CW: indirect mentions of self-harm and scarring

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It had been two days since the pool incident. No one dared to bring it up to Emi, and a part of her was thankful for that. However, it seemed like Kirishima continuously avoided her whenever possible. She wondered what was going through his mind and why he refused to be left alone with her.

Kirishima wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was terrified to talk to Emi. Bakugo had given him very little details of their conversation and for all he knew she didn't want anyone asking her about it. Any time his friends left the room, leaving them alone, he followed quickly with some excuse. He was scared he was going to say the wrong thing and upset her further.

This had lasted for two days, and while Emi continued to be confused, Kirishima felt like he'd succeeded in letting things settle down. Until tonight when he came downstairs to make a snack and found Emi already in the kitchen.

Fuck, where is everyone else?

Emi looked up from her plate, sandwich crumbs scattered around her mouth. He mentally cursed his classmates for being MIA for once. She looked so cute, standing in her pajamas, mouth messy, and staring at him with innocent eyes. What did he do to the universe to deserve this?

"Hey, Eijiro, did you get hungry too?" Emi asked him, trying to start a conversation. This was her chance to corner him and question his reasons for avoiding her. She wasn't going to let this opportunity pass.

"Yeah, gotta keep the muscles fed y'know?"

She nodded and watched as he walked over to the pantry to grab a bag of chips. "That's your way of feeding your muscles?" Emi wanted to laugh as he ripped the top of the bag open before diving in. They both stood there quietly for a moment, filling their mouths with food to avoid speaking. Finally, Emi cleared her throat. "Can I ask you a question?"

Kirishima gulped, hands already clammy. "Sure."

Emi stepped closer to him to try and scan his face closer before asking, "Why have you been avoiding me like the plague?"

There it was. The question he wanted to steer from at all costs. He looked down at her, her face flushing slightly when their eyes locked. Kirishima watched in a daze as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear but didn't break eye contact.

"I'm not avoiding you, Emi." He lied. His heart was pounding in his chest as she sighed, finally breaking from his gaze.

"Liar. You have been, and I think I understand why." Emi started fidgeting with her fingers, feeling the awkwardness rising. He didn't say anything as she continued. "Bakugo came and talked to me after... what happened the other day. He said you were the one who tried to come after me when I left the pool."

Dammit Bakugo, Kirishima thought. He'd have to berate his friend later. It was time to be honest, he couldn't lie very well and figured they'd have to talk about it sooner or later. "Well, of course. You were upset and I wanted to see if you were okay. I just didn't know if you wanted to be left alone or not."

Blush crept onto Emi's face as her hands fiddling together continued. "I just... I just wanted to say thank you. I honestly don't know how I would've felt if you had caught up to me, but I appreciate that you tried. I didn't know if you were avoiding me because of that or if I had crossed a line by always calling you Kiri, or if I had made you uncomfortable or-"

Kirishima cut off her nervous rambling, "No, no you've never made me uncomfortable. Yeah, the nickname sometimes catches me off guard, but I don't necessarily... not like it." His hand reached up to rub the back of his neck. It was his turn to flush with color, and he felt tongue tied. Did she really think all this time she was crossing boundaries with him? If anything, he wanted her to call him Kiri all the time.

"Since it's just us down here, do you want to ask me anything?" Emi looked up at him through her lashes again.

This had to be some sort of test. God, she looked so pretty. What did he want to ask? He wanted to ask her everything, learn more about her, get to know every detail of her life, her goals; get to know every detail of her face, her body... no. He had to be respectful right now.

"Are you okay?" Was the only question he could form, and the most important in his mind.

Emi was taken back by it. That was the first time anyone asked her that when they found out, other times it was endlessly pestering why, why would you do that, and so on. But Kirishima was sweet. He was kind. Of course that would be his first question. "Yeah, I'm okay. It hasn't happened in a long time, and I'm a lot better now. That doesn't mean I don't still struggle with it, but I haven't... done it in so long. The scars will always remain though, even if I wish they didn't." She explained honestly.

Kirishima exhaled in relief. He couldn't image being right down the hall from her while she struggled alone. Every instinct inside him was screaming to hold her and tell her everything was okay. "I think you're one of the strongest people I know now, Emi." Kirishima said to her before placing his hand on her arm.

The touch warmed her skin, and Emi wanted to lean into it. His touch brought a comfort she hadn't felt in a while. "I think you're confusing strength with weakness, Kiri."

"No." He replied firmly and placed his other hand on her other arm. "No, you're confusing it. I know strength when I see it. And you, Emi, you are strong. I'm proud of you."

She couldn't believe it when tears began to well up in her eyes. Kirishima was the sweetest person she'd ever met. Here he was, praising her for surviving something she had been ashamed of for so long. Never has she had someone tell her they were proud of her for getting through it. Before she had a second to think, Emi wrapped her arms around his torso in a hug.

When she did that, Kirishima's heart exploded. He was sure he had smoke coming out of his ears, or that he was going to have a heart attack right here in the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer to his body. She felt so fragile pulled against him. Every nerve in his body was tingling at the contact but he held his breath, trying to calm his nerves.

"Thank you, Eijiro. You can't believe how much your words mean to me." She muttered into his chest. He realized she spoke through sniffles, and he felt her tears wet his shirt where her face buried into him.

He reached up and placed one of his hands on the back of her head. Kirishima couldn't believe that he was hugging her, but more importantly he couldn't believe that he was able to comfort her in the moment. He felt proud of himself. This was all he had wanted to do since the incident at the pool.

When Emi pulled back from him, she saw his eyes were wet as well. He didn't bother to wipe the tears away and let her see the emotion behind them. A million thoughts passed through her mind, looking up the kindest man she'd ever met.

A cough from behind her stopped her thinking immediately. They both jumped apart a little bit, looking to see Ida standing there, red faced. "I apologize for interrupting, but I need to fill my water bottle." He sheepishly walked into the kitchen while both of them stood there embarrassed.

"Man, it's like we got caught with our hand in the cookie jar or something." Kirishima whispered, causing Emi to laugh. It sounded like music to his ears, and he knew he wanted to continue making her laugh all the time so he could hear it. "I mean, Mr. No-Nonsense here won't be having it, we might be put into the corner or something."

Emi's stomach clenched with every laugh he pulled from her. Ida just stared in silent judgment at them before pointing an accusatory finger. "I will put you both in a corner." Ida threatened, only making Emi and Kirishima laugh harder.

They didn't stop laughing and cracking jokes even after Ida left the room.

____________________________________________

From that night on, to the rest of the class it seemed like Kirishima and Emi were inseparable. Whenever they hung out as a group, they would always find Kirishima next to her making her laugh till she threatened to pee herself. Even then, he didn't stop. He followed her around like a puppy dog, and even if she hadn't noticed, everyone else did.

With only a few days away from classes starting, Mina and Hagakure had suggested a party to celebrate the end of winter break. Much to Ida's dismay, the two girls had already brought alcohol into the dorm. In the meantime, tonight would be the girls' sleepover night, complete with a movie and plushies.

To start the night off, Emi invited the girls into her room to hang out, do face masks, and pick out a plushy for the movie. It was nice for her to have girlfriends to spend time with. Uraraka and Momo were applying her face mask and braiding her hair for her. She couldn't be happier than she was in this moment.

"Ochako, has Midorya made his move yet?" Mina teased, poking Uraraka's side with a hairbrush. The latter's cheeks turned red, and she tried to hide a smile. "Have you guys kissed already?"

"Mina, hush!" Uraraka threw a pillow in her direction giggling, but everyone turned to her with the same question prepared. "No, no we haven't kissed yet and if you keep asking me, I'm going to chicken out!"

"Ochaco has had a crush on Midorya since the first year. And vice versa, ribbit." Tsuyu explained, causing Emi to smile.

"I think it's sweet to take things slow. A first kiss is something special, it shouldn't be a rush job." Emi reached out for Uraraka's hand to reassure her. Her friend smiled back, nodding in confirmation. "Besides, if Midorya's too scared to make the first move..." That earned a quick, but light, hand smack from Uraraka, triggering the girls to giggle furiously. "I'm just saying! Anyone would be lucky enough to kiss the Ochaco Uraraka."

"What about you, Emi? What was your first kiss like?" Jiro asked her, tilting her head to the side.

"Well, it was embarrassing to say the least." Emi rubbed her neck as she recalled the incident. "I wouldn't say it was accidental, but it definitely wasn't planned."

"What was he like? What was his name?" Mina questioned excitedly.

"She. Her name was Sadie." Emi's cheeks turned red at her confession, but none of the girls seemed phased so she continued. "She was my first girl crush, and my best friend at the time. We were hanging out at my house, just like this, and she had a crush on a boy in our class. She'd never kissed anyone, so us being idiots, we said we'd practice on each other. She had no idea about my crush until after we kissed."

"Well, did she reciprocate your feelings?" Jiro asked, leaning forward as if she was hanging on every word.

That was the hard part to talk about. "No, she didn't. And she didn't take it very well when she found out, neither did the other girls in our class that she told."

Momo huffed and crossed her arms. "That bitch."

"Whoa Momo! I haven't heard you use that language much!" Hagakure squealed. They all laughed together. Emi hugged Momo in thanks for her words.

"So, wait, Emi when was the last time you kissed someone?"

"Mina, jeez leave her alone!"

Emi laughed and shrugged. "Maybe my first year at my hero school in America? Yea, I think that's right. Why? Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all, ribbit!" Tsuyu reassured.

"Who knows, your next kiss might be just around the corner!" Hagakure exclaimed.

"After all, anyone would be lucky enough to kiss the Emi Kaneko." Uraraka bumped shoulders with Emi, flashing her a smile and a wink.

Mina had whispered something to Hagakure, but with Hagakure's quick Emi couldn't tell what was going on. They both turned back like nothing had happened, but Mina gave Emi a look that made her feel like it was about her. However, Mina only smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up. That only confused her more.

The rest of the night the girls couldn't focus on the movie, laughing at each other and swapping memories.

These were the friendships that Emi had looked for her entire life.

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A/N: I'm also posting chapters on AO3 and snippets of this story on my Tumblr! I will also be adding more things pertaining to Shooting for Mercury on my Tumblr if you'd like to follow along there. ☺ my Tumblr is simplyraeblue and my AO3 is raeblue as well! ♡