mina reached out into the uncomfortable silence and took Eijiro and Midnight by the wrists, pulling them inside. Midnight was so surprised, she went along with it, nearly dropping her phone. Eijiro flashed Izuku his trademark grin as he passed by. Izuku waved meekly with one oven mitt.

Tsuyu leaned close and whispered "Cinnamon rolls" in his ear, like a spy password. She smiled, handed the heavy bakery box to him, and walked quickly to catch up with the others.

"Welcome," he heard Mina announce from the living room, "to our Star Guardian sleepover party!"

~

This is awkward.

Izuku could hear the second hand of the clock in the kitchen tick off another minute that they had been uncomfortably quiet. Eijiro was wedged on the small couch between Midnight - still texting on her phone - and Tsuyu, who was quietly watching Mina while nibbling on a cinnamon roll. Shoto and Ochaco were sitting on the stiff dining chairs Mina dragged in from the other room. Mina was bent over the coffee table, folding a piece of paper into some complicated shape. Izuku had no idea what she was making, but her soft humming was the only other sound besides the clock.

And him, well, he was pacing a well-worn path in the carpet.

The first to break the silence was Midnight. She stopped texting, let out a disgusted sigh, and finally put her phone down on her lap, the small charms on the end jingling loudly. She looked around, taking in everything in the room from the faded pattern on the curtains to the beige-coloured couch for the first time. Her disappointment was evident. As she sunk back into the cushion behind her, Eijiro leaned forward.