It starts when you get assigned to a class project with him in college

You go to ask for his number for the project and he just stares at you for 30 seconds straight, face getting redder as the time passes

It isn’t until you blankly say, “the project?” that he realizes why you’re asking for it

He takes so long writing down his number that you do consider just emailing for the entire project

Some of your friends are a little jealous that you have the smartest guy in class as your partner but you aren’t entirely convinced it’s worth it

Until your friend mentions that she’s stuck with Denki for the assignment and tries to get you to convince Iida to do their project too

“Couldn’t even if I tried, he’s talking about splitting it 50/50 between us.”

It’s not that you were entirely upset about being expected to do your own work on the project, more so that everyone would be able to tell who did what portion come time for presentation.

You just knew there was far too much possibility to be embarrassed

The only real way you could think of to get him to help you out and do a little more than 50% of the work (shooting for 75% ideally) was to jump on the idea that he rarely interacts with people romantically

So come time to meet up to work on the project together you wore a tighter, lower cut top and short jean skirt

You get into his dorm, a single in the honors unit - of course - without a single item out of place, and sit down as close as you can to him without seeming offputting 

And he just can’t seem to get any coherent thought down on paper - a complete blank anytime you ask him a question

And after he somehow was able to complete roughly 65% of the project he stood up and promptly asked you on a date

And you’d be lying if you said you never thought he was cute, the way he always dressed so nice for a gen ed course in college when everyone else wore sweats and a sweatshirt

And his thick rimmed glasses

And how hard he always tried

And his nervousness was cute 

So of course you agreed

And he did not speak for 30 seconds straight, going red all the way to the tip of his ears