#gender-neutral! reader

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“Shintaroooo!”

You run quickly towards him and shout out to him with a worried voice, obviously panicking while holding out your unanswered assignment in front of his face. Tears are streaming down your cheeks.

“Please help me!” You shake his shoulders in panic. “I forgot to do my math homework! I’ve fallen asleep after I binge-watched Coffee Prince. I don’t want to fail, please! I want to keep being an honor student—”

Midorima trembles in annoyance within your reach before cutting you off with his finger pressed to your lips. “Will you calm down?! Your voice can reach all the way through the rooftop!”

“B-But my grade—!”

“Stop being dramatic. A tardy submission will not automatically make you fail; our teacher will only give you a deduction.”

“Every point matters, Shin-chan!”

“Don’t call me that!”

You pout before complying. Immediately scooting your chair closer to his seat with a pleading face. “But you’ll help me, right?”

You are too close.

You bat your eyelashes prettily, trying to persuade him. Shintaro’s breath hitched when he feels your face only few centimeters away from him.

He is only met with a bright smile before he is ‘forced’ to help you with your homework—downright snatching it from your hands.

Midorima ignores the fluttering in his heart when his fingers brush against yours.

Why can’t he find himself to resist?

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Takao watches his usual stoic, self-absorbent teammate act unusually. He narrows his eyes at the sight of Midorima mistakenly wrapping his fingers twice—he was unfocused, and it was obvious that something was weighing on his mind.

“Shin-chan, are you alright?” There is no way he is actually nervous about going against Kaijo, right?

Takao was only met with a silent glare from his friend, making him blink in confusion.

Shintaro instantly denied his claim, “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I can see your fingers getting suffocated from up here,” Takao points out with a very concerned look on his face. He gasps so dramatically, like a thunder of realization flashes down in the locker room. “And… are my eyes playing tricks on me?!”

Midorima only looks at him like he has grown two heads.

“I’m not seeing you wiping your teddy bear—or what should it be today, a ceramic vase? A shoelace? That small acorn you asked me to steal from your neighbor’s garden?” Takao points out in surprise, because it was very unusual for him to not have his lucky item. “I’m seeing zero of those today. Is my Shin-chan okay?!”

Otsubo gives Midorima a worrying look. Is the world ending for him?

His teammates snickered at the sight, their coach letting out a tired sigh.

Midorima hears the ping on his phone, seeing your message that you have already arrived at the gymnasium. He does not back down at the teasing of his teammates without an answer—partnered with a scowl. “My lucky item is here.”

“What..? Did you seriously have it delivered here and at this hour?!”

If you look deep into his expression, you could see the red flush blooming on his cheeks, wanting to maintain his composure and give all of his teammates the meanest glare that he can muster. “My luck doesn’t require an exposure to all of you.”

Never in Takao’s life has he heard such a bullshit excuse.

“Are you saying it’s spiritual today? Can that stay permane—?” He was shut up by a kick on his ass.

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海常 KAIJO 秀徳 SHUTOKU

30 - 49

You’re in the bleachers, eyes never taking off the match. Excitement and nervousness fill your body—your leg bouncing up and down in your seat while you stare at the team of your school.

Your gaze landed on the four-eyed shooting guard. Pride swells in your heart every time he shoots a three-pointer. You never fail to show your enthusiasm whenever the whole team scores—especially him.

“LET’S GO, SHUTOKU!” You cheer loudly and proudly, and some of the audience thinks you were the leader of the cheerleader team.

Midorima hears your voice and still keeps his attention to his opponent. For some reason, he can feel the hot rush of blood pumping even more all over his body, passing through his teammates before lifting his arms to shoot a 3-pointer.

30 - 52

“Oh yes, Shintaro! That’s my guy!”

The audience cheer loudly with you—but your words can be heard all throughout the gymnasium. People who are close to you whisper in curiosity at your boldness, while others agree with you.

“You’re so amazing, Shintaro!” you shouted again with a bright grin.

Shintaro flinches, and his heart began to beat irrationally. He only lets out a ‘hmph’, not wanting to show his teammates the effect you have on him.

“You have quite the cheerleader, Midorimacchi,” Kise remarks teasingly, his eye focusing on the ball dribbling by the hand of his opponent. “I’m jealous.”

“Really? That’s coming from you?” Midorima comments snarkily at the hypocrisy of the blonde’s statement.

Takao who is getting screened by one of Kise’s teammates, quickly takes a glance at the bleachers to see you, his classmate who would rather be in an arcade than watch a basketball match.

Though their team is leading the game, he knew something was off with Shintaro’s performance today.

Like he can’t give his all yet.

Then his gaze falls on his friend, someone who is too silent—his hawk-eye didn’t miss the fidgety, uncertainty in his body language turned into relaxation on Shintaro’s face.

As if everything’s fine already.

He connects the two and stifles his laughter at his silent realization.

So that’s your lucky charm, Shin-chan.

“I’m so flattered! He made the basket because of my cheer, right?!” You said to a random stranger, who doesn’t know what to do with the question but agrees.

The match ended with Shutoku winning, and you jumped in your seat happily. You wanted to do nothing but congratulate them—you came down to the court excitedly, only standing by the side while you watched them catch their breath.

Shintaro sees you by the side, who only offers you an arrogant huff seeing the joy on your face. He sees you running towards him, holding a bottle of water and a clean towel (you stole it from their coach).

“Shintaroooooo!”

You engulfed him in your arms, not caring that he was sweaty. Unfortunately, he does not feel the same way—grimacing when he feels his sweaty skin touching your clothes. “You were so amazing out there!”

“Stop hugging me! This is literally so disgusting?!” He tries to distance himself from your grip; somehow, you’re stronger.

“I don’t care, Shin-chan! I’m just so happy for you!” You show him your widest and brightest grin, flustering Shintaro at your compliments. He yelps when he feels you slapping his back repeatedly. “You’re just like me!”

“What part of you exactly screams skilled?!” He was met with a harsher slap on the back, making him bite his tongue accidentally.

“That hurts!”

“ :D ”

Midorima grumbles and stops you by gripping your whole head with his hand. He glares down at you—the lack of anger in his voice tempting you to tease him further. “Hey.”

“Let me treat you out for dinner! All of you!” You have to crane your neck up to pinch his cheeks hard; the cuteness aggression in you awakens. “Awh, you’re just so adorable!”

“Shut up!”

Otsubo and Takao watch the interaction with a sweatdrop. The captain complains, “Do they really to have flirt here?”

“Can you really call that flirting?” Takao murmured uneasily. And it seems like his friend had heard him with how quick his head snaps towards him.

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“Say ah!”

You hold out the tip of your chopsticks with tempura in between in front of Shintaro’s mouth. He was trembling in humiliation at what you were doing.

“I don’t need you to feed me!” he turns his head away, making you sigh.

You are left with no choice but to force it down his throat, making him gag and grip your wrist to live. “Mmm! You are welcome, Shin-chan!”

You ignore his attempt to bicker with you as you happily eat down your food. Takao cannot stop laughing with tears, because watching you two has always been his entertainment.

“Hey, Takao. Is it true that you wanted me to be on your match?” You dodged Shintaro’s hand from silencing your voice. “You could have texted me, you know?”

Takao blinked before looking at Shintaro with a knowing smirk. “Oh, did I now?” Your four-eyed friend looks awfully freaked out. “I think someone else did.”

“Who?”

Takao deadpans at you, “You seriously don’t know?”

“I’m enjoying Shin-chan’s reactions, don’t stop me,” You already knew the truth right after he hung up the phone. You weren’t dumb. “You know how hot-and-cold he is.”

Midorima just wants to get the hell away from your table and bury himself in a hole.

You hissed when you felt the needle go through your skin, piercing into the soft and bloody flesh. Your bloody fingernails dug into your palms, and your eyes squeezed shut. Biting into the washcloth more, you could feel your jaw ache from the raw force you were exuding from trying not to yell out from the pain. 

The dim and dirty hotel light definitely wasn’t enough light for your temporary doctor to see what he was doing, but you knew that Dabi was very skilled in cleaning and stitching wounds. 

He was steady, a skill that he had developed after years of having to stitch up wounds that he had obtained over the years, and he was patient. You could hear Dabi sigh at you, and he chided as he pulled the thread through your skin, closing up a section of your gash. 

“You know, this wouldn’t have happened had you listened to me. Now look at you.” 

You glared at the man through the mirror, watching as he glanced at you with a raised eyebrow, unimpressed with you. You grabbed the cloth, taking it out to say to the man. 

“Fuck you, Dabi, I had it under control before you distracted me.”

Dabi rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, that’s why I had to save your goddamn ass.”

You huffed and placed the cloth back into your mouth when you felt the needle pierce you again. It was painful, definitely a pain you had never felt before. Though, Dabi did have a point. 

If you had just listened to him, maybe you wouldn’t have been sliced open like a rotisserie chicken by the Yakuza, but here you were. You just had to get confident, hadn’t you? You clenched your fist, and Dabi decided to continue. 

“I was going to leave you there and let them kill you, but I decided that you were too fun to let go. Plus, I didn’t want to hear Shigaraki go on a damn tangent for losing a ‘valuable’ asset. Funny, he calls you valuable and yet you’re more useless than a goddamn newborn baby.”

You growled and muttered. 

“Fuck you. I knew what I was fucking doing before you fucking distracted me.”

Dabi yanked on the string, and you yelped from the pain that went through your whole spine. He leaned into your ear, his eyes flashing at you from his reflection in the mirror. 

“No matter how many times you try to justify your stupidity, you will never be anything but a stupid little child Shigaraki’s taken a liking too. Don’t forget that I don’t care about you, little hero. I’m only doing this so I don’t have to listen to Dusty’s fucking complaining.”

Dabi blew hot air into your ear, and you shivered, quickly rubbing at your ear. Dabi pulled back with a smirk before going back to stitching your wound. His words ran a mile a minute through your head, and you wished you could retort. 

However, you knew he wouldn’t hesitate to yank on the string again should you say something. So, you simply resorted to glaring at the man through the mirror. However, your act only made Dabi snicker and become smug, enjoying the fact that he had struck a nerve with you.

“Aw, did I strike a nerve?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

He laughed and tied the string, completing his work before patting your head mockingly. 

“You only wish you were important enough to me for me to listen to you. Don’t worry, baby, you’ll learn.”

Dabi laughed when you hissed at him, grabbing his coat before throwing a look over his shoulder. 

“Try not to be useless again, yeah?”

His eyes flashed, and his laughter echoed through the hotel room as he left, making you slump into your seat and sigh. 

Maybe you shouldn’t have betrayed UA and left after all.