"Well… This… This could have… Uh…"

Mina looked at what she'd made, trying to think up some kind of positive notes of what it was that she'd made. Given how much of a mess the overall product was, she would have taken any notes, no matter how trivial. She would have been happy if it was the right colour. Instead, it was coal black.

There wasn't anything good to be said, and she knew that entirely too well. The simple fact was that this wasn't something that she was good at, baking and cooking. Back home, her mother was legendary in her family for not being able to cook worth even the slightest damn. Somehow, she made pre-made chicken tasted like mashed potatoes. And apparently, she had passed down the very same non-talent to her daughter. And she'd learned this at the worst possible moment.

What she had attempted to make was chocolate.

What she had instead made looked far more like charcoal.

"… This could not have gone worse, could it?" She asked herself, picking up a single piece, and holding it in her hand. The scent of burnt cocoa hung around them all like dreads very own stench. A scowl appeared on Mina's face without her knowing, hesitant to even attempt to try her own creation. Maybe the taste was better than the appearance?...

She took a bite.

It wasn't.

It wasn't at all.

"Ptoo!" Entirely on reflex, she spat out the small bit that she'd taken straight into the nearest sink. She felt herself shiver and her own skin crawl at the mere taste of it. Words couldn't describe it. "Oh, dear God, no." She cursed herself though a series of coughs that quickly came afterwards. She couldn't have learned this at a better time?

Not on literal Valentines Day.

Valentines Day had rolled around so much quicker than Mina had expected it to. A pile of assignments from Yuuei to complete over the winter break had utterly swamped her. Not that that was unusual for anyone who was in the Hero course. Everyone had a mountain of work that they had needed to complete… But for someone like Mina? Someone who's grades tanked throughout most of the first year?

Her second year, she wanted to fix that. She wanted to fix the many mistakes that she felt that she'd made over the first year. That was something she'd quickly come to accept when it came to her academic performance. That in her first year, she had truly botched it. She wanted that fixed. And to do that, she felt that she really had to put as much as possible into all of her assignments. To get them right. To start everything right come spring.

So, she'd been focused. Focused on trying to get everything done before the new year started. She'd worked as hard as she could to try to get everything ready, so she could walk into homeroom with her head held high.

Helping her out all the way though had been Izuku. His help had been totally invaluable, helping her get her phrasing correct, helping her find the answers that she needed, and coaching her on. He'd been emotional support, as well as a mentor, guiding her towards understanding, while never outright telling her everything that she needed to know. He'd taught her to a point where she could figure things out herself.

How long had they been dating now?

Doing a quick sum up in her head, Mina counted it to be about four months. Four months the guy had been practically the perfect boyfriend, and the longer they were together, the more he'd been able to loosen up, and the pair had been able to grow closer. He always had time for her. Always made time. Even when he was so focused, and so dedicated to getting his Hero career off the ground, he was always eternally available for her to approach with issues, problems, or just asking for help.

And he never complained. Even though, Mina knew, he had every single right to. She wasn't… The easiest person to mentor, she knew. She understood that she wasn't exactly the smartest person out there, and for someone like Izuku, it had to be frustrating to teach her to get her act together. But he never complained, never criticized her unfairly, and hadn't ever gotten annoyed with her. Once, he'd spent a full two hours explaining sentence structure to her.

He'd been patient. Gentle. Kind.

Not that it would have been much, but she had wanted to repay her boyfriend for all the work he'd put into her, and just make a small show of how thankful she was for all of it. He deserved that much for how hard he'd worked for her.

Just a small token of appreciation.

Mina looked at her 'Tokens', and felt her stomach feel like it was about to do a swan dive.

It had all been last minute. She'd been about to go to sleep when she realized what time it was, and what the date was. After her initial freak out, she forced herself to calm the hell down, to try to sneak to the kitchens without waking anyone, and see what she could do.

Frankly, at this point, she was amazed that she hadn't managed to somehow set the fire alarms off. Everything was burned, and piles of flour were scattered on the kitchen counter-top and on the floor. The apron that she had worn was covered in brown and white smears, and the equipment was nearly all fifth. All for a final result that tasted like salted dirt.

"What a mess…" The pink girl muttered to herself, feeling nothing but miserable and guilty.

She'd screwed up, that was all that had really happened here. She hadn't paid more attention to the dates. She hadn't paid enough attention to the various tutorials she'd looked up. She hadn't made these ahead. She hadn't even thought to check until she was setting her alarm for the day ahead. She sighed. Of everyone in this entire building, she'd been the one to neglect the person she cared about because she was studying? Of everyone out there?

When she tried, she screwed up, and forgot Valentine's Day. When she didn't, she screwed up, and would start the second year as a total flunky.

This really was a mess, and it was her fault.

"Uh… Mina?"

Aaaaaand things just kept getting better.

For a single moment, she froze, and then turned around slowly, to show none other than the boy whom this had all been in effort for. There was Izuku, with a look on his face she honestly couldn't begin to describe. Utter stupor? Bewilderment? Aghast almost seemed accurate, but he wasn't freaking out, or seem angry or upset in any way. There was a look of sympathy in his eyes that was just… Recognizable. Empathetic a person that he was,

Mostly though, there was total confusion…. And maybe a hint of humour. It certainly wasn't the most embarrassing thing that he'd caught her doing.

"Izuuuuu!" Mina quickly moved to try to block the sight of the counter, stepping out on front of the green haired boys field of vision and holding her arms up. It was completely inevitable, and she knew it perfectly well, but for some bizarre reason, she felt the need to try. Maybe it was just because she didn't want Izuku to know just how badly she'd messed this up. To not make it seem like she'd forgotten Valentine's Day. "Heeeey, what's…. What's up? I was just… Making… Smoothies…"

He blinked at her, clearly not being fooled or dissuaded by her admittedly weak and pathetic effort. "Mina, I can see flour on the counter."

"…Nooo, you… Can't."

"It's also on your apron."

"No… It's… Not? It's… Crème…" She let out a sigh, and felt her arms drop. Her eyes fell towards the ground simultaneously, not able to look at his green ones. "…Okay, I… I may have messed up a little."

"…Messed up what?"

"I… I may have… Forgotten… About… You know… Valentines Day." Worse and worse feelings came to the front the more that she spoke. Izuku never forgot about her, and always made sure that he had made the time for her. Something that she hadn't been able to do, this one time. More than anything, it just made her feel selfish. Neglectful.

Like she was a bad girlfriend.

She didn't see what reaction he gave her, though she imagined one filled up with disappointment and sadness. He quickly walked around her, to inspect the mess of the kitchen counter she'd made, and she could swear that she heard him letting out a sigh. He didn't ask any questions. He just looked. Somehow, that made things feel worse.

"I wanted to uh… Make you some… Chocolate." Her sheepish confession came with her biting on her left thumb, and twirling her hair with her right index. "And it… Did not go too well. I-I've been so busy with all the assignments, I just…" There wasn't an excuse for this. She knew that there wasn't, so she wasn't going to stand there and blame something else for her mistake. "…Sorry. It's our first Valentines Day as a couple, and I – "

"So, is this what you made?"

Mina turned, looking up to see her boyfriend holding up a particularly mangled piece of chocolate between his thumb and his index finger, inspecting it closely. The largest piece, a thin strip about the side of his middle finger. Looking at it from a distance, Mina could have sworn it looked like beef jerky more than it did chocolate of any sort. How she had even managed that was beyond her.

"I… Uh…. Yeah."

The very instant that she answered, Izuku threw the entire piece into his mouth.

Instantly, the Acid Quirk user saw Izuku's regret. His eyes show open for a second, and he turned away from her, forcing himself to continue to chew, to eat the gift his girlfriend had made for him. Mina totally froze, both amazed and terrified that Izuku had just done what he had. Part of her wanted to scream for him to spit it out, though the other parts of her, that told her to just stay still, were louder. It took about eighty seconds of solid silence before it was broken with a loud, audible gulp, followed by the freckled boy turning around to face her again, his expression very clearly strained. "V… Very nice…"

It made her laugh gently. "Izu, you can be honest, you know. I already tried them."

"… Did you use rum instead of coconut oil?"

"No, that's just me being bad at baking." A small smile did make its way onto the horned girls face in amusement at her own self-ridicule, though it was fleeting. "…You didn't have to do that, you know."

"It... It was a wonderful gift my girlfriend made. Of course I had to try it." He offered her a wider smile, though he clearly was still suffering the effects of her 'Gift.' He fell silent for a moment, before he closed the gap between the two of them, and grabbed hold of her hands, smiling gently while he made eye contact with her. "…Really, it's just the thought that counts to me, Mina. Thank you."

Before she could say anything else, he had already pulled her into a big, warm hug that he had no intentions of letting her go from any time soon. His hands made their way around her neck, and pulled her next to him. They remained just like that for a moment, flour and cocoa powder all smearing themselves over Izuku's clothes from Mina's apron, not that he cared. The girl just stood there for a few seconds, before she felt herself return the hug, wrapping her arms around his waist, and a smile making its way onto her face, this one more genuine, and permanent.

"…I nearly forgot. I don't think you should be thanking me for thinking about you."

"You could have just done nothing."

"I think everyone would have a less destroyed kitchen if I'd chosen not to."

"I'll help you clean up."

"Thanks, Izu…"

"….Hey, I'm gonna need to get you something nice when White Day rolls around."

"I don't think it'll be too hard. You could just get me a candy bar and that'd more than make up for what I just gave you."

The pair of them just laughed. Not exactly a great start to the day, Mina thought to herself. But it was a very 'them' start. A complete mess accompanied by stress, filled with laughter at the end of it all. If that didn't sum them up, she didn't know what did.

So, this was something I made between 6 and 9Am with nothing but original coke and water fueling me. I haven't slept in 48 hours and I've lost my Goddamned mind.

In all seriousness, this was admittedly something I wrote up when I remembered that Valentines Day was actually a thing, and I'm also using it as practice for some of the oneshots I want to make further down the line. It's not really my best work, admittedly, but I actually kind of like it. I think it was a nice fun experiment and I'm glad that I wrote it.

If you did enjoy it, I've got a lot of other Minadeku works to check out, and if you wanna follow me on Tumblr for updates and communication, my blog is QuirkQuartz. If you enjoy what I do and want to help support me, please consider donating to my Pat Reon, but by no means feel compelled to.

Hope you guys have a nice Valentines Day, and I hope you managed to enjoy this quick fic.

Thank you for reading, and I'll catch you all next time!