Chapter Text
She isn’t sure what she’d expected when she walked into the gallery showing a week later (besides free wine apparently), but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t this.
Mina always stands out, but surrounded by a sea of black and white photography, her pink figure shines even more brightly than usual. She spots Tsuyu at the same time, waving excitedly, almost spilling her rosé in her enthusiasm.
“You made it!”
“I did,” Tsuyu agreed, accepting Mina’s hug, using the motion to subtly straighten the glass in her friend’s hand.
“So?” Mina arched a sly brow. “What do you think?”
"Mina this is all very..." Tsuyu trailed off, trying to find the right word.
"Shocking, I know right?" Mina snickered. "But what else would you expect giving a bunch of Art majors this kind of prompt?"
"Kero? And what exactly was the prompt?"
"Oh right! I kept that from you and Tokoyami," Mina said, looking far too amused with herself. Her lips curled into a self-satisfied grin. "Intimacy."
Tsuyu blinked. "Intimacy?"
Well, that explains the overwhelming amount of bared skin in the photos. (There are a few which, she thinks, could definitely be categorized as X-rated.) Gaze skirting away from those particularly risqué images, she briefly skimmed the ones in vicinity, noting a commonality in them all.
"Mina-chan, all the models in these photos are couples. Or at least, they're very good at acting like couples. You failed to mention that when you recruited Tokoyami and I," she pointed out, gesturing at a series nearby with the couple in various stages of intimacy, from a deep lip-lock to what could only be described as some very passionate lovemaking.
"Hm, is that so?" her friend hummed, an unconvincing moue of innocence plastered upon her face.
"Mina-chan."
"Don't worry! You and Tokoyami helped me carry out my vision exactly the way I pictured. Even if you aren't a couple. In fact," she raised a finger, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to get first place!"
"It's a competition?"
"Yep! Bragging rights and a big fat stipend. If I win. When," Mina’s lips twisted, amending her proclamation assuredly, "I do, I'll treat you and Tokoyami to dinner."
Tsuyu sighed. There's no point in arguing with her friend. Especially considering what's done is done. Instead, she tipped her head, asking a different question. "Where is Tokoyami-chan by the way?"
Mina hummed thoughtfully. "I told him the time and place, so he should be on the way. In the meanwhile, you go enjoy! See if you can spot my beautiful photos with my absolutely gorgeous models!" she proclaimed with a cheeky wink.
Shaking her head, Tsuyu stepped away, perusing the images hung on the gallery walls. There is something to be said about having all the photos in black and white, making everything stand out sharply and adding a certain intensity to an already powerful subject matter.
It takes her a little time, having to navigate through almost the entire gallery before she spots them, but when she does, Tsuyu stills.
Because while all the students had been granted spaces of their own to display their photos, Mina’s been given a prime location, right along the back wall of the gallery, undisturbed and undistracted by any others. Seven shots, all done in black and white, hung in a storied sequence even she hadn’t understood until now.
She starts at the left.
It’s the only photo Mina’s visibly edited, but it’s beautiful all the same. There’s a clear line, a divide partitioning them. Her, sitting by the window of Mina’s studio, finger pressed to her cheek as she looks outside. That same image, mirrored, with Tokoyami instead, arms crossed, staring moodily out the same window. The way they’d positioned themselves made it seem like they were both looking for something, both searching for something, despite not having been told by Mina to pose in any way. The similarity in their demeanors makes her lips twitch a little, before she moves onto the next image.
Her and Tokoyami at the coffee shop. Both of them have their hands curled around their respective cups and even through the image, she can feel the hesitancy of their first real interaction. Sees the process of getting to know one another, her head tilted inquisitively at something Tokoyami’s said and the faintest curve in his beak, body leant slightly forward, listening with the quiet intent she discovered is so characteristically him.
The third image is taken too far for the viewer to properly see their faces.
It’s a little hazier than the photos beside it, but it catches her notice all the same. They’ve just passed one of the streetlights and draped in Tokoyami’s dark suit jacket, she looks extra petite. Especially so standing beside him; the white of his dress shirt adding length to his lean frame. Amazing how as shadowed as their expressions are, there’s still a sense of focus, of attention wholly arrested on one another—her face tilted up toward his, his face angled down toward hers, their bodies pointed toward one another—engagement clear through their posture alone.
The fourth takes her by surprise. Because she’d been there in that moment. Lived it, experienced it, yes. But she also hadn’t been privy to this moment.
Seated on the kitchen table Mina had ordered her to perch upon, with Tokoyami on a chair in front of her, she hadn’t seen his expression as Mina’s captured it in this photo. Hands wrapped around the coffee mug, wearing his dress shirt, she’s laughing. Laughing so hard that her eyes are closed, and her body is curled in on itself, oblivious to the fact that Tokoyami is gazing at her, the corners of his beak slanted upward and something…something hovers in his eyes as he watches her.
More than anything, she wants to go back to that moment and open her eyes, to see what that something is. That mystery emotion in front of her, which she’d completely overlooked until now.
It’s apparent yet again in the fifth image, and again, she wonders how she could have missed it, seeing how it was reflected right before her. That same quality flickers in the eyes that watch her in the mirror, his beak tucked neatly in the crook of her neck as her hand rests gently atop his cheek.
At her side, her fingers twitch, remembering how soft his feathers were. Maybe that’s what had distracted her in the moment, because how could she not have seen the way he was watching her?
Forcing her feet to move, she stops in front of the sixth image and that one takes her breath away. Because the emotion that had been hovering in Tokoyami’s eyes in the fourth and fifth photos is suddenly, startlingly transparent in the sixth.
As he brushes the lock of hair back from her face, the tenderness in his eyes for her is so strong, so real, it hurts.
Stepping back, she swallows. It’s almost overwhelming to look at. Because it makes her wonder if Mina is just that good at creating the sense of intimacy or…
Moving to the seventh and final photo, her lips twitch.
…or maybe it really was there all along.
Because it’s not what she’d expected. Not a shot of him curled around her in bed, their partially clothed bodies on display as Mina had ordered them to pose.
Instead, it’s a close-up of their hands, their fingers intertwined, the contrast in their skin tones accentuated in black and white, lending a delicacy to her hand (hands she's always considered on the larger side for a woman), especially when framed against Tokoyami's more calloused one. (Calloused, she thinks with a tilt of her lips, from all the tinkering of machinery he does in the lab.)
The moment when she’d reached out for him, knowing he needed the reassurance of her touch, receiving the comfort of his touch in return. Her hand overlapping his.
She has to step back then to breathe.
It's a bit surreal looking at the photos. Like she’s fallen through a looking glass, seeing some hidden version of herself from a third-person's point of view, giving her an odd sense of discombobulation when she stares at them too long.
But she can also recall with vivid clarity being in those actual moments, can remember going through it all with him. Strange then, all the things she’d failed to notice during the actual shoots.
She thinks herself observant, so she's not sure how she missed it; not sure how she missed the look in Tokoyami's eyes watching her. That indefinable emotion, flitting at the edge of his gaze, hovering just beyond her conscious comprehension.
And yet, Mina's managed to capture it perfectly: to capture the sense of being seen, the sense of being found. To arrest those very emotions and lay them before her in these pictures.
(Even as she thinks that, Tsuyu can't help remembering the red of his eyes. That the photos are in black and white don't give justice to their beauty.)
Because there wasn’t anything especially monumental in those interactions. The things they talked about—their majors, their coffee preferences, their mutual dislike of Mina’s tyrannical reign—were extraordinarily ordinary.
Just as the moments Mina’s chosen to showcase tell the story of a couple going through the daily motions: sitting in a coffee shop, getting ready for the day ahead, lying in bed at the end of it. Finding beauty in the mundane simply because of the other person’s existence in their life.
And yet as clearly captured as they’ve been by the camera’s lens, displayed for this room full of people to see, there are still things hidden in plain view.
The weight of his hand resting on her hip, his poorly disguised affection for the dog he'd adopted, the grimace of disgust as he drank the abysmal coffee Mina had given them. The sincerity in his voice, quiet and low, complimenting her as they laid there facing one another.
The intimate details only she knows about him, and he, in turn, knows about her. Things she had conveyed to him through words or touch or just a glance shared between the two of them.
Because while the physicality of the shoots made her heart pound, it had been the softness of Tokoyami’s eyes and his expressions, the balance of intensity and tenderness in equal measure, colored in that enticing scarlet hue, that made her fall for him.
With a final glance at the photos, she makes her way back to Mina, stopped several times along the way by people when they realize she's one of the models from the photos. Most of them also mention what an attractive couple she and Tokoyami make, which she simply accepted after a time, finding it easier to do so than to explain the truth. (The first time she tried to stammer an explanation that they weren’t together, the lady who'd praised her had looked baffled, before striding off, leaving Tsuyu mid-sentence.)
When she finally located her, it was to find Mina deep in conversation with a classmate, though they soon took off, leaving her to turn at Tsuyu with an expectant lift of her brow.
“Well? What’d you think?”
“They’re great, Mina-chan. Better than I could have imagined,” she croaked honestly.
“Hey! What are you saying about my photography skills?” Mina huffed, placing her hands on hips. Laughing, she waved a hand airily. “Kidding! Seriously though, I couldn’t have done it without you two! You made it super easy for me. After all, I just captured you and Tokoyami being yourselves."
True. She does remember how often Mina ordered them to act natural and be themselves; one of many orders which was admittedly off-putting at times. But even when they were being militantly told what to do, she remembers laughing with Tokoyami about it.
And that was the thing.
As ironic as it was being told continuously to "act natural," being who she is, she doesn’t think she could have been anything otherwise. And after everything she's learned about him over the last week, she thinks Tokoyami is the same.
Yes, he might have been a little shy or embarrassed at times, but who he was at the core, how he acted or reacted every day they'd been shooting, was him. As romanticized as Mina's photography may paint them, it also portrays no falsity. The rapport between them, easy and comfortable—intimate in a sense; even if it wasn't same kind many of the other photos showcased—was real.
Does that make it easier or harder then? To seek Tokoyami out and look him in the eye, to see if all these thoughts bubbling in her head are hopeful conjecture or actual truth?
“Tsuyu-chan?”
She croaked, startled out of her musings as Mina poked her nose close to her own. Tapping a finger against her forehead, she went on. “You alright there, Tsuyu-chan? It’s not like you to space out like that.”
“Kero. I think I just need a little fresh air.” She scanned the gallery one last time, but didn’t spot the black feathers she was searching for. Masking her disappointment, she nodded to Mina. “Thank you for inviting me to this, Mina-chan. Your photos are amazing.”
“Heh. Right back at ya,” Mina winked at her. “Thanks again for helping model for them! And if you happen to see Tokoyami on your way out, point him my way!”
Mind still preoccupied, her feet moved of their own accord, steering her around wineglass-bearing students and faculty alike, until she was finally outside the gallery. While it had initially been an excuse to Mina, allowing her to step away, admittedly, Tsuyu was relieved to be out in the night air, brisk though it was.
Of course, the last time she’d been out this late, she’d had his jacket to keep her warm. She sighed.
"Asui?"
"Kero!"
As if conjured by her thoughts, Tokoyami is suddenly there, walking down the path toward her with...a dog in tow?
Tugging on the leash, he managed to get it to heel, pausing a few feet away—just out of the dog’s reach, she realized. Despite the erratic motions of his head and the tapping of his claws on the asphalt as he kept standing out of the seat Tokoyami ordered him into, he didn’t seem like a bad dog at all, if only a little too excitable, especially compared to the man holding his leash.
Smiling, she looked first at the dog, then at Tokoyami, greeting him with a playful tilt of her head. “I see you made it out of the lab, Tokoyami-chan."
"I recalled that tonight was Ashido's project showing and forced myself to leave early. Of course, this one insisted on coming," he sighed, nodding down at the dog who's now straining desperately on the leash, wet nose snuffling curiously her way. Standing, his head easily clears her waist and his coloration is a deep jet-black, but even as he looks forward to fly forward trying to reach her, she senses no malice from him.
"Is this the notorious pup who roped you into Mina's photo shoot?"
"Ah." Tokoyami inclined his head. "Asui, meet the shadowy bane of my existence. The rampant beast who never sleeps: Dark Shadow. Dark Shadow, Asui."
The "beast" in question simply wagged his tail, completely unaware of his less than complimentary introduction. Giggling, she allowed him to sniff her hand, quickly befriending Dark Shadow with a few head pats and scratches behind the ears.
"I find it difficult to believe this sweet boy trashed Mina's studio," she commented, looking up at Tokoyami with a smile, rubbing the cheerful dog's cheeks. Tongue lolling out, Dark Shadow tipped over onto the floor, asking for belly rubs, and she happily compiled.
"Don't be fooled. He's utterly capable of creating havoc when he gets in an improper mood. Most especially at nighttime," he added darkly. The exasperation in his tone failed to hide the fondness in his eye as he looked over at his dog. Contrasting his owner's grim disposition, Dark Shadow tilted his head, ears flopping comically about as he stood to attention, nipping at Tokoyami's fingers, tail wagging like a maniacal rudder.
“He’s sweet,” she repeated, smiling as Dark Shadow bumped his head repeatedly against her palm until she started petting him again.
“He likes you.”
“Kero?”
There’s a quality to his voice, something skirting along the edge of it, and maybe if she hadn’t just seen an entire play-by-play of their intimate moments, she wouldn’t be as cognizant of it. But she did and she hears it now. Sees it now in the way he’s watching her play with Dark Shadow.
Swallowing, uncertain if she should dive right this second into the thought that’s been simmering in her mind since she’d seen Mina’s photos (or more truthfully, since last week), she tipped her head at the dog in question.
“Did you want to go in and take a look at the photos? I can watch Dark Shadow for you if you think he’ll be comfortable enough with me.”
“Ah, I’m sure he would be,” he said. As always, the dryness in his tone made her giggle, especially with the look accompanying it, as he stared disapprovingly at Dark Shadow (who’d made himself home by her side, head resting contently on her feet). “But I would much prefer to remain out here.”
Something like hope fluttered in her chest, though she simply gave a curious croak.
"As good a job as Ashido did," he acknowledged, "I've not much interest in most of the subject matter myself. Kirishima ended up telling me what the gallery’s theme was. I believe he felt guilty Ashido had been withholding that information for so long. He said it was…" His brows furrowed. "…erotica?"
At the disconcerted slant in his voice, she couldn't help the laughter that burst from her lips.
"Intimacy," she corrected, once she'd caught her breath. Her mouth twitched with lingering mirth. "Though some of the pictures in there could definitely be considered erotic."
“Yes, I believe I’ll…pass on that.”
“Rest assured, Tokoyami-chan, the photos Mina-chan took are very good. Nothing remotely close to erotic,” she giggled. “They really did turn out as Mina-chan put it, 'classy.'”
"Then I'm sure Ashido will be happy to boast about them accordingly over social media in due time."
She chuckled at his droll tone. "True."
Plus, she doubts Tokoyami would enjoy the spotlight being a model in Mina's photos would cast his way; she could imagine how uncomfortable he'd be if he went in and someone complimented him as they had her just moments earlier. The thought made her lips quirk. Yes, he was probably much more comfortable not going inside the gallery.
That said, if he hadn't come to view the photos, then...
Recalling his wording, she tilted her head, echoing them aloud. "Most of the subject matter?”
He stilled momentarily, though it didn’t take long for his gaze to meet hers. “Ah. I had a rather more pressing agenda for coming out tonight than to peruse Ashido’s photography. No offense meant.”
She shook her head absently, fixated on the first part of his statement. “Something more pressing? Which was?”
“To see you.”
The croak that leaves her lips this time is wholly due to surprise, a pleasant trickle of it slipping through her as he went on.
“I wanted to see you tonight for two reasons. The first, was to apologize for my poor behavior last week. For leaving so abruptly after that last shoot without speaking to you. While I’d told Ashido I had work to attend to, the truth is, I was…flustered. So, I left.” He bowed deeply. “My apologies, Asui.”
She shook her head. “You don’t owe me an apology at all, Tokoyami-chan. It’s okay, really.”
“Whether I do or don’t owe you one, the fact remains that I wish to apologize.”
Shaking her head again, excusing him, she’s surprised and grateful all the same. She definitely hadn’t foreseen an apology, and it only makes her more curious about what else he has to say. Softly, she asked:
“And the other reason?”
“The other reason was…” He hesitated, before continuing, “I wanted to see if you might be interested in joining me for dinner tonight. Or a drink. Whichever you’d prefer. I have a café or two in mind you might like. One, in particular, makes an excellent strawberry latte. Their strawberry milk is also made in-house, if you feel it’s too late for caffeine.”
She tipped her head, fighting to keep her tone calm. “Like a date?”
“Ah,” he coughed.
It’s the most unsteady she’s seen him, though she’d seen similar hints of it before (like the first time he’d seen her wear his shirt), and the observation makes her smile.
"You came here just to ask me out?"
"Ah. I suppose I could have simply asked Ashido for your number, but I didn't want to do that if possible." To her inquiring croak, he explained, "Partially because I didn't care to have her lording that over me for the rest of eternity"
She giggled. "Fair."
"As to the bigger reason: I wanted to ask you out in person rather than text. Considering how…intimate," he scratched his cheek, gaze fixed off to the side, "we were over the last week, a text message seemed rather impersonal. Insincere, in a sense."
Silently, she studies him, arranging and rearranging her response. In the end, as she always has with him, she goes with her instincts.
“Tokoyami-chan, I’m glad you came tonight,” she started. It made him look up, exactly as she hoped he would. Stepping closer to him (Dark Shadow shifting aside with a small grumble), she smiled at the raven-headed man.
The proximity makes her heartbeat quicken, but it also feels welcome. Familiar, despite having only been this close to him twice before.
It’s what gives her the courage to lean into new, unfamiliar territory, resting her hands gently on the sides of his face and tilting hers up toward his.
“Because there was something I also wanted to tell you last week. Or, more accurately, something I wanted to do last week,” she laughed quietly, correcting herself.
This close it’s impossible to miss the look in his eyes for her, the same emotion she saw moments ago in black and white, now fully bared and magnified tenfold in red.
It makes her breath catch a little, even as she whispers, “Okay?”
“Ah.”
It's a soft kiss, a gentle kiss, exactly what she’s been imagining for the past week, and yet, elevated in every way because it’s real. No cameras or sets, no directives or limitations. Just a moment for the two of them.
It's only as she pulls back that she catches the tiniest beat of hesitation in his motions. Her head tilted, wondering if she'd done something wrong when he spoke.
"I keep expecting Ashido to leap out and scream 'cut,'" he admitted wryly.
She shook her head with a laugh. Given the past week, it's an understandable reaction. She's rewarded by his smile, one that deepens as she pulls him back down with a quiet murmur.
"Nope, this is all us."
"Damn, it really worked!"
"Told ya it would~"
"That you did," Kirishima returned, impressed. "How'd you manage to do it? I seriously never thought you'd be able to set those two up."
"I just had to ease them into the idea. A perfect execution of the foot-in-the-door technique," Mina nodded, smug, then scowled. "How I failed my psych class when I orchestrated that into happening makes no sense!"
"Well, Nezu-sensei's tests are notoriously difficult. He's always coming up with crazy tricks and traps to mess with his student’s minds," Kirishima said. He leaned over, dropping a sympathetic kiss to her head. "I’d say this is a bigger accomplishment than a passing grade, anyways.”
Her pout disappeared, buoyant once more. "Damn straight!” Dancing around in exuberant triumph, she proclaimed, “I knew if I could just get them in a room together for more than five seconds it would all work out!"
"You were right," he grinned, slinging an arm around her waist, then paused. "So, are you ever planning to tell Tokoyami we were the ones to trash your studio and then pin the blame on his dog?"
She gasped, expression mock-indignant. "And risk undoing all my hard work? Heck no! Not that there's any breaking those two up, for sure," she giggled, pointing out the window.
Outside, he spots Tokoyami and Tsuyu walking away from the gallery hand in hand, his jacket draped around her shoulders, Dark Shadow prancing gleefully by Tsuyu's side.
"Probably better we leave them thinking they were bound together by fate, instead of my masterful matchmaking abilities. Seriously, the best deeds go unrewarded," Mina sighed, draping a hand dramatically across her forehead. In a quick about-face, she snickered. "Plus, lying to Tokoyami about Dark Shadow turned out to be a good thing. Not only did I just make the match of a century, but we got to destroy a bunch of those crappy, old paintings I didn't like. And we got him to help clean it all up!"
Maybe he should be more concerned how good she is at coming up with diabolical plans, but truthfully, Kirishima thinks the mischievous twinkle in her eyes and the evil laughter are pretty hot.
"You're super devious, you know that?" he chuckled.
"Yep!" She arched a brow. "Does that bother you?"
"Nope! I love that about you." He pulled her into his arms, murmuring, "Love everything about you."
She's got the brightest smile he's ever seen on anyone, but the one she gives him now (just the tiniest hint of bashfulness in his always lionhearted girlfriend) is his favorite. The one she only ever shoots him. He rarely gets a glimpse of it, because—as always—a second later, her mouth is on his.
"I love you, too," she chirped, giving him another quick peck. "Now come on, I’ve got a prize to collect."
With another chuckle, he let his stunningly devious girlfriend drag him back into the gallery (and as she predicted), win the top prize in the showing.
"This is the dress you wore for the second shoot, correct?"
"Kero. It seemed fitting to wear."
"I know what you mean." His gaze warmed, looking her over. "I hadn't built up the courage to say so at the time, but I thought you looked beautiful."
"Thank you. And you look very handsome." She tilted her head, studying him. As appealing as he looks in it, the clean lines of his dress shirt only give rise to the memory of what's hidden beneath (lean muscle, tan skin, and the plane of a firm, but surprisingly comfortable chest), causing her cheeks to flush. "Did Mina tell you to wear that too?"
He shook his head. "Astonishingly, I can manage some things on my own without Ashido's directive," he said, tone dry. "Seeing as I'd decided to come out tonight and ask you out, I figured I ought to try and make a good impression. This is the best outfit I possess in my rather limited wardrobe.”
She giggled. "That's extremely sweet of you, but I already had a good impression of you, Tokoyami-chan. Whether you're in a suit or in a hoodie," he ducked his head bashfully at her reference to one of their earliest conversations, "I had a good feeling about you."
"I suppose I thought the same of you. Think the same of you. That you look as beautiful now as you did that first day I saw you in the studio."
It took her a second to recall her appearance from their brief passing of an introduction.
"Wasn’t I in a school sweater and jeans?" She tilted her head against a finger. “I’m pretty sure those jeans had holes in them. And my hair was a mess.”
"Ah.” The corners of his beak quirked. “And yet, it wasn’t the outfit so much as the wearer with whom I was so besotted."
His tone is completely honest, as is the look in his eye. Amazing how easy he can convey his emotions through his eyes alone. He always means exactly what he says, now more so than ever, and that has her blushing, tongue-tied and scrambling for a proper response.
"I don't think that outfit would have quite been up to Mina's standard for tonight though,” she finally managed.
"Given Ashido's iron fist on dress? Or," His beak twisted wryly, "lack of dress? You're probably right."
"Kero. Speaking of which..." she trailed off, glancing at him. He's been completely open with her, and she likes that. As someone whose extremely candid herself, she wants to be the same with him.
Fortunately, she's got an intimacy of her own to share.
Something for him and him alone to know.
"Hm?"
"I'm also wearing that lingerie set she gave me for the last photoshoot right now."
His eyes widened, feathers cresting in response to her words, before he turned his face away. In that moment, she imagines he's thinking very much the same as she is—remembering the sight and the feel of her against him in bed, only a week prior.
He doesn't express much aloud of course, but the hoarseness of his exhale is telling.
"...I see."
Lips upturned at his obvious fluster, she squeezed his hand, pulling his attention back to her. "Glad for Dark Shadow's rampage?"
"Yes. And for Ashido forcing me to do those ridiculous shoots," he admitted. Beside him, Dark Shadow gave an approving bark. Tokoyami's eyes slanted to hers, beak curling at the edges.
"But let's not tell her for the time being. The moment we do, she's going to gloat endlessly about this. No need for her to think she's succeeded just yet."
She nodded, leaning into him with a laughing ribbit of agreement.
"Kero, that's Mina-chan for you. Always trying to play matchmaker."