Kirishima x Reader AU

Part 7: Embarrassment

As Kirishima took a sip from his waterbottle he felt a tap on his shoulder, prompting him to turn around and face Kaminari. His brows knit together on impulse, though his friend's expression was one that caught him off guard.

"Hey, man. I didn't like, mean to piss you off with what I said. It's none of my business anyway. But really though," he said, elbowing Kirishima in the rubs. "Get her number, I see the way you smile like a moron when you talk to her."

Kirishima's eyes widened, cheeks turning pink as he avoided eye contact as he stuttered out some response. "Wh- I do not!"

Kaminari laughed. "You are right now! And it's beyond obvious that she gets flustered when you're around, you musclehead." Kaminari winked as Kirishima scoffed and turned away back towards the free weights.

"...I'll think about it," Kirishima muttered with slow hesitating words barely above a whisper, maybe more to himself than his gym buddy behind him. It wasn't that he didn't think she would say "no" or that he was even denying he thought she was cute and wouldn't mind a date. But something old and overworked bubbled up in the back of his brain, something he'd always struggled with even now as an adult.

"Good luck, man. Better grab her before someone else does." Kaminari's words made Kirishima look up and over across the gym at Kaminari's eyeline to spot the subject of their current conversation...and just off to her right was a group of guys, one of them looking very familiar: the guy who Kirishima pulled off her weeks earlier who said he was "the best she could do" or something along those lines. He growled under his breath, suddenly feeling very protective over someone he wasn't even dating. Without thinking he set down his weights to make his way across the room, wanting to watch over her from close by to make sure those guys didn't do anything stupid.

Kaminari looked on as his friend walked away, shaking his head with a mug look on his face. "All he needed was a push..."

The hushed laughter of the group of men immediately died down as Kirishima made his way towards them, a look of determination quickly replaced by one of casual exuberance as he neared the woman they were just looking at, his ruby eyes darting quickly in their direction letting them know he was watching them.

"Hey there! How's it going?" (y/n) looked up to see the red-head, a timid smile lighting up her face.

"Oh uh, it's going good. You don't look as angry as you did earlier. Did you get out your uh, frustrations I guess?" He scratched his cheek in embarrassment thinking back to pounding the punching bag in some bizarre attempt at defending her from Kaminari's words in the locker room.

"Yeah! Ha, I do feel- wh-!" It only took a split second as he looked off to the side. The rude man in the group had come up behind (y/n) and shoved her from the back as she toppled forward and right into Kirishima's chest as he stumbled backwards in slow motion.

(y/n) yelped as she tumbled forward, hands splayed on Kirishima's broad chest as they fell, Kirishima landing  hard on his back with a THUD that practically echoed in the large open gym. Her eyes shut tightly as she landed right on top of Kirishima, their legs tangled together, his hands gripping onto her upper arms in some attempt to stabilize their fall.

As (y/n) opened her eyes, she was face to face with Kirishima's sweaty chest, hands on his pecs basically straddling him in front of everyone. Her face went scarlet as she scrambled off him, face stricken with horror and embarrassment as she ran away to the safety of the women's locker room.

Kirishima was basically stunned into silence at what just happened...what had happened? They were talking and then suddenly she was falling forward...and...? Sitting up from the dusty gym floor the group of skeevy gymrats walked away across his vision, the greasy-looking man looking back over his shoulder with a knowing smirk.

Kirishima cursed under his breath at the realization before turning snapping his attention back in the direction (y/n) ran. "Shit..."

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