AMATEURS [Tenya Iida x OC]

Chapter 22 - The One Where They Return

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Returning to school after such a blissful vacation was like rocketing back to earth after being on the moon.

Earth was really boring.

But at least they had friends to talk to again.

Tenya's head rested in Peri's lap, sprawled across the length of a couch in the den of the Heights Alliance. Friends cluttered the couches around them, chattering about their holidays and vacations.

"Peri, I have to ask you about something," Momo said from the couch opposite her and Tenya. "Have you ever been to a school dance?"

"Yeah, I went with my cousins to one once... at their school in the US," she said, "Why?" She ran her fingers over Tenya's cheekbones, down the sharp plane of his nose. It was unfair that he was so pretty.

Momo shook out her long, dark hair and sighed, "I was thinking of organizing a dance for us, and was hoping that you might have some experience."

The other girls started chattering excitedly about dressing up - and BOYS in SUITS - and Peri said, "I'll pitch in however I can, Yaomomo. When are you thinking?"

Twisting her hair up into a bun, Momo said, "Mr. Aizawa already approved the idea, so I was thinking in like... two weeks? Maybe a Christmas theme?"

Tsu cut in just then, looking up from braiding Ochaco's hair, "I don't know if a Christmas theme is the best idea, Momo. Not everyone celebrates Christmas, plus it doesn't always have good connotations for those that do. And, if you're asking for Peri's help, she doesn't like Christmas much." She thought for a second, and said, "Maybe a winter theme? Or something entirely different, like a masquerade?"

"So, Peri, if you don't like Christmas, then what's your favorite holiday?" Ochaco frowned, "I've never heard of someone who doesn't like Christmas. Except for those who don't celebrate it, I guess."

Peri shrugged and ran her fingers through Tenya's midnight hair, his eyes sliding closed in silent satisfaction. "It's just never been a big deal to me, I guess," she said, smoothing over Tenya's furrowed brow with her finger. "My favorite holiday isn't really a holiday..." When she didn't elaborate, her friends gestured for her to continue and Tenya cracked one eye open in confusion. Peri explained with heat in her cheeks, "It's school supply shopping day." Her friends laughed, but not in a mean way. They were more surprised than anything. "I just like getting organized and color coordinating everything! Plus everything is new and crisp and waiting to get labelled, you know? No? Is that weird?"

Tenya chuckled and looked up at Peri's flushed cheeks as she tried to explain herself over her friends' giggles. Could she be more perfect for him? He didn't think it was possible. He snaked his hand up, tracing along her jaw in absent fondness.

I am going to marry you.

He meant to think it, but the way the room fell silent, the weight of his friends' gazes suddenly upon him, the thrum in his chest as Peri locked eyes with him... Tenya may have said it out loud.

"Mind repeating that for us, Iida?" Jiro taunted from her seat beside Momo, shit-starting grin spread across her face as she looked between Tenya and Peri. Their faces were frozen in matching blushes, tomato-cheeked and wide-eyed.

Stuttering and faltering, Tenya tried to ignore the embarrassment seeping into his brain. But it melted off as soon as Peri's lips touched his, her curls shrouding them from their friends for a moment of privacy.

"Ask me again in a few years, love," she whispered against his lips, glancing from them to his dark eyes and back, "I'd marry you in a heartbeat if we were old enough. And imagine your mom's excitement."

She pulled away with a wink and diverted the conversation, seamlessly navigating the social waters and wrestling the focus away from Tenya and back toward the masquerade dance. He sighed and let his eyes drift shut once more, mulling over her words.

In a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. In a heartbeat.

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The masquerade arrived quickly, the first two weeks back to school disappearing in a flash of freezing rain and hot chocolate and frantic shopping. It hardly occurred to Peri that they had entered a new school year, as it felt exactly the same as before.

But Class 2-A sounded a little more... mature than 1-A, somehow. Right?

Momo swept Peri up into planning the extravagant party, the two of them spending many late nights together poring over catalogs full of tulle and disco balls and glow sticks. Somehow, they managed to pull a party together in two short weeks.

And they got the rest of the second years on board.

All of them.

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The night before the dance, Peri met Momo in the den for last-minute problem solving and planning. All of their classmates had already gone to sleep, leaving the Heights Alliance silent as a graveyard and utterly deserted.

The girls hunched over the coffee table in their pajamas, two nearly-empty hot chocolate cups and a plethora of highlighters between them, while Peri made a hyper-organized list of to-dos, separated into stuff for themselves and stuff for the actual event. Peri's hair was a disaster, hastily pulled up into a frizzy bun that barely wrangled her curls or eased her stress; her hands kept working through her hair, teasing curls out of the style to stress-twist.

"Hair, makeup, dress, shoes, phone, keys," Peri read back to Momo from the list, barely even awake as she tapped each item with the tip of her pink highlighter. A yawn cut through before she could continue, and she stretched, trying to keep herself attentive through their final meeting. "Balloons, streamers, disco ball, Mic's DJ booth, glow sticks, crowns, refreshments."

Momo nodded along, a little too aggressively to be paying attention. Peri waited for Momo to stop, which took a bit. "Sorry," Momo grumbled, jolting out of her stupor and draining the last of her hot chocolate from her cup. Or maybe it was Peri's cup. Whatever. "That all sounds right. We should sleep. We'll meet at the gym in the morning. Just text me when you wake up... Deal?"

Peri could only manage a weak thumbs-up, shoving herself to her feet with her notebook under her arm and their mugs in her hands. "Get some rest. I'll send you a picture of the list before I sleep. Night, Momo." She waved a lazy goodbye, and shuffled off to the kitchen, depositing their cocoa cups in the sink before making her way up the stairs.

Without realizing, she diverted from her path and let herself into Tenya's room without knocking, shuffling over to his bed and collapsing face-down into his sheets before rolling up into a snuggly burrito. Tenya watched the whole thing, bemused, from his desk, where he'd been preemptively studying for a quiz they had in two weeks.

"Are you alright?" Tenya asked, turning off the classical music pumping out of his headphones. When Peri didn't answer, he worried. Tidying up his textbooks and supplies, Tenya stood from his desk and stretched, lumbering over to his bed.

Peri was already asleep, cocooned in his softest blanket. Tendrils of curly blonde hair snuck out from her burrito, swaying in time with her snores. Tenya bit back a laugh and moved Peri's things, which she'd left on the edge of his bed, to his desk. He set her notebook aside, and her phone beside his. For some strange reason, it gave Tenya a warm feeling in his chest, seeing the devices like that.

He brushed his teeth as quietly as possible and crawled into bed beside Peri, gently removing her glasses and setting them on his bedside table alongside his own. "Goodnight, my love," he whispered, tucking a curl into her blanket before pecking her on the forehead and flicking off his lamp. 

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A/N: Thank you for being so patient with me while I worked on these chapters! I have a double update prepared in thanks. <3 Also, I went back and added chapter titles, because I felt that the story needed them. Let me know if you think of any that are more clever/vague than the ones I thought of!