Soft Spot

When Eijiro Kirishima kisses Asami behind a bowling alley, it isn't supposed to mean anything. He's one of her oldest friends, relentlessly good-natured, unfairly attractive, and safe in a way Asami has never had to question. Making out with him occasionally seems like a perfectly reasonable arrangement, provided nobody develops feelings and Katsuki Bakugo stops appearing at the worst possible moments.

Neither of those things happens.

Somewhere in the chaos of pumpkin patches, birthday parties, laser tag, stolen office supplies, disastrous misunderstandings, and a friendship that keeps quietly becoming a life together, Asami realizes Eijiro has been making room for her long before she understood she wanted somewhere to belong.

The problem isn't that Asami doesn't know how she feels. It's that love used to mean making herself smaller. It meant ignoring what she knew, swallowing what hurt, and learning that softness was something another person could use against her.

Eijiro doesn't want that version of her. He wants the woman she is now - sharp edges, terrible temper, vicious competitive streak and all.

And Asami is beginning to discover that maybe she never stopped being soft. Maybe she just needed someone safe enough to have a soft spot for.