LUMINARY [bnha]

Chapter 2 - Three Minutes

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 Izuku Midoriya was in place before she could signal to him.

His hand hovered over the small of her back—always protecting but never touching—as he guided Tsukiko away from the platform and toward the back stairs. They stepped into the dark, slipping away from the commotion for a few quiet seconds. "I always forget how good you are at that, Tsuki," he murmured with a smile. "Great job."

"I've done it a million times, Izuku. It's second nature at this point," Tsukiko answered, pausing on the platform halfway down the back stair. She threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly. "Give me a second, my heart is sprinting," she said softly.

Knowing her and what she needed, Izuku said nothing even as he wrapped his arms around her in response. He'd grown a bit in the past few months since he turned nineteen, and he was tall enough now to rest his head on top of hers when they hugged. 'Late bloomer', his mom called him. He'd always hated it, but now the payoff was worth it; Tsukiko seemed to fit perfectly against him.

"Last one," she murmured into his chest.

His stomach twisted with guilt, biting back the acidic words he told himself every day. "Last one," he answered instead.

After a long, deep sigh, Tsukiko pulled away and shot a genuine smile up to him. She looked him over and said, "Ready?"

He laughed. "I'm supposed to be asking you that."

"Then cheer up, Izu. You're acting weird and we've got a year's worth of treats to eat," Tsukiko said, shoving his shoulder playfully. "Perk up, freckles."

Izuku loved seeing her so happy. It had been a long time since he'd seen her grin like that, and even longer since she'd last called him 'freckles'. "Dango first?"

"You know it!"

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"Took you fuckin' long enough, brat."

At the bottom of the back stairs, tucked back behind some stalls, Tsukiko rushed into the open arms of her fellow Luminary and best friend, Katsuki Bakugo. "You're so impatient, Katsuki. Like a petulant child," she chided, frowning at him in the midst of their embrace.

Izuku came down the final few steps, locking eyes with Bakugo and pointedly ignoring his hands on Tsukiko's waist. "Kacchan," he said in acknowledgment.

"Deku," Katsuki growled back. "Figures you'd be here."

"Why wouldn't he be?" Tsukiko asked, genuinely confused.

Never breaking his Katsuki put on his best innocent smile and said, "No reason."

The sight worried Tsukiko — Katsuki wasn't innocent at all, and that smile came across as a foul sneer with some hidden, bitter intent. She never understood Izuku and Katsuki's weird relationship anyway. The tension between them had never faltered, not even when she asked them to cut it out on multiple occasions.

"Where's Momo?" she asked, trying to divert the conversation elsewhere.

"Here!" Momo said, hobbling over and holding up sticks of colorful dango. "I knew you'd be starving, so I took it upon myself to find your favorite, Tsukiko." She hugged Tsukiko after handing out the treats, rocking back and forth for a minute before letting her friend free.

Mouth already watering, Tsukiko happily took one of the skewers and moaned as she shoved one of the mochi balls into her mouth. "Damn, I swear these get better every year," she sighed, already digging into the next one. "It probably helps a little that my mom hasn't let me eat in two days, so... what I'm saying is thank you, Momo, dearest."