Writing Is Hard

Momo had never gone on a date before. She imagined it would be similar to the ones from all those slice of life manga that Hagekure reads. She and Sero would be seated at a nice, quiet, small cafe, not far from UA’s campus. The day would be filled with conversation, getting to know each other, and trying to figure out where to go from here.

She ruffled through her closet. What was she supposed to wear for something like this? She had no frame of reference besides movies and television. She had texted the 1A girls chat for advice earlier and received a lot of it. Ashido said to dress hot, which Momo didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. She doubted Sero would be very comfortable with that either. Hagakure said to dress cute, which could work but she wasn’t sure how to properly execute. Asui said to dress comfy and Uraraka said to dress casual, which she felt was the best advice she’d gotten but wasn’t entirely sure how to put it together. This was nothing like when she had to put together disguises. That was fun (if you remove the event from the situation) and this was no fun at all, more stressful than anything else. And this wasn’t even a real date! But it did have to look like a date. She groaned and checked her phone, scrolling through the chat. Jirou hadn’t responded yet. The other girl was probably busy...  It was their day off after all. There were probably plenty of other things to do on the weekend that were more important. She shook her head. She couldn’t think about that now. What Momo needed was a more logical approach to all this, and when she needed logic, she called Kendo.

She picked up after the third ring.

“Hey Momo, what’s up?”

“Hey, I need your help with something.”

“Go for it.”

She looked over all her clothes. “What do you wear on a date?”

“You’re going on a date? That sounds so fun! Where are you going? Who are you going with?”

“We’re going to a café and it’s not like that.”

Kendo hummed over the line. “What are you going for?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like what you want to get out of it? What message do you send to them?”

Momo bit her lip. “It’s a complicated message…”

“Try me.”

“I need something that tells the class ‘we’re dating’ but to get the class perv off my back.” The line was quiet for a moment. “Kendo?”

“Well, that is certainly a complicated message.”

Momo flopped on her bed. “Yeah. What do I do?”

“Okay, do you remember that top you wore the last time we hung out?”

Momo got up and started ruffling through her closet until she found the somewhat flowy, rose v-neck. “I do.”

“Good. Wear that and that cute cream skirt. It shows off enough while still being modest and comfortable.”

Momo sighed in relief. “Thanks so much.”

“No problem. Good luck with your date. I want details later.”

She felt her face burn. “I told you it wasn’t like that!”

Kendo laughed over the line. “I know. Talk to you later.”

Momo immediately felt better after that conversation and went back to the task at hand. She put the two items together and stood in front of the mirror. Kendo was right. It wasn’t too over the top, more on the simple side, but it was comfy and it looked nice on her. As Ashido would say, it “showed off her assets”. The thought made her giggle, since she didn’t have the “assets” Sero found attractive in a romantic partner. To be fair, he didn’t have the assets she found attractive either.

She made her way down to the common room where Sero was waiting for her. She gracefully pretended not to notice how Ashido and Kirishima (and disgruntled looking Bakugou) lurked around the corner. He gave her a small smile when he saw her. “You look very nice.”

She smiled. “Thank you. So do you.”

“Thank you. This is my nicest hoodie.” She could tell that he put (or was forced to put) effort into his appearance. His clothes looked less baggy than she was used to seeing him in. They didn’t look too mismatched which added to the believability of the couple. He looked nice. Any guy would be lucky to have him.

She smiled. “Ready to go?”

His grin turned nervous, which made her nervous. “What’s wrong?”

“We have a slight problem.”

“What is it?”

“Aizawa-sensei says that we need a chaperone, and someone volunteered to come with us.”

Momo internally groaned. “And who might that be?”

                                             --------------------------

“Shouto,” Momo said politely, through a forced smile and gritted teeth. It was such a nice day at such a nice cafe with such nice company. And now Shouto. Wonderful.

The man in question didn’t look up from his book, a book that he brought to chaperone his friend’s date. “Yes, Momo?”

She stirred her tea absentmindedly. “You know how I told you I had a date today?”

He absently nodded. “I do. It was a wonderful conversation. We really should have more talks like that.”

She hummed in agreement. “We should. However, that was not an invitation to crash my date, especially as a chaperone .”

He shrugged. “Sensei said you needed a chaperone. Apparently all the teachers have personal lives, so I volunteered.”

She glared at him. “Thank you for doing so so willingly.”

“Just doing my duty as a future hero.”

She frowned. “You don’t even have your provisional license yet.”

He hummed into his teacup. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that it sounds like you don’t want me here.”

He was seriously trying her patience. “I don’t. I’m on a date.”

He put down his cup and thought for a moment. “And we’re still having a wonderful time together. Wouldn’t you agree, Sero?”

Sero fiddled with one of his hoodie strings. “Yeah, I guess so?”

Shouto gave her an ‘I told you so’ glance over his cup, making Momo seriously consider smacking her head against the table. The urge was growing stronger and stronger with every passing moment.

“But in all honesty,” he admitted, “I don’t understand why you’re with him. He… doesn’t seem like your type.”

Sero chuckled. “I get that. I’m not a lot of people’s type.”

Before Shouto could go any further, Momo quickly interjected. “I’m not his type either.”

The tension was slowly eased from Shouto’s face. “Oh… oh. Then why?”

“I’m helping her get Mineta off her case. There was a situation where she panicked and I’m helping her,” Sero explained.

Shouto nodded. “I see.”

“The class needs to think that we’re dating, so please keep this under wraps, Shouto,” Momo admitted.

“Do you two have any rules in place?”

Sero rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous smile. “That’s what we were using this date to figure out.”

“Hmm, I see. I suppose I could make myself scarce for half an hour. Is that enough time?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Shouto nodded and rose from his seat. “I’ll be at the bookstore if you need me before then.” They both watched him walk off.

They sat in silence for several seconds.

“I guess we should-” “What do we do-”

Sero chuckled nervously. “You start.”

Momo brushed her bangs out of her face. “I guess we should start with physical boundaries? I don’t want to kiss you, no offense.”

Sero’s laugh was more genuine this time, more relaxed. Momo found she quite liked the sound. “I get it, don’t worry. Same here. I’m pretty okay with most other things: hugs, cuddles, the like. The squad and I do it all the time.”

She fiddled with her hands. “I’m… honestly not sure how I feel about that sort of thing.”

“That’s okay. We’re a pretty touchy bunch, it’ll take a while to get used to.” He took a sip of his water. “They’ll expect you to hang out with us sometimes. You don’t have to if you don’t want to obviously, but you’re always welcome to.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. They seem like a lot of fun.”

He smiled. “Yeah, they are.”

“So what do we do for dates? Do you want to have a specific day set aside for them or see when inspiration strikes?”

“Dates can be stuff like this, homework, or whatever. I’m not really picky. Although… homework help would be nice. I can cook a little too, if you want food at the dorms.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Really? I didn’t know you could cook.”

“Yeah, but we mostly bully Bakugou into cooking for us. I’m a bit of a health nut, so I don’t cook that often for others. Although, Mina has called my tofu stir-fry ‘the only tofu I will willingly eat.’”

“That’s certainly some high praise. Are you vegan?”

“Pescatarian actually. I like sushi and milk too much to be vegan.”

Momo made a mental note to do dietary research just in case he ever came over to her house. “I would love to try your stir-fry, especially with such a glowing review.”

He smiled that lopsided smile. “Then it’s a date.”

She smiled back at him. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. Next on the list was- “How did we start dating? They’ll all want to know.”

“I say we keep it simple and truthful: you asked me out and it went from there. Anything besides that, I’ll go with whatever makes you comfortable.”

Whatever makes you comfortable. She wasn’t sure when the last time she heard those words directed towards her. It was comforting. “Thank you for that. I think we have only been dating for a few days or a week at most. Our relationship is new enough for it to be believable.”

“Sounds good to me. I don’t think Mina would believe we’ve been dating for much longer than that. Speaking of which…” he trailed off as he fiddled with his napkin.

Momo felt her body freeze. They were discovered. Momo didn’t know who, how, or when but this whole thing was going to fall apart before they had even started. She could practically smell the scandal, especially if they found why they would-

“Bakugou knows.”

They could turn this around, right? She didn’t want to go back to-

“About me, at least. I didn’t want to say anything about you without you there or knowing it. He’s not gonna rat us out, he’s not like that.”

“Are you sure that he won’t out us? Positive?”

Sero nodded, gently reaching over but not quite taking her hand. “I’m positive. If you’re worried about it, you can talk to him about it. But he won’t out us, he’s not that cruel.”

That made her breathe a little easier. “Good… good…”

“You okay?”

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” She was probably nodding too much for him to properly believe her but he didn’t say anything more about it. “Sero.”

“Yeah, Momo?”

“It’s okay for you to hold my hand.”

“Oh,” his smile turned soft as he gently interlocked their fingers. “Good. I didn’t want to spook you or anything. I get like that sometimes.”

“We’re gonna be okay,” she murmured to herself.

“We’re gonna be okay,” he agreed in a soft voice.