Shoto just stared at her, feeling… Numb was the best way to describe it.
"You… You hadn't even considered that as an option have you?"
"...No. No, I had not."
...
The rage, the anger, the wrath that was always there, just under the surface suddenly began to recede, as it was replaced by an emotion Shoto was not usually familiar with.
Humiliation.
He felt, completely, and totally humiliated, as he considered the mind-bogglingly simple solution Mei had laid out for him.
In fact… It was even more poetic than his own original plan he had pursued for years.
Why hadn't he considered this? It was such an easy way to screw over all his father's ambitions… While still becoming a great hero in his own right. Like he had…
He somehow found himself seating himself in a chair, as Mei eventually went back to work on his suit, though, unlike previous times, she occasionally eyed him, as if she expected him to continue their talk.
He did not. Instead, he simply sat there and considered it all. He thought back on younger days, in his worst moment, when he'd first formulated his plan.
The day… The day he'd lost the person meaning the most to him in the world.
…His mother.
---
Izuku liked plans. He liked to think something through, consider his options, then lay forth a course of action that would best allow him to achieve his goals.
The way he put off his current plan, the one he'd been planning since two days ago though, one might think it was actually some sort of deeper battle plan, with a high risk of failure.
It was planned exquisitely, with his target's usual pattern and behaviour exactly in mind.
The target in question was his pink girlfriend, and the behavior was that after Bakugo had vacated his seat to leave, Mina had promptly sat down in his former seat, having flipped around his chair so that it was now facing Izuku.
Izuku, for a variety of reasons, was usually one of the slower students to pack up his stuff and leave, which in turn meant that Mina(Who was the complete opposite), had taken to sit down every single day after their last class, and just watch him as he finished up.
On paper, it was not something that one would expect the always cheery and social Mina to sacrifice meeting with her various girlfriends to do, but Izuku knew better.
The way Mina would look at him as he finished up would always make him fumble and blush, and that more than anything was why she did it. Well that, and it was an excellent way to springboard into an after-class date.
It was with all of this in mind, that Izuku made his well-planned, and prepared move, as he deliberately made sure to drag out putting together his things.
"...Hey Mina? Are you… Free on Sunday?"
"Sure. Do you wanna hang out at my place?"
She grinned slyly.
"Or did you… Have something else in mind?"
Izuku blushed, but he spoke without stumbling over his own feet, as he would have a few months ago.
"Well… I did, actually. Like… Do you wanna go see a movie with me on Sunday?"
Half a week of careful planning, estimation of his budgets, and the realization he would have to tighten his belt and forgo any chocolate for the rest of the month, and scouting out what movies were currently out, as well as checking Mina's social media's to see if there had been any talk of any movie she'd been looking forward to seeing.
As it was, there were several. Some of which Izuku actually had some interest in.
Had Mina known just how thoroughly Izuku had worked just to plan this moment, she would probably have laughed her ass off, as her boyfriend had treated the simple act of asking her out on a date, as if it was a massive operation.
As it was though, she did not laugh. She smiled.
Mina beamed, making Izuku's stomach flutter for a moment, just at how… Beautiful she looked as she replied.
"Sure am! What did you have in mind? Actually… The movie can be a bit into the day, yeah? Like 13.00 or so?"
"Y-yes? That shouldn't be a problem."
Mina fist pumped.
"Awesome! What was the movie you had planned? Is it that newest Digimon movie! Oh, I've been looking forward to that one for months now!"
He had considered it. Mina's social media had made it abundantly clear that she had been really looking forward to this Digimon Tamer 2099, more than anything else. But he had absolutely no knowledge of the franchise it was from, nor had he watched the accompanying series from last year.
He did not want his and Mina's first real date night to be him humoring her about a series he had no interest in.
Luckily for him, however, there had also been another movie the pink cat girl had been looking forward to seeing. One that he actually did care about as well.
"No, actually it's… It's the newest Star Wars movie, The Last Command."
"Oooohhh! You mean the one by Haku Wasabi?"
"Yeah, that's the one. It's one of the better Japanese takes on Star Wars I think…"
"I know, right! Like the last guy who adapted 7 to 9 just… Couldn't help adding in his own stuff all the time! It was nuts!"
Izuku chuckled, actually feeling a surprising pang of confidence that he actually understood exactly what Mina meant.
"Yeah… Like at the end of Dark Force rising, and he just had to add in way more ships to the Katana fleet in order to make it "make sense". Nevermind how silly it made everything look when the Empire still couldn't win the battles in episode 9."
"Or when Luke got his face stung, and it just looked like he stepped into some nettles because the actor was too prissy to film his scenes like that? That stuff was absolute gold!"
-It would seem your girlfriend is just as much of a huge ass nerd as you. Just not about Hero shit.-
Izuku grinned, and as they continued talking about Japan's recent takes on the Star Wars franchise(The current movie they were about to go see was an Anime movie, which made it stand out a lot, compared to most other Japanese takes), he failed to notice that the rest of the class had completely moved out, leaving just him and Mina.
As it turned out, he was not the only one who had made plans.
As they talked, and the door closed behind the last person to leave, Mina, very nonchalantly, pulled out a bit of candy from her bag and just kept talking.
"-Kira's take on Karrde is probably the best thing about it all! Like, he just makes sound soooo smooth."
"Yeah, he is pretty… Pretty…"
As she finished talking, Mina had put a bit of candy in her mouth, and was now nibbling on it.
Izuku's first thought was that it was against school regulations… That thought however immediately vanished as the smell crept it's way into his nostrils, and his eyes focused on what it was.
A long, brown, stick of pocky.
Covered in delectable… Sweet… Delicious chocolate.
Mina exaggeratedly, and blatantly nibbled at it, seemingly without having noticed anything out of the ordinary, or noteworthy having taken place.
Izuku did not look around. He did not need to, in order to know they were alone. It was just him and Mina in this room.
They, and the piece of delectable piece of Candy poking out of Mina's cute, adorable grin.
She promptly leaned forward, juuust slightly, then with a bit of movement from her tongue, she pointed the end of the piece towards him.
"Want some?"
It was amazing how mesmerizing the chocolate looked. How… Alluring it was. The sweet, intoxicating taste of chocolate… And the promise of something else, more intimate as well.
Mina's eyes told him she knew exactly how he felt.
The pink girl knew exactly what she was doing, tempting him with a piece of chocolate like this… And she was having a lot of fun doing so.
He felt his mouth close around the piece, the amazing taste, immediately bombarding his taste buds.