Shinsou's POV

I have to admit, I'm feeling much better today. I don't feel as nervous around Ojirou (though there is a lingering pain in my chest and stomach but I can ignore it), I'm well rested-ish(?) and We've got a whole day to ourselves to just... hang out, I guess. And the two of us are acting really flirty for some reason? ImeanIkindalikeitbut- it's a little odd, I guess.

"Anything you want to do first?" He smiles warmly over at me. I think and look away slightly as my cheeks start to flush.

"Breakfast sounds nice, though I'm not sure I can eat too much."

"Good, it means you have to pay less."

"That's... a weird way of looking at it."

"I'm basically broke, I have to find ways to save money."

"You could always take up stripping to pay the bills." I wink at him and he just stares at me incredulously with pursed lips, soon turning away with a red face. Whether it was from embarrassment or anger is a mystery.

"You'dliketoseethatwouldn'tyou-l

"What?-"

"-What? Let's find a place to eat!" He changes the subject quickly and pulls out his phone. I just glare at him and look back ahead of us, letting myself get lost in thought.

So... what the hell is happening to me? Why did I have that bad of an attack? How did I even??? I mean, I'm better around Ojirou, that's for sure, but this pain in my stomach and chest are just growing worse and worse, and it's gradually getting harder to ignore it. It doesn't feel like before, not like I'm going to vomit up my guts, it's just... painful. Hopefully it won't get too out of hand so I don't have to avoid him the whole day, but it's still an unnerving feeling... and the more I think about it, the more nervous I get and the more painful it is. And I plan to actually ask him to the dance today... what if he says no? He'll most likely say no. With how much I've been avoiding him, he probably will. He doesn't like me, never did, never will. It's just-

"-I think I found a place!" He snaps me out of my nerve-wracking trance. As soon as I look back at him, I notice my stomach twist and my chest hurts a lot. Goddammit no... not again. I can't avoid him this time, no matter how excruciating it gets, I'll just ignore it... I can ignore it... maybe, hopefully. For him I can at least try.

"What'd you find?"

"It's a diner nearby, called the 'Blue Moon Diner'. Apparently it was originally in America but a restaurant was built here."

"Cool, how far is it?"

"From where we are now, about a 10 minute walk."

"Wonderful. Let's go." He nods at me and we change directions. Great, 10 whole minutes of just awkward silence and walking. Oh yeah! And body pain... wooo, today really just is my day, isn't it?

I look over from the corner of my eye, and see Ojirou just looking down at his phone. He looks so relaxed and peaceful. He radiated an amazing and calming sort of warmth, one that rivaled my tense expression. It was almost enough to reassure me, almost. But I couldn't help but keep reverting back to the thought of him saying no, him hating me, the overwhelming pain in my body, how the dance will even play out... I'm not the smoothest or most social person, in case you couldn't tell. So I have almost no idea of what I'm doing... I almost completely forgot about my planned confession, and I'm behind on my guitar lessons! I need to practice twice as much today with Jirou, or maybe Tokyo. Hopefully I can get away from Ojirou long enough to-

"Aaand, we're here. You can really tell it's from America, huh?"

My eyes dart to look at Ojirou for a hot second before my head snaps over to look at the diner and... he wasn't wrong. It looks exactly like a diner you'd see in an old 80's movie. Just looking at it makes my mouth water and I feel all cozy.

"Well what are we waiting for?" I smile down at him and we walk inside together. As soon as we walk in, everything is just so warm and inviting. The place wasn't full, but it wasn't completely empty. There were a few groups of people sprinkled around in the booths by the window, and there were a few people sitting at the bar. The sound of the clanging silverware and plates made me even hungrier, and the distinct conversations throughout the establishments made it feel very homey.

"Good morning sirs, do you need me to lead you to your seats?" The waitress asks us and we nod our heads quickly. She smiles and collects two menus from behind the counter, then leading us to the back. She takes us to a booth at the far right corner of the diner, the last one in line and right next to the jukebox. She sets down our menus and we sit across from each other. After the waitress leaves and tells us she'll give us a minute to look over the menu, my heart starts racing at 1,000,000 miles per minute knowing that Ojirou is right across from me, this is basically a date, and I can't hide whatever's restraining me and bothering from just having a good and peaceful time with him. I just stare at my menu in my hands blankly to not look as weird or suspicious.

"-Did you hear me?"

"Huh what? Sorry."

"It's ok, I asked what you were going to get." He smiled at me but I could see an extreme amount of worry in his eyes and his voice was quivering slightly. I put on the best mask I could to try and convey that there was nothing to worry about while I looked down and answered with the first item I saw on the menu.

"I'm probably going to get the blackberry French toast." I say and nod stiffly, he smiles weakly at me and nods back. Okay, now the air is really tense around us. He knows something is up, and all I can do is avoid looking at him. I can't use the menu tactic anymore because then he'll know that I'm avoiding him, all I can do is stare out the window and listen to the jukebox in the background play. I discreetly watch Ojirou and see he's looking down at his hands guiltily, trying to distract himself by picking at his nails.

Soon enough when the waitress came over to our table, we ordered our food in the most comfortable and normal manner possible. The ordering ordeal honestly felt just like a haze since I was so unfocused on everything other than the ordeal I was putting Ojirou and I through right now, when she left, I thought back on our situation, while also stealing some looks from Ojirou.

He thinks me acting and feeling this way is his fault somehow, I can tell. I want to explain everything to him, but I don't want to cause a scene in public either. I'll explain everything once we get back to the dorms... and hopefully it'll be a good enough apology to him.

For now, all we can really do is try to ignore the (sexual) tension.

"Did you know the new Child's Play just came out?" I smile at him in an attempt to lighten the mood, he looks up and smiles kinda painfully back at me, but it was a start I guess.

"I did, but I'm not one for horror movies. Why? Did you want to see it?"

"I mean,, yeah,, but if you don't that's fine."

"Hey, I don't hate horror movies, we can still watch it."

"Really?? Cool. But before we do can we stop by the dorms? I need to feed Tenshi really quick and it's actually a closer walk than from here."

"I don't see why not." We smile at eachother, the tension dialing down just a little bit. And, right on time, the waitress comes by with our food and drinks. We thank her quickly before she walks off and once again we're left with just eachother. But, instead of an awkward silence, we were having a much less tense conversation about the movie. He said horror movies scared him usually, so (hopefully) we'll probably end up in the whole situation with him clinging to me the whole time. I'll probably also do the Good ol' yawn and stretch.

I'm looking forward to this.
-----------------------------------------------------

"You said you needed to feed Tenshi, yeah?"

"Yeah, so give me a sec."

"Okay." Ojirou said while walking into the dorms. I wave bye to him as I walk up the stairs. Perfect, now that I'm alone, I can plan my apology.

I walk up to my floor and think so myself as I set foot on it, first I'm going to address how I've been acting towards him. I've been... distant, and overall a prick. I want to explain how looking at him makes me physically hurt, but I probably won't since that'll just make him worry even more.

Opening my door, Tenshi is seen to be napping on my bed. I smile at his sleeping figure and take out his cat food, opening it and pouring it into his bowl. Okay, so then after that's explained, of course I'll tell him that none of it is his fault, since it really isn't. It's me and my pathetic loser self's fault... I probably shouldn't say that part, he'll spiral into how I shouldn't be so self-deprecating.

I then make my leave by giving Tenshi a quick pat on the head while he sleeps and walking out, closing my door quietly. Finally, I'll tell him how I can explain everything to him later... I'll ask him to the dance after the movie, so we won't be stuck in an extremely awkward silence if he says no.

Walking back downstairs to Ojirou, I quickly look at the time on my phone and see that our class only has about 45 minutes until they come back. Taking a quick note of the time, I take deep breaths while walking onto the first floor and waving to Ojirou. He waves back and walks up to me.

"Hey, ready to go?"

"Uhm, actually, I wanted to talk to you first about... something." I say weakly, scratching the back of my neck and looking at him nervously. His expression changes into one of fear for a moment before he plasters on a fake smile.

"Okay." He says and I lead him over to sit him down on the couch. We face eachother and I clench my fists, digging them into my thighs while I look down and figure out how to word this. I can't really see him, but by the way his tail is hung off of the couch and how stiff it is, he's incredibly worried.

"So... you know how lately I've been really distant... and... avoiding you up until yesterday..?" I say with a wavering voice, never facing up or even looking at him.

"Y-Yeah.."

"Well,, I want to explain... first of all, I'm not doing it deliberately to hurt you, and I know I've been a dick for not even looking at you, I know it hurts you, and me too, but... I can't help it. It's not a healthy way to cope, and I'm really fucking sorry for being so terrible to you..." I finally gather enough courage to look up and face him even though I feel my eyes start to water from stress. Ojirou stares at me, completely shocked, and I think I see tears start to form in his eyes as well. He's speechless, and I have to continue.

"I wanted to say that, the reason that I'm acting like this isn't your fault at all. If anything, it's my fault. There's nothing wrong with you, in fact, you're basically perfect... it's just... something that I'm going through that involves you, but it's my fault, I swear. Basically... I'm just... sorry." I breathe out and try to stabilize my voice, taking deep and quiet breaths to not completely fall apart into a mess. Ojirou wipes small, unfallen tears from his eyes.

"I... forgive you, but, can I ask something..?"

"Ask away."

"Well.. 1. Why have you been heading into Tokoyami's and Jirou's dorms so much more often and 2. What was with that big emosquad meeting back on Sunday?" He says quickly. Wow, he actually remembered that? "After Bakugou told Kirishima what it was and left, I walked up and asked him too. All he told me is it was something they were helping you plan." He adds on and elaborates. I breathe in quickly. I guess Kirishima really could keep a secret. Well, good enough, at least.

"That's what I wanted to add on... I'm going to tell you everything later... probably this weekend. All I'm asking is you wait a bit longer, and I promise, everything will make sense." I explain more to him. He just nods.

"Yeah I can do that..."

"Good... thank you."

I say to him and look at the clock. Everyone is going to be here in 10 minutes, and the movie starts in 20.

"Hey, we should probably start going if we wanna watch the movie." I smile at him and stand up, holding my hand out to him. He wipes his eyes again and nods at me, having a much more bright and happy disposition now. He takes my hand and I pull him up, but as soon as he starts standing, I intertwine our fingers and we walk to outside the building, still holding hands.

"You sneaky bastard." He laughs at me, his face flushed and his tail wagging almost furiously behind him.

"You know me." I shrug towards him and he raised an eyebrow at me, his tail stopping and slithering around my waist, holding me close to him.

"Yeah, I guess so." He sticks his tongue out at me and, while glaring at him just slightly, we walk to the theater.

...
Kirishima's POV

Tamaki-Senpai was walking me back to the dorm rooms after class ended and we finished our sparring, we were chasing after Mirio and Katsu, I was also spilling the Shinsou/Ojirou tea, and we were trying to catch up to them...until...I looked through the window.

"Honestly they need to confess alre- wait.."

...
...

"HOLY SHIT, SENPAI!"

"AAA wHat?"

"LOOK!"

...

"....oh!"

"YEAH!"

"...they're ho-holding hands!"

"YEAH!"

...

"...I think Ojirou's tail is around Shinsou-"

"WHAT- H O L Y S H I T"

"whyareyouyellingggg..."

...
Back to Shinsou's POV

-(After the movie)-

"That... was the most..."

"IT WAS AWESOME!"

"I almost vomited in the popcorn bag-"

"SO MUCH CARNAGE CANDY!"

"Bleghhh..."

"God that was amazing..." I stare up dreamily at the now darkened sky. Ojirou shakes his head and laughs at me.

"I still can't believe you did the yawn and stretch on me... and you didn't even yawn! You just said 'yawn' and stretched your arm over me like this!" He says and slides his arm around my waist, causing me to blush intensely.

"Actually it was more of a stretch like this." I say and stretch out both of my arms, hooking one around his shoulders as they fell.

"Yeah I guess you're right, but actually, I wanted to ask you something again, about.. before." He says and I get a little tense, but relax quickly, convincing myself there's nothing to worry about.

"Yeah?"

"Well... you said you would explain later, and probably this weekend... but... do you have any other solid answer?" He asks, I raise my eyebrow and realize: this is my chance, not only can I ask him, I can be ~smooth~ about it.

"Well... I could explain to you at the dance, that is, if you decide to go with me?" I smile smugly down at him. He blushes and I see his cheeks puff up, he has a bit of an angry face, but it was.. too adorable.

"I hate how smooth that was." He says and swats me in the face with his tail. I laugh and look back down at him.

"But really, will you go with me? It doesn't have to be like a date thing... just as friends...?" I say, a bit more nervous. Looking at him, I see his face contort into one more of fear and anxiety. I felt him tense up as he looked back up to me, a sorry look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry but... no."
-----------------------------------------------------

(A/N: GUESS WHO WENT TO PRIDE AND GOT BOTH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE PAN AND NON-BINARY FLAGS??? WOOO! I almost died of heatstroke in my Todoroki shirt but it was worth it, sisters. I am u n b e l i e v a b l y burned out but hey, I gotta do the chapter.)