Kitty-Kitty Cat-Cat (IzukuxMandalay)

18: Equal In Heart

"And then they were caught kissing!"

"Oh, really?" Tiger asked, Midoriya choking on his drink of water with Mandalay tensing up across the table. "I haven't gotten that far into the show yet, sounds interesting."

"Yeah, it gets juicy." Pixie-Bob continued. "Pretty funny how it was her nephew that caught them in the action but then again that's their fault. Doing it just outside in the yard and all that. Kitten you're s'posed to drink the water not drown yourself in it."

"R-Right, sorry." Midoriya apologized, not even daring to lift his eyes any higher than where they were on his plate of food. "I'll be more careful..."

"Hey, are you okay?" Ragdoll asked beside him. "You've barely touched your food since dinner started."

"Um....I'm not hungry right now. Got a lot on my mind right now."

"What is it?"

"I-I um, would prefer to keep it to myself if that's okay."

"I understand, but then that moves to you Sosaki. You've been acting strange all of dinner too."

"Strange?" Mandalay asked. "Strange how?"

"Well you keep giving subtle glances now and then towards Midoriya, makes me wonder if something-"

"Nothing happened Shiretoko. Just...thinking is all."

"Are you gonna turtle up like Midoriya too?"

"Turtle up over what exactly? I'm not afraid to share my thoughts with those around me....Especially to the ones I've kissed."

"Well that's good." Pixie-Bob added as Midoriya gave a subtle glare to the last portion of Mandalay's sentence murmured under her breath. "Not gonna lie I couldn't help but feel this tension in the air, I was wondering if that was just me or not. So what's up?"

"Oh you know, training and such." Mandalay said while leaning back in her chair. "Just thinking about the improvement in Izuku's skills over the week and what not. He's made progress, really REALLY big progress in this first week."

"Yeah no kidding! You've got great potential Kitten and you learn quickly too. And to think you're only a first year."

"Hm, thanks Pixie-Bob." Midoriya smiled. "Yeah I mean, this week has been tough but, it's been fun so far I like it here. I like it a lot."

"Like it so much that you'd kiss it and run away?"

The student turned to squint across the table, Mandalay looking off to the side as she raised a mug to her lips and sipped from her drink. "Sorry Shino but it sounded to me like you said something."

"Mm, I didn't actually. Maybe you're just tired."

"Mm...You know, while this week has been fun and being able to learn from you guys has been a great experience, I've also made some mistakes."

"Eh it comes with the training." Tiger commented as Mandalay sharply directed her eyes across the table. "Not like we're expecting you to do everything perfectly the first time around."

"Nono, that's not what I meant. The training was fine I think I got a good enough handle on it for this week. When I meant mistakes I think they reside more so in the area with oh I don't know.... Shino."

"Is that right?" Mandalay asked with a tight lower jaw, the rest of the table clearly catching on to the fact that something was not sitting well here. "You wanna share to the class what exactly you made a mistake on? Or are you gonna keep it to yourself and eventually pretend like it never happened? Cause you know, I can think of ONE thing you've done today that you've ignored entirely."