The first time it happened, Kyouka didn’t even break a sweat. They were sitting in class; Aizawa was droning on and on about proper safety procedures, but Kyouka wasn’t paying attention. Well, maybe she would have been, if it were not for the yellow distraction besides her.

“Pst, Kyouka,” he said, sliding her a poorly folded note. She could tell by how hard he was trying to hold back his smile that whatever Kaminari wrote on the note must have been really stupid. But he did have a fun sense of humor, even if it was childish and a bit pathetic at times. She deduced that it might actually be a good idea to read the note. Checking to make sure Aizawa wasn’t looking, she carefully opened the note under her desk and read it in her head.

“Aizawa looks so ligma right now LMAO”

“What’s-” Kyouka froze as Kaminari’s eyes locked onto her, waiting for her to deliver the final fatal word. No, she wouldn’t fall for it. Not today, Pikachu. Everyone knew about ligma, and if they didn’t, they probably didn’t have enough background knowledge to understand it after the punchline. She straightened her posture, and cleared her throat before looking him dead in the eyes and delivering her retaliation.

“Ligma balls,” she deadpanned. Kaminari absolutely lost it. Weather it was the shock of having his punchline turned around, or him genuinely finding ligma jokes funny, Kyouka couldn’t tell. Maybe it was better that she couldn’t tell. But his laughter sure spoke for itself, causing him to wheeze and clutch his sides to the point where he almost fell out of his chair. What a dumbass.

“Kaminari, is there something you want to share with the class?” asked Aizawa, looking over at the giggling blonde. Kaminari wiped a tear from his eye. He then looked over at Kyouka. Oh my, was there panic on his face. He still had that stupid smile on his face, but his eyes seemed devoid of joy.

“Oh, he said you look very ligma today, Aizawa-sensei,” said Kyouka. The entire class went silent, all eyes glued on her, waiting and watching. Aizawa narrowed his eyes as he took a step closer to Kyouka.

“What’s ligma?” he asked, completely confused. If everyone had been staring at Kyouka before, their eyes were now forcefully locked onto her. She had the power to do something amazing, and everyone was tuned in. This was the moment of truth, the moment where every last student was on the edge of their seat with anticipation. Would she go for it? Would she deflect? Kyouka looked over to Kaminari, his smile faltering. She clenched her fists under the desk.

“It’s a new term for awesome,” she said and the class erupted into cheers of support and disbelief. She flashed Kaminari a quick smile as he seemed to deflate into his seat. Even if he did cause this whole mess, there was no way she was going to let him take the fall for it.

The second time it happened, Kyouka almost fell for it. Almost, but not quite. Kyouka was walking to the lunch table, strawberry milk in one hand and an orange juice in the other. She scanned the cafeteria quickly before noticing Kaminari’s hand flagging her down. She sat down next to Bakugou, and tossed the strawberry milk over to Kaminari.

“Thanks, Kyouka, you’re the best,” said Kaminari, opening the strawberry milk and taking a big gulp. “I’d be sugma without you.”

“Oh, no problem. What’s-”

Mina and Kirishima, who were sitting on either sides of Kaminari, exchanged a quick glance before looking over at Kyouka in anticipation. Sero seemed mildly intrigued, but Bakugou couldn’t seem to care less. But once again, she saw that stupid, dumb, adorable smile make its way onto Kaminari’s smug face, and that was when she truly knew. There had to be an ulterior motive. She sounded it out in her head once more, sugma , and tried to think of anything that could come after it. She narrowed her eyes.

“Sugma dick.”

And with that, Bakugou was showered in a fresh coat of strawberry milk.

[Due to the rating of this being T, Bakugou’s commentary was redacted]

Kyouka smirked as she watched Kaminari struggle with the aftermath of his poorly timed joke. Kirishima and Mina consoled a soaked Bakugou as Sero helped her clean up the spill on the table.

“I said it was an accident,” whined Kaminari, wiping his mouth off with a paper towel. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t make my fucking shirt dry,” scoffed Bakugou, before turning to face Kyouka. “And you of all people know that he has the humor of a twelve year old. You should have known better.” Kaminari clutched his chest dramatically and pretended to be hurt by Bakugou’s words, but Kyouka couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for how Bakugou was treating Kaminari.

“Of course I did, why do you think I engaged in his joke?” she said strategically, crossing her arms. “Why do you think I bought him strawberry milk?”

“You’ve got steel balls,” said Kirishima, his eyes widening. He and Mina shoved their arms in front of Bakugou right before he pounced.

“Then I’ll explode the both of you!” he yelled.

“Run,” said Mina. Kyouka and Kaminari made eye contact before escaping out of the lunchroom. The two of them rounded the corner, both completely out of breath, and slumped against the wall. Kyouka could hear Kaminari’s elevated heartbeat. That’s when she realized she was so close to him. She scooted over a bit before sitting down. Big mistake.

“Oh no,” said Kaminari as he lost his balance and fell right on his butt. “Why’d you move? I was using you for my balance!” Kyouka covered her mouth to hide her smile but there was something about his slightly disheveled hair and confused expression that made him so fun to look at.

“You had an entire wall to use for balance, why use me?!” she teased, poking him in the arm with one of her earphone jacks. Kaminari shrugged and slid backwards until his back was touching the wall, right next to Kyouka.

“How long do you think we’ll have to wait before Bakugou won’t kill us on sight anymore?” asked Kaminari.

“Well, you did completely shower him in strawberry milk, so I’d say about….never,” said Kyouka. Kaminari pouted slightly. But his sullen expression didn’t last long before his entire face lit up.

“I’m sure he’ll be over it before lunch is done,” said Kaminari. “And if he doesn’t I’m going to force him to make up with us.”

“Yeah, like that’ll work,” teased Kyouka. She looked over at her friend. Gosh, he was such a dumbass. A likeable dumbass.

The third time it happened, Kyouka could see it from a mile away. They were sitting on the couch, Sero on the left, Kyouka in the middle, and Kaminari on the right. And it was like this for a good reason. Mario Kart was no laughing matter.

“Yes, I won!” exclaimed Sero, almost dropping his controller. Kaminari rolled his eyes.

“You’re only excited because this is the first time you won,” teased Kaminari. Sero huffed.

“I only lost last round because you kept shocking me during the match, cheater,” said Sero, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

“Are you sweating?” asked Kyouka. She looked over at Kaminari, who also looked rather sweaty. Wow, these boys took this very seriously. “Anyways, I’m sitting in the middle now so Kaminari can’t cheat.” Kaminari stuck his tongue out at Sero, who immediately started the next match.

“I wasn’t ready yet!” exclaimed Kaminari.

“Too bad,” said Kyouka, navigating her car to the first position. She tried to tune them out the best she could. She wasn’t going to lose to the two of them, no way. Those other matches had been a warm up, and besides, she had a title to defend. She looked down at the screen and saw Kaminari coming up in second. There’s no way she’d relinquish “Mario Kart Queen” to him.

“Hey Kyouka, your kart’s sugondese,” said Kaminari, obviously trying to hold in his laughter. Kyouka eyed the bottom of the screen. Kaminari was still too far away for her plan to work. She kept her eyes on the screen. Just a few more seconds, few more seconds. Kaminari’s kart crept closer and closer, until he was almost passing her and-

“Kyouka!” exclaimed Kaminari after she reached over and squeezed the top of his thigh. “AAAAHG that hurts! Cheater!” Kyouka watched as Kaminari’s kart, still in second place, started to move again. Three, two, one. Perfect timing.

“SugonDEEZ NUTS,” she said, causing Kaminari to explode into laughter. This was just in time for Sero to slip right on ahead, securing his second place spot. She turned to Sero and gave him a high five.

“No fair!” wheezed Kaminari, still trying not to laugh. “You knew I was going to laugh at that!” Kyouka smirked. She looked over at her dumbass friend. Gosh, he was such a loveable dumbass.

“Hey, you set yourself up for it, and I do consider myself an opportunist,” she said with a wink. Kaminari playfully shoved her into Sero, who graciously accepted.

“I’m promoting him to ‘Mario Kart Jester’ if you’re the queen,” said Sero. Kaminari scoffed and looked to Kyouka to see if she would defend him.

“I think I like that,” said Kyouka smugly. Kaminari pouted and traced a pretend teardrop from his eye down on his cheek.

“You guys are so cruel!”

And then, there was the fourth time, the time when even Kyouka couldn’t figure it out. She had just finished packing up her stuff to leave school, and was right out the door when she heard her best friend racing over to her. She spun around to see an hour of breath Kaminari leaning against the wall.

“You literally ran less than fifty feet,” teased Kyouka. Kaminari’s cheeks flushed red.

“At least I didn’t lean on you this time,” he snapped back. Kyouka felt a twinge of...something inside of her. That’s right, he didn’t. Well, she certainly wouldn’t mind it if he did perhaps want to lean on her instead of the wall, or maybe rest his head on her shoulder. Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn’t it.

“Kyouka, there’s something I need to say to you, but I just...Wow, this is awkward,” said Kaminari nervously while rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “I find you really yugo outwifmi , and that’s one of the things I really like about you.” Yugo outwifmi , what was that? Kyouka stopped for a moment and tried every possible combination of lewd words she could think of, but none came up. Had she missed one? Did Kaminari actually outsmart her for once? Or did she just hear him wrong? He was probably spouting off some dumb nonsense, as always. But still, her curiosity remained. There was only one way to find out...

“What’s yugo outwifmi ?”

As soon as she said this, Kaminari sprouted the most genuine grin she had ever seen. It stretched from ear to ear and seemed to radiate nothing but sunshine and happiness. Just gazing upon it was enough to make her own corners of her mouth turn up into an equally dumb grin. Why did he have to be so stupidly cute?

“Oh Kyouka, I know you think I’m the dumbass, but it’s pronounced ‘ Will you go out with me?’” Kaminari, tilted his head and looked over at her, his eyes wide and innocent. Kyouka couldn’t help burying her face in her hands from the pure sweetness of his joke, it was unbearable. He had set this up for weeks, weeks , and now his punchline was clear. And wow, was it the best punchline she could have asked for. She looked up at him, still waiting for her response, and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Oh my God, you freaking dork,” she said, pulling him in closer. “Yes, yes, of course I will.”