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CHAPTER START---
Sitting across from Jiro, Horizon could see her twitching anxiously. Tapping her foot, playing with her earphone jacks, biting her lips.
Beneath his visor, he rolls his eyes, then picks up his phone once more. Scrolling through it he casually asks her, "you ever plan to talk?"
As Jiro is holding her breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She looks up at Horizon to see him sitting comfortably on the couch, scrolling through his phone and paying her little mind.
And the longer she stares the more overwhelming he seemed, and his presence just continues to fill the room, suffocating her.
So her eyes dropped back down to stare at her lap.
Meanwhile, Horizon was checking his messages and the Hero Network, not so patiently waiting for his leads to come in. Hoping to finally clear out some of the cases he's working on simultaneously.
'Great, now all I can do is sit on my hands and wait,' Horizon sighs and puts down his phone."I just wanted you to know," Jiro finally speaks up, causing him to look across toward her.
"To know what?"
"That I don't have a crush on you anymore," Jiro says, a quiver of uneasiness in her voice. "I just want you to know that. So we don't have any attraction between us now..."
"Uh-huh...right," Horizon raises a brow beneath his visor, not sure what the fuck was going on anymore. "Is that what you came here to tell me?"
"Y-yes!" Jiro nods a few times. "That's what."
"Well, um, alright," Horizon awkwardly nods. "Well if you're done convincing yourself, movie time?"
"Excuse me?" Jiro couldn't tell if she was more embarrassed, insulted, or annoyed. "What do you mean?"
"Well it's pretty obvious, right?" Horizon asks. "If you really didn't care you'd just move on, like a normal person. But you're here, going out of your way to say it to me, to hopefully burn whatever bridge you think you have, to remove the option. Because you know, for some idiotic reason that I can't understand, you still have an interest in me."
"N-No!" Jiro's voice cracks, but she continues as if nothing happened. "I just figured I should make things clear so there isn't anything weird between us. Especially after Momo told me what you said to her, the night before the summer camp got attacked."
"Mhm, and that's all still true. I've got too much bullshit on my plate to deal with relationship stuff on top of that."
"Good," Jiro agrees. "Me too, between training for the Provisional License Exams next year, studying, and anything else UA will throw at us, I can't---" and she rambles out a long list of nonsense Horizon couldn't care any less about.
But while that was going on that he was looking her up and down, ' she's cute, very cute. And talking to her isn't boring...could be fun. Oh, what the hell, fuck it, what's the worse that can happen...'
Seeing her caught up in her own ramblings Horizon interrupts, "this is a good look for you, you do know that, right?"
Jiro freezes, staring wide-eyed before blinking a few times. "What?"
"You zoned out, started rambling. Talking as if nobody was watching you, I think that fits you, that's when you're at your best... too bad most people will never see it, but I'm glad I did."
Jiro feels her face heating up, heart racing once again, but before her lips can part to give a response her mind couldn't properly consider---
"And for the record, never said I wasn't attracted to you, in some way atleast," Horizon shrugs.
Her eyes open wide as a strong pink blush breaks out on her cheeks, her breath hitches and her face contorts with a mix of emotions.
"Anyway," he once again stops her response. "Enough of this, let's get downstairs, they're almost done setting up."
Jiro's mouth was moving but no words could be formed, and before she knew it Horizon got up and gestured toward the door.
And now she's walking down the hallway beside the boy she couldn't make any sense of.
By every metric she thought governed her life he was... repulsive, to say the very least.
But then seeing him in action completely flips that on its head, the way he operates in the field was admirable to her eyes.
Atleast to what she's seen thus far.
When she and Momo had this discussion after the summer camp they both agreed that these were the reasons they were interested in him. But she'll admit her best friend is much more enraptured by him than Jiro herself is.
For better or worse, her friend is a Horizon fangirl.
"So what kind of movies do you watch?" Jiro asks, and mentally berates herself for only being able to say that.
"I don't really watch movies," Horizon says. "My life is so exciting that they're rather boring now. What about you?"
"I prefer music."
"The rocker girl with earphone jacks for ears and musician parents is all about music...very on-brand of you."
"Yeah, what about it?" Jiro grits out, getting defensive as they approach the elevator.
Horizon hits the button, "no need for the attitude, I never said it was bad."
"Sorry, I've just heard a lot of jokes about it in middle school. Part of being a Pro Hero is to not just be part of the 'family business' or whatever."
"So a rebellious phase," Horizon chuckles as they step into the elevator. "But sometimes being like your parents isn't bad, like me, I'm a perfect combination of mine after all."
"Doctor and soldier, right?" Jiro asks as they begin descending to the ground floor.
"Yes my father was a doctor, but my mother was a polymath, and fighting was just one thing she studied."
"Polymath?"
"Means you know a lot, about a lot of different things," he says as they exit the elevator, stepping onto the ground floor.
As they step into the main common area the entire room goes silent as they stare at Horizon.
He looks around, seeing the furniture pushed aside. Blankets and cushions on the floor with students spread out on them.
Most of students of classes 1A and 1B were gathered here, with a projector displaying the movie onto a large wall. And some speakers set up for the audio, courtesy of Momo.
'I guess more than just Yui and Juzo came over...' Horizon thinks as he sees the crowd staring at him. "What?"
They all immediately go back to their chatter and gathering their snacks.
"I need to go check on Mina," Jiro says. "She was supposed to make some snacks for me too."
"Have fun," Horizon says as she rushes off.
Watching her walk away Horizon takes in the view, "so this is what I do when I'm bored...maybe I need another hobby."
"A hobby?" Momo asks from beside him, causing him to turn toward her.
"I was just thinking aloud, nothing to worry about."
"Oh, alright, I saved you a spot with us if you want," Momo gestures to a blanket where her, Jiro, Tokoyami, and Juzo would be sitting.
"Sure," Horizon follows her over to his seat, but does a quick Scan. Finding Sero and Yui up in Sero's room. Just talking, for now, hopefully.
As they're waiting for the last group of people to finish making their snacks, Horizon looks to his side at Momo.
She was to his right with Juzo to his left. Since they were much shorter Jiro was sitting in front of him, with Tokoyami beside her.
"So was this your idea?" Horizon asks Momo.
"No actually," She says, then gestures to Mina and Toru, who they'd gotten used to seeing visible by now. "They actually thought of this, I had planned to spend the night studying."
"How'd they come up with this?"
"It's the last day of summer," Juzo says. "Well more like the last day of our vacation, the next semester starts tomorrow after all. Too late for us to go out and do normal teenager things, so they wanted to bring some normal into UA."
"Mhm," Momo collects a massive bowl of popcorn from Uraraka. "This is a good way to help everyone relax, atleast for one night. After all the experiences of this past summer, all the training and studying. I admit my brain needed this relief."
"Everyone did," Jiro says from her stop in front of Horizon.
"I'm more surprised this workaholic took a night off," Juzo says, gesturing to Horizon.
Everyone knew Horizon spent most if not all of his time working, so he earned some nods of agreement.
"It's not that rare for me to have fun and relax."
"Yes, it is," Jiro says. "Dude you talk about how uptight other people are, but you almost never stop working."
"Mmm, well, honestly I'm only here because I'm waiting for some info from my sources."
"Exactly our point," Momo says. "That can't be healthy. As much as I admire your desire to help as many people as possible, you also have to take care of yourself."
"I'm fine Momo. Besides, if life gets too stressful I'll figure out a way to relax, it's not like I don't know how to have fun. But these next 4 years are all about me being the best I can be, I've already considered them dead years in terms of my life."
Jiro spins around in her seat to face him, "so you just plan to only work for the next 3 years, nothing else?"
"I might have space for one or two things, but I have a schedule to keep, any suggestions?" he sees her blush slightly, and senses Momo looking at him from the corner of her eyes, a gentle smile on her lips.
"I barely have the next month planned," Tokoyami says bitterly. "Quite commendable that you have your life planned that far ahead."
"A goal without a plan is a dream, and dreams are for losers. You have to plan ahead and do the work to get the life you want."
Momo nods in agreement, but Jiro rolls her eyes, "and there it is, we almost went through one conversation without you calling someone a loser...almost."
"Most people are losers Jiro, there is a reason most people can't be a top Pro Hero, right?"
"Just because it's true doesn't mean you can't be nice about it," Jiro says. "You're already perfect at most things, if you learned to be a bit sweeter with people it would make it complete."
"The movie is starting," Momo interrupts them, prompting Jiro to turn back around as Toru dims the lights slightly.
And Momo scoots just a bit closer than necessary to Horizon...
END CHAPTER---