Emote: Shinso x OC Reader

Chapter 3

As we walked into the building, I braced myself, worried that there would be a bunch of my classmates hanging out in the common area. I did a quick scan after stepping through the door, but there were only few people milling around, none of which had spiky blonde hair or blood red eyes that could kill with a simple glance. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I could tell my hypervigilance hadn't gone unnoticed by Shinso.

"My room is on the 3rd floor," I said, motioning for him to follow me over to the elevators.

As soon as we got there, I pressed the up button more forcefully than I had intended. The wait until we heard the ping indicating that the elevator had arrived felt excruciatingly long when in reality it was probably only a few seconds. As we stepped into the elevator, I felt the tension in my shoulders relax.

"You okay?" His tone was going for nonchalance, but I could tell that he was slightly on edge as well. Perhaps he was just as nervous about running into Bakugo? Not for the same reasons I was, obviously, but certainly something he didn't want just as much as me.

"Yeah!" I said but my voice somehow sounded too cheerful. 

He looked at me skeptically but didn't say anything. When the doors slid open, we stepped out into the hallway and I once again motioned him to follow me. As we rounded the corner it occurred to me that Mina's room was also on this floor, only two doors down from my own.

"Hey, we could invite Mina to come hang out with us?" I suggested, but Shinso shook his head.

"Nah, I'd rather it just be us." I must have been staring at him because he added, "If that's okay?"

"Yeah, sure. That's fine. That's totally fine."

Why did I suddenly sound so flustered? It was fine. Before I had joined the hero course it had always just been the two of us hanging out. So why did I now suddenly feel so self conscious? The answer was obvious, of course. Not only did I know now about how he felt, but he had made a proclamation that he would make me realize he was the better choice. 

Pushing the thought aside, I swung my door open and flipped the light on. The warm glow of the lamps I had set up earlier gave the room a welcoming ambiance. My room looked similar to how it had at home and aside from my bed, was furnished with my bookshelf, dresser, desk and TV, where I had my PS4 already set up and ready to play.

"Ah ha!" Shinso exclaimed, pointing to the PS4. "I wondered if you would bring her along."

"Of course! This old gal will probably be with me through it all," I said, giving the gaming system a pat as I smiled up at him. "So you know what that means."

Raising my eyebrows at him and wiggling them suggestively, I took a seat on the ground as I powered it up, slapping my hand against the hardwood floor next to me. He took an exaggeratedly deep breath as he took a seat and crossed his legs in front of him after grabbing a controller.

"You're going down," He said, narrowing his eyes at me.

Although I had initially been feeling weird about the implications of hanging out alone with Shinso, we quickly fell into a usual routine of ours, which was playing several rounds of Mortal Kombat.

"You're getting real quiet over there for someone who was pretty cocky when we first started," He taunted, his slender fingers moving quickly to mash a series of buttons that triggered Sub Zero to rip out my characters skull and attached spinal cord before freezing me and then using my own bones to shatter what remained of my body.

'Fatality' flashed across the screen, as the announcer on the game indicated 'Sub Zero wins!' Scowling at Shinso, I switched my character to Scorpion. He grinned at me smugly before choosing Raiden.

"Still pretty quiet over there, No," He said through a mouthful of candy.

"Shut it, So," I shot back as the match started.

The nicknames were a stupid inside joke based on a conversation we had one day about how difficult it was to create a nickname out of the series of syllables that combined to make each of our names. Seeing as how people usually took the first syllable to shorten people's name, that would have left me with 'Nak' and him with 'Shin,' which we both agreed sounded lame. Not that 'No' and 'So' are any better, but it got a good laugh out of us one day and ever since then it had come up on occasion, usually when we were joking around with each other.

"Get over here!" I mimicked Scorpion's taunt as my character threw his weapon at Raiden, who narrowly dodged it before launching an attack of his own. "I said, get over here, bitch!" I said loudly, repeating the same attack.

"Predictable," Shinso murmured before using a special move to wipe out most of my health.

"What?!" I yelled, almost throwing the controller as he quickly reigned in the victory.

His smile was sweet as he turned to face me. "Well, maybe that's enough for today."

Setting the controller down calmly, I said, "You know, if we were really throwing down, I think you know who would win."

"Ah, yeah. Me." He popped another piece of candy into his mouth before I snatched the bag out of his hand.

"No. And stop eating my candy! I'll throw down with you right here, right now if you want to."

I was joking, but I was also painfully serious. My bruised ego could stand to win at something and I always seemed to best him when it came to sparing in real life.

"Okay, let's go." He said, standing up and raising his closed fists up to his face, hopping back and forth like a boxer.

"Okay, I see you! I see you!" I said, getting up as well and matching his stance.

"First one on the ground loses?" He asked.

"Yup." I said and without losing a beat, jabbed with my right fist but he dodged, attempting to grab my wrist and use the momentum of my movement to force me to the floor. 

But seeing what he was trying to do, I already had a plan in place. As his fingers wrapped around my wrist I stepped forward, looping one leg around his as I attempted to use my push him backward. He unexpectedly held his ground and I found myself flopping down, my back smacking against the hard floor.

"Gotcha," He said, his face hovering mere inches above mine. 

His breath smelled lemony, a result of the sweet candy he had been eating, and I found myself breathing heavily despite the lack of actual physical activity that had led up to this moment. I could feel his fingers still wrapped around my wrist, pressing it into the cool floor, and his other hand was lying on my shoulder. A lock of his lavender hair fell down and tickled my nose before he pushed it back casually. I found myself just staring into his eyes. I usually didn't look at them so closely but now I could see the way the shades of purple shifted throughout the landscape of his eye, going from darker to lighter lavender tones as they approached the darkness of his pupil. My eyes traveled down to his bottom lip, which he captured between his teeth for a moment before releasing it.

Why was that so...hot? The thought came unexpectedly and was so foreign that I wriggled around for a moment, causing him to snap out of whatever spell we both seemed to be under. He blinked a few times before letting go of me as he sat up and I quickly followed suit, fussing with my thick dark hair to try to tame it into submission.

He cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well...maybe I should go."

It felt as though something inside of me sunk. "Nooooo," I hated how whiny I sounded but I couldn't seem to stop it. "Why? Can't you stay a little longer?"

When he looked at me, his eyes were clear and earnest. "Because I wanted to kiss you just now and if I stay I don't think I'll be able to stop myself."

Author's note: YOOOOOOOOOO IT'S 2AM AND I JUST WANTED TO WRITE, MY HOMIES, AND I MIGHT BE DELIRIOUS AND I THINK THIS IS GOOD BUT MAYBE NOT MY BEST? GOTTA LOVE SOME MORTAL KOMBAT ACTION :) THANKS FOR TUNING IN, BRIGHT SOULS! KEEP SHINING!